Category: The Rave Board
This is beyond awesomeness, considering the economy of the past few years and our specific situation which we've been managing.
We were going to move back this past May but there were accounts I had to settle first. The daughter has been moved out since this past spring, and now we will be moving back to the city! We'll be a lot closer to her parents and the daughter also, and both of us will be able to be car-free except when we need to use the rental subscription service they have here. There's a coffee shop and a bar right there, but more than that it's right in the heart of Northwest Portland so the three choices are bus, street car, or more to the point, just plain old hoofing it which costs one nothing.
It's going to be so awesome to get this freedom back after five years' isolation like this. Ironically, I would have never done websites like this or Facebook or Twitter had I not been in this situation or been telecommuting the way that I am.
The telecommuting will continue indefinitely for awhile - we'll see what happens once I get back to the city.
Pardon the expression any ladies of the delicate persuasion, but guys you'll know what I mean when I say I'll no longer be feeling like a one ball man! lol
Grats!
NW Portland is an especially nice place to be.
Cheers to regained independence
It is great. We know how much you have been waiting for this day for the pass years. Well done! even if you move back to city, don't forget your neeses and nafews here okay? winks
I will not forget you all Joanne. I have learned a few sharp lessons in the past decade or so, and one of them is my propensity for out of sight, out of mind, which has cost me in relationships in the past. That is only useful if I act differently, however, and this I fully intend to do. By not forgetting you all. I'll keep everyone posted.
Yea, Lio! I'm sure you're feeling accomplished, congratulations! Certainly it's for the better. I'm glad things changed for you and your family, best to all of you! Hurray!
Awesome!!! I'm green with envy. Ok, not really but I am super happy for you because I know how much happier and fulfilled you'll be in your new location. It's good to see that there is really light at the end of the tunnel. Like others have said, we'll miss you. lol I have very much enjoyed getting to know you here so come back for a visit every now and then.
Lol I shall not abandon this place. After all you are all good company to this telecommuter. Instead of the normal back nd forth over cube walls in the cube cities we all know as the office, us telecommuting types have online places like this to accompany us while we get 'er done. So yeah I'll be around if not as much on the weekends lol
And I do sympathize, DG, with your situation. In reality, I have spent twelve years like this, 7 of them in FL and 5 out here, with a few years' break in between when we lived in town. Now that the daughter is fully grown we can just stay there, though I'm sure the chick will want to get a bigger place after awhile. This one's definitely going to be ... boutique, but it's just the two of us.
Aww, Leo, that's wonderful! I'm so happy for you.
Congrats Leo. I'm happy for you.
Thanks for all the kind words. I know this site gets made fun of, but I have to say it's meant a lot in the past four years, seeing as my circumstances have been what they are.
Telecommuters can be feeling isolated, which makes it our responsibility to get out more. Which now I can again, once we move.
The following link is a description of the building we'll be moving to, for the curious.
The Margaret Apartments
The one we're getting is pretty boutique: about 670 square feet, much smaller than the townhome-style duplex we live in now, but the daughter doesn't live at home anymore and the wife's work now is outside the home, she's not doing full time writing anymore.
If you're still stuck, please don't take this as any sort of rubbing it in, it's honestly not meant that way and you have my sympathies.
Good to hear. I know it's been something you have wanted to do for a while. I'm not familiar with Portland or any cities on the west coast for that matter, mainly because I never had enough money to travel that far being on the east coast myself. I'm guessing Portland isn't drastically different from other cities, but I hope to see some time for myself. I'll let you know if I make it out there some time and we could go out for coffee, or a beer. Haha.
Best of luck to you and the family. You've got a good head on your shoulders and I expect that you will live healthily and happily for a while as you have up to this point, more so happier now.
We move on Saturday the 9th. We get the keys on the 8th.
Taking a few days off from work, the 8th through the 12th, in order to get everything set up again, in particular my office.
Oh wow! That sounds super nice and charming. I love all the custom stuff the apartments have. I'll bet that coffee roaster and wine shop on the first floor won't hurt either. lol Do you know what floor yall will be on? Do you get a balcony? I love balconies.
We think it's second floor, no balcony though. At least I'm pretty sure there isn't.
It's a nice place, and the nicest part of it is location.
Congratulations, Leo. I know the feeling of getting freedom after a long time without it, as I grew up in a town with no public transportation.
So today it's been a week. I love being back here. Old neighborhood, right in the heart of things. Instead of working out indoors on a cardio mat I head out and power walk in the city. How great it is to be able to just go again. No asking for a ride, no waiting around or working around things, none of that feeling like a kept man.
I've got a part of myself back that had been eroding for years. And, we've bought into a subscription service where if The Chick needs a car for some reason, she can reserve one. A new thing in cities now. Great for not worrying about parking the car.
