Old guys like me
have some funny ideas and are opinionated for sure, but at least I ain’t a
stick in the mud. And, no, I ain’t dead yet. To prove it, I got myself on an
airplane and few off to South America a few years back.
I got me a new
wife and live in Colombia part of the time. I like the idea of taking risk and
setting foot into unknown territories. Sometimes, new places have a lot to
offer an old guy. I’ve never feared starting over, leaving all my stuff behind,
and striking out headed for something new, but moving to Colombia was a stretch
even for me.
One of the biggest
reasons I like Colombia is you can walk into any drugstore and buy most drugs
without a doctor’s prescription. I have Glaucoma and have to put a drop of Lumigan
in each eye every day for the rest of my life. In the USA, I have to go pay a
doc to do an exam and write a prescription at least once a year. Here in
Colombia, if a guy knows the name of the drug he needs, he can buy it, no
middle man needed.
Oh I know you may
be thinking that we need government to protect us consumers, but the fact is we
need to take responsibility for our own health. We need to do the research.
Read about all the side effects before swallowing a pill or getting an
injection. We need to make educated choices about what we put into our bodies,
and those decisions don’t need to be made by big government and multi-national
companies.
Americans in
particular have given up on thinking and taking personal responsibility. Look
at the result. We are the richest overweight and unhealthiest nation on the
planet. We have given control of our lives to Uncle Sam, and he’s been bought
by big business.
I get a Social
Security check each month. It is about a third of the money I need to live a simple
life. Oh, I know you don’t believe living in Bogota, Colombia and traveling
back to Oklahoma to work from time to time is a simplistic life style, but
outside of the travel, when I am in Colombia or Oklahoma I live a very simple
daily life.
As I divide my
year equally between Oklahoma and Colombia, I can compare the two worlds with
some authority. Like I said, prescriptions drugs are a good example. Most in
Colombia are at least 50 percent cheaper and you don’t have to have a doc write
a prescription to buy them. Food is also cheaper and healthier and fresher. Of
course, I’m talking about vegetables and fruit mostly. You can go to fancy, big
supermarkets and buy imported food and pay through the nose, but every
neighborhood has fruit and vegetable markets, meat markets, you-name-it markets
where a guy can buy cheaply.
Don’t buy
electronics in Colombia. You’ll pay way too much. Imported cars cost a third
more in Colombia. Almost anything you plug into to a wall socket is more
expensive. The government is screwing with everyone and the country is
extremely inefficient, but if you don’t have to dick around with trying to make
a living in the country and can afford to live in a safe neighborhood, Colombia
has some very good parts.
I like the idea
that prostitution is legal in Colombia too. I don’t know exactly why I do, but
I’m glad it’s legal. Oh, I know you are going to bring up exploitation of women
and pornography and all that business, but still, I like the idea of legalize
prostitution. I have never gone to a prostitute in my life, but if I did get
the urge, I should be able to have sex with a beautiful young woman at a
reasonable price. After all, I won’t take all that much of her time, and I’m
mostly all talk.
Same thing with
marijuana, I like the idea of legalized marijuana. I don’t smoke it and don’t
intend to smoke it, but if I did want to, I think I should be able to walk into
a drug store or supermarket, buy a pack of marijuana, and light up. They just
legalized marijuana in Uruguay. I don’t know about buying meds without a
prescription down there or if prostitution is legal in Uruguay or not. I’ll
have to check it out.
Bottom line, a
71-year-old should be able to buy his meds without a prescription, afford good
nutritional food, buy fifteen minutes of sex with a pretty, young woman, and
smoke marijuana if he wants to without fear of some cop arresting him and
hauling his old ass off to jail. None of them should cost him an arm and a leg
either!
I’m thinking about
hiking on down to Uruguay and looking that place over. Colombia is okay, but
maybe still a little too violent. Uruguay might just be the ticket, but it’s a
hell of a hike from Oklahoma. I do know the women are beautiful down there, and
that might be enough reason to take a look at the country.
