A Peak Behind The Curtains Of ElderFleet Command or How A Mega Trip Is Created

 Any reasonable follower of this blog would be sure, absolutely sure, that de-I and Wife would be toning down the extent of their travel. I mean, it has certainly been stated often enough on these posts the need to accept the limitations of one's age, to slow down a bit as it were. How then do we end up with a 10 week trip covering two continents, five countries, and 6 cities? (Which I am calling EURASIA MEGA TRIP 2026) Let's see if we can peel back the decision-making process used by ElderFleet to decide where and how long to send their star duo, Wife and de-I on their adventures.

A Trip is Born

The genesis of the current trip goes back to October of 2025 when our joyous return to El Campello convinced us to book again for October of 2026. So October of 2026 is committed to and we casually put out thoughts as to what else we might do on this trip.

The Flap of the Butterfly's Wings

The famous analogy for Chaos Theory. In this case, the event is a seemingly innocuous statement from Wife.

"You know de-I, if you didn't plant tomatoes and chiles that require us to stay until mid-September, we could leave earlier and travel longer." 

The Red Flag in Front of the Bull

I asked Wife (this is still while we are in El Campello, in fact, during the first week we are there) where she wanted to go. We bounced some ideas, checked some options, and then decided to check an area we'd meant to go to but never had gotten to...the southern coast of Turkiyë. Looking quickly on Airbnb, I (amazingly) find an apartment that seems to be exactly what we look for. Since it has free cancellation up to a couple of weeks before arrival, we decide to book it for three-weeks in September before doing much research on the area. 

Now we have our month in October and three-weeks in September of 2026 booked.  

The Return of Incremental Planning

• There is a gap between the time we finish in Turkiyë and when we arrive at El Campello. Madrid is a good place to go. We've changed over there but never really toured it. 

•  We want to stop in and see the #3's as long as we are in Europe. We should try to do that before we go to Turkiyë. Add another week of travel.

• Now I have to find us reasonable airfare to and from Europe. I have my air travel shopper mode going. A few months later, an excellent deal on points will get us from Albuquerque to Warsaw, Poland with one stop. It is not far by air from Warsaw to Copenhagen which is where you fly in to get to the #3's. 

• And we've wanted to visit Warsaw anyway. So let's add a few days there.

• We still need to get back. A few months later still and another good deal shows up going from Brussels, Belgium to Washington, D.C. And I can get a good self-connect flight from Alicante to Brussels and then from Washington, D.C. to Albuquerque. Book that.

• It requires a couple of days in Brussels. Well we haven't been there since we were first married. 

 Et Voila - EURASIA MEGA TRIP 2026 is conceived. 

 

When you realize all of ElderFleet Command understands the type of planning done by de-I and Wife, you understand better why we have had to resort to the Press Gang to man the Eldership. 

Failure Of The Press Gang

 Wife - Damn it de-I, I told you this wasn't going to work.

de-I - It might have. We had to give it a try. Are you looking forward to manning the Eldership all by ourselves for what is the longest mission we've ever been on?

Wife - What the hell is the difference? Eldership command clearly thinks we have outlived our usefulness and are putting us on a mission they hope we won't return from. 

de-I - Hence the need for us to impress a number of actual valuable Elderfleet members who they wouldn't want to lose. 

Wife - de-I, no one has pressed crew members for centuries now. 

de-I - Well at least one of our first stops takes to the notorious planet of no summer and the home of the Viking Expeditionary Force from Sweden. They are suckers for a visit to sunshine. I bet we can get a couple of crew members there.

Wife - Hmmm. You might be right de-I. Just remember to indulge their cats with excess food.

To be continued 

A Reminder Of The Importance Of Savoring Each And Every Day

A couple of weeks ago, Wife's brother, her absolutely closest sibling, had a motorcycle accident. He has been in the hospital every since. It is one of these things where you're not sure what is going to happen. There are good days and a lot of really not good days. He and I are the same age. It is not easy to rebound from something like this under the best of circumstances at our age. It has Wife in a state of real misery. You have all these emotions, and you are not in any position to do anything to help. 