Gave that to the Daughter, lucky daughter lol though we'll probably be putting money into it once in awhile she's got the main responsibility for it and pays her own insurance and gas. The Chick's work is a bus ride away, or more often, she hitches a ride there with a coworker.
My home office is in a reconstituted closed-in porch, so it's a bit separate from the rest of the apartment, and like any good office, has a door on it.
We live on the 4? Floor, so the noise isn't much up here. Also that means in summer we can sleep with the windows open, cool the place down, and close it up before it gets hot. For you Southern types, some of us don't have air conditioning in many places up here, it's just not needed that often.
Oh, and, there's more beer in the neighborhood than I have money to spend on it lol. I of Oregon's Micro Brewerys' dropoffs.
We're nearly settled in, except for a bit of furniture we need to get for the place, but it's all good.
Something else: I bought BlidSquare. Now, bear in mind, I haven't really been a free man since GPS came to ui Yes, it existed five or ix years ago, if you wanted to blow a hunk of dough, but nothing like now! So this is all new to me. With a pair of Aftershockz headphones and the iPhone 4S, I've found it reY nice. I've been a cane traveler / lone wanderer for most my unnatural life, and one aspect that always bugged me was this need to keep a mental running narrative of what street I was at. I don't mean when you're near familiar landmarks like a fountain, steam spout or what have you, but just general street crossings. And I know Portland like the back of my hand. But BlindSquare solved that and more. I could look around and see businesses I never knew were there, just by walking uninterrupted down the Street!
Again, I know a lot of people have been using GPS for awhile now, but I'm a free man again, and haven't been for five years. And before that I couldn't see blowing that kind of money on something like that, in a city on whose streets I came of age and spent a lot of adult life. So this has been a brand-new discovery for me.
BlindSquare is awesome. It saved me when I had to move into a completely unfamiliar neighbourhood for work last summer. It was the only way I could know for sure when my stop was coming while on the bus, and a few times when I got lost, it helped me get back to where I needed to be.
Awesome!!! That sounds like so much fun! I'm a bit freaked out about the no air conditioning thing but that's because I'm in Texas and our high today is 84 and it's humid. lol
I love love love being able to open windows though.
Congratulations. I too know what it's like not to be able to get anywhere independently. I escaped the small town as soon as I could. I have also recently become a fan of BlindSquare. Getting a little disoriented is no longer such a big problem.
Thank you Voyager. I get some time off here starting near the end of this week and it'll be so much more meaningful since I can go out. That's just going to be fantastic.
After looking at all the check ins from uncle Leo on 4SQ, i must say i can tell that your quality of life is improve. What with able to go to stores and do things independently and all that. How does it feel moving back to the city for like what, little more than a month now? Is that a busy city or more like a town? Accessible? friendly streets and neighbours? Yes, i want the whole picture. lol :P
I'm dragging this up to say, I'm officially on vacation! And that means I can do things, unlike previous years' vacations. Starts tomorrow and I will just be out and around and it's fantastic I have this freedom back!
I read your posts, Leo, and I just break into a HUGE smile! So glad to hear that you are happy!
Kate
Oh Joanne I grew up on these streets. It's a medium sized city, the whole metropolis is a couple million, a few hundred thousand in the city proper. It's got buses, trainsk, streetcars and all that, and mainly I just hoof it everywhere. Feet are free. lol.
It's a beautiful city with trees everywhere and lots and lots of microbrewed beers, coffee, music, the arts if you are into that, a ton of Asians out here tons of Asian food haha.
Something new in the past five years since I been gone though, there's southern food places springing up around here, not many but some, for those that like that.
Southern food places??? Too cool! Although, being from the south, I must ask? What exactly is considered southern food? lol I'm guessing BBQ and fried stuff. In other words, stuff I would consider normal food. lmao.
I don't know how well Portland's "southern food scene" (that was in quotes for a reason), would measure up. I'll admit it's not my favorite cuisine except of cource the barbecue.
But yes, up here that typically means deep fried, cooked greens, and maybe biscuits I guess. No grits though. I don't know where you'd find those north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Meanwhile, tonight I had Japanese food, I mean the real deal. This is the Pacific after all. lol
Eeww, greens. I hate those things. Grits??? Yum! Throw in some jalapenos and cheese and those babies are da bomb. lol
I love trying all sorts of new food, except for susi. I tried it once and didn't like it.
Well, DG, you got the guts to try something and not like it, that's still OK. I'm a firm believer in trying something before you get all "ewwwww!" about it. It drove me crazy as a kid when other kids would say "I don't like [insert food here]" and they had never had it before... so good on you for at least trying sushi. Maybe try the vegie stuff like the california rolls... those are good!
Kate