Saturday, February 20, 2010


What Will it Be?

I can feel it coming on.  It's that old feeling there's a fork in the road that's just over the next hill and I've got to choose which one to take . . . a feeling there's change coming that gently washes over me time after time after time.  It doesn't come often but when it does, look out. . . . the times, they are a changing. 

This always happens when day in day out same old shit gets boring.  Like Ground Hog Day . . . remember the film?  Wake up every morning to a life where today will be just like yesterday is the constant denominator.  And it never goes away.

This feeling for change I'm talking about came years ago when Wifey was on vacation in Hawaii.  I was fed with with work.  Fed up with my surroundings.  Change had to come or I was definitely going to go nuts.  Stark raving banana's nuts. 

So I did it:  Without consulting Wifey in Hawaii I put the house up for sale and actively shopped to buy a business on the Northern California coast.  Be certain of this:  I walk the walk and just don't talk it.

When Wifey arrived home all tan, rested and happy from her two weeks in Hawaii and saw that the house was for sale the shit really hit the fan.  But she got over it.  Wifey always does.  We sold the house anyway.  The business I wanted to buy didn't pan out so we stayed in the same town, worked the same jobs and bought a new house a couple blocks away.   I got a promotion which made working in the same place a bit more palatible. 

Five years later when enough of the same old shit got to both of us..... we made the change and moved to a small town right on the ocean.  Wifey wanted to go into the retail produce business.   We found and bought a small market in a great location right across the street from the ocean.   Fruit and vegetables were sold March through October, then Christmas trees in December.  I found a job heading a small school district 20 minutes north of where we were living. . . also right on the ocean.   It was like an Ozzie and Harriet life we were living but without David and Ricky.

Soon after buying the business the word got out our high quality of fruit and vegetables.   Restaurants up on the down the coast were soon buying from us which launched a wholesale produce side of our existing business. 

To stock our market I'd drive the flatbed truck we had bought to the San Francisco wholesale produce market a couple of times a week.  Got there at 10 or 11 at night.  Handpick the very best fruit and veggies.  When the truck was filled to capacity (it had a 12x8 foot bed surrounded by 5 foot rails), I drove north along Highway One and back home.

Once home we unloaded the truck at the market, vegetable and fruit racks were then stocked and then it was usually time for me to go to my day job leaving Wifey to sell what had just been brought in.

The produce market was wildly popular.  As a result it brought in an income of six figures every year we were in business.  

So, as this need for change washes over me I wonder what will it be....what fork in the road will I take?    A business venture?  A move to an exotic environment (and we're not talking Vegas here, people)?  Or will it be the same old shit....and no crazy shit? 

Same old isn't so bad.  It's great life and I really have no cause for any complaint what so ever.  Same old just wears on me.  Shaking up "same old" might be the better choice.  Maybe redefining day to day stuff who that it is not so "usual" would make a difference in my attitude.  Save the crazy for another day?  Probably a good idea.

But sending Wifey on vacation in Hawaii and putting the home up for sale while she's gone still sounds like a fun thing to do.  Once a Bob always a Bob.....or so the saying goes.



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3 comments:

La Roo said...

Sorry you're so bored.
I first wrote all this good stuff about how you should reinvent and how I would come unglued if you put my house up for sale, but that isn't going to help. Just have fun Bob, do what you need to do. Go frolick and start a new. That's you. Just be concious of the effects on others around you you. Go join the Moose. :)
Loved hearing about your produce adventure, that sounds so cool. Maybe you could come help me start my cookie truck. :)

Bob said...

Laroo: I should shoot myself in the foot and get it over with. Maybe that will wake me up and put some sense where it belongs - between my ears.
I'm thinking a cookie truck would be awesome. Are you really thinking of doing that? If you are, don't think, do it!

La Roo said...

It's not worth a shooting, it's just something you need to work out. You have a lot of sense and it will be used. Some issues aren't just a "get over it". I think sometimes that just means push it down and don't feel. We have to feel in order to free.

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