I’ve always worked really hard all my life. Like many in my generation, I’m left wondering just why I followed the rules all the time the way I did. I guess there was this implied promise that if you do all the right things, you’ll be rewarded. I spent a lot of time inside an office with zone controlled HVAC trying to do the right thing by my family. And there are no regrets when it comes to that effort. But my reward was a heart attack from stress at 53 and a divorce. That just didn’t seem right to me. But the longer I sat inside the air conditioning of my new condo pondering it, the more I realized that it just didn’t matter. I think I just had to do what made me happy. So after I got back on my feet, healthier and not quite as heartbroken, I decided to take a sabbatical. I spent the past winter way, way off in a cabin all by myself except for my new life partner who is a lovely black lab. There was a wood stove for heating but the rest was a pretty spartan existence. No wifi or cell phones. Shoot the only new technology in that cabin was HVAC technology. There was a ductless heat pump inside the cabin. At first, I didn’t think that I’d need that at all given how warm the wood stove got one I figured it out. Yet, the HVAC heating from the ductless heat pump did come in quite handy when the fire would burn out. It was an amazing winter alone and I’m now fully prepared to embrace the next chapter of my life a bit more on my terms.