By Dave Cummings

YNOT – Time speeds by, sometimes very rapidly. Heck, this summer will soon be over, and before we know it we’ll be dealing with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Xmas, and the start of yet another new calendar year — again! As I’ve gotten older and older, the time seems to jet by faster and faster.

Note to self: Start taking some time to do nothing.

While on the staff and faculty at West Point during four of my 25 years of military assignments, I was involved in professional development, management and leadership. Among many other duties, I delivered lectured about effective time management to other West Point officers. Now it’s me who needs to practice more efficient professional and personal time management in order to make the best possible utilization of available time.

I’m simply overwhelmed by a combination of my to-do list and encroachments into my time by others and their priorities. Admittedly, sometimes priorities in my personal time management involve sex — something I need much more now that piracy has caused diminished bookings for porn performing. I’m totally unwilling to let sex ebb just to take care of other matters — and that includes masturbation, which is a must in my daily schedule.

Note to self: Start saying “no” to demands for my time from others.

Time matters. Sex matters. I matter, if only to myself. Of late, I’ve been more apt to say “Not now, thank you, but maybe later or at some swinger event” to women wanting quickies, or to men approaching me to “do” their older and sometimes overweight wives so they can be free to scout the swinger parties for some sweet young woman to play with. I’ve also cut back on unnecessary breakfast or business meetings with associates. They might have some free time, but I don’t.

Family comes first, always. Just last week, due to a sick babysitter, my nine-year-old granddaughter called to see if she could hang out with me for the day while her mom attended an all-day professional seminar. I quickly postponed an afternoon dermatology appointment and made a note to myself to bring extra sun block for my granddaughter so I’d have plenty to plaster on both of us at the beach.

We stopped at a beach café for breakfast and then headed to the rollercoaster and some other somewhat scary rides at the beach amusement park. In the afternoon, she and I ran some errands, including a stop by the Marine Corps Air Station to buy her some new sneakers for the new school year that starts later this month. She thought it was cool how the Marines saluted us, since my vehicle has an officer’s registration sticker on the windshield to expedite entry to the base. F-18 fighter jets were practicing touch-and-go activities on the main runway, so I took her to the flight line for a soda and so she could see the F-18s better. She thought it was especially cool when two Marine aviators said hi to her as they were walking by on the way to their aircraft.

Yes, we had to stay so she could watch “her Marines” taxi to the runway and launch. Candidly, though I’ve seen it all, it was still thrilling to see and hear the take-offs.

I had a blast hanging out with my granddaughter and her refreshing nine-year-old view and excitement. Upon leaving the base, we stopped by the Veterans Administration cemetery where the day before I participated in Patriot Guard Riders honors for an army sergeant killed in action in Afghanistan earlier in the week. After the funeral, I promised his family I would stop by the gravesite the next day and make certain the headstone had arrived and been properly placed. It was there. I mentioned to my granddaughter how powerful the feelings of sadness were during the rifle volley salute and when the bugler played “Taps” as we saluted.

The young man had been an Army paratrooper, like me. We both trained and graduated from jump school at Ft. Benning. He was deployed to Afghanistan subsequent to a Ft. Bragg assignment; after a two-year assignment in Berlin, I was reassigned to Ft. Bragg and deployed from there two years later to Vietnam. Some of the personnel who had served with the sergeant at Ft. Bragg attended his funeral in uniform and supplemented the Patriot Guard Riders’ honor guard. I stood at attention with the PGR as they rendered the final salute to the sergeant and touched his casket as it was being lowered into the ground.
As the soldiers turned, tears were evident on almost every face, including mine.

Note to self: Life flies by, so live it and make good use of time on Earth.

Dave Cummings, “the world’s oldest porn star,” is a performer, producer, director and member of the AVN Hall of Fame. Visit him online at DaveCummings.com, DaveCummings.tv or DaveCummingsVOD.com, or call and chat with him live at DaveCummingsInfo.com.