You want to do what?

With a little shuffling around of Shawna's clients we were able to spend most of a week at Two Harbors on Catalina island.  Time for some serious relaxing and strategizing.  After a couple of days of rest we realized, we are at our best on the ocean.  We work together, no bickering, no stupid arguments, both of us working together.  Like thousands before us we felt the lure of the ocean.  "Wouldn't it be great to do this. What if we just sold everything and left?"  I have to point out here that my wife is the best, most would have dismissed this hare-brained idea immediately.  To her credit she gave my idea fair consideration.  In our relationship I'm the dreamer, and Shawna is the planner.  I like to say I'm the 'big picture guy', which is shorthand for terrible at details. As we looked at what this would entail I think we were both waiting for the 'dealkiller', the one obstacle we couldn't see a way around. A way back to the safe wage-slave existence.

First, my health.  One of the many lovely side effects of type 2 diabetes is something called Charcot foot.  Which in my case means where most people have an arch in their foot, I have the opposite, my foot is convex on the bottom.  I had surgery on the left foot to correct the condition, but the other one still had to be done. On top of that I had given myself a diabetic ulcer on my left big toe wearing inappropriate shoes. I made an appointment with the podiatrist, told him about my situation and asked if he could schedule this very demanding surgery (left foot surgery lasted 11 hours) while I was still covered by my employer's medical insurance. Long story short, he could do a different surgery, less invasive, outpatient and this week!  It turned out I needed two surgeries, the ulcer on the big toe wouldn't heal requiring a partial amputation (nobody said this would be easy).

Second, our stuff.  We have lived in Southern California for 13 years, in our current house for 9 years. We have a lot of stuff.  You know the old saying "How do you eat an elephant?... One bite at a time." To meet our timetable (we want to sell the house in April) we have to get rid of about 99% of our possessions in 3 months. Hello Craigslist.

Third, home repairs.  We bought our house from the bank during the 'unpleasantness' in the economy 2008.  The former occupants had been, let's say disinclined to make any repairs or, near as I can tell live like humans. We have been slowly making repairs and improvements as we could afford them. The house still needed exterior paint, interior doors, baseboard, etc.

Fourth, what to do with stuff we wanted to keep.  We don't want to pay for storage every month, but we also don't want to burden our relatives with a bunch of our stuff.

Fifth, all the stuff you don't think about when you give up a fixed address. Things like voting, getting mail, paying taxes (what state?) insurance and I'm sure a dozen other things I haven't thought of yet.

Last but not least how am I going to make some dough, Shawna is a great wife, but I don't think she will let me goof off while she works all day (or as I call it "living the dream")

These are the challenges we have in front of us as I see them at the end of February 2017.