I didn’t post yesterday.  When I don’t write it is because of one of two things; I’m either busier than a pig or just have nothing to say.  Yesterday was mostly the latter.  I was mute.

Not speaking or writing doesn’t mean that I am not thinking, though.  I am.  I got plans.  Lots of plans.  I am just not doing anything on them yet.  That’s all.

Actually, I am a dreamer first.  I have ten dreams for every plan I draw up and ten plans for every one I eventually do.  I am a 1% man-of-action.

And then the weather has to be right and the budget healthy.  1% is a big success rate.   

Sometimes the dreams are enough though, ya know?  You think something up, go explore the subject, make some pseudo-plans, keep digging and, next thing you know, that was enough.  The curiosity has been satisfied.  Time to move on.  It can be very satisfying and it is a helluva lot cheaper if you can do it that way.  Touring Russia came and went for me like that.  Been there, done that.  Kinda.     

Other times researching, learning and investigating is still ongoing.  It is a work-in-progress with information that may have already gone stale due to the sluggish pace.  That’s kind of fun, too.  In a way, one feels a bit like a historian, tracking the changes that are going on while you are still in the planning stage.  Costa Rica is like that for me.  Been dreaming of CR for over 20 years.  It has really changed in all that time I haven’t been there!

Or, just as often it is my wife’s initial response, “What are you thinking!?  Well, I am not going there.  NO way.  Never.  You can go, you fool.  Buy life insurance.  Call me when you get back.  I may or I may not answer the phone!”

I take that kind of response as a ‘maybe’.

If she continues saying that for a year or more, I may ‘let the idea go’.  But it takes at least a year and, if there is any let-up in the objections, I tend to get encouraged.  “Well, how much does it cost to get there and do we really have to take malaria shots and be armed?”

That is a yes!

I’ve been working on the converted bread van idea for a long time – over ten years – and I am making gradual but still encouraging progress.  

You should have heard Sal’s initial response to selling the cul-de-sac house-with-pool and moving to a remote island to build our own house by our own hands while living in an unfinished boatshed for two years.  Going to Borneo with a religious cult got a better first response.

And therein lies the point of this blog.  I am a dreamer.  Sal is a pragmatist.  You really need both to get something done.  Fortunately, Sally is also organized, practical, calm and not easily duped by romantic visions described seductively.  Nor is she convinced by repetitive haranguing and nagging.  I’ve tried that.  Sal just has to ‘get there’ on her own terms and then the magic of teamwork unfolds.  Then things get done.

It is a great system.