On this day one year ago I had been planning to move away from Chicago to the western suburbs of the Geneva/St Charles Fox Valley region. I had been boxing up belongings for nearly a year prior, as well as collecting boxes, bubble wrap and newspaper. One thing that lingered in the back of my mind was that if something happened with my job which I’ve now been at for six years I’d be fucked, literally. That didn’t stop me but it was always a concern.
Doing the math the move would have easily cost me upwards of $15K-$20K considering physical moving expenses even with a truck rental and help from “friends”. Not to mention deposit, first and last months rent etc.Rent would easily be a lot more expensive per month than this place I’ve called home since August 2007. It would not be cheap to relocate and at 60 years of age start my life over and create a new circle of friends which wouldn’t be hard for me but just the same at this stage in my life to be starting over.
One year ago on Friday morning December 15th I set out on a road trip with three very good friends. Detroit Jason Kenski who flew in from, where else, Detroit, Josh Dick who has just purchased only days prior a brand new truck and Max Bravo who lives just 3 miles away from me in Edgewater. You can read about it here:
Or you can hear about the trip here:
So it was with the gang I gathered that we made the roadtrip to New Glarus WI for my 59th birthday into a helluva an adventure. Originally thinking that the conversations would be stimulating, it turned into a 3 hour plus journey of laughter and shenanigans. It felt good for just turning 59.
That’s when I got to thinking. When Jason or any friend flies into either O’Hare or Midway they can take the train a short 4 minute walk to either my front or back doors. For Josh or any friend to drive in from out of town my place is very easy to find as I am located just a few lights off of Lake Shore drive with only one turn to make onto my street. If I moved to the area I had been considering a commute to and from either airport would be hours long if my public transportation or easily $150 – $200 by Uber or taxi. Please believe me I know. (thanks Jessica). To drive there would be an additional 90 minutes outside of Chicago with light traffic.
For Max to visit me wouldn’t happen. See there is a big difference between me and almost every person I know in the city of Chicago. I have no problem taking a train into the city and another to the burbs 2 2-1/2 hours of travel time to spend a night with a friend or friends. That’s the kind of friend that I am. Hell I even take the train to the end of the line and get a hotel room just to see a band I like live. That’s not something my friends are big into. Hell I do it at least once a year to hang out with Dave Ganz and the guys in Lockport. Then the next morning I wake up and am on the train home by 1030 AM still drunkover. That’s not to say my friends are lame, I’m just different and I value true friendship differently. Ya ever have a friend pass away and regret that you should have just taken that little extra bit effort to visit them? I have and it sucks.
We got home from that road trip to New Glarus, another place I take very long bus rides to in order to see friends, on Sunday December 17th all of us worn and torn. It was on the way home after stopping at Applebees for a drink and rest stop that I decided moving out to the burbs was something I no longer wanted to do. It had crossed my mind as I walked around my neighborhood prior to the trip that I got to thinking, gee, I have everything I need to by walking, biking or CTA. My neighborhood is blowing up and I have the lake a short walk or ride out of my back door. The beautiful lakefront which served as my savior during hard times of unemployment . Everyone around here knows me by now. I have an incredible neighborhood and I’ve been getting active in local politics.
Greg Duncan lives a stone’s’ throw away from me between my place and Max’s. He can and has walked here in 15 – 20 minutes. When I leave town Greg comes to tend to my cats. Would i have that in the burbs? Highly unlikely.
This past year I began updating my home of 17 years with some nice improvements. With a bonus I purchased a new bookshelf for my living room as I am running out of space for books. I bought an island for my kitchen thus creating more shelf and table space. I put a bar on my back porch for summer which I can bring inside in the winter. All of which Greg Duncan has helped me assemble. And my last was updating the guest room for the first time since 2017 when I was laid off from QLK
I leave Thursday for New Orleans where Detroit Jason is meeting me for my big 60! He’ll meet my longtime friend and collaborator Too Dark Mark Williams and we’ll be doing podcast on Saturday December 14th. The first two nights we have a hotel in the French Quarter and the final night Mark has secured an Airbnb for us. Greg will be taking care of my cats even though Melita has offered too. (Much more on her later)
In October of this year due to a merger with one of our firm’s clients has affected my work I was asked to no longer exceed 40 hours per week. Great. I just went home for the first time in over 30 years the month before and reunited with a brother who I had been estranged from in that many years, visited my fathers” grave and stayed two night in our Grandparents house in Wellsburg WV. No biggie. Hell, it was on that trip that I was also paid a nice bonus for from my employer. Life was good. Then we had to lay off an fellow employee. Work was growing thin. On November 6th the day after the election I got the call that my hours had been reduced to 10 hours a week for the time being. FUCK! I had two trips that I had paid for in full coming up. One was my Thanksgiving weekend trip to Indianapolis. Also my trip to New Orleans which I should add I had purchased travel protection for. First thing I had to do was push th trip to March and we’d do it for Detroit Jason’s birthday and Expedia tried to help but the airlines who I had purchased the travel protection from refused to allow me to move it. The result was use it or lose it. FUCK! I asked the insurance company why the hell did I pay $44 for travel insurance that you refuse to cover?!?! I hung up on the rep and they had the fucking nerve to send me an email for a survey on their customer service performance. FUCK!
Imagine if I had moved. I’d really be FUCKED! At Least at my home here the landlord’s have allowed me in troubled times of unemployment to catch up. Which I always have and they know it as they are good and understanding people. My employers are doing their best as well. As recruiters we are the first to see when the job market is bad. The Biden administration had lied to us for a year now and even when they were exposed the mainstream media gave them a pass because of the mean Nazi Fascist evil Orange Man would be the end result. So I am treading water doing the best I can and the thing that hurts is I’m not able to buy and send Christmas / Holiday cards or presents this Holiday Season. It something I really like doing.
2024 Has been a pretty damn good year. Saw lots of really great concerts. Established some great new friendships, Eric, Jenn and Mike at the Brig and Robin from Batavia to name a few. (ThanX Faster Pussycat) And then there’s Melita, (more on that later)
With this all said and done I am hellbent on getting all of the photos up and short anecdotes from the last 3 months of this great year. There is some good stuff from my trips which are a trip in their own right I’ve just been overwhelmed with life and business. For those who care You’ll get a kick out of them. Especially pix of Peter Guellard, a great friend and collaborator since 1993, at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
This afternoon as I was taking the CTA downtown and back to visit Larry Gone who biked all the way in from Rosemont today to give me, yes GIVE me a package of edibles due to my recent suffering of insomnia due to stresses of late I was transferring old photos from the archives in my phone in order to get them on my social media due to losing so much media after being hacked two years ago. That’s a good fucking friend.
And then there’s the Melita thing. (more on that later)
Excelsior!
