Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Busy, busy, busy. . .

We walked in the subdivision this morning and then worked the rest of the day. Still packing stuff in boxes, but I'm about done now. Most of what is out now is just stuff that we use in the course of living here day to day. That will all remain until the kids have all come and gone this summer, then we move permanently to the motorhome and finish cleaning out the house.

We shopped this morning and later today for some plastic boxes a certain size Terry needs to fit in the trunk on the back of MinnieMee. Since she's so small, it's important to have "a place for everything and everything in its place." I don't want stuff on the floor inside, so everything must have a spot.

I helped our neighbor carry some furniture up from the basement to sell this weekend. Our sale will be open on both Friday and Saturday, so that means tomorrow we will be busy setting everything up. I'm also trying to get things arranged in the basement and the bedroom. There are boxes sitting all over and if I can just keep them orderly, then they aren't really in the way.

Now my big project is to shred records. I have forty years of records to shred. I just finished shredding my in-laws records and tax returns that they had kept forever. I have shredded through the file cabinets and have just a handful of files I am keeping and have those boxed up. Eventually they will go back in the file cabinet.

Shredding is not hard work, but there is a lot to do and I have a very good shredder, but it overheats after awhile, so I have to keep at it.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Yay!

MinnieMee is home tonight! She's getting ready for a road trip. We went to the storage facility this morning and picked her up. She was so happy to see us, she started right up, all her batteries are up, tires are good, etc. She even fired her gennie up first thing! Whoo hoo! She says she is ready!

We stopped off at Elkhart Campground to fill up with propane and then we brought her over to the house and put her up on ramps to level her and turn on the fridge. The fridge is working! So where are we all going?

The Pace-Stevens-Taylor reunion is June 8 in Marietta, Mississippi. I think we have only missed one year since they started it and that was the year we went to Alaska. It will be a quick trip this year because we will take a couple days to get there, stay the night, then head back to Goshen. We are working hard to get the house cleaned out and the kids are all coming starting the middle of June and continuing through the 4th of July. So we need to get back and get ready for them.

It's always good to get MinnieMee out and exercise her a bit, but this is the first long trip in a while for her. She will be going to Virginia later in the summer as well. But Phaeton Place is still at the service center. They have been trying to find a jack for her, but haven't had any luck. And today when we went over, her house batteries are dead. Not sure what's up with that, but we had been over about ten days ago and even ran the generator to help charge the batteries. So Gerald said he will have the guys pull her up and plug her in for a few days to get those batteries back in shape. That and the fact we still can't level with her means we will leave her here to heal and take the little motorhome. Sure glad we have her.

So I have some cleaning to do to get things ready in the little motorhome, but it doesn't take long. There just isn't that much area to clean!

Till next time . . .

Dale

Friday, May 24, 2019

Life Changes

We are in Goshen staying at the storage condo and getting it ready to sell. When we arrived here last month, we were nursing a sick jack on the motorhome and had called ahead to our service center of choice. They told us to bring it in and they would check it out. Well, the jack is broken and while we are in no hurry, we are getting anxious to hear what is going on with the coach.

In the meantime, we are staying here at the house and working at getting things boxed up. This is the year we are going to sell this place and be truly homeless for a bit. Our ultimate goal is to find a place in Florida. When you decide to settle down at our age, it's best to be close to at least one of your kids. Brandon lives in Florida and that would be good for us for the winter. Terry cannot be in cold weather at all, so that rules out Virginia, where Jocelyn lives. But we can still visit. In fact, we don't have a presence in Florida yet and we aren't done traveling, so we will be storing a few things before we are able to move into a home. Don't know what we want or where, but just think that makes sense for us. And we still do have our place in Texas. No plans to sell that just yet.
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We have a buyer for the house and we will be doing up the paperwork in July when things settle down. We are headed to Mississippi early in June for the family reunion, then we will be hosting each of the kids/families in June and July. After that, the furniture is going, as is everything else. We've set a goal of September 15, but the closing will be earlier. The paperwork will be done before we actually turn it over.

So we are filling boxes. Actually I had most everything boxed up from last year. Just finalizing all of that and finding those "special sized" boxes for the odd shaped items. I've been boxing up pictures that Jocelyn wants along with quilts, etc. We will have to hire people to haul stuff up from the basement, but fortunately, there are outfits here in Elkhart that do that. Terry has already sold most of the big stuff in the third bay of the garage. The John Deere, with the snow blade, the lawn edger, sprayer, roller, etc. He still has one large piece, the weed eater, to go. It is a push type. We are having garage sales every week to try and get rid of stuff. If this stupid weather would cooperate, we might get some activity, although we have sold quite a bit.

