What is your vacation plan?

Thank you confusedsaffer.

We're gonna have ourselves a big ol hoote-nanny...the kin folk are here, the jugs are full of apple pie shine, and granny's fixin to put ripe possum guts and vittles on the griddle...yee doggy!

What? No crawdads?

One of the Greatest Songs Ever

Strap them kids in, give 'em a lil bit of vodka
In a cherry Coke, we're goin to Oklahoma
To the family reunion for the first time in years
It's up at uncle Slaton's 'cause he's getting on in years
You know he no longer travels but he's still pretty spry
He's not much on talk and he's just too mean to die
And they'll be comin' down from Kansas and West Arkansas
It'll be one great big old party like you've never saw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nggqe-L9ZQ8

Just booked my tickets to Tampa.  Three weeks in the sunshine state.  1905 salad at Columbia here I come.  And a few Yuenglings at The Moose Lodge on Anna Maria Island. 

Sounds great! Even better that you're not diving straight into a job. Have a good holiday August. BTW where's Anna Maria Island, and what are Yeunglings?

what are Yeunglings?

Big brewing company from Pennsylvania. If you go in a bar in PA and ask for a lager they'll probably just bring you a Yuengling.

Sounds great! Even better that you're not diving straight into a job. Have a good holiday August. BTW where's Anna Maria Island, and what are Yeunglings?

Actually I decided yesterday I would stay at public school.  Girlfriend really wanted me to stay as she's worried about me not finding anything I want in this area.  Also, public school hours are easy and allow us to get together during the week more.  She has a son and her free time is limited in the evenings during the school week.  So I stayed with what was easy for another year.

Anna Maria Island is along the coast south of Tampa.  It's one of the places I frequent when I want to hit the beach down there.  It's about a 40 minute drive from where my dad lives.  When I go to Florida I live like a local. When I went to a Super Bowl party last year my brother and I were the young guys and we have both passed 50 now.  I was the youngest by a long shot.  Yuengling is just my go to beer these days in the states. 

Leaving Saturday for 3 weeks in Thailand.  As retirement age is coming, so this is probably my last visit there.  A few days in BKK, 6 days in Chiangmai, then to Koh Chang, two different beaches, then back to BKK  and to ICN.

Why are you not going back to Thailand after retirement?
After I retire my main focus in life will be extended trips
to Ko Samui where I will smash dispensaries and then
hang out at the beach, drink tinnies and generally slob
around.

After I retire my main focus in life will be extended trips
to Ko Samui where I will smash dispensaries and then
hang out at the beach, drink tinnies and generally slob
around.

Why are you not going back to Thailand after retirement?
After I retire my main focus in life will be extended trips
to Ko Samui where I will smash dispensaries and then
hang out at the beach, drink tinnies and generally slob
around.

Love it. Get that trim and green, my guy.

Wow, a useless, braindead meme.

Anyway, after 35 years teaching in this dump I can do
whatever TF I like.

Wow, a useless, braindead meme.

I still love that people don't like these. It says everything. I mean, what do people want? "It is in my view that this might be an unproductive use of your golden years, sir."

You basically said, "I'm gonna get pissed on the beach and be a slob until I die." And you think using a gif that perfectly encapsulates "Well, alright" is useless and braindead?

Anyway, after 35 years teaching in this dump I can do
whatever TF I like.

I love it. "I have the right to do what I want!!!"

Well, alright. This means NOTHING. Like when someone says their opinion and there's always that one guy who wants to look intelligent. "What you just said is subjective."

We learned how to write persuasive essays in the eighth grade. You don't need to tell a room full of adults that you "can do whatever you like."

We know, and I'm gonna hazard a guess and say that you saying you're gonna "piss away your retirement on booze and weed and be a slob" MAYBE isn't the best use of your time.

I'm the last person that would be a poster-child for sobriety. Let THAT sink in.

1) We've established that it's your wife's money, not yours. We also established that she's grown less and less interested in the whole Thailand thing.
2) Even if you do either manage to move there or live 6 months a year there, she sure as sh*t isn't going to let you spend her money on drugs and hookers.
3) We've also established that you have kids and if they're in Korea, there's a very strong likelihood that you are going to have to look after them in some way and your wife probably isn't going to be keen on you spending their inheritance/security blanket on drugs and hookers.
4) In case you haven't realized, but as you get older, health problems increase. And they tend to get increasingly more expensive. You really are running up against the odds on that sort of thing.
5) Given your penchant for booze and drugs, at your age, there's a fair chance that said behavior leads to some sort of cognitive issue in short order. In which case, you're probably in for a treat regarding your marital status and access to a steady flow of income, particularly if you show indifference to your children.

