It is not Jan 31, 2016 as I put this together. I’m going through January 2016 pics and video in August 2021. I’m sitting on JC & Vicki’s land in Ingram, Texas in our 5th wheel, still in a pandemic. Third f’ing wave. Since March 2020 I’ve been sorting over 100k pics and put them on our Amazon Family Share thing. The video is overwhelming.
We’re looking for housing without wheels, again. Hoping to come off the road and setup in the Hill Country, again. Hoping that you’ll all come home but not looking to chase you out there much anymore. Hoping that we can be more like our current hosts JC and Vicki, home basing and getting out for months at a time throughout the year. Time will tell.
This has always been for the kids. Voyeurs welcome.
– Deggers
Living
In January 2016 – I’m living with your mom, my best friend and smoking hot wife of a quarter century in 2016. We’re living in that beach cottage in Seaview, Washington for some months where we’re at sea level and freak on every tsunami warning from Chile. We’re probably three feet above sea level. Our ambient noise is waves crashing about 100 yards from us.
We walk to the beach often, and around Cape Disappointment more. It’s also a metaphor for where we are right now. Our disappointment in our 15th month of the empty nest life while living well where people vacation. Disappointed that grown children should not live with their parents, and wanting to live with you all (when you were seven, not so much now, but yeah, that conflict everyday).
The Cape Disappointment lighthouse was recently listed as one of the most scenic anywhere. It has become okay for us, kinda ‘meh’ as our near daily hike and commute. We may need a change, again. We continue to move a lot. We need to appreciate more but the monotony gets in the way. Disappointment even when we’ve chosen our appointment. Mom wants to go back to Texas. I love the Northwest.
Working
I’m working in I.T. at the rural hospital in Ilwaco. It takes me 2 minutes to get to work, so I drive around the Cape to create a commute, about 15 very scenic minutes on a road I treat like a racetrack. We’re piecing together an Electronic Medical Records System at the hospital for better funding. We drive and share the black Toyota Tacoma Sport, our only vehicle at this point.
The better part of us, your mom, Jenn has written and published a book and is now promoting it. It’s going really well. It’s really good.
She published it on Amazon and is reading it on a new video streaming platform called Periscope. She videos in portrait mode. It drives me crazy. We make roughly 40% more than we spend right now, working and spending to create more time. Saving some and having a lot of fun. We give ya’ll too much money. You tend to think you’re more independent than you are. We did at that age too.
Austin, on overborrowing: I got this, dad.
You didn’t got this. Spend less than you make. Make more time.
Dad: You don’t got this, Austin.
JANUARY 2016 VIDEOS
Hanging around with the bnf, a collection of our January 2016 videos:
0:05 Jan 3, 2016. Jenn testing Periscope Video Streaming from our Tada.
9:53 Jan 5, 2016. Chaco eating Austin’s face.
10:54 Jan 6, 2016. Jenn introducing her upcoming Periscope book readings.
15:30 Jan 7, 2016. Random house video.
15:47 Jan 12, 2016. Jenn driving on the Warrenton bridge to Astoria in the rain.
16:32 Jan 16, 2016. Hanging at the house with Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Jack & friends.
Being in a dark house all day and alone drives your mom crazy. This is her coffee mug with Grandpa Jack. She’s not built to be not a BAMF…
She went for her first normal like job in decades to get out some. A basic hourly wage – and she loves the monotony of it. She also hates it for every reason people hate normal jobs. Nobody hires a CEO of the home and she quit that job in 2014 when her and I moved out of what became your 8th Street house in Astoria. She’s a great wife & mom. So much more than an hourly wage. But aren’t we all?
You are all grown up and out these days. You all made terrible roommates but we were old and you were young. Austin, 2016 turns you to 23 years old, Kes 21, and Sunny 20. You still like us, we think. We like you. You like each other. Most of the time. Sunny posted this on Instragram in January of 2016. I screenshot a lot of your stuff these days.
Austin – remember moving in with us with your giant dog, Chaco? You were in between roommating at 8th St and getting the Warrenton house, I think. You were working at the local brewery and building out your photo/videography business. Or not. I’m pretty sure you were having lots of fun.
Kes, you were still wandering around the country out of your backpack and making money where you can, in some really cool ways – Superbowl and a commercial come to mind. You were creating beautiful art, dreamcatchers and jewelry.
We didn’t know how to let you go. After dropping you in downtown Portland with your backpack in November 2014, you called us back for lunch. Your ride was going to be late. You wanted to spend more time with us. I was spinning the car around, your mom was like aww hell no! She couldn’t do that goodbye again. Every goodbye to this day is that hard. That was just the first of many.
Every reunion, that much better. Absence does make the heart grow fonder.
Sunny, your love for taking care of people at this time had you working in-home elder care and adulting from the Astoria 8th St rental house we left you all in. You filled it up with roommates and managed that thing like an adult. It may have been this year you got the adulting trophy.
BITCH! – pecan waffles are er body’s thing. You can’t claim pecan waffles as ya’lls thing
Bitch – I’m not, but. Pecan waffles ARE a Sunny & Papa thing. You hate breakfast at dinner, IHOP, Denny’s and shoo us off on most breakfast diner trips. Except breakfast tacos.
Learning
In our third year of empty nesting, we’re learning the monotony of house life and the difficulties of the road. Especially Kes. You weathered most of the road storms and came home a lot, wherever that may be for us. This is only our third Christmas empty nesting and you’ve been home every December for us. This year staying through some of January. We really appreciate that.
Looking back, one of the valuable lessons you kids have learned is time spent wisely. I believe you’ve all come out of the bnf experiment taking significant times between jobs. Time off from jobs. Months at a time.
Most toil away with a couple of weeks off all year. A few days here and there, maybe a full week but it’s more rare than you may think to take months off. Months off at a time remains one of our favorite treasures. I agree with the advice: “spend less than you make“, but emphasize…
Always make more time than you spend.
Playing
We’re out playing in the red Tada RV pulled by our new Tacoma a lot. Trips to the Oregon coast, Portland, Seattle, Pacific Coast Range.
We go to Portland and Seattle a lot these days because starting the hang with you guys after 9pm at the brewery is just not our thing anymore. It’s weird how age gets you up early. Slows down your party energy. This is all new for us.
We started to look for jobs and housing out of the small towns around Astoria. Thought it would be a good idea to live the city life again.
Never followed through with the city life thing. Trying to live the ‘make more than you spend’ philosophy that we’ve been spewing to you. Good money in a small town was working out pretty good for us.
Together
Still together. Apart. Greg & Jenn with a few visits to and from the kids here and there. Including Austin as an occasional roommate. His stuff & dog, Chaco as permanent roommates.
A new year. January 2016.