Decisions, Decisions

I know, I know - it's been ages since I have written anything!  What else can I say other than I have been adjusting to retirement and doing nothing, absolutely nothing!

We have made a decision of sorts.  One that we can always change at a later date, if need be.

Change of plans...  We are going to move to Mexico after all.

The house goes up for sale in the fall and as soon as the sale is complete we will be going down to my old stomping grounds, Puerto Morelos, to see what is available to rent.  Hopefully secure a place to live, then come back home to get ready to drive down.

The decision was based on the fact that we can't afford an exploratory trip to Ecuador to see if it was even a place that we would be interested in.  I've made many friends through the FaceBook pages on living in Ecuador and will regret not being able to meet them in person.  I know many who love their new life there, but I also know many that have gone and returned after finding out that it was just not all that they had hoped it would be.  I was especially dismayed that women can't even wear their good jewelry there for fear that they would be robbed or even worse, followed home and not only robbed of many other things, but also physically injured.  There are way too many warnings on what not to do while in Ecuador...

I've lived in Mexico and know pretty much how it operates and I especially like the town that I lived in for 4 years back in the early 1990's, where I was extremely happy.  I also know several people (Americans) that still live there.  It will be just as affordable and closer to the U.S. and cheaper to get back here, should the need arise.  And as we all know - Mexican food is the bomb!

I am very excited on our future trip and to seeing all my friends down there.  It will also be interesting to see how much the town has changed (and my friends!), and seeing who is still there among the Mexican friends that I also had.

Hasta luego mis amigos!

For some reason, this blog site will not let me create a title for this post.  I want to call it "The best laid plans..."  Oh well, I shall post this anyway.

I had every intention of getting us out of the US and down to Ecuador before the end of the year.  There is no way that is going to happen now.

You see, I had a 401K and a pension from my job that I retired from.  I have rolled the 401K $ into an IRA, where it now sits.  I opted for the cash payout of my pension, minus the taxes and sat back to wait for the check to come in.  And waited, and waited.  We wanted to use this money to make some minor repairs to the house prior to listing it, and to also finance our move to Ecuador.

After waiting about a month after I submitted the paperwork, I finally broke down and called corporate headquarters.  Turns out that when you opt for the cash payout, it takes time for them to process that request... to the tune of 90 days!  I will not be receiving those funds until the beginning of November and they could not be more specific than that!

So here we sit, waiting, unable to do much of anything as I don't want to spend what little savings we have, not knowing exactly when I will get the pension money.

The other issue is that I had thought we had found a home for the dog and it doesn't appear that it is going to happen after all.  I was told that they would take the dog this month, after a trip back east was taken.  Trip over and done with a couple of weeks ago and I have heard nothing further from them.  We have got to decide what to do with the dog and cats prior to listing the house for sale.  It will be impossible to sell the house with an out of control dog running rampant throughout the house and jumping all over people.

So, facing obstacle after obstacle and wondering if we will be able to resolve anything and get the hell out of Dodge.

And I still have all those photos to scan!

Two Days Later...

So here I am...  Realizing that apparently the older we get, the longer it takes to recover!

I again felt that I was feeling much better by the end of day yesterday (didn't sit on the sofa at all, but rather in my straight back chair at the dinette off the family room all day).  Went to bed thinking that, at last, I was going to feel more normal when I got up this morning!

Wrong!!

First of all, I woke up several times during the night, when my body felt the need to reposition itself, in extreme discomfort...  WTF?  I felt better at the end of the day yesterday, why was this happening to me??  Due to the numerous times that I woke up, I slept (off and on) until 8:15 this morning.  Those that know me (and know that for several years I have been getting up at 3 A.M. due to my work schedule), know that, in all probability, the latest that I am now sleeping is 6 A.M.!

I should also add that I have a sister that thinks I should exercise to get my back back to normal!  Are you effin kidding me??  I can't move as it is!!  If I could get down to the floor, how the hell would I get back up??  I can only sit in my chair and hope that nothing happens that would require that I get up and move quickly!

