This day has been coming for a long time. Today our yacht surveyor picked up our car. That’s right, the Humble Hyundai is gone. Now that quick little 5 mile drive to Publix is really a ride on the bicycle, and is going to take a while. Where the closest bank is I haven’t a clue. Yesterday we rode up to Fort Pierce to see Marine Connection Liquidators who really do have 8 acres of boat parts. Can’t happen again without a car. Everything gets difficult. I need to get a box to mail unneeded cold weather clothing back up north. Tough on a bike, and of course then it needs to be mailed. You get the picture. Yes, there are workarounds but everything is easier with a car.
Like an unexpected drive up north. We can’t do that now, but we sure wish we could.
“Never postpone a pleasure.” Anyone who knows me has heard me mumble my mantra, over and over. Never postpone a pleasure. Its meaning for me has migrated over the years, as you might imagine. You say these things and you think you know what it means until life or more properly death has its way with you and yours.
We come with no expiration date. There are no guarantees. Marce and I have experienced what we now call the Year of Death. Nine friends or family died in the space of a little over a year. Some violently. Some could fight no more.
On the day the Hyundai left I got two text messages within 30 minutes about my two closest friends. Both in the hospital with serious heart problems. My oldest friend is in a coma. Never postpone a pleasure. Pain and disappointment will always be there waiting. Never miss an opportunity for joy. It doesn’t get any more real than that.
Our life has changed and we can’t respond to events like before, like jumping in the car and driving to be with friends in need. But we never postponed a pleasure with them. And we’re not postponing it now.
Fair winds, my friends.