So the other day I'm sitting there in front of the TV watching the Tour de France and thinking, "Gee, I'm wasting so much time just sitting here." I'm on summer vacation so I don't have to work. At the beginning of vacation I kept telling myself I'd do something productive, like write every day on my blog (at least semi-productive) and here I am, the third week into the summer break and I've written nothing. I should do something about this, I thought.
Lo and behold, the next day, a quick but powerful wind storm passed through and knocked the power out. We usually don't lose power for that long, if at all, but this time it was out for at least a solid day and then some. Now I really have nothing to do! So during the day, I went outside and read the latest copy of Outside magazine. The copy before that one (and probably the one before that one) I didn't read because I was too busy (watching the Tour de France and playing Minecraft on my phone), now in just an hour of solitude with no power I was able to knock out the entire magazine.
Still plenty of daylight left, since it seems time has stopped along with the power, I start doing the "extra" yard work that I hate, like pulling weeds in the flower beds. I was able to knock out two flower beds and pull up a couple of tiny maple saplings that I'm going to try to use for bonsai trees.
A day later and the power is back on. Hopefully that little episode will serve as the catalyst I need to get me away from the screens and doing something productive (like writing in this blog, because that's productive, right?).
Now that I'm back, here's an update on the hiking trip I wrote about earlier.
The plan was to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail with a friend of mine who was later planning to hike a much longer part this summer. April, spring break, 4-5 day hike, that was the plan. Spring break for me was whittled away by snow days during the winter so I could only commit 2-3 days. My friend, however, decided, "April! Are you kidding me? It's too cold to hike!"
OK, so how about July when I'm out of school? "No, I have to push back the hike" for various family reasons. Now it's looking like an August start. But then, "August is probably going to be too hot!" So, no long distance hike for me just yet.
In the meantime, to occupy my time and spend more time on the Internet wasting that precious time, I've been researching another future project: the sailboat.
If I could, I would live on a sailboat, work odd jobs and write to make money, and drift from port to port around the world. Of course, with a wife who is a little more practical than I, that is not possible. So I've been planning to buy a sailboat at least to have to take on weekend and summer trips.
Freeing the money to make such a purchase and maintain a boat has proven difficult. I've been taking every spare $20 I get and putting it in an AmeriTrade account I have dedicated as my sailboat fund, but that isn't growing very quickly. Then a thought occurred... I own a small half acre wooded lot in a "resort" (using the term loosely) and we've been trying to sell it for the past year or so. What if I could trade that for a boat? How I can I convince the wife?
My question goes; "So, here's an idea... what do you think of trading that lot for a sailboat, you know, just so we can get rid of it?" Shocking reply, "Yes, just get rid of it, I don't want to keep paying the taxes and HOA fees. You can trade it, sell it, whatever, the proceeds can go to your boat fund." Score!
Now I have to check with the Realtor to see when our contract is up and so I would be able to trade the lot. I search Realtor.com to get the details on the lot and what do you know, it's not there. I emailed the Realtor, "Hey, what's up with that?" Her response; "The listing on your lot expired Aug 30 of last year when extension agreement was not returned." That's it, nothing more. Really? I know we returned the agreement. Wouldn't a good Realtor follow up on something like that, maybe give us a call and ask about it? Bottom line, we don't have a contract (and the lot hasn't been listed for almost a year, unbeknownst to us) and I can sell or trade the lot as I see fit. It's now listed on Craigslist. Hopefully that will give a boost to my sailboat plan.
So that's the update. I'm going to try to come back every day and write something new. See you tomorrow!
Lo and behold, the next day, a quick but powerful wind storm passed through and knocked the power out. We usually don't lose power for that long, if at all, but this time it was out for at least a solid day and then some. Now I really have nothing to do! So during the day, I went outside and read the latest copy of Outside magazine. The copy before that one (and probably the one before that one) I didn't read because I was too busy (watching the Tour de France and playing Minecraft on my phone), now in just an hour of solitude with no power I was able to knock out the entire magazine.
Still plenty of daylight left, since it seems time has stopped along with the power, I start doing the "extra" yard work that I hate, like pulling weeds in the flower beds. I was able to knock out two flower beds and pull up a couple of tiny maple saplings that I'm going to try to use for bonsai trees.
A day later and the power is back on. Hopefully that little episode will serve as the catalyst I need to get me away from the screens and doing something productive (like writing in this blog, because that's productive, right?).
Now that I'm back, here's an update on the hiking trip I wrote about earlier.
The plan was to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail with a friend of mine who was later planning to hike a much longer part this summer. April, spring break, 4-5 day hike, that was the plan. Spring break for me was whittled away by snow days during the winter so I could only commit 2-3 days. My friend, however, decided, "April! Are you kidding me? It's too cold to hike!"
OK, so how about July when I'm out of school? "No, I have to push back the hike" for various family reasons. Now it's looking like an August start. But then, "August is probably going to be too hot!" So, no long distance hike for me just yet.
In the meantime, to occupy my time and spend more time on the Internet wasting that precious time, I've been researching another future project: the sailboat.
If I could, I would live on a sailboat, work odd jobs and write to make money, and drift from port to port around the world. Of course, with a wife who is a little more practical than I, that is not possible. So I've been planning to buy a sailboat at least to have to take on weekend and summer trips.
Freeing the money to make such a purchase and maintain a boat has proven difficult. I've been taking every spare $20 I get and putting it in an AmeriTrade account I have dedicated as my sailboat fund, but that isn't growing very quickly. Then a thought occurred... I own a small half acre wooded lot in a "resort" (using the term loosely) and we've been trying to sell it for the past year or so. What if I could trade that for a boat? How I can I convince the wife?
My question goes; "So, here's an idea... what do you think of trading that lot for a sailboat, you know, just so we can get rid of it?" Shocking reply, "Yes, just get rid of it, I don't want to keep paying the taxes and HOA fees. You can trade it, sell it, whatever, the proceeds can go to your boat fund." Score!
Now I have to check with the Realtor to see when our contract is up and so I would be able to trade the lot. I search Realtor.com to get the details on the lot and what do you know, it's not there. I emailed the Realtor, "Hey, what's up with that?" Her response; "The listing on your lot expired Aug 30 of last year when extension agreement was not returned." That's it, nothing more. Really? I know we returned the agreement. Wouldn't a good Realtor follow up on something like that, maybe give us a call and ask about it? Bottom line, we don't have a contract (and the lot hasn't been listed for almost a year, unbeknownst to us) and I can sell or trade the lot as I see fit. It's now listed on Craigslist. Hopefully that will give a boost to my sailboat plan.
So that's the update. I'm going to try to come back every day and write something new. See you tomorrow!
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