Sometimes I change clothes, sometimes I don’t
Posted by Raven on April 22nd, 2008
My hero.
This is THE reason I eat (semi) right, exercise hard and work like a maniac…so I can live like this man (who I personally know and just adore) when I get to be an old lady…
Almost every day for the past 18 months, Dorr has been on the docks at Beacon Marine Basin, building his own motorboat, all 24 feet long and 8 feet wide of it. His hands are weathered, his heart is full, and he is ready to launch the boat Saturday.
“I built every [expletive] bit of it,” he said. “Some days, I wish to Christ I never started.”
“It’s more than what I bargained for,” he added. “I’m happy I built it, but I would never do it again.”
The boat is named Dog Star, another name for Sirius, the brightest star and a useful navigation tool. There is a 150-horsepower engine and the bow has a Ram’s head from an old Dodge truck that died 15 years ago.
Dorr started with blueprints from a boat designer in Maine, but he grew frustrated with the design and stopped using the plans after two months.
“I like things rugged,” he said, banging on the boat to demonstrate its strength.
He could have been explaining himself.
“There’s no toilet,” he said. “Just a 5-gallon bucket.”
Dorr wears ratty jeans, work boots, and a green flannel shirt, a pack of Marlboro mediums in his front pocket. He has a stern handshake, crusty hands, and curses like, well, a sailor.
Yep…he’s one of those men who thinks nothing of scratching his privates in full view of the world around him. He swears like I do, drinks beer, laughs at himself and appreciates life. He doesn’t need fancy fittings around him to feel complete or to enjoy life. The 5 gallon shit bucket is just as efficient and probably more so than any flushing toilet…esp on the high seas!
The perception of “Old age” is a chosen lifestyle- to him and to people like me. I know too many people his age who get excited about going out once a month to play…golf. Or who moap about dwelling upon their every ill and ache.
Screw that shit.
The Double-A is my hero because he has shown me that one can do anything they want- his life long dream is about to become his reality and if he can do it, ANYONE can. How cool is that, to live on a boat and traverse the eastern coast, at age 80?? I will be doing similar things when I hit that number.
Guaranteed.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Guaranteed? Well then you’re my hero.
I’ve been trying to detach from land for the last damned 8 years. (Bitter? I’m not bitter.) I’m no closer now than I was in 2000. As a matter of fact, I’m probably further away from the goal as Golf Guy continues to become more focused on…golf.
A life at sea (even for a little while) seems to be slipping away. Maybe I should settle for living on a mountain.
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:54 am
There’s no golf courses out there… just sand traps on the beaches? Very blessed to be married to Frau Vader for 25 wonderful years, especially in these dark, materialistic and SINsational times! I thank God often for this blessing… very fortunate and lucky I guess!
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:09 am
Janette it isn’t necessarily about the boat on the sea. Although that is something I personally want to do. It’s about defying the society-made odds against older people. It’s the big myth: Old age is bad and old people suck and are worthless. NOT. EVEN. CLOSE.
Older people make a choice: They can become sulky miserable folk or they can participate in life. And they can do just about anything they want. We need look no further back into history to the Depression era to see this as fact…Grammah’s and Grandpa’s working the family farms; taking day jobs, odd jobs..whatever it took to help the family stay afloat.
Older people have lost the respect of modern culture because they’re not as sexy and good looking anymore. To most this is the only value people h have.
I plan to live life to it’s fullest. I live each day as if it’s my last and I want to live to be 100, and enjoy every second of it. Not become some rotten grouchy crotch who is an invalid by choice, who choses to become a hermit and who dies lonely and full of bitterness. No thanks.
Course I know I could die tomorrow in an accident…or get DX with cancer and live a short year. Reality is always there. But we do make choices and I intend to defy the the cultural expectations.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:11 am
LOL and there is nothing wrong with GOLF per say…I used that as a means to describe what so many retired people do. it’s a great hobby and sport and it requires a lot of skill so don’t knock it! To me it becomes a sign of old age when that’s ALL old people look forward too…its even worse when they decide to watch it on TV vs. go out and actually play it.