Last Commented Lifestyle Blogs (2,471)

Being retired but don't have enough money to live on as originally planned is truly a challenge for me these days.

Okay, I can keep living in California, one of the most expensive county in the nation and keep working until I die, but close to my children and grand children whom I adore and love, or move to France, live modestly with a part time job or retire in the Philippines where I can live like a queen (no rent, water bills, and cheap way to live based on the dollar worth). Live back in Cali every summer and go to PI every winter. I am strong and healthy so the least of my worry is health care.

Right now I am tired of working full time just so I can continue traveling but if I stop working I would live very miserly and that is not an option that is favorable for me.

So what should I do? I guess the challenge goes on unresolved.

Do you guys have any challenges that are wrapped around your leg, it feels like you are dragging a ball of chains?

Anyways, I am just venting. I guess. Venting is cathartic isn't it?

Thanks for reading my blog.

I heard this today on the news. It is most likely fake news, but what if it weren't? It was reported that the Department of Defense pays the NFL to promote patriotic themes....or something to that effect anyway. I am guessing, the NFL gets paid to play the National Anthem. If, of course, this reporting is true.

Now if it is true, the first question that comes to mind is why?

The news never reported on that part.

I mean...what I am going to say here sounds like a huge conspiracy theory and all...but one reason why...that I can think of anyway, and I am with no doubt...thinking it is wrong...it cannot be...but, it is still coming to my mind. Is it because there is some sort of mass agenda going on with the public by our government?

Why else could the Dept of Defense be paying the NFL?....if this is all true about them paying them?

Maybe the NFL is somewhat tied in with the government and it is a way of making people richer?

Why else?

Hmmmm

Well, I done it. I finally gone mad. Finally lost my marbles.

I am going to quit smoking pot, at least for a while, maybe forever.

I have been smoking for over 25 years, every single day for the last 15.

I'm been noticing things for a while now. My memory is shot, I make a lot of stupid errors like spelling errors that I never would have done 5 years ago. Only for spell check, my replies would be ripe with simple dumb mistakes. Making mistakes doing things, mixing up sugar for salt for example. To put it simply, my mind is starting to short circuit and I'm pretty convinced its my excessive smoking thats doing it. Truthfully told, I don't just smoke pot, I abuse the hell out of it. Unfortunately, its starting to affect me in a bad way and I need to address it now while I still got enough sense to do so.

I was always a pot advocate and I will continue to be one. My biggest advice to people is going to be to save it for the weekend, you will be able to smoke it for a life time without too many bad effects. I smoked enough for 25 lifetimes in the last 25 years. THC (active ingredient in pot) is a drug and like any other drug (alcohol included), abusing it too much will have negative effects. As much as I want to think its not doing anything to me, my better judgment is telling me its quite possible it is. I need to stop smoking now and see if I can straighten up my mind a bit.

Going to be interesting times

What a beautiful day in summer.

Happy Saturday everyone.

Did you ever stop and think how just one word can convey so much and so many different emotions?

I finished a painting of my daughter for a project called 'children'. I loved painting it, as I can so clearly remember her 22 month old baby voice expressing so much in just one word.

"Ohhh!" She said as she gazed at the surge and splash of waves against the rocks as she lay in a tide pool.



That one word said it all. The delight, awe, wonder, curiosity, surprise at a sight she had never seen or experienced. Sure, she had seen small waves on the beach at home, but nothing like this.

I wish I could capture her voice and express it. It was what children teach us every day. How amazing this world is.

But, I digress. "Oh" can say so much, in just that one tiny word.

Oh - can convey disappointment or sadness

OH! - or surprise

Ohhhhh- understanding

ooh - happiness, wonder

oooohhhhh - pleasure

oh, oh, oh - I know

Or it can be a combination of the above to express several emotions, based on voice inflection. So many uses and meanings of such a tiny word.

