bluegoatwoods
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2018
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 8
I haven't been very active. I joined when I got nomad fever. Just after retirement.
That happened a bit earlier than planned. I was only 58 years old. But my job was turning into garbage. Revenues had fallen badly, with no real prospect of recovery. Those who still had jobs at the place were suffering badly. And I despaired of finding anything else worth having at that age. So I retired gave up the rat race. I haven't regretted this, by the way. Life has been better this way.
My wife actually retired a bit before me. She did it in order to take care of her aging father, who has since passed away. She's a bit more listless in retirement than I am. She surely is happy not having to punch a clock. But she's having a bit more difficulty than I in finding constructive things to do. She's doing more "nothing" than I am. It's not really severe and I think she's more happy than not. But her notions of "what to do?" are less solid than mine. (She got out of the workforce at a mere 52 years of age. Some people have all the luck
I love my home. It's modest, but it has virtues and we've been here 30 years now. But it demands too much of me. When I was working 40 hour weeks.........plus other times being a sole proprietor, which demanded even more time.........I would do what absolutely had to be done on the home. And I'd dream of the day when I could devote more time to our home. I had plans for the place.
But in retirement I've found that I just don't seem to be able to make much progress. I work myself to exhaustion and soreness, only to feel disappointment that I've accomplished perhaps 10% of what I wish I'd accomplished. Time and time again.
And I think I knew it would be this way when I retired. At least, the notion of setting up a tiny home on wheels and hitting the road for better weather was very, very appealing to me. And my wife was on board with this. "On paper" anyway. What I found, though, was that she'd become mule-ish......and even a bit destructive.......when I'd get close to starting out. Even on very small 'test' trips which didn't involve long distances. I reached the conclusion that while her interest in getting out and seeing a few things was probably sincere, she was panicking when it came time to take the plunge.
To be fair to her.....I had not provided the sort of road home which many ladies would dream of. I've collected some perfectly good camping equipment. Some of which is now four years old and only now getting it's first uses. But our vehicles were anything but those one would consider for van life. She has a Chevy Impala and I have a Chevy pickup truck. Standard cab and nothing fancy in it at all. I figured the two together would be adequate for getting our feet wet, rather than jumping straight into some other vehicle. It seems my logic did not sway her.
But you know what did sway her? It was when I said, "Why don't I get us a mini-van?" Boy.....she was on board with that!!! She was so enthusiastic that I realized I'd better not dawdle. So I bought it just a few months ago. Just before Easter, I think. Not brand new. But not far from it either. A Chrysler Pacifica.
I expected it to be good. I find that I can hardly praise it enough. I honestly doubt if........say..........a 1965 Imperial could be more comfortable. And it would probably be inferior. Longevity? Well.......it's too early for me to testify. But I'll guess that a Chrysler mini-van.....properly maintained......can be trusted for some time.
We've already been on two, week-long camping trips with it. We'll be going on a two week trip here in about a week. Plus we did a month-long 4650 mile trip from early May to early June. About two weeks of that trip was spent visiting my brother. Who has in-law quarters in their basement. So the Chrysler was merely parked in the driveway during that time. But we camped for the last week of the trip at a spot about 8 hours from home. And during the actual travelling my wife got her first tastes of sleeping and showering at a Flying J, for instance. And she found it enjoyable. By the way......4650 miles with an average MPG of 28.1. I'm impressed.
She found the shower tent thoroughly okay with her. She's not even too very intimidated by the porta-potty. She will go to a bit of trouble to reach plumbing if at all possible. But she's getting along without it without apparently suffering. And she found that having a porta-potty in that van when in the desert is very handy. She probably would have doubted my word on that. But they say that experience is the best teacher......
When we left on that month-long trip I powered the house down and shut off the water. Only a few days later, my sister-in-law moved in. Powered everything right back up and opened the water shut-off. Damn it! I was trying to save some costs there! It's actually not as bad as it sounds. For one thing, when this has happened before it was one of my darned kids. I love them. But two out of three are too damned feckless to take care of business in any meaningful way. Such as keeping a stable roof over their heads. At a rather advanced age, I might add. We're getting tired of bailing them out.
