Our January-March snowbirding trip was sadly interrupted by a family emergency two weeks ago. My wife’s father passed away unexpectedly, but peacefully. After the funeral, we decided to come back to Florida for a couple more weeks and flew back yesterday. In doing so, we found ourselves oddly packing for the same exact trip we packed for last month. I consider myself an expert packer, … Continue reading Packing – It’s Always Something
Mr. FireStation has been tied up with a family emergency over the last week. Coincidentally, regular reader, “Klaus” Wentzel offered to step in with a post, which was great. Klaus and I have never actually met in real life, but he often shares very insightful comments. This post is based on one of his observations from a couple years ago that is relevant today. Thanks, … Continue reading What is Your Household’s Largest Budget Item?
I never planned on making any money off of this blog or monetizing the traffic in any way. Still, if it had exploded into millions of readers and I received a 8-figure offer to buy it, this is the kind of place I would have wasted some of that money on … a real fire station! This one is for sale in the French Quarter … Continue reading The Real Mr. Fire Station
My oldest brother joined the ranks of retired goof-offs with his final day of work last Friday. Unlike me, he said he dutifully put in a full days work. Now that he’s done, he’s enjoying his first Sunday night that’s not a “school night” in quite some time. It’s still cold in Minnesota, but summer break is here! Related: Sunday Night Blues I know he … Continue reading Sunday Night Blues No More …
I was ordering a beer at the Margaritaville pool the other day and commenting on the run of great, sunny, +80-degree days we are having in Central Florida. (Far different than back in Minnesota where it was -14 degrees this morning). The waitress commented that her “off day” this week is Friday, and that “with my luck, it will probably rain that day.” (Perhaps she … Continue reading With “My Luck …”
The Big Tech companies have been in the news lately, after announcing record numbers of layoffs. The Chartr graph below shows the tens of thousands of layoffs at Facebook/Meta, Google/Alphabet, and Microsoft. Only Apple has kept their employee ranks whole. Google was heavily criticized for the way they handled their layoffs. They sent out “best wishes in your future endeavors” emails to 12K employees in … Continue reading Layoffs – There’s Gotta Be A Better Way …
Mr Plow came and scraped out our driveway this morning. It was just as I got back from walking our dog. I only knew because I received an alert on my phone that there was “motion detected” on our driveway. I watched him on my phone as he cleared everything … from 1,561 miles away in sunny Florida. I saw my neighbor (Hi, Mark!) in … Continue reading Mr Plow & January Snow
I have been eligible to live in a 55+ community for almost 2 years now. Still, our visit to Latitude Margaritaville in Daytona Beach last week, was the first time that we have ever visited one. It is quite a development. Pitched as a “55-and-better community inspired by the legendary music and lifestyle of Jimmy Buffett, built on food, fun, music and escapism.” it has … Continue reading Latitude Margaritaville, Daytona Beach
We’ve been in Florida for a little more than a week so far, and so far so good. This is the 4th year we have had an extended snowbird trip and we are getting good at it. In particular, the packing went well. It’s amazing that we can live here for 2.5 months on just what you see on the luggage cart in the photo. … Continue reading Packed Tight for Snowbirding
We’re back in Florida for our fourth year snowbirding from cold Minnesota. We toured models at the giant Latitudes Margaritaville/ Daytona Beach development yesterday. A weird thing happened when they asked us where we were from. Being from Minnesota, we had to sign an “Out-Of-State Non-Solicitation Affidavit” to acknowledge that we arrived “voluntarily”. What? Yes, apparently it is against Minnesota law for a Florida developer … Continue reading Wait, Sign What?
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