The Retirement Wake on S/V Imagine

While we work and prepare for our journey in the near future, I sometimes let the stress of work dampen my dreams.   The workforce we have today, some are really great people and some just do enough to get by.  The rest I have my doubts they can even breathe without someone reminding them to do so.  I have been in EMS for 20 years and in public service since I was 19 years old.  Work ethic has never been a problem in my life. Fortuantly, my children did gain that one valuable thing from me.   As we prepare for our future journey, getting the cruising kitty built up so we don't have to hit the retirement kitty till later in life.  I get weekends.  I commute to work, with traffic in a a city of over 2 million people. I get back to the marina, walk down the dock and it all goes away.  Dreams of what is to come are within reach.  I can Imagine us in different ports of calls.  This weekend we visited with friends leaving Sunday for the Bahamas via the ICW from Kemah.  They say it will t

Thanksgiving has come and gone, as I reflect on the year I have much to give thanks too.   This year has been a big one, maybe one of the biggest in my life.  I quit a job I loved and was secure in for almost 20 years to move on the boat.  You wonder why would he be thankful for that? I am thankful that we have the ability to do that, that we planned well enough to do it. We still have a bit more to do to before cruising.   We moved on the boat FULLTIME! I am so thankful for that.  My wife has had two major surgeries for a genetic cancer gene that popped up in her family.  She has beat it, and healed well.  This is something I cannot express how thankful I am, but I do wake up and thank God for allowing me to share my life with her every single morning.  I am thankful that my youngest came down to visit us with, and share thanksgiving with her.  She is such a strong young woman, grounded in good values, and stays true to her dreams just like her dad.  I am thankful that I held some of

Since move in day it has been a blur! Some of you may know I left a job in EMS that I was at for 20 years. This might have been the hardest thing to do.  It was a job I loved, a job that I had security in for as long as I wanted it.    However I have started with a a private EMS service in Houston as Director of Operations.  Hmmm....not the Semi-Retirement job I thought I was going to get.  Is it the company I left, in no way is it.  However the owners have been open to new changes that I brought, and ideas that I brought.   It must be working because I have boought 2 new units, 2 more ordered, and 2 more in the very near future for an expansion to 2 different cities.  Getting away from managine people was what I thought I wanted in a job till the big sail off day. This job seems to fit me, the people are all good...well for the most part.  There are a few weeds that need prunning.  My goal for the time that I am there is to leave it a better place than I found it. Carol, is recoving f

Well today was a huge day, we travelled from Arkansas to Kemah Tx. and are live Aboards fulltime.   This is a huge step and a bit scary, but with the dock party tonight , and Buddy ( our cat) has settled in just fine.  Leaving a career that I had at MEMS for almost 20 years was tough.   There really are some great people working there, and taking care of people every day.  EMS is a tough field, but these people juggle home life with the demands of the public.  Monday I start my new job, with a whole new set of challenges.   Buddy was medicated for the 8 hour drive to Texas, and did great.  Which is not his norm.  He has settled into the boat very well.  Pier 14 had a happy hour party to night, and we got to meet several people.   Life is good!

“You sell off the kingdom piece by piece and trade it for a horse that will take you anywhere.” ―  Colin Wright We have sold off the last of our kingdom, and chosen a life of simplicity.  Carol and I for years have had a dream of getting a sailboat to live our dreams out, before we get to old to travel and experience the things we only dreamed of before.  We had a plan of becoming debt free, and have worked very hard to aquire that goal.  We are almost 100% there too!  We have saved, invested and succeded in this endevor.  We have not always been this lucky, we both have had our financial woes, as most people have.  What commidotiy we did have was excellent work ethic.  So we sat down and decided what we wanted, and a deadline to get that. Getting rid of stuff was hard at first, but as we sold more and more stuff, the bank account became larger.  We saw that the dream was reachable.  We made boxes for all four children of stuff we thought they might want. We scanned a lot of pictu