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The first half of the real estate process is done! Picked up the check and took it down in person and deposited it in the bank. Literally money in the bank. Next step is to endure living with the mother-in-law (I'll make it) and get lending for my new place. That's looking very optimistic but we'll see. I'm just glad to have the selling part in the rear view mirror. A lot of stress has been removed.

I quit my job in 2009 to pedal cross country. Went back as a temp for 6 months after I got back. Then started a job search and in July 2010 got the job I still have. No regrets.

How about five new members in the next year?

The only job I left voluntarily without a real job to go to was truck driving. I was tired of 80 hour weeks but couldn’t find another job because I was always on the road. My wife’s doctor asked her if I could do landscaping. She said I could do anything. So he offered me six weeks of landscaping work to landscape the new clinic. He provided the blueprint from a landscape architect. That was to give me six weeks to find a real job. The landscaping turned out amazing and he asked me to stay on and do the landscaping for his country home. It also turned out beautiful. The country home had an inground pool that had not been covered or used in eight years. I drained, cleaned, painted the pool and got the pump and filter running. The doctor’s wife was taking up body building and asked me to convert an out building (a summer kitchen) into a home gym for her. They also had me convert a two car garage into a health food store for her. I hadn’t found a real job yet but they didn’t want me to leave anyway. The doctor raised exotic animals and there was always work to do with the buffalos, ostriches, reindeer, and Watusi cattle. Finally after seven months he turned me over to one of his friends to do some work for him and then his friend’s wife wanted me to do some remodeling at her women’s clothing store. They had a big project for me but it was on hold because of a pending lawsuit. I bought a couple rental properties and renovated them while still looking for a real job. I even cut firewood for a lumber company while waiting on a real job. Finally got hired by the forge and found a home. Worked there for 28 years.

For Madelyn. She came into the world this morning at 5:41. Six pounds three ounces and 20.5” My unofficial granddaughter as her Mom is my bff and like a daughter to me.

Better today. He’s up and eating. That’s my younger brother, who was overwhelmed earlier in the week when my Dad had the couple of really bad days.

I think we (as a cycling forum,) need a 1000 MILE day. Set for summer time when most can get out

I would pull it off in a hurry. I’d much rather go naked than dress like a dork.

The specific targets are fun, but what really attracts me to this place is two things: (1) silly posts that just make me laugh - like the whole Jsharr and DH name exchange and (2) the sincere support and concern shown for one another during difficult times. Given all the travel restrictions and stay at home requirements, i think it would be fun to have a few regional meet ups when vaccines are available and people can travel again. And if we can't work that, maybe just a NY/Northeast one. But that is probably a couple years away at least and not a 2021 plan.

The northern lights are close to the ground there.

it was a long time ago but yes. I was a truck dispatcher. I saw the owner cutting corners & favoring drivers (teachers pet) I quit...with notice. He repaid me by not paying out my bonus earned It worked out.I caught on with another trucking company. And started my business about a year later...working both jobs for about 2 years

I hope I don’t have to move in with my mother-in-law, she is in assisted living.

I was inspired by all this to make split pea soup. Split peas, ham, an onion and chicken stock/bullion. And some water. Cooking hard for about 40 minutes, then about an hour of simmering. Served with a fresh roll and butter. Will let you know.

You could go climb Mt. Washington. I’m told it’s very nice.😁

No way, I could maybe do 100 miles but never 1,000. That would take me more than a week.

This is why I won't use one of those clothing services that suggest a wardrobe & send it to you

I thought you said “How about five nude members”, that would work too.

Is that The Emerald Ciry?

For pity's sake, buy your liquor from a store. That moonshine will ruin you, man.

So...my chicken Andoulie sausage...needed a soup...I made a few adaptations to the 13 bean soup recipe from the forks over knives cooking "magazine" I bought last year...celery, onions, carrots, garlic, bag o soaked beans (15 bean)..used 1/2 vegetable broth and 1/2 chicken broth..thyme, smoked paprika, and crushed red pepper..oh and a bay leaf. I added the sausage 1.5 hours in and a can of tomatoes and kale at the end. Hope it is good...

At the moment, roasted poblanos are my favorite

For me, personal political or religious beliefs are just that. Personal. I really dont give a rats ass what someone else believes or why they believe it. They choose to believe it and the circular conversations that go around around trying to convince each other that "you and wrong and I am right" is tiresome, and I much prefer a place like this without it. I wandered into the P&R section once or twice just out of curiosity and after reading a couple threads half expected to see a thread where everyone submitted a pic of their dick to see who's was biggest(I would not have won) This is a place to be happy and carefree, not confrontational and I like it that way

...it's just like riding a bike.

