MASS Exodus: Spring Update, May 2011

It has been a while and lots of things are happening here so I figured I would update where we are now in the process. So here goes.

Number one priority, the house has been put on the market. After discussion with our realtor, we decided to put the house up with a higher price than we expected to get such that there was some wiggle room and area for givebacks related to the work that must be done on the home – the new septic system and new roof. These two jobs come with written estimates totaling about $21K. After two weeks we had two people look at the house, remark about the work needed to be done along with updating and cosmetic work, and pass. Our realtor has now proposed a change in strategy, where we market it as a rehab project, with a much lower price. This makes some sense to us but of course is a blow to our ego as we struggle with things like overpriced and updating. We also have decided to put the last of our funds into getting rid of our underground oil tank, moving it to our basement. Banks giving mortgages frown on underground oil tanks even though ours was certified by our oil company because we are on an auto fill system and they had to pressurize it to make sure of the size when calculating the monthly bill. Other things already accomplished or in process – Front bay window, repaired, broken bedroom window fixed and put back in, shed doors replaced, new shed rafters to be done this weekend, washing out of basement, Saturday afternoon job, new grass by new well, planted. Grass in yard cut. The list is endless, endless I say.

I have to admit that Mrsfabp and I have been having difficulty with all the stress this is creating. We are short with each other, generally grumpy about it all and having some trouble on the communication front. However, these are usually short lived and we work through it all pretty quickly but it is there and a pain and we keep trying to be supportive of each other through this all. This process sucks and we both recognize that.

Now onto some more stressful stuff, my own retirement. I finally completed my paperwork for a retirement date, including the request for a reclassification. The reclassification was a necessary thing as this state does not recognize clinical work as direct service. This could be a 10% difference in my monthly pension. At least 7 clinicians that have retired in the last 2 years have applied for it and gotten it but to me, the stress of waiting is immense and just has me worried. To top this off, there is a new bill introduced into the Massachusetts senate to offer an early retirement incentive. They have been trying to get the workers in the 50-60 year old range out of the jobs because the newer workers pay more toward retirement, thus building up the retirement account. Sounds good to me, as if I need extra incentive to retire. This just gets to be a problem with the timing of both the house sale, move plan and retirement date.

Just what I need a bit more stress. By the time July comes I am going to need a green chile cheeseburger and craft beer badly. At least I will be able to get one in Las Cruces.

It’s déjà vu all over again…

With apologies to the great Yogi Berra, philosopher and ballplayer…

Almost all of us has experienced it sometimes in our life. You remember the experience, the weird feelings you get that you have been somewhere before or said something like that or been a part of something, somewhere, sometime. We call it déjà vu, and I had an interesting experience with it today.

Now, I used to get these experiences all the time. Often they seemed to be several minutes in place or included seeing things I never had seen but would swear that I had before. Through my early thirties, I seemed to have them regularly, frequently even. Then it stopped. Maybe once in a great while I might have that feeling but it was momentary, quick, lacked the detail that it used to have. I must say, I missed it. It was always a very cool feeling, especially when you realized that you were having one of those experiences. And it was fun to try to piece it together.

It has been a long, long time since I had experienced one of those feelings, years, perhaps more than a decade. That is until last Friday.

I was in a meeting, in a place that I go to for meetings very regularly. At this meeting were maybe 10 people, all of whom I had been at a meeting with, in this particular room, before. Different times of the day, different circumstances, perhaps never this exact group of people before but maybe. There were however, two people there who had never been in this meeting room before, had never met with this group of people. As I sat listening to someone speak, I suddenly had a feeling of familiarity, as if this situation had occurred before. I happened to look at one of the people I had just mention was never in this setting with the rest of us, and he did something with his glasses and suddenly for a few seconds, it all came back to me, what was said, what was done, what was happening. I got a weird feeling in my head, and it was over. The déjà vu had passed and it was just a meeting again.

I don’t know what causes this phenomenon. The brain is a complex organ and who know how or why we experience any of these things. Perhaps dreams becoming real, perhaps the brain making up connections that really don’t exist. Maybe a time shift in the very fabric of the universe complete with time/reality shifting anomalies.

Perhaps it’s just none of the above…

Celebration!

A once in a lifetime event occurred last Sunday evening. Perhaps one of the most evil people we have known was killed by US Special forces in Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden had been hiding there for the last 5 years and through the extraordinary efforts of US Intelligence, Navy Seals and the President of the United States, was found and summarily executed.

In the US, when the news broke there was a significant reaction by many people in the United States and around the world. They celebrated. They gathered together on college campuses, by the White House, at Ground Zero in NYC, in streets all around the world and celebrated. There was singing and dancing and shouts and chants of joy. But some people have been very critical of the celebration, saying that we are insensitive to celebrate the death of another person no matter how heinous the crime. They said things like if the parents of someone who was murdered had a party on the day the murderer was killed as punishment with a lethal injection, we too would feel that this was wrong and out of place.

