"Another day older, and deeper in debt..."

Those words are from an old blues or country & western song, sung by a mournful deep voiced man. I like the song, but never really thought about those particular words until they popped into my mind as we were driving home this afternoon, from a particularly expensive little shopping jaunt. Ken has been housebound for the last two weeks with a cold, and his doctor had warned him to stay inside and warm while our freezing Melbourne weather continued. Today he wanted to get his hair cut, as we are going out tomorrow night to a special birthday party. So the barber was the first stop, then Ken asked would I mind if we drove out to Ringwood (outer Melbourne suburb) to have a look at a bike shop. The weather was cool but sunny, and I had nothing better to do (apart from housework), so I agreed.

Two hours and three bike shops later, Ken had put a deposit down on a new motorcycle. He'll be picking it up next Tuesday, so no doubt I will be taking photos of it for him to put on his laptop's desktop! Funny how things happen. The owner of this shop remembered Ken from many years ago, when they knew each other in the motorcycle retail trade, and they spent an hour reminiscing, inbetween interruptions by staff and customers. When Ken told J. about his disaster with his Honda, J. immediately offered to have his mechanics pull the bike apart and see exactly what is wrong with it, so Ken can then decided if he should rebuild it (retirement project), or wreck it and sell off the parts.

In the meantime, Ken had made up his mind to purchase one of the bikes on the showroom floor - a 2006 model Suzuki 750 in as new condition. J. discounted the price, and threw in onroad costs, as well as comprehensive insurance. So it was a very good deal overall, not to be sneezed at, even though Ken had no intention of actually signing up for something today.

Ah well, some people say you only live once (my beliefs differ from that, but yes, only one lifetime at a time!), and the older we get, the less we are worrying about conserving our finances. I admit that while we are not wealthy, we are reasonably comfortable, and have enough super. to live on for a few years once we are both retired. But nobody knows how much longer they will be on this earth - look at the news every day and read about shootings, road accidents, etc. Ken has a shorter lifespan than me for reasons of health, so as far as I'm concerned, I'm happy for him to make the most of his time of reasonable health.