Growing Older

Twenty-Nine

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Today is my twenty-nineth birthday. Last year before turning 30. While people assure me that turning 30 is not a big deal, and everybody goes through it, somehow I feel like I got to make my 29th birthday, and make my 29th year something special.

End of the Day

Everytime around this time of year, I like to take a few minutes to think back about the past year and the coming year. In many ways this year is kind of a blank slate, something to be planned as things go along.

Looking Back to Wakely Dam

Not having big plans doesn’t mean I won’t do big things…

Stratton Mountain From a Recently Cleared Area

I already are thinking about many weekend and longer road trips, hikes, and camping trips. I at least don’t have to worry too much about my truck breaking down. I probably won’t set anything down in stone for sure, but I do want to get back to some of my favorite spots in the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains, Central NY, Finger Lakes, and the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania.

Oil Heating in NY State

I got to get a truck cap this spring, and kayak racks for my truck. Hopefully by mid-summer, I can my truck wired up with a second battery to power my camping gear without fears of running my main battery dead. I need to work to build up my savings, a lot of which went into purchasing my pickup truck last year.

Northern Most Ridges of Catskills

I also got to look forward to future years. This year I will become vested in the State Employee Pension Plan, which means I will have other options opening. I might consider going back to college, or even moving out of the state. I look forward to the adventures of the coming year.

I’ll Be Age 67 in 2050

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Folks in my age group under Social Security can retire at Age 67 if they so please. While I don’t know if I will retire at Age 67, I generally believe that Social Security will be fixed by that point, and that will be an option if I so choose. I hope I have the finanical savings and a pension at that point to supplement social security if that’s what I want, or choose to continue to work if work is my passion and I feel that I am doing good for society by continuing to work.

The year 2050 is an interesting one. It’s a popular round number taken up by political pundits and futurists trying to predict the future.

Alander Mountain

Bill McKibbean and the 350 people insist that humanity must reduce it’s carbon outputs by 80% of 1990 levels by 2050, also known as the 350 ppm by 2050 goal. Others insist that there will be no Social Security in 2050, or that fossil fuels will run out by 2050, or that the world will be otherwise awful dark and bleak in 2050. Some like James Howard Kunstler think the year 2050 will be one of mass suffering and misery, as humanity fails to move away from it’s excessive use of fossil fuels and international commerence.

More hopeful futurists look at 2050 as era of great progress, an age of great equality, and technocratic success. Transportation will be automated and run on clean electricity generated from renewable sources that won’t harm the planet. Flying cars will wisk you to your destination! People will overcome their evil ways, and war will be obsolete. Humans will be healthier and avoid much of the suffering that is the norm of the day. Poverty will be a thing of the past.

Remsen Falls

I suspect both predictions will be look increadibly dated by the time I’m ready to enter retirement and my golden years. After all, the year of 2050 is about as far away as the year 1972. Since 1972, the world has not choked and died from smog or excessive development. There are still vast areas of open lands, forests, and farm land. Yet, there are still pollution problems, and we have yet to enter an age of golden prosperty. 39 years later, still a lot of people are still suffering, but things have gotten better for many people.

I truly believe that world is not coming to an end. I also don’t believe the world of 2050 will be vastly different then today, even if fashions change as do technologies. Some things will become easier, and maybe more automated, but the world will look remarkably like today.

Was I Born Too Late?

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There are days when I look out the window and wonder a pretty simple question: Was I Born Too Late?

Window Past My Desk

Now none of us have control of when are born or when we die. We are all creatures of the time we live, the ziegest of world that surrounds us. But I have to wonder, Was I Born too Late?

Enjoying the Fire

A look back at times past, when I should have celebrated what I once had when I could. I think back to freedoms of yesteryear, and wish I could have been there. I have to wonder, Was I Born too Late?

Completed Housing Development

I look at once green farm fields that are now housing developments. A woods a remember as a child is now a freeway. A remote area, now developed. I have to wonder, Was I Born too Late?

Peru Sky

There is no turning back. I can’t live a life that is not mine. I can not turn back the hands of time, or control things beyond my own control. I have to wonder, Was I Born too Late?

Edge of Helldiver Pond

Probably not.

I was born into the world that I live in today, and the best I can do is fight to make it a better place.