nomadic | Cement Donkeys

Columbus, Ohio 2-15-21 – Ron’s View

We are close to a year into a pandemic that has changed the way life looks for many people. I would like to say it has changed it from everyone, but the prolonging of this isolation is for the most part due to people not wanting to come together and take the steps needed to reduce the virus to manageable levels. The question is what do we blame this on? Polarizing politics? Bad science/religion? Does it come down to the selfishness of human nature?

I guess that is the primer for the big unraveling Sally and I have undertaken. In the middle of a pandemic, as we isolate more than 90 percent of the population, we have finished a 2000 sqft basement, prepared a home to sell and then sold that house. That in itself is a huge accomplishment since the remodeling was 100 percent done by Sally and myself while both maintaining full-time jobs.

The selling of the house however has cut deep wounds into our pride. They say to not take things so seriously, but the selling process was brutal with several showings along with several low ball offers, followed by two contracts that fell through and then finally two solid offers both for above asking. At times we were not sure our realtor worked for us. Time after time she seemed to lobby in a way that made these deals potentially fall through. Needless to say, when we got to the finish line of closing, we ran across that line as fast as we could. Moving was an exercise of either FB market place or the trah bin Many of the possessions that we once deemed essential to our existence were now just a burden. We did not hire movers, I have the strong belief that if we can not move ourself you have too much stuff. We finally realized that the stuff we owned actually owned us and it felt good to shed that feeling.

We sit now in an apartment we rented on a four-month lease only to now figure out what do we do next? Things become complicated at this point. Sally works remote, and while I work remote now because of the pandemic it could change. All of this is complicated by the fact that we purchased a Leopard L38 catamaran a week after moving into our apartment. The boat came on the market much too soon but it was the perfect boat and we could not pass it up. The dream of sailing to distance lands and explore is now within reach. The only thing stopping us is the detachment from our life on land and real-world responsibility. I never imagined this struggle would be as real as it feels. In contrast I always dreamed of this day. Sell it all, and then explore. It seemed easy when it was a dream. Much harder when you begin to walk down that road and make that dream happen. All I know is that we are more terrified of not trying this, then we are of trying this. Either way there is a significant amount of worry. Maybe the unraveling is more in terms of our mental stability? I am not sure a sane person would take on this challenge. Leave the comforts of a rooted life to the unpredictability of a nomadic one.