Most people seem to have settled down by the time they reach
their late seventies. They are either happily staying in homes where they have
lived for years, or they are reluctantly moving into some sort of assisted
living.
Not me. I am selling the Placerville home I bought only a
few years ago, and have not yet bought another one. The reasons are mainly
financial (this house was meant as an investment, and has no emotional connections
for me), but I seem doomed not to remain anywhere more than a decade.
Where would I go if I left the Gold Rush country? Back to
the San Francisco Bay area? I loved that area, and miss it in many ways. Living
there would mean constantly hearing
about the Big One arriving at any time, though. After living through the Loma
Prieta quake in 1989, I don’t care to repeat the experience. That area
is also extremely expensive. Back to Chicago? Nah! Again, Chicago is a
wonderful place, with incomparable museums, but the winter weather is simply dreadful.
Having lived in California since 1980, I doubt that I could survive a Chicago
winter now. Back to Michigan, where I
was born and still have some friends and relatives? And where every summer brings the threat of
tornadoes? Leaving California seems like
an unlikely option, even with the continuing drought and the danger of
wildfires.
Of course, I can always stay with my companion in his
off-grid home. I am there much of the
time now, and enjoy the forested surroundings, but need some of the modern conveniences
provided by lots of electricity. The older I become, the harder it is to live
off the grid. The hard work is starting to overwhelm my companion, also. It may
be easy to persuade him to move.
Or, we can continue to travel in the View. For long periods
we can tour scenic and cultural areas, with occasional stops at libraries and
coffee shops where I can get my Wi-Fi fix.
I do need some sort of permanent address, if only for storage space and
for a place to rest up from traveling. (Perhaps one of the RV resorts where I
might buy a small home with an RV pad?) For the next few years, at least,
traveling as much as possible seems like the best option. Traveling in an RV is
never boring or overly certain; each day brings some new adventure.
As the old saying goes, Nothing is certain but death and
taxes. I am not immortal, and the IRS has been dunning me for taxes they say I
owe. Everything else is up in the air.
