A lesson in bugging out

Many of my friends and followers are probably aware by now that I have left the green mountains of Vermont to my old home in the marshy coastal woods of South MS. There was no one reason for this to have happened, and I my decision was not an easy one. From January to March it was becoming all to clear that the transplant to Vermont was not "taking." My heating bills were piled up, my home back in MS was being robbed, ransacked, and generally trashed by renters, and my wife was full of melancoly and vice over being so far from family. The teaching opportunity that I had so hoped for at White River Valley EMS never really materialized thanks to a Vermont rule that there can only be one state instructor per district. Under all this pressure I began to focus on the qualities of Vermont that I didn't find so attractive - cold for most of the year, attrocious roads that destroy vehicles, no family, and little opportunity to ever have a place of our own. Property is crazy high for a state that has little in the way of industry or jobs. Owner finance was profoundly rare. I was also having trouble adjusting to New England society. I'm not reserved or secretive - my heart is on my shoulder, and I never did figure out their sense of humor.

Still....I wanted this to happen, to make this work, and to stick it out. It was an adventure! If I wasn't married, a decision that I don't regret, I would still be in Vermont today despite the difficulties, but alas providence meant for this to be a lesson. To all those members that sent me money to help out in moving to VT, I thank you from the deepest of my heart. Maybe there's no meaning to it at all...I don't know....I'm just human. I made a friend with a forum member that lived in Montpelier a few weeks before I made the decision to leave (back in March). I of course had no financial where-with-all to up and move back despite the financial situation necessitating it. After several commiserating conversations, and a spendid drink of bourbon, he was kind enough to lend me the necessary money. I had the decision to use it to get back, or to catch up on my bills, but since my home back in MS was robbed and now rentless with copper thieves on the prowl, I made the decision to move back before my financial window was closed. I knew gas prices weren't going to improve so my exit window had to be made quickly. Expectently, this didn't sit too well with my landlord or my employer, but I acted on priorities of survival - financial or otherwise.

Even with the money that was loaned to me the trip back would be prohibitive. For some unknown reason Uhaul and other moving companies charged nearly twice for a truck to go back as it was to move up. Logistical demand is what they told me. I called my very dear friend, close friends since third grade (more than 30 years ago), to come up with his 18' trailer and F250 4x4. I looked into renting a uhaul trailer, and found it fairly inexpensive compared to a moving truck. I rented a small enclosed trailer that my pickup could haul and we loaded everything else on my friends trailer. But of course I had to pay for my friends fuel to come up, to go back, my fuel, the trailer rental, and so on. It was no easy achievement financially to pull the move off. I still owe Gillespie hundreds of dollars in heating oil and my VT utilities still are not paid. I left the home in Brookfield clean and well cared for, hoping the landlord would just let me go without pursuing the remainder of the lease legally. By grace I haven't heard anything since in that respect.

My wife had left a month earlier, in Febuary, to go back and look for a job. After looking for over a month she had found one in Metairie. She works for a property insurance firm now. Not much money but it gets most of our MS bills paid. I knew my job search upon coming back was going to be very difficult as I had heard that paramedic positions were far and few. I wasn't to be disappointed. So my days since returning I have been sharing the time looking for jobs, clearing my property, fixing what the renters destroyed, planting a vegetable garden, and days taking my Canadian canoe out into the bayou's to fish. Any activity that we can find that doesn't cost us anything. I have tried to advertise some teaching revolving around suturing, emergency medicine, and IV's on the various forums. There's been some encouraging feedback that suggests there is a desire out there for that type of stuff. I hope to be making trips to teach in the near future. My first visit will probably be out west with some members in California and Arizona. Suturing lessons seem to be the most popular. http://www.theoilage.com/megadooms-consultation-outline-t3266.html.

Let me know if anyone that follows my blog would be interested. I'd be happy to offer these lessons for free, but I need the money badly at the moment. Still running from the debt hounds. I also have been out harvesting water hyacinths to sell on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170632804952&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT 

Suturing and IV's will become a very valuable set of skills when societies depravidity evolves into a full blown meltdown, and mother nature comes in to sweep up the pieces.

BP oil, ungodly summer heat, and mighty hurricanes are concerns of mine once again, but at least I'm back in my element, my wife is happier, my family and friends near, and my Vermont experience enshrined in my soul. Like the nature of this blog, I too, am "Dust in the Wind."

Goodbye Vermont, I will miss you.