Epilogue: Life Laughs at your plans

I finished my third book in the "Voyage of Drift Away" series, based on this blog.  It has been a struggle for me.

If you followed all 600+ posts in the blog, there is little need to buy any of the books.  But if you do, mail them to me (email me for my mailing address) and I'll sign them and mail them back to you.

But this morning, I happened to think that you regular blog followers wouldn't have the chance to read the final chapter of the last book, so I decided to publish it here for you so you won't miss anything.  

Here you go.

Epilogue:  Life laughs at your plans

Did you ever have a sad day? A day where you just want to shut the world out, and sit in your room with the curtains drawn? That is me today, as I write this.

While editing the final version of this book, I came across this.
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Pam and I never had a plan nor a schedule. When we left Connecticut on Drift Away in September of 2011. We intended to wander south as our mood and circumstances dictated, which we more or less did. However, returning to upstate New York, ten acres of land in the Adirondack Park fell into our laps, just like Drift Away did a couple of years ago.

The land is all wooded except for a road that was put in by the previous owner. We intend to build a house, garage, and barn (for horses) after clearing the land to see the view of Shaker Mountain. As much as I dislike snow, now that I'm retired, I can envision myself sitting in front of a big ol' stone fireplace with a hot cup of coffee and watching the snow gently fall. Gertie is curled up on the hearth, and Chevy and Ruby on the oval rug in front of the fire. There is nothing but silence. Well, nothing but silence now that Pam has finished plowing and shoveling, mucking stalls, cooked my breakfast of bacon and eggs and home fries, and got herself off to her job. Life is good.
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That last part about Pamela was humor.

I was wistfully thinking of our future back in 2012. It was not to be.

We had bought the ten acres of land in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. And we were going great guns. The driveway was finished, the land cleared, the well drilled, and a couple of outbuildings built. Then I had an accident. A tree hit me on the head and broke my neck and gave me a very severe concussion. Life changed. Not for the better.

I was no longer capable of building anything. Those plans had to be scrapped. Drift Away had sold. Pamela and I bought an RV and became classic snowbirds. But then the yearly commute to Florida and back became too much for me. We had a choice to make. New York or Florida. We chose Florida, where Pamela's mom, daughter and grandson lived.

I started writing books. Pamela worked at horse ranches. Something deep inside changed. Our lives were no longer what they were. Of course.

I'll spare you the personal stuff.

Today, my Ruby, my buddy Chevy, and little Dirty Gertie have crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Pamela left, taking Olivia with her and another dog we took from a drug dealer, Penelope.

It's funny how life changes, eh? I had the world by the tail for a time. No longer.

The light of my life went out. My joie de vivre, my joy of life, was gone.

This book was hard for me to read and edit. I wrote the first draft two years ago. I had to set it aside. I couldn't finish it. It was too sad for me. Too emotional.

But I realized that to heal, I had to finish it. I hope that with this blog and book, I have touched you in some way. Perhaps even made you evaluate your own life. I needed to share the joy I had found with you all.

So my final words, in my final writings of this “Voyage of Drift Away” series, is that you never know what life holds for you. Grab life by the tail. I realized life could be fleeting and I lived it as best I could, with the loves of my life. I'm so glad I did. No one can take away my memories. Memories that I've now shared with you.

I will leave you with some of my favorite quotes.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

• attributed to Mark Twain.

Sunrise, sunset.

Sunrise, sunset.

Swiftly fly the years.

Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,

Blossoming even as we gaze.

Sunrise, sunset.

Sunrise, sunset.
Swiftly fly the years.
One season following another,
Laden with happiness andd tears.

• composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick.

And finally, for Drift Away

Thanks for the joy that you've given me
I want you to know I believe in your song
Rhythm and rhyme and harmony
You helped me along
makin' me strong

Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll

and drift away... 

