Grounded

The following blog post was written a few days ago by a man named Dave Williams.  I don’t know anything about him except what I read on his blog.  Click on his name to read more of his thoughtful posts.  I liked this post so much that I wanted to share it.

GROUNDED—BY DAVE WILLIAMS

“I've gotten a couple of notes from people asking where I've been this past month or more. They naturally suspect I've spent all of August seeing the wonders of North America in my Sea Breeze. Alas, that is far from the fact.

The fact is, I'm grounded. My beloved motor home sits in my backyard, lonely, tethered to a 30 amp outlet. I visit nearly daily. I step inside and enjoy the smell of paneling and glue and whatever it is in motor home construction that gives me the unique thrill that says, "Packing and going!"

I sit in my captain's chair and run my hands over the wheel. Every couple of weeks I crank her up and exercise the generator. A quick trip around a few blocks keeps the moving parts movable but then she goes back into her pen. I reattach the power line, lock the door and go back into the house.

I swear I can hear her whimper as I leave.
It can't be helped. I am grounded.

You see, I am not yet of retirement age and, more to the point, I am not of retirement funding. I have not feathered my nest. I have squandered a great deal of income over the years and now find myself in a job that barely covers the anticipated monthly expenses. The unanticipated ones cause trouble. And nowhere in what I laughingly refer to as my monthly budget is there room for 75 gallons of gas. Or, insurance. The registration is coming due in a couple of weeks and $800 might as well be eight million.

I don't tell you all of this to whine or beg for sympathy. I have no regrets in my life. It was my money and I spent it happily. I'm just a little short right now, that's all.
No, I tell you all of this because I suspect some of you are in similar straits and I think we can help each other hang on.

I've also very much missed writing my weekly account of what I lovingly refer to as my "Postcards from the road and mind trips of a restless gadabout." The thing is -- when you're grounded you run out of things to say.

But I have come  up with this...

We who are feeling the squeeze of lean times still have every reason in the world to get out of bed each morning. I have my loving family, a good roof over our heads, food in the pantry and surprisingly good health for a fat man pushing 60. I can't begin to count my blessings here without sounding like a braggart.

Every morning I open my eyes around 5 a.m. in a good, warm bed, next to the wonderful sleeping woman who has been my heart and anchor for the past 22 years. Every single morning my first thought is, "Thank you, God, for the blessing of another day on your good Earth."
I make my coffee, feed the dogs and together we sit down and watch TV with one eye on the sunrise over the San Gabriel Mountains. It always makes me long to fire up the Sea Breeze and wake up on the other side of those hills tomorrow.

I'll get there. I won't always be grounded. And, neither will you.

We have hope and new opportunity given to us before each sunrise. They are waiting for us like unopened gifts on Christmas morning. They are dreams that become reality by merely opening our eyes.”

Posted by Dave Williams at 9/09/2010 10:54:00 AM