So things are going smoothly. Terry's able to do a little at a time, but he has to be careful not to overdo it. They changed one of his meds and he is getting used to it. We hope it will be a better fit for him, but he may need a higher dose. The med it replaced came in one strength and this one comes in three, so hopefully they can get him on the proper dose for him.

We sure do miss our little Duchess, but she is in a better place. She was both blind and deaf and had diabetes and became quite ill. It was a tough decision to make for her, but she was not happy and had little quality of life.

Till next time. . .

Dale
 




Monday, May 06, 2019

Back to Florida!

We got packed up and spent a restful night at the house. The next morning we loaded up and eventually left for Indy. We got there plenty early even for us. But when I am driving four hours to an airport, I like to have extra time in case we have problems. As it was, we didn't have any. Except that our plane was delayed, not once, not twice, but three times, then back to the second take off time.  Grrrr. We normally fly Allegient, but this time we flew Southwest. We flew into the main Orlando airport which is big and there is a lot of walking and with Terry already tired, that proved problematic. But we made it. We are here for ten days while the kids go to Montego Bay, Jamaica, on an incentive trip Brandon earned.

Brandon met us in baggage claim and helped us with our luggage. I do think I am going to get another piece of luggage. Mine is an old style and I really would like one with four wheels that I can push along. I may start looking. Also, mine is small to pack for a week. I've had the same suitcase for years, so I think I could spring for one.

We arrived on Friday the 26th of April and on Saturday Brandon took us to "Eggfest." A business, Wassi's, in Melbourne is the number one seller of the "Green Eggs" and every year puts on "Eggfest." There are over 200 eggs being used to cook anything and everything and the food is put out in samples for everyone to try. DO NOT EAT BEFORE GOING TO EGGFEST!  There was so much food and I started turning down samples because I was stuffed. We were there for several hours. There is an indoor pavilion where there is stuff for sale, accessories primarily, and entertainment. You can buy a "beer ticket" and Brandon had one but we didn't. I can't drink more than one beer and the ticket is for five! We had such a great time and it was fun being with Brandon. In late afternoon, they shut down the eggs, which are really ceramic type cookers fired by charcoal. Once they cool down, they are hauled off by people who had bought them prior to Eggfest. By buying one of these "demo" eggs, you get several hundred dollars off the purchase price. Brandon bought his last year which was an XL egg and has since bought the Mini-egg. He does a lot of cooking on it and he does a great job. The food is super good and tasty and he enjoys cooking on it.

The next day the kids were busy packing their luggage for their trip. We spent a lot of time with Brynlee and we were on our own on Monday morning as the kids had to leave shortly after waking her up to say goodbye. She is really sweet and so good for us. She never argues about getting up or getting dressed, etc. We always laid her clothes out the night before so she knew what she was going to wear. She wakes up in a good mood and is ready to start the day. We took her to McDonald's the first day since she had school, then dance class. It made doing supper easy for me. I did do some cooking for us all while we were there and Brynlee ate everything I fixed. Terry grilled for us one night. We only ate out the one night.

We also got to take care of maintenance while we were there. The guys came to replace Brandon's 65" television which had lines running through it. So we coordinated that. Megan's Pelaton had a bad screen as well, so we let the workmen in to fix that. It was a really busy week for us even though Brynlee was in school. The kids stayed an extra day to take advantage of the resort and that was fine with us.

We also got to take care of their new rescue dog, Lily. She's a golden doodle and quite the sweetie. We just love her. She loves to play and wants to be with you all the time.

We enjoyed our ten days in Melbourne. It seemed to come to an end too soon, but on Sunday, May 5th, we flew back to Indy. It was a late night flight and . . . once again. . . there were many delays. What's up with that Southwest? We got back to Indy after midnight and then to our hotel at 1:30 a.m. We decided to stay the night in Indy since it was so late. But neither of us sleep well in hotels, so once we got back home, we crashed and slept most of the day till late afternoon. But it felt good.

So now we begin the process of emptying out the house in Goshen. We are selling it; the buyer is lined up and it's all a go. So now we have to empty it and get it ready for the new owenrs. I can't wait to find something in Florida where we can live in the winter. Terry has to have warm weather, so that is why we are looking for something there.

Till next time. . .

Dale