How quickly things change : (

Well...bad news.  I don't have a renter. 

When I called the man's landlord (property manager) on Monday to verify that he was a good tenant, his boys weren't a problem with the neighbors, and that he paid his rent on time, I got a very good report, and the man immediately called my tenant and offered to match my rent.  Of course, he decided to stay - why not with lower rent for a larger place and not having to move?  I had his check, but we didn't sign the lease, I wanted to call his employer and landlord first and sign it on Monday.

Good for him, not so good for his current landlord, and a real bummer for me.  So, the condo is back on the market.

I learned a good lesson.  I was having an issue trying to find a place to run a credit report for another person.  My daughter, Kristy, said to have them run their own credit and bring it along with them.  If I have a potential tenant who is willing to hand over the check with the application and their credit report, and that info matches their credit report info, I'm going to pull out the lease and get it signed right then, assuming I feel good about them.  It says in the lease that if the info in their app is not true and correct, I can cancel the lease.  Do any of you have experience with this?  How do you handle it?

Live and learn.

I have the Craig's List ad up again and the For Rent sign out front.  Once the Estate Sale is over and the house is empty, carpet cleaned and the place cleaned up, I'm going to take out a newspaper ad. My son suggested that.  Craig's List, of course, is free, but a 3-day rental ad in the local paper, the Union Tribune, is $54 for three days for 4 lines, which is about 32-36 characters.  Wow!  That's expensive for not very many words.  I checked the newspaper ads on line, and there were hardly any in my area, and I can see why.

I'd actually rather rent to someone older, and lots of older people, not RVers, but regular older people, don't have computers and wouldn't think of looking at Craig's List.  They would still be searching in the paper, so I thought I'd give it a try for the weekend after next. 

I had to get out of my house. The last two nights Katie and I slept in my sleeping bag on a bare mattress, and last night we were surrounded by other people's junk.  (When they do Estate Sales, they bring in lots of unsold stuff from other sales, so when they take the photos to put on-line the place looks packed.  It did.  And I was sleeping amongst it all.  I was thinking of all the "other people's dust" we were breathing in, and I opened the window.  I finally went to sleep, but didnt' sleep well.

I decided to stay in The Palms, somewhere - anywhere, for the duration.  I put my makeup, four changes of clothes, the sleeping bag and my quilt and my coffee  maker in the car before I left for work.  After work I drove to a hotel next door to our building, our parking lots adjoin, and asked the General Manger if I could stay in his parking lot for tonight and tomorrow night and he said it was no problem.  He was really nice.  Said I could run my generator, I'd be far enough away that it wouldn't bother anyone.  So I drove to the storage lot and transferred everything to The Palms, locked the car, and headed back to work.

I'm now ensconced in the almost perfectly level, very quiet, rear parking lot of the hotel next door to work.  The Gen. Mgr. asked me to check in with them when I was settled.  I parked, got some KFC and milk and microwave popcorn, brought it back to The Palms and then checked in with them.  That's when I realized they have a restaurant inside the hotel.  They serve breakfast and dinner, so tomorrow I'm going to have at least dinner there, and probably breakfast tomorrow or Thursday before work.  It's the least I can do.  I was so relieved when he was so nice about it. 

Katie is happily sleeping on the couch across from me right now. She ate her dinner, played with her little tennis ball for a while.  I threw it from the couch into the kitchen, but it isn't far, and she was sliding on the floor.  She had to be really careful not to slip, she would have done a header into the cupboards. I got out two more balls, and she had a good time juggling them for a while.

It's starting to cool down now. I had the A/C on for a little while, then turned it off, opened one window and turned the Fantastic Fan.  It must be drawing the cool air in through the window and taking the warm air up and out, because it's getting very cool in here very quickly.  It really is Fantastic!

I noticed I have 4G here.  Nice!  I sure hope I have it in Santee, but I kind of doubt I will.

I couldn't understand how some of you RVers could park sooooo close to each other and not feel like you've lost your privacy.  But as I sat here eating my KFC and drinking my ice cold milk, I was looking out the open windows at all the AT&T trucks slowly surrounding me, guys getting out with their rolling luggage and heading to the hotel. One man with a clipboard was walking around organizing them all.  I felt like I was in my own little bubble, and I didn't see one man look into my windows.  I felt like this is my little world and they were respecting that.  So now I get it a little better.  Maybe I wouldn't mind one of those RV sites so much.

And I'm also re-thinking the thick forested areas a little bit, too.  Sap on my RV????  Dust and rain have gotten it dirty enough. And loss of the Internet?????  I don't know, maybe the wide open spaces would be better.  I'm gong to have to try it all out and see what works best for me.  but I have to admit, I AM starting to understand.

Now I'm going to relax and see if I can get Brothers and Sisters on Channel 131 - it got pre-empted on Sunday night due to the Bin Ladin news.

