Update - I think we're finally organized

We have four new Followers - WELCOME to:

Michael Ultra, who has his RV Blog about his "adventures in the toy hauler with a couple of furkids and an old Harley," and also a new blog he's using to sell his house. That's a good idea, hope it works! 

Meadow House Musings - I like your name - You don't have a Blog listed, let me know if you start or have one so I can check it out. (Michael Ultra posted a message with your blog link - Thanks, Michael!)

Kitty, who retired in April and will be a full-timer in 36 days.  They are getting their fiver ready, and will be towing a motorcycle. 

Debbie Goode who has two blogs, click on her name for her painting blog which is wonderful, and also her RV Blog, which I enjoy reading.

I appreciate you all following along with Me and My Dog, Katie.

It's been a week since my last blog, I can't believe an entire week has just gone by.  This retirement/full-timing thing is kind of scary.  Time is going by even faster than when I was working, and I'm wondering where the last two weeks went.  I've been so busy, though, getting organized.  I think I've been bored about 10 minutes since I retired, but I'm sure things will settle down soon. 

Living in an RV park is interesting.  Living in the area I am in, being sooooo close to my neighbors, could be a challenge.  Other than the kids who were tossing their football, hitting The Palms, etc. I've had no complaints.   I didn't say anything to the management here, but someone must have, because the day after they climbed my ladder to get the ball off the top of The Palms, things have been great.   It's a long day for these kids to keep themselves entertained, and we do have lots of kids here.  They must have found one of the playgrounds or open areas to toss their ball around.

I think I've been lucky, this area is pretty quiet, with full-timers mostly.  Some of my neighbors are actually living here.  They stay for six months, but have their site reserved for another six, after the required two weeks they have to leave.  Some are couples, some are families.

 I've had only one neighbor on my passenger door side, Larry, who is a great neighbor.  He's quiet, considerate, brings me fresh fruit from a friend's trees.  He's helped me with questions about my rig and I've been lucky to have him for a "first" neighbor.  He was here when I arrived, and is scheduled to stay for a couple more weeks.  (But he told me yesterday he is going to another park this weekend to test it out, so I might be losing him.)

The site on my other side has had many coaches since I've been here, pretty much all good.  They stayed for a few days then moved on, or to another site.  I guess we're pretty booked because it's fishing season.  My new neighbor, though, is scheduled to be here for five months. 

She is a solo woman with her dog, and is an experienced RVer. She's my age and very nice.  She said she will be "in and out," driving back and forth to AZ in her car for business.  I think she will be a great neighbor, too.

I will be leaving in two weeks, myself, but so far am enjoying living in The Palms with Katie, and we are getting into a new routine.  I just can't believe Katie isn't getting up with me in the morning.  She stays cuddled in the comforter for another hour or two and finally wants to come down and go out for her walk.  It's nice, though, because I have time in the morning for coffee and whatever, without having to throw on clothes and take a walk first thing.  I get some "relaxing" time of my own.

I am hoping I have everything I need for The Palms.  I've been driving to the local Wal-Mart and Target, as well as other stores, to get things on my list, or as needed, and in two weeks I won't have a car anymore. 

I have an appointment with someone to see my fridge tomorrow morning at the condo, and I hope it sells.  I've brought the price way down.  I've already cleared the condo out, but have three or four boxes in my storage/laundry room, so I'll pick them up tomorrow.  They are for Salvation Army, and I already dropped off a big bag of clothes and hangers yesterday (things from my closet - only so much will fit, so I purged more things).

I signed the Real Estate documents this week, so my condo is up for sale (short sale) now. I changed my address to my daughter's, and I'm hoping this trip to the condo tomorrow will be my last. 

Although I qualify for the HAFA Short Sale, my mortgage company is being a real #@%&! about it, and I don't want the grief, so I told my Realtor I want a "normal" short sale so I can get on with my life.

I have a medical exam on Monday, and if all goes well, I'll get my car detailed next week, then take it to CarFax and get an estimate.  The estimates are good for a month, so I'll bring it back at the end of my final week here and sell it to them.  According the Blue Book, it's still worth between $3K and $4K, and I'm hoping to get something in between.  Then I will literally have everything I own in The Palms.  That is a kind of "freeing" thought for me.  I won't have to worry about anything but what I have right here with me. 

Katie enjoying our patio - we have no dirt  in this site.

