The Launch of Old Man Mendo

Well, I hit 50 years old today so it seems like a good time for a fresh start. I have a lot that I want to do so I need to just admit from the jump that the blog isn’t going to be my top priority but I’m going to try to keep with it this time around. Yes, I’ve tried keeping up with a blog at least once or twice a year for the last three decades but, again, this is a fresh start and rule #1 for Old Man Mendo is stay committed and get things done. No more procrastination.

On the fresh start front, I’m also going to re-relaunch my 500 New Things Challenge but with a clean slate so everything is new! I also want to rework my Menu de Mendo (my favorite dishes in LA) and The Lists (Lists of my favorite spots, events, etc.) The end of 2026 is also going to be a chance to put to bed the scripts I’ve been toying with for the last couple decades so I can start 2027 working on new ideas. I also should just put some projects to bed as I’ll never get to them. Another blog post I want to do.. no, that I’m GOING to do is TIGS - Things I Gotta Stop. My initial TIGS is going to be a habit I broke once but have fallen back into - I Gotta Stop… drinking soda before noon.

Anyway, it’s a new decade of Mendo. Old Man Mendo doesn’t mean that I’m just going to sit around being decrepit - because I pretty much did that in my 40s - but it’ll be about making the most of the home stretch of my life. Maybe not the home stretch per se but the waning years of vitality. I think back to my aunt talking about how she went to Greece recently and she wished that she had gone earlier in her life because there were a bunch of things she couldn’t do because the walks were too hard or it was just too difficult for her to access at her age.