A beautiful day at the beach

WELCOME to our new Follower, Bob, from Chasing Grace!  He is planning to sell everything and take his dog and future RV on the road.  Bob has another blog, too, about running - Hey Bob, you'd love Carlsbad - right here by the beach it's perfect for running!  : )

I went by the condo on my way to wherever I was staying stealth-wise yesterday.  The Estate Sale was in full swing, I still couldn't believe all the junk in my condo that was brought in, but they made more money than I expected and none of the big stuff sold. Today, the second day of the sale, they discount everything, and tomorrow will be the rock bottom prices.

One of my neighbors came by to see what was going on, and I mentioned that I was going to do some stealth camping for the next two nights.  She has a horse trailer that she's been parking around the neighborhood and told me exactly where to park.  There are a few areas that she's gotten away with leaving her horse trailer, and the one place where it was tagged, it had a  3-day notice on it to move.

I parked in one place last night, and as soon as I got everything ready, I saw the Security Patrol guy in his car in the parking lot across the street, and of course he had to see me, but when he was done checking the buildings over there, he drove away, and no one bothered us.   I set my phone alarm for 6 am so we could be out of there before anyone started arriving for work.

We drove to the beach after filling the tank this morning. I had seen RVs camped along Historic Highway Route 101 before, so I drove for a while until I found the spot.  I am parked right behind a red zone, so no one can block me in.  We got here around 7:30 am, and have been here for 10 hours.  It was foggy all morning, but now the sun is shining.

 Isn't that a beautiful sight - the Pacific Ocean

 We are parked in front of this area.

 We took a walk along the sidewalk this afternoon, these little critters were sunning on the rocks. Squirrels?

  This is a beautiful place to walk/run.

People have been walking their dogs and baby carriages all day. 

Lots of runners here.  Carlsbad is full of healthy people!

Yesterday evening I went to a Target and bought some food for the weekend, and also a printer. I have a nice Cannon printer that I was going to keep. I decided yesterday that it's too big and too heavy to move around The Palms, so I dropped it off at the Estate Sale, and bought a smaller, lighter HP Photosmart printer. It's a color printer, wireless, and prints great. I can leave it on the bench seat under the window, and it's out of the way, but handy when I need it.  I set it up this afternoon. The wireless was super easy to set up with my new 4G LTE.

HP Photosmart D110a e-All-in-One Printer

I've learned a lot this weekend.  Last evening I stopped at Fish House Vera Cruz, one of my favorite fish restaurants, and ordered a dinner to go. I brought it back to The Palms and had dinner with Katie. While eating I was reading on the laptop and the generator went off.  It was still running, but nothing was working off it.  I got out my manuals and was able to figure out and fix the problem. It was the breaker.  I checked the generator's oil and found the breaker and re-set it.  I was feeling like a pro.  Then I went back to my dinner, and it's been fine since.

I called Forest River to find out about my radio. I talked to Mike and he said they take out the original and put in a Sirius Ready radio and told me which one they use, so I could download the User's Manual from the web, which I did, but I haven't tried to program the radio yet.  I guess it's a pretty nice radio, the friend of my daughter and son-in-law who programmed the time and one of my stations for me in Vacaville seemed impressed with it.  It's nice, even without subscribing to Sirius, which I may do in the future.

Then I called La Mesa RV and talked to my Customer Service person, who is my go-to guy for any questions I have. This will sound silly to some of you, probably most of you, but I was worried about running the generator too long - using up something, so I asked him what the generator runs off of, gas, propane, ???  He told me it uses the coach batteries to get started, then runs by itself.  I didn't know that!  How cool is that! So now I'm not worried that I'll use up some kind of fuel when I run it.  I couldn't find anything in the Onan User's Manual, probably because they figure that if you have one, you probably know that.

Then I mentioned to him that I have an appointment to have my Dometic fridge serviced - to take care of the recall, next Friday.  I checked on line, and mine is affected by the 2006 recall and I called Dometic to see if my unit had been serviced, and it had not.  But Jeremy said he'd check my file, and came back and it WAS done. He said before they sell a used RV they check for any recalls and take care of everything before it leaves the lot. Dometic just didn't have the info.

So far, so good. Katie seems to have settled right in, and I'm very comfortable and feel safe and secure in The Palms with just me and Katie.

These guys are constantly flying overhead - they go over the beach South, turn around and come back North, a continuous circle - I see them every day I drive home this way, and they facinate me.  So regal looking!  I took more photos of them this afternoon.  What are they?

There seem to be two groups that form together, with an occasional threesome that flies by.

And now I'm going to take a nap.  This sitting by the beach watching all the people running by is exhausting!

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a great Friday evening, everyone!    : )

Okay, I'm calming down a little, still in the hotel parking lot

A HUGE thank you to everyone who left comments in the last few days.  Your insight has really helped me calm down, think things through, and come to a new decision.  I hate to admit it, but sometimes it's hard to make all the decisions on my own, especially when so much is happening at once and I'm not sure how to handle things.  I am feeling much calmer tonight.

You might remember I met with a Realtor a couple of months ago to give me an appraisal on what he thought I could sell the condo for, and it wasn't enough yet to pay off the mortgage.  That's when I decided I'd rent it out. He is also a property manager, and I have seen him in action in the neighborhood.  He and his wife have a pretty successful real estate business.  They seem to be listing and selling quite a few properties here where I live.

I came over to The Palms at lunch and re-read yesterday's post and the recent comments and decided to send him an e-mail to see if he would rent and manage the condo for me.  My kids thought he was too expensive, but I don't think I'm cut out to be my own property manager, and if he can get me a good tenant, it would be worth it to me.  I haven't heard back from him yet, and I think I'd like to see what happens at the Estate Sale and if anyone is interested in renting and leaving their name with the ladies working it.  If nothing comes of that, I'll meet with him and see if he can help.

I've just got too much going on right now to take care of everything, and having that taken off my plate will be a huge relief.

I checked the website of my Estate Sale ladies to see what they have for my sale, which starts tomorrow.  They did a really nice job, listed tons of stuff, lots of good photos, and even said the condo is for rent, and they would take names of any interested parties for the owner to call back.  I thought that was really nice of them to add to their listing.  

I've already made a sale!  One of the "crew" saw him and LOVED him and bought him for her daughter:

I thought about keeping him, but that wouldn't be very fair to him, sloshing around whenever I was on the road.

I'm still in the hotel parking lot tonight.  Tomorrow after work I plan to drive back home and park somewhere nearby.  

From Me and Katie, have a good evening, everyone!  : )

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! : )