Two and half years ago I posted that I was still alive and prior to that it was a year since the post before that one. That's almost more frequently than the US President checks in.
As of today, some near miss incidents aside, I am still alive. For what it's worth.
I moved to Costa Rica last winter. I live on the side of a volcano there on some rural property, and two former steemians (or whatever you call us OGs who don't really do the hive thing much) are my next door neighbors even. So yeah, people I met on the old steem platform talked me into moving to an entirely different country. Naturally this happened after they went there first, and my visits to see them and their farm enticed me to buy the property next door to them and make the international move myself.
This is the volcano across the street from my front door. It's name is Volcan Miravelles. It's a couple hundred meters away to the peak in this photo from my front door, but nearly impossible to walk to the peak and it's hot springs filled crater.
It's nearly vertical and harsh, rugged and dense rain forest up there, impassable. Protected land anyway by the government and so most locals have never been much higher on it than the road that's partially visible in front of my land in this photo. I am surrounded by my former-steemian neighbors farm on one side, and cows all around me on the other sides.
It's a very nice place to be, and only about 6 kilometers straight down a rutted out, potholed dirt and gravel cow path to the closest small town of Bijagua de Upala, Costa Rica.
And here is another angle, standing out in the street a couple of kilometers down the road from my place, at an overlook which looks over the town below on the way down the mountain from my land to the local stores and businesses.
Stop by sometime, but bring your own hotdogs. The Costa Rican "hotdogs" are a little bit weird to the North American expectation.
Anyway, I am currently back in the USA right now handling some business, and got bored and peeked in here to see if the lights were still on.
Apparently they are.
If you remember when I used to do stuff around here and it hasn't left you hating me, say hello and I'll send you love as mush as my limited resource credits on an ancient, unused account will allow. If it has left you hating me, say hello anyway and allow me to give you even more reasons to hate me. I really don't mind at all. Not one little bit.
Otherwise, Carry on. I'll see you in a couple more years. Or maybe tomorrow. I haven't decided yet. That's the beauty of early retirement.
With all my love and hate, choose and apply either as you wish...
SirCork
PS @malos10 Thank you for the RC power to post and reply :) <3 You're the best, hermano.
Cork!
So... I upvoted you, but as I mentioned in Discord... all my power is delegated... to someone, somewhere. 🤣
Perhaps, I'll start poking 'round these parts again...
Great to 'see' you in a beautiful new place.
Um.... is there internet? 😳 #howdoyoulive ???
Also, the joke about the US President made me lol.
We have excellent internet there actually. Fun fact: When Costa Rica overthrew their last dictator and became a Constitional Republic with the same kind of government and freedom as the USA, they opted to have zero military of any kind and chose instead to invest in infrastructure, education and healthcare. So they have pretty good internet everywhere and cell service and all the things. Even on the side of my volcano away from any sizeable population!
It's pretty cool. Y'all should come and see!
And I'd make a better recluse president than the basement dweller, so there's that too ;)
Hey welcome again sr here we are in El Salvador, when you decided to come here here I am, I hope visiting you in the future in Costa Rica.
Hello Neighbor! I am currently back in the USA for a bit but hope to be back in Costa Rica in a couple of months. This first year is much travelling back and forth. Bringing my possessions down there and selling things that remain back here in storage. I won't be fully settled in Costa Rica fully until early next year at this rate of progress, which is slower than I originally expected when I bought my land. Thanks for stopping by my post here though!
You haven't saved up enough for that ocean going yacht yet?
No, I can only afford a pond going yacht these days.
C'est la vie. You'll just have to move your stuff over time then.
That's how I am doing it, five checked bag hefty plastic totes at a time, max the airlines allow, and making trips back and forth at great cost each time. Its slow, and un-fun. But the end goal is my life on my own terms. So I suppose its worth it.
I've spent the last six months selling most of everything I ever owned and its been painful to watch my childhood things and un-transportable family heirlooms go for pennies on the dollar, but my daughter, now almost 32 years old, isn't particularly interested in inheriting my load of shit, isn't married and has no plans for any grandchildren for me, and I have no male offspring to bequeath anything to. So I am liquidating 55 years worth of stuff I've saved and protected at great cost over the decades, for next to nothing. It's far more painful than I expected to "own nothing and be happy"
Aw stuff right. I stuck all my stuff in storage every time I traveled/lived somewhere. Even though I, mercilessly culled stuff I still have mountains. I regret culling my vinyl collection though. I have used commercial freight shipping twice though. Once when I lived in Cyprus and once in Japan.
Fortunately my family didn't leave much to inherit (fortunately? :) ) so there was never really much that was inheritable except worthless nostalgia. Must be hard plowing through stuff and trashing it.
YEP! We are still here and it has been essentially 8 years since I joined STEEM initially which is crazy.
Looks like you have a cool setup and a lot of us are looking for the exit as well! It's getting very expensive and I don't see things turning around!
