Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

We spent most of this month traveling (see previous post).  Following our time in Yosemite, we were in Portland with our exchange daughter, Claudia and her family, who were staying with one of her friends, Lindsey and family, from her high school days here in the states, along with another friend, Betsy, who came with her family from Maryland.  Lindsey's parents live nearby, after having moved from Minnesota.   We stayed with them in a neighbor's home; the neighbor was on vacation and graciously offered their home to us, in exchange for some plant watering.  This was not an AirBnB.  This was someone saying, "Oh, you have lots of company coming and could use some additional space?  We're out of town!  Have them stay here!" I could stop this post right here with this point: people, in general, are nice.  They are kind.  Giving. Generous.  Big hearted.  Interested in you, if only in passing.   The 99.999% of people in...

More than a few sources that discuss retirement planning encourage the development of a Bucket List.  You know, the things you want to do before you die.  There actually was a movie called the Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman and if I remember correctly, Morgan kicked the bucket at the end of the movie. Over the past few years, Dan and I have talked about what would be on our travel Bucket Lists, usually while we're taking a walk in the neighborhood.  Last year Dan chuckled when he realized that we were actually coming close to starting serious considerations of these lists. High, if not the top of Dan's travel Bucket List was a trip to Yosemite National Park.  He went to Yosemite with his mom and Aunt Barbara when he was 12 years old.  For most of the time we've known each other, over 45 years, he's reminisced fondly about the trip.  They stayed in something called a tent cabin. All I can say is if I had managed to book the tent cabin...