Tom and I did some research and thinking. Wanting something is one thing. Being smart is another. It just wouldn’t be smart to move before he reaches full retirement in 4 years and 1 month despite the noise and water outages here.

We wouldn’t want to get a place site unseen and would have to hole up in a rental for a while till we pick the place out. The biggest issue is that no one’s going to give us a place without either being retired or having had a job in the area for at least a year. If he retired now, we wouldn’t be able to afford much of anything anywhere.

The original plan was to go down to New Mexico ASAP until he’s 70, at which time he’d retire, and then finish off our time in Florida and still experience a tropical climate in the end, but that in itself wouldn’t be smart. If either state is going to mess with my allergies and asthma to the point that I had to leave, it would be Florida. Therefore, it makes sense to go to Florida and consider New Mexico as a backup. I’ve never spent enough time in Florida to know how it may affect my health. It took 6 weeks for the cat we had to trigger my asthma so it could take a while. Unfortunately, we can’t sample places to live like we can sample food. If worse came to worst, it would be much easier to go to Florida and then settle in New Mexico, than it would be to go to New Mexico, then to Florida, and then back to New Mexico. So, we’re just going to play it safe and smart and go straight to Florida in a little over 4 years.

It seems like a lifetime from now, but at least we’re past the halfway point. We’ve already been here for 6 years and 4 months. It usually takes 2-6 months to get out of a place when you put it on the market as long as you don’t ask for a ridiculous amount, so we could get the ball rolling a couple of months in advance of when he officially retires. This would hopefully put us out of here between January and April of 2024. A little nervous about moving that year because 4 is such an unlucky number, but that’s when it will likely be the best time to go unless anything comes up along the way to change our plans, which of course, could be for better or worse. Once settled there, he could always work at least part-time till he was 70 if we wanted extra money.

I’m too tired to write much more today. Didn’t sleep well last night. I slept with Alexa playing pink noise instead of having both sound machines on because it was at night, but I would sometimes awaken when it would fade out and re-loop. My brain isn’t used to sleeping through that like when the stereo’s white noise sometimes fades out. Too bad my brain can’t get used to sleeping through everything!

Managed to get some exercise and cleaning done but I don’t have the energy to write what else I’ve got to write about, much less focus on my story. At least the bastards didn’t turn our water off today.

Royalties are now up to $11.76 for the month. :-)