Getting back on the gerbil wheel

So here we are, back on the US mainland. We will need a car; my wonder-lust gets the best of me, and I buy a car in Connecticut through Ebay. Everybody thinks I'm crazy, but I thought that flying to Connecticut, and driving down the eastern seaboard would be a great way to kickoff this new chapter in our lives.

When we arrived at the car dealer, the car didn't not fit the description in the ad. In fact, it was quite the opposite. It's funny that people always ask me if I've ever had trouble with pirates while we were sailing???, "No, there all here, on "Main Street, USA". It's amusing to me how people feel safe not because they are safe, but because they are familiar with their environment, and they think I take risk... Oh, and just so you know Ebay doesn't care if you get ripped off. 

While not what was expected, the car could be "brought back", and so I now have an unneeded extra project. I take it this is just a reality check about the dog-eat-dog environment that we will be living in.

Marie and I really tried to make a go of it in the Florida Keys, but all of the work seems to be in Miami. "Maybe we can just commute to Miami?" We gave-up on this idea on the second day. The 2 hour drive was absolutely horrible, and so we moved onto "Black Orchid" in Coconut Grove just to be closer to all the winding's of our daily lives.

Marie got a job at the University, and I will be helping my son with his construction business. Our routine is a far cry from the privileged lives that we had previously enjoyed in the islands, but a good disposition is the greatest gift of God. I can literally sense the stress that the busy city bears upon you. I'm sure that in time it will feel normal, like "white noise".
We are both worried about how the kids will adapt to there schools. We were never more than 50 yards from our kids, 24-7 we always had our kids in view. Now we drop them off, and don't hear from them again for the next 10 hours, no other mammals on earth do this.

While money does come easier here, we seem to go through it like a fish goes through water. From the moment we leave home in the morning, money starts leaving our pockets. Even if you don't get out of the car, automated toll plazas just milk your pockets. Then there's coffee, lunch, groceries, gas, and on and on. You just seem to get "assimilated" to where you can't see an end to the vicious cycle of earning, and spending, it's all a blur.
We live our lives as if we could live to be 150; until that day we get the wake up call that we thought was so far away, "it will never come". Oh, but it does.

Yeah, we're officially back on the "Gerbil Wheel"!