We Just Lost the Moon

County Office email is still down which means the servers are still down...which means I likely won't be working today and have officially lost three work days towards the budget. 

I feel like the astronauts on Apollo 13 - 'we just lost the moon' - 'cuz at this point, my only option is to cancel my/our trip to Reno next weekend and add back those work days. 

I am bummed (to say the least).  But I know what complexities are still out there to be done and at the moment, I can't see my way clear to 'lose' a second weekend of work to take off and head to Reno.

With that in mind, though, I will head in tomorrow with clear focus and plow through to see how far I get. 

It's a somewhat cold, cloudy day here - late May and wearing a sweatshirt. 

I'm going to continue to work on things around the homestead.  We packed up most of the Cow Parade figurines on Saturday - they are boxed and ready to head to storage.  I've almost emptied the entire study closet - also packed and ready for storage.  I get discouraged because the amount of stuff we have to go to storage exceeds what we can take in our cars - and J. and his friend R. are planning a trip, too - but who knows when/if that will happen. 

Still, I'm going to continue packing - feels good to see the house 'lightening' a bit and I like getting stuff done -

Unexpected Weekend Off

County Office is still down - I know this because I'm trying to login remotely to email and can't connect at all.  Bummer.  I'm already strategizing about how to make up the time I missed.  I can do 10-12 hours days this week and make up the 16 hours I missed this weekend...but that sounds awful.  Still, if I remind myself the trade-off for that will be a couple days in Reno, I can consider it. 

Hopefully the system will be up tomorrow and I can put in a nice long day to kick off the week. 

J. and I just spent time in the garage - I've been working in the study and we've added quite a few boxes to the stack to go up to storage when we go.  J. and his friend R. are planning to rent a truck and trek up there as well - which will help clean out the garage.  Once there's more available space in the garage, we can start to move small furniture items down - trying to create more space in the rooms upstairs.  Twice the motivation to do that - gets the space better ready for painters and also opens up the rooms when we start selling the house.

I love when I grab a garbage bag and find things to just toss - of which there are plenty.  A bag of trash out, two boxes of stuff emptied, a ton of stuff in the recycle bin.  When I'm officially retired and home everyday, we'll be making progress daily - and the daily effort will make the move easier. 

J. spent yesterday pondering our financial future - he went to a seminar put on by our planner this past week so he's been number crunching constantly.  I asked him 'what are you doing?  'cuz we've run those numbers a gillion times.  The seminar suggested planning on a lower rate of return for a while (guess they are nervous about the market and our lunatic President) and J. wanted to be sure there would be enough for me to live on until I'm 100 years old.  There will be.

And this morning, I reminded him if I live that long, our house will be paid for and valuable - so that's additional funds available in a pinch.  And in an abundance of caution, we still have life insurance - enough so that if one of us dies, the other can make a significant buy down of the mortgage and have a much lower payment - which will makeup for the loss of social security. 

We know we're fine.  But spending time reconfirming that fact (over and over) is what retired people do.  It's very nerve-wracking. 

H. went to Modesto last night - attended a meeting and had tacos after with all his rehab friends.  Nice way for him to cap off a low key day -

Unexpected Day Off

Thirty minutes before the end of the work week, the County Office of Education's IT department sent out an email blast to every email list they had.  Within minutes, I had six of the same messages in my box (different groups at COE with me on their distribution list) advising that they are doing some emergency electrical repairs and they expected all systems to be down today and tomorrow.  They apologized for the short notice.

I emailed the IT person I correspond with the most and asked 'really?  I'm beyond panicked about budget.  Do you really think things will be shut down for two full days'.  He called me moments later and said 'we really think all will be OK my mid-afternoon on Saturday but in an abundance of caution, we are asking for folks to be prepared for two days'.  

I called J. who said 'yay, you can be home this weekend'.  To which I replied 'yes, and if I am, that means I very much won't be taking off next weekend for the trip to Reno.  I can't spare two weekends ...there's no way'.  

