Saved by Saltines

The weekend was super fun, as always.  The cruise event (another certificate for a free cruise) was loads of fun.   I met a really nice couple who invited me to sit with them - and she gave me her contact card so we can be in touch when we live up there.  I'm proud of myself for also going outside my comfort zone and trying to get to know people, make friends.  Sure, one dinner doesn't mean a life-long friend but when you meet people you feel comfortable with and they seem to feel the same, there's possibilities there and it's worth trying.  We want to be more social when we're retired in Nevada so...I'm working on it.

The drive home yesterday was awful - as in 7.25 hours to get home.  Bumper to bumper for most of the drive - I didn't mind the slowness in terms of feeling greatly safer going 5 miles an hour down the hill.  But it took me three hours from Reno to the Donner Summit which is only 40ish miles.  Average speed was 10-13ish mph that stretch.  Painfully slow.  If I'd known it was going to be that slow, I would have opted to stay another night - but sort of glad I didn't know and just kept going 'cuz I didn't want to miss work today. 

I was starving - had some leftover cheesecake from my Sunday night room service dinner as 'breakfast' - but nothing for lunch.  Luckily, before I left my room, I grabbed all the saltines that were on my room service tray.  I'd ordered clam chowder in a bread bowl and they included tons of saltines - so those were in my purse and I ate every one of them on the way down the hill.  And then of course was absolutely dying of thirst - but couldn't reach the waters I had (in the back seat in my backpack) and even if I could have reached them, I didn't want to drink anything because there was nowhere to stop.  Finally came upon a rest stop and watched someone head off to the rest area  - only to end up being confronted with a 10 foot high snow drift and a bulldozer trying to clear the on-ramp.  They just had to get back on the freeway - and that was hard 'cuz it was bumper to bumper.  Merging back into traffic took awhile, I'm sure - poor guy. 

Finally got moving (only slightly faster) - not sure where.  I thought I'd remember every minute detail of the torturous trip, but it's 24 hours past and I can't.  Not sure when we made it to Colfax but I stopped there.  The next town after is Auburn and I hoped most people would stop in Auburn where there are more eating places....but no.  I should have realized that just like me, there were some pretty desperate people by that point - needing restrooms, food, beverages.  The Colfax McDonald's probably did the same amount of business yesterday as they do in a week - it was absolutely mobbed with lines out the doors, including for the restroom.  Crazy. 

Got home just after 8PM and was in bed shortly after 9PM.  Super tired and slept pretty well. 

Today was a long work day full of the things work days are filled with, including meetings.  Lots of meetings. 

J. & H. just left for San Mateo - H. will be making his court appearance tomorrow to get the ball rolling on taking care of his legal issues.  We're hoping for a good outcome - he will be appointed a private defender (a private practice lawyer who is paid to represent people by San Mateo County) who will try to get him released ROR without needing to post bail.  Then a second court date will be set for him to appear and his private defender will work with the DA to figure out a plea deal.  That's what we hope for.  By this time tomorrow, we'll know a lot more about where he's headed and what is needed to get the legal stuff resolved and get him on the path of restoring his license and driving privileges - somewhere down the road - way down. 

So I'm home alone and that's usually great - but it's a long night ahead of hearing every little thing and worrying...and then dealing with all the pet stuff, etc. alone in the morning.  I'll have to set my alarm 30 minutes earlier just to be sure I have time to do all the things that J. usually does - and then I'll head out to the County Office for....an early morning meeting. 

You're Never Too Old

to be outside your comfort zone. 

I read the CalTrans update over and over in the early hours of this morning.  'It doesn't say impassable.  It says chains required.  So it's not that I can't get there - I just might have to use the cables.  I'll have to get help putting them on.  But I can get there.  May be a long day but I can do it'. 

Thanks to my uber patient husband who took every nervous phone call.  The plan was to head to Reno and if it was too bad, I'd simply turn around and come home.  I drove to Auburn and stopped for a restroom, beverage and food break and within a couple of miles back on the road, J. called to inform that there was some good news - chains now only required for westbound.  Woo hoo!! 

There was a 'full stop' area where three lanes merge into two.  And a long stretch of going 20 miles an hour but that was completely fine with me.  Not looking to rush. 

Everyone's in the same boat - there were zillions of cars without four wheel drive and snow tires on the road today - all moving cautiously and carefully to get from Point A to Point B.  No crazy drivers weaving in and out - and trucks had been forced off to confirm they had chains before proceeding up.  It was a longer than usual drive - about 4.5 hours total - but I made it.  And the snow was...so, so beautiful.  Breathtaking, really.  Small slivers of blue sky with a little sun shining through now and then on all the glistening white trees and hills.  It was so pretty. 

And once in Verdi, little to no snow.  The valley doesn't really get much - so living in Carson City won't be too bad. 

