Beginning Homesteaders

It was in 1999 that I relocated from a rural area of Northeastern Pennsylvania to Northeast Florida. I had been planning a move to Florida since my grandparents took me on vacation to Disneyworld when I was 12 yrs old.

I couldn't wait to get away from the simple life, the farms, the endless boredom of living in the middle of nowhere, not to mention the miserable weather. Finally after years of waiting the opportunity arose for me to move. I had put in a transfer request with the airline that I work for and there was an opening in Jacksonville, Fl.

Finally! I was 26 and I was out of there, so long hicks so long cornfields, so long snow! . I arrived at my new home and life was good, i had the beach just s few minutes away tons of things for single guy to do. I was out at the clubs night after night, dragging my poor hungover ass to work everyday and I was having a blast!

I kept that up for a few years and eventually met a woman, fell in love (so I thought at the time). After about a year and a half we split up, two weeks later I get a phone call at work, shes pregnant. I moved back in and tried to make it work but it wasn't meant to be so we went our separate ways. I did however take responsibility for my child and I'm now the proud daddy to a beautiful 6 yr old daughter, more on that later.

Fast forward to 3 yrs ago, I had been living in a townhouse in a no so great area of town but still within a mile of the beach. The place next door to me had been vacant for awhile but eventually someone moved in, I knew someone was living there , I would see a car in the driveway but months went by and I never saw my new neighbor. As luck would have it, one day I came home from work and decided to take a nap on the couch. I woke up to about 2" of water covering the entire bottom floor of my house but I couldn't find a leak anywhere. My next thought was maybe it's coming from my neighbors place so I rushed around the back to the neighbors patio door and proceeded to scare the hell out of a girl living there. Apparently just as i went to knock on the door she spotted me at the door with one arm in the air looking like I was about to smash the glass.

After a near heart attack by this girl I manage to tell her I'm the neighbor and I have a flood in my livingroom and want to know if it was only in my place. A moment later another woman comes to the door, a beautiful blonde in pink PJ's. She laughs and says "you about gave my daughter a heart attack" I apologized and explained the situation and found out the leak was coming from somewhere in my place. I called my landlord who had maintenance come over and check things out, turns out a water pipe had broken in the downstairs bathroom just underneath the tile.

Fast forward a bit more. I eventually got to know my new neighbor and I would go over and we would sit out on the patio and talk for hours and hours. One thing lead to another and we eventually started dating, got along really well and we have been together ever since. Needless to say the pretty blonde in the pic is Gena and I'm the ugly guy in the other pic. In my defense I had been helping do paint and bodywork on the bike in the background and the pic was after the 3rd 15 hr day in a row