Doors and Windows

I re-watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" the other night. I should really read the book. Well, maybe I shouldn't. The way she puts her life for sale and buys a Villa in Tuscany really appeals to me right now. Although a clapboard house on a river in northern Wisconsin would be about what I could hope for. The point of it is adventure, and personal freedom. My cousin Ray is in his 60's and hiking the entire AT for fun. I think he's nuts, but we all have our own idea of fun. Heck, maybe I just need a vacation! If I stay stateside there's no danger of buying a cottage on the Irish coast and never coming back. :)

Sometimes I wonder how far I could get in a new life if I just cash in the old retirement account and head out. This is probably making most of you shudder. "How will you take care of yourself when you're older?" "Social Security will be gone." "You need that money." To which I answer, "The same way I do now. I'll be working into my seventies to get it." "I know it, those bastards are going to steal all the money I've put in there." Then my personal favorite. "Will I need it? What if I'm like my Dad, work my whole life for my retirement years, and die a few years prior to it?" No one has had an answer for that one yet. Don't worry though, as long as the cats are alive I probably (underlined twice) wont do it. They will be seventeen on the 25th.

I am hoping that if I plan a vacation, and get away for a few days the restlessness will ease up a bit. It never fully goes away, especially now with the holding pattern I seem to be in. I'm right on the edge of something, but I just can't quite see what it is, and it is maddening! An old saying just came to mind for some reason, and I had to laugh. "Whenever God closes a door he opens a window." It's true, but for me God has never closed a door. He slams it shut firmly. He also never just opens a window, he tosses me right out of it. Sink or swim baby. Thankfully He taught me how to swim!