5-13-13 Monday (COD)

With my lending authority comes Saturday rotations.  One a month.  I also pulled regular overtime throughout the week so I ended with 11 point something in overtime hours.  I love my job but prefer not to do Saturdays.  On Saturday night Jim and our friend Angie went to Columbia for a Kenny Chesney concert.  I don’t like country and I don’t like concerts.  After work, Jim and I grabbed some lunch before he and Angie hit the road.  I went on to do the grocery shopping and buy another Roomba at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  20% off coupon and a bunch of Discover card points we redeemed kept the out of pocket expense to a minimum. 

Jim said he and Angie enjoyed the concert.  They wanted $60 to park.  They found some parking at a Shriners place for $20.  Shit like that makes me mad. 

Forward a week later and I’m now continuing this blog post from Fort Myers, FL.  I have not one photo as proof.  You’ll have to trust me.

I took Friday off of work.  I went to the podiatrist in the morning to have some foot pain looked at.  I was told to wear inserts I have from 2004 or at least generic inserts or he can customer make new orthotics.  I was kinda impressed with his honesty.  I saw the kit used to made customer orthotics in his office and he didn’t push them on me.  The office was pretty old and antiquated.  I don’t even think I saw a computer there.  When I checked out, the receptionist said the copay was $25.  I asked if they took Discover.  She said “cash or check only.”  I said, “I wish I would have known that, since I don’t have much cash.”  She went onto say how she told me, she tells everyone.  I told her she didn’t, she said she wasn’t going to argue.  I gave her $19 of the $25 told her to bill me and left with a crappy receipt out of one of those Office Depot generic receipt books.  I was mad.  I was particularly mad when I had that moment of “I wish I would have said…”  I would have said, “I think I’d remember if you told me something so rare as “I only take checks or cash.”  That’s shocking to me.  I’d remember that.  I also wish I would have said “you already did” when she said she wasn’t going to argue with me.  I had decided I’d be writing a $6 check and a personal note to the doctor and I’d say this and I’d say that but after cooling down, I’m not sure I’ll bother.  But I do think her reply should have been, “I’m sorry, I say it all the time maybe I let one slip by.  Let’s resolve this.” 

I spent the remainder of the day vacuuming, mopping, dusting, etc.  Angie was coming to spend the weekend caring for Dasher.  Jim worked a half day.

We flew out Friday evening out of Greenville, SC.  Jim got a hell of a deal. $230 roundtrip for 2 of us. We had to drive 1.5 hours to Greenville but it was worth it.  We paid like $13 each to pick our seats for an emergency row.  It was only an hour and half flight but the leg room was nice.  There was some unnerving turbulence and a rough landing but otherwise OK. 

We landed in Punta Gorda and went to the Budget Rental car line.  It was a short line compared to Enterprise and the others.  It was already 10pm.  Even though I paid via Priceline I was told I had to pay $12 for taxes/fees that weren’t covered.  We didn’t argue but we will. 

We met up at Perkins with Mike, Dave and David.  We had a short yet great visit.  We Pricelined a one night stay at the same hotel we were in last month.  This time we weren’t in a 2 bedroom suite but that’s just fine.  The other 2 nights we stayed with Jim’s mom and Morgan.  It was a low key weekend.  Jim visited his Dad and Julie on Saturday and visited with his Mom on Sunday.  I spent Saturday and Sunday with my Mom and Dad as well as seeing my cousin and Aunt. 

It was a short visit but it was a good one.

Pets from the trip:

Above: Jim and Rusty

Above: Cookie

Above: Oreo laying on a pile of cat toys.

Above/Below: I can’t remember my Mom’s bird’s names.

A couple of inflight photos:

Above: No stretchy pouches!  That made it very annoying not to be able to store drink bottles or trash!

Above: Jim admires the engine and is pretty sure in the event of an emergency, we’ll go quick.

Above: Just making sure there’s no one out on the wing.

4-29-13 Monday (Captain Penis)

Now to catch you up on work stuff.  I love my job, have I mentioned that before?  I love the critical thinking. Ummmmm, I don’t necessarily love the mandatory overtime of 4 hours a week that came with my lending authority.  There’s already a 10% chance that Dasher can’t hold it in before I get home.  Using our neighborhood watch email, Jim put out an email in search of someone who can let Dasher out.  We found an 18 year old across the street.  $20 a week.  According to door lock entry codes in and out of the house, she spends about 6 minutes letting Dasher into the backyard to do his thing.  Now I can work overtime and not worry about Dasher’s urinary needs.

