My one and only comment. Its much easier to take hardship when you are 40 years old than when you are 80 years old. I really didnt expect to live past 55 (known genetics) but after I reached 60 I started looking to the future. I prefer the "lavish" lifestyle I live now at 82 to rotting in a wheel chair because I didnt look to the future. Sacrifices made at 55 didnt hurt too much and God made some good choices for me.
Well there you go Jim, you made some good choices early enough in life for it to make a difference. They may or may not have been easy, but they had an impact. Ya still got plenty of fair winds and calm seas ahead of you. 80 is the new 50.
I fully agree on when hardship hits you, and how one deals with it.
I lived a rather normal life, good health, earning money, taking financial risks that could have ruined me several times (entrepreneurship), but if successful would allow us to have a comfortable life. Then in my mid 50’s, my early retirement target, and beginning to shop for thenboat, I was diagnosed with throat cancer. Had never spent a day in the hospital or broke a bone my whole life. My target of buying my dream boat and going cruising had to be put on hold. Everything went on hold. I went through treatment with the usual ups and downs (3rd degree burns inside and outside my throat from radiation- lots of extremely potent drugs with only a determination to not get hooked for life on pain killers) and came out the other side with very little speaking voice, but a determination that I could still follow my dream. During my treatment I read a book about a guy who had the same cancer as I did, who ended up only being able to “eat” through a straw and he succeeded in his dream to sail to Alaska and beyond. If he could do it, I could do it. I also remember reading some TF posts that Janice started about a gentlemen who, if I remember correctly was always going to push off the dock and never did before he passed. So, I took some courses and began in earnest that next year 2016, and caught a ride as crew on a trawler (brand that I was considering, but specifics don’t matter) crossing the gulf of Mexico. Was going to be a month long trip of a lifetime, then continuing on to New Orleans crossing the Gulf a second time. Saying I was excited, was an understatement. We were hit by a storm, I fell and crushed my L1 vertebrae on day 2 (no alcohol allowed or involved) and spent what ended up as a 4.5 day crossing being tossed around in the forward stateroom bunk. Bashing through a rough gulf stream with 30 knot winds has a very clear meaning for me.
I Had spinal surgery in a Cancun “hospital” that was under heavy machinery construction. Think of the large bulldozer jackhammer thingy taking down a concrete building. My surgery was postponed twice ... once for another patient who fell off a hotel balcony (spring break event and only one qualified surgeon in town), and then a second time while I was on the operating table and spinal surgical equipment broke down. Spent a week there and not a single person there spoke english. And I spoke very little spanish. Tequila please to go with the morphine, ....please? They were all wonderful though given the circumstances. Made it back home and had to learn to walk again. Truth be told, that experience just about crushed my dream, but it was still hanging around in the dark recesses. That was mid 2016. In 2017, after learning to walk without assistance, I had to deal with my step Dad’s passing, my biological fathers passing, and putting my Mother in a care facility. The dream is still there though. 2018, a divorce of a 15 yr relationship. Fairly crushing mentally, but ya get back up and realize it is going to take more than that to keep me away from my dream. I am a victim? F No!
As they say, “stuff” happens. I have never really strung it together in writing like that, but as I do, it is rather comical if one has a sense of humor, which I do.
No wheel chair for me, very close but no cigar. I can still achieve my dream as others have, who have had more hardship than me. The only thing I would pass on to those, like me, who have or are postponing doing something until the “time is right”, don’t wait, go now. You may not get the chance. Listen to the Pardey’s classic, classic, classic quote. Wish some one had drilled that into my strong willed head decades ago. Haha, No regrets! Standing room engine rooms rule!
So my boat loving friends, there is a little perspective regarding where my boating questions may come from and my admitted ignorance. Why do you think I want to hang around you fine folks and learn as much as possible? I may even share an opinion now and then. I did hang around a few years ago, but got distracted for a bit. Again Jim, 80 is the new 50, so 60ish must be the new 40ish.
Mucho apologies to the OP and the tax conversation. I think I got seasick on your thread.
