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! : )

Not much going on

Welcome to our new follower - Nancy!  I don't see a blog listed for you, Nancy, but if you have one or start one up, let me know so I can check it out.  Thanks for following along with Me and My Dog, Katie.   : )

Also, April Sola left me a comment that she does have a blog, Happily Hitched - An RV Blog.  Very cool play on words - newlyweds - and - trailer hitch.  Somehow her photo and blog aren't showing up on my Followers list, but it's a new blog about new, twenty-something RVrs and their dog Lola.  If you get a chance, check it out, she's a good writer!

I should get my new Verizon Samsung 4G card tomorrow, and will be back in business.  It is definitely a problem with the unit because today my son, Tom, let me bring his home.  He has the exact same unit, and when I pressed the button, it turned on immediately, which mine has never done. I'm never sure if I'm pressing it too long, and turning it off right after it turns on.  It's ridiculous! 

Tom's turned right on and is working perfectly.  He said he's never had a problem with it.  I'll be glad to get my new one and not have to worry about it shutting off every five minutes - seriously, every five minutes.

Katie and I just got back from our walk to the lake.  I haven't been walking much at all, and I could feel it.  My legs and lungs needed a rest when we got back.  I'm such a slug!  Katie loved it, though.  I'm sure after June 1 we'll be taking quite a few walks.  No more opening the screen door to let her out, and sitting back down. I'll have to go with her on potty breaks once we're in the campground.  That will be good for us both.

I got my first money orders Friday, and they are supposed to drop off the remainder of the proceeds from the Estate Sale today.  It's 5:35 and they aren't here yet.  I wonder if they are still coming today.  I haven't heard otherwise, so I hope they are.

Thanks for the tips about the pots, I'm going to do some research on the suggestions you left me and see what I can find out.  I can always get a cheap pot at Walmart and use that until I find the right set. 

And now, since I have good Internet, I'm going to sign off and see if I can catch up on my TV shows.

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

Big news and awful Internet connections

A big Welcome to Alan McMillan, our newest follower!  Thanks for joining us, Alan - things are starting to really move quickly now, and I'm glad you're along for the ride!

I’m having a heck of a time with this new Samsung 4G card from Verizon. Since I received it I’ve had really spotty connections.  It constantly shuts off, and after five calls to Verizon yesterday, they are sending me a new one, which will arrive Tuesday.  I’m hoping the problem is with the unit itself, and after Tuesday it will be smooth sailing.

I cancelled my cable TV and Internet service weeks ago, so am now using only my computer and the 4G card for TV, which is really frustrating, since it shuts off every five minutes or so. 

I’m typing this post on Word, and will do a quick cut/past into Blogger and post it.  Hopefully I’ll have a connection long enough to do that.  

I did find out, though, in one of my Verizon calls yesterday, that Santee, where I’ll be staying in my RV park, DOES HAVE 4G!  Yeaaaaah!  This 3G is slower than cable Internet, but the 4G is just as fast, and I’m going to be happy to have the 4G for sure.

Last night I was so frustrated, I packed Katie and my computer in the car a drove up the street to Starbucks, bought a coffee, and watched two of my TV shows on ch131.com in my car.  I’m having really bad withdrawal from TV watching and computer surfing.  I don’t have very many TV shows that I like to watch, but geeez, I’d like to see a couple of them.

So, my big news is that I am being laid off; my last day of work is June 2!  I have 11 more days of work before I’m done.  Forever.   

No.  More.  Working. 

I had a long talk with my boss (my son) on Wednesday and he would really like to reduce the staff by one person, and since I’m not planning to work beyond December, he wanted to know if I could afford to leave sooner.  With unemployment, I definitely could, especially since I won’t have my condo too much longer (I hope).  It kind of seems like everything is working out for me to get into my plan sooner than expected.  If I still had my condo with a renter, I would want to work through December for the extra security of the six months of full time paychecks and to see if the renter was stable, but…  Now I don’t have to worry about it. So that’s what we’re going to do.   

He had me type of a list of all my duties so he could determine which ones he’ll give the two office employees that will be left.  He will still give me special projects as they come up that I can do from The Palms, and hopefully that income will extend my unemployment a bit.  He’s also working on another possible income stream for me.  It may not be in place until next year, but if it works out it will be a good income producer for me and something I love to do – all computer related.  So, about the time I finish unemployment, or before, I may have a good income stream in place.  In the mean time, I plan to check into all the links I’ve been collecting for writing, editing, researching, etc. that I can do from the road using my computer.  I really enjoy that kind of work, and hope to be able to still access some opportunities in those areas.  

No photos today – I’m not going to frustrate myself further with trying to upload and lose them. (Besides, there’s not much going on.)

