Retirement Dream

My dream for my retirement is to live in four places at different times of the year. 

From Easter to Mom's birthday weekend (near July 10th), I want to live in the country near New Haven in the Orange-Seymour-Derby area where my Mom's ancestors lived.  I love Spring in New England and being in New Haven leaves that time of the year to make frequent trips to New York to shop for fashion, spend my birthday with my family in CT and MA, get over to Medway for the Memorial Day parade, have some time to do genealogy research locally, be within commuting distance of the Boston Marathon (which I intend to enter after I finish my training regimen), plant my New England garden, and still be there for my sister's annual family reunion party and Mom's birthday.

From the time I leave New England until the Stone Lake Cranberry Festival (first weekend in October), I want to live in Stone Lake.  I love trees and lakes and they have plenty there.  It's a little late to start a garden (unless I swing over and plant one on my way to New England) but it's the coolest place to spend the summer (literally) and I'll have plenty of time to spend with Bill and his daughters and just enjoy the natural beauty.  I just love trees and water- and they have plenty of that there.

From the time I leave the Great Woods until Christmas, I want to live in or near Medway MA.  I love fall in Massachusetts and the natural beauty of the foliage along I-495 (which passes through Medway) is known to be one of the prettiest.  This also gives me a chance to harvest the New England garden.  There is no better place to spend Thanksgiving than New England, and would love to tour all the old historical places in Massachusetts in the Fall.  Also gives me a chance to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family- and to see the Christmas parade in Medway.

From New Years to Easter, I want to be in Florida.  Florida gardening season last from September to December and March to July, so this plan really doesn't include a Florida garden unless I swing south between Stone Lake and Medway to plant and then come back down between New Haven and Stone Lake to harvest.  In Florida, I can catch up with old friends, visit with my family in the Orlando area, and visit theme parks with my son.

The main problem with all this is financing.  I will have the income to just live simply but not have the assets to travel and maintain four homes.  It might help to rent out those homes on a weekly or monthly basis while I am not there, but there is the problem with down payments and all the travel etc.  I have to find a way to make a living writing to make this dream feasible at all. So here I start over again with this blog.  One way to make this more fun is the idea of being the Answer Lady.  I find that whenever anyone wants to know anything, I can find the answers- either with my research or my problem-solving abilities (both of which are considerable).  One of the most popular times with this blog was when I was doing the DOSE series where I essentially chronicled all the answers to the questions that I asked myself each day.  But if would be more fun (and challenging) if other people asked the questions or posed the problems.  So if you have a question- ask in the comments- and I'll write a blog about it the next morning.

Tomorrow I'm going to discuss my question about finding a way to get rid of gray hair by understanding the natural processes that produce gray hair in the first place.  Until then!