theboondork's RV blog

the iron fist

10/12/2023

if your life is a bore with nothing to do, click all the pics and when you are through, stand back and look at what you have done, you've made them all bigger, now wasn't that fun? If you answer yes I can't help but wonder if your life is on track, or perhaps going under.

This new housing development, only about 1/4 of a mile from my daughter's house, represents a trend that bothers me. The developers signs say that these single-family homes start at $500,000 and go up to about $750,000. but what bothers me is there sitting on almost no land.

I'm a land kinda guy, I would prefer a smaller house and more land than the other way around, which may explain why I'm a boondocker and dread going to RV parks, and it also shows that I'm the one that's not normal, because almost all of these homes were sold before they were built.

But land in Denver is expensive, and Colorado is growing rapidly so the more homes the developer can build on an acre of land, the more money the developer makes. But I swear, as I walk by these houses there as close together as an average RV Park....which breaks my heart because there's not a yard for the kids to play in like kids are supposed to.

A County road repair crew showed up two days ago and started digging up the road next to which I am peacefully boondocked. So far, they've used a huge machine to attack the asphalt with large claws, breaking it into small pieces and depositing it in dump trucks, where I assume it will be melted down and reused.

Ordinarily, I would've gone over and supervised the operation, but they appeared to have enough County employees standing around doing nothing, so I assume they had plenty of supervisors and didn't need me.

I'm still helping babysit my granddaughter and grandson after school, and I will be doing so until Friday when my daughter returns from the mountains. It's supposed to snow where she's at in Keystone tomorrow night, maybe as much as a foot, so hopefully, the snow will last only a short time on the roads so it won't be a problem for her to get back to Denver on Friday.

In an effort to get myself and the camper prepared to head South this month, I've been going through things, and looking for stuff to get rid of. And I have found I can accomplish that while relaxing at the same time. I can sit at my computer table with a cup of coffee next to me, look at things lying around in the camper, and ask myself, self? Do you need that? And most of the time, I say yes, I need that. But I don't always take yes for an answer; sometimes I dig deeper and say; self? Exactly what do you need that for? And I usually answer, ahhhhhhh!!! At which time I bring down the iron fist and say; then get rid of it..... NOW!

I've since learned that I have to be very careful when using the "iron fist" since I have carelessly thrown away my car keys, wallet, and my only cooking pot. The iron fist shows no mercy and very little common sense.

Theboondork

I've come to realize that I've been in a rut. and I've been in Denver for so long this summer, and have been doing the same thing for so many months that the county sent out a road crew to dig a deeper rut for me to live in. My previous rut was woefully inadequate seeing as how I could still peek over the edge which gave me a faint hope of freedom. So the county hearing that I might be leaving soon, is digging a rut for me to live in that will require a ladder for me to get in and out of so there will be no hope of escape from my mundane, monotonous, and unbreakable daily routine.

A daily rut is never easy to get out of but this rut the county is working on appears to be insurmountable. My only chance will be to break out and head South before the rut is finished, or my fate is sealed, and I will be doomed to walk forever the same streets, take pictures of the same tree, and have the same conversation with the same people for as long as I shall live.

Lilies

Latest pictures of the grandkids. There sitting on the sofa watching TV, which is about the only time they sit still long enough for me to take their picture.

7 Comments

OFM

10/12/2023 05:45:32 pm

Sure is good looking grands you have there. What age are they now.

Tom

10/12/2023 07:07:20 pm

Yeah, they do take after me, Barney. My grandsons nine, and my granddaughters six. I do miss them when I'm gone, and I'm sure you know that exact feeling.

Tom

10/12/2023 07:25:50 pm

My gdaughter is also six but my gson is eleven.

Linda

10/13/2023 01:35:23 pm

I sure hope that road construction will not interfere with you leaving.

I wish more cities would build tiny house communities instead of McMansions. Lots of people are now downsizing so the owners of those huge houses may soon regret buying them. I almost hope so.

10/13/2023 03:58:13 pm

Not to worry, Linda, the road construction won't bother me in the least; bumpy dirt roads are just part of the boondocker's lifestyle. A push of a button and four-wheel-drive will kick in sending County workers scurrying for safety.

Yeah, as we old geezers and empty-nesters no longer need big houses, we need something to downsize into, and small condos seem to fit the bill.

But I think Denver is more of a younger place because a lot of older folks don't want to deal with the cold and the snow, which leaves a lot of younger people in Denver after us geezers have moved south into warmer areas.

When I see what appears to me to be normal houses that cost $750,000, it makes me wonder how much money somebody has to make to pay a mortgage that big, the property tax, and the homeowners insurance. And with the interest rates nowadays up around 8%, I don't know how even middle-class folks can afford a house like that... But somebody's making that kind of money because, like I said, most of those houses were sold before they were build.

I count myself lucky that I don't have to deal with things like that anymore. I think I've downsized to the point that I'm just one step above pushing a grocery cart down the sidewalk with my computer and a can of beans in it .... And I couldn't be happier.

Tom

10/14/2023 10:34:29 am

Young folks are buying small houses, too. They can't afford a mortgage on a big one and don't want to spend their time caring for one anyway. So those in the middle buying the big houses now are not going to have buyers when it's time for them to sell.

10/14/2023 11:44:42 am

A lot of homebuying depends on the economy, and right now, the economy is not doing very well. Goods are costing us more, interest rates on large purchases are high, the middle class is shrinking, the country is deeply in debt, open borders are creating a welfare state that we are paying for with borrowed money, and home prices are outrageous in most places, a lot of young people have no hope of ever affording a home, and under such conditions its almost impossible to predict what will happen in the home market.

But I'm an optimist, and I'm old enough to have seen a lot of presidents come and go and know that the proper leadership can turn things around rather quickly, that is if we don't wait so long that a tipping point is reached and it can't be turned around without dealing with another Great Depression that my parents lived through which took World War II to get this country back on its feet again.... That worked once, but World War III will probably have the opposite effect.

Tom

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