Ed Robinson's Blog, page 20
December 26, 2013
Key West: Tequila, a Pinch of Salt and a Quirky Slice of America
A gem of a book by Jon Breakfield is what this is.
What would you do if you were on holiday and your better half said ‘Let’s not go back’? Would you stay? Would you stay if staying meant giving up everything back home in the UK to live on the backwater island of Key West, Florida? Come with me to this oddball, bacchanalian corner of the world where anything goes, the closest major city is Havana and where my wife and I lead an eye-popping, adventure-filled life until it is all ripped asunder by a catastrophic hurricane. KEY WEST: Tequila, a Pinch of Salt and a Quirky Slice of America is a lyrical portrait of a couple from the UK integrating themselves on a startlingly picturesque, joyously wacky island that is more Caribbean than it is American. More neurotic than it is sane. More corrupt than it is law-abiding. And more prone to hurricanes than it should be. This book is a celebration of life, love and adventure—an enchanting account of a couple who weren’t afraid to jump off the hamster wheel and have a go at a dream.
It’s an honest look at a quirky island that puts you right in the scenes and right next to the “characters” of Key West. A very pleasant and engaging story about Jon and his wife who do what many of us, especially Parrotheads, would love to do – just ditch it all and live on Key West.
As many of you know my wife and I ditched it all and moved onto a boat, so I just had to get this book. I was not disappointed.
Buy it at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Key-West-Tequila-Quirky-America/dp/0985639806/ref=pd_sim_b_1
December 24, 2013
Our Minimalist Christmas
Imagine not exchanging gifts at Christmas. Imagine no Christmas tree, no decorations, and no shopping. For the past three years we have decreased our participation in the commercial side of Christmas. This year we have not spent one thin dime. Christmas still holds a special meaning for us, just not a meaning that includes wasting money on unnecessary things.
What is Minimalism?
It’s a way to escape the excesses of the world around us — the excesses of consumerism, material possessions, clutter, having too much to do, too much debt, too many distractions, too much noise. But too little meaning. Minimalism is a way of eschewing the non-essential in order to focus on what’s truly important, what gives our lives meaning, what gives us joy and value.
By choosing to opt out of the crazy consumerism that has taken over Christmas, we are able to truly focus on what gives our life meaning. Our life together here in paradise, our boat and each other; those are the things that give us joy and value. We will think of friends and family. We will share a potluck dinner with our liveaboard boating friends. We’ll take some time to reflect on how thankful we are to live the way we do. So my friends, you won’t be getting a gift from us this year. We can only offer our sincere friendship. We thank all of you for enhancing our lives.
I won’t attempt to rewrite the “True Meaning of Christmas” story, but we are trying to make Christmas more true for us. No Santa Claus, no elves and no debt. More birth of Jesus, more love in our hearts, and more thanks for our blessings. I still watch Rudolph, and Charlie Brown Christmas. I still enjoy It’s A Wonderful Life. I don’t enjoy the chaos that our society has become, especially at Christmas.
I understand that this choice is not for everyone. However you celebrate this year, I wish you happiness and togetherness. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Leap of Faith.
December 20, 2013
Holiday Musings
It’s sunny and 80 degrees here in Punta Gorda today. I am loving the weather but totally lacking in Christmas spirit. I hope I never see snow again. I’ll have to settle for white sand, blue water and cloud-proof skies. Palm trees are swaying in a light east breeze. The boat has been cleaned up and is sporting a wreath on her bow. Fellow liveaboards are planning a Christmas dinner.
Out in the harbor my buddy Jaime is resting on his sailboat Bay Dreamer. Soon he will be off to Orlando to begin radiation treatments. His health weighs heavy on our minds. Send up a little prayer for him please.
I’m a bit stuck with the next book, “Poop, Booze, and Bikinis”. My attempts to get famous and/or semi-famous authors to contribute are not succeeding. Here in the marina there are so many distractions that I’ve found it difficult to concentrate on writing. It’s almost halfway finished. After Christmas I intend to sit down and get serious about it’s completion.
