This weekend, two families announced that they are leaving this neighborhood in the next couple of months, one headed to Texas and one to Maine. A third is seriously considering a job transfer to North Carolina.
The folks who are moving to Texas are good friends of Peter’s, and he wrote one of his best-ever blog entries today (yes, it’s even better than the bacon posts) about pulling up stakes when you’re established in a community, especially when you have young children, versus the often aching belief that you and they might have a better life somewhere else.
As Peter notes in his blog, we did a fair amount of moving around when he was a kid, and I still have restless paws. I see the young people who I work with buying houses and having kids, and I see more than a little nobility in their seriousness and commitment.
Personally, I have a two year horizon for making a major lifestyle change, a deadline imposed by externals over which I have little control. In two years, I’ll be eligible for Social Security, and in two and a half years, my adjustable rate mortgage renews.
So, decisions are going to have to be made at that time, and I’m looking forward to it.
I figure two years is a good timeline for putting money aside, getting my Microsoft certification, and keeping an eye out for real estate possibilities and job opportunities in the area where I want to live, with a Husky or Husky cross.
For those who are in different circumstances, two years is also a fair trial for other ambitions, like making their community a better place. I figure, if progress hasn’t been made in two years, then it’s time to give it up and invest one’s energy elsewhere.
As one of my friends puts it, stick a fork in it and call it done.