There is one significant difference in this scenario however. In the case of the parents, the scope of the murder and who it touches is small. Family members, relatives and friends. The collapse of the World Trade Center affected all of us by its nature, a terrorist attack on our country. Even if you had no connection to any of the victims, you were impacted in some way. Life in our whole country changed that day, and not for the better.

The celebrations that night were not generally vindictive. They were a celebration of our unity, our citizenship, our freedoms. It was an emotional out pouring of relief. I know that we will still have to fear terrorists, fear what they might do. But we had the opportunity to celebrate that this individual, Osama Bin Laden would not be affecting us ever again.

I talked with someone who was at Ground Zero last Sunday. Jill, a good friend, told us that the celebration there helped fill the hole that was all that was now left at Ground Zero, that people came together spontaneously and that in some way healing was taking place.

That is good enough for me. Go ahead and celebrate. Remember if only for a few minutes, that feeling of nationalism, of patriotism, of freedom from oppression. Just remember, the moment is fleeting and there is always more work to be done.

What does this mean???

Look, I think of myself as being pretty internet savvy. What I have not learned for myself, from years of trolling the ‘tubes, I have gotten lessons from 2 savvy social media consultants, my kids. So, I always find myself up on the latest internet stories, hoaxes and memes. Rarely does someone say to me, “Hey did you see this on the internet?” with my response being “No, I have not.” I look at Reddit every day, Digg, even Fark sometimes, have an RSS feeder with perhaps 40 blogs and news sources like “Chicks Dig the Fastball” and “The Zees Go West” (for my Las Cruces fix), the Atlantic and Digital Trends and The Daily Beast and Freakonomics. Hell, my son is part of a YouTube video that has 10K views in a week. I am up to date, I am connected, I am hip.

But I missed this one.

Look, I don’t giggle to much at baby videos, or dumb kids falling while skateboarding videos or kids getting hit in the groin videos but show me an animal video and you got my attention. Show me a buffalo charging someone in a national park, I laugh. Show me a kitty catching a bird in mid flight, I guffaw. Show me a bunch of baby ducks getting blown around on a street, or a flock of geese walking down a street, and I get the uncontrolled LOL, tears in my eyes, laughfest. Sorry that’s just who I am.

So yesterday, after seeing a short clip of a video a man did a where he made his dog “talk” on Ray William Johnsons YouTube channel “= 3” my interest level was raised to Defcon 3. I searched for the original and found it and spent a good ten minutes laughing about it. It’s silly and dumb and I love it. I love it because it is creative and such an easy idea to come up with but I think harder to write and create.

If you have a couple of minutes, check this video out. http://www.youtube.com/user/klaatu42 This is the sort of thing I envision our friends Bill and Clair do with their menagerie of pets – dogs and cats and now chickens, talking with them and them talking back to them.

So, what does this mean? Am I getting senile in my old age? Am I losing my grip on reality? I think I am scaring myself…

So Proud…

I have wanted to be an internet star for a while. Being that I have a face for radio, I thought it might be through the participation in a podcast, a sort of an internet radio show. We have been working toward that goal for more than 3 ½ years but there may be something good happening on the horizon. Watch this space for details about the good news or bad news over the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I get to live the life of an internet star vicariously through my son CollegeBoy. It seems that he and his very creative roommates and a close friend put together a song parody related to the political story of the decade and something interesting has happened. Let me tell you about it.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the southern tier of New York State to visit my son at college. While there we spent time with his roommates and a good friend of theirs. This is a very creative group of individuals. CB is into Marketing Communications, the others there are all in the creative arts – screen plays/ script writing, film making etc. One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing some film they were working on and having fun with.

So Sunday night at 11:35 pm, President Obama announced that evil incarnate, Osama Bin Laden had been killed in a raid in Pakistan. This set moving a flood of interesting events. There were wild celebrations at various college campuses across the country, a celebratory vigil at Ground Zero, the World Trade Center site. A friend of mine was involved at Ground Zero and she agreed to be interviewed on the podcast we do and in a tiny apartment complex upstate, 5 college students hatched an idea for a music video, a song parody focused on what had happened. I spent all day Monday preparing for an interesting interview. These college kids spent 12 hours, ending at 4 am writing, singing, filming and editing a video. This video was uploaded to YouTube sometime early Tuesday morning and the social networking push went into effect. There were tweets and emails and Facebook posts, likes and retweets and instant messages flying all over the internet and cyberspace. The results? As of now, Thursday morning after just about 48 hours, there have been over 7000 views of the video. These kids are internet stars and the excitement is contagious. If you haven’t watched the video yet, it is here. Lets all give a standing ovation to #17oh2, the video production company! They could be on the cusp of viral video status!