Your reasons are all accurate, but your financial advisor is wrong :) Costa Rica is the fastest growing economy in LatAm and the most expensive latin country to live in. Land and homes are comparable to the US and Canada, and groceries, aside from local fruits and vegetables, are more expensive. Cars are nearly double the cost of north America. BUT, its summer all year and gorgeous pretty much everywhere. Worth it if that is how you like your climate, just never mind the rainy season, its not so bad, for a rain forest and all :)
I knew the price had went up down there but I'm surprised to hear that land and hoes are comparable to the US and Canada and cars are double.
I'm more looking into places like Croatia, Montenegro, Spain, and Poland. Within the US I somewhat see some value in Arkansas and Michigan.
It's tough to know but hopefully you stick around some and let us see more of what is up down there! I have never been to Central or South America
Looks like an improvement to living standard to me.
It's debatable, but its definitely different. It's no cheaper than the USA, that's one thing for sure. But its summer all year long babeeeeee! That appeals to my cold ickly heart after all :)
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Thanks for the beer, now I have to go read about what beer is, as I told @steevc on his beer drop here on this page, I'm more of a weed guy than a drinker :)
Escaped the rat race did you, well done.
Now you wake up to either a grand view or explosive one daily, who could be bored in retirement anyways?
All that beef romping around why you eating sausages?
Won't be visiting over the pond, so enjoy and great to hear you are alive and well.
Hi Joan!
I eat the "sausages" cause its hard to get a cow to stay on a stick over a fire :) Also because they are cheap, and when you are in semi-retirement, cheaperer is betterer :)
Plus it is easier to eat them without any utensils or stuff, and in that photo, I had just taken possession of the land and didn't have anything at all up there yet. :)
Alive, yes. Well, is well, debatable. Good to see you again!
Makes sense a good stick over fire can cook quite amazing meals, when better settled, time to enjoy.
Slow but sure, you will get there....
Oh wow, I use that quote ALL the time about eating an elephant. Having had a multiple decade career in software engineering on large scale projects, I had to trot that gem out countless times over the years to get people to understand how to break down complex things into smaller, simpler tasks. I love that quote and you are quite right, it applies here ideally.
Living in Africa most things done in small increments, you made the right move into the countryside enjoy it.
Oh I most certainly will :)
you look amazing ma fren 😃 amazing adventures in Costa Rica !!
I've thought about you so often hermano! But I couldn't remember your steemit/hive name only your REAL name after spending time with you IRL at steemfiesta in Peru! LOL, i kept trying to find our old chats and stuff to check in over the past couple years but your name totally lost me, then one day I finally found it when I came back here this week and boom!
SO good to be back in touch! You also look great and healthy! Still in Lima or back in the VZ?
I would often wonder how you were doing. I also took a break from HIVE for a couple of years. I currently travel with my sister. We both reside in a 29 1/2 foot camper we recently purchased together.
At the moment we are in Hershey Pennsylvania having left Georgia. In September we will be going to North Carolina.
Glad to see that you are well. All the best!
Good to hear you are getting around Sarge. And those are fun spots to see. In western NC, be sure to try your hand at some gold prospecting at one of the many gold mine camps. Lot of history there.
Yes we are here
Fantastic! Would have been lonely if I came back and nobody was!
I have seen people come back to Steemit just for it to be a ghost town. But here even during the bear markets its still lively.
Being here based on "the markets" - be they bear or bull - is not the reason to be here. :)
You can clearly see an increase in activity on the chain when the price is higher.. vs when its low.
But people are always here, just less when its crypto winter.
Always been true.
Just good to see you active and doing well in your new homeland. Remembering without any hate. The fork was emotionally hard for me and it took a prolonged break for me to want to return. Its nice to see old faces like yourself.
All the best!
I came back to see old faces, and I was not disappointed :) Y'all are OLLLDDDD! :P No hate, just appreciate. I'm way too tired these days for starting any more wars, and besides Ned is gone, who would I even try to tear down now? Shhhh, hush, don't tell me, I don't want to know! :)
Oh there are some prime candidates but most are letting bygones be bygones. 😎
:D wisdom!
That is a really Beautiful view you have there and seems like a beautiful place to live 😊
Moving can be a bit scary and especially to another Country, good you had some friends there so you not alone. And I hope whatever you planning... It will work out smoothly.
So good to see you here again and I hope you stay with us this time 🤗 big hugs
I'm here for a good time, this time. I hope to keep it easy and breezy, but we'll see how it plays out.
Costa Rica is super nice. I'm purposely not name dropping the people I live next door to, because they seem to have left the platform and wish to kind of stay that way I think, but you'd know one of them probably, the other was kind of low key, but they became a couple along the way and I stayed in touch via other social mechanisms after the collapse of steem and the advent of hive when we all took our leave, be it temporary or permanent. It's good to have fairly established friends literally one barbed wire fence away when moving to a new country, or so it seems so far. We may get sick of each other eventually too though. Again, we'll see how it plays out :)
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Have fun there. My sister and her family just had a holiday in Costa Rica seeing some cool wildlife.
