As of the start of September I’ve been in Florida for a year. As this blog is a chronicle for myself and anyone who cares to read, it’s a good time to review. This is not a Christmas letter 🙂
The over all theme of the year has been finding serenity. Continuing a process of healing and growth from traumatic events and the end of relationships that they lead to. Finding my way back to the calm and centered person I prefer to be. It’s not something I talk about much here, but it’s an every day process that will probably always be part of my routine. I am significantly better for it.
Along with that goes the selling of the Nimitz house. Which of course was hard, but like moving, valuable to healing. It helps that all the work I did on it paid well financially, because that will help pay for the next dream.
Also on the financial front, we at Black Rock Hosting concluded the deal that resulted in me selling 2/3’s of the company to Ron and Rachel. It removes me from the day to day, gives them opportunities and fits in better with my beliefs.
The goal was set in May ’22 to be part of the building of the MV Narrative and eventually live aboard. Over the year things have become less and less dream-like as this grand project starts to solidify into reality. We have reached the paperwork stage. Which is both very complicated and where everything becomes legally real. More on this in a future post as some of it’s happening now(over weeks, it’s that complicated), eeek!
The hardest part is sticking to the plan. Which includes the honor of taking care of Cinnamon in her last years and living frugally. Moving certainly helped her and she continues to do well. Although the signs are there. Living in a converted garage and practicing what a ship residence will be like has verified what I knew. I really don’t need much to be content.
I have managed a number of adventures in between the calm times. Moving to Florida and even just the extremely rainy trip was quite the journey. Rather emotional at times but also in a sense freeing. After settling in for a few weeks hurricanes Ian and Nicole visited. I’d only been in hurricane remnants before so both were extreme events for me as well as Florida. Ian had more wind and rain, but Nicole did more local damage. Walking on the beach now, a year later, most houses have or need to have construction. More than a few are just ruins too. Complicated sea walls are going up everywhere, no more are the sloping dunes. Plus many inland homes real close by flooded. Now, I’m prepared to bug out with little notice….
I’ve done a moderate amount of local exploring. Lots of little beach trips and I often just go for a beach walk because it’s 10 min. away. When it was less humid I was going to an estuary park very close by. I’m not much of a bird person, but there are lots of interesting birds 🙂 I don’t know why Florida has so many zoo’s, but I’ve been to a number of them too. Mostly well run ones.
I’ve not been locally social much at all, interactions here and there, but that’s honestly been perfectly fine and gone well with the journey. My primary social outlet is, oddly, regular VR mini-golf games with my family. However, I’ve also had two visits. My good friend Karine came out for a week and we rented a house on the beach for a very relaxing working vacation. My sister and niece, who is now attending college were also here for school stuff for a few days.
The reason I somewhat randomly picked this part of Florida was so I could finally see a rocket launch. I’ve now lost count, but I’ve probably seen over 50 now. SpaceX goes up every other week, NASA here and there, plenty of military launches and I think they are even testing hyper sonic missiles now. I have yet to get a decent photo but it’s been very cool to see them and occasionally be woken up by the boom of a returning SpaceX booster. Humanity is progressing and while I have issues with Musk, SpaceX and other private companies are doing a good thing.
I’ve also taken two trips out west. First back to Phoenix for a company meeting and annual dr. appointment (I didn’t want to change that particular dr. as I probably have only another year…). Got to see a few friends(including Karine who was coincidentally in town as well), but it was too short a trip to do all that much. I also went to Newport Beach, CA for a meeting with my future neighbors, which coincidentally took place near an event my friends Karine and Tyler and others were part of. I met a LOT of people that weekend as well as toured around the beach and a sculpture garden that had been on my list for years. It’s interesting and cool that life worked out to see Karine 3 times this year even though we are on opposite sides of the country.
In January I decided to go on a trip to Argentina and Antarctica and invited my friend Michelle. Who has always been interested in cold places. It was partly sponsored by my future with the MV Narrative although only a handful of people are going. It’s a “Basecamp” kind of adventure where we’ll be living on a ship, but doing a considerable amount of outdoor activities. Even sleeping outside, without tent, in Antarctica. Kayaking, lots of hiking and of course wildlife. We go in the Spring, November and December, but have done a lot of planning for it since January.
Lastly, one of the few goals I’d had for retirement has been to play games. Having a career looking at screens it’s not been something I could do all that often, yet that’s how it all started for me. So a lot of this year has also been enjoying a lot of games. Currently, Starfield, a long awaited space adventure.
