Archives for March 2020

Hi Honey,
Spent pretty much the whole day cleaning Jeff’s house, starting with the guest bedroom and bathroom, the billiard area, and the main windows in the house. Still have a lot of dusting and wiping to do, not to mention trying to get the furniture clean enough to sit on. I may just cover them up with sheets or something, since they look pretty worn and I’m not sure I can make them look any better. I also dragged through the boxes that we stored in his closet to look for some pictures, need to organize them into some picture albums so folks can see some snapshots of our life if they’re interested. I might even set up a slideshow on my computer of all the digital photos we took over the years if I have time. It seems the airlines are cancelling a lot of flights now with the corona virus, my friend Sue from Pittsford is coming, but they changed here flight so now I don’t know when she’s coming in. Donna from Cleveland is coming in, too, hope her flight stays the same. Most everyone else is driving, I believe. Martin and his family are coming from Atlanta, Michele from Tennessee is stopping by on her way down to the Keys, La Chrissney and her family are coming down, too. Lots of folks traveling a long way to celebrate your life, sweetie! Anyway, that was really the extent of my day, already took my shower and I’m tired, so I’m heading off the bed now, I’m sure I’ll fall asleep reading like I always do. Love you darling! Good night!

Hey Sweetheart,
Spring/pre-party cleaning day! Spent most of the day doing a really thorough cleaning of the trailer, though I didn’t get it all quite done, with just a few spots to finish off later. I figured I better get this done early because I figure I’ll be doing a lot of cleaning of Jeff’s house in advance of the Celebration next Saturday, especially since I’ll have guests staying in at least one of the bedrooms. I might have to give up the master bedroom, because Jeff isn’t sure whether he wants to go to the Gators now, because he’s worried about the Corona virus (which is only on the West coast at this point, but watching the network news has him all concerned.) We’ll work it out, regardless. Anyway, I also brushed down the sides of the pool, that looks better now, and the little walking vacuum worked well most of the day, though I did clean the filters once to make sure it was getting all the sand out. I’m sorry to say that after everything I said about Lola last night, she wasn’t the best, getting into the garbage, even though it was up on the dining room bench seat, and scratching at the door, making some holes in the screen, dang it. I finally got up and opened the door, leaving it open so she could come and go as she pleases, so of course I heard the door flapping several times during the night, Sigh… Oh, well, she seems pretty quiet tonight, we’ll see what happens when I go to bed. I got an email from the GoDogGo people, they want to send me a new unit and have me send the current unit back because they want to find out why it quit working. I’m hoping I’ll have the new unit before the Celebration, Lola would certainly be able to keep everyone entertained! Well, she’ll do that anyway, ball-throwing machine or not! So I’ve taken my shower, and now I’m off the bed, so good night, darling! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Another busy day cleaning, mostly around the pool again. I finished off pressure washing the couple of sections that I didn’t get to yesterday, and did a few more plastic chairs that I found laying around the yard. Lola didn’t help much, she kept insisting I toss her floppy frisbee, and sometimes she would walk right through the mud and sand and onto the deck, so there were brown footprints everywhere that I had to keep rinsing down. That’s obviously going to be an ongoing thing! I rinsed the filters at least four times today, trying to get the little vacuum walker to work better, and it finally did start working like it was supposed to, so the pool is looking pretty good right now. I even bought a thermometer for it the other day, and it’s up to 79 