Greetings fellow jazz lovers! I am in celebration mode today. It has now been two full weeks since I retired from my day job.
At this point I must confess that the time off has felt more like a vacation than actual retirement. In the last thirty years, I have never taken off more than two weeks in a row. Admittedly, there have been a couple of times since the early 1990’s when I was off work for six weeks to recuperate from surgery, but that is a totally different thing.
The time off has not been as productive as I had hoped, mainly because of my ongoing battle with Sleep Apnea. I stopped using the mouthpiece a few days into my retirement because, after having used it for four months, it was not providing me with any noticeable, ongoing relief.
They key word there is “ongoing.” I did have some good days while I was using the mouthpiece, but not many, and always it was just one good day amid a whole string of bad days. I kept hoping for two good days in a row, which, right or wrong, I would have interpreted as a sign that the mouthpiece was beginning, at last, to have a permanent effect.
Unfortunately, that never happened.
Indeed, simply getting about an hour more of sleep each night than I got when I was working seems to have done more to help me than the mouthpiece did. Last night I went to bed at about 1AM and got up this morning a little before 8:30. Except for half an hour or so shortly after lunch, I have felt pretty damn good today.
FYI, it is not my intention to stay up until 1AM every night and sleep in until after 8. Since I retired, I have been trying to maintain a regular schedule, going to bed by either 11 or 12 during the week and getting up at 6:30 or 7:30.
If you thought I was going to continue getting up at 4:45AM, you were wrong!
One other good thing is, as of this morning, I have lost six pounds since I walked out the door at the day job at the end of my final day. For the first time in more than ten years, my weight is below 200 pounds. Considering my height is only 5′ 6″, the reduced tonnage is a good thing!
Weight loss is supposed to help Sleep Apnea, and I am hoping to lose at least five more pounds before the first of the year. Eventually I want to get back down to 175, which is what I weighed with I stopped smoking 20+ years ago.
We will see how that goes!
I just caught sight of the clock, and realized the sad fact is that I am not going to get this review published today. I had intended to begin writing this early in the week and work on it little by little as the days went by, but, like several other things, that did not come about. L
My sincere apologies. I will write the review and it will be published here, but there is no way it can be completed in the time now remaining. The album in question is too important to be given the short rundown that would be required to get the review done in such a little amount of time.
As a small token of my regret, allow me to refer you to a “golden oldie,” from November of 2011: My review of Reggie Houston’s superb 1992 album, “The Gazebo Sessions.”
Thanks for reading this.
Al Evans
Wood Village, Oregon
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My original content, including photos other than album covers, Copyright © 2016 by Al Evans. All rights reserved.
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