March 2011
I've been thinking about October 2012 - my Goal-Date for putting the show on the road. In a perfect world, I'll be putting the house on the market in March 2012 - a year from right now - be debt-free in September 2012, and actually sell the house some time in that 6-month window. I know that may not happen, but that's the ideal goal, and you've got to have goals. "The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconcious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment." That's what Earl Nightingale would say, and if he had known me, he would probably rank me right up there among the goal-intense of whom he spoke. And he's right, you know. Ideas you obsess over will unveil paths. And obstacles, and options, and many things you hadn't considered at the start. And the thought hit me this week...what's the hurry to get outta Maine? Ever since I took my part-time job 3 1/2 years ago (weekend desk at the Portland YMCA) I haven't had any time to explore Maine or simply enjoy my house on the Saco River. I haven't even had time to do upkeep and repairs. And I certainly haven't had time to be a musician/photographer/writer. But now I'm working a plan, and when October 2012 comes, I'm going to be free of my debts, and finally be in a position of some freedom and not have to work every second. And whether a two-lane blacktop is calling me or not, the facts cannot be argued: every day I stay in Maine, employed, I'll be adding a wad of cash to my stockpile. So why do I need to bolt out of town? I'm just thinking...somewhere down the line - let's say Junction City, Kansas - I'm going to be sitting in Rimrock Park with a bowl of chili cheese fries and say, "Hang on! You finally got yourself out of debt with your retirement plan sitting perfectly under your nose. Finally got to a place where you could enjoy the world that is Maine, and the beauty you sacrificed so much to experience. Finally had peace and a nice, clean, empty house - free of the clutter. And what did you do? Scrambled outta there as fast as possible." It's sounding a little silly. I may need to rethink this. As much as I want to get on the road, and get on with the wandering and the bridges and the brickyards and all, I may be able to actually begin my freestyle-lifestyle - my Life Perpendicular - just by ridding myself of my part-time job and my debts and my clutter. Think how sweet my life could actually be - just having my normal job and being able to grab the camera and wander, build a treehouse in my own forest, and come home evenings and weekends and actually be a composer and writer - even while I still live in Maine. Meanwhile the buckets of money go up, and my retirement gets sweeter and sweeter and the chances of failure approach zero. I'll think this through some more, but it might behoove me to put the house on the market in March 2013, and enjoy some of what I moved here for! As long as I don't feel like I'm compromising my dream. Earl probably wouldn't have taken well to that. * * * I'm an Arizonan now. Yep. One acre just off I-40 on the far eastern side of Arizona, near Holbrook, in a little place called Chambers. Another slice of desolate wasteland - I hope. When I look at the Google terrain map, it's hard to say if my acre is sitting on the side of a "mountain" or what is actually going on. You have to understand - nothing could disappoint me. Some people would feel like they were taking a chance on buying property that may or may not be "buildable." Are you kidding? I don't want buildable! I can't wait to explore this acre and see just where it is, out there in the middle of nowhere. The uncertainty of it being on a flat piece of red dirt or a ragged, rocky hillside makes it even that much more thrilling! Not such a bad adventure for $202.50. Annual property taxes: $38. Here is a shot of a nearby lot.  Chambers is maybe 40 miles from Holbrook, which is to say the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  The property is somewhere in this area.  Halfway between Flagstaff and Albuquerque. Halfway between Needles and Amarillo. Halfway between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City.  * * * I figured it out! I figured out what all these recent thoughts were leading me to! The thing is, I'm closer to living my dream than I even realized. And yes, it would be a shame to finally have my house/finances/truck/clutter all in order and leave Maine the next day. It has been gnawing at me for about a week, until I finally realized tonight how all the pieces should fit together. And it may all be about getting back to being a musician again. And playing on the street. It's been a long time since I've had this drive in my gut to rip up the fretboard of a five-string bass, but it is alive again. So, I need to take the next few months and work on getting my chops up to speed again. And some time this Summer I need to get my improvising self out on the street and play. I've got Sundays off, and Saturdays after 4:00, and that would make a good start. By the end of Summer, when the YMCA goes back to the long 12-hour Saturday shifts, I could just step away and just play all weekend until it gets too cold. It's imperitive that I get my time back to myself, and that begins Labor Day Weekend, 2011. I could be a musician on weekends, and an accountant on weekdays - no more part-time desk job. I