I started writing this weekly newsletter on Substack (Has anyone else noticed how easy it is to say you wrote a Substack?) at the start of 2023.
When 2023 began, I was in a different place in my life. In January and February, I held out little hope of escaping the crummy casita I lived in. I was the poor dwarf among rich giants when I lived in Tesuque. It’s beautiful there, but I lacked the comforts of home.
Like everywhere else in America, rents in Santa Fe have skyrocketed. In 2008, I lived in a fine duplex in the trendy South Capital area and spent $800 a month. A place like this goes for close to $2000 now.
In March, however, I got a rare bit of good luck. I met up with an old friend where I had stored my motorcycle for the winter. He offered me the chance to move into his spacious duplex in the semi-urban area of Siringo Road, which seems almost another country away from rural Tesuque.
I moved in June.
This month, I transferred to a new challenging job at the same place I have been working. This was a break I was not expecting and it was a good move for me.
I also turned 64 this month. It’s been fairly uneventful but I have to say if Sari Botton asked me her questions for Oldster magazine, I’m not sure I would hold out the hope and courage her other interviewees espoused.
Getting this, um, old has laid out the future starkly. If 2023 was the year of the unexpected, what will 2024, my 64th year on this planet, bring?
I want to finish at least the first draft of Journey, American. I have 16,000 words down now. My goal is 75,000 or more. That is my top goal.
My other is to start living again. The pandemic ripped the social fabric of my life into shreds. It’s time to knit it back together, though I have no idea what it might look like or who it might involve.
Here’s to life. Be in it.
I'm 66 and working on starting to live again myself, I just need to have a couple of things fixed before the real start kicks in. The pandemic really messed up so much. Keep on writing. So glad you found a new place to live and got a promotion. Rock all the way to 65 and beyond, Jeff!