I'm being sent on a job that will be 6 weeks on, 3 weeks off. The 6 weeks on will be in the states...3 weeks in the gulf of mexico, 3 weeks in california. (I don't know. It's really bizarre.) Because of the short turnaround, I probably won't be home for the first three weeks, certainly, and I'm probably going to be (a) driving around the north island with my parents in November and (b) driving around the south island with my friend Eleanor in February. After that, who knows.
At the moment, the question du jour is: do I keep my apartment or not.
I've got my own little patch of paradise overlooking the Tasman sea. 3 bedrooms, one of which I'm actively trying to find a roommate for, and I'm watching a very rowdy, snarly ocean from my breakfast table. I can hear the roaring of the surf from where I'm sitting, and it's a five-minute walk to a good swimming beach--something I did a lot more in the summer than I'm doing now!
OTOH, I'm not going to be here for 6 months, and it's costing me $1500/month to store stuff that I'll never use, a bed I'll never sleep in, etc. Even were I to have to forfeit my deposit and a month's rent for breaking the lease, that's still 4 months worth of rent I'd be bankrolling.
OTOH, I'm not hurting for money at ALL, and when I'm out at sea, well, I'm not spending anything...plus I'll be earning twice as much in offshore allowance--separate from my regular salary--than I pay in rent/bills per month.
OTOH, that's money I could be tucking away for when the tax man cometh, and because I'll be working BACK in the states, he's going to take a fsckin' HUGE bite out of my hide. Pound of flesh, indeed. And in the meantime, everything just sits there collecting dust.
OTOH (I must be an octopus today), I'd have to find somewhere to put all my stuff, pack up, move, find somewhere else to live, all that crap that I did just 6 months ago, and frankly, I don't know if I have it in me to move again so soon.
I guess what it really boils down to is it's time to make a hard-nosed financial decision versus the question "how much is my sanity worth?" Because if I've learned one thing about myself over time, it's that I do need my own sanctuary.
The saddest bit of all this, to me, is that Bob and Mi-Ke will not be coming to New Zealand as planned. There's no point in flying them down here, putting them in quarantine, etc if I'm not going to be here. If I were doing a 6-week-on, 6 week-off schedule like I THOUGHT I'd be doing, it'd be fine, because I'd be here as often as not. But now, when it looks like I may be in New Plymouth for 10 days total over the next 6 months, well, it's cruel to do that to them. And I really, really, really hate that.

