Meanwhile in Michigan...

[Buster Highmen]

Is this another exercise in trivializing other peoples experience in order to extoll the spectacularly magnificent virtues of my own decisions?

Anyway, ias, vibes, heart, I'm pulling for you, don't let the bastards get you down and really if there's anything I can do, let me know.

[skaredshtles]

If life for you is that simple and easy, count your blessings.

Agreed. Life is only like that for a short time (between the ages of 18 and 30, roughly). So my old-man advice for the kids is: get your ass out there and see shit, and decide where you might be able to tolerate living for 15-20 years. 'Cause life is short and fucking time accelerates as you get older.

I, personally, blame Einstein and his "Relativity" shit for this.

[snowaddict91]

I should have prefaced that I'm typically talking to my friends in their 20s but I was a few beers deep and that was what came out on the keyboard. I get that there are complications that arise, especially with age.

I went through a really tough time when my dad passed away and moved home to Ohio for the summer. I felt myself starting to get trapped and realized right then and there that I had to get back to the mountains no matter how hard it was.

[ill-advised strategy]

Is this another exercise in trivializing other peoples experience in order to extoll the spectacularly magnificent virtues of my own decisions?

Anyway, ias, vibes, heart, I'm pulling for you, don't let the bastards get you down and really if there's anything I can do, let me know.

The way we see it at this point, in the next few years there will come a time when my my wife and I and a little dog are going to arrive somewhere needing work and housing and whatnot. I’ll probably ask maggots wherever we’re going for information pointing us in the right direction so we’re not wasting years of strife and heartache moving around to different shitty apartments and getting fucked over in different shitty jobs. That’s been the experience every time I’ve ever moved anywhere...because I’ve always been poor, so it’s always been camping until I find the first shitty job and renting a room with strangers or shitty apartment, then clawing away for years to find better housing and work step by step.
Some of why I’m here is that I was too old and broken to do that one more time, and my fallback process of things like farm work or construction labor or forestry became impossible with my back problems. So I came back here where I had a cabin to stay. I thought I had more or less used up whatever life the world had for me at that point, nothing had worked out favorably for me in many years, and I would run out of money and kill myself somewhere where my mom wouldn’t have to deal with some out of town authorities to bury my body as opposed to doing that elsewhere.

A lot of what keeps us here is me knowing how hard that moving process is, and not wanting to put my wife and dog through it just so I can be closer to skiing. Obviously I want to be around skiing, and cool people, and be in a more functional place that isn’t in an active day-to-day, year-to-year process of decay like the rural upper midwest...the trouble is in the details of getting that done in a way that doesn’t just trade one set of profound difficulties for a different set of profound difficulties equal to or worse than what we’re leaving.

So trying to bypass those worst aspects of moving and trying to re-establish elsewhere would be the help. A good pair of jobs and decent living situation upon arrival somewhere would be everything to us.

[PNWbrit]

Thanks for the explanation.. Be happy to help when and if you need it.

[ACH]

Thanks for the explanation.. Be happy to help when and if you need it.

X2 man...

When i read your thread bump post, i have to say I felt a degree of validation for never having gone back (home).
My home and family is out here now, that place and time from the past is another (or maybe several) lifetime, in another galaxy, far, far away.

[ncskier]

The way we see it at this point, in the next few years there will come a time when my my wife and I and a little dog are going to arrive somewhere needing work and housing and whatnot. I’ll probably ask maggots wherever we’re going for information pointing us in the right direction so we’re not wasting years of strife and heartache moving around to different shitty apartments and getting fucked over in different shitty jobs. That’s been the experience every time I’ve ever moved anywhere...because I’ve always been poor, so it’s always been camping until I find the first shitty job and renting a room with strangers or shitty apartment, then clawing away for years to find better housing and work step by step.
Some of why I’m here is that I was too old and broken to do that one more time, and my fallback process of things like farm work or construction labor or forestry became impossible with my back problems. So I came back here where I had a cabin to stay. I thought I had more or less used up whatever life the world had for me at that point, nothing had worked out favorably for me in many years, and I would run out of money and kill myself somewhere where my mom wouldn’t have to deal with some out of town authorities to bury my body as opposed to doing that elsewhere.

A lot of what keeps us here is me knowing how hard that moving process is, and not wanting to put my wife and dog through it just so I can be closer to skiing. Obviously I want to be around skiing, and cool people, and be in a more functional place that isn’t in an active day-to-day, year-to-year process of decay like the rural upper midwest...the trouble is in the details of getting that done in a way that doesn’t just trade one set of profound difficulties for a different set of profound difficulties equal to or worse than what we’re leaving.

