So, what do I think about on the end of that dock? A little bit of everything. Sometimes its inconsequential minutiae like why is it that I like Tony Soprano so much despite the fact that he is basically a sociopath. Other times I recall fond memories from my life. But lately I find myself consumed with the future. Suddenly I am faced with the prospect of major life decisions that will need to be made, decisions that arise when you retire and welcome a grandchild into your life—both wonderful things—but also game changers. The hard part is that any one decision you make has a ripple effect on every other decision that you have to make, like a row of dominoes before you. There are lots of moving parts to our lives now.
The First Domino
-We have lived in our house for nearly 30 years now. It’s paid for and we love our neighborhood. We just rebuilt the kitchen. If we sold it today we would have a nice pile of cash. With that cash we could buy or build a new house with a first floor bedroom—which I am told is a must-have for people of a certain age. Or, we could stay where we are, continue the upgrade process and do battle with stairs for the rest of our lives.
The Second Domino
-With the arrival of Silas, our life and priorities seem to have been completely altered overnight. It is killing Pam not to be close to him, not to be able to help with his care, to be a bigger presence in his life. It’s a six hour drive, not conducive for dropping by with a pot of soup when one of them gets sick. We could buy a condo near them for peanuts so we would have a place to stay that would accommodate long visits. There are very nice 3 bedroom 2 bath condos in Columbia we could pick up for less than 300K, but we would have to furnish it. I suppose that when we weren’t using it we could rent it via AirBNB, but it would be in Columbia for crying out loud—a place that offers nothing but 100 degree heat and Gamecock football—not exactly a tourist destination! Then, what happens when my son and daughter-in-law have a child? Then there’s the prospect that our kids will move to other cities. What would we do then?
The Third Domino
- We are still looking for a lake house in Maine. Every time we are here we are reminded of how much we love this place. We could make the buying easier if we just lived here year round. With the proceeds from the sale of our house in Short Pump, we could buy a lake house large enough to accommodate our growing family for years to come. This delightful prospect brings with it two problems. The first is that we have built a life in Short Pump. That’s where most of our friends live. That’s where our church family is. That’s where both of our extended families live. If we lived in Maine, instead of being six and nine hours away from our kids, we would be two days of driving away from our kids. Also, there’s the little issue of Maine winters, which would make dealing with stairs feel like child’s play!
There are two possible solutions to this dilemma. The first would be for both of our kids to move closer to us, somewhere within a three hour drive. Problem solved. The second solution is for one of my novels to hit it big, the resulting financial windfall allowing me to buy condos in Columbia and Nashville, a lake house in Maine and buy one of those stair-master deluxe model II’s for our house in Short Pump.
But you know what I don’t think about at 6:45 in the morning at the end of that dock? Stuff that doesn’t matter.
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