My Brother-in-law has rode bikes his entire life. He is an incredibly safe rider. He knows his machines. He has gone all over the world riding. He understands handling in different road conditions and being safe. And he was hit by a deer. Not he hit a deer. But as best as we can tell based upon the second hand information we have, it was a freaking deer who hit him. I am sure it was one of these fluke situations. 

So as we sit in our position of not being able to contribute, it has led to the conversations between Wife and I on what we want to happen if such an event happens to us. That conversation has a lot more meaning than it did even a few years ago. In the last few years, Wife had a near fatal blood clot. She was cruelly assaulted and had her foot broken. It took six months before she could walk normally again.I had a vicious asthma incident that lasted months. Thankfully we have overcome all of these and are in very good shape. But at our age each easily could have had a different outcome. 

As I am in spitting distance of 80, there is a growing awareness that something is coming to get me. It's not if, it's when. Knowing my brother-in-law and how fully he has led life and the craziness of the incident, it is huge wake up call.

Each day needs to be lived to the fullest. Don't worry about what might happen. Trust. Accept. Take advantage of every single moment. Let the things that bring fear and worry pass through you like like water and let them be eliminated. You don't know how many days you have left. Don't piss them away. Savor each one.  

Pull Up! Pull Up! Your Coming In Too Low! - A Transistion Story

How many transitions have I gone through since 2013 when I 'officially' stopped working 'full-time' as a career? I have lost track. I did write in the past that transitioning had become a steady state rather than an unusual event. You will probably remember that much of the transitioning has to do with the need to continue some kind of work in order to fund our travel life style. To review, the cycle I've developed is:

1. Work some to have extra funds
2. Decide you'd really like to work less
3. Work less
4. Assume you have enough funds to sort of 'glide' into the final years
5. Find out you DON'T have enough funds to glide into the final years
6. Get frustrated
7. Reconcile yourself to having to work more
8. Rebuild the business effort. 

Repeat this process regularly until you die.

 Sure enough from the last part of 2025 through the first half of 2026 I was in full phase #4. But just like the pilot coming in on the glide path to land finding out he is too low, it became apparent in the late spring that we did not have enough funds to just glide to the end. 

I will say in my defense there is one critical factor we missed in our original planning (other than our travel) which is the primary cause of our financial shortfall. This factor is maintenance on our house. You have read about a lot of this; the update of our flooring and bathrooms, the new roof, the replacement of part of our irrigation (wait...maybe I didn't post about that). The reality is if you own a home and you live past your 70's, the likelihood is you are going to have major upkeep costs. 

It's actually a bit insidious. In your mind you think, "We just did this remodel. And we made these purchases." and it doesn't seem that long ago. But then (as things go wrong) you realize you've been deluding yourself. Even your 'new' addition is pushing 20 years. Your irrigation system is 15 years. They don't tell you the pipes in these systems go in about 10 to 15 years. That 'new' sofa. It ain't so new. And so on. It is an area in personal financial planning that I think tends to be overlooked. 

Now accounting for this in a more realistic fashion, I can see the need to be more intentional about increasing income and building our personal cash position. 

But here's the good news. I may have missed factoring home maintenance costs in our planning, bud I did factor in keeping my consulting practice 'warm' in the event that financial or life circumstances would require me to have to 'get into business' again. My theory was as long as I was still somewhat active, if something came up out of my control that hurt my retirement income, I would be able to ramp the business back up. If you are completely out of the work game, and you are in your 70's, you are not going to be able to get back in. 

And, of course, this is exactly what is happening. I've decided to repackage and rebrand myself rather than just resurrect what I'd done before. It has proven not that hard to do and will allow me to return to the market with a fresh, new look rather than an old retread look. 

A Bowl Of Soup

A

Bowl

Of

SOUP

 

 Simplicity itself. No? A simple bowl of soup for dinner

And Yet

Of all the things I cook for our meals, the 'simple bowl of soup' may be one of the most complicated processes.

