Don Miller
The end of the year is rapidly approaching and I am quite busy procrastinating pretty much everything I have to do, I am going to cheat a bit and post my end of year status to the blog instead of doing a Christmas card. That way, I get an easy blog entry and you don’t get a paper cut opening a silly Christmas card. Win Win. Not to mention, I’ll be lucky to get this out for Orthodox Christmas.
As you are well aware, I quit my job at Microsoft back at the end of May. I would like to say that there was some well thought out logic or a step towards a greater good behind the decision but there wasn’t, it was just a wild hair brought on by the rising costs of living in Seattle, and it was getting too crowded.
I quit when I did because I still had a lot to do in order to get out of Seattle. The two big efforts were to finish up all the house projects that I had not quite finished, some not even close, over the years. And to finish up the teardrop trailer that I had been building in my garage for the past year and a half. Neither of which I could finish up and still keep a job. As it was, I was still finishing projects on both as the Real Estate Agent was standing at the front door waiting for me to turn the key over.
Once I gave up the house key, I made haste in getting out of Seattle stopping only for one last teardrop Selfie.
What followed was a long and winding route across the Western United States. I didn’t have any itinerary other than to see ski towns without snow while avoiding the interstates as much as possible.
It was a relatively uneventful trip as you can tell from the previous blog entries. I did meet some nice people, swapped out cars and saw a lot of this beautiful country of ours
I put 12,660 miles on my old 2002 Ford Escape before I sold it in Phoenix and another 6188 miles that I put on my newish 2015 Ford Explorer that I replaced it with. The Escape was doing fine but was starting to feel a bit off its game. I had some pretty desolate country ahead of me and didn’t want any trouble. It had served me well for 14 years but it was time.
I went through the states of WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, SD, NE, CO, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA, TX, LA, MS, AR, TN, and KY, two Canadian Provinces and one Mexican State on my way to OH while towing the teardrop. Here is a reasonable facsimile of the trip…..
Since I got here in October, I have added GA, SC, NC, WV, PA, VA, MD and Washington DC to the list but without the trailer. That’s a grand total of 27 states and the Washington DC since July 8th. Not too bad for someone that really has nowhere to go and a long time to get there.
Speaking of the trailer, it is in winter storage. I checked on it the other day and the tarp I had over it had blown off. It is in a pretty bad state. The damage from where waterproofing failed and the water has gotten into the walls has grown. I was going to take a picture but was too sad. It was a good partner this summer but I think it has seen its last Walmart parking lot. I am going to have to find somewhere to take it apart and salvage all the good stuff.
I could give you an overview of my summer adventure but then I wouldn’t have any new blogs to post. Not a bad thing but to tell you the truth I want to keep this short. I am sure that this lines up pretty well with your sentiments too. Again Win Win.
But this post is about the whole year and the trip only lasted from July to October. Since nothing much happened before July other than house and trailer projects, I’ll stick to the post trip excitement.
Somewhere around Arizona, a friend in Cleveland texted me to report that she had bought a Condo in the Cleveland suburbs that was in dire need to be updated from its original 1979 look and feel and would I be interested in helping, I would get room and board for my efforts. I think that she thought that since I had been working on house projects for the past 15 years, I knew what I was doing. In fact, it is just the opposite. If I knew what I was doing, it wouldn’t have taken me 15 years.
I hadn’t planned on making it to Cleveland for the first leg of the trip since Winter was approaching and the trailer wasn’t as insulated as I had hoped. I wanted to stay in the South and enjoy a balmy winter as a Snow Bird.
To be honest though, the Tear Drop Trailer as a concept is not built for everyday living. Because of its compactness and lack of seating, it is best used as an easy weekend getaway camper. I was pretty tired of it after three months. The Clincher was the torrential rainstorm that blew through my Walmart parking Lot in Arkansas. The door and window seals couldn’t hold against that rain and trying to drive to drier weather only added a 60 mph hour wind to the ordeal. By the time, rain let up, everything was soaked. I agreed to help with the remodel.
