I should have not posted that. It really has no place on this board except possibly to illustrate that life really is too short not to pursue our dreams now rather than later because later may be too late. I would plead that I was drowning my grief in a bottle as an excuse, but that's no excuse.

On the other hand, maybe it does belong here, but under the titlte "Life is too short." or some such. My sister was one of the good people. She raised two wonderful kids without any support from a deadbeat dad. The family has always felt that if anyone ever deserved a loving companion that it was her. She had finally found him and they were married just a year and a half ago. Less than a year later, the cancer was diagnosed. She fought it for almost a year before sucombing last night.

One of her life's dreams was to visit Machu Pichu, a place my wife and I managed to see in 2006 during our first 2 year cruise. It's too late for her now though.

I mentioned in another post that back in 1998 my wife asked me a life changing question and I'd like to take the opportunity to ask it of all the wanna be dreamers out there. Like many of you, I was once somneone who dreamed of going cruising. Then, one evening as we were driving on the freeway home after a farewell party for some friends who were heading south in their boat, I said "Man, I wish we could do that!".

My wife turned to me and asked "Why can't we?"

After a short pause, I responded with the brilliant reply, "'Because."

"No really, why can't we?".

That started a discussion that lasted a couple of months. We were a typical family with 2 kids, pets, a mortgage, jobs, etc. We had all the reasons/excuses for not doiing it, but her seemingly simple question got us talking seriously about it for the first time. A couple of months later, after identifying all the problems between us and something I had been dreaming about since I was a teenager, the conversation shifted to finding workarounds to all of the various problems. The following fall, we packed our kids (then 12 & 13) into our little Catalina 30 and headed down the California coast to San Diego where we linked up with all the other boats for the '99 HaHa. and the Sea of Cortez. That led directly to our acquiring our first real cruising boat and taking off for the S. Pacific a half dozen years later. That cruise lasted 2 years. We have since done another 2 year Pacific cruise and expect to do yet another multi-year cruise in a few years. Like most of the other cruisers we've met, we are far from rich, in fact I like to refer to us as "white trash afloat". But, and this is an important "but", we get out there and do it.

So now, I am asking all of you dreamers out there, "Why can't you?"

p.s.
Have I mentioned that I married a saint?