Tag Archives: cooking

Moved to the Country

A few years ago, I made a blog post announcing that I had become a homeowner.  At the time, the house I bought was considerably bigger than I needed. But I was planning ahead for something that would be not just for me, but also for my girlfriend, that later became my wife, and her two teenage children.  It was a beautiful 4-bedroom house with tons of space.  And it was in an area that I wanted to be in.  Since 1990, I had lived just a few miles from the beach on the Florida Emerald Coast, except for one year when I lived about 15 miles north of the coast.  It had always been a wonderful area to live. 

The Brick

I was 19 when I first moved to Fort Walton Beach and I was at the beach every day I could make it.  At that time, my life revolved around making time for the beach.  All my kids grew up going to the beach, one of them was even a paid beach lifeguard for a season.  The kids loved the beach, the waves, the sand.  I always enjoyed taking them.  As they grew up, I went to the beach less and less.  They had their own rides or, eventually, drove themselves.  Today, I can’t remember the last time I went to the beach.  Probably when my sister came for a visit a few years ago.  But as I look back over the last 10 years, there are plenty of entire calendar years that I didn’t even step foot on the sand.  All while living maybe 10 minutes from the beach. 

The area I once treasured as paradise outgrew itself and was no longer desirable to me.  My wife and I decided to move out to the country and found a terrific house on a small lake.  It’s a much smaller house, but much bigger lot, and on a lake.  Did I mention the lake?  We can still go to the beach, but it would take at least an hour to get there.  Unless it’s tourist season, then it might take two hours or more.  But now I can walk out onto my back deck and enjoy the lake view any time I want.  No tourists.  And that is part of what makes it a great view.  The lake itself is beautiful, but the peace and quiet make it close to perfect. 

Living out here is a little different.  Not like the old Chevy Chase movie Funny Farm (1988) when he moved from New York City to the country. But there are some quirks and a lot of dirt roads. There’s plenty of farmland and most of the people here move at their own pace.  Up the road within a couple miles, there are horses, cows, and pop-up produce stands.  And we do have a favorite pop-up produce stand.  We’re about 7 miles north of a small town that has a lot to offer.  I love the mom-and-pop restaurants and shops, local activities, and I especially love living in an area that takes things slower. It’s much better than living in a more populated area.  Speaking of slow, we even still have a Radio Shack in town.  Time must have slowed here quit a bit, I thought all of those stores closed years ago.  And slow is perfectly fine with me.  I’m not in any hurry.

Radio Shack. Can you believe it? Open 6 days a week.

Since I had to quit my “real” job a few years ago for medical and health reasons, I do gig work like Door Dash, Uber, and other things.  Out here I do Door Dash.  There is almost no demand for Uber.  The only good Uber trip I’ve taken since moving here was a 60-mile, one-way trip going north into Alabama.  That was one of three Uber trips I’ve taken since moving.  There’s just no demand for it here.  But Door Dash is busy, as long as I drive south towards town.  Many of my Door Dash trips have taken me down one-lane dirt roads.  One of my trips even took me across a one-lane wooden bridge.  And in just the first two months I did Door Dash after moving here last year, I had already delivered more alcohol and pregnancy tests than I had in the 3 previous years of dashing.  Actually, I had never delivered a pregnancy test until I moved here.  You’d be surprised how many of those get ordered in this area, usually getting picked up from a Dollar General store.  Maybe it has something to do with the copious amount of alcohol people order for delivery out here.  There could be a connection between those two things, who knows?

(L)One of the many one-lane dirt roads my Door Dash travels have taken me. (R) A paved road that turns into a one-lane wooden bridge. Always an adventure out here.

This was a good move to come out to the country.  My mental health hasn’t been this good in years.  My wife was able to transfer with her state job and is now closer to work than she’s ever been, so that worked out extremely well.  Being retired from the military, I don’t have to keep a full-time job to survive and provide.  That’s why I like doing gig work; I make my own schedule and work when I’m able to, usually two or three days a week.  I do a lot around the house and in the yard, when my body allows it.  I’m cooking more new things than I ever have, exploring recipes that I would have never tried before.  I’ve become more active with the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars).  And I’ve been writing more.  And I have really missed writing. 

