I do online auto racing on the Playstation app Gran Turismo 7 and I recently posted this picture on a race gaming community:

with the following note: “My first win since I resumed racing after a 2 year interruption while we moved to a new state!”

Someone responded with “Congrats!!! But 2 years? where is the new state? Mars? 😱”

I followed up with “Almost. Idaho. Way north Idaho. It didn’t take 2 years to get here, but it took about that to clear land, build a cabin, set up solar and Starlink, and get stuff out of of storage so I could go racing again (in between cutting and splitting wood so we wouldn’t freeze in the winter). Unfortunately I had to sell my wheel–no room in a little cabin–so I had to learn how to race on a controller.”

Someone else responded with “I’m reading a man living the dream right here. Cabin, nature, chopping wood AND online solar powered racing… Doesn’t get any better than that. You won the lottery or something?”

To which I answered, “It’s definitely a great life with beautiful mountains and wildlife (watching deer grazing off our lawn not 20 feet from our sliding door). But about the lottery, I tell people that I wish I could afford to retire. When they say they thought I was retired, I say I am, I just can’t afford it!”