As with any new home purchase, the new homeowner was eager to get in and start working. I was happy to start the demolition because I am really good a breaking stuff. When I got done breaking as much stuff as I could, I found out that there would be a bit of a slowdown while the actual décor and design got settled. My suggestion for new home owners is to subscribe to Pinterest for 1 week, get as many ideas as you can and delete the URL from every internet enabled device in your life. Your friends’ and family’s too. Pinterest is an unending rabbit hole of new and interesting ideas that change every day. Just when you settle on something, a new cooler thing pops up in your feed and you start all over. Stay away from it!!!
Then there is the paint, carpet and flooring decision. I am pretty agnostic about color. Absolutely do not care. I painted one of the bedrooms in my Seattle house a mint green from the Oooops rack at Lowes that cost me $5. That room stayed that color for years before I repainted to contractor white for the sale. I just can’t be bothered.
As I write this, I count 8 sample paint jars at 10 bucks a pop sitting on the work table. I think there are more around here too. She finally selected the palate the week before Christmas and had friends and family come over for a day of painting. I am a sucky painter too. So it was a long day for me and the poor friend that had to follow up behind be to fix my misses. But that is done and now we are down to flooring decisions.
Looking across the room, I count 12 laminate/engineered/vinyl floor samples. There are more downstairs and some that went right into the trash. Decisions are still to be made on that but at least that will be the end of it.
We went a couple weeks without water as the master bathroom got remodeled. That took longer than expected and we ended up calling in someone who works on bathrooms for a living. It was way more expensive than room and board but it is finally done. I had come off a 3 months of traveling without plumbing so I have a pretty high tolerance for days between showers and peeing in the backyard. I do have to admit, with the polar vortex blowing down on me, peeing out in nature had lost its luster pretty quickly.
Next will be getting flooring down and kitchen cabinets and we are done.
Soon, my weird reality will rear its ugly head again and will have to figure out what to do next. It seems like this winter is pretty far reaching and the trailer is in bad shape so I think it is going to have to stay in storage for a while. I haven’t had much time to explore Cleveland so I may hang around here for a bit. So far the suburbs have been pretty much stereotypical in their mundane chain store shopping, eating and entertainment options. Unlike Seattle and other up and coming cities where cheap beer comes with an unlegislated hipster tax, dive bars here sell cheap beer that is actually cheap. I went to a little pub a couple of nights ago had a couple pints of Bud Light with a bunch of old guys listening and a juke box playing country music. Short of the lack of eligible women, or any women for that matter, it was the perfect bar.
A biting cold wind blows off of Lake Erie in the wintertime and I left all my cold weather Clothes in Seattle storage. To my benefit, Winter fashion here is to wear as many coats as you own. At least to a point where you can’t completely lower your arms to your sides. It works but does make for some awkward physical contact in elevators and crowded bars. Think of it as a low tech version of Tinder. Then there is the added benefit of some good cushion when you inevitably slip on the ice.
The only real downside of an unmanageable number of pockets. Its hard to keep track of everything, wallet, keys, phone, etc without checking on them every 5 minutes. Walking around on a cold night, it seems like everyone is silently dancing to La Macarena. But they are just taking inventory of their stuff.
The one time I didn’t do the “check my stuff” dance when I left the pub was the night I had left my wallet on the bar. It just had an ATM refresh too. I didn’t realize it until the next morning when I was trying to prepay for car fuel before a little weekend road trip and found no wallet. I figured that it fell out of a pocket getting in or out of the car. I drove around the places I had stopped the night before but as expected, found nothing. I was even hoping against hope that it was at the bar’s lost and found. It didn’t open until noon though so I had to delay my departure until I found it or cancel altogether if I didn’t. I walked in to the bar at high noon and asked for it. And Holy Crap!!!, there it was with all the cash and credit cards intact. Score 1 for the people of the Cleveland suburbs. Another life lesson learned, only drink in bars that cater to the swing shift so you don’t have to wait until noon to recover all the stuff you left there the night before.
I’ll report more from on the Cleveland life once I get a plan together. I am also slowly adding recaps and stories from my trailer trip. Stay tuned. In the meantime, I hope you had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah and best wishes for 2017. I’ll be around.
This entry inspired by Cleveland’s legendary singer songwriter Alex Bevan.
Amen.