DISQUS

We live 3 miles from the nearest small town and 12 miles from a town with any decent sort of amenities. In the whole area, there is no public transportation except for a couple of run-down taxis. Our property is also 500 feet higher in elevation than the closest town which would make walking or riding a bicycle much more difficult especially as we approach our 60s. I've talked to a couple of people who can remember going to the bigger town by horse drawn wagon when the road wasn't paved. They didn't go there very often.

Before I went in the Navy, I lived just outside Houston, Texas, in an area where there was no public transportation. I didn't have a car and there were no employment prospects for someone without a car and experience.

I agree that transportation kills. However, what would be the adverse consequences if our modern transportation systems would suddenly stop working?

Amazing, wonderful, engaging online world, isn't it. I am so very glad that it can offer you something that you could be engaged in.

What did we ever do before?
.-= Mike Goad´s last blog ..It’s not a lily =-.

My initial take on what was said was very similar to Phil's.

I hope that was what was meant.

The problem, though, is your friend's problem, not yours, whatever he meant.

His perception, for whatever reason, is that you are free and he is not. For him, that is his reality. It's unfortunate, but should have no bearing on your reality.
.-= Mike Goad´s last blog ..Storm damage and cleanup =-.

I've mixed feelings about it. Some people who have committed horrendous crimes no longer deserve life, but who are we to take it from them?

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Mea culpa on replies to blog comments</abbr>

My step-dad is 6 years older than me. He does everything, literally, for my mom -- but then, again, she is totally lazy, I am very sorry to say. She is 17 years older than me. They have been married for 36 years, almost as long as Karen and I.

Karen has been dying her hair for many many years. Then 6 months ago, she stopped. Two weeks ago she had had enough. Her gray hair was making her feel old and so she dyed it again.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho …, again …, maybe …, probably</abbr>

Success, in my mind, is being able to do something that you enjoy, make a decent living, and to leave a legacy for others. It sounds as though your friend has found his own success. Good for him!

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..4 1/2 days offline!</abbr>

I like it! -- the cartoon, that is, not the situation.

Could be fatal -- which probably would not be a good thing.

Pakistan in the hands of the Taliban is REALLY scary.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..4 1/2 days offline!</abbr>

Funny.

I have a friend who was named Mohamed. We all called him Mo. He is Iranian.

One day, he came to work and we learned he had changed his name to Michael.

With the anti-Arab, anti-Iranian feelings in this country in the 1980s, it was understandable. It didn't change who he is though.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Traveling in Tennessee, Virginia and Wednesday Weigh In</abbr>

Nice, humorous story! ;)

So far as younger generations -- One of our nieces had broken up with her husband and they are getting a divorce.

She didn't want to tell Karen and I.

She was too embarrassed and was afraid that we would.

Why worry about our being disappointed?

Because we were the ones that had the traditional "normal" marriage, the kind she wanted. Her mother had been married and divorced several times. Her paternal grandmother -- my mother--, who had basically raised her and her sister, had been divorced several times. Her paternal grandparents had been married a long time, but the grandfather was a very abusive and unfaithful husband. Her great grandmother had been divorced..., and so on.

When we found out, we told her that it was okay; that we weren't disappointed; and she needed to do what she needed to do.

Marriage doesn't seem to have the value that it once had, but I was raised to try to make it work.

I was taught that value by two women whose marriages had failed in times when divorce was not the norm -- my grandmother, mostly, and my mother.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Traveling in Tennessee, Virginia and Wednesday Weigh In</abbr>

Quite funny ;)

If only it were true :(

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Eyes of the Great Depression 027</abbr>

Funny, yes. But not totally politically correct, especially not in Pakistan. ;)

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Wednesday Weigh-In plus 3, 1, 2000 and 2</abbr>

Quite simply, we've ALWAYS gone to bed at about the same time, except, of course, when I was away on the submarine or, later, on business trips or working back shifts. We generally do things together, though we have some separate things. Some of her quilting friends think it strange that I go INTO quilting shops with her rather than waiting outside in the car or in the waiting area some shops have for the spouses of quilters.

I sometimes get involved with stuff while she reads in bed. Sometimes the light is off before I'm done. More often, though, I wake up in the middle of the night and, unable to get back to sleep, find something to do to make me sleepy. Or, on occasion, I wake up early.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Eyes of the Great Depression 026</abbr>

Nice! ;)

(Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? -- for me, it's my wife's business, not that I do it that often or that she say anything more than, "Good morning sleepy-head." It just works out better for us if our hours are in sync.)

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Eyes of the Great Depression 026</abbr>

Lakefront Drive, I believe. ;)

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..The Sun Has Lost Its Spots — Part 2</abbr>

The need to always be "politically correct" has made too many people overly sensitive, in my view.

