2013/11/05
You don’t always get the girl.
You cast your line and settle for beans instead of salmon.
You feel ten-feet tall and bullet-proof until cascading back spasms turn you into a blubbering mass of pain.
When your 21 year old daughter stops by just to make sure you are okay, you know you’re fucked. Life is like that. Just when you think you have things licked, Life reminds you how mortal you are.
For the past month I’ve been liquidating my belongings to fund the Boot-Strap Expat project. We’ve had good weeks and bad weeks during this time, but I thought I was making progress even though I was working 40+ hours per weekend to offload all this stuff. It’s just stuff, but it is cool stuff! But I’m not twenty anymore. I used to be able to party ’til dawn, take a quick nap and head to work in a factory. No mo’. Having extended Liquidation efforts by an entire month, it doesn’t feel like success, it feels like treading water, it doesn’t feel like progress. So I’m trying to find someone to buy me out for pennies on the dollar. By my latest inventory I have about $5600.00 in household goods for sale, not including original artwork and select antiques. If I can convince someone to pay half of that so that I no longer have to spend my weekends dealing with potential buyers who always offer a dollar for everything I have, I’ll be happy. The bank account will be in the black, I’ll have my life back and in the off-chance I screw up my trick back again, I won’t have to worry about not being able to stand, let alone walk!
I might also be able to leave sooner. You have no idea how bad I want to hit the road. I can almost taste it! Truck Stop diners, visiting friends and family as I make my exit, real moonshine instead of government approved whiskey! Real Life is waiting for me! Yet here I sit at my computer. Not painting. Not carving. Not hunting. Not fishing. Not hiking for miles a day. Not gathering wood for the campfire. Not listening to the radio until the wee hours of the morning. Not awaking at dawn to capture incredible sun rises over the lakes and mists that only Nature can provide. Enough! It is time to move forward, cut my potential earnings and simply go!
I’m tired of watching TV. I’m tired of paying for internet when most diners offer free wi-fi. I’m tired of waiting for the adventure to begin!
It’s time to line up sponsors instead of flea market customers. If you have any contacts of potential sponsors in any of the nations between the USSA and Chile, please pass them along. It will surely be an interesting road-trip. All words of encouragement are also appreciated.
Please consider being a Sponsor for this adventure,
To support my efforts directly, donations through PayPal can be made to: alex.z@consultant.com
The Bootstrap Expat 
How are you feeling now? Better? What is the progress of your move?
Thanks for the concern. I’m not 100% yet, but certainly better than I’ve been in days.
My plan is to offer other vendors the opportunity to buy me out dirt cheap so I can move forward and concentrate on lining up sponsors. Watch for an update in the next few days.
Thanks again,
Alex
Alex,
All I can spare are words of encouragement. I found your blog through the link you posted in your reply to the most recent DailyAnarchist article. I’ve recently been reading more of the articles there and some of the comments and determined that I felt your comments were worth the read (and thus, subsequently “clicked” on your link).
I don’t know what caught my attention with this article, but I chose to read it over all the others, and I feel your pain. I know you don’t know me from Adam, but I am very encouraged by your efforts. At least you have a blog. At least you’ve set up your web page. At least you sit down and write (and it looks like you do that very regularly). At least you have started selling-off your stuff. You have taken very definitive actions to make the move.
I turned 50 yesterday. I both relish and fear the idea of starting over. I suspect it will be a reaction (something forced upon me) that drives change on my part rather than action (something I initiate myself). I believe what you’re doing is very courageous and after reading the down tone of this article, I just felt I would be remiss if I didn’t at least take some action to share with you my thoughts about how admirable I think what you’re doing is.
I look forward to “following” your adventure to Chile.
Sincerely,
Mike Haggard
Thanks so much for the encouragement, Mike. At the half century mark we often review our lives with a wizened eye that was previously unavailable to us. I can honestly say that I’ve faced greater challenges and disappointments over the years, and although I’m not immune to Dark Nights of the Soul, I’ve found that if I keep waking each morning, progress toward my goals can be made.
So as 2013 draws to a close it’s time to review, re-plan and keep moving forward. Once I’m underway, my next goal will be convincing my daughter and her loved ones to make a similar move while they still can.
Thanks again,
Alex