Wow,  my first blog. First, I want to welcome you. Really. Truly. Well come. Old English. Well come. Glad you're here.

New Year's eve. 2014 hours away. Drop the big ball and a few zillion gallons of spirits and off we all go on another run around our burning gas ball. Sun. Sol.

I've written all my life. Five years on. And, now, far down the trail here is my first novel.

So, one little story. Five years old. Wearing my cowboy suit. Black hat with fringe, two plastic six guns, chaps with little fake silver buckles. And I'm a'riding my pony down the newly installed sidewalk. Goin' down the trail, and I mean Goin', full pedal gallop, up off the seat, working those pedal stirrups, wind in my kid cowboy hair. Flying.

Hit a bump, pull up on the handlebars. They come off in my hands. Brief, and I mean one disbelief moment of HUH? and my pony flips over, goes down, over the handlebars, still clutched in my cowboy hands and a long scraping face plant. Maybe a little tuck and roll.

Ok, Cowboys don't cry. I did. But, my dad welded the handebars back on old paint, and the next day I was back on the range, a ridin' and a shootin'.

Lesson? No matter which horse you ride and what range you wander, anything. ANYTHING can happen anytime.

Good news? We forget this part: it's an even toss, anything good can happen as often as anything bad.

Sure paint and me took a tumble. Scuffed my knees and scared me spitless. But, day later, we were up and riding hard into the sunset.

Just an old cowboy parable from a then young buckaroo.

Ah, now. NOW. Today.

This circle long strange ride. Deaths and births, tragedies and triumphs, moments of everything from boredom to terror. All of it part of the ride.

Some made it here, some didn't. We did. This far. So, welcome indeed.

So, here we are. Always a second behind the future and a moment behind the now. Yeah, sounds crazy, but it's not. We don't live in the present. I know it's bad news but true.

Get this. I've thought about this probably too much.

When you talk to someone, I mean face to face. The light takes a micro second to register in your retinas, another micro to fire the brain, make the connect, see your friend, or enemy, relative, pool man, whoever.

Sound is even slower. Way. Sound wave carries word to the ear, transmits to the brain. You know, "Hi, how are you?" Time passes. Just a tick. Millionth of a tick.

So, what it amounts to is, well, we are living in the past. We're always behind what's really happening Time lag. Like long distance, or calls to Orbit.

Yeah, life in the past. Not to worry. We don't notice it. Just a weird life fact.

Anyhow, not sure what's up tonight. I gave up drinking years ago.

No need to roar into the next turn hung over. But, whatever works.

I know it's good to be here on the planet. And, it feels like the present. Ha. I expect this circle around old sol to be quite a ride. Want to share it with lots of you.

So. Well come.