My brother, Hugh, is visiting from Maryland. He’s on the right. That’s John Silveira on the left. Lenie and I are in the background. Hugh and I play golf every day when he visits. Since he’s as bad as I am, I at last have a chance to beat someone.

Been thinking a lot about the H1N1 virus lately, doing research on whether or not my kids should get the vaccine when it becomes available in two weeks. Annie just announced she’s pregnant, which puts her in the highest risk category for swine flu so I’m particularly interested in whether or not she should get it. The CDC says of the 700 pregnant women who have confirmed H1N1, 27 have died. That’s a very frightening statistic.

Coincidentally I’m rereading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. He says European diseases killed 95% of native peoples in the Americas within about a hundred years of Columbus’s arrival. The Indians had no resistance to Eurasian diseases like smallpox, flu, cholera, measles, and a host of others, so they died in droves. H1N1 is fairly mild now but it has the potential to mutate and become more deadly, and modern humans, just like the Indians back in 1492, have no defense.

I’ve asked Silveira to help me with the research. I’ll let you know what I decide.

Had a pain in the center of my chest and a fairly severe headache on the right side this evening. It was nearly identical to the pain I felt nearly four years ago, when my body first told me I had heart disease requiring triple-bypass heart surgery, which I had six weeks later. It’s probably nothing to worry about. But I’ll call my doctor tomorrow and get a few tests, just in case I’m being given the chance once again to make a preemptive strike against death.

Funny how we perceive things as we grow older. I’m 65, in good shape except for my heart disease, and I’ve got a good outlook on life with a lot of work left to do. A pain in the center of my chest, for me, is just a reality check. I’ve already had a good life, founded BHM, and have a great family. I’m on “extra” time.”

That’s compared to many measures: My father’s lifetime was 57 years; he was born in 1907. The average life expectancy of people born in the U.S. 100 years ago was about  50 years. (It’s 76 to 81, depending on gender, today.) In 1900, the world life expectancy was only about 30 years (today, it’s about 64). During the Roman Empire, Romans had an approximate life expectancy of 22 to 25 years. So I feel fortunate to have lived in the modern era. I’ve already lived three times longer than the Romans.

The wind here is expected to die down (what a pun!) Wednesday, so Silveira and I will go out on the Pacific Ocean and try to catch a ling cod, or at least a big black rock fish.

Backwoods Home Magazine has a booth at the Curry County Fair, which is in its second of its four-day run in Gold Beach, Oregon. The golf team members are manning the booth. If you’re in the neighborhood, please drop by.

We’ll sell you a raffle ticket for $2, which lets you putt for a whole bunch of good prizes, such as the Whole Sheebang, golf passes to three local courses (Salmon Run, Cedar Bend, and Bandon Crossings), Subway sandwiches, and a whole bunch of other stuff. We’ll also sell you a T-shirt, anthology, and even a subscription or renewal to the magazine.

We’re giving the proceeds to the Backwoods Home Youth Golf Team which we helped start this summer.

By the way, if you win one of the six golf passes, and need a playing partner, I’ll play with you.

My oldest son, Jake, 17, graduated high school the other day. Just a day before him, Sam, 14, my youngest son, graduated grammar school. How the world moves on! I’ll still have two sons in high school, as middle son Robby will be a junior next year.

Jake will goof off all summer before taking a job in the fall. Lenie insists he work only half time at the magazine, working the other half at a job he finds himself. She’s big on the kids learning what the world is all about before they go to work at the magazine.

I’d eventually like to see all my kids work at the magazine. Annie has already taken over as managing editor, and she is a natural for the job, being a very gifted editor and able to make smart decisions on editorial content. Sam is a natural artist, so I expect him to someday replace my brilliant artist, Don Childers, who is now 78. Robby will probably run the magazine someday; he’s just real smart.

It’s interesting being an older father of these young kids. I’m 65, and my children are 26, 17, 16, and 14. I have a different perspective, I think, than younger parents. My life is more settled, and I’m possibly more attuned to my kids’ needs because of that. Then again, I’ve met people my age who are more attuned to being “old people.” But I’ll never get to that age; I’ll die first.

Jake is a wonderful guy. Tall and handsome! Smart! His body is beginning to fill out. Imagine that! His body is beginning to fill out. His body is finally realizing that he has grown up, and it is responding by giving him a man’s muscle definition. He’s basically a kid who is in the process of becoming a man. I hope some politician doesn’t decide to wage a war, then draft my son as cannon fodder.

I’m delighted for Jake, but apprehensive. He’s about to enter the field of life and navigate the traps and pitfalls that await all youth. I’ve been there. You have too. There is a lot of danger, and most of us have to make mistakes before we find the right road.