Selling the townhome...

...not! Well not anytime this year. Talked to my realtor, Karen Hoff, tonight and she did comps for my townhome and advised this was not the time to put it on the market. She wants me to wait until Jan, 09. Okay so this is not going on Carolyn's time, what's wrong with that picture?? I want it right now she says as she stomps her foot and puts her hands on her hips!

I have just got to be patient and realize that things work for a reason and it's not up to us to rush that timeline. I just want to be out there. It will be so much sweeter when it happens.

Got my printer hooked up to my new computer. I had to go to Walmart and get the adapter for a printer/USB ($20.) Works like a charm. Everyone had told me that Vista was not compatible with other hardware/software. I am not finding that to be the case. Now, I just pulled up a Word document and Microsoft Office 2007 is a whole lot different to Office 2003. There will be a definite learning curve for me. I sure hope that I am away from work before the agency decides to upgrade to 2007. OMG, don't want to do it. I love my new Dell computer. Plus she's pretty, guess I'll have to name her Sunny!

I also got some spray paint for my plastic step. I'll probably complete that this weekend. Hope the weather is going to be nice.

Later...

Casinos...

This weekend was spent at the Casino Aztar in Evansville IN. It's only about 2.5 hrs from Nashville so Theda and I decided to go there for the holiday weekend. We had entertained going to her place at New Johnsonville and spending the weekend on the water. Nah, too crowded with boaters and will be too hot. The I had planned on going to an RV place in Clarksville and taking Somewhere and spending the weekend. Well, they were going to put me in the overflow and I didn't want that. So here we go.

I stopped by and unloaded some things in Somewhere as we went through Clarksville. We took Sedona as the Casino hotel is very pet friendly for small dogs.

I lost, I won, I lost again. So it was up and down. I think once I get to RVing full time, when I win, it will be a lot easier to just leave. It was fun and not too crowded. I thought it would be swarming with people but that was not the case.

Evansville is a beautiful place. It has revamped it's riverfront and it is so clean and pretty. Sedona and I took a walk along the riverfront on Sunday. It was good to get out and get some exercise for both of us. Everyone loves to stop and pet and talk about Sedona. It started warming up before we got back and I stopped at the fountains, thinking Sedona might get a drink of water, but nooooo. She was not going to have anything to do with that water so she waited until we got back to the room.

We awoke to rain on Monday morning and it rained and stormed all the way back to Nashville. It stopped for just a little while in Clarksville where I stopped to buy some fabric so Ann's mother could make me some storage for underneath my bed in Somewhere. It's a duck cloth and I think it will blend in nicely. She will sew some pockets in it to hold "things." Haven't decided what it will hold but saw one posted by Karen on the forum and I had to have that. What a great use of space! I am constantly looking for different ways to use space and I'm not even in there yet.
I'll post a picture when complete and installed.

Later...

What FUN!!!

Saturday night we celebrated my friend, Randy's 60th birthday. Well the actual day is May 19 but since it was the weekend, we partied. First we all met at Cherokee Steak House on Old Hickory Lake. There were about 17 of us there anxiously awaiting he and Debbie's arrival. He was so SURPRISED! He thought we were going to have a party for him next week so he was not expecting anyone but Glenn and Melissa, his daughter & son-in-law. Here is a roomful including his best friend from kindergarten, George & Barbara. Debbie had managed to really pull this one off. The food was delicious. I had forgotten how good their steaks are and how reasonable the price. Good job, Debbie & Melissa.

After eating we went to Melissa & Glenn's house for the "party." It was decorated with Simply 60 banners, and sparkly things. Cute cake w/football figurines on it. The cake was from Publix w/butter cream icing. Ooh, I could have eaten half of it. LOL Melissa had made a powerpoint presentations with his "old" pix and it was funny to watch. She did a great job.

We had a reprise of the Blues Bros by Randy & his friend Mark. They get all dressed up like the BB and then karoke the songs. Randy really enjoys doing this & he was all ready because he had been practicing. He thought he was going to do it next week. Gotcha' Randy.

