Taking advantage of life

I have always been someone who likes to travel, who seeks adventure and is always looking for a new experience. Yet somehow we become bogged down with work, hell with life in general. It seems the true window for traveling and having fun is right after highschool, at which time money seems to not mean much and we simply figure things out. As a old retired friend once told me "you cannot tell me that two college kids with fifty cents to their name are not going to have more fun on vacation in the Bahama's than a couple old retired millionaires". If we think about that and put it into perspective, its more than true, as we get older our body breaks down and we feel our aches and pains even more. Maybe its not so much feeling them more as being more conscious and more affected, whatever the case it becomes harder to do what we want. Suddenly that para sailing looks like it may not be such a good Idea, skiing down the Andes seems like something you would rather watch someone else do, and scuba diving? bah, who wants to clear their ears at depth still? I do damn it, the absolute best times of my life have been complete and utter irresponsibility, my only regret I have when I told my boss at the Flying J to go to hell and took off on my motorbike was that I did not travel to more places. I did alright, I spent a few weeks with my sis in the tri cities, then headed out to visit a friend stationed south of Tacoma, riding thru rainier park was amazing  and having people buy me fuel and lunch just to hear my stories was priceless. Later I would quit another job and head off to Europe, spending a few months riding the train around and blowing nearly every dime I had. Well almost every dime, I had a cache at home, cept dad tapped into it n I got more tied down than ever as I was butt ass broke. Ok maybe not, as my sis was up on spring break and we went partying, she had brought one of her friends and the morning they were going to leave her friend said "you should come to cali with us". Going back to sitting at a desk pushing iron with wheels didnt seem to fun so I packed a bag and jumped in the car with them and spent a couple more months In cali picking on the nerds at Stanford and generally being a waster (insert hang loose symbol).
Cash strapped I came back to Montana and lived in a camper in Dads Yard for the rest of the summer and doing odd jobs here and there and then I Met my X. Well I call her my X as its the only serious relationship I ever had, anyhow we had a banging summer until she headed to arizona back to school, and again, I said to hell with it, grabbed  a plane ticket and headed down to Az. The next few years were spent with her, then after our separation it seemed I forgot about the carefree Craig and resided to have fun on a local level rather than the big special trips. I know to many reading this you will be like what the hell? Look, hanging out locally and enjoying life is a good thing, but to me the world is this big and beautiful place with doors waiting to be opened, hell to be kicked in. Finally I got off my ass and in 2006 headed to Russia, the first time I was ever scared going someplace, was it because it was Russia? Or because I was simply content with my boring life at home? Not sure, kicking around in our former hated enemies home turf and making comrades was tons of fun. then in 07 I booked a trip to the Philippines and having a crazy awesome adventure traveling around in hands down the most beautiful place I have been so far. Since then Dad got sick and died, bro in law didnt hang around anymore on this earth and headed to hang out with Dad, then Mom got yanked away and is now floating around happily as well. So here I sit wanting a big trip and about to settle on a small one, dont get me wrong, I consider myself blessed to take another small trip. But lets face it, while we are single with no commitments or real obligations it is the best time to travel and enjoy life.
I always said I would rather be the old guy being a greeter at walmart having done it all, than being the guy who dreamed of doing it all.

Yol Bolson
May there be a Road.

Who really owns your property?

Grandpa was always adamant he had paid his house of 40 years ago, his wrinkled finger pointing menacingly at me in his attempt to make his point a fact. Stubborn I am to get my point across "so if you quit paying your taxes what happens to your house gramps?" He would stomp around "Dont tell me I paid the house off" he would grumble, "so you paid off the bank and now lease from the government?" ohhh he would get miffed and stomp off. He hated that probably because it irked him to think he may in fact be able to learn his most prized possession, his home. He had a right to be, a child of the depression he had came from a family of 13, near starving he fed his brothers and sisters with rabbits he would snare down by the creek, later he would work at the smelter dropping out of junior high school to again help support his family, something that today is an impossibility with our child labor laws, but that is another topic. He like most Americans made the largest investment of his life, the purchasing of a home. He made his payments, made improvements, and would do like any responsible person does, pay the house off. The trouble is the American government has different Ideas, you are taxed yearly on your land (unconstitutional the constitution of the united states of America clearly states there will be no double taxation) upon falling behind on your payment to said government you lose your home, get your crap and get the hell out. Now to make matters worse the government, wanting like any smart investor to increase the value of their property, Makes your property fit their standards, and why not, its a win win for them, the nicer your property, the more in taxes you pay, and of course should you not pay off goes your home to the next person willing to pay your "bill" to the local government to make money off said property. Now we also have your pesky neighbors telling you what you can and cannot do with your property, ohhh they use the excuse "it will decrease my property value", really are you selling Ms Johnson? "well no but if I was to sell" well in the meantime Ms Johnson it is in your financial interest to not complain about the persons property next door as if your taxes stay lower you save money. Now if that doesnt fly because it usually does not, said neighbor will still call complain and do their best to force your investment to meet their standards based upon an argument which is unrealistic and in all honesty is simply based on your creating their world for them. TO make matters worse we have entire groups called HOAs which do their part to dictate how your home will be and how you must live, never was a more Un American idea created in my opinion, sounds an awful lot like our old hated enemy communist Russia  where everyone owned the same crap to be fair. Ohhh now your feathers are getting ruffled I know, but I am not done, we have one more Villain in the entire home ownership Scheme, your insurance company. Now Insurance has stepped in telling us what our property must look like using another fallacy argument "it is a liability" really? What liability is an old car sitting in the yard which does not run? Can it somehow roll over your foot? maybe someone walking by could hook their clothes on a bumper? or in reality is it just some more busy bodies dictating how you will live your life?
To me it is all sad, I do believe that a person should be able to do pretty much anything with their own property, I do not believe in any way shape or form you  have any financial obligation to your neighbors, nor do you to the government other than your Initial tax investment at said time of purchase of your property. After all, the Title of your home has your name on it, nobody elses.

The Myth of a blessed rich life

Quit some time ago I was watching a interview with Seal, he was asked if the paparazi annoys him. His reply was simply "it is a small price to pay for the blessed life me and my wife live". So I thought that was pretty cool, didnt think much of it until I heard it said again from one of the Kardashian bimbo's. And I thought about their life, no privacy ever, their entire life was built upon being fake and the lust for expensive objects which went beyond making your life better, and were only bling. So I looked about and thought if their life was better than the average persons. Well we all have a heated home, roof over our heads, plenty of food to eat, transportation and things to make that life easier such as a washing machine and even machines to wash our dishes after we wash them and put them inside. So beyond that we are missing the bling, for men we are missing the 180mph sports car that most will never drive over 90 anyhow, hell my buick will do that, granted not looking so cool, but its not like when you are driving down the road people are looking at the driver anyhow. For women they dont get the big multi carrot diamond rings and the clothing that costs thousands, instead they must suffer with decently priced clothing which will go out of style long before it is worn out.
So Im left thinking that really the only thing we are missing is the ability to do what they want, when they want. But that is not really true either as the lives of say the Kardashians are spent making apointment after apointment flying here and there to keep their kabillions rolling in. Ok but vacations? I mean they have them paid for too. Well ya they do but they lay on the beach with desperate photographers taking constant pictures and no privacy, they party and ham it up, liking the attention then complain then next day they were followed the entire time. The average person goes on vacation and short of the over priced meals, has privacy and peace and quiet. So it got me to thinking, I guess they are the ones suffering after all and those of us in the middle, arnt doing so bad so long as we realize all the extra crap the rich have is just that, crap.