Isolation: How Do We Handle it?

Vacation Rental Dwelling. Generally, these are houses purchased only to provide rental income, either a modest home that's razed and replaced by a 2-story 4-5 BR place or a place built with that purpose in mind. We have entire communities that are built, not for anyone to live in, but for people to buy for investment, and the builder provides the rental services, cleaning, etc. When your neighborhood is at least 30-35% second homes (used by the owners and their relatives and friends) and 24% VRDs, it's difficult to have any sense of neighborhood. Because the visitors pay very high rent (hundreds per night) and pack in an average of 4 per BR, there are noise, parking, and overflowing garbage issues. Our town is the first place people see when they arrive at the coast from the more densely populated Willamette Valley, so it has far more nightly rentals (motels, VRDs, illegal rentals) than most towns on the Oregon coast. I need to be quick to retrieve my trash can after the garbage truck empties it--or visitors will start throwing trash in or near it. I've seen visitors actually chase "our" deer with their cars, even when they have very tiny fawns. In short, not all visitors behave as they would at home.

Wildcat, Interesting about dancing! Just got through this weekend reading Bren'e Browns book "The Gifts of Imperfections"! Published in 2010, she talks about how we all need to Dance in life! Both figurativly and litteraly!
Richard

Thanks for explanation! Not common here, I guess. As to people chasing deer with cars - or any other way.....a pox on them! Idiots!

Don't understand this vacation dwelliing email. I own my home. nothing to do with renting of any kind. Nancy

You and I bought places we intended to live in, but our area is so handy to Salem and the valley that people buy houses here with no plan to use them, now or later, just rent them nightly through one of the rental agencies in town. People have to make a bit of an effort to get to your town as it's not right at the end of the highway from a metro area. Ours is. When I bought this place almost 60 years ago, I had no idea that someday at least a quarter of the houses in my community would be nightly rentals. I thought that all the hundreds of acres of old growth spruce forest and some second growth alder forest would always be here. How stupid I was!

hEOO, yES i LIVE IN PACIFIC CITY, HAVE LIVED HERE SINCEi' 1986M BEFOR THAT WE LIVE HRE AS LONG AS WE WANTED TO BE IN THE RIGHT PLACE. . wE HAVE FOUR LOTS PUT UP A GARAGE. wE UPGRADED THE 5 FOOT LONG GARAAGE RIGHT AND WE MADE SURE THAT IS WAS N THE WRIGHT PLACE. tHAT WAS MAD. sO NOW WE HAVE MOST EVERYTHING IN IT'S RIGHT PLACE.

@shortshot80
Nancy, It sounds like you have a lovely home!

i REALLY DO, wHEN bOB AND i WERE FISHING WH ACCUMULATED LOTS OF DIFFERENT FLOATS. wE rICHARD AND HIS FRIEND HAVE NEED COLLECTION MORE FLOATS WHEN THEY ARE DOWN ON THE BEACH. i WANT THEM ON THE FENCE MAYBE AROUND THE FENSE OF THE YARD. i THINK THEY ARE NEAT AND ENJOY LOOKING AT THEM. dON'T CARE WAHT HAPPENS AFTER i'M GONE BUT WHILE IAM HERE i LIKE THEM. i HAD TWO REALLY LAREGE ONES AND SOME AH STOLE THEM OVE NEW YEAR EARS EVE 219. some HOW SOME WAY SOMEDAY THEY WILL BE pAID BACK. wHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. paybacks ARE hELL. anyway THAT WHAT i THHINK. nANCY dID YOU GET THE BOOK YET? aMAZON $13099

dO YOU LIVE HERE NOW???? iF SO WHERE?

As to isolation, for some of us, this time isn't terribly different. In Oregon, our Gov acted early and proactively to close everything that isn't essential. Perhaps the most difficult thing is that this state has laws to prevent drivers from filling their own cars, but the Gov has suspended that law, enabling service stations to be self-service--without any explanation of how to fill your car if, like me, you've driven here all your life!

Although I'm 77, I still have a design and marketing business from my home office, but all jobs have always been done remotely, with brief client meetings to discuss ideas and proofs of finished work. The sport fishing industry will take a long time to recover, so I have none of that work right now. I'm still doing the same volunteer work, which has never involved many other people, but means driving, loading and unloading generally totally alone. I still do fish surveys, which, again, means driving for hours and then hiking miles--by myself with my dog for a companion. I e-mail the results, and receive e-mailed results of other surveys by other volunteers for our project, but there's never been much of any contact between volunteers...no annual meetings or picnics, just e-mailed reports of results.

Big changes are no monthly fly fishing club (one of the few things my husband was willing to go out for) and the weekly lecture series we used to attend during fall and winter months. Winter term ended two weeks early when Oregon shut down, so there was a flurry of rescheduling lectures for what we hope will be a Fall term...but, as Curriculum Dir., I haven't scheduled the remainder of Fall Term because it could be an exercise in futility. If things have opened up and look positive by July, we'll knuckle down and schedule the 12 weeks of Fall Term then.

Our home has no nearby neighbors, although the same people walk our road for exercise most days, but those interactions are the same, a "hello" from my position bent over tending flower beds to someone walking past with little conversation. We hardly ever have visitors, although, gasp, we had two after the first of the year, a veritable flood! The one thing I really miss is the library: due to Meniere's going bilateral almost a year ago, I'm now virtually deaf most days, so I had been checking out several books each week to take the place of phone calls, TV, radio, a few words here 'n there with my spouse. We own thousands of books, so I'm re-reading some of those. In addition to our own acreage, there's over 200 acres of undeveloped forest adjacent our place, so I have plenty of places to walk by myself...as usual. There's also more yard/outside work here than I'll every be able to do, so I can pick and choose each day.

So, for some us, other than loss of income that we don't actually NEED, life hasn't changed a whole lot. I can only imagine how dreadful it would be to live in a dense complex where there is no wild place nearby, where you are really stuck inside. That would be a nearly impossible situation for me!