One Year, 12 Months, 365 Days, 8,765.82 hours, 525,949.2 minutes, or 31,556,952 seconds: It is all relative. August 20, 2018, I boarded a flight bound for the mainland, leaving Hawaii behind, after it had been my home for thirteen years. Face it, I was on the run. I was running away from financial pressures. I…
Author: margrad80
I am a retired Merchant Mariner, a retired Marine Surveyor, and a currently active novelist. I am starting this blog to follow my life in retirement, as I follow a more inconvenient life.
The Tyranny of Numbers
Ever since I could remember, I have had a problem with numbers. I was great in math. Actually I loved numbers, the more the merrier. I mean,I have a real problem with numbers. The sort of problem that I am sure they must have therapy for. I just can’t get enough of them. (You have…
Preplanning Flights
There is no right way to plan your travel, no matter what you might read on Reddit. What follows is how I plan my flights. This isn’t intended to be the right way for you. Please consider what your personal needs are when preplanning. Once I have decided where my new temporary home is going…
Rooms I have known and sometimes loved
Years ago I was at one of the community theaters in Baltimore waiting for the play to start. In the lobby was an exhibition of abstract paintings. The paintings represented all the hotel rooms the artist had lived in. One I liked so much that I got out my note pad and sketched it, with…
Adventures with Airbnb
I have a great niece. When she graduated from her masters program, the two of us flew to Paris for a celebratory vacation. I tell you, the best way to enjoy the museums of Paris is to go with a Forensic Archeologist. My niece planned what we did in Paris. My job was to get…
How I Pick a Temporary Home
For those of you, who haven’t been following my story: I was set up to head out on a wonderful year of traveling, after my retirement, when I was hit by some financial reversals. My home was already on the market, and I was nearly done with getting rid of almost everything I owned. Suddenly,…
Medellin Food
This first part is about my experience in Medellin. Click here to skip straight to the food. Actually when I am bored, I think about food, I plan food, I shop for food, and I eat. I have been in Medellin for nearly a month now, and I feel that I have to make one…
Murder Capital of the World: Meh
It is hard to believe that this is the city, which was dubbed the Murder Capital of the World over 25 years ago. Today Medellin is a vibrant relatively safe city. It is a large city, with homeless, petty thieves, drunks, prostitutes, and the expected number of murders in those areas of the city where…
A Transition: July 10 – 17, 2017
I was sad to leave Warsaw. In some ways it wasn’t as fun as Mexico or Ecuador, but in overall lifestyle, it fitted me well. It is a bummer that I was limited to 90 days in a 180 period in Poland. If it weren’t going to be winter when I leave here, I would…
Last Days in Warsaw: 2019
This post will be published out of order, since I decided that the story of my last few days in Warsaw really didn’t need to be written if I got pressed for time. As it turns out, I have found myself with some time on my hands here in Medellin, Colombia. The apartment here is…