Next to....

Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today I used to do it all the time saying I can do it later but early last summer that all changed. I would get so tired couldnt breath right I couldnt even walk up a small flight of stairs with out almost passing out I had to quit riding after a bad scare on the bike and actual stored it at my fathers so I wouldnt try and get on it again.
Doctors thought it was my lungs but after months of test they couldnt find anything so I was about to give up but my wife didnt she had me sent to the University of Michigan hospital were they saved her life a few years ago from pancreatic cancer.
In short after months of test it was my heart and it was bad they gave me 6 months to a year to live and at 51 years old it was a kick in the gut for me and being backwards in side (Yes all My organs are reversed from a normal person) it was going to be hard to repair and the chance of surgey helping me the odds werent in my favor lets say but I couldnt live like I was and after talking to the wife and kids I went in for surgery.
Its been 5 months and I,m feeling better every day I traded back up to a 1997 SE with low miles dressed her all up and have been already out riding with no problems even though Michigan wont give up the cold weather.

Never put things off you might never get to do them we have such a short time on this earth and we should enjoy every min we can. Like you all I,m most happy on my bike with the wife behind me cruising the back roads of the country I love and ya I,ll throw Canada in there to.
Dave

bwssr said:

I hope you get to fulfill your dreams. From one vet to another "thank you for your service" I was to young to go to nam in 73 but I was trained by those guys. I have nothing but deep respect for them and what they went thru.

Click to expand...

Thank you, sir, but I have to say that I didn't enlist for altruistic reasons! Like many of the young guys of that era, I enlisted to get the hell outa Dodge, and I couldn't have shown you Vietnam on a map.....

But most of those young guys came back better than they went, and so did I, I think and hope.... Sometimes the stereotype of the drug-crazed, freaked out Vietnam Veteran makes me gnash my teeth in anger....most of us weren't that way. I had some trouble, but not much, and I got through school on the G.I. Bill, got my first serious job with my veteran's preference, and bought my first home with a veteran's guaranteed loan. I consider the government and me to be equal and even, all "faired-up." The guys to honor, of course, are the ones who weren't lucky enough to get back.... those that fill the veterans's cemeteries from coast to coast, those who molder in unmarked graves all over the earth...... And thank you for your service, sir..... a Navy Seal once told me, "all service is honorable," and if anyone should know that -- it's a Navy Seal. Anybody who raises his right hand and pledges to protect his country with his life, whether a cook or an 11-bravo, whether a Seal or a truck driver, anyone who serves either during war or peace, is honorable, and worthy of respect. MHO only....

Cousin Jack said:

Thank you, sir, but I have to say that I didn't enlist for altruistic reasons! Like many of the young guys of that era, I enlisted to get the hell outa Dodge, and I couldn't have shown you Vietnam on a map.....

But most of those young guys came back better than they went, and so did I, I think and hope.... Sometimes the stereotype of the drug-crazed, freaked out Vietnam Veteran makes me gnash my teeth in anger....most of us weren't that way. I had some trouble, but not much, and I got through school on the G.I. Bill, got my first serious job with my veteran's preference, and bought my first home with a veteran's guaranteed loan. I consider the government and me to be equal and even, all "faired-up." The guys to honor, of course, are the ones who weren't lucky enough to get back.... those that fill the veterans's cemeteries from coast to coast, those who molder in unmarked graves all over the earth...... And thank you for your service, sir..... a Navy Seal once told me, "all service is honorable," and if anyone should know that -- it's a Navy Seal. Anybody who raises his right hand and pledges to protect his country with his life, whether a cook or an 11-bravo, whether a Seal or a truck driver, anyone who serves either during war or peace, is honorable, and worthy of respect. MHO only....

Click to expand...

Well said.

I served during the Vietnam Era, but didn't go there but know many who did. None of those that I know are crazed veterans.

My father, Alois Lee, served in:

WW2, 1944-47
Korea 1952
Vietnam 1966-67

He retired in 1971 and passed in 1988. I honor him every chance I get, just like this.

I also used the GI Bill to get my degree from South Dakota State University and bought a house on the GI Bill. Even up, just like you.

Military service provides a type of adversity that gives us an advantage over non vets all through life. Stress, nothing like it to aid maturity.