It's nice knowing you and yours are well. I got this message late last night but knew it would take a minute to respond. Seems pretty common these days to hear the lockdown is greater than the virus itself. Everyone seems to agree the regulations are over the top. Good morning, sir.

Now then.. of course I don't mind!

Plan (which is a funny word) was to travel for two years, come back here and set up shop. Grab some property, raise some German Shepherds, that was the plan. As soon as we got back we were able to see the housing market and weigh in against the things we've learned the past two years.

The housing market is out of control, had to call time out on that one. What's happening is we're lucky to see 1-3 houses go up each week that check most the boxes. Well, those 1-3 houses are listing at 8am and have 15 families bidding on it by noon--not gonna play that game.

Simply put: You'll work the majority of your life in the US. 40 years, 60 years, depending how long you live, by living here under the guise of credit, you'll be locked into your debt most of your life, causing work. That doesn't happen anywhere else.

Here we're lucky to get a vacation, even then, you're looking at a week or two. I have so many friends who don't even have a passport--they (we didn't either) don't know any better. Those same friends haven't taken a vacation in years. EU, UK, much different. You're not even allowed to work there more than 90 days, every 90 worked equals 30 days off paid--that's one. There's a bunch.

When the thought of medical insurance, auto insurance, homeowners insurance, cloud space insurance, and however many other insurances tie us to the ground here are not part of the psyche, you think about other things like 'life.' We're now able to think like that. Soon as we get back here, it's daunting. See, I was forced to retire early and, by doing so, I didn't bank 500 hours in my home local the previous calendar year so my health coverage didn't carry over to Pura. We self pay for her, self pay medications etc. "Normal." Now that we've been around, that's anything but normal and we learned only America charges its citizens for something as basic as medicine. To keep Pura safely medicated these days (pancreatitis, nobody know htf she got it, was diagnosed as a kid) hurts.

Mind you, we received the same medicine around the world, even Panama and Palenstine for free. They're these little pink/green capsules, two a day, about the size of a Tylenol. Free everywhere else sir. Know what we pay for those now that we're state side?

Monthly premium--$69. Office visit--$129 = $198. Those little capsules sir, the ones she takes twice a day that are free everywhere else, know how much those are costing us?? 15 hundred fucking dollars! $1,500 (not a typo) to keep Pura healthy and virtually pain free is costing us $1,700/month, more than double our rent--that's two.

Even food. Growing up here, specifically in Ca, I just though $2.99/apple was normal. The same apples in England are 6/$1.00. I took a picture one time cuz it's tough to believe, check this out:

See all that? Even paper and cleaning products, the entire haul was £33, about $40. Cost of living elsewhere is substantially less and quality of life is substantially better than here plus the thought of all those insurances don't exist--that's three.

There's a bunch.

True, we aren't entirely settled on settling anywhere just yet but when the time comes, I just want to think about life, not the cost of life. I, personally, worked my ass off for 22 years to get where I am and I think that's enough. Not quite half my life but close enough working all those hours and all those weekends. Unfortunately, the going rate here is closer to 50 years, that isn't humane once you've witnessed other cultures who breathe the same oxygen.

And cops, too! It's comforting being able to do something as simple as ask a cop for directions without getting frisked, name ran, patted down and questioned. Life here compared to life anywhere else we've been isn't comparable.

(you asked 😉) Much love from Knoxville, sir!