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Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Am I wishing my life away?

Today I was talking with a friend about retirement.  We are both approximately the same age, I'm a little bit older.  I told her I had a count down on my phone to retirement - well actually two, one for the soonest I can retire (AKA - the start of I don't shive a get period) and one for the maximum social security amount.

She told me she wasn't doing that because it was wishing her life away.....so it got me to thinking, am I wishing my life away waiting the next several of years to pass quickly?  Or am I like a little child waiting for Christmas to come, knowing that the thing I want most will be under the tree?

What do I want most?  Time....time to quilt, time to stitch, time to travel, time to spend time with my family and friends......wishing my life away?  Nope, waiting until the time that my alarm is only set occasionally vs. every day.  When I decided what to do vs. someone telling me what needs to be done.  Am I wishing away my working years?  You bet!!

So more about our trip to Colorado, this week I'm feature our trip to Georgetown to ride the Loop in an old time steam engine train.  I didn't think ahead, so we didn't get the opportunity to go and see a mine, and we had to ride in an open car vs. the parlor cars that had real chairs and tables.

 The trip wasn't long and you spent more time waiting while they unloaded and loaded people, but it was still fun and the view was great.   Love the little bit of history we got, the train was a narrow gauge train, which was designed to traverse the mountains.  While silver was at the top of it's game - i.e. the banking system was using it to back the dollar, these towns and mines were booming and life was good.  Then the government in all of their wisdom stopped backing the dollar with either silver or gold and the bottom dropped out of silver.   They showed us where rock had to be blasted to make way for the rails, did you know they used 7 -14 year kids to set the dynamite?  They figured they could run faster and avoid blowing themselves up - their lives were as valuable as an adult man who would work in the mines....my how times have changed.

Would like to do this again, but going to find one that gives you a little bit longer ride, so I can stitch and relax while watching the world go by :)

After we got done there I decided that since hubby had been a good sport going to the hotel with me and riding the train that we would do something he would enjoy.  So we went to a casino that we'd passed on our way to Georgetown.  As usually he went his way and I went mine (he claims I'm bad luck).

I'm cheap when it comes to putting money into a machine that I have no hope of really getting it back out - so when I was down to my last nickel I cashed out LOL - OK so most of my money was still in my wallet where it was safe, I should have said when i got down to the last nickel of the money I was willing to part with I cashed out.  Since it was too embarrassing to go and cash this in, I brought it home instead.  So while he continue to put his hard earned money into the one arm bandits, I went and got some fries and watch my NetFlix on my i-phone.

After our train ride and trip to the casino we went to Buffalo Bill's Grave.  We just missed the museum, which was disappointing, but the view from his grave site was wonderful.  The pictures were a little harder to get as we were there about 2 hrs before the sun set, so it was low in the sky and hard to get good pictures.

 The trip back to Boulder was very excited as this was off the beaten path, so the road going back to the highway was full of S curves, switch backs and hairpin curves, the speed limit most of the way was 20 miles an hour and there really wasn't anyone chopping at the bit to go faster.  I enjoyed the ride, as it reminded me of a vacation I took with my parents as a teenager with a new driver's license.  We took turn driving and everyone drove their assigned time.  Mine was the road up to Old Tucson in AZ in a station wagon (for those born after 1980 a station wagon was the pre-curser to the mini van and now SUV), pulling a pop-up tent camper and the roads were just like these.  Even if I had wanted to pull over (which I did in the worse way), there wasn't any place to do it and I had a line of people behind me wanting me to go faster.  My Dad decided he would take the rest of my turn and drive out of Old Tucson, only difference was he got 4 lane highways going out (opposite side of town I guess).  Oh well, I was much more seasoned this time and my palms weren't sweaty and I didn't curse once :)

The last picture is from a turn out along the road, wanted to stop and get one picture, and this one doesn't do the view justice - it as wonderful (when I could look that is).

So have I been stitching?  You bet I have :)  but I made a mistake on my Lizzy Kate, so I'm having an internal fight with myself.  The Perfectionist in me wants it ALL ripped out and made right!!  The Let it Be in my says - "who will notice and you're 1/2 done now".  Not sure who will win, but thinking it will be a compromise - I'll take out some of it and leave the rest.

I'm also working on my needlepoint at lunch, getting close to having the background done - hoping it will be done by the end of the week :)!!  Then I can go back and add the mane on the giraffe, the toes and noses and tusks on the elephant.

Will show off my stitching next time, for now enjoy the view!!

Sandy










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