Under 365 days

Well, the one year mark to being able to make the big change and move on with life came and went with little fanfare.  I even worked on my 54th birthday (from 07:45 until midnight) with no love spared for me except from my family.  Not too big a deal since I don't really think of birthdays as anything special.

I had hoped to travel west to my favorite spot in the US to look around this July, however an unexpected obligation arose and quelled that plan.  I will be out of PTO (vacation time) the end of July and will have to wait until January until the PTO clock resets again.  Then I have 32 days of PTO to decide how to use.  My entire work group has available close to 620 days of PTO in a calendar year, we can take off two people at a time and with just over 200 work days to potentially take with PTO, the math does not work.  Someone loses out.  As in several people lose out to the tune of 220 days.  Not me as I always request my PTO a year or more in advance as I am able to plan well ahead.  I don't worry much about the holidays as most of my group are young folks with small children or single people far from home.  I think it best I don't take many holidays and let them fight over them among themselves.  I can take PTO any time of the year and since there are no disrupted school days or summer breaks to work around, planning for us is much easier.  This is one bonus of having adult children (grand children are a bonus too).

We hope to head to west Texas (the area, not the town) or if you prefer, the "upper Rio Grand" area in early 2014.  We need to get a better feel for the area and see just how remote we can stand to live.  My wife and I both grew up in very rural areas of Florida and we actively garden, hunt and camp so we look at our retirement out there as just an extension of our current  lifestyle.  I never like to rush my life away though at this point retirement is becoming much more attractive.  I do look forward to having only my own self to blame if my time is wasted...

I have in moments of quiet reflection been thinking of the things I will both miss and things I will gladly leave behind.  In category one I will miss:  Spanish Moss-draped Live Oak trees, Pileated Woodpeckers calls and their drumming, endless running water.

In category two, I will *not* miss:  Humidity, myriad flying insects, lots of people everywhere away from our little enclave.

Things I look forward to:  Clear skies, low humidity, very few people, mountains, desert life...