Plan 40

Mapping out 2018 in the context of various scenarios.  Take a step back.  This may be a long one...

The current thinking is heavily invested in Freeport, and why not?  It lines up nicely with recent reveries, represents a safe and steady glide path out of this office while leaving action items for next summer, until the full transition around the time of the 40th.  And (most notably?) offers the requisite freedom from November to May each year.  Call it option (a), for now.

Is there any conceivable option that sees you stay here through 2019 and beyond?  At this point, difficult to fathom.  But I have had such thoughts before, of course.  Depends on the distractions, and what files may come along, the tariff renewal prime among them.  All the more reason to set up and pull the trigger on an escape before that starts in earnest.  Every day, looking at the conflict reports, there are so few matters that you would want to get involved in.  And, as always, it is later than you think.

If that is the case, what is option (b)?  What else to turn over in the mind in Patagonia and beyond, since the place could always sell, you and L may simply fail to come to terms, or a few additional drives out there could chill the feet past the point of jumping.  What are the other options to fill your tall ship dreams?

Go back through this blog, note the prior entries over the past year, at various points over the past 10 years.  Similar questions dominate.  The need to travel, and the desire for company in the process where possible.  The need for the proper balance of time and money to make it work. 

One change with age, and since the condo purchase, is the need/want for a place of your own.  Modest, filled with trinkets and delights.  Motivation for gathering souvenirs from the road.  Since the partnership was won, that thinking has crystallized into the idea of a place in Nova Scotia on the ocean.  The condo has served its purpose, but it lacks a bit of character, uniqueness, independence.  The next chapter seemingly requires that new spot, and likely a transition out of the living quarters that are beginning to grow somewhat stale on account of time served.

Option (a) checks the box of a new place, even offering up the idea of a flyer offer on 111 Water as a further 2019 purchase, if things are running smoothly and the condo is sold off.  What others do?  The MFA looms, but the tuition is sizeable and the issue of the topic remains elusive.  I see no sense in sliding right into it on the back of Antarctica, so that means 2019 at the earliest.  No need to push out the application yet.  But it appeals. 

So let's call it option (b).  Same time frame for departure as (a), but what it lacks in commitment it could make up for in flexibility.  Biggest downside I see is that it leaves you in the wind come graduation in 2021, but that is so far out that you can take that as it comes.  May be able to get by with a rental of the condo and no new purchase as part of it, although hard to see the MFA working without a bach.  Something to wonder about, and there may be new properties available come next May to test your fancy as compared to the cow ledge.

On that note, I would say option (c) is the status quo beyond 2019 and 40.  Even writing it out makes me want to reject it out of hand.  But the thought of finding another full-time office job that would provide similar perks to this one seems impossible.  And every extra dollar banked is one that does not have to be earned (or provides something to spend it on), or allows for the purchase of a more convenient and idyllic hideaway.  It is not the dream at the moment, as it does not provide the adventurous break that seems needed psychologically, but it is a path that bookies would set decent odds on.

Which brings me to the ill-defined, catch-all option (d).  The most nuclear, uncertain, and flexible.  No property purchase (unless it results in a cheap exchange for the condo), no business, no MFA, and notice provided.  Maybe in the fall of 2018 in time for Tibet, maybe in the spring of 2019 in time for Central America.  This is the vagabond route.  No direction home.  The opposite of (c).  The "to be continued" option in which you set out and figure things out on the road.  A (potentially) lonelier option at that.  But something to dream about, in stark contrast to others.

Those seem the paths, this workless TFI Friday.  Only three more until Gatsby, as the cleanse continues.  One thing is constant.  There is always a next trip to London.