There was this one time at summer camp. The head cook left to get married, and they made me the head cook at 19 years old. No training, no talent, just a decent work ethic and some common sense. 1200-1500 meals a day at the peak of the season. I was in way over my head. It was the baker’s day off and she left me an absurd list of tasks to do that day. I was not the confrontational type, so I had my buddy drive me to the Rhinelander bus stop late at night and went home. I felt guilty, but looking back, I see now it was terribly irresponsible of the camp leadership to put me in that position.

I am still in love with Iceland. Would love to go back and spend months in the backcountry. Now that I live on the west coast, my favorite is a place simply known in my family as "The Lake". Our cottage surrounded by other cottages filled with aunts, uncles and cousins. Still smile every summer we go back just from arriving there again.

That view is in tents.

Umm no, except maybe @Randomguy he lives in NYC after all.

No but I know a couple of guys who could use a good smackin' right now.

a spin off just kidding

Yes, twice. I didn't show up for a shift at a fast food place when I was a kid. I hated working there. Absolutely hated it. When I was in my twenties, I gave notice to leave. My husband and I left for Oregon. We had no jobs in this area and didn't know anyone. We picked a spot on the map, sold our home, quit our jobs and left. We took about a month off to get settled and enjoy our property and the area. It was harder to get settled than we thought. Jobs here were word of mouth and we were outsiders. It all worked out. We finally got a job with the lady that we bought our home from.

I've never been asked/forced against my ethics. There were some workplace situations /cultures which I wasn't enamoured and did my best just to float along, running my own dept., my way but still within demands/objectives of the firm. i've always admired people who just left a job...to go travelling. That's just wasn't me. For me to leave my well-paid job mid-career, to relocate with dearie elsewhere in Canada..was incredibly huge for me. It also a decision on either I wanted dearie in my life or I didn't.

I am kicking around the idea of a forum cookbook. We post a lot of recipes. We seem to like eating as much as riding. I have this school work going on right now though, so it’s just an idea.

Yeah, I left my last security firm I worked for without having another job lined up. The VP of the Western Region was making it impossible to stay. Fortunately though I landed another job before the 30 day notice so was never out of work.

Nope, but I've also never had a job where I thought they wanted me to compromise my ethics or where the people treated me unfairly.

I’ve been in successor companies for about 42 now. Nearing the end of the road. A rolling 1-2 years. My 70 year old cow-orker is on the same plan. He had a few divorces and sent his daughter to a private college. I had two girls, one who went to med school, and live in NJ.

Been in the same place almost 30 years now.

No. I can never leave anything of value. The one time I did resign I had the next job ready to go. I left a place that was terrible at keeping engineers back to my previous place of employment that had re-opened under new ownership. And I actually had to thing aboot giving up the bird in the hand even though the pay and benefits sort of sucked. But I had a decent boss so that is always a good thing.

Sounds great. I've made a similar recipe with ham instead of sausage and have varied the beans, doing the 15 beans or Great Northern or Cannellini beans or Red Kidney Beans. The bigger beans make the soup a little more starchy. I have a pound of boneless ham in the freezer and will probably use it for this recipe - which would also work great with Italian sausage and summer squash or zucchini can be subbed for the potatoes. I cut and pasted it from the link below and modified it a little. Original version of recipe: https://www.recipetips.com/recipe.asp?content=t--3032/white-bean-and-ham-soup.asp White Bean, Potato and Ham Soup Recipe This is a really good soup similar to some Italian soups. I’ve made it with “Shady Brook Farms Hickory Smoked Boneless Turkey Ham” and also the traditional way with leftover ham on a ham shank. It’s fine either way. It’s about 175 cal. per cup and makes about 5 qts. For more information, see “Recipe Information” at the end of this recipe. Ingredients 16 oz dried Great Northern Beans (or Navy or any similar white bean) 1 medium large sweet onion (about 1 to 2 cups diced) 3 cloves garlic, diced (minced) 1 tablespoon cooking oil 1 1/2 qts. chicken broth (or water with 2 tbsp of Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base or 4 chicken bouillon cubes dissolved) 3 bay leaves 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1 1/2 to 2 lbs (around 4-6 cups) of diced potatoes (I don’t peel them) 2 stalks celery, diced 3 carrots, peeled and diced (or 20-30 baby-cut carrots, cut in halves or thirds) 1 to 2 lb of ham (meat, not including bone) TRY: Add a drained can of diced tomatoes last 10 min. of cooking Directions: 1. Soak the beans overnight at room temperature in about 8 cups of cold water (preferred method). Alternatively do a quick soak: place the beans in a pot with 8 cups of hot water and bring it to a rapid boil for two minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let it stand for 1 hour. If your bean package lists different soaking instructions, follow them. Note that you will drain the soak-water from the beans before added them to the soup. 2. In a sauté pan or a pot that holds at least 5 qts, add the oil and sauté the onions and garlic over medium heat until they are softened and the onions are translucent (about 5 minutes). 3. Add the chicken stock (or bouillon water), the drained beans, the cubed ham (or ham shank), the bay leaves, and cumin to the onions. Bring it to a boil and then cover and simmer for 90 minutes. 4. If using a ham shank, remove it from the soup, place it on a plate and allow it to cool slightly while doing step 6. 5. Add the cut potatoes, carrots and celery to the soup, bring it back to a boil, cover and simmer. 6. If using a ham shank, remove the meat from the slightly cooled bone and cut the removed meat into bite-sized pieces and add back to the soup. Discard the bone, fat, and any skin. 7. The soup is ready when the beans, potatoes, and carrots, are soft, about 30-45 minutes after the potatoes and carrots are put in the soup. 8. Season with salt, pepper and optionally a tbsp or so of vinegar drizzled on top of a bowl of soup gives it a nice kick.

