May 8, 2011 Courage My Love

the sky of skye above me
the earth of skye below me
the water of skye around me
safe in our home of skye

Ok I have no idea where that came from, some deep genetic cess pool of Scottish genes (MacLeod ones in particular).

and this... freedom 55. It was the  mantra of the 70's. i remember watching this add and laughing, because...
a. There was no freaking way I was going to live that long (my bright harsh flame would burn out long before that number appeared on my dashboard)
b) It was so far away, so very far away, what possible reason would you need all that money for at that age?
c) I firmly believed the time to travel and hike and wander the world was when I was young, and I still believe that is the right thing to do. When you are older, you have less and less desire to hunker down on some floor in a sleeping bag, you get cranky as hell spending time in line ups at airports and trains, and there are never, never enough washrooms around for old people and their bladder issues.

So now, for me freedom 55 is that number on the speedometer that gets me where I am going, in relatively light traffic and that is all it is. My biggest expectation of retirement is the ability to paint when I want, garden when I want and tell the neighbours to turn down the fucking music!

Oh wow, good news! Remember I gave up recycling for the New Year? Well the city of New Westminster is trying to tempt me back to the fold, by offering a NEW plan for recycling in the city. In another month, they will return to single stream recycling which is fucking fantastic for those of us who were beginning to bail. This means instead of you washing all the crap out of the tins and cans and separating them into two bins, and then separating the types of paper into two bags - you will be able to put the entire shit and kaboodle in one bin AND THE CITY WILL SORT IT OUT AT THE RECYCLE CENTRE. How fucking civilized is that? See it's a movement!

We, the grey haired, wise elders of this society will rise up, forgive ourselves for all our stupidities in our youth, and then procede to pass on our wisdom or kick the crap out of rude people that won't listen.

Ah, this may not take courage, but the fallout might take some courage my love!