Our family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina just over 4 years ago. We moved here because of the wonderful lifestyle change that we could make. There were trees, rivers, beaches, an ocean, and temperatures in the summer evenings that wouldn’t make you feel like a candle inside of an oven.
The only downside to Charlotte was that, for software, it’s pretty much a one horse town. It’s banking, for the most part. With the problems that the banks have been having with the ‘mortgage crisis’, they have cut, cut, cut, and cut some more. My job ended on June 6, 2008.
My subsequent job hunt has been fruitless. Rates have been slashed to record lows. Jobs are paying much less than what I was getting 4 years ago when I first came … those jobs that you can find and, let me tell you, there aren’t many.
I decided, a week or two ago, to widen my search area to include a radius of about 4 hours drive time from Charlotte. Well, I struck pay dirt, so to speak. I got a job! Of course, this will involve me living in Charleston, SC, some 3.5 hours from home. I’ll come home on Friday and return on Sunday. The initial contract is for 3 months; hopefully, things will look slightly better by the end of the 3rd quarter (Sept 30).
I’m a guy who loves his home. There’s no place that I’d rather be; however, here comes the chance at a bit more growth … I’m getting growing pains from all the growth that I had to do this year! Sheesh!
Naturally, I’ll be taking my cameras and exploring a bit of Charleston, SC in the evenings, or perhaps the mornings. It has a rich history especially from The Civil War. I believe that there are still a few plantations around. I know that the slave mart is still there as well as many other historical artifacts. Truthfully, Charleston is more of place for my wife. She loves the beach. I’m not much on heat, humidity, and painfully biting bugs that I cannot even see (no-see-ums). I do however, love to catch the motion of the water as well as photograph the marshes during the high and low tides.
It looks to be a busy couple of weeks. Monday, Tony and I go to Florida for his final tournament of the summer (Yeah!!!). We’ll be there until Friday. Friday evening I plan to meet my wife in Charleston. She’s going to help me look at furnished apartments, which go for about $1,100/month for a one-bedroom, everything included (furniture, cable, electric, water, etc). Of course, she worked in a weekend trip to Seabrook Island, her favorite place! 
I’ll return home on Sunday, July 27, then leave for Charleston on Sunday, August 3rd, and begin working on Monday, August 4th. I’ll be there until the end of October … at least.
So, I’m sure that my future posts will reflect my view of Charleston, my new digs, and life on the road. I’ve never done it before. It should be interesting. My wife stayed in Dallas for 3 months after we moved here. She visited on the weekends. Now, it’s my turn, I suppose.
Oh yeah, I will have an Internet connection, so I should continue with my posts!!!
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10 Responses to “Heading south for a while”
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Congrats on the new job Paul. I know a few people that do a similar type of ‘weekend commute’ like you describe.
Good luck Paul on this new adventure!
Paul, congratulations! Lots of changes in the air. It appears that we will have chaos in common for the next few weeks. We are in the last throes of moving and, as of yesterday, we have another offer on our house. Changes in the air. I suppose since you and your wife have done this once before, you have already worked out some coping tactics for this less-than-ideal arrangement.
Selfishly, I can look forward to seeing some gorgeous new images from a new location. Speaking of gorgeous, both shots above qualify, but the bottom one is very special. Everything about it is absolutely stunning. Makes me sigh a long contented sigh.
Wow congrats on the new jobs!
I just happened to catch this blog, because the photos in this blog and a few others, are the ones Im interested in and do. Ya know scenery, landscapes, sunsets, the beach, animals.
Your really good! Good luck!
First of all my congratulations on the new job. Of course it will make a difference to spend the week away from home – I did this for two years – but as your son is almost grown up I hope that the whole family can experience the positive sides of this change. So thumbs up for all of you!
Regards – Markus
Paul, congratulations to your new job also from here!
My wife and I are doing this “commmuting thing” for 3 years now – with a slightly larger distance and a national border in between. We try to make up for the smaller amount of time together by increasing the amount of “quality time” in which we consciously enjoy being together. It actually works surprisingly well. Knock, knock, on wood…
And new photographic opportunities might just be the icing on the cake
Wow…lots of changes and new challenges. We do what we have to right? I hope the job works out well. I don’t know if I could handle being separated from my family so much. Heck I’m having a hard time dealing with the kids leaving the nest! I know when I was very young my dad traveled a great deal. I don’t remember too much but I imagine it was not easy on my mom or my older brothers. But like I said we do what we have to right? All the best to you.
I absolutely love the lower photo!
I was in Charleston last summer – not such as bad place, and a great place for photography. From my perspective in Baton Rouge, the evenings were pretty comfortable in Charleston.:-)
Paul, glad to hear you snagged a new job. I know you’ll make the best of your weekends with family. Life is full of unexpected change. It sounds like you’re rolling with it.
I’m in the middle of doing something sort of similar – just arrived in Raleigh, NC for 6 weeks to start off a 9 month contract where I’ll be back and forth quite a bit.
I’m finding Skype great for keeping touch with Amanda – we can see each other any time that way.
Also useful has been meetup.com – found a good group to go hiking with that way and also a good way to plug in to local photographers.
Hope it all works out well for you!