A new plan - I may be on the road soon

Five more days of work.  

I've given all my work away, e-mailed my forms and flyers, charts and spreadsheets, templates and contact list, my information file, everything.  Thinned out my Outlook folders, went through my desk drawer files, it's pretty much done.  Tom wanted my jobs given away early to the other two employees so I'd be there if they had any questions, but I doubt they will.  Our Office Manger has been there for nine years, and our bookkeeper for six years.  They pretty much know what's up.

For the rest of this week and next week I'm going to learn how to do and practice the research job that Tom needs help with when I'm retired.  We had a meeting yesterday about it, and I have a lot of information to play around with and see what I come up with.  It's something I can do as I want after I leave, I can put in a lot of time, or a little time.  The more time I put in, the more money I can earn, so it's up to me. 

I have the new cargo door and the decals we need to repair The Palms.  Next Tuesday I'm going to drive The Palms to work, and Tom's auto shop guys are going to do the repairs.  He will drive me home, and then on Wednesday he'll help me get both vehicles to the RV park after work, and I will have both The Palms and my car available to me at the RV park. 

I'm driving back to Vacaville to visit my daughter's family over the 4th of July and stay with the grandkids during the week while Kristy and Matt are at work.  They have different schedules, Kristy's is according to her patient appointments and Matt is with the Home Depot and has varying schedules, so I'll have time to spend with them, too.  This might be the last time in a while I'll be in their area to visit.

I'm thinking that I won't be on any special time schedule, and if I drive up in my car as I originally planned, it's going to cost me $125 in gas to get there.  And I will be paying for my Santee Lakes campsite for the week I'll be in Vacaville since I have a monthly rate and don't want to lose the campsite. Then I have to drive all the way back - another $125.  A total of $416.   If it costs me $265 to get there in The Palms (assuming an average of $4.25/gal of gas, less if it keeps going down) I think I'll be ahead of the game to do that and then just keep going north after our visit.

I'd have anywhere from 1 to 4 days to drive there, and wouldn't have to hurry.  If I stay in rest stops or Walmarts at night, I'd save some money.  Then Katie and I can sleep in The Palms at Kristy's and have all our things with us.   

Why not just bite the bullet, check out of Santee Lakes on July 1, and drive The Palms to Vacaville and get started on my "road trip?"  I'd have a month to figure out the motor home systems, get her all set up and comfortable for us. 

I'd like to drive to Placerville and see my old girlfriends, and have a visit.  I could keep traveling north and go through Oregon and Washington, two states I'd love to spend some time in. It will be summer and warm, a good time to be traveling north, and not the best time to be in Arizona, another state I want to see (and think about having solar panels installed while I'm there).  The more I think about it, the more sense that makes. I could make my way back down through Montana, Idaho, Nevada and end up in Arizona as the weather is cooling down. When I get there, I want to stay for a while in one of the free desert camping spots that I've read about where everyone congregates, and then travel around a little and see more of the state.

I'll have to think about selling my car sooner if I do that.  Probably through Carfax - I've done that before and felt they offered me a fair amount.  

I think it's a good plan, and it doesn't make sense to pay six months to camp at a campground and just sit there if I'm not working.  It made sense before I was laid off, but not now.   I feel like I'm easing into this, and the changes to my original plans are coming slowly and making it easier for me.  Whew!

Okay then.  It's our new plan... I called the RV park this morning and cancelled the last five months of my reservation and they put my deposit for those months on to the June rent, so I'm all set.

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

My cactus is in bloom!

I have a big cactus, a prickly pear, on the side of my condo under my bedroom window.  I seldom see it, because it's hidden out of the way, and I forget it's there.  I think this year is the first time I've seen it in bloom, so I had to take some photos to remember it. 

 Single Flower

 This one has 10 flowers on it!

Prickly Pear Cactus

I like the way it has different colored flowers on the same pad.  Some of the petals have faded, or maybe it was the rain.  Still really pretty and fresh looking, though.

I Googled Prickly Pear Cactus to see if that's the one I have, and it is.  It says it's the Texas State Plant.

"The prickly pear cactus was designated the official plant symbol of Texas in 1995. Found in the deserts of the American southwest, the fruits of most prickly pear cacti are edible, and have been a source of food to native Americans for thousands of years. Cacti in general (and the fruits in particular) are still staple foods for some residents of Mexico and Latin America and the prickly pear cactus is raised commercially. The fruit is sold under the name 'Tuna'; the branches or pads are eaten as a vegetable, called 'nopalito' or 'nopales.' "

I guess the little round parts that the blooms are on must be the fruit part.  Our HOA's gardener, Jacinto, cuts off the end pieces of mine and another prickly pear across the lawn and brings them home for his wife to cook.  I had never heard of cooking cactus until he told me about it. 

