In 2003, I finally got off the road from my telecommunications job and took a desk role in Alpharetta, which felt both responsible and slightly suspicious.
I’d been traveling nonstop for about five years, and honestly, I was done. Fortunately, an old manager reached out and offered me a desk job supporting Verizon Wireless 3G operations for Georgia and Alabama as a Customer Support Associate (CSAM). My role was to make sure the Norel product behaved itself—and when it didn’t, I worked directly with Verizon to manage outages and issues.
Once problems were identified, I handled root cause analysis, presented the findings, explained how we’d fix it, and—most importantly—made sure it never happened again. In theory.
I was also responsible for ensuring new network components were introduced, upgraded, and deployed properly. It was a 24/7/365 operation, with other states backing each other up. Stressful? Absolutely. But it was also a great time in my life, and Georgia turned out to be an amazing place to land after years of living out of a suitcase.
What made it especially pivotal was the timing. I was in the middle of building a house in Edmonton while simultaneously being offered this desk job in Georgia. Two very different lives pulling in opposite directions.
I still think about that decision. I’m almost certain that if the Georgia job hadn’t come along, I would have moved to Edmonton. I was finished with road work—and road work was finished with me. I couldn’t keep up with the demand anymore, which would have meant losing my job. And since my U.S. work visa was tied directly to employment, staying in the States wouldn’t have been an option.
I loved that Edmonton house. I loved it even more because it didn’t have a mortgage.
Thanks to years of road work, favorable exchange rates, and converting USD to Canadian dollars at exactly the right time, I was able to pay for it in cash. 🤑 That part still makes me smile.
I can’t remember the exact model of the house, but I do remember the square footage and the builder. If this wasn’t the exact model, it was close—it definitely had a bonus room above the garage, which at the time felt like peak adulthood.
What I remember most clearly, though, is that I chose the worst possible color scheme. Think teal siding with brown trim. Not tasteful teal. Aggressively teal. The kind of choice you make when you’re more excited about square footage than aesthetics.
This was also pre-smart home, pre-everything. So naturally, despite the fact that wireless Bluetooth and Wi-Fi were already a thing, I ran cables everywhere like an absolute dumbass. Through walls. Into places that never needed them. All because I wanted security cameras and—wait for it—a TV above the TV. A bold vision in the early 2000s, and one that required way more effort than it deserved.
Looking back, it was wildly overengineered and completely unnecessary. But at the time? It felt futuristic.
I’ll write a separate blog about the Edmonton house at some point, because honestly, it was an incredible experience in my life and deserves its own spotlight.
But for now, back to the choice that actually got made—the house in Georgia. And no, that one was no slouch either.
These pictures were taken ten years after I moved out. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this ended up being the last annual maintenance trip I’d ever need to make. For years, I’d fly down, trim the bushes practically down to the roots so they’d survive another twelve months, and this time I would’ve finally fixed and painted the fence too.
Funny how you never know it’s the last time when you’re in it.
You can see the empty spot on the patio where the hot tub time machine used to live. That backyard saw a lot of good times. There was a fire pit, and a pergola-style gazebo over the hot tub, complete with lights and speakers—basically a perfectly engineered relaxation zone before I even knew I needed one.
The same guy who rented the house for over ten years eventually bought it as is. I gave him a fair deal and worked directly with him and his financer to get everything done smoothly. I was relieved to be done with the ongoing headaches of long-distance ownership—but I’d be lying if I said I don’t miss that house, and that area, quite a bit.
Some places just stick with you.
And of course…
GO Atlanta Braves! 🪓🪓🪓