Meanwhile I’m basking in the sun, considering some boat projects to work on, and happily wasting my days with the lovely Miss Kim. I am so very blessed this Christmas, even though no presents will be exchanged. I won’t be fighting any crowds in the mall. I won’t be buying useless gifts for people I don’t even really care about. And I won’t be paying off credit card debt for the next year.
This life may not be for everyone, but sure does suit me. Wherever you are this Christmas, and however you plan to spend it, I hope it is rewarding and joyful for you and yours. Merry Christmas from Leap of Faith, the lovely Miss Kim, and me. Enjoy!
December 19, 2013
Interview with Ed Robinson, Author of Leap of Faith, Quit Your Job And Live On A Boat
Palms N Paradise published a very nice write-up about me this week. Nice people, check out their site.
http://palmsnparadise.com/2013/12/16/interview-with-ed-robinson-author-of-leap-of-faith/
December 12, 2013
Gutsy Living – Life’s Too Short To Play It Safe
I am honored to win this month’s My Gutsy Story Contest.
See link: http://soniamarsh.com/2013/12/winner-of-the-november-my-gutsy-story-ed-robinson.html
Sonia Marsh, author of Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island, celebrates the gutsy in each of us with this collection of stories from 64 authors who found the courage to face their fears and live their dreams. What makes these stories unique is the authors’ willingness to openly share the obstacles they surmounted, and the strength they developed to overcome doubt, fear, rejection, and grief. These stories of love, courage and adventure will inspire you to follow their lead and experience your own gutsy adventure. If one story speaks to you directly and results in a change in your own life, please e-mail Sonia Marsh directly at sonia@soniamarsh.com. As Sonia says, “My goal is to bring out the gutsy in you.” Some take off for distant places, others dive into the deep. Many quit successful jobs to sail around the world, write a novel, or take on an inner challenge. This book is filled with tales from people who have decided to live their passion, act out their dreams, revisit the challenges of their youth. It’s about conquering fears, taking risks, and learning to love the person you’ve become.
Freeways to Flip-Flops: A Family’s Year of Gutsy Living on a Tropical Island
What do you do when life in sunny Southern California starts to seem plastic, materialistic and just plain hellish? For Sonia and Duke Marsh, the answer was to sell their worldly goods and move to an unspoiled, simpler life with their three sons in Belize, Central America, a third-world country without all the comforts and distractions of life in the developed world. Sonia hopes the move will bring her shattered family back together. She feels her sons slipping away from her, and her overworked husband never has time for her or the boys. Instead, things begin to go wrong immediately. The home they initially rented isn’t available, so the family is forced to take up residence in a primitive, bug-infested shack. Duke’s telecommuting plans prove impractical because of unreliable Internet access, and he loses his job. Middle son Alec – always a conscientious, polite, tractable child – misses his friends and has trouble adjusting. As the days turn into months, Sonia finds herself questioning the family’s decision to move on a nearly daily basis. This is the story of one family’s search for paradise. In this memoir, Sonia chronicles a year of defeats, fears and setbacks – and also the ultimate triumph of seeing once-frayed family ties grow back stronger from shared challenges and misfortunes. For Sonia, paradise turned out not to be a place, but an appreciation of life’s simple pleasures – a close-knit family and three well-adjusted sons with a global outlook on life.
Find Sonia at http://soniamarsh.com/
or at https://www.facebook.com/groups/387267894630479/permalink/707410785949520/
December 9, 2013
My Favorite Photos
I take a lot of pictures. I try to get the sunset every night. I sometimes shoot the sunrise too. I like beaches, manatees, dolphins, etc.
Trying to pick my favorites is tough, but here we go:
December 6, 2013
Poop, Booze, and Bikinis
I’m currently working on book number two. It’s a slow go as I’m kinda lazy. Living in Paradise doesn’t create the kind of motivation one needs to stick to a rigorous writing schedule. The new book will be (hopefully) a very humorous look at life aboard a boat. It’s a collection of my random musings on topics that are at the forefront of our existence. There are things that are very important to boaters that landlubbers never even think about.