I also have some pretty snapdragons blooming now.  And bird of paradise, lavender, lantana, poinsettia, and others.  We always have lots of flowers around here. During my estate sale people asked if they could buy my iris bulbs, some of which were in bloom.  They are beautiful when they all bloom at once, but they are in the ground, and I thought they should stay for the new owner. 

 Snapdragon in the front garden

My son, Tom, loaned me a folding table, and it's sooooo much easier to use my laptop at the table.  And that's about it for today.

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

Just another day in an empty house...but I have Internet!

Nothing going on today.  I had big plans of getting The Palms and bringing her over to the beach for the weekend, and stealth camping at night.  But Friday got busy, Saturday I slept in too late, and today I'm too lazy.  That pretty much took care of the 3-day weekend!

I have another week in the condo before I move to The Palms.

A follower asked how Katie is doing with all this.  It's hard to tell. She's been sleeping at work, in the car, and on the floor in the dining room or guest bedroom since all this started. At least she is still at home, and has her back yard.  I think she's kind of unsure, but as long as she's with me, she's okay.  And usually the rest of the time she is sleeping.  We both seem to be sleeping a lot lately.  I think the stress is tiring us out, although I don't feel stressed. I'm not depressed, but I'm sure sleeping a lot.  That will change when I'm in The Palms and more comfortable, I hope, and have everything I need to be busy again.  : )

I went to Verizon yesterday to swap out my battery in my 4G, I think that was the problem.  So far it's working pretty well.  So now I'm going to try to watch a little TV.  I still have a bunch of  TV shows to catch up on.

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

Got some new stuff today...

I got an e-mail from my daughter, Kristy, today - something she read about short sales.  So I wrote back and when I was done, I said "I feel like I've just written my blog! : ) I think I may do a copy/paste, and it WILL be my blog."  And, so, here is my blog for today, straight from my e-mail to Kristy (with photos added, of course, and a little editing): 

I just ordered a set of Magma nesting pots and pans on line. (Thank you, commenters!) I couldn't find them anywhere in person, but they are highly recommended, and they all fit into the one largest pot. Camping World has the 7-piece set for around $150 on line, and I got a 10-piece for $161 including shipping, right about what the Camping World set would cost with tax, but I got two more pots.  

I sold all my old pots and right now I have one frying pan here, and the frying pan you guys (Kristy and her family) got me in the RV. I need a pot, but I'm too cheap to buy one for 25 dollars at the store. So I got a ridiculously expensive set instead. Go figure. (But I think I'll love them and they don't take up very much space. And I like to cook.)

Magma 10-piece nesting cookware

I got a blow up bed and sheets today at Costco. It was a Coleman brand, queen, which is what my bed in the RV is - I brought it right down and laid it up there, inflated it, and it hung over the edge a few inches. And it was too tall, leaving me less headroom. So I deflated it and brought it back.

This was really nice, just a few inches too wide.  Too bad :(

I looked all over for a "full" blowup, which is what I'd really like, but I couldn't find one, so I got a twin size at Walmart, and they also had sheets to go with it, that have elastic that goes around the mattress so it won't come off. I'm washing the sheets now, and I'm going to use them here until I move to the RV. I'm getting a little tired of sleeping on the floor. I think that size will work. I hope so. You need a mattress or something to tuck the sheets into that lies on top of the padded mattress that's there now, so the sheets don't show. (I've got the bed put together, so we'll see.  I hope it works tonight.)  I did see Coleman inflatable mattresses on line, and they have two that might work, too. One is a "full" and one is for an SUV. Both are inexpensive.

I got a free chair from the San Diego Blood Bank - when you donate blood you get points, and I was saving mine up for a jacket, but my doctor said I shouldn't donate so often. My iron is actually on the low side now, so I cashed them in for the chair and a $5 gift card from Coldstone. I haven't gotten that yet. I needed a chair, so that was perfect.

Free Chair, well, kinda free  :)

It's actually a full size chair, just looks small in this photo.

Speaking of small chairs, my Realtors want to hire me to coordinate their deals. And they have a friend who is looking for a coordinator, too. I think if I wanted to work a lot, I could get a job doing that. They said I could work for them from the RV, anywhere I was.  I have a real estate license and have worked as a loan coordinator and sold real estate.  Hmmmmm.  I'll have to think about it and see how I do financially once I'm not working anymore.  I think I'd rather not be that busy, though.