I left a job voluntarily with no next job lined up. I was Chief Chemist of Process Development for Minerec Corp, a mining and specialty chemical subsidiary of Dow Chemical. One Saturday, I decided to start running again. I could literally taste many of the chemicals I had worked with during the previous week. At the time, early 80's, Industrial Bench Chemist was the career with the shortest avg. lifespan of college graduates, mainly due to cancer from contact with the wrong chemicals - most carcinogens hadn't even been identified back then - we'd wash our hands with benzene, etc. to clean off tars, etc. Minerec's mining chemicals business was going downhill and specialty chemicals - the reason I was hired out of IIT - was desperately needed to grow and so I was loaded down with new projects including biodegradable pesticides, non-cancer causing additives to make clothes flameproof, and other large-molecule chemicals. The synthetic processes for large molecules involve multiple steps which means there's sure to be unidentified carcinogens involved. And I could taste them when I ran. I was still living at my parents' house. So I quit. Soon, Apple II computers came out - I bought Apple II Plus serial number 000809. In college, part of my chemistry training included how to program, in machine language, the series of Wang 700 computers that came out in the late 60's and 70's. Machine language was THE way to write large programs on the limited memory and small disks of home computers. So I grabbed the opportunity to try writing computer game programs and I began writing stuff for local stores - one that would print out a tombstone with the name, etc. for a tombstone company, a quilting pattern program for another company, etc. A major local Apple Store, The Logical Choice, had a lot of people figuring out how to do new things with Apple computers and I spent a lot of time sharing info with fellow computer geeks there. Soon, I completed Castles of Darkness, the first animated computer adventure game according to Softalk Magazine, then the official magazine of Apple Computers. You can find me listed on the Giant List of Classic Game Programmers. The Logical Choice did the publication, production, marketing, etc. and I got 25% of their gross as a royalty. That kept me in spending money for a while. Soon people from various game companies were interested in me working for them, but all required moves out of state to non-secure positions. Others were interested in me doing something educational, and I began developing a game based on Around the World in 80 Days, but I got scooped by Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? I was also working on speech recognition software I planned to call "SpeakEasy," but got scooped again. Eventually, I realized that there was so much competition I wasn't going to make it as a free lance programmer and accepting offers to join companies put me at the bottom of their ladders. At the time, I was a member of the Jaycees and played first base on my chapter's softball team. 2nd base, shortstop, and 3rd base were three brothers, with whom I had gone to high school and whose other brother was a teacher. The teacher said to me, "I heard your looking for a new job. There's a shortage of upper-level science teachers." That led me to looking into high school teaching and, with that teacher's help, that lead to a new career - the one I retired from and I started young enough to end up with a good pension. It was funny, I was teaching full-time while I was still taking courses at night to achieve teacher certification. I never had to to the normally required student teaching to get certified because I was already a regular teacher. Eventually I got Advanced and AP Certifications and taught mostly gifted Chemistry and Physics, spending my last 2 decades at Maryland's largest public school.

congratulations. Have they torn it down yet? glad it worked out for you I'm supposed to be packing the house now. I'll start tomorrow

...sure I have. When I was a young and footloose hippie, whenever my bank account went over $2,000, I used to move to a different city. But those were not exactly "career path" jobs in the classic sense. I left the Social Security Administration over conflict with my personal values. But I waited to leave until I had the job with fire services lined up. By then I was tired of being poor.

Geeze Id never make it one week living with my MIL! 😂. Glad it’s moving along for you though.

Just about 5 years ago. Our niece who lives in Quebec had her wedding at a beautiful resort in the hills. Quebec has lots of strange rules, among them the rule that allows anyone to officiate at a wedding. You don't need a minister, or JP or ship's captain or anyone like that. Just pick whoever you want, and they can go and get a one time ticket to do the deed. They had a superhero theme for the wedding, and the bride's brother in law officiated in a Batman costume. Here's me posing with him after the ceremony.

Well, I can throw a leg over my bike at home and be riding along the shore of Lake Ontario in about 15 minutes, so I guess that's my favorite.

Lake Michigan. When Wo46 and I had a apartment that we watch the waves from the kitchen window. Now we live 6 miles away.

Gitche Gumee because I am a Gorden Lightfoot fan.