NotePDers seeking purpose

I saw this on my feed for days and didn't really get it until now. I'll say wildland firefighting boots. There are specific requirements for the boots. When I first became a firefighter in 2003 there was only one type of boot, similar to pictured, they are called loggers. There's generally three price points, cheap, medium and expensive. These are Hathorn's and are medium expensive. They were $225 about ten years ago. I'm getting my money's worth! The other type of boot looks more like a ski boot. I have a pair of those too that were about $300. Each type is better for different situations. Two pair might seem excessive but past some age, don't cheap out on your feet.

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A very challenging list from @BillBergeman. A couple of his questions don't get any bigger, am I prepared to die, and some are no less important but less daunting, who have I helped today and one about doing the right thing. Circumstantially, you may or may not ever get the chance to save someone's life but helping other people and doing the right thing (even when no one is looking or will know) are important and don't require some unique circumstance to present itself.

https://notepd.com/idea/questions-to-ask-to-know-if-im-living-a-worthwhile-life-afhbt

An existential list from @jjbitters. Am I here for a reason? Is certainly thought provoking, it seems related to Bill's list above, it's a challenging question. Something that I try to touch on in various places is having some sense of purpose in life from the standpoint of having an interesting life and also as a component of successful aging. Purpose for most of us probably comes from things that find us, that we then take an interest in and then grow into. If that resonates then I think it's ok if you haven't yet figured out your purpose or maybe the answer lies in thinking smaller and more locally. You might never invent the big thing that helps millions but you might be the neighbor or family member than can always be counted on.

https://notepd.com/idea/what-i-dont-know-x7uvu

From a list by @harnessmoney about books he could write. Of retirement he says I hate the word retirement. It is a myth that someone created. You decide to work or not. I don't believe in retiring. I have this belief on several levels. When you set your own schedule, you don't really stop doing that if at some point you downshift from your primary income gig. You would simply move on to the next chapter. Some sort of work, regardless of whether you get paid, provides purpose, challenge and social engagement which are all key for successful aging. For people who are employees at companies, going from working to being under-stimulated will lead to some sort of depression or funk for a large portion of retirees. The mindset that "retirement" is actually the start of something new is exciting versus something coming to an end which is sort of like just waiting to die.

https://notepd.com/idea/7-amazon-money-books-i-could-write-ys0r5

Lastly a personal note. We were due for a mild, dry winter based on the La Nina/El Nino cycle. It has been the exact opposite of that so far. The nature of our winters has been that when it snows, we might get a lot of snow for a day or two, that's it, followed by many sunny days in the 40's or 50's. It has been snowing for days now with more snow coming into the end of the week. We've been dealing with winters here since 1998 and I can't ever recall a storm run like this. I'm seeing posts on our community Facebook page about the snow being peculiarly heavy causing people's plows to break, even causing the two pieces of equipment the county operates for the roads they maintain up here to break too.

I have been plowing early and often, one day someone with a plow on their pickup plowed our road unsolicited (benefits of being the fire chief). When I plowed this morning there was maybe only 2-3 inches of new snow but it was wet and much harder to move. There were quite a few times that I had to jump out to shovel mud and wet snow out of my way for a clear path. That's not fun or efficient but hopefully spared my ATV a little bit of the beating it would have otherwise taken.

View from one of our decks, I joked we live north of the wall (Game of Thrones joke).

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