Homeless, Happy and Hyped
We moved into our seaside home on December 31, 1989. The 2,400 sq. ft. house was in a great location, only 3 blocks from the beach and two from the river. We loved the sleepy laid-back atmosphere in the one square mile town known as Melbourne Beach. While the house was in a great location it was, using a technical term, a piece of crap. We immediately set to work gutting the 5 bedroom 3 bath home. And guys when I say gut I mean exactly what the dictionary describes - verb (used with object) “to destroy the interior of”.
We tore out the bathrooms, kitchen, knocked down walls, ripped up the carpet and tile, yanked out the windows, doors, and roof. We even removed every blade of grass off the lot. The renovation cost was near the purchase price but in 3 months we had turned a beachfront house into a home. A home that saw 22 separate Christmas trees light the front window. A home constantly rattled by the aftershock of dozens of shuttle launches. A home that successfully weathered hurricanes, gales and welcomed and watched grow four wonderful grandbabies. In the backyard we left three faithful family dogs buried near the trees wing. From our front porch we have watched the neighbors bring home new born babies, seen them learn the walk, graduate college, get married and have babies of their own.
As we built our nationwide stock brokerage firm in the 90s, we hosted a Thursday – Saturday training class for the new financial advisors who joined our firm each month, usually 20 to 30 per class. Every one of them and their families would come to our home for dinner around the pool on Friday night. After we took the company public, each year the Melbourne Beach Police would cordoned off our block for a little lunch where we severed 500 to 1,000 of our shareholder after our annual meeting. Virtually every elected official in our part of the state has attended one or more of these shareholder lunches. Joan and I estimate that we have fed well over 5,000 at that beachfront home.
Summit Shareholders Meeting 2000 - As CEO I was a bit more clean-cut
We fed several hundered each year after our Annual Shareholders Meeting in our back yard, thank to Joan and her staff
Every politician in our part of the state made our Shareholder meeting and therefore our back yard an annual scheduled stop – here Governor Jeb Bush and soon to be President of the Florida Senate Mike Haridopolos takes time to work the crowd
Now we have begun a new chapter in our lives. As we begin the hand-n-hand walk through our 60s we are focused on making our life more simple and enjoying the days ahead.
The one thing that hosting our class website has done for me is to make me appreciate how fragile live really is. Every time I receive notice of another classmate’s illness or see another join the “In Memory” section of the site, I again am forced to reexamine my life. Am I doing what I want to do? Am I making a difference in the lives of others? Am I providing for my family? What if this is my last year? Would I be proud of that “last year” of would I have regrets? Am I going to leave my family and yes my world a bit better because I was her? That is at least in part why we have made what some I know will consider a “radical” move. But for Joan and I it is really just another chapter is the long and twisted novel known as our lives.
For us, this new chapter began with us selling and giving away about half the “stuff” we have accumulated over the past three plus decades of marriage. Boy can we collect some junk. One entire bedroom was dedicated to photos. You remember those don’t you? They pre-dated digital photos, iPhones and iPads and were developed at the drug store on photo paper. When you consider that I have drug my loving wife and when possible one or more grandkids all over the world snapping photo as fast as the shutter would allow, that equates to boxes and boxes and more boxes of photos and mementos. Weeding through those was by far the hardest task. But with the help to the U-Haul storage facility we have now made that transition.
Moving Day, August 27th 2013 - Goodbye old friend, you served us well
On Tuesday the 27th of August with our motor coach loaded to the gills, Joan and I along with our three year old beagle; Baby Boomer, put Melbourne Beach in our rearview mirror feeling a mixture of melancholy, sadness and the excitement that only comes with beginning a new adventure. Yes we are “off to see the wizard – together”.
For the next few months we will call Gulf Shores Alabama, another quaint beachfront
community nestled on the Redneck Riviera our home. We will be exploring the area from Louisiana to Tennessee to Georgia. If you live in that area, watch out we may just show up on your doorstep like our own version of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation looking like Clark and Ellen Griswold’s crazy cousin the homeless nomad Eddie (Randy Quaid). So if you peak out of your front window to see a 40 ft. motor coach dragging a car, pulling to your curb, you may be well advised to turn off the lights and be real quite. Remember we will eventually need water and fuel and therefore will move on. The bad news is we are self-contained for about a week. If you would like to follow our new adventure you may join our blog; Richard & Joan’s On The Road Travel Log http://richardandjoan.blogspot.com/ Be sure to register if you want to be notified of updates and while there check out the Blog Archives.
