Time, unbound
It has been a busy (nearly) first quarter of the year, even though I missed a chunk of the earliest bit cavorting on the high seas.
Fate has a way of balancing things in interesting ways, however. Time away decompressed me; being back in the day-to-day has re-compressed time.
As I noted a few posts back, we have had some challenges. We have also made some progress despite them.
I have found over my 40+ year career that progress is not very linear. It is made in fits and starts. The key is a solid plan, an abundance of good fortune, and the determination to make progress incrementally, rather than in large leaps forward. I have written about that strategy here.
We are in 20-mile-march mode: we are moving things along as we wait on final outcomes.
To give you a glimpse into our world, we are waiting on a number of developments that will shape how we spend our time over the next 1-2 years:
Final approval of the state grant that will fund the purchase (reimburse, actually) of our new Office/ReStore/Construction operations. The wheels of the state bureaucracy grind slowly.
Local approvals for the construction we will undertake at the new property. It is still not 100% tied down what approvals we will actually need, nor how those approvals will impact our schedules.
Final negotiations and language on the fair tax legislation (lessening the property tax burdens on subsidized affordable homes) we have worked on getting adopted in the NY legislature for several years. We are pretty sure that we will get less than what we desire. Just what that will look like in the end is still being hashed out, with us looking in from the outside.
A suitable site for a multiple-unit build. One that is reasonably affordable in an increasingly unaffordable region, and that will provide us with the ability to construct 4 or more homes on a single plot. We are hoping to secure this in 2025, to give us a solid foundation for several years of construction, rather than having to re-create the wheel each time.
Applicants for our homeownership program. You’d think it would be easy peasy to get applications for affordable homes. Our area is one of the least affordable in the region. But applicants are hard to come by, despite the benefits of our program. It is also hard to find subsidized mortgage products that work for our program. Federal programs we use are in limbo,
We wait on all this as the future becomes more uncertain and unpredictable, certainly beyond the bounds we have ever experienced. The chaos that is emanating from the federal government will have unknown and profound impacts no matter what level of funding cuts are enacted.
We are taking steps to safeguard ourselves as best we can, because time will march on regardless. We will plan for what’s in our control, and leave the rest for time to sort out.
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About time:
It is 30 years this week since my mom, Carol, died. She was just six months short of her 60th birthday. Three decades hence, is shocking to see someone pass that young. But we are now not so young as that. Last October, John, one of my best friends (from my adolescence into early elder stage) passed suddenly. This summer, we had congratulated each other at making it to 65. It should have been my brother-in-law Frank’s 70th birthday this week; he’s been gone 5 years. We also put down our family dog, Soxy, after 14 years.
Thus, I am increasingly and acutely aware of time. Of its relentless indifference and of its unwillingness to stop for one’s needs and those goals yet to be achieved. It fuels my desire to set plans and actions into place, to order things for the future even if that future is not guaranteed. A dream is a goal whose attainment is unplanned for, some say, and I agree.
I do not rage at the dying of the light, but rather march on, aware of the gathering dusk, determined to make it home as planned.
🖖