degrees! I’m sure that will sound great to my northern guests, but I also know that for my Florida and Texas folks, they won’t go near it unless it’s another 5 or 6 degrees higher. I also helped Jeff a little on his motor rebuild, that’s coming along, slow but sure, fingers crossed it gets done in time. Brother Glenn, his wife Dena, and Audrey are coming too, though Audrey is flying in on Friday while Glenn and Dena are coming in a new motor home that just picked up. I’m hoping he’ll put it back where we were last year, out of the way, but he’s more likely to park it right in front of the house like he usually does. Anyway, progress was made today, at least the outside is looking a bit better, I haven’t tackled inside the house yet. I have to mention that ever since I took Lola’s bed out of the back seat of the truck so I could haul passengers, and put it back in the utility room, Lola’s been sleeping in here with me, and she’s been very, very good. She seldom gets restless these days. I don’t know if it’s because I’m doing my best to see that she gets at least some exercise, or if she just loves that bed! Sometimes in the morning I find her in your recliner, though, so I’m not sure. All I know is, she hasn’t interfered with my sleep, and she seems quite content to sleep through the night. I’m glad, she’s good company, and obviously, I’ve been spending a lot of time with her, she goes with me practically everywhere these days. Anyway, after the usual chores, dinner and TV, I’m off to bed, having showered earlier to get off the grease from working on Jeff’s van. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hello Darlin’,
Got a lot done today. Started out with some long phone calls, including one that will hopefully lead to a plenary session at a big conference in Atlanta in October, courtesy of someone from the financial world that has helped us out a couple of times before, and another about next year’s OTL with the head of that. There is some conflict within the group as to whether they should skip a year and focus on other things, but it seems such a waste to stop the momentum we built up this year. Attendance numbers were better than they had been in a long time, and the enthusiasm and compliments that have been coming in are great. Anyway, that led to a pretty long discussion, too. Finally, I put on my bathing suit and headed out to the pool, not to relax but to start pressure washing the concrete. Lots of mold and dirt had built up, and even though Jeff sprayed it all with chlorine a few days ago (isn’t that bad for the environment?), it didn’t really get it clean, so I spent four solid hours doing the deck and the furniture, and still didn’t get one side of it done. I plan on finishing it off tomorrow, and then hopefully getting out the weed whacker and cleaning up some of the long weeds and grass around the various objects that are laying around. Even Karen was railing at Jeff last night about moving that big ugly Skeetermobile that’s such an eyesore, I’m still hoping we can get that moved before the weekend, even if we have to get some bodies, put it in neutral and push the dang thing out of there! Unfortunately there won’t be time for the grass to grow in it’s place, but at least that hulking rust bucket won’t be there, fingers crossed! The pool area is looking a lot better, but there are a still some junk items I have to persuade Jeff to hide or throw away. Not sure what to do about the old hot tub, though Karen suggested covering it up with a tarp, which I may end up doing. Anyway, I did take one break late in the day and jumped in, then floated around for 10-15 minutes just to rest my back. The water is almost up to 80 degrees, it’s been quite warm again for the last few days. I took one of the big pork chops Jeff grilled last night, and some of his mashed potatoes and reheated them for dinner, and added a nice salad to it. Of course, a little dish of ice cream later, too! Settled in for a few more SHIELDS, but I’m going to bed earlier tonight, as I’m tired, and I have another physically challenging day tomorrow! So good night, my love!