But my sister-in-law is a different matter. She kept a job faithfully since high school. It's been just about thirty years now. And she's provided one of my children a place to live for many years now. She even intends to leave her house to my kids. (I do, too. And the two homes are right in the same neighborhood. So I guess they won't be homeless.) But last fall she had a health crisis. And her recovery has been slow. It's not clear that she'll ever be able to work again. I think I regard it as doubtful.
So now she'd fallen on hard times? Well......she's most certainly got a home with us. So moving in was not a problem. I do wish she'd have given me some notice.........but........okay. I might have just given her the money to make her liabilities. But I couldn't have done that forever. And maybe it's better this way. We'll all live a bit cheaper and she'll be relieved of keeping a house up and running. I've tried to help her with that. And I've made some contributions. But I have trouble keeping up with my own house. I think it's better this way. She and I get along well. She once remarked that I soothe her. And she's had need of soothing at times during her life, I can tell you. She and her sister......my wife.....get along pretty good. Though they are capable of bickering unnecessarily. Yet I can usually get them to stop that silliness. Both of them have always needed someone to lead them out of their combative anxieties. And I've been working on them for more than thirty years now. And I've made some progress. Their volatility is not wholly gone. But it's definitely less. I think we can live harmoniously most of the time.
I guess if she can't return by fall her company will be able to terminate her. I suspect that even if she makes it back, she won't be particularly wanted there. And I doubt if anyone else would be very interested in a roughly fifty year old, questionable health employee. She's probably going to have to retire.
If she does retire, then she's pretty enthusiastic to just go out on the road with us. She's all in on a travel trailer in the 5000I lb or so range. I've been urging her to think smaller. She doesn't know what she's getting into there. I won't be too uncooperative there since it's not my choice to make.
But she recognizes the desirability of cutting way back on the responsibilities and worries of maintaining a conventional home and living a simpler life. Both she an my wife seem to be more hopeful even than I am of spending this coming winter in Arizona or some other warm place.
So......we're not van-lifers yet. But we kinda hope to be before a year or two have gone by. And maybe we've established ourselves as part-timers. And I'm glad.
That happened a bit earlier than planned. I was only 58 years old. But my job was turning into garbage. Revenues had fallen badly, with no real prospect of recovery. Those who still had jobs at the place were suffering badly. And I despaired of finding anything else worth having at that age. So I retired gave up the rat race. I haven't regretted this, by the way. Life has been better this way.
My wife actually retired a bit before me. She did it in order to take care of her aging father, who has since passed away. She's a bit more listless in retirement than I am. She surely is happy not having to punch a clock. But she's having a bit more difficulty than I in finding constructive things to do. She's doing more "nothing" than I am. It's not really severe and I think she's more happy than not. But her notions of "what to do?" are less solid than mine. (She got out of the workforce at a mere 52 years of age. Some people have all the luck
I love my home. It's modest, but it has virtues and we've been here 30 years now. But it demands too much of me. When I was working 40 hour weeks.........plus other times being a sole proprietor, which demanded even more time.........I would do what absolutely had to be done on the home. And I'd dream of the day when I could devote more time to our home. I had plans for the place.
But in retirement I've found that I just don't seem to be able to make much progress. I work myself to exhaustion and soreness, only to feel disappointment that I've accomplished perhaps 10% of what I wish I'd accomplished. Time and time again.
And I think I knew it would be this way when I retired. At least, the notion of setting up a tiny home on wheels and hitting the road for better weather was very, very appealing to me. And my wife was on board with this. "On paper" anyway. What I found, though, was that she'd become mule-ish......and even a bit destructive.......when I'd get close to starting out. Even on very small 'test' trips which didn't involve long distances. I reached the conclusion that while her interest in getting out and seeing a few things was probably sincere, she was panicking when it came time to take the plunge.
To be fair to her.....I had not provided the sort of road home which many ladies would dream of. I've collected some perfectly good camping equipment. Some of which is now four years old and only now getting it's first uses. But our vehicles were anything but those one would consider for van life. She has a Chevy Impala and I have a Chevy pickup truck. Standard cab and nothing fancy in it at all. I figured the two together would be adequate for getting our feet wet, rather than jumping straight into some other vehicle. It seems my logic did not sway her.