This is before we get to stuff that isn't even basic logistics but to the character issues
- Is this really all you have to look forward to with your life? Doing drugs and lying on the beach? Is your life and soul really that empty?
- No interest in seeing your family or descendants build generational wealth? No wish to leave any sort of mark past your existence?
- Do you consider yourself to be selfless or selfish? Do you criticize others for being selfish? How about criticizing others for just living to satisfy glandular urges?
- No interesting in helping others or doing anything to help this Earth?
- Have you told this plan of yours to your wife and kids? That your vision of the future doesn't really involve them, but just you getting drugged on some beach?

But hey, you've blocked me so all these things you won't have to worry or think about. By blocking me, you've made them not possible and not something to worry about. It's great that your response to people who raise such points is to block them. Shows good judgment and ability to address problems.

I'm the last person that would be a poster-child for sobriety. Let THAT sink in.

BLOCKED: TOILING AJUMMA

Dude really is the poster child for "glandular thinking". Someone who really is driven by the chemical drip of their glands, particularly endorphins and dopamine. Like dude basically has said in his retirement he's going to cease living and transition to merely existing. Like 1 step away from being plugged into a drip and a VR machine and waiting to die as a husk. No production, just consume consume consume. This consumer mindset is a deadly trap we can all fall into. In retirement, we can once again produce.

Sorry, but if you think 35 years here somehow constitutes some horrible burden that entitles you to paradise, you have some seriously whack morals and scope of what life is like on this planet for billions of people, including what millions in the developed world do when it comes to helping others and sacrificing. I don't think this view is really helpful in the long-term.

Also, I love how he thinks Thailand isn't a dump, especially for the people who have to break the law to supply him drugs or sell their bodies just so their family can eeke out semi-decent conditions. "isn't your life great? Your squalor is enabling my good times!" A place being great isn't defined on how fun it is for you.

Phew! Now I even feel like I've just had a good telling-off. That was a good spray Marti 

You don't want to end up like those retired guys that have to resort to begging because they've run out of money before the next pension cheque is due.  They usually have some story about a lost passport or wallet and while they're waiting for the British Embassy to sort it, could you loan them some cash.  One of the guys that told me that story on Sukhumvit and Nana in Bangkok looked like he needed a drink ASAP to stop the DTs.  I just cut him off before he was finished and said I wasn't giving him any money.  Then my Thai wife came up and asked "What was he saying?" and this class act said "Oh, I see you've already spent your money."  Only Thai women these winners know are hookers. 

You don't want to end up like those retired guys that have to resort to begging

Begpacker, druggy-alcoholic sexpat has a certain ring to it, doesn't it?

Only Thai women these winners know are hookers.

That's not fair. I'm sure they know lots of the other "kind" of "women" too.

Begpacker, druggy-alcoholic sexpat has a certain ring to it, doesn't it?

Not everyone can live up to that moniker.  It takes an inordinate lack of planning and foresight and ability to resist immediate gratification.  Then, you find yourself with a job promised by a drunken countrymen that never existed and you already refunded your plane ticket.  And those dudes still don't want to figure out a way to get back home.  Once they get that cheque all problems are forgotten until next time. I'm not saying that's SPQR, just that he made me think of those washed up bums. 

I really hope the dude has a wake-up moment before all of this happens. It doesn't seem like he either grasps or has come to terms with what is really involved with aging and what can happen. Life can come at you REALLY fast as you age.

I don't wish injury on anyone, but maybe if he had some kind of scare and saw his family and even in-laws come to his aid and sacrifice in some way, he might reconsider things. Or maybe just doing some kind of volunteer work. Like really understanding that living to get high is no way to live, especially with the final third of your life. And that if you do live such a way, it won't take away the pain and will likely make things worse. Unfortunately, as of right now, he seems like the kind of person who would expect all his Korean in-laws to sacrifice everything to save him, but if they had a problem would just keep drinking away on a Thai beach.

I've mentioned this before, the #1 quality above all to look for in a partner is loyalty. If you're ever clipped by a car or come down with something and end up in one of several possible states that require expensive, long-term care to recover or even just have some level of living, you damn well better hope your partner is loyal. If they are, you'll be fine. If not...well, good luck. And if you aren't willing to sacrifice like that for your partner, there's a pretty decent chance they won't do the same for you. This is especially true for mothers who sense that your attitude towards the kids is one of relative disinterest. And if there's issues and your partner isn't loyal or senses that they and the kids aren't the biggest priority, that's when a running tally starts to be calculated and that's not a good place. A loyal partner doesn't even hesitate.

This forum is mostly guys and guys, 50-70 is not an age to F around and find out. Not unless you have F-you money.