Have you ever thought about all of the worthless pictures that you have taken? Did you ever contemplate what you would do with the three hundred pictures that you took when you went to Europe? How many times have you looked at them since? When you do finally spend ten minutes on some bored Saturday afternoon, what will you remember about them?

Of course this was before digital so you had to have them developed at some tremendous cost and then some of them didn't come out looking so great even though you have a camera that even an complete idiot could run and not screw up.

As luck will have it, digital has come around just in time to take the pressure off you. Now you can shoot all day long not have to worry about someone seeing your screw up because you can down load them when you get back to the hotel and get rid the bad ones.

What luck, now when you get home with the three thousand shots that you saved on a CD, now you can just put it into the DVD player and watch your vacation that you will paying for the next eight months. Hey, maybe you had a great time, maybe not - but it's a sure thing you won't know the first day from the last!

I'm just kidding, you won't watch that crap now or in the future because you are so tired and broke that all you want to do is go back to work so you can get some rest. Odds are you will never, and I mean never, watch that CD unless someone else plays it and even then you will say to yourself - what a waste of money -

I have literally thousands of slides from forty years ago that I will never watch and 4x6 35mm shots by the trunk full that I haven't looked at since I put them there over the last fifteen years. Oh I always said I would put them in an album one day so it would be easier to enjoy - bull!! If I ever do, it will be a cluster - - - , because I have no idea what most of them are about nor do I care - the older I get the less I care for details like that - just let them set there, I'll get to them one day - heh -

Next time, let's talk about what people will do with your 'legacy in pictures' when you are gone. What a hoot -

I just got back from the Kettle Marine national park where I was riding my mountain bike - what thrill! I just got it about a month ago and I am still sorting out all the neat things that I can do with it that was damn near impossible with my old bike, a twelve year old Bontrager.

These trails are some of the best in the state. All single track with a lot of good climbs that will challenge even the best riders - the experts do say that they aren't very technical but with all the rocks and sand traps, it is a good work out for me.

A friend and I went twenty miles today at an averge speed of 9.6 mph. He had a small accident, though, when attacking a sand pit in the middle of some pine trees - the front wheel went in a different direction then his face which struck a glancing blow on a pine tree. No lasting damage. It could have been much worse. - heh - We always say that when one of us get hurt -

Do you think guys in their sixties should be doing this kind of stuff? If so, why not?

I have so many questions and so few
answers - why is
it that 70% of the Jews in this country hate Israel?
Why do
they give huge sums
of money to the democratic Party, the
liberals, who have
a professed hatred for
the Jews and have had for
decades? The intensity of
their hatred is amazing. I
would guess it is
their association with the
liberals and their hatred for the
conservatives.

I have never seen such hatred among the conservatives. Not in their blogs or even in newspaper articles - they can be harsh or very to the point but they don't lowered themselves to name calling and character assignation of the individuals and their family members. This latter characteristic is one of the most applied techniques used by the liberals to make a point. It's basic to their philosophy. It's how and where they live. Without it they can't function.

Here's another one - why is it Israel's task to solve the Palestinian problem? Why is the whole world against the idea that the Palestinians have to make a life for themselves by raising up against the Hamas and other terrorist organizations that have in slaved them? Why do they just sit there for decades and wait to be used by these killers and murderers?

There so many things that just don't make sense! It seems so clear to me what the answers are - why can't our government and most of the other world governments see it as well.

Also why are so many newspapers in love with socialism? Why do they find it necessary to lie about everything that our government does -

Again, and I have said this in previous posts,

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

I'm still not getting a good grip on retirement - it just seems that I am not going anywhere but isn't that what I'm supposed to do? The transition from the structured work life to one of self-direction is more difficult than I thought it would be. In fact I never gave it thought, how could I when I had no idea this situation existed. I always thought retirement meant you went on with your life without work. Not so!

I've talked about how l stress out about not knowing what I'm going to do next and of all the things that I want to do and planed to do but haven't. I haven't even started even the most basic projects - It's been a year and a half since retirement -

There is one thing that I have accomplished with some satisfaction and that is I have read a lot of books. Maybe that's a good way to get started retiring - easy my way into it - heh

Good morning - retirement is starting to be a stressful thing - I have so many things that demand my time that I don't know what is the most important - what do I do first?

I send most of the morning drinking coffee on the deck watching the humming birds and reading the blogs and writing this blog, most days, and reading slected books. Then it's off to do something, anything, that will help my stress level around the farm and then mountain bike or road bike for several hours. The day is shot again.

I feel I haven't done enough productive things especially the things that I have previously decided that had to be done right away.

Where is this all leading - get a grip on what is important right now and worry about the other stuff later - easy? nah! - but I'll try.

Good morning - what a beautiful day it is too - I find it hard to believe that there are people in and out of government that have dedicated themselves to the idea that this country is the root of all evil. These people owe everything that they are to this county. They were born here and grew up here enjoying all of the rights and privileges that are associated with the freest country in the world. They were denied nothing yet they seek to bring this country to it's collective knees to a hateful world. They are convinced that we can so much better if we resign ourselves to the will of the world community and the United Nations.

