Some Time Has Passed

Almost a year has passed since I posted. What have I done instead? I wrote a screenplay and novel about some Navy people averting war in the Pacific while figuring out how to get along with each other in the high-stress confines of the fleet flagship. But that's a separate post for a later time. Maybe.

The reason for resurrecting and redefining this personal blog:

Some time has passed -- twenty years to the day -- since an emergency physician in florid mid-life crisis loaded up his red Mitsubishi Eclipse, bid adieu to his pregnant bride and stepchildren, and drove from Dallas to Pensacola to start a new career as a U.S. Navy flight surgeon. With no prior military service, whatever was he thinking? 

Early the next day, the recently commissioned Lieutenant Commander/Commander-Select drove his shiny Ensign-mobile through the front gate of Pensacola Naval Air Station while the soundtrack from "TOP GUN" blared prophetically from the car's stereo system. 

"Ride Into The Danger Zone"

"Mighty Wings"

"Destination Unkown"

"Take My Breath Away"

A shrink could feast for many sessions on that scenario -- but he got left behind in Dallas too.

Today that "Ensign in a Commander's uniform" looks toward mandatory retirement six months hence. In the rear view mirror, twenty years of memories and experiences recede into the cluttered landscape of his 66 years of life. Some of those memories deserve exposition, some do not. I can't tell the difference. But I intend to put down whichever come to me over the next six months, or so. Perhaps writing it will ease the transition; or the stories might edify a reader or two; or it may just be good catharsis -- cheaper than that shrink back in Dallas.