Every time I hop on my bicycle, I feel as if I am getting away with something! I really love flying down the street with my debit card in my hip pocket and my re-useable grocery bag tucked into the basket that hangs from my handlebars.

One side benefit of only having a small bike basket is that I can’t buy too much stuff at the grocery store. For example, the other day I picked a six-pack Coca-Cola off the shelf and then noticed that two 12-packs were on sale at a savings of $2 under the individual six-pack price.

I stood there for a while, trying to figure out a way to tie 24 cans of Coke on the bike and get them home. I would need to take a safer route home because it’s harder to make sharp turns when the basket is over-loaded. It would take us a month to drink a case of pop, so we’d have to store the case under the bed. And then there was the temptation to drink more of something we don’t need to be drinking just because we had a case of it under the bed. At this point, I decided we didn’t NEED a case of pop – for any price.

On the surface, it seems stupid to buy a 6-pack at the higher price, but in the long run I’m saving. First of all, we save on rent by living in 564 square feet. Second, we make our own iced tea and lemonade, which is a lot cheaper than soda. Third, we’re healthier because we don’t drink too much coca cola, and because we walk and ride our bikes to the grocery store. And fourth, we save money on motor fuel. (According to a study by the Transportation Department, the average American household makes 496 motorized shopping trips a year!)

By the time I got home, I felt pretty good about paying an extra 50 cents for that 6-pack!

Bob had the inner tube from his front bike tire in the kitchen sink, looking for more holes when I was reminded of an idea I had years ago. He had just patched 4 tire punctures after riding the bike only 10 feet across a patch of weeds. As he made plans to re-tire our bikes, I remembered how this same weed had inspired in me another kind of retirement plan.

I’m talking about Goat Heads. Otherwise known as Tribulus terrestris, Puncture Vine, Mexican sandbur, Texas sandbur, Caltrop or Bull Head, Goat Heads are listed as the State Noxious Weed for 45 States. The Goat Head is so named because the seed breaks into four pieces, each resembling the head of a goat.

The horns are sturdy and sharp. After countless flat tires and punctured flip-flops, I began dreaming of the day when I would have idle hours each day to spend eradicating Goat Heads. While other retirees were languishing inside with their TVs, I would be dragging a burlap sack and filling it with Goat Heads.

That day may be here. The Goat Heads have gone to seed and I’m not working. Now where can I find myself a burlap sack?