We were leery about supplying someone with a key.  The key can be copied.  A friend or someone could take her key and other neurotic thoughts.  We bought an electronic door lock that links to the computer where we can set up codes and such.  We can use our smartphone to remotely unlock the door or see who has come/gone using a unique code assigned to them.  It’s a $300 investment between the computer hub and the lock itself from a Lowes and Schlage partnership of sorts.  It’s totally expandable with thermostats, alarms, sensors, etc.  The software and controller hub Lowes uses is called Iris.  It’s really cool but not quite as powerful as we want.  We were expecting to be able to create one time use codes or limit a code to specific times or days of the week.  It just isn’t that advanced.  I called the support desk to see if I was missing something, and I’m not.  Then there’s levels to the software. For free you get this, that or the other thing and for premium ($9 a month) you get this, that and the other thing.  Even with premium, it still won’t do exactly what we want.  So with further research, days of it, I found other hubs (controllers) that will work with the door lock (Z-Wave).  I’m going with Mi Casa Verde’s VeraLite.  It’s $80 more than our previous setup but there’s no monthly fee.  It will do what we want.

We made another trip to Augusta this weekend.  That’s 3 weekends in a row.  We won’t be back for a few weeks.  We’ve got a trip to Florida coming up, Ruby and Jamie’s wedding and a weekend I have to work  a Saturday. 

On Saturday night, we went into downtown Augusta for dinner.  Afterwards, we walked around hoping we’d leave weighing less than when when we arrived.  That didn’t happen.  Walking past a store front, I spotted this:

I exclaimed, “Is that a penis complete with balls?” Indeed it was.  The device it holds in its hands was on a shelf behind it.  I could barely make out that it was some device of sorts.  The front door told the story:

You never know what you’ll see in downtown Augusta.

4-22-13 Monday (There’s No Use Crying Over…)

First I need to catch you up on some photos I had in my phone:

Above: Concord Walmart’s parking lot.  I wonder what the back story is on this? 

Above: At the same Walmart, this was the sign on a food bin. They spelled hungry as hungary and instead of reprinting the entire sign, they simply edited it.

Above: Yeah, that’s me.  I spotted some milk on the floor in BJ’s and asked Jim to photograph me.  I posted this on Facebook and some people didn’t understand at first.  I hope you get it.  This blog entry’s title is a hint.

Remember our Roomba woes.  You know, when it ran over Dasher’s dog shit?  Jim found a knock off version at Walmart.com.  It was only a little over $100 so we figured we’d give it a shot.  I ran it about 4 times.  Not impressed.  One day it got tangled up on a throw rug.  Back to Walmart it went.  We’re gonna cash in some credit card points and buy a new Roomba.  Life is too short to vacuum.

Above: The imposter.

More miscellaneous stuff:

Above: Here’s our newest campsite.

While in Augusta, we went downtown:

Above: Cool old ex-doorway.

Above: Jim in front of an antique store.

Above: Garret

Above: Garret

Above: An old ex-doorway with the hardware still intact.

Above: I custom (obviously) ordered this sign which is at the front of our campsite with a solar powered spot shining on it.  This picture is from the website. 

4-16-13 Tuesday (Dress Up)

As you know, our RV is parked in Augusta.  It’s our weekend getaway.  The last time we were there was November.  When we signed our lease, we knew that our site and several others are located partially in Georgia Power and Light’s easement for powerlines.  We had to provide the RV park owners a key so that if they were forced to move our RV, they could.  It happened.  They had to move it to a new site.  We really expected them to just retract the slide and the jacks, unhook the lines and park it.

We decided to take off Friday and enjoy Augusta. We took off for a few reasons. 1- It’s an old motorhome and always seems to have issues so being there on a weekday would give us access to stores that might normally be closed or something.  2- We can’t go our typical Friday night.  We need to setup in the day light.  3- We can setup, unwinterize, fix any problems and still enjoy the weekend without all of that cutting into our fun time.

We arrived at the RV and liked the new spot.  Trees at the back of the spot are shading the windshield.  In the summer, that will be very awesome since in the summer, it gets extremely hot at the windshield.  Someone had setup the site for us.  The slide was out, the jacks down and level, sewer and electric connected.  It was awesome.  We found out who had done it and bought them a Publix gift card as a thank you.  We’ve tried several times to give it to him and say thanks but he’s been out and about or at work.  We’ll try again next visit.

Our new RV site neighbor told us foxes come to the back of the property.  A lot of the RVers feed them bread and such.  It would be awesome to see them while we’re there.  He said we could help ourselves to his back deck whenever we’d like.  A sweet gesture for sure.  He has some sort of light up skull back there so Jim decided to prank him by getting a tiara and a tutu and “decorating” it.  I don’t know if he figured out who did it.

While we were out there I spotted a fox.  It was approaching the deck.  We kept our movements to a minimum.  As usual, I had my camera in my pocket and started snapping pictures.  It got closer and closer.  Meanwhile, another showed up.  Eventually, they met in the middle and rubbed against one another.  It was so cute.  Jim went back to the RV and grabbed some tortilla chips.  We gave them a few.  It was awesome to watch them.

