pasternakski
Posts: 6565
Joined: 6/29/2002
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Well, boys, life is a pretty amazing thing, and I've had one that occasionally likes to sneak up behind me - particularly when things are going well and I feel that I have some control over the doggone thing - tap me on the shoulder, and whisper, "So you think life is good and you've pretty much seen it all, eh? Well, come over here, big boy, you got something to learn."
To recap, a couple of years ago, I retired to a European country in the Mediterranean area (I don't like to give too many personal specifics out here, so excuse me for being vague). I had found a beautiful, out-of-the-way place - an old, abandoned monastery and its grounds - that had a modernized dwelling on it. I negotiated a deal with the government (mistake #3,338,494 - trusting a government, ANY government) whereby I would buy the residence and adjoining area, and assume titular ownership of the rest of the property while agreeing to supervise and work on the restoration project that the church wanted done in order to make the place something of a museum, library, and place of worship and contemplation.
Pretty sweet. The first year went really well, and progress was good, even nearing completion in many respects. After some give-and-take with the law school in the U.S. where I taught for 16 years, I cut a deal to return for one academic year to restructure the curriculum for teaching professional responsibility and ethics and create a two-semester sequence of required courses, in an effort to do a better job of helping law students have a better idea of what it takes to be a respectable member of the legal profession (and, incidentally, raising the estimation in which "those danged lawyers" are held in society).
Nice. I was going to finish the year, accept the accolades and trophies - well, maybe the accolades and paycheck - then return to my retirement paradise, which I had rented out to a caretaker family in my absence.
Lo and behold, the world economic crisis rose up to bite me on the butt. The government, one of the most broke in Europe right now (I think you can easily guess which one it is), due to its financial difficulties, abrogated its responsibilities under our agreement.
So, I have accepted the caretaker family's offer to buy the property and deeded all remaining interest in the rest of the monastery grounds back to the government.
Come May, then, I got nowhere to go. I'll be a homeless old bugger. I got my boat, and I still plan to go sailing, but I have no idea where I'll end up.
Any suggestions?
(as Ringo sang it, ...but, oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go. Nowhere to go...
_____________________________
Put my faith in the people
And the people let me down.
So, I turned the other way,
And I carry on anyhow.
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