A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Where are you and where are you going?
7Wannabe5
Posts: 9369
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Your evening plans sound very much like the makings of Scene 2 in a Lifetime Network holiday romance movie. Be careful! My father-in-law, an early retired INTJ, found himself engaged to be married to a former high school classmate within a few months of moving back to his hometown.

Hank (Bar Owner/Friend):

Dave! (turns to tap his known choice of brew)What brings you back to our fair city? I hope your Dad is hanging in there?

IDave: Thanks, Hank. Dad’s good. I’m good. Back in town to stay this time. Moving into my Aunt’s place on River Street...

Pamela: (hustling up to bar, towing child of around 5, interrupts IDave)

Hank, what the fuck? It’s your night to watch Caleb. I have a life too you know!

Hank: Oh shit. Sorry. I’ll just get Craig to cover and Caleb can hang with me here until he shows up.

Dave, do you remember my baby sister Pam? Pam, this is my old buddy Dave. And this guy is my great-nephew Caleb. (Back Story: Caleb’s mother died of opioid overdose. Now in shared custody of Hank and Pam)

IDave: (momentarily stunned to learn that the stunningly beautiful woman in her early 40s standing very near him was once the far little girl in pigtails who once followed him and Hank around like a puppy.)

.......

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1125
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by mountainFrugal »

@7w5 love the imagery of your story! Good luck (stay safe?) in the hometown scene IDave!

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1612
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Lemur »

This journal is 7 years and 4 months old and OP has finally hit retirement. Congratulations!

I haven't read through the journal - just parts here and there but I am curious after you're settled and start checking the post-retirement #s if it exists a possibility you could've retired sooner. Not sure if it is worth thinking about though; hindsight is always 20/20 I guess but I believe the 5-year SPY CAGR is currently 17.51% CAGR.

My grandfather retired at 62 years old with a small pension and just social security starting at the earliest age possible. Grandmother got a FERS pension from government and social security years later. A paid off house helped for sure.

My grandfather at 62 felt he did not have much longer to live as he had survived 3 heart attacks and stated to me at the time he really just wanted to see his grand kids grow up for what little time he had left. Even life span projections are not set in stone... Its a miracle of some sort but he turned 90 this year and just this year he quit chopping his own wood. He has lived lean and probably had some influence on me when I was a kid.

What kept him going is his motto that "one must keep moving." He raked his leaves every fall on each day like a man possessed, shoveled everyone's snow for them, did all his own house repairs, repaired his own truck, and cut his grass too much and chopped his own wood. He also split logs for neighbors just because. He still uses the same truck he picked up on his retirement day - a 1992 Ford Ranger. That was his reward for 40 years at Budweiser. :D

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Lemur wrote:
Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:53 pm
... if it exists a possibility you could've retired sooner. Not sure if it is worth thinking about though; hindsight is always 20/20 I guess but I believe the 5-year SPY CAGR is currently 17.51% CAGR.
Well, with 2 weeks of 20/20 hindsight I have no hesitation in saying I could have retired sooner. :)

That all things being equal retiring sooner is better than retiring later was always a consideration, it just wasn't at the top of the priority scale. The question I may try to answer is whether I picked the right time to retire. Although as you say it might not be worth stewing over much--it's not like I'm going to retire again.

I think your grandfather has the right of it!

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

7Wannabe5 wrote:
Fri Aug 13, 2021 9:22 am
... Be careful! My father-in-law, an early retired INTJ, found himself engaged to be married to a former high school classmate within a few months of moving back to his hometown ...
That is quite different than the outcome I'd envisioned. Probably best to reconsider the outing. :lol:

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Still don't feel particularly 'retired' yet. Got caught up on most of my accounting after blowing it off for the last 2-3 weeks. It appears all the renovations and such on the old house will come in pretty well under budget. Supposedly the listing will be active later today. I saw some data that home prices in the area went up in July, although I don't know how much of that was front-loaded. I suppose we'll see how it goes.

I think I'll be headed for the hideout this weekend. There was a forest fire up there that forced some evacs in an area I drive right through. Per forecasts, it's supposed to be a bit hotter up there the next few days than it is supposed to be down in AL (and here as well). Due to cool off over the weekend, and that's partly what I'm waiting on. Maybe once I'm up there for a time without having any set-in-stone return date I'll start to internlize the situation.