Life is good, y’all.  I’m living proof that no matter how bad the past was, no matter the pain, bad memories, or failures that dragged you down, you can get back on top of life.  And I thank God everyday for where I am now, not just where I live, but who I am.  I’m glad you stopped by Story of My Life today.  Good day, God Bless.

Dave

Did I mention the lake?

Back to Work

For the few of you that follow and read Story of My Life every week, you may have noticed that I missed two weeks in a row. I’ve been busy. A month ago, I started working again after a year of being self-unemployed. Except for my Army Reserve weekends, I wasn’t doing anything outside the home for employment. I really missed working. Now I miss being lazy. LOL. My psychologist I was seeing at the Vet Center and I discussed work and decided last year early in our sessions that I wasn’t ready for the stress of work. By the time he relocated to another job in December I had made great progress and started passively looking for work.

I had to find the exact right job for me. While I have improved in many areas in my mental health, my brain still has issues. I’m still easily frustrated, although I am dealing with my frustrations much better now. I’m getting better at not being so jumpy and anxious, but still have my moments. And I still hate crowds and being around groups of people that I don’t know very well or at all. And let’s not forget traffic. I doubt I’ll ever do well in traffic again. I know an argument can made whether I was ever good in traffic to begin with, but I see a difference between getting angry at a fellow motorist and having bad memories from deployments because of traffic. I actually don’t get angry much in traffic anymore, but the feelings I have from being in certain traffic situations can only be understood by someone who has “been there.” In my case, Kabul, Afghanistan. For others, somewhere else in Afghanistan or Iraq, or wherever.

I got hired to cook at a restaurant that was opening in our local airport. In my interview, I said I had not worked in a year and would like to ease back into things, maybe four days a week, perhaps working 30 hours or so. I let the interviewer know that I was still in the Army Reserves, that I had previously deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. And also that I was dealing with PTSD, among other issues, but that I was capable of doing the job I was applying for. So, I went to work. First, we had to get the restaurant cleaned, painted, and set up. Then we opened. And then I cooked. And now I’m tired.

My plan of easing back into work did not work as planned. I worked over 40 hours three weeks in a row. There was a time in my life that 40 hours was a piece of cake. I was told recently that I have a history of going from one extreme to another. While that has some truth to it, I certainly didn’t mean to go from doing mostly nothing to going full speed. But I’m glad I did. I’m very comfortable where I am. The kitchen is small. The staff is small. I work with some good people. And often I’m in the kitchen by myself since it’s a small operation. And the best part? Since the restaurant closes after the last departure, I’m out of there before 8 pm on nights I close. I found my groove, my niche, and a schedule I like. For those of you that work or have worked in the restaurant industry, you know that getting out before 8 pm on a closing night is completely unheard of.

Working at the airport requires a background check, fingerprinting, and a test about airport security that must be passed to get the ID badge. No problem. And working at the airport has a few perks. I took my twin girls to the airport this week for a class trip to Washington, D.C. I parked in the employee lot, no cost to park. I was able to go to the gate with them since I have a security badge while all the other parents had to say good-bye to their kids at the TSA checkpoint. On a side note about the class trip, an anonymous donor paid for most of the kids to go on that trip. That’s the only reason my twins could go. I have no idea who that mystery person is, but a huge Thank You to him or her. I am forever grateful.

Well, I’m back to work and handling it fairly well, except that I was too tired and busy to post here the last two weeks. My body is getting used to being on my feet all the time again. That is not a fun process, but one I must go through. I miss the Me that didn’t hurt so much after being on my feet all day. And that was only a few years ago. I’ll probably never be as fast or as good as I was in the kitchen back then, but I’m keeping up. I still have some memory issues, but not as bad as it was a year ago. And lastly, I’m very thankful for the opportunity I have with the company that hired me. I feel like they have taken a chance on me and I appreciate that. It was a huge confidence boost.

I’m still here. Busy, but here. Thank you for reading this week. Good day, God bless.

Dave

Related posts:

Hostage Negotiator or Hostage Taker?

Memories and Afghanistan

Recovery, It’s Not That Easy.