Now before you start feeling too sorry for poor Joan who now must be being forced to clean our cloths by pounding them with rocks in a nearby stream let me assure you that she is not truly homeless; or at least not long-term. While our downsizing has been in a slow death spiral for almost 25 year, we still have options. At one time we had 156 rental houses and today are down to only 4. Joan has her eye on one in the beachside village of Indialantic, which abuts Melbourne Beach. Half the size of our recently sold Melbourne Beach home and a couple of bedrooms and baths short she seems to have laid claim as to that for nesting purposes once the renter’s lease has expired. But until then we will be sharing 300 sq. ft. with Boomer – you guys pray for us.
OK, so now you know what we are up to. I sent the photo at the top of this Rambling to my buddy of almost 50 years, Kris Metzger. When she replied, I believe her comment when learning of our home sell followed by our version of running away with the circus, was something like, “You two are crazy but look blissful – so I guess I’ll just wish you both Happy Trails.”
We hope you will wish us the same. And I know I am going to regret this this next request, but I’d like you to share your thoughts on this blog. Go ahead we are a big boy and girl, and can take it...we think. Tell us what you think or our little adventure. How do you feel about change in your life; both wanted and unwanted change. What are your hopes and dreams for your future?
So until next time, as we say in the motor coach world - Keep Rolling!
Keepin’ the Spirit Alive
Richard Parker
Academy of Sciences, which he later named “The Butterfly Effect.” The effect related to the theoretical example of a single butterfly flapping its wings, which moved molecules in the air, and like one billiard ball hitting another, these molecules began a chain reaction that ultimately led to a typhoon forming on another continent. Granted, on the surface, this sounds esoteric and most unlikely. So unlikely that Lorenz was promptly laughed off the Academy stage.
2004 and starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart. It also inspired my fellow author/speaker Andy Andrews to write the New York Times bestseller, The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters, which is a short read. In less than an hour, Andy shows, using two powerful examples, how everything we do in our life, every move we make, every action we take, matters.
“Person of the Week.” Although you might be unfamiliar with the name, it is reported that he is responsible for saving more than two billion lives through his work to hybridize high-yield, disease-resistant corn and wheat to grow well in dry climates. Borlaug’s hybridized crops soon were growing worldwide; Western Africa to the plains of Siberia and everywhere saw these amazing seeds thrive and regenerate.
someone else deserved the “Person of the Week” moniker—someone such as Henry Wallace. 
was 19 studying at Iowa State University, one of his professors allowed his 6-year-old son to go on what they described as “weekend botanical expeditions” with his brightest student, George Washington Carver. The 6-year-old boy’s name was Henry Wallace. Wallace later wrote that while he was still a boy, Carver installed in him his lifelong love of plants and a vision that plants could change the planet.
the South, he was very much opposed to the concept of slavery, not a popular stance for a Southerner during the Civil War. His vocal condemnation of slavery made him a target for Quantrill’s Raiders, the sadistic group of criminals who cloaked themselves in the gray uniforms of the Confederacy as they terrorized Yankee soldiers and Southerners alike.
that shaped their lives. I believe we can all agree there were many people responsible for saving those two billion lives, to either a large or a small extent.
you will use those seeds. Will your seeds save two billion as the seeds developed by Borlaug did? Or will you make someone else’s life just a little bit better. So I encourage each of you to flap your butterfly wings and create your own typhoon.
part of any journey is simply suiting up, showing up, and then taking that all-important first step. How many times has each of us been ready to quit—in business, in family relationships, and even in friendships? But that last push, the extra 10 percent of effort, ultimately brought us a joy that today has made another of those memories that last a lifetime.
their rendition of Billy Preston’s “That’s the Way God Planned It,” another classic from the era of the best music created—our era.
doesn’t get any darker, nor the pain more severe. Even today, fifteen some odd years later, in a busy airport or mall, I glimpse a 2½-year-old boy with flaming red hair, giggling loudly, as he runs to escape the open arms of a chasing parent, swinging his half-full bottle by the nipple, and my heart breaks.
