My Life As I Know It

Back in Medellin

We had 10 great days in Santa Marta before returning to Medellin. There are remarkable differences between the two cities which are a short hour flight apart. Santa Marat has much history, the Caribbean, coastal weather cooled somewhat by mountain air, and a completely different people/culture. Santa Marta is around 500,000 people where Medellin is over 3 million. Santa Marat has many areas still developing and often is not as clean and proper. However, we noticed positive changes over the past two years.

Our condo is on a smaller beach that is not packed with people or people selling their wares. When we bought it in 2018, we said in five years things are going to change dramatically. The build-up has begun and new building are being built next to us and a shopping center and twin towers behind us. It mill move out some of the very old shacks, the roosters, and bring some peace to the area. While the beach is not as nice as Colorado Beach, it is quieter and that is what we prefer.

This was a great trip thanks to our friends Andy and Ana. They helped us fix a number of issues including installing a new American style toilet. More importantly, they introduced us to other residence who will develop into friends. We hosted them for Thanksgiving and hiked with them to Inca Inca early Saturday morning. Our condo looks great and has a remarkable view and position facing the sea. We are very blessed by our friends both old and new.

Thanksgiving 2021

Clearly it is a different Thanksgiving today than last year and, possibly, many years. The pandemic has impacted many things. Personally, this was a day for a large family celebration at my house that became a tradition for nearly two decades. The largest gathering was over fifty people. Since my divorce in 2016, most everything has changed. The first Thanksgiving, my son and his girlfriend (at that time), drove four hours to celebrate with us. That act of giving is one of the things I am most thankful for today. Our Thanksgiving evolved and got to a maximum of 16 family members before last year being shutdown completely.

Today, we are in Santa Marta Colombia and teaming with a couple we are closest to here. He is American and she is Colombian and we decided to have an American feast. Today we will have eight people - three Americans and five Colombians. For most of the Colombians, it will be a first. On the menu, split between Andy and I, is 15 pound turkey, stuffing, 5 pounds mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, apple pie, and wine. I am looking forward to sharing, cooking, laughing, and being thankful for all we have.

Thinking about this day, I come back to my deceased Mother. She always involved me in the preparations - grinding cranberries, buttering the rolls, setting the table and other small tasks that kept me engaged and busy. My Mother meant the world to me. We sit here today and different group - the vast majority of my family has moved on without much of a thought about me. I am sure it feels like I rejected them when in my heart it feels they have left me. I left my ex-wife, not my kids but it seems they feel they have to choose between the two of us.

I am blessed to have a loving, caring wife, a father who is active and very much alive at 95, a supporting brother and his family, a cousin who has been a friend all my life, and my wife's side which I consider family now. It is different and feels bad when I think through it but it was a choice I made and knew I would live with the consequences.

I am thankful for my family and all the great years. I complained about the work it took to host 50 people and today I miss it deeply. But it is my responsibility to create what I want. To make new friends, support my family, and nurture the relationships I have while building back the ones I have lost. I am blessed in so many ways. I am very thankful.

Different Venue

I am sitting outside on the balcony listening to the Caribbean waves crash and the sun light up Playa El Rodadero. We traveled from Medellin without problems - short drive to the airport, short flight, and friends picking us up. Andy and Ana have been friends for four years helping us in so many ways - fixing our apartment, supervising projects, translating, showing us the way here in northern Colombia. They are very giving people almost to the point of making it impossible to pay back the debt. Ana spent two days cleaning the apartment with her contact to prepare for our arrival. I could not think how any condo would take two days to clean but the wind/air here is remarkable in leaving everything dirty. They literally took pounds of dirty away from the 20 months that we were gone.

The feel here in Santa Marta is so much different. Clearly the caribbean weather but also the people, the rhythm, the feel is a different pace from Medellin. We are making up for being gone two years  and so many improvements have been done on the condo since we were gone. The building around us continues at a slow but constant pace and much more is schedule including a huge mall and grocery store within walking distance. The locals are reporting condo values up 35% from four years ago when we purchased. Sitting here watching the sea change with the morning sunlight, I understand why.

