Poolside At A Luxury Hotel -- May 21, 2022

I'm poolside at a luxury hotel, martini, watching Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship on Hulu. Only one thing would make it better: to have Pat poolside with me. [ Was this the Euless apartment complex on Brazos Blvd. — said i was a luxury hotel; also a martini.]

My significant other will not come to the pool. Won't spend time outside in the cool of the evening. Mosquitoes. Or other bugs. I didn't notice a single bug last night. 

It's 87° -- and with the humidity -- feels like 93°.

It will cool off the next few days; in fact, it gets very cool tomorrow, and then get very warm again. It will cool off significantly tonight. 

But, back to the pool.

It always amazes me but the pool is frequently empty. Just now, three attractive 16-year-old women have gotten into the pool. Don't see this often. Not complaining.

A 30-something woman just showed up.

Last night I was out at the pool until around 10:00 p.m. A gorgeous evening. If I had all the money in the world, I would finance a 5-star restaurant poolside. Six tables. Free for those with deluxe rooms and reservations required, of course. 

I would also have the largest apartment available overlooking the pool. Some of the units are very, very large with a very long balcony. If we're still here several years from now, I may just do that. 

Impossible to articulate how beautiful the evening was last night.

Book: The Shores of Bohemia: A Cape Cod Story, 1910 - 1960, John Taylor Williams, c. 2022. Another book my significant other won't read. I don't know if Pat would read it but she would enjoy hearing about it. 

Another young 20-something just arrived. She was here yesterday. Hard to believe they are unaccompanied.

Happy Birthday -- Posted May 18, 2022

Dream last night: we saw each other for one last time.

Most difficult dream I've had in years. 

Then this morning, coincidentally, a reminder popped up in my e-mail that it's your birthday June 1. 

I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You -- April 17, 2022

 Home alone. Easter Sunday.

Enjoying a wonderful English breakfast. The ones we  enjoyed almost every Sunday. 

Great memories.

And then this song popped up on YouTube rotation.

And it all came flowing back. 

You said it would take eight years. 

It's been seventeen? 

Do you realize how long seventeen years is? 

It's three years short of a military career. It's one's entire first seventeen years of life. I have less than seventeen years to live, no doubt. It's two years longer than the total number of years I've been retired. It's too damned long.

Love.

Visits To MHS, June, 2002 -- September, 2004

From my journal;

    Visits to MHS:

• 1 Jun 2002 -- 19 Aug 2002
• Oct 2002 -- the visit that changed everything and changed nothing
• Nov 2002
• Mar 2003
• Aug 2003
• Jan 2004 -- was this the last time I saw Pat? If so, on this visit, I saw her for one hour despite being at MHS for one to two weeks. We knew it would be our last visit. It was incredibly painful. 
• (Pat’s last day at MHS:  May 16, 2004; probably 30 days home leave; first day in Australia ~ 16 Jun or 16 Jul 04)
• Sep 2004: this, too, would have been a painful visit since she was no longer there.
  

        I need to confirm these dates. I never did confirm those dates but probably quite accurate. 

From 2000 to 2007 May and I lived in San Antonio. I was the Surgeon General for Air Intelligence Agency, headquartered at the large air base on the southwest side of San Antonio. 

"9/11" was September 11, 2000.

My first visit to Menwith Hill Station was in the summer of 2002. 

I stayed at the Wellington Inn, about a 30-minute walk down the hill from MHS.

Pat lived in a detached home in a rural setting, overlooking a most incredibly beautiful valley of the River Nidd.

I Can't Help If If I'm Still In Love With You, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris

Someone Once Told Me ..... February 7, 2022

 .... it took eight years to get over an unrequited love. 

Not true. Has it been seventeen years? 

Not a day goes by that I don't think of you. And the memories seem stronger than ever. 

Google maps, satellite photos, and street views of Yorkshire bring back bittersweet memories.

I haven't changed a bit ... except normal aging process and "slow" at that.

Tabla Rasa, Arvo Pärt -- October 28, 2020

You were the only one who ever thanked me for doing the dishes and cleaning up after dinner and / or cleaning up after cooking.

To this day, whenever I wash dishes I think of you. I will never forget you. I will never forget loving you.

Tabula Rasa, Arvo Pärt
You would not know this this was the music I listened to whenever we stopped by the small church after midnight.

I Can't Shake This Thing From Fifteen Years Ago -- October 12, 2020

Fifteen Years Ago, John Prine, featuring Lee Ann Womack