I have a back brace (the kind that movers use around their waist, that fastens with Velcro) and wore it all day yesterday AND used a heating pad besides.  I have followed the same routine today only, this time, I will also sleep with the brace on since I feel I can, somewhat, function with it on while I am awake.  Oh, and I should also add that I have one of those "Icy Hot Patches" on as well.  The only recourse I see if the above plan doesn't work, is to stay upright in my chair 24/7 - not something that I really want to try.

Not that I mind sitting in my straight backed chair at the eating area off the kitchen, while watching TV in the family room, but I am certainly ready to be able to get up from the chair easily, without having to brace myself while I straighten out oh-so-very-slowly.

I am so ready to feel more 'normal' and not hurt every time I go to move.  Is that too much to ask?

There Comes A Time...

There comes a time when one realizes a lot of different things, one of them being that getting older is no fun!

Previous to my retirement, I kept my laptop on the eating area table adjacent to the family room so that I could be in same general area as my husband and to also be able to watch TV on the 'big screen' that is in the family room. 

Being that I was going to be on the computer here at home more frequently now that I was retired, and wanting to concentrate more deeply on what I was researching online with fewer interruptions, I moved my laptop to the desk in the den.

There I spent my days in my 'woman cave', researching and chatting with friends online, both old an new, practicing my Spanish, with the smaller TV providing background noise to keep me company.  It was a happy arrangement for quite awhile.

That is until I woke up one morning last week with pain in my lower back.  My husband thought that it had something to do with sitting at the desk that I wasn't used to.  I poo poo'd his opinion stating that I didn't see how that could be it as hadn't I just retired from a desk job that I had held for over 11 years, never once having had the same problem??

As my back pain wasn't getting any better, and in fact, seemed worse, I began to think that he could be right.  I moved the computer back to the little dining area off the kitchen and placed a heating pad on the back of the chair to help with easing the pain.

Yesterday I actually felt that it was getting better and that I would just have to keep the computer here where it didn't seem to bother my back.  My husband had adjusted the chair in the den to a higher level, thinking that it would help, but I am not ready to test his theory out yet.

So, I decided to take a break from computing and we rented a few movies to watch for a break.  I spent the whole day sitting on the sofa, watching movies and thinking that I would wake up painless this morning...  Wrong!  I woke up this morning in even worse shape than previously!  It appears that I am going to have to continue sitting at my makeshift desk with my heating pad until I am completely pain free.

Fortunately, I am close enough to the kitchen where I can easily get to the ibuprofen and get something to drink to wash them down with - it's only a short crawl...

Retirement

So I finally retired from the workforce on July 31st.

Why is it that people want to know what I plan on doing with my time?  And these inquiries started after I had only been retired for two weeks!  Are you people crazy??  Can I please have some time to just enjoy NOT working?  Why do you think that I have to do anything at all now?  Am I not allowed to wallow in having the time to do what I want to do and not what someone else wants me to do?

Get off my fucking case!

If I choose to do absolutely nothing, it is my choice - not yours!  Live your own life, not mine.

So, there are days that I don't even get out of my PJs, sitting at my computer, researching moving to Ecuador, doing my Spanish lessons or just playing some games and not thinking about anything.  My goodness - there are days that I don't even take a shower (OMG)!!  Call the retirement police...  I just admitted to not taking a shower every day!

Yet I enjoy that a big deal includes a trip to the grocery store that is about a mile away.  (Hey, at least I got out of the house, and yes, I took a shower on those days)  But please keep in mind that this is my life, not yours, and I will do or not do whatever the hell that I feel like.

I will admit to speaking to several financial advisers at three different banks regarding what to do with my 401k $$ and finally made a decision about what to do with that issue, so some of my time outside of the house has been productive.

And now that I have made that decision, I can go back to lounging around in my PJs and surfing the web on my computer.  Hasta luego mis amigos!

I know...it's been way too long since I last posted anything.  Mea culpa.

OK.  We have made a decision.  We are moving to Ecuador.

What!?!  Yes, we are.  While I would have loved to go back to the area in Mexico where I lived before, it has just gotten too expensive.  House Hunters International did a show about the little fishing village that I lived in and were showing the prospects $500,000 homes!  Are you fucking kidding me?!  The point of moving out of the U.S. is to lower our costs.  Mexico is out.  Ecuador is in.