I had more photos I wanted to show you today, but this post is long enough - I'll add them tomorrow.

PS:  Just wanted you to know I've tried to post LOTS OF COMMENTS, but haven't been able to.  I don't know if it's Blogger or my sporadic Internet, but it's really frustrating.  I'm reading all your blogs, and enjoying every one of them, but since I can't comment most of the time, I wanted you to know I'm still following along with you all.  : )

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

Still here...

Well, I'm still here - I can't believe I'm still organizing, but I am.  I THINK everything is finished.

I've been so busy during the day and so tired at night, I don't even remember what photos are in the camera to upload.  Often at night I'm not able to get good wireless service, and I'm not able to comment, I guess there's just not enough power, so that's been kind of frustrating.  I think tomorrow will be pretty free, and I will post then. Wireless seems to be better during the day.

Just wanted you to know everything's fine and I'll catch up tomorrow.

Bedtime

This is Katie saying, "It's bedtime."  She tried to jump up to the bunk, bounced off, and fell on the floor.  Poor baby, it really scared her. I think she was surprised the jump didn't work.  I don't think she will be trying that again. : (

And, now, for me it is bedtime.  It's early, but I'm tired, so that's it, folks!  Katie is already asleep.

More tomorrow.

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

100 Followers, and my magic hangers - before and after photos

WELCOME to our new Follower, Jaime Glatz!  Jaime doesn't show a blog, let me know if you start one so I can check it out.  We're happy to have you following along with us.  Welcome aboard.  : )

And WELCOME also to Maureen F., whose blog, 1961 Nomad, is about restoring her vintage camper named GIZMO.  It's going to be really nice when she's done.  I'm going to enjoy following your progress, Maureen, thanks for following along with me and Katie.

Me and My Dog has 100 Official Followers!  That's really great - I remember when I saw we had our first follower, Wild Blue Yonder, I was so surprised someone would follow my new blog.  So much as happened since then.  My first blog post was August 9, 2010.  I had been following so many RVer's blogs to learn what I could, and there was a LOT of information in your posts.  I started commenting, and finally decided to start my own blog so I'd have a record of how I  became a full-timer.  Here I am - ten months later - living in my RV full time and we have 100 Followers.  And over 26,000 page views.  It's amazing!  Thank you all for following our progress and reading my posts through thick and thin, rants and happiness.  I feel like we're part of a large family, and I hope to meet you down the road.

Now, on to my magic hangers - here are the before and after photos:

Before

After

Of course, I arranged the clothes differently in the "after," and put my shorts in a drawer instead of hanging them, so I had more room.  I need one more package of hangers, there are still some old ones, I ran out of the new ones.

They are really different than regular hangars, they are so not-slippery, that it's hard to get clothes on  and off them.  The clothes sure won't fall off while traveling!  But one good thing is that they fit easily in the holes meant for hangers in my closet, and they are easy to put in and take out of the closet.  The clothes seem to hang better because they are evenly spaced.  But you'll need patience for hanging things up and taking them off the hangers if you use these.

I woke up with a lot of energy for the first time this morning.  I cleaned The Palms, Katie and I drove over to the laundry and got that out of the way.  While they were drying, Katie and I took a long walk around that area of the park.  Lots of nice spaces there.  Each part of this large RV park has a different look, there are lakes, streams, concrete with no trees, lots of trees, big grassy areas, well groomed dirt areas, pretty much anything an RVer would want or need.  There are tiny spots like mine, and huge ones with lots of area to spread out.   There are some very nice rigs here.

I also hung a shampoo/conditioner dispenser in the shower this afternoon.  I think that will be easier than having the bottles on the shower floor.  I hope it works.

Katie and I started out taking pretty short walks along the shoreline of the lake near us.  Yesterday we started going around the lake. It's so much easier to walk in places like this, than on a city street.  We actually took two longs walks today.  Katie is going to be spoiled.

Here are a couple of photos from our walk this afternoon.

In different places around the lake there are "groups" of different kinds of ducks laying around, enjoying the view of the lake.  Kind of nice.

So...yesterday afternoon I'm sitting in The Palms minding my own business when a football hits the rig.  There are some kids playing football outside on the street, kicking it to each other.  The second time they hit The Palms, I opened the window and asked them to play somewhere else.  The third time I TOLD them to play somewhere else and opened the door and asked the woman across the street if these were her boys.  She was just standing there talking while her kids were kicking the ball all over the place. I asked her if they could play in another area where there's more room.  Once it went under a big rig, the people weren't home, but the kids went under the rig after the ball.  They were in and out of everyone's sites.