most in life. But remember that all success comes at a price, be that hard work, sacrifice, or the risk of all we own. Only you can determine whether that price is too high or a virtual bargain.
find that the “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” was not luxurious, certainly not the best, in fact barely a hotel.
waking each morning with a bluebird perched on my shoulder. But, like most of you, I have acquired a bit of wisdom that comes only with age. That wisdom has taught me to fear less while simultaneously grabbing the reins of the chariot of my life with a simple understanding that, of all the things I have feared the most in my life, now and then, one actually happened.
be when I was younger… As Hillary Cooper so eloquently said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” I, for one, am determined to have my breath taken more times than I can count.
understand that the only thing certain about our future is that it will be different. Let us resolve to drink in all that life has to offer, not in dainty little sips, but in big messy gulps, with the excess of all we cherish streaming down our chin and pooling at our feet. Let us work hard, so one day, many years from now, many will miss us.
with bear hugs. And as we left, I heard one after another of these aging baby boomers issue the parting phrase “I love you, brother.” On my drive home, I could not help smiling, thinking about how that phrase would’ve been interpreted by our peers, if as the third period bell rang, I had turned Bobby Harrell and said, “I love you, Bobby,” and he replied, “I love you, too, Richard.”
a friend is not surprised when you do something stupid; quite to the contrary, he knows you well enough to be surprised when you don’t. Yet through it all, he is still your friend.
Nancy Reagan described this accursed disease well when she referred to it as “the long goodbye.” I feel we have been saying goodbye to Dad for a decade. Like helplessly watching a man just out of reach sink slowly into quicksand, we have watched this wonderful man, father, husband, and pastor slowly slide into darkness, being not with us or gone, but hanging somewhere between.
if talking to an old friend.
guess the Southern gentleman in me makes it a bit more difficult to profess outwardly my love for so many of you ladies. But rest assured that you, too, are deeply loved and your friendship appreciated more than you will ever know. You each know who you are.
definition, and roughly 20,000,000 sites where that word or phrase can be found. Oh, thank God for Mr. Google. It has made this aging baby boomer look almost intelligent himself. The next thing you know somebody will be calling me one of the smart kids. As I write this article, my feet are on the desk, my arms crossed across my chest, a microphone strapped to my head, and my Dragon Dictation is typing this Rambling for me. Maybe I’m turning into my version of the lyrics from the Zager & Evans song “In the Year 2525.”
struck a chord in me. Can you remember when sixty seemed old? We all might be marching in cadence toward our mid-sixties, but this aging baby boomer promises not to go quietly into the night. I have come to believe that life is not, nor should it be, simple or pretty. It is a menagerie of good decisions and bad, laughter and tears, mixed with a heaping helping of ups and downs. But I for one will not be accused of looking pretty and well preserved in my casket.
of their life. I choose to believe that the end is nowhere in sight. I think the best years are yet to come. And I darn well intend to continue to live with the full expectation that God is not finished with me—that I am a work in progress that can cause the future to be exciting, fun, and productive.
grandchildren how to play Xbox. I’m simply asking each of you to take a moment to post one simple article, joke, adage, or YouTube video on our forum every month or so. Your e-mail inbox is jammed with some great stuff, and it only takes a few seconds to copy and paste it to the forum. Don’t worry; you cannot break it, so try it—just copy and paste something. After all, what really keeps people coming back to our website is new and fresh postings, and it is the real reason I began to write my Ramblings—to give you a reason to come back to the website every month and read my words of wisdom and wit. OK, my Ramblings might be short on both wisdom and wit, but they made you come back, didn’t they?
to DanMcCarty70.com. So, why not post a new picture, brag about a grandbaby, or just deliver your own words of wisdom. You should not plan to do this next week; rather, take a stab at it right now. Go to the left navigation bar, under Member Functions, Edit Profile or Upload Photo. The new Notify Me option will notify you when someone changes his or her profile. You can track the updates of a single classmate or the entire class. It’s simple, and it’s easy.
receive a birthday wish from someone you’ve known for more than fifty years, it can really make your day. Just imagine if three or four of us did that.
minutes a month, click on the happy birthday list, and in the words of that great American philosopher Clint Eastwood, go ahead and make their day!