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

Where are you and where are you going?
SavingWithBabies
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I can understand that regarding the vacations. When you're working, there always almost over before you've even started to feel relaxed. The freedom of not having to return or having a flexible schedule was nice (at least it seemed that way for the 4-5 month break I took from work).

Let us know how it goes if you get Starlink! It is still in beta but from what I've read on the subreddit/other places, the brief network interruptions are much reduced to the point that for most people, it only interrupts online gaming. If I'm remembering right, your roughly parallel latitude-wise so the beta should be available to you. A check on the Starlink home page with your address would verify (for me, it gives me the option to order right away). You do need to have an open view towards the satellites and there are some online sites that can help with that (one that even superimposed the satellites path on Google Maps street view which was amazing but I can't find that at the moment). Some people have had problems with that which required mounting the dish higher and/or doing some tree pruning/removal. The beta phase still has the satellite your dish connects to bouncing it right back down to a (somewhat) local presence to connect to the Internet (in other words, they don't have their satellite to satellite mesh network up that is part of the plan) but the speeds are phenomenal compared to other options besides perhaps high speed internet via cable company or some kind of fiber connection.

Edit to add here is the site I was thinking of: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ ... l=starlink

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

Post by George the original one »

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).
I'm using Starlink these days. Works very well compared to other no-cable/fiber options, though I haven't yet had a winter storm to judge how much rain shadow affects it. Main issue is making sure the antenna location has an uninterrupted 100 degree view of the sky. This may not be possible in a forest dwelling unless trees are cleared or the antenna is put on a tall mast.

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

Post by IlliniDave »

George the original one wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 4:40 pm
... has an uninterrupted 100 degree view of the sky ...
Offhand, do you know is that 100 deg in elevation or azimuth (or both), or a 100-deg cone from the antenna axis? Also, is it directional (i.e., requires a northern view, or whatever)? I didn't scour the internet but didn't find much jumping out about reception requirements. Forests and moderately high latitude have a lot of overlap!

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

Post by IlliniDave »

Well, I'm I'm starting month 2 of Phase III. I'm holding off until closing on the house I'm selling before I baseline my financial starting point for retirement. The stash did grow by something like $22K during the month. I was expecting something in the opposite direction, so that's a hash or two in the SWAN column.

So far, not a lot to distinguish it from 'vacation' except as mentioned, there's no specific end date(s). That can be inconvenient because of things like a) I get asked multiple times per day it seems when am I leaving the hideout/returning to Illinois (I don't know the answer) and b) not having a fairly precise mapping to the calendar is something I haven't had since I was a small kid, and the absence of it leaves me without reference points I'm used to.

Otherwise, just another routine morning looking out at a calm lake.

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

Post by George the original one »

IlliniDave wrote:
Wed Sep 01, 2021 6:18 am
Offhand, do you know is that 100 deg in elevation or azimuth (or both), or a 100-deg cone from the antenna axis? Also, is it directional (i.e., requires a northern view, or whatever)? I didn't scour the internet but didn't find much jumping out about reception requirements. Forests and moderately high latitude have a lot of overlap!
100 degree cone. Slightly northern view preferred. They have an app for your phone that analyzes a pic to determine whether your sky view is good or not.

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

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I didn't know they had an official app with an obstruction checker built into it. That looks much better than the other options I mentioned above. I'm happy to have this for when we go look at land.

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... n_US&gl=US
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/starlink/id1537177988

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

Post by IlliniDave »

Just had a mild cold front pass through so the air is dry and that seems to be the key for me to pick up just enough wifi signal from my neighbor to get online before the world wakes up. Regarding skylink, unfortunately I'm that guy going around without a smart phone so at present I can't make much use of the apps. Assuming that 100 degrees means +/- 50 deg from the "boresight' (more typical of the FOV of a simple phased-array antenna than +/- 100 degrees) it should be doable , especially once I get a bunch of scrubby trees (I think they are balsam poplars) taken down near the cabin. I'm not going to do anything this season so I have the whole winter to figure it out.

Thanks to some rain over the last 7-8 days they've opened the wilderness area back up to visitors, and I spent yesterday out fishing up near the Canadian border which was most enjoyable. Tough conditions, the front passed through during the morning, but caught a few anyway.

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

Post by IlliniDave »

I think I'm coming into the second-guessing/self-doubt phase I was sort of warned about by an acquaintance from another forum who is about 6-7 months ahead of me in the non-ere ER path. In my case the trigger was the intersection of having left a ton of money on the table by walking away and ongoing daughter drama that has a financial undertones. Another option to the path I chose would have been to keep on working so I could engage in largesse counteracting their poor (in my view) choices.