Then late this afternoon, they start again, but the Dad or some older kid, was tossing the ball to them, and I thought, okay, that's better than kicking it.  But the kids weren't good receivers, and it was still going everywhere.  I heard a few small bumps, and thought it might be lightly bouncing off The Palms.  Katie was nervously doing a low growl, on and off.  Then I hear the loud one.  I look out the window, and they area all looking in my window at me, waiting.  I go out the door, and the older guy apologizes and says it was his fault.  The ball was on top of my rig, and he wanted to climb my ladder to get it.  I told him he could, and that they should play somewhere else.  I told him people weren't supposed to be going in and out of other people's campsites, and he says, "Really?"  It's 8:45 and dark out, and I can still hear them outside, but at least they are up the street.  I hope they aren't staying long. 

Other than that, a really good, productive day.  Tomorrow I'm going to do some work for my son - I'm keeping track of the hours I work, and so far it's ZERO.  I'm actually looking forward to doing some research tomorrow.

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

A little interior decoration

WELCOME to our new Follower, ain't for city gals!  Sheryl has a neat blog - she refurbishes small travel trailers - in her words, "after complete renovation my goal is to have the trailer be like a little jewel box inside and bright and colorful on the outside."  What an undertaking - you go, girl!  And thanks for joining Katie and me in our full-timing adventure.  We're happy to have you along.

I'm finding it hard to keep The Palms neat and orderly.  It's such a tiny space that if I have a few things out, it looks messy.  And when I'm sitting at the table I need things, my cords, remotes, calculator, tablet, pens, my Kindle and MP3 are always nearby, glasses, etc., etc., etc.  I never realized how much "stuff" I need around me to function, but I always had enough room to spread things out in the condo and everything had it's place.  My desk had drawers and my living room end tables had drawers, too.  Now all I have is the table.  No drawers close by.  I started out with a plastic container that I put on the bench seat beside me, and started putting things there, at least they were off the table and nearby.  But I didn't like the way that looked.

When I got the two packs of tea for my cold/virus/whatever, I wanted to get a nice little box to put them in so they were handy on the kitchen counter.  A little "tea box."  So I went to Michael's, where they have tons of cute boxes and baskets.  I got one for the tea, and then decided to get a couple more - in fact I got five of them. 

One is a small box that looks like a book - I put it up by my pillow, and it holds the TV remote if I'm watching TV, Kleenex, my phone, etc. It looks like a book beside my pillow, but I have everything close by in one place and nothing will fall or get lost.  Just lift the lid to get a Kleenex, or get my phone.

I put two in the kitchen, the tea one, and another that matches the pot holders I got.  For now they, along with my new cutting board, are stacked on top of the toaster/oven.

 I picked some lavender at the condo today - I love this little vase.

It has a frog inside to stick the stems in.

 This is empty, so far, I just liked it and it matched my potholders.

 This is the box holding the tea bags.

Then I got two large book style boxes that are next to me on the bench.  They don't take much room and hold a lot.  The cover opens and there's a lot of room inside.  I love the way they look.

Aren't these cool looking? They hold quite a bit of "stuff." 

I can't believe I'm still getting organized, but I am.  Tomorrow - the closet!  The Magic Hangers.

I've been asked how Katie is doing in our new life in The Palms.  She's doing fine.  Who knows what she's thinking, though.  She's just started "guarding" me when I'm in the kitchen.  She will sit (or stand) with her back to the kitchen until I leave it.  It's very sweet of her to keep me safe in my kitchen.

 Katie the Brave, guarding her Mommy : )

Poor thing has to wait for me to lift her up and down when she's ready for bed, and ready to get up in the morning.   Last night I was up later than usual, and she was driving me crazy. I finally realized she wanted me to lift her up so she could be in bed.  I guess I need to learn new signals from her.

So far, so good.  She's eating and sleeping well, and loves her walks.  She's getting more walks than ever before, so that's a good thing for her.  And for me, too.

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

Still getting organized, and noisy neighbors : )

WELCOME to two new Followers:  Lizzie Jack and Jim and Sandie!