could grow into this lifestyle through the end of 2011 and then all of 2012. I need to focus on being a musician again. When it's weather-able, I'd be out improvising, and when it's not, I'd be inside, composing. Just think - I could be living this life I want so much, even before I disappear in the truck. Brilliant! (Of course, there's still that issue of finding other people who want to improvise on the street...surely somebody wants that...??) Dollar-wise, the money I'll be "missing" from losing the part-time job will be made up in fairly short order because I won't leave Maine in October 2012. I'll list the house in March 2013 - two full years from today. My financial crunch will be over six months from now, and I'll have the best of all worlds. Sure, I may be delaying the road for a year, but the road is all about becoming myself again. And as I ween myself from the part-time job and into "street musician," I'll actually be transforming into that very lifestyle with the advantage of living and paying down my excellent Maine home. (photo from Winter 2007)  When March 2013 hits, I'll be in a crazy secure place financially, and with luck, may have already adapted to a semi-hippie-gypsy lifestyle and made myself over into a performing musician. I should be very much alive. All I have to do is get the house sold in 6-7 months. I'll be positioned to price it pretty low, and if I can sell it quickly, I can get out of the accounting job quickly and have Spring, Summer and Autumn ahead of me to continue playing and wandering in the Northeast before heading to Nashville (Mom) in Winter 2013. I hope this doesn't disappoint any of my fanclub out there - the fact that I am pushing my road-date out about eight months. This plan rocks on so many levels, better than the original plan. Besides, if my friends want me to visit them in the future and pick up my own bar tab, they should be rooting for this plan. And that's how I'll work it for now...until something better turns up. That's what improvising is all about, right? Twenty-three months and the world is my oyster. Brilliant. * * * I've sold a few cd's this month - both at work and on Ebay. I sold my Paslode framing nailer for $180 and a 5-disc CD/DVD player for $30. Stuff is still sitting dormant on Craigslist, and I'm hoping as the weather continues to warm up, people will feel like shopping again. I've had a few good sales on Amazon with some higher-end collectible dvd's and cd's - $100 dvd/$50 cd box set/$25 dvd - but I've also had two people invent lies in order to return the items - Amazon stands behind the buyer, and basically I get screwed out of shipping costs both directions. I'm trying to take it in stride, but it's nothing less than stealing, and that always sucks. And then they have the nerve to leave negative comments about me. God, I hate people who aren't like me, right? The experiment with Jose as housekeeper has imploded as well, and he will be gone in the next month or so. Here is a guy I helped get into a situation where he could live rent-free by giving him the opportunity to work for his rent. I made him responsible for the utilities, though. I've been down that road before with another old friend, and when people aren't responsible for paying heat and electricity, they take advantage. The old friend cost me hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in energy costs. Jose discovered quickly what those costs were all about, and I leave that up to him. Hey, I live in a camping tent in the upstairs bedroom, with an oil space heater. I know my costs, and Monk and I are just fine, thank you. Anyway, Jose couldn't do his work like he thought he would. The deal was to work errands for me on his two days off, and in turn, pay no rent. Sixteen hours a week. I told him from the beginning, "You know this means you won't ever have a day off?" I think he sees that I work three jobs, and he figured that was a good way to get a step ahead. The problem is - you actually have to commit to working, not just agreeing it's a dandy idea. For the past two or three years, nobody has seen me do anything - I'm working. It's hard. It ain't going to work for a young guy or anybody who is in a relationship. And there is no shortcut. I have this issue with people always wanting the shortcut. People always want to take more and then more. And then more. It's like Jose. Every utterance from his mouth is some b.s. story, and if he's not fast-talking about something he's "going to do," he's fast-talking a load of b.s. about "why he didn't do it." Then another story, and then another. Good Lord, why so much grief? Do your work, or own up. But there it is again - for a lot of people, it's all about the shortcut. It's all about taking a two-hour job and trying to find a shortcut to do it in fifteen minutes. And then people like me have to come back and redo the work or call out the shortcutters to redo it. I guess Jose has never been called to back up his work before. Or maybe I'm just not forgiving enough. Either way, he's outta here. "Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin, possibly after firing his own housemate from a work-for-rent situation. And in the wake of all this, here's what speaks to me: People are actually different. A lot of people just can't pull it together no matter what. No matter what's right or wrong or ethical or