• songwriters Jerry Lynn Williams

My Personal Favorite Blog Entry

I loved writing this blog.  It was personally enlightening.  It may have provided a little bit of entertainment to you, but it showed me that I could regain my creativity.  It was gone for decades thanks to a really bad tenth grade English teacher who said I couldn't write.  But what I learned was that it doesn't matter.  What matters is I like what I write, and by extension, some of you might as well.

I wrote an entry just about every day.  If a blog entry was late, I'd get emails.

"Dave, I'm sitting in my cubicle with my donut and coffee.  Where is the blog?"

So after many years of daily blogs, I accumulated quite a few.  I've been asked if I have a favorite.  Well, pelicans are my favorite bird, so it had to have pelicans in it.  It had to show that I regained the imagination of my youth.  It had to show humor.  This one, from April 3, 2013...

https://trawlerdriftaway.blogspot.com/2013/04/pelicans-and-mathematics.html
Pelicans and Mathematics

Short story.  After Drift Away, Pamela and I moved to a remote cabin in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.  We learned that we had Sasquatch (seriously?  They're real?) all around us.  So I decided to blog about it, of course.  Then I did the improbable.  I turned my blog entries into a book.

"Living Among Sasquatch:  A Primer" became a hit in the Bigfoot world.  It was, and is, a best seller.  It sold so well it was on Amazon's best seller list for a month.

I ran out of things to write about.  At Pam's urging, I wrote a novel.  And then a second.  No facts here, just my imagination.  They don't sell well, but they are also my favorite writings.

You can go to Amazon and search for "Dave Gibson Sasquatch".  Go to the book.  Click on my author name and go to my author's page.  There are all of may books, so far.  Thank you.  This is due to encouragement from you.

Writing fiction, where I can really let loose is liberating.  Exhausting at times, but it removes me from real life and sets me free.  I am in another place.

Why you should go now

Do you want a reason to go now, not later?


About two weeks ago I passed out in the bathroom, hitting the toilet so hard that I broke the seat. I didn't wake up until the hospital. After a week of them saying nothing was wrong and there was nothing they could do, they sent me home.

The next morning, I was hit with some kind of attack and was so weak that I couldn't get off the couch. The landlady found me and called 911 since I couldn't get to the phone myself. Back to the hospital, same result. Nothing wrong. So they sent me to a rehab center for physical therapy. I seemed strange to me, but it was they that figured out that my electrolytes were screwed up, with potassium being especially low. They can't get a handle on it. But they give me blood tests at least once a day and are pumping me full of potassium but it continues to drop. I might be here for a long time, until my insurance runs out.

I managed to take a cab ride home today and fetched some clothes, my phone, and my laptop. Now I'm back in touch with the world.

I am finally back on Facebook. What did I miss? Anything?

I'm at Windsor Woods in Hudson, FL, home of the sinkhole.

BTW, sitting here, I just realized that I have another concussion. One pupil smaller than the other, dizziness, poor balance, etc. I can only wonder if this is just a continuation of the first concussion, the head/tree one. Why would I just pass out?

But I'm afraid it might happen again, somewhere, without warning. I gave my car to Pamela. My car was my one remaining asset. I am now asset-less.

That is, asset-less except for the memories of Pamela's and my cruise.  No one can take that from me.

Do it now.

69th Birthday? Really?

For everyone wishing me a happy birthday today... thank you. I should not be here. The tree whacking me on the head in 2013 would have killed a normal person. But me Irish genes pulled me through, and my Polish side says "You want a fight? C'mon, bring it."

And me Irish side keeps saying...

The devil whispered in my ear "you are not strong enough to withstand the storm."

I whispered in the devil's ear, "I am the storm."

Your birthday wishes remind me of how lucky and tough I am.  And to the devil... you do not want me down there. I will make your life a living hell.

Visions

I am going to tell you all something that I have never told anyone. I have visions.

I am currently receiving mental health therapy for depression. I go to group therapy Monday through Friday. Am I nuts? Most likely. But there are things that I have come to learn about myself because of therapy.

