This isn't the first time I've started fresh on Hive, or Steem before it. It's been 5 years now, and my life has changed a lot in that amount of time. I'm alone with my thoughts all the time, and I've decided it would be helpful to me to write them down. I'm going to post them, but here on a new blog, and I'll kind of decide when and if I want to share the address with anyone I know IRL or not. In many ways, it's just like shooting it out into space for no one to see or witness.

Here goes...

Familiar haunts

It's strange to settle back into a house you previously lived in. Since my separation from my wife in October of 2021, I've done this twice. First when I moved into my childhood home and stayed with my dad. Then when I moved back into the duplex I bought with my brother in 2007 when we were both in our twenties.

Stranger still, my apartment has the feeling of a time capsule in some ways. In 2014, after I got married and moved into a single family home, I rented out my apartment. My curtains and other things were removed by the tenant, placed in a spacious armoire that we left behind, and stored there for eight years. I put them back up, and it's almost like traveling back in time. It's just like it was eight years ago when I moved out.

Only this time, I'm alone. When my brother and I bought the duplex nearly fifteen years ago, I was with my then-girlfriend who is now my ex-wife. The entire time that I lived in this house, my ex-wife also lived here.

Needless to say, I've lived through a lot of changes, but I've also returned to familiar places. On the one hand, it's easy to call it strange. On the other hand, I am grateful for and take comfort in the familiarity.

Given the current housing market, I'm also grateful to still have this apartment. Even though I regretted having to tell her she had to leave, she had been living here for eight years. Considering the housing market is so hot, that's longer than many renters in the region are getting. The trend of landlords selling their duplexes has been ongoing for quite some time.

As I discovered how much rent costs in the area now, I also felt guilty about having to evict my tenant. However, I was also feeling good because I was renting to her for probably $500 less than the average monthly rent for the area. If I were to have found a place to rent instead of moving back into my apartment in this duplex, I would've been paying those increased and ridiculous rental costs.

The house needs a lot of work, and that concerns me. I'm just taking things one step at a time, though. There's nothing that needs fixing immediately, just a lot of things on the to-do list.

Instead of focusing on what needs to be fixed, I'll be grateful I've got this house and focus on building my new life as a single shark.