Near Miss

The weather’s been up in the high 80s, which is pretty warm for this time of year in the Great North Woods. Do I get to enjoy the sun? Nope. I’m on antibiotics that cause sensitivity to the sun. Kinda hard to enjoy the outside when all bundled up. However, a little wind therapy on the scooter is something I can do. Nothing like a 55 mph wind to keep cool. 

So I went for a nice ride along the river and up into the mountains. It was a great ride. I’d traveled about 50 miles and was working my way home. About 15 minutes from home the road was blocked by a fire truck. My 15 minute trip got a lot longer.

The firefighter told me the road was blocked and there was a detour. There was a horrible car accident: multiple cars, one on fire, and at least one fatality. No details have been released as it just happened. I’m worried that it might be people I know. Had I been a bit earlier that could have been me. 

The detour wandered off into the back country. Miles of dirt road and a single lane bridge kind of back country. It was slow going as the scooter isn’t exactly a dirt bike. It was a relief to get home safe and sound. 

Prayers for the victims. 

-Sixbears

 

Accidents of Birth

Most of us grow up attached to the part of the world we are raised in. No matter the conditions, it's home. Then some folks become adults, take a look around the world, and decide there are better places to live.

Here's one example close to home. Growing up, my niece never lived north of Georgia. During most of her life she lived in northern Florida. At age twenty-five she decided life might be better for her up here in New Hampshire. She made the move. It hasn't always been easy for her, but in the five years she's lived here, I've never heard her complain about the cold. Turn out she really hated heat and humidity.
She's lucky in that she had family here to help with the transition, but it was still a bold move. She was also at a point in her life where she wanted to experience something totally different.

One thing about being born in the United States, we are a huge country with just about every environment imaginable. There are also vast cultural differences from region to region. An individual can drastically change their way of life without needing a passport or learning a new language. Even with the relative ease of changing regions in the United States, most people stay close to where they were born.

In fact, people are now less likely to move then they were years ago. At one time it was pretty common for people to move for their career. That's less likely today. Even within economically depressed parts of the country, folks tend to stay close to home. While the financial opportunities may be somewhat better elsewhere, family and friend connections are more important. There are other factors at play too, such as a deep attachment to the land and the way of life. A person who grew up on the coast may find it difficult to adapt to the mountains of Colorado.

From a prepper perspective, it's a darn good idea to really give your home area a good dispassionate examination. Are you really living in a good place? Just because you were born on the slope of a volcano doesn't mean you have to stay there. Maybe you shouldn't live on a flood plane just because your ancestors always did. Perhaps -30 weather really isn't your thing. Even more basic, a rural life might suite better than a city one.

There are few things so basic to survival and safety than where one lives. Even though that's the case, only a tiny percentage of people voluntarily pull up stakes and move. Now sometimes there's no choice. If a drought dries up your farmland and the wind blows it away, you've got a lot of pressure to move. It takes a special person to look around and think to move somewhere else. Most people, if they are getting by at all, tend to stay close to home.

We had no choice on where we were born. It was an accident of birth. By the time we are adults, most people stick around, even though life may be better for them elsewhere.

Personally, I happen to love my place up here in the woods and mountains. However, I also like to travel and have become attached to places many miles away. That's why I think of myself as semi-nomadic, which is a whole different blog post.

-Sixbears

Life at 60 knots

I always say life makes more sense at 6 knots -that's the speed of a smallish mono-hull sailboat. This winter we've been traveling at something more like 60 knots -down the highway in the van.

Last night we decided to “camp” at a truck stop. It actually worked out pretty well. I found a 12 volt fan for sale in the trucker's supply section. Being able to run a fan directly on 12 volts saved me from having to turn on the inverter. That conserved a fair amount of power.

Lots of people spend the night in truck stops, not just truckers. There was everything from some high end motor homes, to sedans, to a couple of hippy vans. It's all good. I actually slept better at the truck stop than at the last campground we were at.

