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Have you ever come across a clever idea, and kicked yourself because you didn’t think of it first? Well this is one of those times for me. Tom Walton is the retired editor of my home town newspaper, and one of my favorite writers. Tom writes a humorous article for the paper every other Sunday. A recent piece hit home and cracked me up.
Among the thoughts he submitted, is the idea that, if your age begins with the number eight, the can of shaving cream you buy today just might be a lifetime supply. Even at the tender young age of 73, I am well aware that the opportunity for a mid-life crisis has passed me by.
So, what is this 37 year old trapped in a 73 year old body going to do?
While the go-go gods still smile upon us, I’m taking Chrissy on a SKI trip (spending kids’ inheritance; they keep telling us that they don’t need the money). Between now and August 1st, there will be a cross country trip to California, three concerts, two Broadway Plays (bus and truck tours stopping in Toledo), day trips to the Lake Erie Islands of Put-In-Bay and Kelly’s, and maybe a Mud Hens game or two. Lunches and dinners with friends and family are always on the calendar. Beyond 08/01, we just purchased tickets for the next season of Broadway in Toledo. I’m hoping that’s not a lifetime supply of Broadway Plays.
What’s everyone else doing for fun this summer?
Keep those encouraging articles coming, nice work. I lived 72 years in Chicago and then moved to the warmer climate in TX. Guess What, during my first year in TX, the Cubs won the Pennant in 2016, she travelled back to a game, for me, my son and son-in-law, Cubs won the whole thing, First World Series Win in 108 years, and sure did not want to miss it. This year is my 80th Birthday so you guess what, back to Chicago to celebrate with Family and Friends. We love road trips but those 2000 to 3000 mile trips we took back in 2016 no problem, but our longest trip was to the Pacific NW, Crater Lake, down to Yosemite, then Lake Tahoe and a whole lot of other places traveling 8410 miles over 28 days, now that was our longest road trip. Now the trips are more like under 1000 miles, or day trips. Love the open road, although I must say more cars and trucks than ever!
I never get bored in Chicago. As for the west coast, I’d like to fly to San Fran, rent a car and drive up to Washington, and fly back home.
Suzie and her dad made that exact journey three years ago, after a family wedding in San José.
My wife and I are avid travelers. In fact, we just return (today) from a 14-day cruise (Boston to Quebec and return to Boston). This wasn’t planned but our travel agent told me there was a last minute “sale” (almost 70% off) that I couldn’t pass up. This two-week cruise cost the same as the airfare for one person for our trip to S. America earlier this year. We always wanted to cruise down the St Lawrence River. Since we had been to all the other ports on this cruise except for Quebec, we didn’t spend much on excursions since we were happy to just get off the ship and walk around. It was our first time in Quebec though and we did a nice excursion there.
About a month earlier, we had returned from a month-long trip to S. America (a cruise from Buenos Aires to Santiago, around Cape Horn). It was supposed to be four weeks in duration (including pre and post cruise options) but due to bad weather on our return and a mishmash of errors by the airline, we got delayed in Miami for six additional days. Instead of fuming about it, we decided to rent a car and spend the next five days at Disney World (without the grandkids). We made good use of our Lightning Passes (twice). Believe it or not, we still enjoy a good rollercoaster ride (and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind was an interesting ride where each car can spin 360 degrees while traveling on the rails).
This will be the first summer we plan to stay at home, though. We have big plans for June (wife’s birthday) and the 4th of July (where we do plenty of fireworks). I’ll be able to tend to our gardens for the first time in years, too (a task I’ve had to hire out since we haven’t always been around). We have a 1.5-acre Japanese garden (with a 5,000 koi pond) and a vegetable garden as well.
In October, we head out to Hawaii for a week (visiting our friends) and then on to Japan for a two-week cruise around the island (plus Busan, S. Korea). This is their iconic fall foliage cruise. My daughter will be accompanying us – her first visit there. She had just returned from an African safari trip to the Serengeti. For the past several years, I try to arrange one trip with one adult child (and family) to take them somewhere that is mutually agreeable. Last year, my son (and his family) wanted to go to Disney World during spring break and this year my daughter wanted to visit Japan. With my frugality period over, we travel first class, too. It makes “getting there” more pleasant.
