Category Archives: Uncategorized

As I approach the completion of my 80th circuit of the sun I’ve finally started doing some things I’ve long deferred. I really should do a will, but since I have little money or material possessions I don’t feel the pressing need. I DID, however, just complete a Living Will.

Five years ago I ended up at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital with complete renal shut down caused by severe dehydration. I’d been evacuated off of my boat 18 miles in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida’s panhandle.

On being admitted I gave a “Do not resuscitate” order. When asked why I replied: “I’m 75 years old. I have COPD. I have three stents in my heart. My hands are becoming crippled with arthritis. But all things considered I am one of the lucky ones. Everything I dreamed about doing when I was a kid I did. I sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve been down the Mississippi River on a boat. I’ve circumnavigated the eastern half of the United States in a boat. I’ve been through the Panama Canal. I’m not looking forward to dying, but I’m ready.”

So, I have a medic alert tag hanging around my neck that says, “Do not resuscitate.” When I stop breathing or my heart stops then that’s it. Done. After all, none of us are getting off this place alive. So lets just let it go. The only concession I’ve made in the living will is to be loaded up with pain meds until I’m finally “worm food.” That’s not completely accurate. I want to be cremated and scattered on the Gulf Stream off of Fort Lauderdale. Then I can see myself being carried leisurely along the coast of the US that I cruised in boats and eventually some small molecule of what was once my body might wash up on England’s shore from whence my family came in 1630.

My mom was the first to be cremated. I’m the first of seven sons. Two died in infancy. They were buried at my dad’s family plot in Woburn, Mass. My mom’s family is interred in Westminster, Mass. She had herself cremated and part of her was left with the boys in Woburn and the rest with her family in Westminster.

My dad was also cremated. Part of him was scattered off the inlet at Venice, FL. He lived in Venice for years after leaving Cape Cod and fished off Venice Inlet for years. I passed the inlet several times in my own boat and never failed to say, “Hi dad.” Part of him was buried in Woburn and me and my brothers were each given small Zip Loc bags of ashes which we took to Westminster and scattered on our mom’s grave site.

Having created the Living Will I feel a bit more comfortable in my dotage. We never know when we’re going to shuffle off this mortal coil. Remember, almost everyone who dies today had plans to do something tomorrow.

If someone tells you a racist, sexist or homophobic joke, don’t get mad at them. Just tell them you don’t get it. Keep telling them you don’t get it until they are forced to explain why women/minorities/homosexuals are stupid/etc.

Then just walk away.

I would normally be posting these on Facebook, but I’m doing a 30-day stretch in FB Prison. So I’m posting them here. I won’t be posting on FB when I’m released. I’ll post here and the link to FB …

But not everything today is negative…

I see on the news on line that much of the country from the midwest to New England is going through some rough winter weather. We’re feeling some of the side effects here in The Swamp off the Saint Johns River in Central Florida.

Yesterday our afternoon temperature was in the mid 80sF. Today, Saturday, 3/12/2022 we might get up to the mid 70s. But then things are going to drop like lies from a conservative Republithugs lips and will get down to the low 30s though not hitting freezing, thank heaven for small favors. I’d switched over to the light sleeping bag a few nights ago but will be crawling into the cold-weather sleeping bag tonight.

The wind is really honking. I’m pretty well sheltered where I’m moored. The trees on either side of the canal are a good 30-40 feet tall and act as a good wind break. BUT the wind’s blowing almost directly out of the west and tooting right down the canal and moving the boat around quite a bit. According to one weather site the wind here in DeBary, where the canal is located, is steady at around 20 mph but it’s frequently gusting into the mid 30 mph range.

