First of all we moved. Mandy was offered a job that she just couldn’t refuse and our thought process at the time was I will only be working at most six more years .Moving closer to her employment seemed to make the most sense. Moving was a wild ride. I didn’t believe our house was going to sell especially for the exorbitant price we were asking for it. Within 22 hours we had three full price offers. The offer we excepted was a cash offer. The people buying our house closed on October 15 and we closed on the new home October 16. We had 24 hours to be out of the house. Thank God for really good friends or we would not have finished on time. It is amazing how much actual crap a family collects over a 15 years span living in one place. We hauled off at least 10 loads to the dump and recycling center, had a garage sale, and gave a truckload of stuff to goodwill. We still had a carport full of stuff that we gave away to whoever would take it.
We love our new home. It was only five years old when we purchased it and it is everything we always dreamed of but never thought we could afford. We have six beautiful acres with a year-round creek running through the back of the property. We can see our closest neighbor but we have to walk out into the driveway to do it. Deer and elk graze through our property regularly and we have seen bear and Cougar scat on occasion.. We really are in B.F.E. though. I mean we are only 1/2 a mile from a Highway but once you are on the highway it is a half hour to the grocery store.
In January 2021 I began having a lot of pain in my knees again. My orthopedic surgeon said there was nothing he could do but replace the joints. My oncologist said no way due to bone metastasis. Long story short, I am now retired. Sonically security approved my disability claim in 6 weeks and I will be signing paperwork at the end of the year to make it official. Adjusting too early retirement has been challenging. This really came as a surprise to me. I couldn’t wait for retirement and eight months into this process I am only just now starting to get comfortable with it. I have lots of stuff to keep me busy. I spent the last five weeks fishing for salmon and deer hunting. I did pretty good at both. Elk hunting season begins on Saturday. Although washington State elk hunting success rates average one elk every 10 years I have managed to do significantly better than that filling the freezer on average every other year. Hopefully in two weeks we will have a freezer full of venison elk steak summer sausage and salmon. ever since my diagnosis in 2006, I have refrained from eating much pork or beef unless it was organically farmed locally. Basically all we eat is wild game wild fish and organic poultry. I am not a trophy Hunter. I hunt for food.
Once hunting season is over then fishing season for winter steelhead arrives. After that the holidays and then snowmobiling season. All of these things are used to do while working full-time. I have no idea how I accomplish this. It seems I never have enough time to get anything done.
Yesterday was Oncology day. All my blood work came back normal so at 15 years 4 months and 26 days from diagnosis cancer still remains undetectable. I hope to enjoy 15 or 16 years of retirement. I don’t wanna be one of those guys who works his entire life retires and passes away a few years later. I guess that’s really out of my hands so I will just give it over to God‘s will.
