For a while anyway. Mostly retired more than two years ago, and man, have I been busy. To busy to post here, for sure. Sold my city house, now living the dream here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Sold two businesses. Married our daughter off.
My wife's mom lost her bought with cancer- we ferried her down from NY for Hospice close by, and she died under the Carolina Blue sky. Her estate involved ten siblings from two marriages, and my wife as executor, that process took 18 months.
Designed/ built an addition. Bought two adjacent lots, thinking about building on one to rent out. Turned 65 so now on Medicare Plan B (was actually more expensive the first 6 months because of the business sale profit). A second grandkid. Collecting social security early- get it now before it's all gone.
Then Helene hit. A hurricane in the mountains. I could never have predicted that. 500 to 1000 year storm event. We got off lucky here at high elevation. Trees down all over but next to zero damage to the house. I spent four days with a chainsaw cutting the most dangerous snags, then another $6500 "to the guy" for the big stuff. Then two days burning brush. Helped out a few neighbors who were far worse off. Landslides, retaining wall failures, roads and driveways washed out. Anyone along a creek or river was really bad off. Homes and cars destroyed. Trash everywhere. Some cars were unrecoverable- crushed in place and now parts of road embankments.
Great that Trump got elected. Thankful that he survived at least two assassination attempts. And the country dodged a bullet too with Harris collapsing. The whole DOGE thing is fantastic. And, RFK Jr. to stop the crap in our food. We're finally going to now what really happened in in Dallas. The mood of the country has changed. There is true hope that we can make America fiscally and ethically responsible again.