Lizzie Jack I'm glad you are coming along with me and Katie on our new adventure.  I don't see a blog listed for you, let me know if you have one, or start one!  Jim and Sandie, I was surprised to see I wasn't a Follower on your blog, because I know I've read lots of your posts, but I wasn't, so I signed onto your post today, and it looks like you did the same on mine. Welcome aboard to my new followers, and I hope you enjoy following Me and My Dog! : )

Yesterday was a busy day. I was feeling pretty good, and I decided to take care of some of the things that needed taking care of.

First I want to show you my noisy neighbors.  Last night as I was laying there with my bunk window open, I kept hearing noises near The Palms.  The stairs to the lake path are pretty close to me, but this was closer.  Like right under my window.  I ignored it, thinking someone was veering a little close on their dog’s night-time potty walk.  But the noise kept up, and I thought, there must be some kids playing by the tree right near my window.  I looked out, and saw something going up the tree.  I climbed down and got my camera, opened the window and waited. 

There was a lot of rattling inside the tree, the leaves were really rustling.  I took a few shots, hoping to get something in the tree.  Then… here come a couple of raccoons.  One is coming down, and the other (if you click on the photo to enlarge) is partially visible in the leaves on the right side of the trunk. 

 My noisy neighbors, leaving the neighborhood.

 The second critter climbing down the tree.

They were fat little critters.  I don’t know how they nest, but I hope there isn’t a nest in the tree.  There were little squeaky noises when they were both in the tree moving around, and I wondered if they were feeding their babies.  Like birds.  Or if  it was the raccoons communicating with each other - like, "What was that flash??  Let's get outta here!" 

Katie and I went to Wal-Mart and then La Mesa RV and got a few things for The Palms.  We got an attachment for our Winegard Antenna, a Wingman - thanks Fred!   (He's been e-mailing me some great information.)  Fred, do you have a blog?  If so, leave me a comment and I'll give you appropriate credit for all your good ideas.

 Winegard Wingman

You were right; it did give me a few more channels in English. The attachment was really easy to connect to the antenna, except that my fingers and thumbs couldn’t push the plugs in completely. Luckily Larry, my neighbor, was walking by and climbed on the roof with me and pushed them in all the way.  

Fred also sent me a link to a site that tells you which channels are available in your area if you type in your address.  Click here for that site. 

I messed around a little more with my TV and the converter box. The box was in the cupboard, and it has to be out for the remote to access it.  So I pulled the wires through the hole in the side of the cupboard and re-connected them. Then I Velcro’d the converter to the bottom of the RV. It didn’t look super secure, so I Scotch taped it on the back to one of the bars.  Not too pretty, but it doesn’t show, and it’s holding, and now the remote works from the living room or bunk and I don’t have to keep the cupboard door open. I'll probably get some raffia or something stronger to secure it more permanently.

 Converter attached to bottom of TV

While I was in Wal-Mart I saw the memory foam mattresses, and they had a full size. My Wal-Mart only had twin and queen and I needed the "full" size, so I picked one up.  When we got home I opened it up and let it air out and puff up. It didn’t smell bad, I was expecting an unpleasant odor, I’ve heard a lot about that, but this one was okay.  I took down the twin air mattress and all the pillows and bedding and deflated the mattress. Then I got the memory foam in the cover it came with, wrapped my mattress cover around it, and hefted it up into the bunk.  Then I put on the sheet and comforter.  What a workout all that was! I’m thinking changing the linens on the bed might be the hardest thing I do on this adventure.

I also got some Throat Coat tea and and Organic Echinacea Plus tea by Traditional Medicinals – thanks Teri.  I’m going to try the Throat Coat today. 

Thanks to Jim and Sandie - I think your suggestion of using a paper towel holder for T.P. is a good one. After I sent you the e-mail, I realized you did say "paper towel" holder.  I have that on my shopping list.

Katie and I took a long walk late afternoon. We walked over to the pool, washing machine/dryer area and community building.  I thought we were further away, but it’s not a bad walk.  

I was anxious to try out the new mattress, so I decided to watch some TV in bed.  It’s pretty comfortable, but there wasn’t anything interesting on TV, so I gave up and turned off the lights.  That's when I heard the "noisy neighbors."  (I woke up without a back ache, so far...so good for the new mattress.)

I plan to stay in camp today and just take it easy. Watch TV, read blogs, Kindle reading, napping maybe.  Right now, time for lunch!

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