His gifts were a riot. All gag gifts! 2 of the funniest were a pair of boxer shorts with balls hanging out. OMG, they were so funny. Of course he had to model everything he got so he put them on and we all just died laughing. Oh, we are so bad. Remember when I told you a few posts ago that I went to the Hustler store after Debbie, Sandra and I went to the Menopause the Musical play? Well I went to get Randy a gag gift. I chose a G string that was red and looked like an elephant! Well, Randy put the G string on over his saggy balls shorts and it was a sight to behold. I don't think I need to explain what the elephant looked like. I'll tell you everyone said the trunk was way too long. TMI is all I can say.

It was a great party but I'll tell ya, I had about 4 shots of tequila (Randy's favorite, CaboWabo, and it has taken me about all day to recover. Guess I'm not as young as I used to be. Debbie asked Barbara what she and George thought about last night. She said, "well, our friends are not as frisky as yours!" Enough said.

I'm in the process of erasing my files on my old Gateway computer so I can recycle it. I got it in 2001 so it's on it's last legs. This program is called Erase and I read and heard about it from Kim Komando. She is the digital goddess, has a radio station and a terrific website. If I ever have a question, she is the first source I check. I like calling her show too. If you check it out be sure to get the address & spelling correct, it's www.komando.com.

Storage thought...again!

Guess until I get in Somewhere permanently I'll continue to have questions about, what to take, what to leave. Now my dilemma is my filing cabinet. I acquired this filing cabinet about 15 years ago and when I got it, the fad was to take torn brown paper bags, mod podge (glue) those pieces overlapping, let it dry, stain it w/tea for an aged look and then put several coats of polyurethane on it. And wah lah, a pretty cool looking filing cabinet, sans, institutional grey paint.

I measured the space under my desk in the bedroom of Somewhere and there is enough room to slide it under the desk. I tossed this topic out to the www.womensrvforum.com, who by the way are a great bunch of ladies who are not afraid to offer their opinions, which is what I love about them. Anyway, I digress. Back to the filing cabinet, I know I'm going to need "hidden" storage for papers, etc. and I think this will be perfect. Now my only concern is the weight. This filing cabinet is not one of the flimsy metal ones at Walmart, it has substance. I believe however, it will balance out some weight because it is opposite the slide in the bedroom. Hey, what have I got to lose, I can always take it out if it doesn't work out right?

The neatest thing happened the other night. I got a phone call from the lady (?) (Margie would remember her name.) at Spring Lake RV Resort in Crossville, you know the place we had our TN GTG. Well she wanted to know our blog address and the forum address so she could read what we had said about the resort. She thanked us for coming there and hoped we could come back someday. That was just the keweliest thing... Great customer service. They had begun adding some sites around the lake and those will be finished by August. They will be outstanding sites. Can't wait to go back and visit there.

Picture scanning is finished for the third time. I say third time because whenever I think I am finished, I come across more and then have to scan those. A funny thing I came across is a letter and homework from Jonathan's 3rd grade teacher. This was the only year Jonathan had any trouble in school. His teacher wrote me to tell me Jonathan was not doing well in multiplication tables. Believe me it was not pretty. Anyway, I tell you this because Jonathan was having a really rough week at work and I thought I would cheer him up and send him the letter and homework so he could get a laugh. So I scanned those documents and sent them to him at work. The email was entitled something like, I know your are busy but you have GOT to read this, hoping it would get his attention. Well next morning he emailed me a LOL and said I can remember riding between Chattanooga and Etowah having to practice my multiplication tables. That was it! No big reaction. But that's my son and I love him. I never really expected a response as I would have given. We are very different and that's good.

No specific details about the buyout, Governor Bredesen is proposing. I have just reconciled myself that I won't be included in it. That's okay, I have way too much to do before I leave work.

Big weekend coming up, yard sale at my friend Debbie's house in the morning. Exciting evening but it's a surprise so can't say anything about it right now. Maybe I can get up to visit Somewhere on Sunday. I'm having withdrawals.
Later...