My visceral response is to treat them like children and come to the rescue. My inner Mr Spock says that is short-sighted and will cause more harm in the long run. My compromise has been to tell them they can always count on three squares and a roof wherever I'm living, but that I can't fund multiple households now that I'm a "retiree on a fixed income". Strictly speaking that's most likely bit of a fib.

I've had discussions on other financial sites with relatively wealthy individuals whose attitude/approach is to incrementally give their adult children their "inheritance" early, "while they're young enough to enjoy it". I never got on board with that because a) being an early retiree the stash is relatively fixed and push comes to shove I really don't know how much surplus/margin I have, b) I don't want to encourage them to get used to living above their means, and c) if the stash gets drained prematurely it handcuffs my ability to step in if there is a real emergency down the road that I could mitigate financially. But there is some selfishness mixed in with the more noble motivations--I've said no to myself frequently over the years to get here and chances are there will be a juncture or two where I want to "enjoy" the fruits of my labor.

I think I'll be wrestling with those considerations for a long time. Unfortunately both of them got their foresight and financial genes from their mother.

I'd mentioned a couple years back that the hideout needs some foundation work which I've been arranging for next spring. In talking to contractors on that topic I'd heard about an extreme cold spell this past February that escaped my notice. I did some digging and found out that the nearest weather station to the cabin here (about 7 miles southeast) recorded an air temperature of -50F, and that there was a -60F occurrence at a station about 50 miles southwest of here back in the latter 90s. That lead me to the University of Minnesota/Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership and a compilation of some National Climactic Data Center data published by a local MSM outlet. I won't regurgitate the numbers/details, but the data invalidated enough of my assumptions that I'm scratching a remote year-round residence up in this neck of the woods off the list of future options.

My time here at the hideout is winding down, I'm planning to return to civilization this coming weekend. I've found that with the amount I have going on IRL at the moment, the limits on connectivity/communication have been an aggravation rathet than a blessing. The "decompression" aspect was successful and consistent with something else my aforementioned acquaintance who warned me of the second-guessing stage observed: some nagging health/well being issues I'd chalked up to getting older seem to have abated. I guess some amount of omnipresent low-level stress has been expunged and I just generally feel better. The daughter thing is still there, but on a number of other fronts my life is more aligned with what I want it to be.

My neighbors here who have been graciously allowing me to "borrow" wifi had something come up and home and they'll be heading back to Nebraska in the next couple days so I'll close my stay with a few days of no connectivity barring an 18-mile drive into town. The closing on my former house is scheduled for the end of next week at which point I will create a financial baseline that I'll use for commencement of Phase III. It's mostly habit that is driving me to do that. I can't really point out anything that makes it necessary. The main reason I'm doing it after the house sells rather than as of the day I checked out of work is that there will be a spike on the financial side from converting a lowball bogey of the old house's value into cash at favorable market value and I don't want that ~windfall to obfuscate what's happening during phase III.

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

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I'd be interested in reading the climate data if it would be easy for you to provide links. If its a hassle don't worry about it.

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

Post by RockyMtnLiving »

Hey IlliniDave:

Just checking in to see how it is going, and if you are well.

Best wishes to you, and thank you for your ongoing dispatches.
Last edited by RockyMtnLiving on Fri Sep 24, 2021 8:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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

Post by Ego »

IlliniDave wrote:
Mon Sep 13, 2021 5:22 am
....and ongoing daughter drama that has a financial undertones.
Several times now we have quit, sold up and gotten out of Dodge. It seems like every time we did someone close to us had (manufactured?) a crisis just before or after we left. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe they created the crisis specifically because we were leaving. I believe they just decided to kindly share with us one of the many ongoing crisis in their lives that they would have otherwise kept private if not for the fact that we would soon be (or were) gone. We don't have kids so I won't presume to give advice, but I will say that in my experience human beings are complex creatures capable of batshit crazy things when they feel even slightly abandoned.

I hope it works out.

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

Post by IlliniDave »

Ego wrote:
Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:41 pm
... but I will say that in my experience human beings are complex creatures capable of batshit crazy things when they feel even slightly abandoned.

I hope it works out.
Thanks, my conscientiousness probably makes more of it than it is, at least in terms of what my role in the situation is required to be. My struggle is sorting between what I can do and what I should do.

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

Post by IlliniDave »

RockyMtnLiving wrote:
Sat Sep 18, 2021 6:17 pm
Hey IlliniDave:

Just checking in to see how it is going, and if you are well.

Best wishes to you, and thank you for your ongoing dispatches.
Thanks, RML, things are going reasonably well. I'll use your note to segue into a generic update.

