One of the mistakes I often see people make is not knowing when their time is to leave. It can be hard when you are on the top of your game not to push for more, to walk away, especially when you think can be of greater service to your company or your country. But I see a lot of value in retirement and hanging your hat up at some point, while you still have time to seek recreational pursuits and relax in your final years. It is good to let the younger generation get a foot hold, advance new ideas and better ways of doing things.
We all become set in our ways. Even though I’m certainly not 80 years old, I often find it difficult to change new procedures in the office, when I’ve done something differently for many years. Experience is valuable, but people lose flexibility and clarity in their thinking. While I don’t think there should be a set limit to how old one can be as a political leader, it does seem like 80 years is too old. Both Biden and Trump are of an earlier generation, and hardly relevant to the concerns of today.
Ultimately, the largest tragedy has to be that Biden and Trump will never have a retirement, but worked to the end of their lives. While these elderly leaders blocked younger people from the chance to lead and change the nation for it’s better, they wasted their final years in public service. They could have been enjoying life perusing things they truly found pleasurable, rather then their occupation. Retirement is not a bad thing.
You know I really enjoy riding my bike to work. Not every day is beautiful weather, some days are bitterly cold and some days I get caught in the rain. Yet, it’s an enjoyable activity, a way to get in exercise while doing something necessary – commuting. And this time of year with everything so green, it’s a beautiful ride along the bike trail.
You know, I continue to really enjoy grapefruit. Maybe because I know it’s a special treat, denied to many Americans, especially older ones on statins. It’s something that I can have and enjoy when others can not have it. It’s not just a way to brag, but also a goal to maintain good health so once can continue to enjoy it unlike so many others. The fruit is tangy and not as sweet as oranges, it is a bit bitter – a taste that too often is missing from our diets these days.
As a child, the idea of liking Grapefruit seems hard on the imagination. I remember tasting it as a child, thinking this awful bitter and why would anybody want to eat it. Of course with all the health benefits of this red citrus fruit, and it’s rich variety of flavor notes including that often missing bitterness, it’s hard to imagine having to give it up. My parents always used to get a big box of it and enjoy it every morning until it molded up and the rest of it either out in compost pile or to the chickens.
Honestly, though I just used to think of grapefruit as something gross that adults, especially my grandmother from Florida ate. Something best mixed in with the chicken manure and compost, not something that you actually would pay for to at the store. But how times change as one gets older. Maybe I’m just becoming the person my parents were before they had to give it up! Just thinking that makes me feel so old!
Those so-called frozen wild Maine Blueberries are awesome on so many levels, and made topping the homemade banana pancakes so good but inevitably the hunger pangs will hit I’m sure by the time I’m in the office, especially if the rain sprinkles doesn’t deter me from riding Blackie to work.
Forgot to get milk when I went to Hannaford last night, so it was off to Stewart’s to get a another plastic bottle this morning, as that’s an essential for coffee . Which of course I am much too dependent on. Regardless now I am good for groceries through Thursday or Friday before I head up to camp. Enjoyed many of those light red kidney beans in maple syrup last night along with cornmeal and onion – spinach pancakes last night. A bit gassy when I first awoke, but not like when I eat too many lentils. But I got grapefruit so at least that should feed my hunger pings by mid morning.
Rode out to Five Rivers after dinner, not a lot of people around. Voted on my way out. I actually was a no on the library ballot for the first time, just because I was kind of fed up with the building project, and how it was wrapped up as a pig-in-poke and and how it would negatively effect my access and use to the library. I know just a protest vote. It’s nice having the bike back and being able to ride out to Five Rivers and back and forth to work.
As long as it doesn’t rain too much, I will at least ride in this morning, and if I get wet riding down to the express this evening, then whatever it will work. Hopefully though the worse of the rain will hold off until I get home after work, so I can ride both ways, skip the bus fare and get exercise. : Tomorrow I’ll be busing it in for sure.
I was thinking after listening to more of the Boggleshead Book that I should think about opening a Health Saving Account to pay for the LASIK eye surgery tax free. That could save somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 percent on the surgery if I didn’t have to pay state and federal income taxes on that. I’ll have to research that further and then talk to the State Benefits Administrator. Hell of it is, I think she works one door down from my office, so I can walk over into her office and get the forms.