Hi Sweetie,
What a day! It started out early with me doing the not so pleasant job of draining and rinsing out the black water tank, not my most fun job, particularly since I had a few leaks in my hoses, what with so many joints on the long stretch, but it needed a good rinseout. After showering and having breakfast, I headed out to my euchre game, where I had some ups and downs, ending up about even with wins and losses (my luck improved after I started eating cheese puffs, would you believe!), then ran down to the feed store for a few bales of hay and some feed for the horses, then a quick run down to another wealth management appointment, as I ‘m still trying to figure out how to best manage our nest egg so it lasts, and to figure out the best way to create growth for later income, blah, blah, blah. While the last one was intent on selling me an insurance backed annuity product, this one was more of a brokerage agent, but they definitely asked me a lot more questions about my situation that the last guy, who was really only interested in selling me his product. The next step is for them to analyze my current portfolio and put together a retirement plan for me, we’ll see where that leads. I went from there to Walmart to pick up a few things, though I forgot my shopping list so I had to call brother Jeff to read it to me to remember what I needed. He was good enough to feed the horses for me, because I was short on time. I had just enough to grab a slice of pizza and an iced tea before heading over to the pavilion at Jupiter Farms Park for an OTL meeting, which dragged on until 9:30. They’re trying to recruit me to take over a big chunk of the work, but I’m not sure I want to get that involved. I offered a number of suggestions to reduce the workload by a lot, and there were some who resisted and others who embraced the ideas, I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes from there. More discussions to come, that’s for sure! I stopped at Publix for some ice cream. I haven’t had any in a long time, hoping to lose some weight, but I find I keep eating more munchies at night than I ever did when we were having ice cream in the evening, so I decided to see if it helps. I have lost a few pounds, but not as much as I thought I would considering all the exercise I’ve been getting lately. Anyway, I love their house brand Dulce de Leche, so I picked up some of that. I got back and found Jeff on the patio talking with Karen on the phone and grilling giant pork chops, so after I brought the groceries in, I poured myself a glass of wine and joined him. Had a nice chat, until I finally had to come inside because of them mosquitos and the hour. Jeff tried to get me to join him for dinner, and it sounded lovely, with mashed potatoes and green beans, but it was 10:30 by then, and I just can’t eat that much food that late! I did have another glass of wine and a little ice cream before going to bed, but that was about all I could handle. I’ll gladly take him up on his offer tomorrow, at a more reasonable hour, like 6 or 7:00, so I may be having leftovers, which will be great! Who doesn’t love to eat when someone else does the cooking? Just enough time for one SHEILD episode, now I’m off to bed. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hiya Darlin’,
Well, I thought I would be doing more cleaning today, but I discovered that a number of my bank accounts in my bookkeeping system were WAY off, probably because my computer crashed twice last year, so I decided to tackle getting those straightened out. Of course, I thought it would only take a couple of hours, but in the end it was practically all day again. The only time I got outside was late in the afternoon, to put in a couple of new sewer couplers that I bought, in an effort to make that system a bit easier to use, and to solve a couple of leak problems I was having. So mundane, but at least I’m catching up on my rest. Got really warm again today, had to run the AC to get it cooled down in here, supposed to be like that for another day or two, but mostly the weather has been really spectacular lately. No complaints, it’s the right place to be at this time of year! Well, time for shower and bed. Good night, my love!

Hey Babe,
Now that I’ve finally recovered from all the OTL stuff, I’ve set my focus on getting this place ready for all the guests that will be coming in for your Celebration of Life in two weeks. I got out the pressure washer and started cleaning the cement table by the pool that was black with mold, and cleaned the pool filters again, but the little navigator walker just isn’t getting enough pressure to do it’s thing, so it was mostly hand-scooping again. I wiped down the big sliding glass door and panels that lead into the house, several times, and it’s better but will need to be done again a few times. Jeff helped me get all the camping gear and other paraphernalia up in the attic, which gave me a lot more space in the screen room, which has been looking kind of cluttered lately. Actually, I managed to put away a lot of clutter today, so the place actually looks better than it has in a long time, which I intend to do my best to keep it that way. Lots of little stuff got done, things that have been waiting a long time but I never had any time to do, so I guess you could say I’m finally getting caught up. I even downloaded Turbotax, though I don’t expect to have time to actually do my taxes for a couple of weeks. And one day, maybe this weekend, I think I still have to go out and retrieve any leftover trail markers, if Anita hasn’t done it yet. Anyway, I finally quit for the day, took an early shower since I was so grubby from all the work, and finally got some dinner and TV for the evening. So once again, I’m heading to bed. Good night, my darling! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Well, I thought I would be able to finish up my paperwork in an hour or two today, but that didn’t work out. I had some emails and other stuff to do, and finishing off the receipts took a lot longer than I thought, so the whole boring day was spent on mundane stuff. But it had to be done, and for the first time in ages I managed to get the entire dining room table cleared off of junk, which was a nice feeling! Did some laundry as well before settling in for the night, so off I go! Love you!