I'm in my room getting ready to head down for some Linner.  I've eaten two bites of a vanilla scone since dinner last night and I'm super hungry.  And dying for a Blue Moon but I need to get something in my stomach before that can happen. 

I feel so proud of myself - I always tell people I work with 'it's OK when you feel nervous about doing something new - that's how you know it's something you need to do to push yourself.  Force yourself out of your comfort zone.'

We are all so much more capable than we realize.  And as I approach 59 years on this planet, I'm grateful to have today to remember as a reminder of that. 

Morning Already?

I'm obsessively refreshing the CalTrans road conditions website hoping for chain restrictions on I80 east to lift.  The weather map (which I am also refreshing maniacally) looks much better than it has all week so I feel like there's hope.  It's just after 5:30AM and as crazy as this may be, I'm leaning towards getting ready to go, loading up the car and driving to Auburn and see how it looks when I get there.  Praying I can make it to Reno by nightfall, even if I have to use cables to get there. 

I hope I won't need cables. 

I have to commit to trying - or commit to cancelling because I'm already past the 48 hours cancellation policy and at this point, a little trickery would be needed to get out of paying one night's hotel bill. 

I don't like the idea of being charged for a Friday night's stay....for nothing. 

Here's hoping this all works out.  Keep your fingers crossed for me -

Mid Week

It's only Wednesday and I'm having a second Blue Moon.  Celebrating another meeting with our finance advisor who confirmed we will be fine.  Totally fine.  Though still have to be judicious and careful.  I'm going to do some work on fine tuning our budget - be more specific so when we are living on retirement income, we can really know what we need for food and stick to that amount.  It's still a very generous budget and I know we will be OK. 

It was a cold and blustery day with a huge storm front over our area and San Francisco.  Pouring rain in the city and all the way home - J. (bless his heart) encouraged me to just keep my eyes on my phone (playing a game probably) vs. watching the traffic.  I've had a lot of white knuckle driving this weekend with lots more to come - tomorrow is a marathon day of meetings all over the place followed by a Friday off to drive up to Carson City.  Solo.  After a huge snowfall.  I feel nervous but I'm going.  Unless I wake up Friday morning and it's blizzard conditions.  There's really only about 1/2 hour of white knuckle on the trek - at the highest point and then you come down and you are pretty sure you are OK.  I have cables and I know if there are warnings that say 'chains required', I will pull over, pay someone whatever they want to put the cables on and then pay again to take them off at the other side of the pass. 

I can do this.  I want to do this.  I am looking forward to a fun weekend and some me time - and thank you to J. who is probably likely as thrilled for a wife-free home for 3 days.  LOL. 

We are SO close to a final floor plan and thanks to my very talented husband, we solved two issues with the latest version.  The plan had the entry from the garage through the laundry room and I don't like that. By agreeing to move the pantry wall (losing a little space in what is still a very generously sized pantry), we gained a true 'mud room' where we can have a bench and an area to take off and hang wet clothing and put wet footwear away to dry.  It seems essential in a snow climate. 

The other issue/concern was that the toilet area in J.'s bathroom was over sized so he altered it to make it smaller.  I'm not sure it will save us any money - but it might.

We hope for final plans sometimes this week and when we've signed off, the plans will be sent out for all the things like elevations, etc..  We hope to trek to Carson City again in mid-February to make all the decisions about flooring, cabinetry, lighting, paint, sinks, etc..  It's going to be crazy. 

It's already half way through January - so only 5.5 months to go!  It's zooming by which is wonderful. 

Getting Political

A friend and another acquaintance are running for election as a California Democratic Party delegate, so J. and I trekked to Stockton this afternoon to vote for them.  We saw parts of Stockton we've never explored and it was a fun, winding drive to get to a vacant office they were using for the election.  Pretty great turn out and while it was very different from a 'regular' election (example:  you had to sign a form with name, address and signature, verify you were registered a Democrat - and then they put an 'x' on your hand with black marker and gave you the ballots.  The ballots were pieces of paper with all the candidates name on them - with little clear 'dots' by their name.  Only you didn't bubble in the dot - you just circled their entire name.  You could vote for up to 14 and (conveniently) my friend had a 'hand out' that helped people in Tracy with suggestions for who to vote for.  After you've voted, you folded the paper and put it in a paper ballot box - just like the boxes kids put Valentine's in - only much bigger.  Then as you're exiting the room where you vote, another person puts a red 'x' on your hand next to the black 'x' - confirming you have voted.

Interesting process and J. is going to reach out to my friend to get more info on how she got on the ballot; what does her election mean (if she was one of the winners) and does she go to the California Democratic Convention?  Something for us to think about and look into in Reno where we will both have time to be more involved.