Our spur of the moment travel brought us to the Swannee Fl state park where all the music festivals are held. I'm writing this in the afternoon. We'll be catching some live Southern Rock later this evening. I'd planned on driving about twice as far, but we saw the sign for the park and changed our minds. Our schedule has some leeway, just for such occurrences.

There was a nasty car accident on Rt. 75. I saw a huge plum of smoke way off in the distance. Soon after all traffic came to a halt. I didn't get a good look at the accident when we came along side. My attention was focused on getting through without causing another accident.

The driving appears to be getting worse over the years. Maybe I'm just getting old, or many it's that so many people are on their cell phones. All I know is that people are taking a lot more chances than they should. When I see a bad accident, it makes me want to be on the water.

-Sixbears

Quick update from a computer with a dying battery

My lovely wife and I are making a quick stop at Panera's for breakfast and some wifi.

Our three nights in Flamingo went well. No electric sites were available so we put the solar panel/battery to the test. The 12volt cooler is a power hog, but we handled the three nights. Power went out in the park one day, so paying for an electric site would have been a waste that day.

It was windy, but that kept the bugs down. Even with small craft advisories in the Keys, we took the boat out. We kept in the more protected areas, but it was worth it. Saw a lot of sea birds, a couple of dolphins and even a small shark.

I'm not sure if there is wifi in the next park we are heading to, a place called Ortona South. We've 4 nights booked there, then probably back to my dad's.

We did have a small incident in Florida City. Apparently I cut a guy off and he clipped my trailer. We never even felt it. My home built boat trailer suffered scuffed paint and a broken taillight. The poor guys right front quarter was destroyed. My insurance isn't going to love me. No one was hurt, so in the big scheme of things it's all stuff.

The boat didn't even move at all on the trailer.

Gotta post before this computer shuts down.

-Sixbears

On the road again, and again

The last couple of weeks before our trip it seemed that all our friends and family wanted to get together. That was great, but cut into our packing and planning. At some point the thing to do was to just get everything loaded in the van. Sorting can happen later.

The house shutdown went well. Of course, I won't know exactly how well until it's time to restart everything. That's when I find out if the plumbing was well drained or if I need to play plumber again.

We were a bit late meeting up with friends downstate due to an accident on the highway -mine. Nothing major, no one was hurt, but we tapped bumpers with a Buic. Both cars were drivable. I haven't had an insurance claim in 39 years of driving. Let's see how my insurance company treats me.

My lovely wife and I will be spending time with family for a few days. My grandson will be baptized on Sunday. A niece whom I haven't seen in a few years will be flying up. Our other daughter and her family will be joining us. Even if they weren't family, they are the sort of people I'd like to hang with anyway.

We should be back in the road again on Monday. I think I'll wait until the commuter traffic dies down to a dull roar. The 95 loop around Boston is crazy drive at the best of times. The plan is to head far enough west to avoid the Boston/Washington DC urban areas, then head south. Over the years I've learned the shortest path is not the fastest.

-Sixbears

Fame

Once I had a film crew following me around. It’s actually pretty cool. People look at you like you must be famous.

Yeah, I’m famous -Internet famous. That means a very very tiny percentage of people spread extremely thinly over the whole planet might recognize me.

That day, however, people really wondered who I might be. A young eager team with very expensive equipment followed me around. A man in his early 40s asked me serious questions. It was all very impressive looking.

What had actually happened was a friend of mine was part of a college film project. They needed a big guy who didn’t look like a 23 year old college student. Being in my early 40s at the time, I fit the bill and had a few free days. It was loads of fun and I could see how being followed by a film crew all day could inflate the heck out of a person’s ego.


This past winter my lovely wife and I might have mistaken for other people -important people.

We tried to get into a mid range restaurant for dinner, but it was packed with a long waiting line. My lovely wife spotted a restaurant down the road that was advertising live music. Being a fan of live music, we thought we’d treat ourselves.