Found out that we can rent a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment for under $500 a month, on the beach (Pacific) in Ecuador.  I think it's a no brainer.  We figure that we can live on Bill's SS and still save money!  Oh, and I should mention that a housekeeper would cost $15/day and she would also cook for us on those days that she is there!  Need I say more?  And that includes, laundry, cleaning, ironing.  I might have to deal with going to heaven while there!

So, the adventure continues.  We have found a home for the dog, although she is still with us for the time being.  Poor Bill - he will miss her so much as she was his dog totally.  Need to find homes for the kitties and that is proving harder to do.  I would hate to have to take them to the pound.

Once the cats are gone, the new owners of the dog can take her for a trial run and we can get a realtor in here to tell us what we need to do to get the house sold.  Am hoping that we can sell it to a snowbird, fully furnished and equipped.

We have a lot of documentation that needs to be gathered, notorized and appostilled.  Yeah, I'm not exactly sure how to do all that and imagine that it will be time consuming.  Anyone want to help me?

My 'real' last day at work was last Tuesday.  Worked half a day that day and go back next Tuesday to turn in my badge and say goodbye to everyone.  Having a somewhat difficult time adjusting to not working, but hopefully that will change fairly soon.  My coworkers had a potluck to celebrate my leaving and a 'Happy Hour' party is planned for 8/3.

Adios pro ahora (goodbye for right now).  Hasta luego!

Yard Work Cont.

Well, Juan did show up.  In his brand new bright red SUV.  Looked over the situation and advised me it would cost $50 to fix.  So I tell him that I will go inside and wait for him to fix it.  "You no unnerstand Missy, I no fix today, I be back tomorrow."  Two days later, no Juan.  I text him and tell him that after waiting for two days for him to show up and no phone call, I have found someone else to do the work and no longer need him.

Did I just do that - with no backup plan?!  What was I thinking?  Now what?

I take to the local FaceBook page for the city that I live in asking if anyone knows anyone reliable, who is reasonable in his pricing and who I can count on to show up.  I get two recommendations.  I give my phone number to a gal who says she knows someone and get a phone number for another one.  I wait for a call from the one and call the other, leaving a message to call me back and what I am looking for.  I sit back and wait.

I get a message from the fellow who had my phone number.  States that he understands that I am looking for someone to paint my bathroom.  WTF?  I call him back and tell him that I don't need my bathroom painted, but rather need my sprinkler system leak repaired.  He seemed confused, or stoned or maybe both.  I tell him that I get home from work around 3:45 and ask that he come by to see if he can give me an estimate.  Would he like the address?  No, he'll get it from me when he calls.

In the meantime, the other fellow, Scott, calls.  Very professional and concerned that I might not know how to turn the sprinkler system off and that he wants to help me turn it off right away.  I assure him that I already have the system turned off, and that I just need it fixed.  He tells me that if it is okay with me, he will come by around 7:30 the following day to see just what I need done.  I tell him that I will be at work, but he is more than welcome to come by to assess the situation.

I get a voice message on my cell phone mid day while at work from Scott, telling me that not only has he come by, but he has fixed the leak and we can work out a price when I get home from work and he stops by!

I get home and Scott calls asking if it's okay if he come by.  It is.  Scott explains that it will cost me $30 for having him fix the leak.  I argue with him and tell him the first estimate that I got was for $50 and to please take at least $40 from me.  He states that he couldn't do that and will be happy if I just tell everyone that I know that he is available for yard work.  As he has been so reasonable in his pricing, I ask if he would be interested in mowing Bill's precious grass every week and he says yes.  Now he's got me going...

Let me explain something - they use a lot of various size rock to decorate yards here in Phoenix.  Walk areas use a very small size rock and we have a lot of it in our back yard, surrounding our grass.  While this small rock looked great when we bought this house just under three years ago, it has disappeared since then (mostly tracked into the house by the dog!).  It needs to be replenished.  I ask Scott if he would like to give us a quote.  You bet he would!  Tells me he will be back to mow the grass and to give me a quote. Take that Juan - coulda, woulda, shoulda!

Scott shows up and gives me a quote.  He doesn't know it yet, but he's got the job.

Oh - and by the way, I never took the other guys call.  He just wasn't eager enough.  And he didn't even try to reach me a second time...