The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.
Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise,
or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.
Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago,  I was listening to a Saturday morning swap net on my ham radio,  when I came across an older sounding chap who was  talking about "a thousand marbles."

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

"Well, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job.
I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be
away from home and your family so much.
Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy
hours a week to make ends meet.
Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital."
 Let me tell you something that has helped me
keep a good perspective on my own priorities."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic.
The average person lives about seventy-five years.
Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900
which is the number of Saturdays that
the average person has in their entire lifetime."

"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail, and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays."

  "I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five,
I only had about a Thousand of them left to enjoy.
So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had.
I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles.
I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.
Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out
and thrown it away."

"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the
really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time
here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I signoff
 and take my lovely wife out for breakfast.
This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container.
I figure if I make it until next Saturday,
then I have been given a little extra time.
And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice talking with you.
 I hope you spend more time with your family, and
I hope to meet you again here on the band. 75 year Old Man.
This is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about.
I had planned to work on the antenna that morning,
and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to
work on the next club newsletter.
Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.
"C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."
"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.
"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a
Saturday together with the kids."

"Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?
I need to buy some marbles."

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