We start

Flavor Base One

 

 Tomato Paste & Anchovy Fillets (You won't taste the anchovy. It just gives a depth of flavor)

 You start them in cold oil, turn on the heat, and let them caramelize a bit. The anchovy dissolves 

 

 Flavor Base Two

Onions, Carrots, Celery, Garlic

 

 I shred them (except the garlic) instead of chopping. I fell into this technique during one of my Ghana trips when I was making tomato sauce and was short of time. Shredding the aromatics, allow them to give up their flavor faster as the cell membranes are broken better. And they disintegrate better in the final product

 Into the flavored oil

 

 Our meat is Italian Sausage

 

 Bwahahaha - no MSG. Too bad. I'm adding it anyway

"And if I'm not happy, it's on us?" What do they do? Some perverted seance naked slathered in  sausage?

Into the aromatics

 

 Now make the broth (shortcut style)

 

 Flavor base with water

Then add the herbs and seasonings

 

In this case we have salt, black, white, and cayenne pepper (lightly all), thyme, savory, oregano and MSG!

 

Now the vegetables

 

I am usually making soup because I have stuff in the fridge that needs using up. In this case, I had a big head of Napa Cabbage, and a head of Escarole.

 

 

Into the soup

 

 

Add some rice and beans for body and more protein

 

 

Have a leftover rind of Parmesan? Good additional flavoring

 

 

Let cook for about 40 minutes adding water so it is the right consistency for your taste as necessary

 

 

 

Et Voila!

 

 

A simple bowl of soup

What Wine Pairs Well With Bologna?

"Why would one care?", you ask.

It dates back to Wife and my eating regime which has evolved over recent years whereby we eat two meals a day. We eat breakfast. And we eat a large meal mid-afternoon between 2:30 and 3:30. This large meal is usually what one would serve for dinner. What has gone by the wayside is lunch along with things like sandwiches and salads. We do eat a large salad on Saturday for our big meal.

A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly had a craving. I wanted a Bologna Sandwich. I floated the idea that we would have this as our 'big' meal on Sunday. And since we were 'just' having a sandwich, if we ate on the early side, we could make popcorn later. Inspired. 

Come today, it was time for the meal. But, I was anguished. Our big meal is when I have my one glass of wine (under the new tyranny of the gout regime). What wine to serve with a Bologna Sandwich. I decided that Bologna (which is named for an Italian city), is like Mortadella, also Italian, that an Italian wine would be appropriate. As I have quite a few Barolo in stock, I chose one of those. Barolo is a pretty heavy duty wine, but, as the great Michelin stared chef, Joel Robuchon, said when ask how he paired wine with what he was eating said, "I just drink what I like." So if I want Barolo with Bologna Sandwich, that's what we're having.

 

 Classy, if I say so myself (those pickles are homemade BTW)

In other de-I World Headquarters News...

The Annual Failure of The Peach Pruning Harvest has begun

 

Despite all my efforts, despite the efforts of the California illegal immigrant labor, there are as many freaking peaches as usual.

 I watched this tree all during its early phases and was convinced that finally this year I had finally succeeded in reducing the number of peaches to a reasonable amount. I am convinced their are supernatural peach pixies that around the time of harvest cast spells which double or triple the number of peaches on the tree.

I will admit that they exceptionally good this season

 

 And while I may suck at restraining peaches from growing I EXCEL with Quinces. 

Or I should say Quince.

 

 Yes, this is our annual Quince. This is our second year of growing a single, solitary Quince. 

If you are not familiar with Quince, it takes a lot of preparation to get something edible. One Quince of this size will yield about three tablespoons Quince puree. We are giving lottery slots out to see who gets to harvest the Quince.  

 

 

 

Good News from Bangkok

I reported back in March on my experience with medical tourism in Bangkok and my dealing with the issues of gout and kidney function diminution. I am continuing under the care of the doctors there. We have telemedicine visits. My local doctor orders the tests and the drugs. The telemedicine visits are about $70 each. 

I had my latest one yesterday. Good news all around. My uric acid (key gout causing component) is down to normal levels, and my key kidney function metric has returned to the 'good' category. The meds I'm using are not causing any damage to anything else in my body. So it will be keeping things on hold with the meds, my diet changes, and the increased hydration with another check up in six months.