DarlingClementine

Splashdown!

Paula Deen’s cooking shows had so many “y’all”s I couldn’t watch. Yeah, she was southern, and accent probably correct, but egregious use of y’all, as in several times per sentence.

You know, you’re right, that did come off as petty and butthurt…but there is a lot of history there not in the post. We’re sisters, and for the most part best friends….but…..

I’ve been the photographer waaaaay more than the photographed. I went on a boat outing with my.sister , we both had cameras. I took a zillion photos of her, also of the swamp, the gators, the birds . She was smiling at the camera, happy to be in shots, well aware of being photographed . After a couple of hours I realized she had never once turned her camera towards me, but had taken only photos of the scenery and animals. That’s fine, but I deleted every photo of her I had taken that day. She knew I was a combination hurt/pissed, and didn’t dare ask to see them.
Most people do like to feel like they were present at an outing, on a vacation, at an event. So include everyone.. if you take pics of your wife, husband, parents, kids, friend, or their kid or dog, just send them the photos in an email, (then delete from your storage any you don’t want to keep). It costs nothing and is a nice thing to do, takes zero effort, and there is literally a camera in your hand.

Eitek

Glad you are taking advantage of the gap between diagnosis and disability, and hopefully you get that miracle.




PS: the motorcycle recovery remains one of my favorite OT stories ever!

Eitek,

I am so sorry this is happening for you and your wife.

My husband and I traveled a lot when we were young and more or less broke . As you well know, if you wait until you can “afford it”, it sometimes doesn’t happen. Later, we had more money and less time, and I could not talk him into retiring. I retired and I traveled domestically with family members, waiting for him to finally retire so we could go back to Africa and then see more of the places we always planned to visit. Then, one day, he was gone and I was left to face the world alone. Covid stole 2 more years from all our lives.

Now, I have been back to Africa and Costa Rica (places we loved) , and plan to go again. Plus I have gone to places he and I never went. On every trip there are hitches in my breath when I suddenly miss him as much as ever ( it’s going on 7 years) . There is also a little guilt that the money we saved together is funding my travel binges.

It wasn’t supposed to happen that way, but it did.

I hope your wife can beat whatever challenge she is facing. If she is healthy enough, at least try and fulfill some of those dreams even if they need to be modified. If she can’t travel, try local luxuries…spa,days, concerts, fine dining, ball games…visit friends and family, read books together, reminisce about fun things you’ve shared.

As to the general question, my “always wanted to” has mostly been fulfilled. When I was a little kid, I kept a blue horse notebook where I jotted down places I wanted to see when I grew up. I’ve seen a lot of them, and I wish I had that old notebook to refer to!
. The other wish was to get a pilot license, which I never did. That one doesn’t bother me at all. It wasn’t an unfulfilled wish so much as an abandoned whimsy. No regrets about never doing it.

Agreed! I had a friend visit me and she could not believe how far she could see….miles and miles! Louisiana, and other southern states, are so lush and flat, that one never truly sees a horizon, except maybe in the gulf.

I love "home’, too (Louisiana) There is nothing like a swamp, moss-laden cypress trees, egrets and herons perching on the cypress knees, gators drifting by , sliders on logs….but I’ve been out west for a couple of decades now, and have no plans to move anywhere else, though I love to travel, both here, back home and all over the world.

Nothing like Moab area, Goblin Valley, Zion, Bryce, Valley of Fire Nevada, Page, Arizona, Monument Valley, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, tons of slot canyons….absolute dreamscapes. Not to mention moose, pronghorns, bighorn sheep, mule deer, bison, elk, eagles, badgers, marmots, pikas and tons of VISIBLE wildlife.

Thanks for the recommendation, I ordered it and it has already arrived.

I car camp in the middle of nowhere, but I prefer sleeping in the SUV and putting my "stuff", including an extra spare tire (the donut that came with car wouldn’t make it far on these roads) in the tent. Last time I camped, it rained, so I slept in a jumble with food box, spare tire, lounge chair, clothing, etc etc etc. The tent was my cover! Miserable. Now, I will put most everything in this,

Boomers did not have the option to be "influencers" …that is the current something-for-nothing job. And Only Fans.

I had it on my Chevy trucks and used it quite a bit.

I once locked myself out while in Yellowstone, and they were able to unlock it. I was hundreds of miles from home with no spare key.

I loved pressing the on star button and getting a real person to talk to….my favorite request was a route "without interstates’. I hate interstate driving unless I need to get somewhere quickly I don’t see the point of a road trip if all I ever see is interstate and sound walls.

I now have a Toyota and miss the on star (6 years owning the Toyota) . Had I known how shitty Toyota’s nav feature was, that may have been a dealbreaker. Even the Toyota dealer told me to just use Waze.

Luckily, I never needed to use the automatically-send-help feature if in a wreck, but nice back up. It was relatively cheap monthly plan, though I don’t know what it is currently.

It was definitely worth it for me….but it’s kinda like a gym membership…if you don’t use it you are wasting money. Look at the list of services it provides and try some of them, like the route feature. You might find it is awesome and want to keep it…but if you just keep paying for the "just in case I get in a wreck" peace of mind, there are probably other programs (phone, Apple Watch, garmin) that can do that as well.