Oh-oh - I think I've forgotten a couple. But you get the gist.

and turd in the punch bowl.....After taking down the 20 year old dilapidated tree house we had for the twins, and clearing tree branches and brush about the Kingdom of Ponderosa, today, with little wind, I'm having my yearly brushfire. It's a bit of an upscale neighborhood, and I have added some branches from elderly nearby friends. Yet, while all are glad to see the mess gone, others would certainly hire some locals to haul theirs off. In fact, I live as do many self sufficient original Mainers do, few of whom can still afford to live among neighbors like mine. I used to do car and motorcycle maintenance in the driveway, but now do more in the garrage. And when friends and I play rock together here, I now rarely do so outside on one of the decks. We are social creatures, and social approbation has its effects, even on crusty ancient curmudgeons. People do talk. Aa-V.

I am sure that most, if not all, men have pondered this thought and question...and many have most likely shed a tear or two over it. Living alone. All by yourself. No woman as company. Just you. That is it. The question is...when you cannot share and pass gas by yourself....is it a waste or a relief?

Thinking I needed to get out more, last summer I joined a walking group. My first time out with them was on a Wednesday evening, the walk was a stroll round the town where I live, as it happens. Their main outings are on Sundays and the Wednesday evening ones are just during the summer. I continued to go on both the Wednesday and Sunday walks regularly for several months, right up to the end of the autumn, my enthusiasm waned as the weather got colder.

I didn’t consciously think about it but I suppose I had a preconception of a bunch of like minded people just turning up at a prearranged location and setting off walking together. It never occurred to me that such a seemingly straight forward and simple activity would necessitate the amount of effort and time to plan and organise that it actually does. And all by a handful of people doing it out of pure altruism, gaining no reward other than the simple satisfaction of knowing that their efforts are enriching the lives of others.

The group has a monthly meeting where, presumably, they discus important issues and make weighty decisions. They have a Chair Person, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Walks Programme Co-ordinator, Footpaths Officer and several other officials with vaguer, but, undoubtedly, no less necessary roles. So, clearly, this is not a Mickey Mouse outfit, it is a serious and properly organised group.

While I expected to derive a modest health benefit from participating in the activity of the group, I was quite surprised to also find that joining them actually made me feel younger. This was no doubt due in part to the exercise, but, more than that, I think it was because a good many of them are retired and older than I am. The principle of relativity in action.

Every walk has a walk leader, a job that entails much more than arriving first and then striding off in front, assertively. The walk leader first has to conceive the adventure, he -although, quite often she- must assemble in their mind a journey of discovery, or at least an excursion that isn’t likely to bore the pants off everyone. Next, the precise rout must be planned, followed by the “recky”, which is where the walk leader sets out, quite often with another dedicated group member, and does a boots on the ground dummy run. Thus are any potential problems and hazards identified. How often, I wonder, have we carefree ramblers turned up on the day with nothing to think of but a pleasant day’s meander through the English countryside, completely oblivious to the extra large muddy puddles and steep embankments our leader has beforehand had to suffer so that we don’t have to.

While the walk leader is out in front, blazing the trail, at the very back, is the man at the very back. He’s probably got a title but I don’t know what it is, probably the tail man, or something similar. His job is mainly to ensure that the stragglers don’t take a wrong turn and get lost, his secondary role being to mop up any casualties. It is surprising how many people, particularly the old duffers, slip head over heels on the mud or trip up over a tree root or discarded soft drink can. Usually any serious injury is confined to the dignity of the person involved. I have never actually witnessed such an occurrence myself, but that is probably my own fault for not hanging far enough back.

We have our own web site. With a few mouse clicks I know where the next walk will take place, how long the walk is and whether or not it is dog friendly. We also have a self appointed group photographer who covers twice the distance of everyone else through running up and down the line all day taking shots. I am amazed by his energy, I don’t know how old he is but I believe he’s been retired for ten years. The results of his vigourous enthusiasm appear on the web site a few days later, he’s quite artistic, actually.

I could go on forever singing the praises of the Ramblers but enough is enough.

Your perception is a reflection of who you are.

We're all capable of love as well as hate.

I hate terrorism and I wish peace reigns.

Don't we owe our existence to our parents? Instead, many of us are of the mindset of me, me, me. Is it possible that we have become so distracted and convinced it is all about us...when really, it isn't? Look at the union of parents today....or should I say, the dis-union.

Just a thought that popped in my head. ...something to perhaps ponder.