I have a mildly interesting story to share...
Today I went to my Dentist to get a filling fixed that fell out a couple of days ago. He's pretty good - and when he came in he paused to chat with me a bit as usual. So - when asked whats' up with me - I told him we were looking forward to sailing a couple weeks from LA to FLorida. He then asked - if we were transiting the panama canal... I said yes and that we had a group of about 26 going plus a larger group of several hundred
Disney Cruise enthusiasts on hand too. He replied that we were very lucky to be doing the trip... he had not taken a vacation that long in too many years.
I believe he was waxing candid... as he went on to share that a woman he had been chatting with today (or yesterday) spoke of how they had wished they had done more fun travel because she had brain cancer. When they found the cancer it had grown to a large size and had crushed the optic nerve causing near blindness in one eye... so she was now considered legally blind. He went on to chat with a note suggesting he needed to slow down and do some fun travel with family and friends.
I then replied we had family and friends in part because we were spending time with loved ones who might be chronicly ill... and so this was in part a plan to achieve maximum quality family time together ... and that we had friends who were fighting bad cancer problems. One friend in particular had renal cancer that had spread to develope into a brain tumor that had to be removed recently. Now her medication was a "for life" thing and cost the health insurance company $8,000 a month! He responded with naturally sober astonishment.
I added that I now look on the times we have as usually precious. Silly how we spend this time too sometimes... but I do pay special attention to nurturing good times while allowing annoying moments to wash over and out of me... for example ... when I recently got another traffic ticket (I tell you - our fiscally bankrupt California government has directed the police to crank up the pressure on writing lots of tickets!)... as I wuz saying... when I got a ticket I took it... sinserely thanked the officer for doing his job to protect us from everything bad ... and I drove off without a real care as to what this was going to cost. And yeah... it is annoying.... but I'm doing a real good job of telling myself ... "so what?".
At any rate, the moral of this story... a) we are indeed lucky to do such an extraordinary trip... it IS going to be a truly memorable and special thing, b) Life is indeed too short NOT to do things like this ... which is a great reason to have this sort of "fun", and c) in all other respects ... travel aside .... we should all do what we can to relax more on the things that threaten our sanity... while developing more time to wax romantic on things worth living for and enjoying in life. No matter WHAT that might be. SO ... with that in mind I am going to go get me some creamed spinich because I have a craving fer it! And it's gonna put a smile on my face as my tummy humms with pleasure!
SO.... when I stepped out of the Dentists' office there was an elderly lady standing in front of my car - I asked if she needed a lift. SHe said she was waiting for a cab. I asked if she had just seen my Dentist - and she said yes. I told her I had just finished too and that I would be happy to give her a lift almost anywhere she needed to go. So after a little more chit chat she accepted. On the drive over we talked about how we found our dentist and how he came highly recommended to me. Than as we parted we parked and just talked for a spell. It turns out she was nearly 90 but did not really look a day over 70 to me. She really liked that remark - and it was the truth. I was glad to have saved her cab fare and shared pleasant conversation with her.