It is not a serious literary masterpiece. It’s meant to be fun, and to poke fun at myself and others like me. I’ll attempt to keep you up to date with my progress in the future. This is my attempt to motivate myself to get busy and get the dang thing finished.
Here’s a peek at the table of contents so far:
Prelude
1. Poop
2. Booze
3. Marinas versus Anchorages
4. Bikinis
5. Marine Critters
6. Boats
7. Rum
8. Weather
9. Nekkid People
10. Deflatables
11. Tits, Pits, and Ass
12. Things I Love (about life aboard)
13. Things I Hate
14. S.P.O.R.E (Stupid People on Rental Equipment)
15. True Nautical Terms
That’s it so far. Suggestions for additional topics are welcomed. Yesterday I came up with the brilliant idea to ask a few semi-famous authors of nautical humor to contribute a chapter. I’ve been attempting to contact them today to ask them to submit something fun. They can only say no, right? We’ll see how that goes.
Keep an eye out in 2014 for the release date of Poop, Booze, and Bikinis. I have visions of it reaching number one at Amazon for boating! (okay, maybe not “visions”, more like fantasies.) Again, it’s a work in progress, so feel free to make suggestions. All input is appreciated.
Big sale alert! Leap of Faith / Quit Your Job And Live On A Boat will be a Kindle Countdown Deal starting tomorrow at 8 a.m. If you haven’t yet purchased it, This weekend is the time.
New! My personal website is up and running:
http://www.strikingly.com/ed-robinson-7146
Also, friend the book page at Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/quityourjobandliveonaboat?ref=hl
December 4, 2013
More Good Key West Mysteries
I’ve read both of Wayne Gale’s book featuring his character “Bric” Wahl and I’ve got to add them to my list of recommended reads. Set in Key West, Wayne does an admirable job of depicting what the city is really like. Very well written and lots of humor, combined with a fast moving story which is quite believable and intriguing.
Up first is
Treasure Key: Too Close to Key West, Too Far From Reality
Russell Bricklin “Bric” Whal is the guy that every Key West local knows and every tourist wants to be. Relaxed, tanned by island sun and comfortable in his skin, he slides onto a barstool next to you at Schooner Wharf and lets you buy him a beer. Ex-Navy Seal, Key West native and full time treasure diver, Bric has been searching for a fortune in gold and silver in the Florida Keys his whole life. Today he may have found it, but not the treasure he expected. Diving on a sunken Spanish Galleon, he finds three massive gold bars, not from the wreck that sunk in 1733, but apparently from the Civil War. Bric thinks he’s finally unearthed his fortune. Or has he?
Read that one first. Then pick up a copy of
Key West Camouflage: Hide in Plain Sight
After finding millions in treasure, Russell Bricklin “Bric” Wahl has suffered a terrible loss, and embarks on a long and dangerous journey to find thieves and murderers. Missing Spanish gold, Greek mobsters, racing in Baja, a near fatal deep water dive in England and a dangerous rail journey in Europe. make for “Cant put it down” mystery reading in this fast-paced sequel to “Treasure Key”
Purchase both here: http://www.amazon.com/Wayne-Gales/e/B003Y408NS/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1386168060&sr=1-2-ent
November 26, 2013
Debt Free Equals Freedom
Three years ago we quit our jobs and moved on to a boat. We we not wealthy, not retired, not financial wizards with passive income streams. We simply got out of debt, saved up a bunch of cash, and chucked it all to run away to paradise.
Can it be that easy? Actually no, there was nothing easy about it. It took determination and a certain amount of sacrifice. It was a simple plan though, which I will outline here, briefly.
-Quit Buying Stuff-
That’s right just quit buying crap. We buy so much crap. We waste so much money on so many things. Starbucks, meals out, Longabergers, and toys of every variety. Just stop it. Has it brought you happiness? I doubt it. Our rule is this; if we can’t eat it, drink it, or wipe our ass with it we ain’t buying. Get rid of magazine subscriptions, stop getting manicures, quit going to the movies, etc. It’s all huge drain on your finances.
