A 7-year plan.

7 years seems like a long time.

It will probably feel longer than it is because I'll spend it knowing what I am missing.

The 7-year plan is this:
Continue doing what I'm doing for 7 more years, take early retirement, and make a go of freedom.

It's the best plan I can come up with considering my circumstances.

Dreams die. I've murdered a few in my time, and recently put the ice on the "live on a sailboat" one.

Goals, on the other hand, can sometimes be reached.

My wife and I had possibly the single most important discussion we have ever had on Sunday and yesterday we completed all the paperwork we will need when we meet with the lawyer today.

Bankruptcy, not divorce.

No, she decided that she wants to keep me around a little while longer, and I am pleased with that. It would have been the work of a minute for her to choose divorce, and I gave her the perfect way out. She thinks I'm (or can be again) worth the trouble.

We decided, though, that the current life we lead needs some serious overhaul. We are going to try to make some positive changes and the first step is getting the financial crap in order. That's going to take 3-5 years under Chapter 13, again barring some great miracle. 3-5 years is time enough for us to get some other stuff in process. I've still got some writing in me, and I am hopeful about the Brazilian Project.

So, she tacitly agreed with the "7-year plan."

We've decided that, if the stars align and the Buddha smiles on us with clean teeth, we will become gypsies in 7 years, traveling in some sort of mobile home, the type is undecided at this point and that's really a discussion for the future, anyway. A sailboat is right out, unless we can find one on the -real- cheap.

There is a pinpoint of light coming into my life, but I'm not going to give myself an opportunity to be optimistic about it just yet.

I'm going to try to create a list of rules (guidelines, maybe?) in order to help us live more simply.

In the meantime, I'm going to keep focused on the future while trying not to lose sight of the present. There's things to do.

Life is short, art is long, and success very far off.

Indeed.