There is a road in a near by town that runs across an earthen structure that keeps the lake from part of the town. The road went by one name for many, many years, but was changed for the sake of "political correctness." The earthen structure is a dike and the road was called "Dike Road." Nothing wrong with that.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..The Sun Has Lost Its Spots — Part 2</abbr>

Ramana, I'm so sorry to hear of your loss.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Eyes of the Great Depression 016</abbr>

We don't need to start advising the Obamas to "cover up" anything, let alone Michelle's arms.

I think Michelle Obama is going to do what she wants to -- and that's the way I like it.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Eyes of the Great Depression 013</abbr>

Thanks for the mention! and the link!

Interesting story.

I, too, will pass on this, though I doubt that will be a surprise.

I'm pretty sure that had I continued to allow my weight to rise that I was on the verge of developing diabetes, which happened to my mother and grandmother late in life, both of them overweight.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Wednesday Weigh In, March 4, 2009</abbr>

I have yet to see the movie, though I'm sure we will.

The kids will certainly be fortunate if they manage to escape the poverty of the slums. Hopefully, their exposure to life outside their normal environment will make a lasting, positive mark on them. It would be even better if the exposure from the movies resulted in improvements in the lives of others living in similar circumstances.

I had not intended to watch the Academy Awards on Sunday, but ended sitting in front of the television for most of it.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Wednesday Weigh-In, February 25, 2009</abbr>

@Padmini Natarajan,

Thanks!

Actually, I don't attend classes. I guess that means, for me, anyhow, that that's one less opportunity for being bored.

I blog because I can and because I enjoy it. Sure I would like to make a little bit of money at it, and I am, but not a super-significant amount. My blogs are places that I can share my photography, things I've found online, and provide some commentary on things as we see them. Blogging is my primary retirement hobby, along with my other online activities.

I would say that the only times I've ever been truly bored are when I've been trapped in classes or meetings from which there was no escape -- and even then I could often escape into daydreams and my own thoughts and planning. When I was a power plant control room operator, I saw that staying there long term might end end up being a very boring job, so I managed to get a transfer.

When I was getting ready to retire early, some folks told me that they were hesitant about doing it too because they were afraid that they'd be bored all of the time. For me that's not been a problem. Two of those that were worried about boredom in retirement have since retired and they've not had any boredom in retirement either. In fact, I only know one early retiree from the plant that has had the problem... and he has NO hobbies or activities that he is interested in.

Boredom is an affliction of those with little or no imagination or social life.

<abbr>Mike Goad´s last blog post..Change of Seasons 2009</abbr>

Jean - Ah, young romance - "soldering a circuit" ;) (and how very wonderful, too!)

<abbr>Mike´s last blog post..Wednesday Weigh-In and another new look</abbr>

@Rummuser, Love at first sight and love for life. Our friends told us it would never last. Our oldest daughter just recently married the guy she's been with for 14 years. She's 35. They've known each other since she was in third grade or about 8 years old. His mother lives 2 miles down the road from us. My daughter is the wage-earner (manager of the largest department in one of the main stores in a shopping mall) and her husband takes care of the home. They have no children and aren't planning any.

<abbr>Mike´s last blog post..Wednesday Weigh-In and another new look</abbr>

Interesting story, Ramana! ;)

In 1972, I was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Station in northeast Illinois for a training school. Karen was a volunteer at the United Services Organization (USO) in Milwaukee, a group that provides entertainment opportunities for people in the military. On my first visit there, workers were asking for volunteers to help decorate for a dance the USO was holding at the YWCA, so I decided to help out. Soon after I got to the YWCA, a girl in the balcony yelled down to me asking if she could "bum" a smoke from me. I tossed the pack up; she missed and cigarettes went all the floor. Rather than toss them again, I went into the balcony and helped decorate from there. We spent most of the weekend in each others company, though I did take her home from a night club that night and then went back to the hotel. We were on the phone most of the week, but couldn't meet the next weekend because she was traveling to Arkansas for the wedding of her older sister, who was marrying an ex-sailor she had met in the USO in Milwaukee. Karen had a 1 hour layover in the Chicago bus station on her trip down to Arkansas -- and I surprised her by going there and finding her in the station. While she was in Arkansas, she told her mother that she thought I was "the one." Two weeks after we met, I asked her to marry me. Five weeks after that, we were married -- and still are.

Oh, one more thing -- Karen was NOT a smoker. That cigarette she smoked in the balcony was the only one I ever saw her smoke.

<abbr>Mike´s last blog post..Wednesday Weigh-In and another new look</abbr>