I'm back in Illinois, still contemplating a "long weekend" trip to the hideout in October, but that's uncertain.

The sale of my old house closed Friday without incident. Next week I'll be working out my retirement commencement financial baseline. I don't feel much urgency about getting all the numbers in front of my eyes--I guess that's a sign that I'm in the SWAN (sleep well at night) zone. I got a better price than what I'd been using for a planning bogey so there's a little more cash sitting in the bank right now than expected.

Not too much progress regarding buying the house here. My aunt is still beating the bushes looking for the right downsize opportunity for her. But even with a shrinking local population it's a seller's market for some reason.

The stash is treading water. Down a little for the month I believe but still above where it was on launch day.

I'm not making great use of my time yet. Having the real estate transaction in the books will help with that. The main obstacle is that I'm basically living in the house I plan to own, but it's not mine yet, I'm still technically a house guest so can't completely settle in and do my own thing. That's not a complaint, just an observation and pretty much what was expected at this stage. What is going pretty well is hanging out with the old man. He seems to enjoy the company and is willing to get out and about a bit with a little prodding, something he seems reluctant to do on his own.

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

Post by Igotgoals »

Congratulations on your retirement, Dave

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

Post by Salathor »

IlliniDave wrote:
Mon Sep 13, 2021 5:22 am
I've had discussions on other financial sites with relatively wealthy individuals whose attitude/approach is to incrementally give their adult children their "inheritance" early, "while they're young enough to enjoy it".
This doesn't seem like it would turn out great.

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

Post by IlliniDave »

I'm finding the changeover of my bookkeeping to be a little tedious. The whole system grew over time, and there a few things I'm interested in that unfortunately are dependent (from a calculation point of view) on the more ponderous system that evolved around the monitoring and projection of the stash for retirement. I think I'll start fresh in 2022 with a new system that focuses on my present situation without all the now superfluous information.

I can't really remember how it feels to have a job. It's like a dream that upon waking up you remember you had, but most of its content remains elusive.

Because of a quirk in the retirement annuity process I went the entire month of September with 0 "outside" income. That should never happen again. Thanks to the late September swoon the stash is about 1% lower than when I retired. So far that does not bother me too much.

The last big chore is getting the housing situation settled out. It will happen in due time. I do have to say that being in house guest mode puts a damper on some of the things I hope to be doing.

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

Post by IlliniDave »

Went with my dad yesterday out to the vineyard property with the intent of gathering hazel nuts, walnuts, and maybe a few apples. It was probably too late for apples. Anyway, we found that someone had come in and picked the hazelnuts clean (damaging a lot of branches in the process). It was a bad year for walnuts but apparently someone had come through and grabbed all of those that had fallen. Makes me sad. Foraging is all well and good I suppose, but in some cases it is theft. My dad's a goofy dude and one of his "treats" is harvesting his little nut crop in the fall and eating them. Not sure how to prevent it going forward.

Otherwise, over the last couple weeks I've hit some days where, for lack of a better description, I was living the dream. Hikes in the woods, fishing, watching autumn arrive. Happy to know there are at least a few areas where I've found the mark!

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

Post by Campitor »

IlliniDave wrote:
Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:09 am
My dad's a goofy dude and one of his "treats" is harvesting his little nut crop in the fall and eating them. Not sure how to prevent it going forward.
Sorry to hear about the theft. Makes me sad knowing your father was deprived of the joy resulting from the fruits of his labors. Thieving is hard to stop when the reward outstrips the effort/penalty of the thievery in question. Hopefully it won't happen again. I hope your father didn't take it too hard.

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

Post by IlliniDave »

Campitor wrote:
Mon Oct 18, 2021 3:58 pm
Sorry to hear about the theft. Makes me sad knowing your father was deprived of the joy resulting from the fruits of his labors. Thieving is hard to stop when the reward outstrips the effort/penalty of the thievery in question. Hopefully it won't happen again. I hope your father didn't take it too hard.
Thanks, Campitor. He was just a little crestfallen. But it's happened before--one of the hazards of growing produce on a rural property you don't live on. I just hate to see an old man deprived of one of his silly pleasures. If they'd have even left a few and not damaged the trees ...

Married2aSwabian
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by Married2aSwabian »

Sorry to hear about the thievery on your dad’s property. Hoping your time with him has otherwise been good.

Glad that some days are revolving around hiking, fishing and chilling for you. Does it still feel like a transition with retirement?

My dad, step dad and FIL all retired in their early to mid fifties and I was never aware of any regrets or difficult transition for them.

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