Well…February 27th has a bit of importance to my life that I am going to celebrate today…it was one year ago today when friends and family helped me move into this place to start the final phase of my life…and it has been an interesting year to say the least…I am still marveling at how the whole thing came to be…I mean seeing the listing on Friday night, touring the house at 10am Saturday morning, putting in the offer on it by noon, and having the offer accepted by 5pm Saturday afternoon…but, that wasn’t the end of it…it took the work of my brother the realtor, the mortgage broker, and lots of other people to make it happen…to make all the moving parts of the process work in the short time frame that I had available to me with my son and his wife moving back to GR to take over the house that I had just rehabbed…and it was close, I made it out of there with two weeks to spare and it was such a relief to not have to move back into an apartment as I looked for a house….but it has not been all sweetness and light…there have been cultural issues that I have faced out here…or maybe not cultural ones but habits that permeated this neighborhood where the other residents had gotten used to playing their music so loud and at all hours of the day that it made this neighborhood a war zone…and I’ll admit that I was seriously considering selling this place after being in it for only a couple of months but then I got a little pissed about the selfishness of these people who were depriving me of enjoying my new place…so that set in motion the long saga of making noise complaints multiple times every day to get people to follow the law up here…and after months and months of that, it finally had some effect and the neighborhood is quiet now but for the damn cars that come by shaking my house and that I will attempt to deal with this year….and I know that I’ll probably be starting from scratch with the noise as spring comes but I know the process now so I can work it to good effect…but, that has been the only bad thing about living out here other than not having pool days anymore…oh, and my kids have disowned me since I haven’t visited my grandchildren but that’s on them for their reaction…and after what was essentially a panic buy of the house, I have been pleasantly surprised that the area and the house do have everything I need…and I didn’t know any of it when I bought it…the bike trails are a couple of blocks away and go all the way out to Lake Michigan, Lake Michigan is 8 minutes away by car so I can go to the beach whenever I want, and Muskegon is a vibrant small town with lots to do once the pandemic is over…and I hope his summer will be the one that allows me to take part in the life out here and meet some people to have things to look forward to other than working on this place…all in all, it hasn’t been a bad year and the idea that I have an affordable place to live that I have already made a ton of money on takes such a big load off my head that I can just enjoy life for the first time that I can remember….onward to the second year….only 14 more til this place is paid off….