Tag: travel

Where things Stand with US

Been quite a while since I took keyboard in hand and addressed this blog. Sadly I am also remiss in addressing my other blogs as well, but life goes on, I am at 83 still upright and breathing and my life is still looking not so bad.

Where are we now

Back in January of this year, my wife achieved a specific milestone in her life. She gained the status and birthday enabling her to join the greatest group, Senior Citizens, yea HER. During a conversation following her birthday, in our Alexandria, VA condo, she commented that she would prefer to retire, when that happened, nearer the water. Plus, she most assuredly did not want to retire in Alexandria, due to the hustle-bustle, high cost of living, traffic woes, etc. Having started a new senior management position with a new company, there was some concern that she could even consider a return to the area where there were many areas of water, rivers, Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic. In this new firm, she was fortunate in that she was hired with the status of remote/work from home, and as a bonus of having an excellent manager who embodied the very tenent of being the epitome of a strong, vibrant manager style. So it was decided at the end of our multiple discussions that she would approach her manager with the idea of her moving her remote location to the Tidewater area of Hampton, Newport News, or the History Triangle. Her manager agreed with the condition that she would report in person to the office on a reasonably regular basis. So our search for a real retirement location began with the agreement of her company’s management for this remote work location. YEA Us!

A large hurdle presented itself, purchasing a new home while selling our existing one. Remember at this particular time, interest rates were rather high considering where they were when we originally bought this home. It was a Condo Apartment in a very nice building, in a very nice neighborhood, but it was a bit pricey and our monthly condo fees were a tad on the high side for the area. Still we had on our side, the world’s greatest real estate agent! This lady was super, having sold our earlier condo home at a better price than we imagined, then later when we had to relocate back to NOVA, helping us locate and buy the current one and now she would help us sell that same condo apartment while we moved out of Northern Virginia and back to the peninsula area where the water environment was extensive and the cost of living significantly better than the Alexandria/NOVA area.

We located a great community in Williamsburg, VA and purchased a very nice townhouse unit there. But the condo sale was not moving as rapidly as we had hoped. So for the first time in our lives, we owned two housing properties, UGGGGH. We moved into our new house at the end of March, 2024 and our Alexandria Condo finally sold after an additional three months on our books, and even then at a very large reduction from our initial price. Thanks to the high interest rates!!! But it was done, and we were settling into our new retirement home. Ready to avail ourselves of the plethora of history locales in this area. Though I can’t do a lot of walking through these area, I can still get around using a scooter when they are appropriate and available or going to the driving tours of some places. A really great place to live, and to retire in.

What’s the status of my Cancer?

Well so far, I am still holding on. With the move from Northern Virginia and the great oncology team I had there, I had some concern about finding a good cancer specialist in this area. As luck would have it, we found an oncology practice that was connected through a parent company with the oncology group in Northern Virginia. My records, treatments, chemo prescriptions were all immediately available to the new penninsula group and my cancer fight was continued as if I were still with the other practice. Different Oncologist, and nursing staff, but still a practice of highly competent, dedicated professionals.

Just recently one of my chemo medications was changed to a different type. Stronger, and better at the next phase of my cancer program. Cost was considerably higher, but such is the environment of our medical environment and specially the cancer segment. At least the cancer staff for the oncology medications are working to keep me supplied with sufficient samples of the oral meds to get me through the year and my new insurance benefits will roll over making the cost much more acceptable. Oh yeah, the oral medication is a much larger pill and a larger dosage! But with a bit of water, I am able to get it down. Minor reactions, but actually increasing of the severity of the previous medications.

I am not trying to make light of this cancer invasion of my old body. Frankly, it terrifies me since many of my family and close friends have been taken from this life by Cancer. Anxiety, fear and of course depression are my companions quite often. In some months they become almost a daily companion.

But hey! I am still in the fight, I am upright, breathing, mobile, and still alive.

