What Have I learned in 53 years?

Do not play with thistles.

Don’t use tools, they hurt your hands.

Beer is delicious.

When you hear someone bad-mouthing someone else, they will be talking about you as soon as you leave the room.

Nature is the only reality we can even think we understand, or ever will.

Being a mentor is honorable.

If you have to pick up tools remember, righty tighty, lefty loosey.

Bees won’t sting if you don’t swat at them.

Paying bills is less painful than bill collectors knocking on your door, (just learned this one this year, [last month actually]).

Understanding women is more complicated than astrophysics, quantum mechanics and origami combined; don’t even try, just admit defeat and ride the waves.

When your wife ask what you want for your birthday, don’t say the same thing you ask for each Christmas, anniversary or groundhog’s day. You didn’t get it then either.

Don’t pet porcupines backwards, it makes them angry.

Looking at the stars on a clear night cleans out the toxins of the mind: repeat as much as possible. No one has died from an overdose of star-gazing to my knowledge.

Get into the woods as long as you are mobile…
Correction: Get into the woods as long as you breathe, you will find peace.