From Me and My Dog, have a nice Wednesday, everyone!  : )

My Condo is Rented! : )

This has been such a busy weekend!

I had an e-mail from a man who said he might be interested in leasing my condo.  I've met with him a couple of times, and again today and I have all of his info and a check for June rent and his deposit.  I need to call his employer and current landlord, but I don't expect any surprises. We plan to meet tomorrow night to sign the lease.  He'll  move in on June 1, the same day I'll be moving into my campsite at Santee Lakes.  YEAAAAH!

As this was going on, I've been going through everything I own for the last three days.  I've been sorting into Take, Sell, Store and Toss.   I've been taking carloads of boxes to The Palms, each time carefully putting everything away - and still have a lot of room for more things.  Tonight I got home at 7:30, and this load went on the dinette seats and table.  Nothing was put away.

I took two loads of junk, garbage and boxes in the car to the dumpster, and put about six "Store" boxes and two "Shred" boxes into the car to take to work tomorrow.  I'm going to bring Katie with me until the Estate Sale is done, so she will come to work all week.

I'm finally done.  Because I'll live here until June 1, I am keeping the guest bathroom and the coat closet in the living room "off limits" as well as the fridge and my pantry in the kitchen.  These are the things I'll keep here until I move for good into The Palms.

The Estate Sale ladies will be here about noon tomorrow.  I don't know how much they are bringing from previous sales, but my things are pretty organized.  She told me today that I should not sleep here Wednesday night, she said the night before a sale they work all night. 

The sale is 8 to 5 Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so next weekend at this time it will be done. They'll have everything that's left donated to charities, unless they take some things to sell at a future sale.  Then my house will be empty except for the things I have in my "off limits" places.

I can't believe I'm finally done. But my sore feet, legs, back, fingers, and arms believe it. : )

Everything was not rosey this weekend.  When I was taking down the boxes up in my closet on Saturday, in the corner I found termite damage.  There were droppings all over the place, they were eating away at two boxes (which I put in garbage bags and brought to the dumpster), and down the wall it was eaten away. The shelf is high, I need to stand on a step stool to reach it, and the damage was right in the corner and extending both right and left.  It was so hard to reach, but I sprayed it with a kitchen cleaner and had to get a putty knife to scrape it all off, then I scraped it into a garbage bag and wiped it down with cleaning cloths.  What a mess.  I got a face mask that I still had from when we had the fires here, I was afraid of breathing in termite poop dust.  Who knows - I wasn't taking any chances.  Yucky, but it's now all cleaned up, and I took a paper bag and nailed it to the wall over the termite damage so no one could see it during the Estate Sale. 

My condo has an annual contract with a termite company who come out every year and when needed. When they come out, they don't move anything , and those boxes have been there for 6 1/2 years without being moved.  I'm going to call them right after the Estate Sale, and get them out to fix things and take care of the termites.

Finally that was done, it took me about an hour and a half.  Then I got my keys to go to The Palms and drop off boxes, I walk out to my car and there was water coming out under the door of my storage/laundry room.  I recently had a company come out and replace a hose in my washing machine.  I could never get the hoses to connect completely and had some leaking when I first moved in, so I duct taped the heck out of the connection and have never had a problem.  Well..... the service man cut it all away and said he would put the hoses firmly together and I wouldn't have any problems.  Today I had a problem.  They came undone, water sprayed all over and flooded the room. There's a lip of about 3/4 inches over the threshold, and the water was up to it and flowing over.

Again, What a mess!

I got everything out on the driveway and swept and swept and swept the water out until it was almost gone, then I sopped up the rest with towels, duct taped the hoses again, finished the load, brought everything back into the storage room, and then washed the towels.  Another hour (at least) wasted.

I think I was running on adrenalin all weekend, because I didn't stop, and thank goodness for that.  I didn't finish everything until 9:30 tonight.  I'm going to sleep well tonight, that's for sure.  My work is done, and now it's up to the Estate Sale ladies.

So, all in all it was a very good weekend.  The condo is rented and it's ready for the sale people tomorrow.
 
From Me and My Dog, have a great week, everyone! : )

Verizon 4G LTE

WELCOME  to two new Followers:  Jorge and Evielynne Adventures on the Road and Doyle and Terri Johnson.  They both have very interesting blogs, which I'm following, but have to play catch up with some past entries.  Thank you both for following along with me and Katie.  Hopefully we will be full-timers in about a month.  Yeaaaaaah!  : )

I ordered a Verizon hotspot and it arrived yesterday.  I talked to a few Verizon techs on the phone, and the takeaway for me was that eventually 4G speeds will be everywhere, and the new Samsung 4G just came out through Verizon, so I ordered it.  I'll need something on the road, and I've read in some of your blogs about the MiFi.  That's basically what I ordered.  I'm not sure that was the right choice, since I don't get 4G here in San Marcos. It's by zip code, and although some of San Diego gets it, I don't. I don't know if my new zip code at Santee Lakes will have it.  The park does have WiFi, but I was told it's not very fast or reliable.  I need my Internet!  I don't want super slow speeds, and hopefully this will help.