Once we got in the door we realized the place was a lot nicer than it looked on the outside, a whole lot nicer. What the heck we thought, it had been a while since we ate out, let’s go for it. There was supposed to be a waiting line for this place too, but we were soon ushered to a table. It was a nice table.

It was a really top notch dining experience. The waiters were right there when we wanted them and invisible when we didn’t need them. When we looked up for one, they were tripping over themselves to get to our table. After a while, it became obvious that the rest of the restaurant wasn’t getting nearly the attention we were. The place was packed, a bit short handed, yet our every whim was attended to.

The food was great. The wine superb. Dessert to die for. I left a good tip, but nothing out of the ordinary. As soon as we left the building a woman came running out of the restaurant, all out of breath. She apologized for not meeting us sooner, but it was very busy. She was the manager. All right then. She wanted to know how our dining experience was. The manager appeared relieved when I told her we had a wonderful dinner. I said good things about the food and the staff.

Weird, but in a good way.

The only thing I can figure is that I must have been mistaken for a food critic. Either that or they thought I was Sixbears the Enforcer from the East Coast Mob.

I’ve also been mistaken for a certain Science Fiction writer. That’s kinda fun too. There are a lot of overweight writers with beards and pony tails.

My dad used to get mistaken for a golf pro who was big in the 60s and 70s. He’d shake their hand and give them golf tips. Pretty good for a guy who never played the game in his life.

So, I’ve been “famous,” by mistake. Although, come to think about it, most of those celebrities are famous by mistake too.

-Sixbears

Ten months later

Ten months ago I dropped my medical insurance when it reached $1000/month. That’s long enough to get some idea how that’s been working out for me. My out of pocket expenses for the whole ten months has been $500 for my wife’s medication. She’s on Medicare now and it doesn’t pay for her expensive medications as well as my old insurance did. That still leaves me $9500 ahead of the game.

I was taking the dog for a walk in the middle of the night and fell down a couple stairs off my daughter’s deck. My landing was really awkward and I broke a toe and ripped a flap of skin off the end of my right thumb. Did I go to the hospital? Of course not.

The thing is, if I’d still had insurance, I would not have gone. They really can’t do much for a broken toe. As for the thumb, a good cleaning and a bandage took care of that. The next day I happened to be visiting a paramedic friend of mine. He checked out my thumb, shrugged, and put a new bandage on it. It headed up just fine.

What if I’d broken a leg or something? Then the ER would have to patch me up. If I had to I’d set up a payment plan to pay them back -but at well under $1000/month.

People ask what would happen if I’d have a really major problem. Simple. It would bankrupt me, just like it bankrupted my parents when my mom had cancer. They had “good” insurance, but the copays, travel, and other expenses ruined them anyway.

By January my finances were in good enough shape that I decided to spend some of that money on better quality food. Since I started eating better I’ve lost 30 pounds without even trying. Maybe I’ll spend some of that insurance savings on new hiking boots or a bicycle. Probably both.

I’m feeling great and slowly catching up on my debt instead of making more.

-Sixbears

Close call

On Saturday there was a 50 car pile up on Rt. 93 South in NH. My lovely wife and I came close to being part of it.

We were cranking along, thinking about getting lunch at a nice restaurant in southern NH. That's what we usually do when traveling that way. However, we were running behind our normal schedule.

When we were trying to leave, a neighbor was driving by and stopped to talk . . . and talk . . . and talk some more. It would have been rude to cut him off. He was getting into some personal stuff that troubled him. Then the dog ran off and wouldn't come back. She never acts that way.

Finally, we got everything loaded up, but later than usual. We were hungry well north of our usual stop. Decided to just pick up some sandwiches at the gas station (yes, they were horrid). The store was busy. Then we had to wait to use the bathrooms. Of course, the dog needed walking. Since we were running late anyway, I decided to take the time to top off the diesel tank.

All those delays caused us to miss being part of the big pile up. It happened just about the time we'd normally be there.

Sometimes in life, you just have to go with the flow.

-Sixbears