The month of August marks two years that my wife and I have lived on Long Beach Island. Both native New Yorkers, we lived in a suburb of the city for 60 years where we raised our kids, worked hard and enjoyed our lives.

Having vacationed here for 40 years, the dream of living on LBI was always a pull for us. The peace of mind I found in our one-week, then two-week, then three-week stays was a feeling I couldn’t replicate anywhere else.

Like everyone, 2020 hit us hard. It made me take stock of where I was and what I wanted. And I wanted my “Golden Years” (pardon the pun) to be something different.

So I retired after walking into an IBM building for almost 40 years, put the house up for sale, said goodbye – but not really –…