BANZAI! The Full On Travel Offensive Begins!

 I want you to build in your mind the image of a terrifying invasion force. Populated by an old couple. That's it. Just one terrifying invasion force consisting of one old couple. That's Wife and I and our determination to TRAVEL DAMN IT! Pandemic be damned. We're vaccinated and boosted. We are not interested in eking out more years of bored, deteriorating life. We are going to reclaim our heritage as elder travelers. This year I have already been to Ghana once. Here is what is on tap the rest of the year.

• We leave tomorrow for a quick see the #3's trip to Amsterdam. We leave on a Wednesday and return the following Wednesday.

• Two weeks later, I head back to Ghana for two and half weeks. 

• A ten day rest and in early April Wife and I are quickly visiting friends and family in the SF Bay area.

• Nine days to recover before the two of us head out to Portugal for five weeks of the travel we love best.

• A week to recover before I go to Houston, TX for the Rotary International Convention for four days the beginning of June.

• Another week to recover, and we take two of our grandchildren (1.1 and 1.2) to New York City for four days of cosmic, big city experience.

• Then, would you believe it, I am home for three weeks before I head back to Ghana!

• This is followed by staying in Albuquerque for the entire month of August (where did I screw up?).
  

• But as soon as September hits, we leave and return to our beloved apartment in Cefalú , Sicily where we are going to stay for two whole months, our first experiment to see if we can be content actually living in another place without running around like maniacs.
  

• In November, I will be back in Ghana while in December we will do another quick trip to the SF Bay area.

• I have my eyes on going somewhere in SE Asia or Sri Lanka the first quarter of 2023.

 I am so pumped. I have no idea what others my age are thinking or how they are planning their lives going forward. And truthfully, I really don't care. I know what gives me fulfillment and I am going to grab as much as I can of it for as long as I can. To paraphrase James Dean...

Live Fast, Die Not As Old As You Might!

Transition 3.0 Update 2022

 It was almost exactly a year ago when I announced and wrote about what I call Transition 3.0. So what has happened over the last year? Has the transition played out as anticipated? Has it disappointed? Is there a Transition 4.0 on the horizon.

I can happily report that Transition 3.0 has turned out as good as I would have hoped. No, that's not correct. It has turned out way better than I would have hoped. 

As a loyal reader, you are well aware that the Theodora Project has continued to develop and grow. So that aspect of the transition plan continues to provide stimulation and satisfaction. You will also be aware that we're back on the travel bandwagon. The trip to Sicily in the fall revived all our sidelined travel lust. We have two big trips booked for this coming year and are joyously looking forward to them. But there are two other elements that have been added to the mix. The Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking (RCEHT) and Lunchclub, a virtual networking organization.

RCEHT is very unusual in the Rotary world as it is a cause-based, virtual club. The vast majority of Rotary clubs are associated with a geography. They clubs of local people who band together to do good things, network and enjoy fellowship. But this club exists for a specific purpose. It wishes to be international in scope. And as a virtual club it has members all over the country and the world. It also has members from virtually every age segment from very dynamic people in their 20's to older folks like myself. Originally, I joined because I thought it would be a good vehicle to promote Theodora within Rotary. But what has happened is I have been drawn into the bigger mission. I find the leadership to be really wonderful people with a great vision and an openness to different ways of thinking. As a result, I have some of young participants from Theodora in the club and in significant positions. And I have been drawn into a leadership position where I am getting a chance to create a potentially dynamic project from the ground up.

Lunchclub has allowed me to recreate my network all over again. The prior network I had developed over the decades no longer served my new purpose. It had gotten stale and unrewarding. But this virtual, AI driven Lunchclub platform has allowed me to meet a wide variety of people around the world that are in tune with my new life's direction. I am using all the networking and connecting skills developed over decades and building new and stimulating relationships.

So here I sit in my mid-70's pursuing projects that are inspiring and exciting. Meeting people from all over the globe. Learning and growing. Extending my network of contacts and enjoyable acquaintances with people across generations. It is true that I am putting in a lot of effort. But with such a wonderful reward of stimulation and engagement.

I've had a lot of people say to me, "You certainly seemed to have failed at retiring." If by that they mean, I have failed at sitting around reminiscing about my past, I would have to agree. But then again, I never sought out retirement. I sought transition to a new life that was different than the work-a-day life of most of one's adult years. I sought new meaning, growth and transformation. In that I have succeeded in spades.

Losing Is Winning

 My long-time friend and lover of football (REAL FOOTBALL not that American run around with the ball in your hands version), the Count, have a long tradition of betting on the results of certain games. This started innocuously enough as he is a passionate supporter of the English Premier League team Chelsea, and I am a passionate supporter of no one. But for some reason we decided that I would root for a recently promoted minnow team (I can't even remember their name!) that clearly was going to go nowhere. We jokingly bet a meal on a game where my team was visiting Chelsea where no minnow would be expected to win. But no! They did win. Next year, I jokingly up the ante with a double or nothing offer. Damn my team won again. This improbable run continued through a third year with the Count now in debt to having to visit Ghana! (More on this in a future post).

We then zeroed things out and started over. Our next bet ended up with me losing and the price was I had to go to lunch at a fast food place called Arby's to mock my usual culinary focus. Yesterday was pay up day.