That’s still better than down off Anna Maria Island where I’d anchored for 4 years. There, the wind is steady at the mid 30 mph range and gusting up into the mid 40s. I went through a lot of that. And it’s out of the north so the general anchorage will be rough as a cob. Down where I was at the Coquina North Boat Ramp the water was shallower and not as uncomfortable. But with the wind like that I’d be confined to the boat. It would be impossible to row my cockleshell dinghy the hundred plus yards from the ramp. I’m not confined like that here in The Swamp, but I’m not going anywhere here today, either.

I can’t leave without adding this:

For the most part I am unapologetically liberal when it comes to politics. Essentially I hate, yes, the dreaded “H” word, conservatives of every stripe. It was not always so. ..

I grew up in the little town of Orleans, Mass., out where the forearm of Cape Cod juts into the cold waters of the North Atlantic. My parents were staunch Republicans and like children the world over I became what my parents were. In 1960 JFK might have raked in a couple of dozen votes in Orleans. If that many. I cast my first presidential vote for Barry Goldwater. I distrusted LBJ like the good Republithug I’d been brought up to be. Though I didn’t take part in them I was living in Chicago during the 1968 convention and was appalled by what I saw. My second presidential ballot was cast for Richard Nixon. I could never have voted for Hubert Humphrey no matter what. A president with the first name of Hubert? Come on! Plus he’d spent 4 years running around with his nose firmly embedded in LBJ’s butt crack.

But 1972 and Watergate was the breaking point and, with one single exception I never voted for a Republikunt ever again.

But I don’t cleave to the Progressive liberalism of the left, either. While I admire her greatly I call bullshit on Michell Obama’s philosophy of “When they go low, we go high.” You CAN NOT be nice with the rightwing bullies. They don’t understand “Nice.” To them being Nice is a form of weakness. The only way to fight the right wing is to be as nasty and ruthless as they are…gouge their eyes out…kick them squarely in the gonads…choke them…battle them wherever they are found and NEVER SURRENDER!!!

In general, don’t tell me what to do, and that includes telling me to “have a nice day…”

If I boycotted everything the left wants me to I’d have starved by now. Sure, there are certain things I avoid because of the political intonations even though I love them dearly…Oreo cookies, for example.

But, living on the fixed income of Social Security I break some of the big rules. I buy my groceries at the local WalMart food market. Lots of people have said I should shop at Aldi’s but their prices almost alway match what Wally World offers, and the few cents in savings I’d get from shopping at Aldi’s would be eaten up in the price of the gasoline I’d burn up getting to that store. So Wally wins even though I begrudge every single cent the Walton kids get from my purchases.

Another big “No-No” for committed left wingers is using Amazon. But I do it all the time and there’s a reason. It effin’ WORKS!!! Take today, for example. The other day I got a new Medic Alert medallion that specifies Do Not Resuscitate…But the chain that came with it was pure crap. There’s a 70% chance of rain today here in Central Florida so I got out early to get things done. I went to (boo – hiss) Wally World. They had a “Fine Jewelry” department. What they need is an “OK jewelry” department. There were no necklaces. Then I drove to a Walgreens. TWO OF THEM. They always had a display of Medic Alert jewelry at the Walgreens and CVS stores I went to when I was anchored off of Anna Maria Island. Not here. In fact, when I asked where the display might be at the first one I went to they said they don’t carry them anymore. Target’s jewelry department didn’t have anything nor did the pawn shop I popped into. However, back on my boat here in The Swamp I found one that seems to fit the fill and for about $20. And if it sucks I can return it no questions asked.

So there you have it for today.

Dreary morning here in the swamp off the Saint Johns River in Central Florida. Rain started around 7 a.m. and probably isn’t going to let up anytime soon. But at least it’s rain and not snow. For that I’m grateful. And the temp is decent. A few nights ago I traded in my cold-weather sleeping bag for the lighter weather one. But take a look at what’s going down between Friday night and Saturday morning. Getting down close to the freezing point. Back to the cold-weather bag. That’s not a problem, though since right now it’s sitting at the head of the bed so it’s only a matter or seconds to swap the two out.

I remain in Facebook prison for another 25 days…