A Wake Up Call

[RSKY]

Wow, thanks for the info. It seems like the more you kids you have along the more fun you have.

 

[dmccarty]

Aint no luggage rack on a hearse.
Time lost with your family you can never get back.

No luggage rack on a hearse!!

I've gotta remember that one.

RSKY

Yeah, that is a good one. I have been thinking and saying for year, that if I am lucky enough to die in bed and be able to look back on my life, I won't be thinking about how I wished I had worked that extra hour or had saved that extra dime.... Saying there is no luggage rack on a hearse is much easier. :thumbsup::laughing::laughing::laughing:

One coworker who was in great shape, ate right, ran, did all of the right things, dropped dead at the start of a job one Saturday. He was dead before he hit the ground. It was a shock to every one because there was no warning and he was in great shape. Another coworker's wife dropped dead going for a walk with her father. Bam. Gone. Two other friends got sick but had months/years to live before the illness caught up with them, but they both died earlier than expected. One of the college kids we had working for us went back to school and died. We still don't know how. Just gone.

You
Just
Don't
Know.

We have spent quite a bit of money on family vacations. I hope they were enough to provide good memories to the kids. :confused3: We could have paid off some bills with the cost of those vacations but memories are far more important. <clear throat> "There is no luggage rack on a hearse."

The wifey wants to travel, and always has, but if I travel I want to stay in one place for a while to get to know the location and people. Seeing 10 European capitals in 14 days sounds like a trip to he.. but if I could stay in one place for 14 weeks, well then we are into something. :laughing: We are seriously thinking of selling everything, including the dream home on our dream land to buy/build a boat and travel. At this point, I am actually seriously reconsidering building the danged boat myself. :shocked: While this sounds crazy, there are some very sound reasons to do it this way. The goal is to travel by boat but we have multiple plans on how and when to get there. The reality is one can drop dead at any time, or worse, get a serious illness, but we would rather try and fail than never try.

If I do manage to have a death bed, I KNOW I would look back wishing we had tried to get a boat so we will try. It might work out, or it might not, but we will TRY. I heard some guy say, "There is no luggage rack on a hearse...."

Later,
Dan

 

[Gale Hawkins]

My son did a trade show with me this past Sun/Mon but his twin sister was working and did not come this time.

They turn 18 next month and surprise me quite often.

He was driving us back Monday evening in the 2002 Dodge Ram we fixed up for him from IL and said many people miss life because they are busy preparing for the future that never comes as planned. His point we can only live in the present and not the past or future.

When I was 18 I doubt the thought ever entered my head. I seem to move between past and future and tend to skip the present. Gotta work on that mistake. We are taught to give no thought to tomorrow by some teachers. I guess the key is to live in the present fully yet giving thought to tomorrow.

If family you have not seen for 10 years drop in as you are leaving to shop for a new tractor for the future I guess you shop for the future another day.

 

[sseelhoff]

What kind of car?

 

[Redneck in training]

When our kids were young we would go to Colorado or Minnesota camping for vacation. We always took their friends (or a couple for each of them) with us. They would entertain themselves, build lasting friendships and have memories they talk about till today. And we had great and fun vacation. Some of our kid's friends almost 20 years later still call my wife mom Juls (Julie). It was money well spent.

 

[sodamo]

Good call, RSKY. Build memories.
That's been our summer as well, our trip to AZ in Jun was all about family and doing things. We rented a house via VRBO that slept 10.
We brought our 9 yo granddaughter and her 8 yo cousin back to Hawaii. The cousin stayed 3 weeks, granddaughter is here until Labor Day.
Hopefully, many of their memories were captured on the iPhone and pics printed for each to build their own scrapbook. Just today, another discussion triggered me to search through some old pics. I happened on granddaughter's very first visit when she was 8 months old, and then another couple hundred pics from her summer visit 2 years ago.
One of my primary reasons for remodeling our cottage is to place it in a vacation/home exchange program so when our granddaughter is a bit older we can take our granddaughter and travel interesting places she might not otherwise experience.

Not only does the hearse not have luggage racks, it doesn't do slideshows.

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[fishheadbob]

Some beautiful thoughts running in this thread. All I have left of one kid is memories and his two sons. I'm glad we did a lot of cool things with him when we had the chance, and this is a good reminder to do neat things with the the other one. No big deal if she inherits less money when we croak as it's more important to have great memories.
Thanks for the wake up / reminder.

 

[Mysfyt]

Money=security
Memories make you rich

 

[jimmyj]

Life is so short. Once people are gone they're gone forever, so time spent is worth a lot more than material things.

 

[brown40]

When the oldest of the old--the folks old enough to need Long-Term Care--80's, 90's, 100's--are asked about "should'ves", there's a few common threads that run:

Wish I'd spent more time with my very young, back when they were.
Wish I hadn't worried so much about money.
Wish I'd traveled more.

You only go through once, and if you manage to get old enough to not be able to do, its the experiences that left lasting memories that bring the most satisfaction and regret. Eat and drink what you like. Do what calls to you whenever you can, live in the moments, and love the people you do like it's your last opportunity--you never know if it is. Make the moments happy ones.