I mailed off my Short Sale documents on Thursday, so now I just wait. They have up to 30 days to respond. My Realtors think it will go, but we won't know for sure until we hear back. He said if they price the condo right, it should sell pretty fast. It will all be done in three to four months if everything goes okay.

I got the final payment from my Estate Sale, and I received just under $4,000.  My furniture was around 11 years old except my bedroom set, which was much older, and I really didn't have much.  It looked fine but was not in perfect condition, and it all went in 3 days, so I was really happy.  I was hoping for at least $2,000 and would have considered $3,000 a good thing, so I was very happy with what I got.  The total sale was just over $6,000 and I got 65 per cent of that. 

Seven more days of work!

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

An unusual business meeting, and... Totally would have missed it

I wasn't going to post anything today - I guess there are a few things I could write about, though.

I'm starting to organize things for leaving work.  I have tomorrow, four days next week, then three days my last week.  So, I have eight more days of work.

I'm putting all the forms and flyers and purchase orders, things like that, in organized computer folders so they will be easy to find.  Tomorrow Tom is going to sit at my desk with me and we'll go through what he wants me to e-mail him, and what he wants me to delete.  What should go to the bookkeeper and what should go to the office manager.  I have a lot of his personal things on my computer, a huge Word file that has all the information about his past and present businesses, passwords to all the insurance companies we use, just tons of things like that. It's password protected, and the only way I could keep everything I'd need at a moment's notice at my fingertips.  I also have a contact file in Excel that has every contact I've ever had while working there, it must have more than a hundred contacts. That will make it easier for Tom to find the people I've worked with over the years, for every business he's had and every purchase of any size or importance.

So, in addition to a couple of special projects and doing some collections, I was busy at work.

I skipped lunch and left early.  I wanted to stop by The Palms and get some paperwork I needed.  I had a meeting at my condo with my Realtors so they could see the property and I had a few questions about the paperwork I'll be sending tomorrow to my mortgage company for the short sale.  I told them I only had one chair, so we'd be sitting on the floor.  I lied.  I remembered I had a child's chair in the kitchen with a box on it, and that reminded me that I had another in The Palms, so I also brought that.

It was quite a business meeting - I wish I had taken a photo while they were here!  Grace was in a black suit - in the beach chair, Randy was in business clothes - in the monkey chair, and I was in my jeans and sweatshirt in the elephant chair.  We were all low to the ground, so the bankers box table worked fine.

 I called dibs on the elephant chair

I thought beforehand that I wanted to offer them coffee - it would have been the polite thing to do and I usually offer guests something, but there was not anywhere to put the cups (paper cups) and I was afraid they would tip over on the clean carpet, so I didn't offer it.  But, anyway, this was the setup, and it was actually comfortable and we were able to conclude the day's business without anyone falling over.  It was kind of hard to get out of our chairs, though. : )

Just looking at that picture makes me laugh.  I think I'll send a copy to them by e-mail.

Tomorrow I'll make copies of all the documents and forms and send them Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested.

The thing that compelled me to write the blog today, though, was this.   I was sitting here in the beach chair by the dining room window when I saw my neighbor running toward my front door waving his arms, his two boys were standing outside in the light rain in their pajamas.  They were all laughing.  I thought they wanted Katie to come out and play, so I opened the door.  Jeff yelled, come here, come here!  I ran toward his place and turned around, and there was a beautiful half circle rainbow with my condo exactly in the middle.

 A beautiful rainbow over my condo - looks like good luck coming my way?

It was really pretty!  They kept yelling, Look, look! and pointing to the rainbow and laughing.   Then I saw it:

 Do you see it?

 Look closer, do you see it?

Isn't that cool?  A Mallard on my roof, under the rainbow!

I thought that was so neat, and appreciated them coming to get me so I could see the rainbow and the duck!

When I came back inside and sat down again, I thought, "I wonder how many things I miss?"  Here I was sitting under a duck, and a rainbow, and didn't even know it.  I kind of consider things like this to be blessings, like seeing the bunnies scampering around on the property when I leave for work in the morning, and those cool ocean birds that fly in formation when I drive home the coast route, anything like that.  But a duck and a rainbow over my head?  That's really special!

Call me crazy, but I love this stuff.  And happy meetings with smiling chairs.

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a special Wednesday night, everyone! : )