I just read a poem called, "Like Riding a Bicycle" written by a man named George Bilgere. I was able to read this poem because it was a part of "The Writers Almanac" newsletter I subscribe to from American Public Media. There is always a poem and usually three very short biographies of authors that begin with the phrase, its the birthday of....
Today was the birthday of P.T. Barnum and "The Writers Almanac" printed this quote:
He once said, "More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing nothing, than by believing too much."
And that is a very relevant quote for my life right now. I've got quite a bit of believing to uphold. Like about this blog. My little blog never gets listed by google even when I search for blogs about boomers. The only way I can find my blog is to search for it by name and author. One would think after writing a blog on blogspot since 2004 the google web crawler would know about it.
Another thing I have to hang on to and believe is about the plans my husband and I made for our retirement. We got off to a very rocky start. When Bill retired in March 2007 we went ahead and started a big garden. Something we always said we would do when we had more time. The first hint of trouble came when Bill had to rest after using the tiller for a few minutes. That didn't seem right. Then we saw he was getting out of breath just climbing the stairs. And he was tired an awful lot of the time. And grumpy. Whew, was he ever grumpy.
He made an appointment for a check up and it turned out he had a heart problem. A serious problem in fact. He needed surgery right away. He had a quad bypass on June 19, 2007 from which he has recovered very well. Took several months but he is mostly back to normal.
Then in September I needed surgery after a CT scan revealed I had cysts on both ovaries. I'm all better, .....
but the dog gone price of gasoline and our economy in general is sick.
Travel is supposed to play a big part in our retired life. We have always wanted to go to Alaska together and fish and camp. Bill is the fisherman. I always thought I'd like to read while he fished. Or hike. Or write poetry. Or prepare our meal. Or play with our dog. If we can afford it, I'd like to take along a lap top computer with a wireless link up.
In 2004 Bill purchased a new 4-wheel truck he thought we would be using on our travel adventures. The first hint of a problem came up three years later when Bill was looking in his truck maintenance book for information about payloads. A note at the bottom of the page said to look inside the glove compartment for further information.
Inside the glove box a little sticker told us our truck was not meant to be used with a slide-in truck camper. Which is the kind of camper we had always imagined we would have. We didn't want a pull behind, or a 5th wheel, can't afford a RV or Motor Home. The slide-in truck camper suited us best.
Over the next several weeks we investigated the question and have satisfied ourselves that it will be OK to use a slide-in camper as long as we pay careful attention to the center of gravity of our truck when we have the camper installed. And the total weight, which includes the camper, him and me and the stuff we bring along can't exceed 1400 pounds. If we stay inside those limits we'll be OK.
Meanwhile the price of gasoline creeps ever upward. The value of our truck sinks lower. The waiting lists for economical vehicles grows longer and the price goes higher. The value of campers like we want has increased for no reason we can understand.
Yes sir, Mr. Barnum, I whole heartedly agree with you. It is better to believe too much. It is what keeps us going. It is the reason I said to Bill, there is a camper out there with our name on it. We will find it. We can make an adventure out of looking. We won't pressure ourselves into buying the first camper we see.
"More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing nothing, than by believing too much." When we do find our camper I'll see if I can get Bill to paint those words on the inside wall. Maybe over the door.