So yeah, Forest Road 71 – Somerset Road is closed for the holiday weekend, so I got to develop an alternative plan. I could do Prospect Mountain Rd or George Aitken Wilderness Road but I’m worried those sites will fill up fast. The alternative is Adirondacks I guess – or maybe Charles Baker out in Madison County – or Schoharie but I certainly don’t want to do the Cherry Ridge Campground, as I want to have fires, smoke grass and listen to music. Shit that kind of stinks and is noisy. Also maybe light off some fireworks and shoot guns. That kind of leads me to Adirondacks. Maybe East Branch or Spectulator Tree Farm. That remote campsite 11 northeast of Elm Lake kind of excites me with possibility. I don’t know though, going to be kind of cloudy and rainy I suspect Saturday. Want some place I can ride too. Still weighting my options. If I’m going to be in New York I should do some fishing. Not sure if I’ll bring my kayak or not.
I see in my podcast app that Lexis Freeman interviewed Oliver Anthony. It’s a damn shame, what the world has gotten to. Living in New World, With an Old Soul. I’ll have to put that in my play list and download that before heading up to camp. I mean that seems like a good thing to listen to stoned out of my brain, watching the flicker of the flames. I love all things Oliver Anthony, even if that makes me not a good liberal. Just the idea of living off the land, off-grid in a trailer up on acerage is so awesome.
Everybody let’s sing along..
“If it weren′t for my old dogs and the good Lord. They’d have me strung up in the psych ward. ′Cause every day livin’ in this new world Is one too many days to me”
so it was off to Stewart’s to get a another plastic bottle this morning, as that’s an essential for coffee 
. Which of course I am much too dependent on. Regardless now I am good for groceries through Thursday or Friday before I head up to camp. Enjoyed many of those light red kidney beans in maple syrup last night along with cornmeal and onion – spinach pancakes last night. A bit gassy 
when I first awoke, but not like when I eat too many lentils. But I got grapefruit 
so at least that should feed my hunger pings by mid morning. 
not a lot of people around. Voted on my way out. 
I actually was a no on the library ballot 
for the first time, just because I was kind of fed up with the building project, and how it was wrapped up as a pig-in-poke and 
and how it would negatively effect my access and use to the library. I know just a protest vote. It’s nice having the bike back and being able to ride out to Five Rivers and back and forth to work. 
I will at least ride in this morning, and if I get wet riding down to the express this evening, then whatever it will work. Hopefully though the worse of the rain will hold off until I get home after work, 
so I can ride both ways, skip the bus fare and get exercise. :
Tomorrow I’ll be busing it in for sure. 
to pay for the LASIK eye surgery tax free. That could save somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 percent on the surgery if I didn’t have to pay state and federal income taxes on that. 
I’ll have to research that further and then talk to the State Benefits Administrator. Hell of it is, I think she works one door down from my office, so I can walk over into her office and get the forms. 
so I got to develop an alternative plan. I could do Prospect Mountain Rd or George Aitken Wilderness Road but I’m worried those sites will fill up fast. The alternative is Adirondacks I guess – or maybe Charles Baker out in Madison County – or Schoharie but I certainly don’t want to do the Cherry Ridge Campground, as I want to have fires, smoke grass and listen to music. 
Shit that kind of stinks and is noisy. 
Also maybe light off some fireworks and shoot guns. 
That kind of leads me to Adirondacks. Maybe East Branch or Spectulator Tree Farm. That remote campsite 11 northeast of Elm Lake kind of excites me with possibility. I don’t know though, going to be kind of cloudy and rainy I suspect Saturday. Want some place I can ride too. 
Still weighting my options. If I’m going to be in New York I should do some fishing. 
Not sure if I’ll bring my kayak or not. 
It’s a damn shame, what the world has gotten to. Living in New World, With an Old Soul. I’ll have to put that in my play list and download that before heading up to camp. 
I mean that seems like a good thing to listen to stoned out of my brain, 
watching the flicker of the flames. I love all things Oliver Anthony, even if that makes me not a good liberal. Just the idea of living off the land, off-grid in a trailer up on acerage is so awesome. 