So I'm home today and trying to be as productive as I can be (relatively speaking...'cuz I'm grateful for a day of not working - last day of was Mother's Day so it's nice to have an unwind day).  

Today is H.'s 26th birthday and his one year sober anniversary.  He's thinking about going to Modesto to celebrate with friends he's known since he went into rehab one year ago today.  He's come a long way and we are very proud of him.  

I keep trying to login to email remotely - and when it's a fail, I go back to doing some stuff around the homestead.  

If the system is back up, I will work tomorrow and Sunday long days and then possibly cut my weekend trip short - come back on Sunday instead of staying over Monday.  J. has (apparently) decided to drive up with me on Friday (if we go) - two cars loaded with stuff for storage again - and he will stay Friday night and head home Saturday to get to Tracy in time for the concert Saturday night.  

We were notified they are breaking ground on our house this week (they cashed the big check, finally!) and we can't wait to see progress!!  Super exciting.  Hence J. deciding he wants to get up there even for just an overnight stay.   

In other news, I purchased two skorts - and am wearing one.  J. said 'you have knees'.  LOL.  They are cute and summery and nice for traveling.  

I'm going to work on packing up my cow parade figurines.  I've decided to take them with.  They bring me joy - so they stay, for now.  I have all the boxes including the foam inserts so I will load them up and pack them into boxes and take them to storage next weekend.  Then we'll take down the shelves in the dining room - 

OH - we got two paint quotes and one of them is for under $2000!  Score!  We're doing it - I was thinking more than double that would be the low but...it's a great price and we can get the paint freshened and the trim work patched and painted.  The house will look so much better when the painting is done.  

Have a wonderful three day weekend, everyone!!  And remember why we have this holiday - for those who didn't come home.  

Trudging Through

If all goes right, I will be heading to Reno a week from tomorrow - a solo trip - wasn't supposed to be a solo trip but J. and his friend R. booked a concert on Saturday - so I'm heading up alone. 

I should load the car and stop at storage first thing...but I have a very sore arm/shoulder and it's my right (dominate) hand which would make the whole storage unit access and unloading problematic.  And I always get there so anxious to be in my happy place - and trekking to storage first has become basically torture.  I know.  It's silly.  But....I like to get there, get settled in the room and GO PLAY!! 

I haven't had a weekend alone since January and I'm way overdue. 

I am plowing through budget stuff as quickly as I can and while it's a complete and total crap shoot to take a 4 day weekend during budget development time - something I have NEVER done in my entire tenure as the CBO - I think I'm going to.  I (admittedly) have a slightly adjusted approach/attitude these days - sure, I want to do a good job and want the budget to be 'good'.  But truthfully, I don't give a crap - I just want to get it done and call it done. I have a list of tasks to leave my replacement and I hope to come back the Tuesday after and find them done.  I suspect they won't be - and that will be on her. 

I'm so ready to be out of there. 

My replacement is not someone I think should be in the job - I know that's a turn around from previous posts but it's how I feel.  She takes her role as being the hammer - and everyone else are the nails.  It doesn't fit our culture at all - she's off-putting, rude, abrasive and not easy to be around. 

I feel sad about it - but...trying to embrace the 'I don't give a crap' feeling so it won't hurt so much.  Leaving all the lovely people I care about to deal with her going forward hurts my heart and soul so much.  But it is what it is. 

Thinking of a Song

If calling two Blue Moons and eight Oreos dinner is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Perfect way to end a weekend of work.

(I'm home now lest there be any question of location).

Post Nap

For the first time in years, I took a nap and wow, it felt great.  I must have really needed it because I was out like a light the minute my head hit the pillow and slept like a log for not quite two hours.  It was blissful - I think naps will be a regular thing in retirement and will be especially great when I can go to bed at night whenever I feel like it and not have to worry about an alarm the next morning.