Last year, we had about 12 weeks of traveling as well. We are 76/78 and still going strong.
snak, wow, that’s what I call getting the most out of retirement. You also make a good point about working with a travel agent; they see those last minute deals before the DIYers.
76/78 and still rocking the roller-coasters!
Clever ideas? I’d love to see a list of all the gadgets, work-arounds, inventions and modifications of off-the-shelf products that readers of HumbleDollar have devised. My father was a gadgeteer, and his usual comment to the people at Home Depot who asked if they could help him was that he wasn’t sure exactly what he was looking for, since he had to jury-rig something to achieve a unique end, and he’d know it when he saw it. I’ve inherited that gene. I love to tinker, and small (and large) manifestations of ideas to solve a problem fill my home. They help something work better. Some do things nothing else can do. Sometimes they even save me a lot of money.
Instead of putting this idea in a comment to this post, it would make an excellent separate post to the HD forum.
Still getting used to Medicare here, so green bananas don’t give me pause (although I do ladder them, creating a mix of maturity levels 🙂
Lessee – summer plans. Well, last week I bought a second motorcycle specifically for doing track days on, and today I head out to the track for my second track day on it. (Talk about spending the kids’ inheritance…)
We’re heading back to the Midwest in June for a week or so to visit with my sibs and celebrate my sister’s 50th anny.
Then DW is continuing on to England to visit her mum and sister there.
Meanwhile I’ll go motocamping with my gang for a couple of days.
In August I’ll head out to Boston to visit my daughter and grandkids for a week.
Somewhere in there we’ll be booking our trip to Japan in January with our ski club, along with an additional week or two of skiing and touring on our own after the week with them.
Go go go.
Right on, tman! That’s what I call a great itinerary.
I’m writing this from an Airbnb in Dahlonega, Georgia. Sharon and I walked up Blood Mountain on the Appalachian Trail by one route yesterday afternoon, then by an alternate route this morning. Beautiful hikes, with abundant blossoms of mountain laurel and flame azalea, and rhododendron still present near the top.
Dan, keep your 73-year-old body moving, maybe schedule a few walks in between the other events!
Ed, I try to get to the gym at least three times per week. I use different machines on each trip, except for the stair step machine, which I climb on every visit.
And what a great time to be on the Appalachian Trail. Enjoy the balance of the trip.
Our summer home is our back deck, overlooking Mt. Rainier, the Seattle skyline and the Sound. We will spend it here, reading (me), meditating (Sarah), and avoiding the traffic and crowds of summer travelers.
Autumn will see me off to England for a couple of weeks to visit friends and take in as much footy as I can — Everton, Marine, Hearts — and hike the Lake District if my surgically repaired Achilles permits.
Mike, sounds like a great year. Oregon and Washington are on my bucket list of places to visit. I should probably include northern California on that list as well.
if your age begins with the number eight, the can of shaving cream you buy today just might be a lifetime supply.
Older residents at my CCRC have been heard to joke that they don’t buy green bananas.
Right? And the years seem to be getting shorter. I’m enjoying my golden years, I just wish I could enjoy them slower.
We generally bracket the summer with trips rather than touring in the summer to avoid the crowds. Our early trip this year was a February getaway to Barbados due to a very cold winter.
I’m starting off the summer with an expensive (for me) Bruce Springsteen concert. I now go to every concert he performs near us as at 76, and with his standards for performances I don’t know how many tours he will do.