Katie and I visited The Palms yesterday.  I needed a deep bowl to microwave an artichoke. I have NOTHING here at the house to cook with.  I don’t have any pots – they all went in the Estate Sale.  I have only two pans, and they are both at The Palms.  There was a pretty good size bowl, though, in the set of storage containers I got a Costco, and I brought it home and it worked perfectly.  

On Friday I got more storage containers for The Palms.  They had four drawer plastic storage containers, similar to what I already had in my craft room for mostly quilting things, but the ones I had were too wide to fit into my one large closet in The Palms.  On Friday I found narrower ones, and got two. I won’t have enough hanging space, so I’ll use those for Lingerie, Tanks, Tees, Turtlenecks, etc. Each drawer will hold one thing, and it will be very organized and easy, and the things that need to be hung, will have room.  My label maker is going to be busy!

I also got more racks for the kitchen cupboard, to double the storage areas.  I put them all in and re-arranged things, so now I have lots more room, and it’s more organized.  I also need a few more containers for overhead cupboards.  What I have in the cupboards so far fits fine, but when I open them after driving, things fall out and I’m trying to catch them before they hit me.  I need some containers that aren’t tall, just enough to hold everything in place.  It will be easier to find things, too, if I just have to take the whole thing out, or slide it partway out.  Then I can label the outside of the container and see at a glance what’s inside. 

I want to get a nesting set of pots for The Palms.  I remember reading in someone’s blog about some they bought at an RV Rally.  I  think you can also get them on-line.  They looked nice, and she loved them. Said she was sorry she hadn’t invested in a set much sooner. They were kind of pricey, though.  If anyone knows what I’m talking about, can you leave me a comment?  I did a search yesterday, but with the connection problems I was having, I couldn’t find anything that sounded like what she had. I think they are, maybe, specifically made for RV and boat use.  The pots and pans nest and the handles folded or came off for storage.

It’s grey and damp outside, with a little rain.  But the sun is starting to poke out a little.  We may drive down to a free internet location again and watch a Netflix movie.    

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

The condo looks great - empty - but great!

Well, things are relatively back to normal here on the home front.

Here are some photos of my current living arrangements - not for long, though.

 Dining room - our current bedroom

Living room - my current LR/Office

 Master Bedroom

 Guest Room (My Sewing/Craft Room)

Patio

I have food in the cupboards and fridge, and clothes hanging again in the closet.  I am pretty comfortable for now.  Before I started all this, I figured I would be comfortable with a bed and chair and that's what I have, and it's working fine for me (and Katie).

On June 1 I'll move into the RV park, but will continue to stay here from time to time to keep an eye on things. I'll keep the gas/electric going.

The condo looks so empty and clean - it's actually in better condition than when I bought it 6 1/2 years ago. I've made some nice upgrades, and it should be worth more than my purchase price.  According to my Realtor, the only comparable in the area to my condo is one that sold in February as a regular sale. It sold for $125K less than I paid for mine.  There is no way it will ever appreciate enough for me to sell it and break even.  So I am going ahead with the short sale.  I'll let you know how that goes.  I'm not worried about it. I have excellent credit, and with the credit score hit I'll take with a short sale, I'll still have better credit than a lot of people.  The sense of relief I have at this point is incredible.  

I also have some big news that I'll post next time.  : )))))

And now I'm going to get a hair cut, and Katie is going for her booster shots this afternoon.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for us both!

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

Estate Sale - one more day... then I get my house back

Thank you, Pidge. I looked at the end of my followers list, and in the followers without a photo I found some new people.

So.... Welcome to Steve, a new Follower to Me and My Dog.  I checked out his blogs, and it looks like he's really into Poker!  Steve, we're really happy to have you join us on our adventure!

Welcome also to April Solla and trustnoone1018, who recently became Followers. They don't have photos or blogs that I could find, but I'm sure happy to have you following along with me and my dog, Katie.

To answer some of your "comment" questions about the Estate Sale:

Yes, a LOT of the stuff in the photos in my last post was not mine. And a lot of it is still here, but it should all be gone tomorrow.

I don't think I was taken advantage of, not much anyway. I think maybe this is a normal thing for these kinds of sales.  I think they could have been a little more organized, and they could have kept things cleaner (my carpets), and I would have appreciated them getting everything out sooner.  My understanding was that everything would be gone on Monday after the sale.

I actually agreed to have other people's things, from previous Estate Sales, included in my sale.  I didn't realize how much there would be, though. That is why we had a 65/35 split of the take. That way they could continue selling things from previous sales, and increase their take. If I didn't agree, I would have gotten a 50/50 split.  They said they also did well with the "other people's" stuff, and previous customers would be happy to get a check in the mail.