When you consider what the reputation of the UN is now and has been for the last twenty years, it isn't possible for a rational person to think we could rely on that institution to lead us anywhere except to total destruction. Kofi Anann is a complete crook and so is his son that stole millions form the mouths of starving people in Iraq in the 'food for oil' scandal that also saw many European government officials with their hand in the same pot. This pot of black gold was provide by a mass murderer of thousands, but the UN didn't care, Kofi turned a blind eye to it. It's now called 'oil for blood' Kofi style.

The genocide in Sudan, Ivory Coast and Niger have gone on now for years and the UN has done nothing to stop it. The charge to do nothing is lead by china which has a large oil assist in that area so they vote against sanctions in the security council as France did before the second Iraq war. They also didn't want the cash cow to go away, they were making millions on the 'food for oil' deal. Let the killing continue, we want the money was, and still is, their philosophy.

The UN is completely worthless as a world leader. They have given funds to Palestinian terrorists to wage war on Israel. They appointed the members of the government of Sudan to head the world council on human rights. These people from Sudan have murdered thousands of Christians blacks in that country through the Islamic terrorists that make up the armed services of that country. Nobody at the UN cares that Christians are being killed. The UN is made up of people that are supported by Islamic states.

You have to ask your self just what does the Democratic party and their liberal left handlers hope to gain by siding with this corrupt organization? Why do they believe that we would be better off on bended knee before a house of criminals and Marxist.

This is only one aspect of the new terrorist organizations that exist to support the Democratic party In America. How can this happen In America?

Am I ever tired - I just got done trimming the yard with a self-powered hand mower - it took me all most two hours. It wasn't enough that I was in a bike race that started at 10 this morning and lasted 1 1/3 hours, 27 miles of hills and strong winds.

I averaged 21 miles per hour. It is hard to believe when I think about the long climbs at 9 and 10 miles per hour, but no so hard when I think about the 50 mph down hills.

My age bracket is 60 to 64, but I beat everyone over the age of 60 and a lot of racers that are thirty years younger than I am. It pays to stay fit but now I need rest

Good evening - it has been a busy news day what with Cindy Sheehan making noises like she has some idea of what's going on in the world. A casual observer that mingled among the demonstrators found that they didn't care one bit about Cindy or her cause, as if she ever had one. The observer found that the conversations that he heard related to how they could turn this national disgrace into a money maker and how it will hurt the President and the Republicans.

Here is a neat pole finding - 46 percent of all Mexicans what to live in the United States and they want to come here even if they have to do it illegally - think we should do something about our boarder? I think we need a security fence like the UN is building.

The Abel Danger report from the Pentagon is really making the 9/11 commission sweat - There are some that say we have to wait and see if this all on the up and up - Col. Shafer has come forward to tell his side of the story, and now there seems to be a woman that has more facts that is waiting in the shadows. Will she come out? Does she even exist! Hmmm

I think that Israel is taking a big risk in pulling out of Gaza - Hamas will use the area to stage attacks on Israel is forgone conclusion - just what Sec. Rice will do when that happens will be interesting.

This has been a very interstice day - Mondays are always nice when you are retired because you didn't have to get up to go to work - heh - but also it was good because I talked to my brother out in Maryland for an hour, covering everything from guns to politics. I am thankful that I have two great brothers and a great sister and we get along famously -

The low point to day was learning the my church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, ELCA, has decided that Israel is the problem in the peace process. They, The ELCA, thinks that the wall that surrounds much of Israel bordering on Palestine, and they say it is Palestinian land, is a treat to establishing peace in the area. They stated that they don't care for the new tax that Israel has instituted as well -

They voted 668 to 269 on this resolution - The committee members made no mention of the terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds in Israel - I guess that kind of thing doesn't matter when making decisions, especially if it doesn't fit the agenda that you have in mind -

I have been a member of the ELCA all my life, but because of that ruling I will leave the church and seek my God at home -

Good morning fellow bloggers - the sun is out and the air is fresh from just a little rain last night. The temperature is 62 - perfect! I'm a little stiff form my ride yesterday in the woods which turned out to be 25 miles and a lot of very steep hills that I wasn't able to make, not one! They are short but, even in my best gear, I still went over. They are so steep that when you go over you start to slide down the hill on your back or side. I made it mostly to the top on all but one, and that one is nothing but loose rock and deep dirt. I don't think that one is in my future as a victory. heh

As I have mentioned before, I am retired and continually observing what it is like to be retied and finding that it isn't anything like it thought it would be. In the past, I have listed things that I wanted to do before the day actually arrived and most of those have not come to pass. Because of these pre-retirement goals, I now have stress because I have not accomplished them. What's wrong with this picture?

For now, I find that I have to go one day at a time and do what ever comes to mind at that moment. Planning every move ahead of time is a big mistake. I am not on a schedule so I can do what ever needs to be done right now and then work other things in as the day and week progresses.

Aways be aware that there is a transition from the working life to the retired life. You can't just walk away from all those years of work without some connections.

It's very much like when racing bicycles in a group. If you see an opertiunity to attack the group and break away, there is a magical cord that binds you to this group that must be broken before you can escape. Once this has been accomplished, you are free of them. I don't understand how it works, but it does -

Here is something to think about from a famous American, Abraham Lincoln: "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time" So go and do likewise -