As we approach 3/4 of the way through 2019, I look back at some of the chaos that's occurred the last 12 months. Pleasure, pain and progress. From a wicked winter that tested my patience and pocketbook, a railroad-induced spring flood situation that almost wiped out the freshly completed Knit Hut, to a city government that has methodically eroded any reason for me wanting to continue to live here, it really has been a helluva rolling-12.
But first the important stuff, because I know you're wondering if that horizontal boring contractor ever showed up last fall. Good news, he did! It was a very mild November before December and January beat the shit out of us.
The geothermal went online and we got all 6 slinkies laid out in the huge excavated trenches without kinking. Over the winter I installed duct work, an open-loop flow-center, and had the system running very well, up until we hit major negative temps and really needed it. That's when the portion outside of my control (the heatpump itself) decided to fail. A story unto itself, I now own the equipment, and dabble, in the HVAC trade apparently. Knock on wood, it's running this very minute, pumping cool air around the Lodge interior, rejecting heat into 87F fluid circulating within the earth.
I mentioned last time OMY syndrome, and I think I've made my decision. The average male lifespan is 76.4 years, so under the best statistical probability, it's literally all down hill from here. Good thing I already got that midlife crisis out of the way. Unfortunately, the quality of life of those remaining years doesn't hold a candle to the peak of the first half, where we spent our summers in corporate offices as training for those later years....of spending year-round in corporate offices. The first order of business will be working to undo years and years of damage to posture, health and mental outlook, but I digress...
Perhaps the saddest fact of all is passing someone in the hallway I haven't seen in a couple years and just taking in how much older and haggard they look now from when I remember them as a fresh employee. That's a punch to the gut, honestly. You've watched their life pass by you, their hair gray, a few more lines appear, while you slowly realize you're racing them. No wait, it's recalling those people that worked so hard and identified 100% with their work, had a nice retirement party in the auditorium, and now you realize that 90% of the people you work with today have no idea who you're talking about. For a moment of time (their best years, actually) they were here and now they're not and someone else has replaced them.
Or hey, was it those shooting stars that one day said, screw this, and left the company for greener pastures...how'd they do that? (You're not allowed to do that!) Why would they do that? That was good money?! I'm sure the regret of leaving the mother Co. with its stable employ and year-end bonus is the first thing they think about every morning when they wake up.
No, no, it's gotta be the guys that put in 40 years, retired, and now are back on contract. It's not exactly that they enjoy the work, it's that it's all they know. They've been clocking in longer than I've been alive!
Actually, it's Rich, Broke or Dead that shook me. Cancer, dimentia, car accident, heart attack, we have no idea what next week could bring. Tomorrow is no guarantee. Maybe the money will last, maybe it won't, but when your odds of dying eclipse that of portfolio failure, it's time to get serious. https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/