They hire a crew (two people at my sale since my home is small) and moving vans to and from each sale to haul things to the next sale, they have all their sales equipment, cash register, website, all the business expenses.  I don't think they would have netted much without the other stuff being here.

They said they did much better than expected at my sale, they keep adding more from boxes of stuff on hand that doesn't fit at first, and that keeps people coming back to see what's new the next day.  They had a high volume of lookers each day. My neighbor said people were coming and going all day, and they extended the sale to 5:30 each day because of the traffic.

For my stuff, every piece of furniture was sold, anything that really had any value.  Only little things were left like dishes, glasses, Christmas ornaments, things like that.  I didn't want them to schlep my leftovers to their next sales, so I opted for a "buy out," they called a couple of companies who will buy out the remainder after Estate Sales, and I was offered $250 for what was left. I thought that was very generous, and it was still a 65/35 split, so the deal was made.

About half of the things are gone now, and about half of what's left is packed up in boxes, and will be gone tomorrow.  The carpet cleaner is coming on Thursday.

One thing to remember is that when people have Estate Sales, at least around here, the owner of the "estate" has usually died or moved to an assisted care or similar residence.  They are gone, the sale is held, the money paid and everyone is happy.  I'm still here, and popped in almost every day.  I wonder if that is unusual for them, and if I was just too "present" at my own sale.  If I had gone to visit my daughter for a week or so and then come back, I wouldn't have seen all this, and it wouldn't have been a problem.  Do you remember how your house looked when you were moving?  When most of the stuff was boxed up, there were creases and marks in the carpets where the heavy furniture was, cobwebs and little pieces of things left from moving out the big stuff.  Just kind of messy.  That's what my place looks like now - other than the carpet stains, which hopefully will be taken care of.

And I do have to say, they called me at least once a day to keep me updated on what was happening. I appreciated that. And now that it's almost over, I can't imagine any other way I could have gotten rid of everything in one week.

When I get the final payment, I'll let you know what what my total was, might as well.  Considering all my furniture was at least ten years old, not in perfect condition, and I didn't want it, I'll be very happy to get the check.  They give their customers a money order or Cashier's Check, the first one is 65 percent of the cash they took in, the second one depends on the "hold time" the bank places on the checks deposited. When they clear, usually 3 to 5 days, then I'll get the remainder.  They gave me an approximate number, but I'll tell you when it's final. Maybe it will help someone else out there make a decision, and you'll know much more than I did.

Soon this will be over and I'll be bringing The Palms to Santee Lakes, and Katie and I will be full-timers, and this will be an interesting memory.  We move on June 1!!!

At the beach on Saturday, I pulled out the couch and Katie and I took a nap and tried it out.  It was really comfortable!

 Just a reminder - love my kitchen!

Can't wait!

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

OMG! Wait till you see this!

Happy Mother's Day!

This is what I found when I came home today:

 They said my house was almost empty - this is the living room

 My dining room

 The dressing area outside my bathroom

Kitchen

They told me they are having the carpet cleaned.  Now I know why.  This is the carpet right inside my front door, see the lovely black stain:

This is the worst stain, but there are small ones all over the carpet

 The guest bedroom was almost empty, this is where we are sleeping

I borrowed my neighbor's vacuum and a sheet to lay on the carpet, then put my open sleeping bag on top of a quilt so we can sleep in reasonable cleanliness.

I made more than I expected from the sale, but honestly - I think I've been sugarcoating things. It hasn't been as easy as it looked.  The ladies were pretty disorganized, brought in, I felt, a lot more of other people's stuff than I thought they should have.  Once I was committed and signed the contract, I just kind of let things go, figuring they have been in business a long time and were the professionals.  But I really don't think they respected my property.  I sure liked them and trusted them at our first meeting, but...

(Merikay asked in her blog if any of us delete or re-write our posts - well, Merikay, here is the space where I cut out all my ranting... Four long paragraphs.) 

Just beware if you hire a company to do an estate sale.  I can't believe they are all like this, do some checking of references before signing the contract. 

I might be a little happier after I receive my check.  I'll let you know.  : )

I had a comment on my blog that a follower is in the middle of a short sale.  I have been thinking about doing that. I just learned about short sales from two ladies at my Estate Sale. They both did short sales on their homes and explained how it works.  One has a realtor that specializes in short sales and I’m going to call her tomorrow. 

I will never move back to my condo, I can’t afford the mortgage when I retire. I’ve already lost my $70,000 down payment because of the downturn in the market, and now I’m thinking, why bother with renters?  It will never appreciate to the point where I can sell it and break even, why not just let it go. 