Steem feels like a long time ago now and Hive is my home. I'm looking to go to Hivefest again to see some old friends. We have a good mix here with some real smart folk.
!BEER
Hey Steev! I do have fun in CR, it's a very wild and rugged place and that suits a wild and rugged guy like me very much.
Good to see you, Steem does feel like centuries ago, and I sort of came and went for a bit after the forkening, but I feel compelled to come hang out for awhile again, so I expect you'll be seeing more from me. I just can't help myself. :)
Nice to see so many of the old stalwarts like yourself still hanging around. That is encouraging, despite the stats I've been seeing about stagnant growth for the ecosystem. You would think the "lockdown" era would have created great momentum here, but alas. It did not seem to really cause the influx the place really needs.
I am disappointed with the lack of Hive adoption, but it's still fun for me on a daily basis.
I think it's going to be a very good time being back around, I'm already having a blast reconnecting with all my old buddies :)
Hi there! Nice to see you are back! I also was away for a while, then back, then away and now back - mostly due to various illnesses; would love to give you some power via my voting but unfortunately no power available, I don't know why!
anyway it is nice to see you again and hopefully we will see each other around here! Stay cool!
Thanks! It's nice to be back! And I am quite certain we will see more of each other. However I am not certain I will stay cool. I'm not so good at that sometimes 😄
I left Japan about a month before the big earthquake in Sendai. I think that was actually life number 9 so I think I would have to give the volcano a miss.
Technically really only need the volcano to give YOU a miss ;) I don't think anything you could hit it with would hurt it.
Glad you're still around. Keep safe since you're near the volcano.😊
Thanks! The funny thing about volcanos is there is not much keeping safe you can do, other than not swimming in the 400 degree hot springs pools that surround it :)
I agree with you.😊 I hope you're more updated with the movement of volcanoes.😊
Nah, it's not a good suggestion to swim in that high degree of hot spring.😁
Glad to see you back @sircork. I don't think we ever interacted before, unless it was during one of the Writer's Block events back in the day or hmm.. maybe in the alliance... I forget, but of course I'm familiar with you. Looking forward to reading your posts and talking with you going forward.
Thank you and likewise! I'm sure we crossed paths. Apparently at some point I crossed everybody one way or another 😄
WHATS UP @SIRCORK good to see you still alive and kickin!
DUDE!~ I was gonna say hello to you in DMs this morning in fact, but wasn't sure if you were still around and how my arrival might be met :| Miss you man! Hope you're doing frigging awesome up there in them woods!
say hello anytime brother, same Discord as always.
will do, I'm still in all of them except well, one, you know... ;)
Well bro, I'm truly glad to find out you are still kicking and well and warmer living next to a volcano. The place looks great and interesting enough as to wander around with pick and shovel all over there. And as for the OGs, well, we can already say that you are now a few steps closer to a close encounter of the third kind with the alien misfits of the Venezuelan land. Yeah, I am also still here doing my thing. And it is always a great pleasure for me to know that good debaters with a well-shaven tongue still are around in good health as to start a good conversation at some point.
By the way, I upvoted this post at 100% of my almighty upvote of 0.02 cents. Just to make sure you have enough RCs as to have one of those heated debates and conversations very soon.
Cheers!
Aw shucks, I do plan to do some quiet picking and shoveling, there is definitely some gold in those streams that surround me on the mountain. We have all kinds of close encounters in CR. I'm actually only about 35 miles from the Nicaraguan border so we see many more of them than the Venezuelans, but we also have the space alien kind allegedly down around the "BIG" volcano called Arenal. All sorts of stories come from there.
As for the rest, I'm old and tired now. I plan to stay mostly out of the platform politics if I take up another residency on hive, but I do miss the place and some of the people, so I expect you'll be seeing more of me and hearing more of my treacherous tales :) Thank you for the vote. I'll be sure to spend it all in one place!
Don't worry about that brother. That I will take care of removing the old and tired from you as soon as we start interacting.
Excellent! then I hope you soon break the record of Bernard Otto Holtermann and soon you can invite me to your new home for a few days.
Good to hear from you again. If it wasn't for the witness vote notification I would've missed this but I do also check your old discord time to time. Sounds like you're living the good life there.
I'm living the small income, big outdoors life here, but I like it. Yeah, I was peeking in and i guess all my witness votes expired or something, so I started voting for old friends until I ran out of power. My little latin brother @malos10 from youareHOPE days (my founding partner in that) gave me some RC to post my little update blog and such. I need to go vote some more witnesses now, I had gotten down to @drakos and he taught me all I knew about witnessing back in the day, and saved my ass on that all the time, and I treasured his support and help. He will be mad I didnt vote him - yet - , but I was going top down the list, and was out of power when I got to him:) Hope you're still fighting the good fights.