Living within your means when you have no means.
A guy rode by on a dirt bike the other day, and it wasn't just any dirt bike; it was an old Yamaha enduro like I used to have several years after I got out of the service, called a Yamaha DT 1, 360. Which I believe was made in the early 1970s
I loved that old bike and put many miles on it all over the swamps of southern Florida. If you didn't know, the Everglades and other swampy areas of South Florida are not all covered in water; there's a lot of dry land in there, and it is known as hammocks
Of course, I had a lot of other motorcycles at that time, usually motorcycles I would pick up from the GIs that I knew. When they got orders to ship out to another base, they would often sell their motorcycles cheap and as quick as possible, so I always had some spare cash put away just for such an event.
Oftentimes, the bike wouldn't even be running because they didn't have the money to fix it, and a bike that won't start is worth very little, but since I enjoyed working on motorcycles, I would buy it for 100 bucks, put $20 worth of parts in it, and sell it for 500.
Unfortunately, that is the life of the G.I. Their pay is embarrassingly low, and they're usually young men who haven't yet learned how to handle money, so they frequently find themselves wasting money trying to live like a normal civilian, and going deeper and deeper into debt every two weeks.
It is kind of sad, but that's the way we all learn, and I certainly had my share of learning as an Air Force Brat, then an Air Force enlisted man, and later as a civilian working for the Air Force. I got to experience the Air Force from all different directions, and knew there was nothing you could do to get a 19-year-old to live within their means, especially when they’re living in a hotspot like Miami. all they care about is girls, and their only income is a pitiful G.I. paycheck every two weeks which would barely cover a meal and a movie on a Saturday night in Miami.
Theboondork
A Schooley huddled up in the bushes, with a great view of the mountains. I wonder if any other states have trust lands available to the public…. What a wonderful thing that would be. I should look that up.
Just at daybreak, I thought I heard some folks walking up on me, and looked out the window to see a few cows. Not wanting to disturb them or especially irritate them, I opened my door a little, stuck the camera out, took a snapshot, and silently closed it.
Sunset over Vulture Peak.