Early Retirement Extreme Forums

There's been some questions about "traditions" and how these meet-ups usually work.

* There's no structure. There will never be a pop-quiz later. Often a couple of extraverts will run the show... so in this case we'll all be waiting for 7wb5 to show up [one hour, fashionably-late] and get the party started For the introverts who need a break, there's always the option of going into the basement and hand-planing 2x4s with a #7 (if you drop it, you owe me $400!). I have umbrella insurance as well as compression bandages.

* Everybody is usually too busy talking with so many like minds for the first time since ... maybe forever? ... So if you have questions you really want to ask, it's recommend that you write them down in list form. Really!

* Sometimes, but not always, people bring drink and snacks. Pot-luck style. Not at all required. Feel free to bring nothing, really! This is a way to brag about your DIY baking or brewing skills... or get rid of leftovers. We already know that EREs are willing to eat anything, even lentils, so no need to put in any effort. I'll have tortilla chips and dip here + some kind of industrial waste/cheesypops/not sure which was sold in a bag in a building center next to the cement... And I'll probably regret this but ... I will attempt to make some traditional and righteous lentil soup if requested

* Sometimes, but not always, there's a book exchange/give-away. Bring your surplus books/ERE-gear, if any. We probably appreciate it more than the attic/garage/... I'm wondering whether we can exchange some other stuff as well.

Lentil soup!! I think you just converted all the "maybes."

You almost converted this no-go. It's really tempting but that would be a ton of driving since we have an 8 hour (one way) drive to the in-laws to make and are on a time budget given how much food our chickens consume (tons!).

Hope this turns into a regular thing for Chicago, it'd be nice to meet some of ya'll. Let us know how it goes.

@cmonkey - I have 4 shopping bags worth of wood shavings saved for you[r chicken] so far.

If people get really introvert at the end of the meeting, I might have more by the end of the meet-up

I had forgotten about that. Man that would be fun, I could make my own chicken bedding.

Actually, my exact arrival time is estimated at 2:22 depending upon the unknown of my walking speed with rather heavy wheeled bag containing various items of unique value to forum-folk. Please feel free to schedule the burpees competition and/or any other seasonal "feats of strength" type events for time slot prior to my arrival, but don't eat all the soup.

7Wannabe5 wrote:Please feel free to schedule the burpees competition and/or any other seasonal "feats of strength" type events

I do hope there will be video documentation of this to share.

feats of strength -- is that from Festivus celebrations? I don't imagine there would be very many grievances to air before them. It sounds like fun.

That is indeed Festivus. If so I (being the host) is to challenge a guest to a wrestling match which won't end until I'm pinned.

Hmmmm ;-P

Ah! Just read this, but hopefully I will catch this next time around. I'm in Chicago, so I'll be down almost anytime in the city. Hope you guys have a good time.

We won't make it, but are heaping Festivus blessings on all those who attend.

@jacob: Pics or it didn't happen.

Meetup went very well. Ken, 7wannabe5, Jacob, dw, my +1 (IRL friend not on forums), myself and Frank (jacob's dog) were in attendance.

My friend and I were the first to arrive, fashionably late of course. Ken was soon to follow. Jacob took us on a tour of the house and eventually 7wannabe5 arrived a little later on with her collection of books from the 70s. Ken is a beekeper and was nice enough to give us all about 16 oz worth of honey. It tastes great! Most of the time we hung out in Jacob's living room and chatted. Chips and salsa, fresh bread, peppermint bark, and cookies were available (although it should be noted Jacob didn't approve of the size of the cookies from DW's initial batch ). There were feats of strength involved. No burpee challenge but Jacob demonstrated some interesting moves with his weighted clubs. However, no juggling took place.

Many topics were discussed including but not limited to:
-Books. To own or not to own
-Discussion about the businessman from the book and what makes him unique. Also, specifically a comparison between the businessman and the renaissance man.
-Updates on Jacob's life
-Insanity
-Home temperatures/thermostat
-Rare book selling
-Modern state of Detroit. Learning about the islands of sanity/safety in what appears to be somewhat chaotic place.
-Alaska- Homesteading, obtaining water and the state of the native population
-Having multiple income streams
-Investing
-The hassle of owning a home in an urban/semi-urban area


As always, nice to meet some more faces from the forum. I had a great time.

I had a great time too. Very nice to have the opportunity to put human faces on floating "voices." Thanks to Jacob and DW for graciously hosting the event and to theanimal for organizing.

Also included was:

- A tour of ERE HQ even if we missed the 2nd floor + the raised bed garden and crummy garage, in all the excitement. (@theanimal: It's about the same as last time except my room: I gave away my knock-down furniture to DW's niece and replaced it with a kludge sourced from neighbours and parts + I made a desk for DW and moved the living room futon up there.)
- The virtues/challenges of sqft gardening and foraging.
- It was later revealed that Ken was a former HS wrestler, so maybe it was a good thing that the feats of strength was by demonstration only.
- #Festivus was a definite theme for the meetu even if traditional xmas decorations were up in force thanks to DW. (Because real aluminium poles are really expensive, which makes traditional xmas more ERE friendly )
- What I really *feel* about the markets but have been unable to reveal for the past ~4 years due to signing various contracts. If I had a dollar for each time I had written a forum response telling you guys how wrong you are (even you, @jennypenny over the past few years, but not posted it because of professional CUA, I'd have ... pocket money, like, enough to buy a good set of chisels. (It's only been a few dozen times when it's been egregiously erroneously )
- theanimal's +1 friend told us how he converted two people to ERE with actual human interaction instead of writing rants on the interwebs thus setting some kind of record. (My personal ERE conversion rate IRL is about an identical zero!). Thus revealing our [and definitely my] introvert inadequacies in terms of reaching out. There's a whole other world out there that us INTJs are missing.
- I eventually blew out my vocal cords. In addition I was completed zonked out for several hours after everybody left.

As usual and always, new friendships were made---as expected based on experience over the past several years.

Looking forward to the next time!

No pictures still means you're all making this up.

Yeah, I was really hoping for the video of "feats of strength" . . .

Have to say I'm quite jealous. Maybe my NY resolution should be to host a meet-up (or at least schedule one).

Nice to know that jacob named his dog after me.

I am sorry I missed this one. Hopefully, there will be a summer meetup or similar. A hike or something? That could be fun.

A summer meetup would be nice. There is good hiking at the Indiana dunes state park. You can park for free at Porter beach.

Summer would be great but that's a long time away! I was bummed I missed this one and have been thinking about proposing something sooner. Anyone would be interested?

I'd be willing to meet up sometime soon with the group.