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Well, listing went live late yesterday evening and I got my first offer, sight unseen, from an investment company. Cash offer a couple $K above asking, so a pretty favorable start to the process, even though it is not the free-for-all I would have expected a month or two ago.

Kipling
Posts: 102
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2017 11:10 am
Location: London

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Kipling »

First offer, in a couple of days, above listing price is a nice thing to have in the back pocket.

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by DutchGirl »

Nice; a good start. Hopefully others come along and perhaps people who you prefer selling too (not only for the monetary gains).

Married2aSwabian
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2021 7:45 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Married2aSwabian »

Happy for you! Nice to get that right away. No worries about the financing part with an investment co, either.

Trying to remember - is the house in Boston area? You’d written a lot about Alabama recently also.

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

I'm off at the hideout now, with some connectivity for the moment. Have a contract on the house basically for the asking price. Didn't generate the fevered interest it would have had it been on the market a couple months prior, but I'm happy with what it listed for. I opted to sell it to a young local couple instead of a hedge fund from another state else I could have got $2K more.

Since I retired the stash has increased a little, which is heartening.

It's quite here. The USFS closed the wilderness area which cuts down on my recreation opportunities. Looking north across "my" lake the horizon is in perma-haze from a fire of unknown (to me) size burning on the Canadian side of the border. There's also a decent sized fire south of here so smelling smoke in the air happens most of the time and when the wind is just right it gets mildly unpleasant to breathe outdoors.

Spent the day clearing brush from in front of the cabin, amazing how tangly it got in just two years. Right now it's all just tinder, so there was some novice web of goals going on. My desire for better sight lines to the lake and my desire to reduce my susceptibility to fire collided.

I'm thinking about taking a couple little bunchberry plants back with me for the citywoods, and maybe a small serviceberry if I can find one. unbeknownst to me until yesterday I have several on my little strip of lakefront. Maybe I can find a seedling that didn't get too damaged by the brush clearing. My neighbors say they are visited by cedar waxwings when the berries get ripe, so hopefully I can be here at the right time next year to add them to my life list. Have a northern flicker as a neighbor this year. Remarkable-looking birds when you see them up close. New addition to my list!

I might be starting to feel a little retired

DutchGirl
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by DutchGirl »

Aaah, I hope the young local couple is going to be very happy in your old house.

Was the wilderness area shut down by the USFS because of the fires? I guess so... Hopefully in the future there will be more options to explore the area and have fun.

> I might be starting to feel a little retired

Good :-D. Enjoy!!

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Married2aSwabian wrote:
Tue Aug 24, 2021 8:01 pm
...
Trying to remember - is the house in Boston area? You’d written a lot about Alabama recently also.
Alabama...I transitioned out of the Boston area in 1989/1990 and never came close to owning a home there.

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

DutchGirl wrote:
Thu Aug 26, 2021 3:38 am
... Was the wilderness area shut down by the USFS because of the fires? I guess so... Hopefully in the future there will be more options to explore the area and have fun. ...
Really it is more because of the recent drought--the woods around here are basically a tinderbox. The wilderness area is something like 1.25M acres and I think only about 1,500 acres are currently affected by fire, so 99.9% "fire-free". There has been no travel allowed to the Canadian side for the last two years because of covid and I think there might be some larger fires there which they are letting burn unabated: it's a wilderness area after all and fires are natural. One is near the US border (not far from me) and is of some concern to the USFS. But what they have been giving for rationale for extending the closure is that fires outside the wilderness area (but still in the national forest) have stretched their resources too thin to be able to properly respond should a new fire erupt somewhere in the preserve while visitors are there.

Locals seem to think the closure will be incrementally extended through the end of the season, but there's always next year.

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

One of my neighbors up here felt sorry for me having to drive 18 miles to respond to an email and gave me their wifi password--and for a few hours in the very early morning I'm able to get some sketchy connectivity.

Even though the activity around our little cluster of cabins has been higher than I like (more on that at a later time likely) and most of the low fruit recreation options are off limits for now, being here is still pretty soothing.

