A Time For Reflection...!

Well, it's the first day of the new year and time for me to look at my plans for the immediate future...

First, let me say that I'm a simple man. I don't ask for much, nor do I expect it. Like most people, I've had a dream for a long time of having some land in the country paid for...not a big spread, just big enough so that I could move myself and my family out to it and live a simple life.

The only problems with that idea were that no one shared my enthusiasm for them. When I was married the last time, my wife and I discussed this idea at great length. She was really behind the idea...or so I thought!

We ended up buying 13 acres in east Texas, just 6 miles outside of her home town. The land was all woods (mostly hardwoods with some pine), had a small creek running through one side, and was about a half mile from the small lake outside of town. Perfect!

Since we were living in Austin at the time, the wife and kids (2 step children) stayed in Austin, and I got out of the cab business, sold all of my cabs, and moved to east Texas. I put a small travel trailer on the property, had some of the trees selectively cut and sold them to a tree harvester, and started work on the property.

I had got a full time job at that time as the sporting goods manager at W**-Mart, an ideal job for someone living in the country that liked to hunt and fish. I would work all day at the store, drive home to my small trailer, work on pulling stumps and clearing brush, running all the water lines from the county road at the property's edge by hand, took care of getting the electric company set up and power run to the trailer. Took me the better part of a year to get a place cleared and cleaned where we wanted the cabin.

I met a lady in town whose husband had died and who had a 2 story barn shaped workshop in her back yard. She said if I would tear it down, I could have the wood if I would haul it off. So I did just that! Hauled that lumber out to my place, pulled nails, organized boards by size, burned the bad ones in my wood burning stove and heater (my wife's uncle had given me one) and with my then father in law's help, laid out the stakes and ground work for the cabin.

During this time, the wife and kids would come and visit off and on...never staying very long. That is, until the time came to start building. Somehow I lost all control and input as to how I wanted things done. The wife moved down with the kids, her brother showed up for a visit with some friends and nail guns and plans, the father in law came over daily...everybody started building . The framework, sub flooring, walls, roof, windows, outside doors...everything was completed in 2 days time. Most of which, I was at work and not included in the construction.

Now, don't get me wrong...I appreciated the help...but didn't like the fact that everything was done to conform to how everyone but me thought the cabin should be done. Short version of the rest is that after the framing, all left. I did the rest...the siding, tin roof, the whole thing.

Four months later while I was at work, the wife packed up the kids, took what she wanted, threw everything else in the front yard and started a fire with it, and left. No note, no explanation, just gone. Just me and the dog left in the dream cabin (unfinished) in the woods near the wife's home town.

Within a year, I had lost my job, my family, my cabin and land, my dog was killed by a wandering pack, my truck blew up, I had heart trouble and had to leave the country and move back to Houston to be close to the V.A. and slowly began to dream and plan all over again.

That is when HermitJim came about. I learned a lot of lessons during that year! Lessons I won't soon forget...

No more letting others take over my dreams and plans. No more letting others decide my future. No more trying to shape what and who I am to please others. No more living in places I don't really want to live in. In short, what you see is what you get. If you ask, I'll share my plans...but they are NOT open to discussion.

I don't do crowds. I don't do clubs. I don't do anything to put myself in harms way just to impress or show off. If you don't like what I say, don't listen. If you don't like what I do, don't watch. If you don't like my lifestyle, I DON'T CARE !!! It's mine, not yours.Got it? Good!

Sorry for the long winded post...just wanted to get that off my chest first thing this year! I appreciate you taking the time to read my little rant...

Now, let me buy you a cup of coffee, my friend!