The cabin arrived. Three little words, but a sea-shift in life.
I drove back to New York on Sunday, and in the last hour hit a ridiculous storm. I reached Ithaca just as drenching rains flooded Highway 13, washing out driveways and leaving homes evacuated.
Honestly, I expected the worst. Why not? But my drive and pad were all intact, and so delivery went off as planned. “You're the only job today,” the guy said. “Everyone else had to cancel.” It always amazes me how destructive water can be.
The frame came in on a truck, but then they used an ingenuous hydraulic “mule” to bring it up the hill and onto the site. I cannot overstate how tight the fit was – they'd given me measurements, I cleared the land, the excavation guy measured, a final site check had been done, and it was still a matter of inches. Twice someone had to pull back small trees to get the final inch needed to squeeze by.
I don't know if that's luck or skill.
I moved in immediately. Not wholly, but after months of other people's apartments, couches, cots, basements and the van, living in the shell of my own cabin sounded like paradise. Add in a couple of solar panels and a 400-pound picnic table I got for free on CraigsList, and you've got a home.
It's hard to wrap my head around. Months of planning, months of thinking and making decisions and letting ideas evolve, and the final result has manifested as a little cabin in the woods. I'm 10 miles from town, without a single turn.
Washington had 500,000 people in 64 square miles. Hector has about 1,000 people, but it doesn't even matter since my nearest neighbor is undeveloped farmland.
Right now there's a lazy cat asleep inside, and I can hear a tractor in the distance, birds, and wind rustling the leaves. Looking back, I could never have predicted this moment. Not two years ago, but not even six months ago.
I used to go through life making as few decisions as possible. And honestly, it worked. Set a good path and just move in that direction. Water follows the path of least resistance. But I've changed my philosophy on that. Now I make as many decisions as I can. Doesn't work? Change it up. I used to go on faith, but now I work on the law of averages.
I'd say it's a lot like poker, but in reality it's a lot like everything. Make your best decision, over and over, and you will gravitate to your own true north.