As for my contribution to this ongoing story, we are in serious edit of the interview we did with a podcast friend who was at the Ground Zero celebration. It is moving and emotional and funny and insightful and should make it to the internet on Thursday sometime. Check us out at http://www.csapodcast.blogspot.com/ to listen to it or download it from iTunes when it becomes available.

In my next post, I will address the whole issue of celebration in regards to this major event in US history…

My New Mexico Bucket List

So, the time has come to release my own bucket list. It is a bit long, does not include everything yet and ends with a few last minute additions sent by my friend on the ground in Las Cruces, Bill, who is living the retired life and enjoying the hell out of it. Here goes...

-check out the new Las Cruces minor league baseball team, the Las Cruces Vaqueros (Cowboy in Spanish) Love their logo

-go to cowboy storytelling some evening
-take a class in digital photography editing like for photoshop
-create a line of New Mexico Note cards like I did for New England note cards so many years ago -go into the desert after a rain to smell the air; I understand it is sweet and unique-go to some NMSU basketball games and see the next Dwayne Wade
-do some of those park education and tours events, you know, the one where the park ranger is dressed in one of those green uniforms (think Yogi Bear and Mr. Ranger…)

-take the Rail Runner Express Train from Belen to Albuquerque and Santa Fe

-watch the desert sunset with a nice glass of wine (did it with beer already, want a changeup…)

-try some other NM wines; my friend Maqz thinks they can’t be too good because it is so dry there. I’m out to prove him wrong or get tipsy trying…

-expand my beer making dynasty by adding a new beer to the Blue Canary Cream Ale we make already; another cream ale perhaps, a different ale, a lager…who knows?

-be around for a chile roasting day; I have done some of my own on such a small scale, I want to see it done in the giant cylinder roasters and buy them fresh

-get a small freezer to store all the green chilies we are going to buy
-plan to save a small space in it for Caliches (see The Great SouthWest Passage aka Chronicles of Las Cruces: Part 12 - "Ending on a sweet, sweet note…”)

-try some different green chile foods – like GC spring rolls, GC meatballs. I plan to work on a recipe for GC meatballs and a GC Meatloaf…my friend Bill in LCNM has tried hot chile powder on frozen custard. Wow, this could be the best of both worlds – green chile topped Caliches…

-see another road runner

-feeding birds to see the different types in the south west

-walk the Farmer’s market to buy Christmas presents.

-go to some NMSU baseball games to see the next Derek Jeter

-go ATVing in the desert-feeding hummingbirds and taking photos of them in order to document other varieties
-spend more time on my book; it has been more difficult than I thought to spend the necessary time on it but I do want to do it
-drink pinon coffee every day of my retirement
-get a juicer and make some healthy fruit/vegetable drinks and smoothies

My friend Bill provided the following addendum - I think Clair may have had a voice in this too...
-The Owl Café which makes the best chile cheese burger in the southwest
-La Vina Winery with its summer concerts and wine tastings
-Nellie's Restaurant for the Las Cruces gang breakfast (8:00AM every Sat---join us!!!)
-the Bosque, Las Cruces state park
-Dripping Springs natural area
-Visit the towns of Pecos, Shiprock, and Jornada

Remember, this list is ever expanding, like our universe and is complete with a blog post subject material for each of the items on the list!

I need to create a New Mexico Bucket List

Most people are probably familiar with the Rob Reiner film “Bucket List” with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It is the story of two terminally ill men who leave a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die. I admit up front I have not seen it but do want to. I also admit that I am not saying I want to create a list of things to do before I die.

Rather, both Mrsfabp and I see our lives right now as an adventure, an adventure in many different parts. After the parts about our childhoods and school years and early adult lives, we found each other. Some may even say saved each other. And then the real adventure began. Living together and getting to know each other was one. Deciding to leave NYC and move to the country was another. Deciding to have and raise two great kids was another. My own medical issues, still another. And now, we have an opportunity to take part in another adventure, together, and are raring to go. The plan to retire to New Mexico, away from our families, friends and the place where we lived the last 30 years is not one made lightly. It is a decision born of much thought, discussion and chance, wrapped up in enough emotion to power a small city for weeks on end. But it is our decision, one we have not taken lightly.

One thing that really drives us right now is the chance to explore. I am not comparing us to Columbus or da Gama but really, when one thinks about it, this is a trek into the unknown. We won’t have to barter with the natives (though we might) and we don’t have to worry about storms at sea but still the intrigue and lure of a new culture is so very exciting. This is why I think I need to create my own bucket list for the adventure, to make sure that I see what I want to see and experience what I want to experience, along with mrsfabp, my life partner. I’ll miss my family and friends and even New England at times but I don’t want to miss this adventure either. Next post, I will start my own New Mexico bucket list…Time is “a wasting.”