Buyout?????

Questions still loom and there will be no answers until June 6. There are tid bits filtering throughout the state. We still don't know anything for sure. Don't think it will be offered to me. Just found out that they are only interested in those who are funded by the general fund. We are not, we get all of our funding through the federal gov't and from sales of licenses, etc. I heard this a.m. that the buyout offer will be $25,000 plus 6 months of insurance. Now, if there is anyway I can get that, I'm gone. Doesn't look too promising at this moment. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. Looks like I may be screwed any way you look at it. Oh, well, just a few more months anyway. I've got to sell my condo before I leave work anyway.
Later...

Mother's Day

Whoever came up with this holiday? Now you have to know that I am not a card person. I remember Birthdays but rarely do cards. Even to my Granddaughter. My friend Debbie is a better card person than I. She even handed that down to her daughter Melissa. See, the whole Smith family has birthday's in May. I know this! I wish them happy birthday but have rarely sent cards. Am I bad? Nah, I just don't take after my Mother. My Mama was a card sender. She sent cards on every occasion. She sent cards to all 9 grand children and then to her great grand children. She was a good soul.

So I called my sisters and Debbie called me. It is a good day.

Me, on the other hand, I think, I am silently boycotting the card industry. Wow, does that sound good. I love it that you can send cards electronically, that's my style and I'm usually pretty good about doing that, however, some sicko has even messed that up. People won't open links to e-cards because they have a virus or something in them. Just mess it up for the rest of us, would ya???

I got some stuff priced for the yard sale next weekend out at Debbie's. I went to the New Balance store because I still was not happy with the fit of my new shoes. They got it right this time. I practiced using my Co-Pilot Navigator GPS system on my new Dell. LOL I had to laugh to myself. I couldn't get it off my sister's address in Etowah and it kept wanting me to go East, East, East, turn left. Then it kept calculating a new route. It was funny. Guess I need more practice. Good first time out with it.

Then I came back and read the women's rv forum and decided I am one blessed person. Because I am so bad sending cards, it doesn't bother me when I don't hear from people (my son.) I know things are busy in his life and I just figured he was at a swim meet with Taylor and would call me later. Then it got later and I thought maybe he had forgotten, yes, I did go there. Then at 6:03 p.m. I got the call. "Happy Mother's Day, what have you done today?" Oh my, it was good to hear from him. Thank you Jonathan, you are a good son!

What a week!

Monday was a pretty good day to come back from Bowling Green. Glad we stayed overnight. Theda drove back most of the way and it was nice to be able to rest & relax.

This week began with an announcement by the Governor that there would be layoffs in State Government. Then the news got a hold of more information and I found out that there would be the possibility there would be a retirement incentive. Man, oh, man did I get excited. I'm only about 7 months from retirement and if the Gov. includes years + money, I'm outta there earlier. I can start on my RV journey a lot sooner than anticipated. What excitement! What anxiety! I would have so many things to do that I had planned on taking my time to get ready. Sell the condo! Buy a new to me car that can be towed 4-down. Have the estate sale. Too many things to do if I get to go out in June. I think Chad (my financial planner) would just absolutely tell me, no, no, no. Would I listen? Don't know. I cross that bridge when I get to it.

Heard a little later in the week that they will begin at 30 + years. I should know something Monday, May 12. So many of us could go. If it's good enough, Becky, Cindy, Cindy, Sandra, Debbie, everyone but me. What is meant to be will be! I can't push it. I can dream though.

Got my computer. It is quite lovely. Sunshine yellow! Did you doubt. So far so good, I love it. I don't think Vista is going to be a problem. Now Microsoft office 2007 may be a different story. Large learning curve on that but hey, I've got all the time in the world.

Can't wait to plan a trip on my computer. I got the Co-pilot Navigator 9 GPS software. It's for RV's and has POI (points of interest) w/cg's, fueling stations, parks, natural areas, etc. I'll probably play with it soon. Theda, Becky and I are going to Destin in June so I'll plan that trip and see where it takes us. It has text to speech feature so the gal tells me when to turn and says the name. I'll give an update on it as soon as I get familiar with it. Right now it's a cool toy.