Things have changed though

2024 was a year of change for the Bride and I. She reached the first of the golden age, I was fighting cancer, heart problems, and other old guy stuff. But it was a good year for other things. In January we traded our Buick Envision SUV for another GMC Terrain. Remember, I loved the Buick, but we felt that it was time for a change. So our dark blue suv was changed to a very red suv and with updated electronics including a new approach to our navigation system. The new GMC was a bit larger than the Buick, but it had a smaller, more efficient drivetrain including all wheel drive and a turbo four cylinder engine. A very comfortable vehicle, especially comforting to this old guy when travelling any distance.

Our retirement house was very different from what we were used to. IT was a townhouse, and while we had actually owned a Townhouse style in Leesburg, this one was radically different. First of all it was the largest house we had ever owned standing at over 2200 square feet and three large bedrooms. It is in a senior citizen restricted community that includes a club house, a fine dining restaurant and a pub style cafe in that clubhouse location. There is an 18 hole award winning PGA grade golf course, tennis and pickleball courts, two swimming pools, one outside and one inside. So all in all, a great place for seniors to gather with others of their age ranges. Our house hosts a second floor two bedroom and bath, with a balcony overlooking the first floor. Char’s remote work office has been established in this balcony area. There is sufficient additional space for buffet style tables, a sofa, and other items, including perhaps a third TV. She is sufficiently removed from the rest of the house so her company activity can be conducted without outside interference. And the really great thing about this house is that the price was considerably lower than we paid for any of our Northern Virginia homes, except for the Leesburg house.

Sadly this past month, we had to say goodbye to the last of our four legged kiddos, our little kitty girl Penny left us to join her pals, Jessica, Norman, Dutchess on the other side of that Rainbow bridge. Another grief hole opened in our hearts with her passing and we have decided that there will be no more in our family. At our ages, the pain of loss of these loving little beings is simply more than our aging hearts can stand. So our household will now be bereft of the sounds of those little feet padding around our floors, or their little furry bodies curled at the foot of our beds. But we had their love for several decades, Penny with us for over 17 years before her leaving and Jessica our first furbaby was with us for almost 19 years. Through several moves, Virginia to Texas, back to Virginia, several homes in Northern Virginia, a home in Southern Virginia, and over four years aboard our classic motor yacht, Misty Lady (Dutchess and Penny despised those diesel engines) these wonderful little souls lightened our lives, gave us laughter, love and joy every day of their lives with us. They were not pets, they were family members.

I realize that I have been remiss in my entries to this blog and will try to do better. With the election coming in just a few more days, I will try to make every effort to offer my research results, my humble opinion and of course my old curmudgeon rants in more frequent issues. As our inlaw friend Kate closes her commentaries, ONWARD.

Uneducated, Arrogant, just Rude

Have you ever been subjected to an individual who invades your space, cuts you off in traffic or intersection, refuses to allow you to merge at a construction site? Okay what about the person who pushed ahead at the coffee bar order station, or the concession stand at the theater or simply caused you to stop walking because of their actions of cutting you off?

Not sure really why we have become such a rude, insensitive bunch of boobs, over the past few years. I suspect it is somewhat related to the changes that society has moved into acceptable behavior. I am thankfully into my octogenarian age range now and I can clearly remember when our nation was full of people who were considerate and respectful of others. Police officers, military personnel, older citizens all were respected and politely interacted with. Neighbors were for the significant most part, respectful of your property rights, didn’t try to inject themselves in your personal or family business. BUT were there for you when you needed help, or information/advice at your instigation! 

Sadly that is rather rare. I was fortunate a while back when my wife and I purchased a standalone house in a well developed neighborhood. We had four neighbors who introduced themselves to us straight away. Share information with us about the neighborhood, the HOA folks, and where the local service facilities such as supermarkets, decent restaurants, and medical facilities. They clued us in on the golf course that wound it’s way through our development and was connected to a resort, including small hotel, restaurant, clubhouse, driving range, and putting greens. In short, they were open friendly and not intrusive at all. One of the neighbors introduced us to a great handyman who essentially was knowledgeable about our type of house, and the household items that most often required repair, a really super man of all trades just about.