easy or difficult. No matter justice, no matter the reward. Some people can't do any more than the minimum and can't dream bigger than the next dollar. What goes through their minds at the end of the day? What are they ever proud of? It makes me feel good about myself, knowing I can set my sights on something and pursue it. And that in twenty-three months I can give of myself if that's what I choose to do, and that I'll earn respect for my efforts. The experiment with Jose didn't work, but I have come away with a whole new respect for myself. And my favorite people as well. My favorite people on this planet work for what they want. We apply ourselves. We persevere. We do what it takes. Yeah, we say something, and we do it. If we can't do it, we make adjustments, not excuses. And yes, the other line is going to move faster. Yes, the other person is going to get the promotion. Yes, a couple people on Amazon are going to lie about you and steal from you. In the end.........so what? It makes me feel kinda lucky, knowing I can handle what's thrown at me - I don't expect life to be easy. Some days I hit all the stoplights, you know? You really just have to shrug your shoulders, admire the color red, and wait your turn. Nothing wrong with waiting. Nothing wrong with getting to work in 45 minutes instead of 40 minutes. It kills me to watch people in the morning, tailgaiting, laying on the accelerator from light to light...just to get to work. And then the same routine going home. They are missing something I feel lucky to have found. One of the highest compliments I ever received was from my older brother who said I wander through life like Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption. Just wandering through the prison yard with my hands in my pockets, staring at the sky. Another time, when Donna and I were dating, somebody asked her if I had a mental disability because they saw me just walking around doing nothing but staring into the trees. I like that idea. I can't believe people see me like that, and I like it. * * * Jose would like to stay on and just pay the rent without doing the work, and I have agreed. $425 plus all the utilities. It's not that he's a horrible roommate, it was just the work-for-rent scenario. His best play would be to move out in November before the huge oil usage begins again, but we'll see how that plays out. This sets me up for a quicker escape from my part-time Saturday job. I make about $400/month working part-time at the YMCA, and I can tell you, I may not make it to Labor Day as I proposed earlier. I almost gave my notice this week, but the Director agreed to bring in some weekend help. That might make things easier and maybe I'll feel like I can stay on those five months. The Portland YMCA is a busy place, and it is staffed with three people on weekends. That's like staffing two waitresses at Cracker Barrel on Sunday because it's Sunday, and we all know Sunday is not a weekday, right? I've never understood the reasoning, I just know Saturdays are out of control. And the $100 I make there - which used to be vital to my income - is no longer worth the day I am trading. Here come eight months of glorious Maine Saturdays I could be spending doing a number of things preparing for the road, not the least being home repairs. Anyway, with Jose's rent money now in the mix...well brother, the Y may be getting it's last good looks at me.  * * * Just to prove that the world is not a perfect place, I submit to you the Saga of the Deford, Michigan Property. As you may remember, I bought 1.8 wooded acres in the thumb of Michigan back in December. A long strip of land, where as the forest ends, the property is cleared - about the size of a standard home lot - and reaches to Main Street. The Tuscola County Road Commission parks their snow plows and stuff on this empty lot, and I have no quarrel with that. Except, Novesta Township - the Assessor's Office - is telling me they are going to increase my Fair Market Value tax base to $6,100 so they can tax me a lot more than they are now. I sent a formal appeal saying I just bought the property in a 7-day public auction for $1250.. what better evidence of Fair Market Value could they want? No guesswork needed. Then I mentioned to them on the phone, that I couldn't just sit and watch my property taxes triple without pursuing some type of compensation from the County Road Commission. Fair, right? I mean, they're using my property while I foot the bill, right? Guess what we learned? The Road Commission has a title to that little cleared parcel of land ALSO. Yes, two titles, same piece of land. Uggh. This was apparantly a mistake made decades ago when the Grand Trunk Railroad packed up and left, and sold off all their little pieces of land. I have no idea how this is going to be resolved. I told the Assessor's Office I would be willing to sell off the entire 1.8 acre property for just what I have in it, $1,589.40. I'd sell to the County, to the Road Commission, whatever. At this point, it's just going to be easiest to get outta there. And getting out may not be so easy as relisting the property on Ebay. I can't just go out and sell the property with the questionable deed, so something has to be resolved. Well, it's just life. Stay tuned. April 2011 Ages 60-62: All Paid For Inspiration Goodbye To The Y Goodbye To The Deford Property |