So trying to bypass those worst aspects of moving and trying to re-establish elsewhere would be the help. A good pair of jobs and decent living situation upon arrival somewhere would be everything to us.

I'm sure you could get a million suggestions, but at some point you should try submitting your writings at the very least. Your descriptions of people, the spaces they inhabit and the strife, resonate with many here. Perhaps a book about your return to Michigan. Something along the lines of "Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War" it's a great book and the author is now deceased, but I'd read just about anything you write, fiction or non-fiction. You are a great writer. In fact, your writing and prose is better then 90% of the crap I read daily. I honestly feel like I've been to your town and ridden the bus you drive. You have gift and it doesn't require a strong back

[Kinnikinnick]

The way we see it at this point, in the next few years there will come a time when my my wife and I and a little dog are going to arrive somewhere needing work and housing and whatnot. I’ll probably ask maggots wherever we’re going for information pointing us in the right direction so we’re not wasting years of strife and heartache moving around to different shitty apartments and getting fucked over in different shitty jobs. That’s been the experience every time I’ve ever moved anywhere...because I’ve always been poor, so it’s always been camping until I find the first shitty job and renting a room with strangers or shitty apartment, then clawing away for years to find better housing and work step by step.
Some of why I’m here is that I was too old and broken to do that one more time, and my fallback process of things like farm work or construction labor or forestry became impossible with my back problems. So I came back here where I had a cabin to stay. I thought I had more or less used up whatever life the world had for me at that point, nothing had worked out favorably for me in many years, and I would run out of money and kill myself somewhere where my mom wouldn’t have to deal with some out of town authorities to bury my body as opposed to doing that elsewhere.

A lot of what keeps us here is me knowing how hard that moving process is, and not wanting to put my wife and dog through it just so I can be closer to skiing. Obviously I want to be around skiing, and cool people, and be in a more functional place that isn’t in an active day-to-day, year-to-year process of decay like the rural upper midwest...the trouble is in the details of getting that done in a way that doesn’t just trade one set of profound difficulties for a different set of profound difficulties equal to or worse than what we’re leaving.

So trying to bypass those worst aspects of moving and trying to re-establish elsewhere would be the help. A good pair of jobs and decent living situation upon arrival somewhere would be everything to us.

Dude man!

Make a plan and start it in small ways. Decide on where you’d like to move. Make s plan for what you need to do to get there, maybe just get a camper van and camp all over the place and figure out where you want to be. Also make a plan to get in shape and lose weight. Start training for your adventure.

Life’s too short to not have another adventure. Plan it or it won’t happen.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[snowaddict91]

Dude man!

Make a plan and start it in small ways. Decide on where you’d like to move. Make s plan for what you need to do to get there, maybe just get a camper van and camp all over the place and figure out where you want to be. Also make a plan to get in shape and lose weight. Start training for your adventure.

Life’s too short to not have another adventure. Plan it or it won’t happen.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Agreed. Even if it seems like a far-fantasy, start setting attainable goals to get there, even if they seem silly and insignificant.

[muted]

Let me know if you move to UT and I’ll help you out. As far as advice goes, if I were you I’d...haha just kidding you know how things work. Never mind. Good luck man.

[neufox47]

If life for you is that simple and easy, count your blessings.

You’ve been through some shit man. Hope there are snowier days in your future. Happy to help out if I can.

Have you ever pursued writing professionally? I don’t know shit about it but as others have said you are good at it. Getting a book written is always a long shot but what about editing, etc? Seems like there should be some way for you to put that talent to use.

[Wrecked]

Hard to make a career out of writing but...

I have searched for the threads in my spare time...and spent hours re reading your accounts of taos. Pretty sure I’ve recommended them to a friend too.... it’s legendary stuff.

[ill-advised strategy]

what about editing, etc? Seems like there should be some way for you to put that talent to use.

Yeah, you know, you would think. The big problem seems to be getting a foot in the door. I’ve offered to edit for people, they decline...actually they usually just don’t respond.
You should see the appeal I just wrote to our union overlords...it was a real scathing motherfucker and it should have worked. Didn’t matter. Waste of time. Days of unpaid effort, appellant quit, nobody even said thanks. Wife thinks I’m an idiot for spending my time writing cases for free. Where’s that GIF of an elephant shitting on a guy’s head.