Author: Bill

“I said to my son Emmitt ….. Godammit Emmitt~!” — another saying my Dad was fond of. Not sure where it came from but Dad used it a lot. Find it to be a great saying for times of exasperation.
We are doing everything we can think of to sell this house. We have added an $1000 “agent initiative” and also offering $1000 cash for a lead that results in a closing on the house. Kinda funny – we kinda thought the town would pitch in to buy the house just to get us out of town (long story I’ll share later) but no dice.
So here we continue to sit….. pining to head to the land of crystal blue waters,constant warm temperatures and sunshine……waiting….waiting….waiting~
Godammit Emmitt~!

Well crap… as I sit here and ponder what can only be the life I have dreamed of most of my working life, I am trying not to get discouraged. It’s hard not to do. As the sounds of freedom ring loudly in the air today, celebrating the freedom of this great country, the strings of my new freedom (retirement) are being pulled to almost their limits waiting to start the next chapter of my life. Guess for the time being, I don’t have any other choice than to hurry up and wait. In the meantime – Happy Fourth of July~!

Until the next round, take the time to appreciate the freedom you have today and the time to appreciate all who made that possible. God bless the U.S.A.

BALLS cried the Queen — if I had two, I could be King~! The King laughed because he had too (two)   😉
For reasons I never got – that was one of my Dad’s favorite expressions. I guess I’m thinking about my Dad more than usual now that Father’s Day is almost upon us. It is also fitting in that – that is what I’m feeling, sitting here waiting to get the house sold so we can head off to blue waters.
We have another OPEN HOUSE coming up (Sun 6/25) Ideally have it sold before then – but hopeful the Open House produces a sale if it doesn’t sell before then.
Hoping now to be in St. Croix by the end of July – – Until next time – Balls~!!!  …and Happy Fathers Day to all you Dad’s out there~~

Well hells bells…… been retired 1 month as of today…… have found a place on St. Croix that I would jump on in a heartbeat if we were there. IF – if the house was sold…. dammit…..

Realtor has set up an OPEN HOUSE for this weekend and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we get a hit. In the mean time – we will hurry up and wait…. maybe…. working on a plan to get out of here whether house is sold or not. More on that as it develops.

Well, 3 weeks into this gig now – and still sitting around waiting for this place to sell. Had another showing, but buyers wanted a lot more than what this place had to offer….. jeez people – didn’t you look at the listing before you came to look at the place?? Weather sucks…. 58 degrees and raining. Makes it that much worse knowing the island we are headed for has an average daily temperature of 81 degrees. Talking with the realtor about having an open house. Gotta do something to move the house~! All the other plans are in place, then look out St. Croix — here we come~~

Wow – been retired 15 days now …. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. I am starting to realize that I’m getting bored as hell, especially knowing there is a beautiful island in the Caribbean that I could be exploring. Can’t wait to scope out all the different dive sites. I want to learn to dive for lobsters. I want to be able to stop and check out all the local bars and places I never had the time to check out when we were vacationing. Getting to know the folks that run those places. Trying the local cuisine and understanding the customs and rituals that go along with living a life in paradise.
C’mon Phil — you gotta get this place sold for us~!

Geeesh… kind of like being back in the military…… Hurry up and wait. We are sitting here chomping at the bit, ready to start the next exciting chapter of our life and can’t do anything except sit here and wait for the house to sell.

On top of that – my bride and I have both managed to pick up some kind of respiratory thing…. although I must confess it’s a bunch easier to deal with when you have the time to sit around and heal up versus forcing yourself to get up and go to work. Waiting for the house to sell is a convenient distraction for doing that while sitting around generating enough snot and mucus to float a boat. We have had one showing of the house so far — and potential buyers liked the house – but didn’t like the fact it only has one bathroom, so they are continuing to look.

Still cleaning out cabinets of random crap that you accumulate over 30 years – and looking for  potential buyers for the things that may or may not go with the house (for those interested: Golf cart, Bedroom suite [with Queen size Tempurpedic mattress], kitchen table dining set, 51″ LCD Sony TV and a nice glass curio cabinet)

Enough rambling for today – thankx for checking it out…… can’t wait until I get to share the real adventure with you.  🙂

Welcome to  My Chalice……… more about the title after I get the hang of this.

We are very recently retired after working the last 47 years. We have 4 beautiful Daughters and 8 equally beautiful grandchildren.

Like many, we have long dreamed of living in the Caribbean. We have vacationed there multiple times and absolutely love it and everything about it. Also like many, we thought there is no way we could afford to live there. Delightfully, we discovered we were wrong.  🙂

Quite by accident – we discovered ‘long term’ vacation rentals. Fully furnished houses and condominiums that were quite affordable provided you rented them a minimum of 6 moths or longer. Still researching options, but have already found far too many options to go into at this point. So – we are in the process of selling everything we own (almost there) packing up a couple of suit cases with Summer wear and snorkel gear and heading out. Have to get the house sold first, which is the only thing keeping us here right now. (If you’re looking for a nice 3 bedroom house in a quaint historic town – please check it out at http://www.talktotucker.com/idx/results/)

So many things to do, but can’t get good and started until we are out of the house. I will talk about what we plan to do, what happens when plans don’t go as expected and other challenges and experiences as they happen. Once we get to the islands I will continue to talk about the island we are on and the places and people we experience while we are there.

I will gladly answer questions as time permits and look forward to sharing views and opinions – at least for now  😉