We're watching Game of Thrones and geez, Daenerys is on a tear!  I said (out loud), 'Geez, Dany, take a Midol and chill!'.  Made me chuckle.

Now I'm attempting to create order of chaos in our home as I wind down a week and head into another one.  Six weeks left.  Only six weeks.  (Days of work.  I'll be finished with my days before my official last date which is the one perk of working a lot of weekends). 

Just So Wow

I opened up my blog this morning and went to the draft folder - fully expecting to see several drafts that I could polish up and post....but there's nothing!  Not a one!

Life is crazy busy and taking the time to write is something I only do in my dreams now, apparently.  'Cuz I could have sworn I've been drafting posts since we got home from the cruise.

I've been back at work four weeks and it has absolutely zoomed by.  My replacement started a couple weeks after I got back from the cruise and she's great!  Starting this Tuesday, she will be seated at the table during Board meetings and I'll be a part of the audience.  I'm super excited about that - she's really hitting the ground running and it's a HUGE relief to have someone who knows what they're doing.  Also starting this week, I will be handing off the day to day 'stuff' to her and I will spend hours in my office with door closed and ear buds in working away on the last budget I will ever work on - at least for this school district. 

It's been a lovely Mother's Day - way better than last year which had so much drama.  The boys both gave me things I love - Starbucks gift card and an iTunes gift card!  Yay!  J. has gone to get breakfast, Starbucks and then took my car to be washed.  Also made a quick Costco run and returned home with lunch. 

I sort of want to take a nap...and might. 

H. is working at the Arco near us - about 30 hours a week.  It's within walking/biking distance but also easy enough for us to take him and pick him up for his hour lunch.  He likes the job and sees people he knows which is also nice.  He had his court date this past week - all but two counts dropped.  He will do community service and pay some fines and his public defender fee.  Luckily, he can do community service in San Joaquin county which is great - we won't have to get him to/from San Mateo.  Personally, I think he/we should send R. an invoice for half of the fees - 'cuz she put him behind the drivers wheel (when they were parked) so she wouldn't lose her license.  But we won't.  No amount of money is worth contact with her. 

Tomorrow is the first of a few retirement celebrations - an open house for anyone in the district and a handful of people I sent invitations to to attend - J. will be there for sure.  I like the open house feeling - I am the only retiree who agreed to any sort of 'party' - the other retiree this year said 'no' to any celebration - so an open house with people coming and going will be good. 

By my count, I have 31 work days left between now and July 5th (my last paid day).  Since it's budget time, there will be a lot of weekend in that count and I anticipate my last physical day in the office will be something in the week of 6/17. 

I've got a trip to Reno planned for the first weekend in June - it's throwing caution to the wind because I've never taken an early June weekend off in twelve and a half years.  It was to be J. and I for house stuff but he booked a show with his friend R. - so I think I'm trekking up there solo for a few days.  I'm excited about it - will really enjoy some down time before the last big push to finalize the budget and wind down a career. 

The Carson City house is officially not going to be done until October/November - and while we're disappointed, it's fine.  I'd been wishing I'd retired in March to give myself more time between leaving work and the move - and now I've got that!  We were planning to list the house at the end of May but will now list it in late July/early August - we'll have a better timeline once they've started on the build.  We've made all the design choices except exterior stone and exterior paint.  We also have an electrical/lighting walk through at some point - but now that there's a break between retiring and moving, we've got gobs of time to get up there as needed.  We've made a couple trips with two fully loaded cars - making good use of the storage unit rental. 

It's going to be a beautiful home and I'll do my best to post pictures as the build happens.  We are very excited about this new chapter in our lives - it's been a whirlwind year and the next one will be more of the same - lots of changes to navigate and look forward to.

I hope to post more as work winds down and the move winds up.  Thanks to you, loyal readers, for hanging in there when I've gone (unintentionally) dark.  I've missed you!