Slave to Technology

My older brother has worked for IBM for roughly 40 years. He started there immediately after getting his PhD in Physics and it's the only job he's really ever had. I visited his lab once back in the mid 80's and he was showing me a laser beam that he had shooting around the room, bouncing off walls and mirrors, etc.  He said they were working on being able to use lasers to carry and deliver what he called digital information. It made no sense to me at the time but a few years later we started to see cassette tapes be replaced by The CD, a compact disc that contained music... Digital music delivered via laser. On that same visit to his lab, he showed me a message he had received that morning from his friend in Australia.  It was a bunch of green typing on a black computer screen and he called it "electronic mail, or e-mail for short". It seemed hard to understand. But he swore that someday everyone would have this thing called email. Looks like he was right.

Since that day some 30 years ago, I have become quite skilled at using technology. I consider myself computer savvy. I have an iPhone and an iPad and a stack of old laptops a mile high. I am not sure I have a clue how to actually use technology  but I manage to make it work nonetheless. And speaking of iPads, they confound me. For all of the techno-ease they provide, they still can be "clunky" or to use an old computer term from the 90's, "cluegy".  Every laptop and desktop computer we own is packed away in prep for its journey to Florida.  So I have the iPad. I thought I was at an advantage. But I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to post pictures on this blog using the iPad. In fact I have determined that it is essentially impossible. As much as I enjoy writing, pictures are much more fun and much less boring.  The utility on blogger.com, best as I can tell, doesn't support the Safari browser. If you have any ideas, leave a comment below or feel free to contact me via new fangled electronic mail at Steven.shelby@comcast.net.

That's all I have today! Enjoy this Thursday... Cheers!

It's September already?

The answer is a sad "yes". And we are still here in New England, waking each morning to cooler temperatures and the promise of autumn knocking on the door.  It's September and I should be in Florida by now, but I am not. I should be at least waking up in the camper, taking the dogs out for the morning walk.... But I am not.

Instead, we are in the house. In New England. And it's getting cold. So how did we get here? More importantly, how did we not get where we wanted to be? And what's next?

The summer has been delightful! We began in April camping at Normandy Farms in Foxboro,MA. which is a great place to be long term. Looking back, I wish we could have stayed there all summer. But it's quite expensive and we chose to move to another spot on June 1st. It was still convenient to Faith's office and for me to come to the house to continue my work toward having the place ready for sale. But we just were not that comfortable there. So we secured a fulltime site at one of our favorite places on earth, Charlie Brown Campground in Eastford, CT! The sites are big and grassy, the river is filled with rainbow trout, the early mornings are like heaven and the people are as nice as anyone you will ever know. I gotta shout out to Steve, Pam, Chris and their staff! They rock! But it was pretty inconvenient. We initially thought we could handle the 75 minute commute each way, and it certainly felt worth it given the spot we were able to come home to each day. But the back and forth commute took its toll literally and on us physically and mentally. It took a big chunk of our day that we could have spent enjoying our surroundings. The lesson learned is that, no matter how much we love a spot, convenience to daily activities is huge!!!

So we pulled out of Charlie Brown on Labor Day weekend. It was a tough move. We were saying goodbye to friends who we not sure we would see again. At least not soon. Add to that, our neighbor Mike in the site next to us who had become a friend, suddenly passed away of a heart attack (at age 54) just a few days before. But our plan was to take a vacation. A camping vacation. 

The distinction is odd. We live day to day in a camper, at a campground. But we wanted a vacation and we were going to do what we love most... We were going camping!!! The mental adjustment was freakin' me out! But we hooked up and headed out to Lake Winnipesaukee In New Hampshire. We spent the long weekend there and then went to Scusset Beach on Cape Cod of the following week. But then it was time to come back to reality. Reality can suck! But we needed to come back to the house and re-group.o

Since April, I have painted virtually every room in the house. I have replaced carpet in the finished basement. There is new flooring in the upstairs hallway, new carpet runner on the stairway, the front yard has new mulch in the beds, the list goes on.... And I could easily put another $3k to $4k into the place.  That is, if I actually had the money. 

We are re-grouping because we cannot put more cash into selling the house. Especially since the house is not going to make us a dime if we do sell.  We are one of millions of American families who are under water on their mortgage. We bought the place in 2005 when the housing market was nuts. I remember that we made an offer for the same as the asking price and were still worried that it wouldn't be enough. Seven years later the house is worth more than a hundred grand less than we paid for it. A almost identical house across the street was on the market for 6 months and finally sold for roughly $20k less than we owe on this place. So we have had to make some decisions. We have decided to abandon our dream and suffer through New England winters in this dreadful house for the rest of our lives....

Kidding.

Quite the opposite actually. The dream is very much alive. I don't plan on going into our financial and legal dealings in this forum any further than I have already gone. But I will say that we have taken steps to walk away from the burden of this house and be in Florida, potentially with a Landshark Lager and a turkey fryer in front of me, by Thanksgiving. 

There is a PODS container the driveway as I type.  We are loading it with the very few items we have chosen to keep along with stuff for our permanent site that we don't want to travel with. We have hired a friend of a friend to conduct an estate sale on October 13th and 14th. He will also handle cleanout of anything that doesn't sell.  Our ETD is October 26th. It's obviously still a moving target since things are still in flux. 

So we are now caught up on the past months of silence. I will continue to update the blog as we move along. It's been (and continues to be) a battle. But I am more convinced than ever that we will be in St. Augustine before the guy next door shovels the first snowfall.

Cheers!