THE PLAN

"Planning is good, but plans are worthless" General Omar Bradley

But plan we must...

The reality of our retirement seems to be so far away yet the day rushes upon us with an inexorable certainty.

My absolute last day on the job as a fire captain/paramedic after 40 years in "the business" is 31 October, 2017. Kristie, who has worked in EMS since 1978, has drawn her line in the sand at 15 June, 2015. These jobs that have been not just what we do but also such a part of who we are will soon be but a long chapter in the.

Life on The Hook

Since the day in 1972 that I first stepped foot on a sailboat I have known that I would one day drop my anchor in the lee of a tropical isle and live the idyll of the of the cruising lifestyle. My bride of the past 18 years grew up as a "water girl" in Page Arizona with the brand new Lake Powell as her playground. She has has seen that the move to a sailboat is nothing less than the inevitable fait accompli of the not so distant future. She too has been bitten by wanderlust and the desire to sail away from the dock and point the bow toward the equator.


Our first "adventure date" in 1993 involved a week long learn-and-cruise in the San Juan Islands. I figured that would give me a pretty good idea if this was going to be a workable plan or not. We attained our bareboat charter and coastal navigation tickets and felt the pull of the sea. A year later we made our first run to the BVIs for a 10 day bareboat charter and have returned as often as we could to answer the island call. Our latest BVI excursion in 2012 gave us the opportunity to bring our two daughters and several friends along for 14 days of sailing, beach combing, snorkling and some good old fashioned screwing off. That's a lifestyle I can endorse whole heartedly.

My sister works in the travel industry and specializes in cruise ship vacations. She has tried and tried to get me to book a trip on one of these floating behemouths but I have no desire to ever set sail on one (not even if they were to let me drive the damn thing). No, not for us.

The Land Dinghy

The Land Yacht

We will have some time to prepare for a life lived on the hook (45 months from this posting) but Tempis Fugit and all that.

The intervening years will see us cruising on the road in our Outlaw RV (the Land Yacht) and on my Harley (Land Dinghy) but the search for our ocean steed is ongoing and the planning has commenced.

BE IT RESOLVED

Getting a head start on my New Years Resolution ~ Operation: DE-CLUTTER... Every week SOMETHING is leaving this house. Whether we give it to our kids, sell it on Craigslist, give it to Goodwill or take it to the dump this stuff will not fit in our intended downsized lifestyle so it has GOT TO GO!

Todays purging includes: 

• 2 pairs of size 15 boots (going to Lee Gilliland)
• 1 old office chair (Goodwill)
• 1 old CRT monitor (Goodwill)
• 1 VERY LARGE box of old shredded documents (Not pictured).
• 2 boxes of fire department/IAFF, Haz Mat, EMT and Paramedic related training materials   

(If I ever crack another medical textbook somebody please hit me in the head with a hammer)