But you know what did sway her? It was when I said, "Why don't I get us a mini-van?" Boy.....she was on board with that!!! She was so enthusiastic that I realized I'd better not dawdle. So I bought it just a few months ago. Just before Easter, I think. Not brand new. But not far from it either. A Chrysler Pacifica.
I expected it to be good. I find that I can hardly praise it enough. I honestly doubt if........say..........a 1965 Imperial could be more comfortable. And it would probably be inferior. Longevity? Well.......it's too early for me to testify. But I'll guess that a Chrysler mini-van.....properly maintained......can be trusted for some time.
We've already been on two, week-long camping trips with it. We'll be going on a two week trip here in about a week. Plus we did a month-long 4650 mile trip from early May to early June. About two weeks of that trip was spent visiting my brother. Who has in-law quarters in their basement. So the Chrysler was merely parked in the driveway during that time. But we camped for the last week of the trip at a spot about 8 hours from home. And during the actual travelling my wife got her first tastes of sleeping and showering at a Flying J, for instance. And she found it enjoyable. By the way......4650 miles with an average MPG of 28.1. I'm impressed.
She found the shower tent thoroughly okay with her. She's not even too very intimidated by the porta-potty. She will go to a bit of trouble to reach plumbing if at all possible. But she's getting along without it without apparently suffering. And she found that having a porta-potty in that van when in the desert is very handy. She probably would have doubted my word on that. But they say that experience is the best teacher......
When we left on that month-long trip I powered the house down and shut off the water. Only a few days later, my sister-in-law moved in. Powered everything right back up and opened the water shut-off. Damn it! I was trying to save some costs there! It's actually not as bad as it sounds. For one thing, when this has happened before it was one of my darned kids. I love them. But two out of three are too damned feckless to take care of business in any meaningful way. Such as keeping a stable roof over their heads. At a rather advanced age, I might add. We're getting tired of bailing them out.
But my sister-in-law is a different matter. She kept a job faithfully since high school. It's been just about thirty years now. And she's provided one of my children a place to live for many years now. She even intends to leave her house to my kids. (I do, too. And the two homes are right in the same neighborhood. So I guess they won't be homeless.) But last fall she had a health crisis. And her recovery has been slow. It's not clear that she'll ever be able to work again. I think I regard it as doubtful.
So now she'd fallen on hard times? Well......she's most certainly got a home with us. So moving in was not a problem. I do wish she'd have given me some notice.........but........okay. I might have just given her the money to make her liabilities. But I couldn't have done that forever. And maybe it's better this way. We'll all live a bit cheaper and she'll be relieved of keeping a house up and running. I've tried to help her with that. And I've made some contributions. But I have trouble keeping up with my own house. I think it's better this way. She and I get along well. She once remarked that I soothe her. And she's had need of soothing at times during her life, I can tell you. She and her sister......my wife.....get along pretty good. Though they are capable of bickering unnecessarily. Yet I can usually get them to stop that silliness. Both of them have always needed someone to lead them out of their combative anxieties. And I've been working on them for more than thirty years now. And I've made some progress. Their volatility is not wholly gone. But it's definitely less. I think we can live harmoniously most of the time.
I guess if she can't return by fall her company will be able to terminate her. I suspect that even if she makes it back, she won't be particularly wanted there. And I doubt if anyone else would be very interested in a roughly fifty year old, questionable health employee. She's probably going to have to retire.
If she does retire, then she's pretty enthusiastic to just go out on the road with us. She's all in on a travel trailer in the 5000I lb or so range. I've been urging her to think smaller. She doesn't know what she's getting into there. I won't be too uncooperative there since it's not my choice to make.
But she recognizes the desirability of cutting way back on the responsibilities and worries of maintaining a conventional home and living a simpler life. Both she an my wife seem to be more hopeful even than I am of spending this coming winter in Arizona or some other warm place.
So......we're not van-lifers yet. But we kinda hope to be before a year or two have gone by. And maybe we've established ourselves as part-timers. And I'm glad.