I got it all hooked up when I got home from work, but I couldn't get on the Internet with it.  All bars were showing and it said "connected" but no Internet.  I ended up calling Verizon three times.  It's funny how different a call can be with different techs.  I finally got a woman who told me they were having problems with all the new 4G units, nationwide, the 4G Network was down.  

I have 14 days to test it out.  I had unplugged my router and cable unit, so I got online through a local wireless network that's unprotected, and will check the MiFi unit later today to see how it's going.

I have a potential tenant coming over after work to look at the condo.  He's a single father with a son in junior high, and another that's 17, and in high school.  I was kind of hoping for a little old lady like me, but if he wants the condo and checks out, it's his!  Keep your fingers crossed.

I got this in an e-mail today and couldn't resist passing it on for you "Old Guys."  (Sorry if you've already see it, it's new to me.)

The banker saw his old friend Tom, an eighty year old rancher, in town. Tom had lost his wife a year or so before and rumor had it that he was marrying a 'mail order' bride.

Being a good friend, the banker asked Tom if the rumor was true. Tom assured him that it was.

The banker then asked Tom the age of his new bride to be. Tom proudly said, 'She'll be twenty-one in November.'

Now the banker, being the wise man that he was, could see that the physical appetite of a young woman could not be satisfied by an eighty-year-old man.

Wanting his old friend's remaining years to be happy the banker tactfully suggested that Tom should consider getting a hired hand to help him out on the ranch, knowing nature would take its own course.

Tom thought this was a good idea and said he would look for one that afternoon.

About four months later, the banker ran into Tom in town again. 'How's the new wife?' asked the banker. Tom proudly said, 'Good - she's pregnant.'

The banker, happy that his sage advice had worked out, continued, 'And how's the hired hand?'  Without hesitating, Tom said, 'She's pregnant too.'

Don't ever underestimate Old Guys.

From me and Katie, have a nice Thursday, everyone! : )

Strange...The Palms is not a 2006

I talked to Forest River today - I wanted to know some things about my Sunseeker, so I called and talked to Mike Burns who is in the Sunseeker Warranty Department.  I gave him my VIN # and he told me my unit is a 2007, not a 2006. I'm not sure exactly how that works, but he said they start in the spring making the units for the following year. He said mine was made in November of 2006, as a 2007 model.  Maybe that's why I can't find anything on line for a 2006 2200.

I have the registration and some information from the previous owner.  It was stuck in the envelope with all the warranty info and product instructions.  (I'm going to call him and see if I can find out the history of The Palms.)  His registration says the date is August 2006, but maybe that was when the Ford was built.  Then at the end of the year the "house" was added and it was sold as a 2007.

I haven't gotten my registration yet, I imagine that might tell me something.

I'm having a giant artichoke for dinner - dipped in Best Foods mayonnaise.  I love that mayonnaise! I'll dip almost anything in it, vegetables, sliced apples, bananas, there's so much you can do with mayonnaise.  Slather it on salmon filets and bake.  Yum.  I'm trying to limit myself now, though.  I know it isn't healthy, but with an artichoke, there's nothing else for me. : )

 I Love Artichokes!

I think I blogged about this before - when I was in high school, I'd get my allowance and walk down the hill to the grocery store, buy an artichoke, walk back up the hill, boil it and eat it hot.  It was my favorite food for years.

From Me and My Dog, Katie - have a nice Tuesday evening, everyone! : )

P.S.   The artichoke was DELICIOUS!  And now I'm going to do some sorting and packing.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Short post today - I'm taking it easy this morning, and will start soon preparing my chips and dip and turkey stuffing to bring to Tom and Trish's house.  There will be a bit of a crowd, so I think I'll leave Katie home this time.  That will be easier for all of the humans, but Katie will miss a good time running around the house and yard.  She LOVES going to Tom's house, because there is so much room for her to roam and run and kids to play with. Plus, with three kids, there are crumbs to get under the kitchen counter where the stools are.  She is always nose to the ground in that area. : )  Their house is always spotless, but under the stools is still a good hunting ground for Katie.

I also changed out my photo - I just love the old one.  It was taken at my parent's 60th Anniversary party, and I don't usually get photos of myself.  When I try, they are always awful, and deleted. Since I'm usually the only one taking pictures at family gatherings, I don't get pictures of me. The kids are usually the ones I'm trying to get good photos of.

This one was taken last year, so it's pretty current, and looks more like me.  It's not super clear, but it's so small you can't tell. The new me!

I hope everyone has a delicious Easter meal today, whether you're eating with family, friends or alone.  This might be my last Easter Dinner with family for a while, so I'm going to enjoy it! Next year I hope I'll be in a campground "on the road."

From Me and My Dog, have a Happy Easter, everyone! : )