Saturday, October 30, 2010

Farewell to Limboland

If my life was a book, it would have many chapters. Most of them are short. The current one is long and rather boring, but things are about to ratchet up a few notches.

Austin, Texas has been my home now for 13 years and aside from my life growing up on the farm, this is the longest I have ever remained in one place. When I moved here, George W. Bush was the governor of Texas. I absolutely love Austin and I think it's one of the best places I have ever lived. It's not just the city I love, but my house here has proven to be ideal in terms of comfort. It feels like home. Leaving it might be one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made. However, I am being pulled away by feelings I cannot ignore. I need a change.

Normally I sit here at my desk on Saturday morning and hope the weekend can be stretched for as long as possible before I return to work on Monday. This one is a little different. Election day is Tuesday and frankly, I'm ready to get on with it. I need to know what awaits us all in 2011 and beyond. And it could easily have an impact on the next chapter of my book: Where to go next. But the election is just the start of it.

November is going to be pivotal in another way. By Thanksgiving, it is my goal for txrad and I to have filed for personal bankruptcy. This is something that has been hanging over our heads for 3 1/2 years and it will be such a relief to put it behind us and move on, figuratively speaking, and probably literally.

In December I plan to officially bury the rotting carcass of a corporation which was the catalyst for our financial calamity. And by some date in February the debts should be dismissed by a judge, just in time for the new growth of spring. And by late February we should be getting a nice taste of what the new congressional makeup will be like.

In the meantime, I am focused on my immediate goals and pondering the great what next and where next question, even as a firm date for that decision is far from certain. I figure I really have about 3 years, if I need to take that long, unless I want to still be here when this asshole gets out of prison.

Having the freedom to basically go anywhere is reminding me of when I was deciding where to go to college. It was exciting to have that choice and I can tell you there probably isn't a college anywhere in this country that wasn't under consideration at some point. I bought the Fiske Guide to Colleges, or whatever was available back then, and figured I might as well get my money's worth out of it by working through all 700 pages! And there's not a state in the US where I haven't looked at real estate. Well, that's a lie actually. Alaska is off the table. Wasilla is not in my future. A view of Russia from my back porch is not on my priority list.

As with college, there are some practical matters to take into consideration when deciding on our next place of residence. Practicality takes a lot of the fun and spontaneity out of the process. At some point I will need to narrow down the list of options and get serious. And as much as I would like to live in a place far removed from extreme right-wing politics, this election cycle has demonstrated to me that there might not be such a place. Sure, there are places which are probably better suited for progressives than Texas happens to be, but there's really no escaping the nut-bags entirely.

After Tuesday, we'll have a good idea just how short that short list really is. And that will be the first day of my Farewell to Limboland chapter.

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