High Finance
2002-02-20

This weather is just too weird. It is over 50 degrees out, in February. Global warming, it doesn't suck. I was talking to a friend earlier about all the junk she has accumulated over the years. I don't have much. At one point after my divorce, my whole life fit into a 6 X 8 foot storage container with plenty of room left over. I wanted to keep the boat. I bought it, paid for it, was living on it. I was also paying for her to live in the house until it was sold. I deserved something after the hell I had been through, but the only way I could keep it without a messy fight was to give her everything else. The pool table I had since I was a kid, all the furniture, my stereo, hell I even paid off her car. I was left with my small half of the house equity and the title of the boat and all its payments and bills.

She had no clue I was moving out. I began accumulating stuff I'd need, silverware, pots and pans, blankets, What ever I could afford each week. I arranged to have shore power installed, so I could plug stuff in, but when I moved in I worked off extension cords plugged into the dock. I bought a small college dorm sized refrigerator, rented the smallest storage bin I could find and one day in November, got the hell out. My sanity improved alot that day.

It was a pretty small space really, like living in a big closet. I had a couple of space heaters for heat, my computer a small TV I bought and a microwave somebody gave me. I got a phone line installed. I didn't have hot water and had to walk up the frozen docks to take a shower. Except for missing my dog, I was happy. I'd stop by to visit him on weekends when I knew she wasn't home. He was being neglected big time and it made me cry to have to leave him. I bought a small Christmas tree and a bunch of my friends dropped by for a holiday party.

I really didn't mind it. It was peaceful, I was the only person there at night. I had the Club bar for a living room Wednesday thru Sunday. It was pretty lonely on Monday and Tuesday nights when I was the only person for a mile or so around.

The treatment of the dog was bothering me a lot, but the icy docks were no place for a dog. I stopped by one day and noticed that the house was getting more and more trashed. We had put it for sale months ago and reduced the price 3 times. When it dropped again, I talked to Neil and we crunched some numbers. I could just about afford to buy her out if I ate a lot of beans and rice. So I did. I was very, very broke, but happy. This is a good thing. She now lives in a mobile home and we just bought a new boat. Sometimes the good guys do win.

Previous - Next