It was a lightening fast, jam packed week at work.  I thought I'd try to work in the office a bit this weekend but I just couldn't force myself to get there.  I'm planning to get up and go in early tomorrow and stay late - my only 'in office' day this week is Monday.  Tuesday is trekking to Sacto for the Governor's Budget workshop.  Wednesday I am taking the day off because we're going to San Francisco again to meet with our finance person.  Thursday, I head to a CBO in a district 2/3s of the  way to Sacramento and then another meeting that afternoon at the County Office of Ed in Stockton.  Whew!  Crazy busy week.  Good thing I'm heading to Reno/Carson City on Friday for a four day weekend - just me this time.  I'm going to visit Carson City on Saturday and the rest of the time is just down time and fun at Atlantis.  I'm relieved because I just looked at the 10 day forecast and thank goodness it's looking like Friday (which had been snow all day) is now cloudy in the AM but sunny in the PM.  I'm so relieved because I'm really looking forward to going but still feel nervous about driving in snow.

We got another draft of the floor plan and we're getting super close!  Hoping for a conference call early this week - we think once it's 'final', they send it out for the rest of the work - the elevations, etc. and then we hope to head up in mid-February for a design center day (or two).  Once we've made the design decisions, then they do the pricing and we'll know the cost.  And then (we hope) they will start digging our foundation and we'll be truly on the way to a new house.

We've talked through some furniture things and have pretty much decided that most of what we have is going to go with us - and we'll figure out if we will use it and if not, sell it up there.  I'm glad to have that sort of thought through more because sometimes, it's all the moving parts and schedules that flummox me - selling the dining room set, for example.  We'd thought that's what we would do - but then we can't really do that until the movers have packed the china.  Why, you ask?  Because if we pack it, movers won't move it - and we could move it up to the storage unit but....it's a lot of very fragile pieces.

I overthink things a lot and it drains me of energy big time.  So the more we can just 'resolve' to get it off my mind, the better.

Don't worry - there are still many, MANY moving parts.  Plenty to ruminate about at 3AM daily, including weekends.

Post New Years

Not too many fireworks this year - there was a post on the neighborhood watch from someone who moved here from back east - chastising her neighborhood for how inconsiderate they were - her kids had been in bed for hours and now 'there's fireworks going on, a motorcycle going up and down the street, etc.' .   I stopped short of posting 'if you think this is bad, you'd better move.  Fourth of July is going to be so much worse'.  But I wanted to.  Welcome to Tracy, CA..  We'll help you pack to move back east.

Anyway....

I spent New Years Day cleaning the oven and wondering why I don't clean the oven more often.  It's still only about 1/2 done - I am so desperate, I'm strongly considering using the self cleaning mode which is frightening.  Four hours of a locked oven door with intense, high heat - I'm always terrified it's going to catch the surrounding cabinetry on fire.  It's scary.  But I'm getting there 'cuz we've scrubbed and used oven cleaning foam and it's still not looking great. 

I had brunch with a retired CBO friend this morning - great to see her and she gave me helpful tips.  As of this coming Saturday, I will be only six more months on the payroll of the district and then off to retirement.  Can't wait and know it is going to move by incredibly fast - already has. 

I am planning to go into the office tomorrow and Friday to get a head start on some projects and also start packing up my office.  My twelve year anniversary is Friday - so there's a lot of stuff that needs to be cleaned out and organized.  I also need to make a lot of lists of 'stuff' to update, make notes, etc..  I'm not going to be too detailed until I know the background of the candidate the Board hires - if they have some experience, then they'll need more help with learning our district, learning our finance system, etc. .  Vs. if they hire someone with little experience who may need more details on specifics - the list of 'must do' tasks by month, help with learning the State reporting software, etc.. 

No matter what, it's a lot of work ahead -

I've had close to two weeks of sleeping in and am feeling rested for the first time in ages. 

H. works at 11:30 tonight so he's being picked up around 10:45 this evening - he'll return after work around 8:30AM tomorrow and I think we're planning to take him home - or maybe we'll take him home Friday morning.  Not sure.  It's been nice having him here - though honestly, he's in his room 24/7 and we rarely see him.  I'm hoping he's not gearing up to asking us if he can 'stay here' (code for living here) - and I'm not ready to go back to that.  It's hard having him here while he's basically avoiding contact as much as possible - like what's the point?  And I'm not ready to take on the day to day tracking and unraveling things that goes on daily as a part of 'H. is here'.  No.  I don't think that will work.  And in 6-7 months, we are officially not nearby anymore. 

He did start New Years with quitting smoking - cold turkey.  He says 'it's what works best for me'.  Fingers crossed he can pull it off.  I did notice some cigarettes in the ashtray outside this morning so I wonder if he saved a couple as 'a puff now and then'.  During the transition, guess it makes sense. 

I sure hope he really quits.  It's so bad for him -

I'm binge watching baking shows on Netflix - and it's approaching 9PM and I feel ready for sleep.