We stay home during the “summer” here in NH which is basically July and August (although we did have a 90 degree day earlier in the week with dips to cool off in 49 degree water). Weekly we look at the upcoming week’s weather and pick the prime weekday (never on the weekend) to go to the beach. We picked where we built our retirement home considering the location of the coast which is only a half hour away. Just after Labor Day we head for the UK for two weeks to London, Glasgow, Pitlochry, St Andrews, and Edinburgh. The idea for this trip was formulated three years ago, but circumstances have postponed it. The entire trip was planned around the Highland Games in Pitlochry with a population of about 3K.
We’re seeing Bruce tomorrow night in Cleveland. Yes, the kids’ inheritance was substantially depleted for those tickets.
Rick Steves did a segment on the Highland Games, though not the games in Pitlochry. That should be an absolute blast!
Have a great summer, Dave!
We are fortunate to have a 2nd home at the Jersey shore, within a 75 minute drive (traffic allowing) of us and our daughters, SILs and 4 grandchildren’s homes. My DW and I spend most of the summer there (going back north mid-week when Dr appointments, etc are planned) and the kids come down just about every weekend during the summer and stay with us Friday- Sunday.
We belong to a great beach club right next door to our condo which has become a big part of our social life where we have a cabana on the beach (maybe one reason for so many friends 🤷🏻♂️😂).
We don’t travel ANYWHERE during the summer! We are truly blessed to have this place at this time with our family joining us (except when the older girls are at a dance competition early in the summer and at sleep away camp for 3 weeks during the summer).
There will of course be cookouts, concerts, surfing, fishing, bike riding, ice cream and all the fun summer stuff (did I mention adult beverages with our social group?).
We look forward to this time between Memorial Day and Labor Day each year and make very few plans. Now if the damn weather forecast would improve for this weekend in NJ (rain and temps around 60 degrees 🤦🏻♂️😢) we’d be all set!
I can’t think of a better way to spend the summer than being on the beach and having the kids stay over most every weekend.
Ha, sounds like Irish weather! I’m flying back from Spain this evening and heading straight to my vacation home — and for once, Ireland is playing nice, with sunshine and highs in the upper 60s to low 70s forecast.
Mark, my lifelong dream of singing in Ireland comes true next year. My old California chorale has invited me along on tour. I’m over the moon.
Mike, congratulations — that’s fantastic news! If you find yourself with some free time in Dublin, it might be worth checking out a Shamrock Rovers match. They play Friday nights in the League of Ireland Premier Division, it’s a compact 10,000-capacity ground, so you’re right on top of the action. Well worth a look!
I visited Ireland only once, it was the week following St Patrick’s day. We had great weather with mild temperatures and only one day with a tiny amount of drizzle.
Have a great summer Dan, hope the plan all unfolds smoothly!
Spare a thought for us southern hemisphere folk as we grind through winter.
Thanks, Greg. Since I no longer have to slip and slide all winter long making beer deliveries, I never complain about the weather. Still, truth be known, I’m always happy when summer rolls around. I hope your winter is a mild one.
Dan, I’m exhausted just reading your itinerary. You’re not seizing the day, you’re seizing the entire summer. Carpe aestatem indeed!
My own summer is considerably quieter by comparison. Most of it will be spent at the vacation home, with a short five-day trip to London to visit my daughter and Suzie’s family. But the highlight, the thing I’m most looking forward to, is a ten-day trip to Valencia in early August to view a total solar eclipse. I’ve always been an astronomy nerd, but never witnessed an eclipse…super excited!
I’ll happily admit I’m hoping to get through quite a few more XXL tins of shaving gel before old Nick comes knocking.
Mark,
Viewing a solar eclipse is an awesome experience. Had that opportunity in Ohio, April 2024. So cool! Good luck!
Valencia sounds wonderful, and it seems like there should be an Irish blessing about XXL tins of shaving gel along with a long and prosperous life.
Best wishes for clear weather at your Valencia trip, Mark! We had 4 minutes of totality at the solar eclipse in a clear sky here in 2024 at our northern Ohio CCRC — even the wild geese on the backyard pond went quiet and still during that unique darkness.
In NW Ohio, it became dark enough for the street lights to come on.
Same here, down I-80/90 in NE Ohio.