Like many others on this fine planet, my life has had its challenges lately. Seems like these past 18 months or so in particular have placed many a F.O.G before me. One might ask, “What is this F.O.G.?? Anyhow??” Or then again one might not. But if you did, I would tell you that my friend Steve first mentioned it during a gathering some years ago; and I’ve never let go of it. So when Steve says “I’m in a fog right now,” I know he’s talking about a F.O.G. “Another F*%#ing Opportunity for Growth,” as he defined it.

The pandemic and even retirement brought forward many opportunities for growth.  And you know what?? To perfectly honest, some of these F.O.G.’s are downright painful. The saying, “whatever doesn’t kill makes you stronger” has some merit to it, I must admit. We’ve weathered the storms, and I’m pretty sure there will be more F.O.G.s to come. Thankfully though, we’ve managed to acquire tools to deal with all this stuff in the form of help from friends, family, and counseling professionals.

So after the heaviest part of the F.O.G. has lifted, then what? Life as usual? Not sure there is such a thing anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a very fortunate person and for the most part life is very good. But when the Stress Monsters kick you in the head and then bite you in the hiney, our natural reaction is escape.

When I was young and foolish, escape was sought in the form of an altered state of consciousness. In other words, I would drink and / or use other intoxicants. That proved to be a very harmful method of escape; and I’m very grateful that for several years now I have not turned to such methods. No, instead our family has enjoyed a much different, healthier reality escape mechanism.

What is this magical escape thing? Well as my Beautiful Girlfriend has said many times, “when the going gets tough, the Hansens go to the movies.”  We really miss the movies.   During the cold months, we watched a LOT of TV.  And with all the streaming services, movies are pretty easy to find.  And since we are fortunate enough to have a very nice sound system, it’s almost as good as sitting in a theater.  Just something magical about that big screen; and yes we still miss it, but we’re not quite ready to go in the theater yet.

And yes, we’ve been vaccinated.

My Lovely Bride and I will continue to watch movies at home… for now.  And we’ve also been guilty of some serious Netflix series binge watching.  Now that the warm weather has returned, we can go hit the drive in again, so that’s a plus.  But no 3-D stuff thank you.  That stuff freaks me out.

Anyway, as I was writing, I was hearing this old song in my head bone… went to search for it on YouTube and found a really nice surprise that I would like to share with you…. NOW!!