We sold that house when my wife was offered a super position at a great increase in pay and benefits. I am retired of course so our focus is on her career, until her retirement time comes around. So, we sold that house and moved back into the northern part of our state. While much of her work effort could and would be remote/from home, the requirement was also there for physical office time which made a 400 mile round trip from our then house to her office and back simply not even a consideration. So that house went on the market and we purchased a condo home in the northern section of our state. We have now been in this condo unit for almost a full year (anniversary coming up in about 3 weeks), and we have met or conversed with one single person in this high rise condo building. Big difference>? you betcha.

While violent crimes, petty theft, and other criminal activity is found in the area we left as well as the area we relocated to, we felt quite a bit safer in the place we left, than we do in the current abode. Sad huh? Having spent a long career that required several job and location changes, I have lived in rural type areas as well as major city type locales. In my early times, following my military career, I also traveled for the companies where I was employed. Over my career, I accumulated over one million miles on commercial conveyances as well as my own vehicles, but mostly commercial travel (air and rail). In the latter years of my career, the travel by air became more of a trial each successive year. The seating got smaller, more cramped, the refreshments/meals became either totally non existent, or carried a substantial price for a crappy serving. The cost of this travel became quite exorbitant and worth less and less. Finally the day came when I had determined that it was time to hang up the laptop bag and briefcase, swap my dress shoes for sneakers, and my suits for track clothes or denims. So, on July 5, 2012 I joined the ranks of the retired old guys.

As I was the president of our condominium board, I had sufficient tasks to keep busy and engaged. Of course being the head of a condo board is not a walk in the park. Rarely do members of the association contact the board, especially the president, with compliments. It is quite often a compliant of some sort. However, after four years on the board, my wife and I decided to purchase a large motor yacht and become liveaboard mariners. We found an aged one, at 54 feet in length, purchased it outright with funds from the sale of our former condo apartment. At the outset, we discovered adage about BOAT, which refers to Bring Out Another Thousand and we did, many of those thousands. You see, our starboard (that is the Right side of the boat) diesel engine seized up, about two hours after we took possession. We had a very expensive and time consuming replacement of that engine with another one, acquired at a very high cost. So having the boat “on the hard” for almost six months and spending that time in a single room in a local hotel, we finally got the engine replaced, other items repaired or replaced, returned the Misty Lady to the water, and made the two day voyage to our final destination, the Washington, DC waterfront and the Capital Yacht Club where we secured a permanent slip to secure our floating home.

We found the folks who were our liveaboard neighbors to be friendly, helpful, and a wellspring of advice and knowledge about motor yachts and all the warts that come with owning and living aboard. We were overjoyed to be with a group of people who were kind and attentive to their fellow water residents. The attitude of our fellow mariners at the Capital Yacht Club was almost a 180 degree difference in the attitudes we experienced when we left the marina for shopping in a grocery store, or the local shops in the immediate area. Rude, sometimes quite concerning of potential violent reaction, we were inclined to drive across the river to the Arlington Virginia area looking for a more civilized environment. Alas, the area there was not much better. Still rudeness abounded, unfriendly attitudes toward others, and no concern about jumping the line for automobiles and human personage. EGAD, what happened to my great USA of the 50s, 60s, and 70s?

Well now we are ensconced in another high rise condo and have been here for just over a year. Withing over 260 apartment units, we have spoken to none of the residents, but have to the management staff who man the front desk of our condo tower. They are pretty friendly. A couple of days ago, an older Asian gentleman resides on our floor of the building, actually spoke to me on the elevator as we were descending to the garage area and our cars. I was dumbfounded at first, but frankly enjoyed the brief interaction with one of my fellow residents. However, think on this, in over 1 year of residency, this was the first and only conversation with a fellow resident. Maybe it was the cane I use for walking balance in my aged body.

Well, we are in the process to make a change for a more friendly area, but that is a topic for a follow on blog note. Keep checking on us?