I approach feeling a little like Christians being fed to the lions in the Colosseum

Gad, how many freaking options are there. One of the Counts people say I should try the Fish Sandwich. I hate Fish Sandwiches. No way.

The Count orders the improbable Gyro with Lamb. Who serves lamb in a U.S. fast food place? Evidently Arby's does. I really like lamb. I am going to give it a try too.

Damn! It's really good. Real meat. Not the reconstituted meat paste that you get at so many Greek places here in Albuquerque (including some higher end ones!)

I can see this being something I will be going back for. Who would have believed?

Reunion

 

 My luggage and I were reunited today. While I had made adjustments to get myself home at a reasonable hour after the days of traveling, I had, unfortunately, lost my bags in the process. Thankfully they were found languishing in Amsterdam, were put on flights that got them back to me today. 

It was a happy reunion. They had missed me and I certainly missed them. They were so happy to be back but let me know in no uncertain terms that I was not to do this again, change my itinerary in mid-travel. I promised.

 

The Laugh Of Vengence

I spoke way too soon about MUPGT having simply gone through the motions of interrupting my travel. For, in the event, getting home incurred yet a number of new major delays, and rebooking. Instead of going to New York, I was routed through Amsterdam. My next flight was going to be five-hours late causing me to miss my connection. I changed flights again now going through Atlanta. Actually, I have been pretty proud of myself, that my knowledge of how to communicate with and work the airline reservations systems during times of crisis had come back to me easily.

Finally, at the end of Monday, almost the start of Tuesday, I got home a full 54 hours from when I should have started my return trip. Unfortunately, all the changes I made caused my bags to do their own layover in Amsterdam. It is a day after I have arrived and the bags are still making their way to me. 

But the important thing is I did get back safe and sound.

Aged Rockers - A de-I/Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel Revival

 If you are older than 25, you have had the experience of that group you loved years ago doing some sort of reunion concert or tour. If you are an old, old rocker, you have the agony of watching these fellow overweight, sagging geezers, who used to be the hot stars, trying to revive their past (in many cases because they've mismanaged their money). 

I have long suspected that the supernatural powers that control the demi-deities of frustrating human existence actually make individual avatars of the master dem-deity for each human. Hence the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel that was first identified by daughter #3 about 15-years ago, is in fact not the same entity that has been the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel with whom I have faced off. 

I have previously noted that it seems like the fire of our battles are a mere shadow of what they were in their prime. Hence, when I saw that the weather was going to be terrible in the Northeast US where I needed to fly on Saturday night, I was not surprised when I got messages from Delta airlines that my flight had been canceled.

There are not a whole lot of ways to get from Accra, Ghana back to the US on any one given airline. Plus I had issues like my Covid test expiring before I could leave, where I would stay, etc., etc. All the kind of things that my worthy foe MUPGT would be gloating over. In the even, it really didn't take all that long to rebook a flight and I was able to get another test, and stay in the same apartment for a day. It all had this feel, as I mentioned above, of MUPGT and I just going through the motions for old times sake. 

But to be honest. I am just as glad to not have all the drama. Hopefully will be home by Monday night.

The Joys Of Accra Apartment Living

Ghana - pronounced in this case with an exaggerated first a - sort of elongated and exhaled - Ghaaaana. To be accompanied by a shaking of one's head in resignation.

This is an exclamation I here often driving here with my long-time driver F (met within the first 20 minutes of my stepping outside the terminal on day one of trip one in February 2019) and my longest tenured VA whom I've known almost as long. The expression is typically used when we encounter any of the myriad inanities or frustrations that crop up in a lean economy like Ghana. It is sort of like when you bitch and bitch about something. Then you use this as the catch-all term for 'What can you do? That's the way it is?"

I feel that way about renting short-stay apartments here.

 I have now made 10 trips to Ghana and have stayed in apartments in all but the first two trips. To be charitable, let's just say that the standard for workmanship and maintenance in short-term rental units is a bit lacking. There is literally always something not working. The apartment I have been in on this trip and the last, has a refrigerator that sort of keeps food cold, a fan/light hood over the stove that doesn't seem to be connected to any electrical power, an ironing board with no cover, a washing machine with no rack or lines for hanging clothes to dry. The internet modem was on its last legs and would go down at least once a day (It was replaced.) All these are kind of...well...what you expect. But I had an experience that was totally novel during the trip. 

Last Sunday, I was eating lunch when there was a knock at my door. It is my next neighbor. Their air conditioning unit is not working. The unit is on the roof. The only way to reach the unit is by placing a ladder on the balcony of my unit! Of course, I said it was okay, I didn't want people to go without A/C. Through out the afternoon, people are going up and down, in and out, bringing new A/C units up and old one's down. All the while trying to not destroy my apartment and looking sheepishly at me.

Sunday evening arrives and they are not done. They want to come back on Monday but I will be in the office all day. It is not until Thursday that I am in the apartment and they can finish. 

Now I am thinking...Who designs the utilities of a building so they can only be reached by going through a 3rd party's unit? There is no other way to get to the roof of this apartment complex? Seems weird.

Ghana.