The clock is ticking

My lovely wife and I don't plan on closing down our house and heading to warmer climes until January. That's a good two months away, but I'm already feeling time pressures.

I'd hoped to get the sailing rig completed before heading south. That's not going to happen. When my dad visited I lost a good two weeks of prime building weather. I've no garage and the basement lacks the room needed. I've decided to take the boat down anyway. It rows fine and I can put my 55 lb thrust electric trolling motor on it. I'll bring down to Florida what I've already built and finish it down there. Dad will have fun helping me.

The trailer needs work. The van needs some odds and ends, plus I've decided to install a solar panel on the roof plus add another deep cycle battery. Over the next few weeks I'm going to stock the van with food and equipment.

Until recently funds were very tight so there's a lot of little thing s that have been put off. I'm catching up on those. It's amazing how those little $10 - $50 jobs add up.

Then there's the wonderful world of licenses, paperwork, and financial juggling. I've been moving some accounts to a local bank and changing the way things get paid. The goal is simplify the money stuff enough that I can neglect it for months if needed. Funny thing is, it's easy to complicate and takes hard work to simplify.

The boat and trailer need to be registered. My driver's license is set to expire while we are on the road, so that has to be done early. Same goes for van registration and inspection. The town and state need their pound of flesh.

Most importantly, we hope to spend some quality time with friends and family. That's the problem with living two lives. No matter where you are, there are people far away who are missed. If only I could figure out teleportation I'd have the problem licked.

We don't go on vacation much. We just happen to live as gypsies 5 – 6 months of the year. Both lives are real. Our settled friends never quite fully understand how it is to live as nomads. Many of the travelers we meet don't even believe we actually have a house somewhere. I guess we do the footloose and fancy free life convincingly enough. Maybe someday we'll be full time gypsies, perhaps living on a boat -or maybe we'll be settled. Some things are out of our control and we adapt the best we can.

In the mean time, I'm focused on doing what has to be done to get ready. I don't know how people with real jobs find the time to get anything done.

-Sixbears