There are two "me's". The conscience me that muddles through the day. And the unconscious me. The later is the me with artistic abilities who can paint, photograph, write, and ponder deep thoughts.

My visions come to me while asleep. These are not just dreams. These are vivid and there is a clear difference between dreams and visions.For example... many years ago, I was studying to become a Mormon. This is a religion that I admire. I was visited once a week by a Sister and an Elder. But as I got serious into converting from Catholicism to Mormonism, I had a vision. "THIS IS NOT MY RELIGION" it yelled. I stopped the visits by the Sister and Elder. I knew then that my visions were real.

When my dad passed, I had a vision. In this vision, saw people as far as I could see. Then my dad and mom appeared from thecrowd. "Look who I found!" my dad said, with his arm around my mom. There is an afterlife, my vision told me, and my mom and dad were OK.

For background, I am certainly different. I had an EEG after a car accident some 50 years ago. My doctor called me back to the hospital to repeat the EEG. After that was complete, he called me into his office to tell me that my brainwaves were abnormal. He had never seen anything like it.

So, because of therapy and connecting all of the dots like my weird brainwaves, I now realize that I am not normal compared to you all. I am wired differently. Perhaps that is why Sasquatch, who are very spiritual, can and will communicate with me, as does a higher power. It is why I know things about the Forest People that no one knows.

But am I crazy, or just coming to grips with a reality. At this point in my life, I am understanding that I have a gift. A gift that I am still coming to grips with. Or... I am just nuts.

Book Two is Published

 Well, actually it is book six for me.  But the first four are about Sasquatch, the last two about Drift Away and the live aboard lifestyle.

This is book one, available on Amazon and everywhere books are sold.  It covers the first part of our cruise, from Stamford to Albany to Annapolis and includes all of the highs and lows, including losing both engines off Sandy Hook and what we did to fix our fuel tank problems.

The second book is Annapolis to Savannah (actually Isle of Hope just outside of Savannah) and is more cruising oriented since we're actually moving.  This book is just published and hasn't made it to general distribution yet but is now available on Lulu.

Book three in the series will cover from Savannah to Brunswick to Jacksonville (Green Cove Springs, actually).   I haven't started on that one, taking a short break.   And that should do it... of course, I do tend to get wordy, so there may be a book four.  But I will do my best to keep it short... although there are victory beers involved.


Dave's author page on Amazon.

Be Like Sammy

I don't think we realize the impact we have on other people's lives. That being said, sometimes we instantly recognize the impact others have on us.

When Pamela and I traveled south on Drift Away, we stopped at Isle of Hope Marina outside of Savannah. We very quickly met the goodwill ambassador of Isle of Hope, Sammy Moore. Sammy was one of those guys you took an instant liking to. Happy, friendly, and outgoing.

Pam and I were admiring the blue glass tied to a small tree in his front yard and Sammy came down and introduced himself, and then invited us up to the apartment over his garage for a visit. That's where Sammy lived. Next to it was the house he owned, but he didn't live in that. It was more than he needed.

Sammy was an excellent photographer and was the inspiration for me to buy my Nikon DSLR and to get serious about photography myself. Sammy hated his photo being taken. This photo I took without him knowing it with my 300mm zoom lens.

Sammy also had a great sense of humor. Isle of Hope banned golf carts on the streets. This photo was Sammy's response.

Sammy was sick. His cancer returned. Sammy loved our pit bulls and we intended to make a trip from Florida to see Isle of Hope and Sammy again, but Sammy died on New Year's Day.

Remember what I said about Sammy not wanting his picture taken? Whenever he depicted himself in a photo, he replaced his head with a happy face drawing. See the third photo. To me, this is the finest

tribute that could have been paid to Sammy.

Sammy was beloved by all that knew him. Have a positive impact on the lives of others.

Be like Sammy.