GL: A bump in the road

[Randy Pickelmann]

Well, it finally happened.

When Cindy & I left to go cruising two years ago we knew that since I had two
elderly parents, it was likely that we would one day be called back home.  We
didn't want to live our lives with regret so we ran away from home.  My dad
passed away unexpectedly on Christmas Day.  After four months, it has become
obvious that Mom needs our help on a daily basis.  So after wintering Morning
Star in the Keys and not using her, we are going down this weekend and
bringing her back home to Clearwater.

While this certainly puts our cruising plans on indefinite hold, we have every
intention of picking up again some day.  In the meantime Morning Star will be
used on the weekends and on occasional vacation cruises.

I guess the real message in all this is that if you plan to go cruising, leave
now.  Go today, not tomorrow.  The hardest part is untying the dock lines.  If
you wait a few more years for the stock market to come back...your Social
Security to kick in...your retirement to vest at a better rate...or to finish
a few more projects to make the boat perfect, you might be waiting too long.
Health issues for one spouse or the other can potentially put your dreams back
on the shelf in a heartbeat.  Nike said in their commercials, "Just Do It".

One of my favorite quotes is from actor and adventurer Sterling Hayden's book
"Wanderer".
:...we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb
beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, and
playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The
years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on
the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice.

Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?"

Cindy & I have frequently chosen bankruptcy of purse.  Someone once counseled
"Go out on a limb...that's where all the fruit is!"

Regards,
Randy Pickelmann
hard aground in Clearwater
MORNING STAR
lying in Marathon, FL
www.morningstar.talkspot.com