One of the happy surprises involves guitar-playing. Always having some mundane deadline, often as simple as having to show up for work next Monday morning, I'm now seeing was a pretty significant damper on what would be considered the creative side of a more talented person. I feel much less tethered to a world where such endeavors aren't considered sufficiently industrious, making the endeavor more enjoyable, and I think the results significantly better as well. So far that's one small area where reality has been exceeding expectations.

Gilberto de Piento
Posts: 1942
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Friends tell me starlink is great if you can't get wifi otherwise where you are (if you want good internet - maybe better without it).

There is lots of equipment for bringing in wifi over a distance though it all looks like a hassle but my tolerance for fighting technology is very low.

Congratulations on selling the house.

7Wannabe5
Posts: 9369
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I have found that even when vast majority of time is self-structured, self-prioritization of activities can sometimes still inhibit engagement in more “frivolous” activities. For instance, I don’t know your preferred practice, but you still must have some internal tether to financial management that might eventually or intermittently draw you away from playing the guitar. Also, even more obviously, you likely have internal drive/priority/practice towards occasionally taking a shower that would interfere with non-stop music making. Etc. etc.

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Gilberto de Piento wrote:
Fri Aug 27, 2021 5:59 am
Friends tell me starlink is great if you can't get wifi otherwise where you are (if you want good internet - maybe better without it).

There is lots of equipment for bringing in wifi over a distance though it all looks like a hassle but my tolerance for fighting technology is very low.

Congratulations on selling the house.
I'd been operating under some bad assumptions. I thought the only terrestrial option out here was through cable but I've since learned DSL is the only option, but that the number of available "pairs" is limited. I don't want my long-term solution to be dependent on my neighbors' charity, so maybe satellite is the best alternative. Thanks for the recommendation. You're right, I think the best option is to go without, but it is a challenge as so much of my day-to-day "business" requires ongoing connectivity.

IlliniDave
Posts: 3845
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:46 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

7Wannabe5 wrote:
Fri Aug 27, 2021 7:28 am
I have found that even when vast majority of time is self-structured, self-prioritization of activities can sometimes still inhibit engagement in more “frivolous” activities. For instance, I don’t know your preferred practice, but you still must have some internal tether to financial management that might eventually or intermittently draw you away from playing the guitar. Also, even more obviously, you likely have internal drive/priority/practice towards occasionally taking a shower that would interfere with non-stop music making. Etc. etc.
I'm a long way from messing with the guitar from sunrise to sunset. Maybe 3 hours/day, something like that, tops. It's hard to explain but it's more like the quality of the time is improved, like I'm more willing to settle into a deeper immersion in it because there is less I am juggling in the back of my mind, no spectre of having to return to what used to be "real life" come Monday morning, etc. I mentioned to a friend that there is still an endless list of mundane things that require attention, it' just now I have attention to give them. That's part of it too, I think, not having that cloud of low-level dread over undone things sapping energy.

Of course, maybe I'm just trying too hard to delineate retired versus not retired in a way that reflects well on the former. Fooling myself, in other words. :lol:

Married2aSwabian
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2021 7:45 pm

Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Married2aSwabian »

IlliniDave wrote:
Sat Aug 28, 2021 4:45 am
That's part of it too, I think, not having that cloud of low-level dread over undone things sapping energy.
I can relate to that. I think even for those of us who like our jobs on several levels, there can be that Sun eve sense of, “Shit, there’s X,Y and Z unfinished tasks due this week.” I tend toward perfectionism, so that can also mean mulling over things for extended periods, so that the end result is “perfect”. Looking forward to that fading into the background. Of course, there will still be self-imposed tasks that need to get done, but maybe once in a while they’ll include, “getting up before 8:00am”. Honestly, one of the biggest freedoms I’m looking forward to is being able to go on a camping and hiking vacation with DW and not having to worry about getting back after being gone for just a few days! Since I’ve also worked summer jobs since age 14, I’ve hardly had any stretches of free time longer than 2 weeks in the past 42 years.
Last edited by Married2aSwabian on Sun Aug 29, 2021 5:19 am, edited 2 times in total.

Post Reply