 

A couple of other photos from our trip:

Above: A cool building we saw… born 1887.  Here’s its history.

Above: Snake in some neighborhood we were driving around in.

It was a great weekend! 

On Monday, I found out I received my lending authority.  That means they trust me to make decisions on loan approvals/denials.  On Tuesday, I received my appraisal authority too!  I can trustily review an appraisal.  I also won a contest they had at work.  It was separated into 2 groups… seasoned underwriters and newbies.  It was based off of how many files I underwrote with point deductions for errors.  OK, I’m done patting myself on the back.

4-8-13 Monday (Do You Have The Time?)

Wow. It’s been almost a month since I last blogged.  So here’s what happened…

My grandmother (mom’s mom) aka, Nanny, was in a nursing home and had been for some time.  (You can tell by the past tense that she died.)  My mom said she was talking even less, had coordination issues, and wasn’t able to chew her food very well.  All a sign that she probably won’t be with us much longer.  We booked a flight to Florida for mid-May figuring it might be the last time I see her.  On April 2nd I got the call.  She’s gone.  92.  I’d say she lived a full life at that age.  To be honest with you, over the years there’s so many times we didn’t think she’d be around much longer.  In fact, on every cruise we booked since 2003, we got the insurance… just in case.

My company is so awesome.  5 days max bereavement (paid time away from work that doesn’t even count as PTO).  Jim’s company recognizes domestic partners and gladly gave him 3 days.  Airfare for both of us would be about $650.  We decided to drive.  That was much cheaper and we brought Dasher so we didn’t have to worry about someone pet sitting.  It was an 11 hour drive, 12 with pee-pee and food stops.  Jim and I chitchatted and listened to music so the trip there was 100% bearable. 

We departed/arrived on Wednesday.  We checked into a hotel that Jim booked via Priceline.  He landed us a 2 bedroom suite, 2 baths, kitchen and living room for $70 a night.  That setup was only $10 a night more than a regular room so what the heck.  The hotel had it’s issues which is unfortunate since it’s only 13 years old.

Above: One of the bedroom clocks.

Above: We turned the dishwasher one before we left and hours later it was still running.  The dial had gotten stuck.  Escaping steam has taken its toll on the underside of the counter top.

I took several other photos of moldy faucets and such.  I’ll spare ya.

The service was Thursday.  Nanny is at peace.  Nanny outlived 2 of her sons who were taken early from AIDS related fatalities (shown below).

Above: July 2005: Uncle Mike, Nanny, Uncle Alan

The reason for being in Florida was sad, but we did have a nice time visiting with family and friends.  Jim got to see his family as well so it worked out to be a good trip.  There’s friends we didn’t get to see but there just wasn’t enough time!

As I said, going there was great.  Getting home?  Not so much.  We hit traffic.  The near-stand still type.  We switched from regular GPS over to WAZE GPS (amazing app!) which is designed to utilize user-driven reporting to warn and recalculate driving routes due to police, accidents, or whatever.  It took us off the interstates and put us on backroads.  We agreed that even if it only saved a few minutes (sometimes 15), it was worth it to have that feeling of actually moving.  Going through the small towns and such was really cool too.

We’ll be back in mid-May, the flight we booked to come see Nanny is still on. Although I was “too late” to see her, my Mom said it was best since she wasn’t herself toward the end.  She was like an empty shell.  That flight on Allegiant Air was so cheap.  It cost us $200 for both of us roundtrip!  A Friday to a Monday.

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On my last blog entry I talked about getting “lending authority” and how I got it and then it was stopped due to an error.  On my return to work, I signed the paperwork again.  I won’t be first but I’ll be like 3rd or 5th or something like that.  I can live with that.  Once again, I have to NOT mess up for this to stick.  LOL.  Other than that, I simply love my job.  I couldn’t be happier with it.

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I finally got confirmation from my boss that my requested time off for the cruise is a go.  The only reason it was so complicated was because it ran into Labor Day weekend which is naturally a busy time for people to take off.  The excursions are booked.  Highlights include a helicopter ride to a glacier where we’ll be dog mushing.  Mush!  Mush!  We also get to visit with the dogs.  It sounds fun.  

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Such a great big thank you to Bette who sent me 2 more Pysanka eggs this year.  Aren’t they gorgeous?  I have to figure out a nice way to display the 3 of them.  For right now, 1 is in the holder I bought last year and the 2 new ones are in a crystal dish.

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A couple of animal pics from our Florida trip:

Above: My mom’s cat, Oreo.

Above: Jim’s mom and Morgan’s newest adopted pet: Rusty