I went to Carmax the other day to get an idea of what price I would have to pay for another vehicle. They appraised my PT cruiser and they only wanted to give me $3500. for it. You have got to be kidding me! Too bad I can't tow it 4-down. I called Chrysler and they said absolutely not. Mine is a 2001, later models can be modified w/out problems. Leave it to me. My car is so good and has been taken care of, I can't imagine letting Carmax have it for that little money. It will all work out.

Been contemplating putting my condo on the market. While it's for sale, I think I'll bring Somewhere down and live in her. That way I won't have to worry about keeping my house clean & picked up and what to do with Sedona when someone comes in. I may wait a little longer to do that but I think it sounds like a great idea.

Weather is supposed to be really bad this weekend. I was gonna clean carpets and upholstery in Somewhere but it's gonna be too damp and it wouldn't dry well on Sunday. Maybe I'll have a lazy weekend and get ready for the yard sale. Sounds like a winner.

Later...

RV Driving School at Bowling Green KY

Well, it's all over, we passed and got a certificate and a pin certifying we had passed. Theda and I came to Bowling Green on Friday afternoon and we are staying at the KOA in BG right off the interstate. I had thought that BG was off I 24, but alas, it is off I 65 N. Makes it a little challenging getting from Clarksville off I 24 to BG off I 65. Narrow 2-lane road from Clarksville to Russellville and then 4-lane mostly to BG. In case you have forgotten how windy it was on Friday, let me just tell you, it was WINDY! Somewhere wanted to go all over the road and then the narrow road certainly didn't help. It was a challenge and just got me more prepared for the school today.
Snack time anyone?

Theda and I were scheduled for Saturday. I called Dennis Hill, Driving school owner/instructor to get final instructions about 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. He said well I have you scheduled for Sunday. I had a confirmation for Saturday. We agreed to change to Sunday. Got out fee for camping paid for changing. Apparently they had overbooked. No big deal. We were going home after the school but decided at lunch we would both be wiped out so decided to stay another night. Good decision.

The cg is a typical KOA, nice sites, paved patio, chimineas, tables, chairs, bench, very nice site.

Wish I could have stayed longer. It rained Friday and Saturday and rained hard. Don't think I have been out in Somewhere that it hasn't rained at some point of my visit. Somewhere could get used to staying in a place like this. OMG, this place even had a huge chess set. Can you believe this???

Anyone who is thinking of RVing should consider the RV Driving School. Dennis Hill was the utmost professional
and taught us more than just driving. He gave us tips on tires, and general maintenance of RVs. Very professional. Sedona was so good while we were having our lessons. She staying in her car seat and didn't make a peep/bark while Theda and I were driving.
It took all day. We started at 8 a.m. and didn't get finished until 4:30 p.m.

There are already several instructors from Life On Wheels up here. We went to one of their campsites and had some wine and networked a little. Talked to one of the Blue Ox (tow bar people) representatives and I think they have worked out a deal where I can tow my PT Cruiser 4-down w/little investment. Of course there will be more on that subject when I get to research and talk to some people. That would be an answer to prayer if that is the case. It's amazing what one learns just sitting around talking and listening to the people in the know.




OMG, this place had a K-9 playground. Sedona loved it. She got to run free and she even got to go over a couple of obstacles she remembered in Pup Scouts. She was so funny to watch while in there playing.

A few posts back I told you about the tiles I was going to put in my kitchen on the wall next to my stove. Well I finally finished and they are staying affixed so I suppose I succeeded in getting them to stay on. Here is one stage and then the finished stage. I think they look pretty good and they jazz up my RV kitchen for personalization. What do you think? I think they are pretty. I ordered them from harriettcarter.com and they were rather reasonable and weigh little or nothing.






We will leave tomorrow & go to Clarksville to get Somewhere in place and then back to Nashville. I'm expecting my new computer tomorrow so that should be exciting. Later, gator...