-Get Out Of Debt-
Quit buying stuff and you’ll have some extra dough. Use it to pay off debt. Sell your toys and use that money to pay off debt. Boats, motorcycles, campers, four-wheelers, etc. Get rid of them. Sell, sell, sell.
Pay off one debt, use the extra money you now have and apply it to the next debt. Pay off your car loan and DON’T BUY A NEW ONE. Use the money you once paid for the car loan to pay off credit cards. We all know we shouldn’t have so much debt. We just refuse to buckle down and take care of it. You want freedom? Eliminate debt.
-Save Money-
Once you quit buying shit, and pay off your debt, you will find that you have plenty of money. Save it. Save it all. Watch the savings grow and rejoice in it. Find more and creative ways to save. Cut back the thermostat. Clip coupons. Buy store brands. Shop your car insurance. Tons of ways to save money once you get serious about it.
-Get Rid Of Your Stuff-
What? That’s right, you have too much crap. You can’t park your car in the garage because it’s too full of your junk. The attic is full, the basement is full. You rented a storage space to handle the overflow. You are a slave to your possessions. You can never be free. Get rid of them. Downsize. Eliminate the clutter. Yard sales, Goodwill donations, craiglist ads, whatever it takes to lighten the load. You will feel much lighter without the weight of all the stuff.
We got rid of everything. I mean all of it. We left our home and moved on to a boat and sailed off into the sunset. Can’t do that with a full garage, attic and basement. We gave up everything, and now we have it all. This was just the short version of how we did it. The full story is in the book.
Get it at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Leap-Faith-Quit-Your-Live-ebook/dp/B00F3PE5W6/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=
November 25, 2013
The Exploits of Sam MacKenzie
Paul Carr has written two novels featuring his tough guy hero Sam Mackenzie. Trouble follows Sam as he bounces from the Keys to the Caribbean. If you like fast paced, bullet-flying adventure stories with a Florida Keys and Caribbean bent, you’ll appreciate these two.
“In Long Way Down, Paul Carr resonates with other writers — Ian Fleming, Michael Shayne, Clive Cussler, John D. MacDonald — while producing a story uniquely his own: part hardboiled detection, part espionage, part underwater adventure, part pulp, which all add up to an entertaining story.” -The American Culture-
Candi Moran is in trouble. Vince La Salle, a Miami loan shark, wants her dead because she knows too much about his secret in the Caribbean. Candi is shot by one of La Salle’s men and turns to Sam Mackenzie for help. Sam, who is good with a gun, takes on the job, but he soon learns that Candi left out some dangerous details as he unravels La Salle’s sordid past. La Salle is involved in a high-stakes project in the Caribbean, but where he’s getting his money is the big mystery. Sam dodges bullets, missiles, karate kicks, and sharks. He gets help from an associate, John Templeton Smith III (J.T.), but Sam worries that J.T.’s greed might get them both killed as they navigate a serpentine trail of assassins, con artists and deadly financiers.
In The Cayman Switch: Jack Craft is a con man. When he sells a Key West resort he doesn’t own to a trio of crooks, the deal turns sour and he calls Sam Mackenzie for help. By the time Sam arrives, Jack is gone, and even the bad guys are in the dark. Delray Jinks is pretty unhappy about being swindled on the resort. Sam knows him from their past days in clandestine government work, and knows what he’ll do if he doesn’t get his money back. A fortuneteller, prescription drug dealers, and the mob, are all after a piece of the action. Mona Miles, a beautiful TV reporter, wants the big story, but her relationship with Sam puts her in the line of fire. As Sam unravels a deadly trail that leads to Grand Cayman, and back, he learns that Jack’s resort scam is just the beginning of the con.
Quirky yet interesting characters, tons of non-stop action, and tropical settings. Recommended reads.
Purchase both here: http://www.amazon.com/Paul-Carr/e/B00A3XHERQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
