A year ago I wrote about the beginnings of our adventure. Then I wasn’t sure exactly where we’d be in a year or if we’d even decide to leave behind a home and travel. I did know I wanted to do something different.
So we packed up, drove up to Vancouver and spent a glorious three weeks there. The trip made me realize the need for big change in our lives. I had gotten into a rut and the daily grind of getting up and sitting in our dark little home office wouldn’t cut it anymore. I needed to be outside, feeling the sun shine on my face, the wind blowing through my hair. I needed to spend time teaching Fiona about the great big outdoors.
It’s great to be able to go anywhere we want and to maintain our work and keep our clients happy. When our official “one year without a home” time comes at the end of September, I’ll write even more about all this has meant and how I feel. For today I want to thank all the wonderful clients we have who have worked with us even when we are so far apart. Below is just one testimonial from a satisfied client:
“I have been truly amazed that with all of Sue’s travels, I haven’t experienced any interruptions in service whatsoever. She has consistently delivered her services to the same great level I’ve come to expect, all since becoming a road warrior! I’m not sure I’d be so resilient, but she and Joel really know how to operate mobile businesses. Well done!” ~ Stephanie Chandler, Author, Speaker, Publisher,
P.S. Stephanie later emailed to say, “It really is remarkable how you’ve managed to go mobile with your businesses. That should be your next book!!” Guess we’ve got more work to do and another book to publish! :)
Last week Bill Walker and Meghan Wood of The Bill and Meghan Show interviewed our family about our nomadic plans. Read what they have to say and listen to their podcast at their website.
They’ve also posted on their home page an interesting poll: Do you support the Canfields in their decision to embrace a more simple life as vagabonds? Take the poll on their home page.
Caitlyn 'Smokie' JamesI’ve busted in here to ask you something. It’s Caitlyn … the Canfields will be staying at our place in August.
Joel & Sue agreed to give me some space to do a fun little post pre-launch of their nomad’s adventure. I’ll hit send before they can do a full proof-read. You’ll see why.
Seriously, folks, who are these Canfields? Have any of you met them in person? Would you let them stay in your house?
I don’t have time to be cautious and subtle so I apologize in advance for being a bit crass….
First, I get they’ll be living in the house so opening up the medicine cabinet is reasonable. We’ll take most of the anti-psychotic drugs with us; the Warfarin can be moved into the shed – we rarely use it for people, but we have friends with a tendency to forget to go home and at the right dose, the Warfarin just makes them feel a little woozy and they decide it’s time to go. Nothing serious. Of course, we use it on the pests, too, but it smells so nasty when they die in the walls. Anyway, my question is, are Joel and Sue the kind of people who will use up your Tylenol if you leave half a bottle sitting there?
Second, Fiona seems like a cute kid, but is she really 6? Apparently, she reads chapter books, flies at the sight of dogs, and has her own website. Makes me wonder if this is one of those sting operations the cops do when they pose as teenagers online to lure pedophiles. In this case, someone may have mentioned all the 6 foot deep holes we’ve been digging in the yard. The cops may have set up this kind-of-quirky family to infiltrate our home and networks. Fiona may very well be a donut eating 35-year-old with his own kid in kindergarten.
You see where I’m going with this. The Canfields might not be normal.
There’s this other thing. We LOVE our dog. Not in that nutty way that people can be with dog nail polish and bows in the hair; it’s just that we don’t see why people make their dogs eat on the floor. RK (Racoon Killer) has his dog dish on the table when we eat our dinner. I’m afraid Joel might try to change this. I dunno, I’m thinking he might be worried when RK takes an innocent little lick off Fiona’s plate. Problem is, RK has never taken direction all that well. Without a whole long story, let’s just point out that I only have 3 fingers on one hand. That’s 3 fingers total, out of 2 hands total. My question to you? Do you think I should tell them in advance about this?
As long as they don’t deviate from the regular routines nothing will go wrong.
In fact, I’m writing up some stuff for them (you can read about that at http://ImaginingBetter.com on July 7th) so they will know what the routines are and a few helpful hints. Don’t look Bruce, the neighbour, in the eye, that kind of thing. It’s a nice neighbourhood, but Bruce is a little touchy. Most of the rest of them just leave us alone. Walk on the other side of the street, skip us when collecting for charities – really respectful. Not too many nosey parkers.
Other than feeding the dog, we aren’t expecting much. Lock the doors when you leave, water the crop on schedule. Harvest time should coincide nicely with the Visa bill arrival, if the watering is done right. That’s it.
If there’s anything you believe is important for us to know before we turn our house and our dog and the crop over to Joel, Sue, and Fiona (if that’s even who they really are) can you leave some comments here… or send me an email, easy2remember@caitlynjames.com, you know, so they don’t intercept the communication?
The entire family. I believe this was taken outside of Ross Castle which is just outside of Killarney in January 2005. That’s Joel, Sue, Fiona and Rachelle. Ross Castle
So here I was thinking about how crazy wonderful this last week has been since we launched this site and already have a workshop in place in Vancouver, BC in August. I thought to myself, ‘funny that things really take off when we decide to go somewhere else to hold a workshop. I wonder why we couldn’t do a workshop like that right here?’ Then it hit me – we could!
Sure we want to travel and work. But before we start our travels, let’s do a workshop in Sacramento for virtual assistants. So I called my buddy Jeff Louie at Capsity Offices and we quickly secured the venue for the July 9, 2010 workshop. Thank you Jeff for sponsoring this event for us. So if you’re a virtual assistant in the Sacramento area, check out the workshop to help you build your business. We’d love to have you! And please, share this with other VAs you know in the area.
