If you don’t take the first step, you will never get there. But I’m so close but not ready to step off the bus.

At one level it seems like the most exceptional year with high interest rates and a booming stock market that swelled my net worth at twice the rate of my salary – which ain’t bad figuring this year I will close out the year with a six figure income for the first time in my life. Which ain’t bad, though six figures ain’t what it once was before inflation. I have a job I love, that is a lot of fun, pays good even if I am staring down another winter my grimy, falling apart mold infested apartment – assuming I’m not evicted. I’ve been looking at houses but none really suit me or the way I want to live anywhere within a reasonable commuting distance from Albany.

Over the past three weeks, I’ve worked 11 days in the office and spend much of the rest of the time working remotely from the woods. At the end of this weekend it will be 8 nights camping in Rennselaerville, the Green Mountains and now the Adirondacks. I am fortunate at least for a few weeks in the autumn every other year, remote work returns from the wilderness then my normal suburban office overlooking the old city dump. I’m. happier out in wilderness. Some day this won’t just be a trip but home. I know it, I can do it as I’m building up the resources and skills to live the life I want to live.

Truth is that there are many alternatives to the vinyl siding and marble counter tops and carpets of suburbia. There are many options for cabins, woodstoves and off grid buildings. There are many rural areas out there where nobody cares if you have fires, burn trash and debris. More and more states are legalizing cannabis and many states have far better gun laws than New York. Many have excellent public lands and forests within a short drive. I’m saving a lot and it’s a dream I can live if not tomorrow then the day after then. My life won’t be over at forty unless I want it over then. But the best is yet to come I believe.