I just had a woman call me to rent my place, and she explained that she had to let her home go, but her credit report was still 720, so it didn’t hurt her too much. That’s 4 people this weekend that told me they had a short sale, and I've never talked to anyone before about short sales. I’m wondering if someone is trying to tell me something?!?


I have 90 Followers now!  Every so often the numbers are strange.  I had 89 before, and now it shows 90, but I don't see any new photos.  I hope I'm not missing anyone, the photos are added at the top where we can see them and there aren't any new ones after Bob, so if I've missed anyone, I apologize.

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a good Sunday night, everyone!  : )

Easter photos

To answer my commenters about the generator's fuel:  I DO remember reading in the Onan User's manual that there is an automatic shut-off if the gas tank gets lower than 1/4 full, so you don't run out of gas for driving. I had forgotten that, and I think I asked my question wrong to the La Mesa RV man. I guess if it needed no fuel, it would be one of those perpetual motion machines, and they haven't been invented yet, have they?  I sure did like thinking that I could run it forever with no fuel, though. : )

Here's one more shot of the beach today:

I never posted photos from Easter at my son's house, so since I didn't take any today, I'll put them here:

 Have a little dip with your cracker, Graydin?

 The adults in the dining room, kids were in the kitchen

 They couldn't break the ribbon to "GO" until Graydin was ready.

The older kids were so patient.

 Is there one under there?

 Kennedy finds one!

 Look at all Gavin's eggs!

It was a fun day, good food, good company and a fun Easter Egg Hunt.

I am again here at the beach - we're in a different spot, the first one after the long red curb for the buses.  That gives me a good place to back up when leaving.   I really don't need that, though, because by the time I leave, everyone is gone and the street is empty of parked cars.

It's nice just hanging out after having a pretty stressful week, and all the packing and moving boxes I've done for the last couple of weeks.  (You should see my arms and legs - OMG - I have so many bruises!)

The Estate Sale ladies gave me the names of 4 people who might be interested in renting, I called them today and left 3 messages and talked to one older woman who is not sure yet. She needs to talk it over with her kids.  I just got a call from the ladies a bit ago.  The sale is over, they got one more name of a potential tenant, so I'll call him when I post this.  As long as they were willing to take names and numbers I decided to try that. These people have seen the condo, gone inside and looked around, and if I can get a tenant myself I will do that. But if none of these leads work out, I'll meet with the realtor - I am also thinking about a short sale. When I stopped by yesterday two different women there, one is a neighbor, told me they did short sales. Since I don't plan to ever move back to the condo, I just might do some research on that option.

The sale went pretty well, but am I glad it's over!  I am netting a bit more than I had hoped for.  I went to the condo last night.  After the first day it was a  mess!!!  But one of the ladies wasn't there that day or the previous night, so they were short handed. (She had chest pains and ended up in the ER the night before.)  She was back yesterday, and when I stopped by after the sale, the condo was much more organized and actually looked pretty good.  They had taken some of the other people's stuff out, and I was much happier with how things looked. 

When they called this evening, they said the condo is almost empty. A couple of big pieces of furniture still need to be picked up by the buyers, and they are having the carpets cleaned, and the companies for the sale of everything that is left will come by to bid on the remainder.  So next week some time I'll get it back, empty and clean.

I know you are all wondering what the final total sales came out to, but I'm not going to post that.  Every sale is different, and every area is different.  Even the people who came this week would be different than next week, so my totals are not going to be the same as any other sale.  I will say, though, that I had hoped for a certain amount, and my profit exceeded that, so I am happy. 

Katie and I have taken two walks so far, and she's being really good.  I wasnt' sure how she would be this close to all the people running and walking by the windows, some with dogs that she knows are there. Mostly she is quiet, a couple of times she barked, but stopped when I told her to.  A little guttural growling from time to time, but on the whole she's been very quiet, so maybe she won't bark much in an RV park, which will have far fewer people walking by The Palms.

Tonight we are going back to the same parking lot we were in last night, then I want to come back here again. I'm going to park further up the road, on the top of a small hill, where we'll get a different view and be able to walk in a different area.  I'm meeting my neighbor, Julie, for a Mother's Day lunch at 1:00, so we'll drive back home then.

I plan to bring The Palms back to the storage lot and get my car Sunday afternoon, and sleep in the condo tomorrow night, since I have work the next morning.  I hope I can at least find one clean, clear area to lay down my sleeping bag.  I may borrow a sheet from my neighbor to lay down on the carpet.

From Me and Katie, have a Wonderful Mother's Day tomorrow, everyone!  :)

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! : )

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! : )