 

 

It has been way too long...

We finally made it back to Colombia after being away for nearly two years. It is strange to walk into your own house and rediscover clothes, dishes, and decorations. It wasn't all good as the internet was down, the debit card I needed did not arrive and the condo showed damage from roof leaks. However, this city is still remarkable. It draws me in - the large city in the mountain jungle, the latin way of living, and the people. It feels and looks different.

Today we will recover from travel, walk to the market, and have breakfast at a favorite place. We will relax, enjoy the mild weather and the new surroundings. This trip is a reconnect with Colombia and people vacation so not hard and fast plans other than to enjoy.

Since rereading Chasing Daylight, I have sought out "perfect moments". Time frames where everything seems to line up and a feeling of peace is within your heart. This morning at day break, I stood with my coffee and witnessed the break of daylight in the north woods. I listened closely hearing on the sounds a nature - a distant bird calling and a small squirrel looking for food at the tree tops. The beautiful light reflected in the lake and a spectrum of color spread out before my eyes. I revealed in the perfect moment.

It is early Saturday morning as the sun breaks in northern Wisconsin. We have worked for the past three days on the process of fixing, replacing, and updating the Baer Trail home. The changes we have made already seems to transform the house into a home. We are personalizing the look and feel while trying to make things rustic. It is something neither of us have done.

We have met and talked with so many people up here. They are much more willing to talk, give advice and tell stories than strangers do in Illinois. Everything seems to flow at a different pace. People drive a little slower, conversations are slightly longer, smiles are more frequent. Standing on the deck watching morning break, the peacefulness is striking. You hear the calls of swans and pileated woodpeckers. The daily visits from the deer in the front yard who don't move when you go out to get a tool from the garage demonstrates how little fear and rather curiosity there is from the animals.

Starting a New Challenge

I sit alone this morning in the tool filled, messy kitchen of my newest project. Two weeks ago, we closed on a home in the north woods of Wisconsin. It has been a dream of mine for a long time to own a property that was somewhat isolated and provided an opportunity to live in nature while still having modern conveniences. It was not an easy task to pare down what we really wanted, where it should be located, finding the right feel, having the right "bones", and making a purchase of the property in a crazy market. Each property had multiple offers with automatic escalating clause.  One property we  walked through and turned away was 50 years old with an unworkable floor plan sold for $475 and went back on the market two weeks later without any changes at $640.

Once I left the home I built in rural Iowa, I began the need for a place that I could work outside and would provide a window into nature from my front window. (Just now, I looked out and it is snowing, the moon lighting up the yard and there are three deer laying down 20 feet from the house.) We wanted lake front because water draws all animals and I did not want close neighbors or noisy roads. For nearly a year we looked - in the beginning it was me but then my wife bought in and is now a driving factor to this place.

In March 2021, after 6 months of looking, we purchased 2 acres of waterfront on Petenwell Lake in central Wisconsin. It was beautiful, close to our primary home, easy to get to and the second largest inland lake in Wisconsin. We were stopped dead when our building costs were double what we expected so I began to research existing homes. We found a great realtor who acted as our eyes and ears in the north woods - her husband was a fishing guide and she knew all the lakes by the quality of the lake.

We made 5 trips, put in three offers and finally out bid the competition for this place. While it isn't old (17 years) it was not well maintained and the single owner who built the house fixed things with 3" wood screws and duct tape - literally. Now I am here for five days, alone, beginning the process of fixing, replacing, and making it ours. New appliances, new flooring, new light fixtures, everything. The house was custom built by a great local builder - 8" walls, 9 foot ceilings but updating  is a pain staking process.

In retrospect, this is something I need - a major project to develop, work through hurdles, and make into a great home, vacation, get away.