Time is a flyin’ down here in So Cal as we approach D-Day (i.e. the 2018 Road Trip).
We’re spending this weekend in Chula Vista, in the RV, sans dogs. Some friends from the neighborhood, Terry and Barb, are here with their 40′ rig. It’s been fun spending some time with them, catching up, playing cards, and doing some sightseeing at Old Town San Diego.
The RV park that we’re staying at, Chula Vista RV Resort & Marina, is very nicely landscaped, is right adjacent to the yacht harbor, and has all of the amenities. I think we could go here in a pinch, but I believe that it would be pretty expensive in-season.
The dogs are staying with our son Tim and his family. They love the mutts almost as much as we do. They’ve noticed, as we have, that Jay Jay is acting a bit off, not pooing regularly, and seemingly a bit depressed. I have noticed changes in his behavior since we put him on some specialty “renal care” kibble a few months back. I’m going to take him in tomorrow and ask the vet what we can do to improve his life.
I do know that our young dog, Baby, annoys him a bit (because she’s actively playing or imploring him to play most of the time), and he gets jealous when Baby gets my personal attention. JayJay has been my shadow for years, and he is used to a lot of man-love. Baby is now cutting into that. Maybe that is the source of his discontent.
I got my annual Syn-Visc shot in my right knee last week, so I should experience a “20 year-old knee” until next calendar year. I get the shot in my left knee on Wednesday, so I’ll feel like a 70 year-old Bionic Man by the time we hit the road (April 30th).
That’s the day our house goes on sale. My son/Realtor, Tim, and I will get everything ready this week for the initial open houses: signs, brochures, kiosk info, Internet ads, etc. Tim says we should ask $519,900; I will be happy with $500K if we can get it.
Our home-to-be project, i.e. Sun City Mesquite, has been a big headache during the past week or so. We ran into a Pulte buzzsaw regarding the flooring upgrade: we wanted luxury vinyl tile planks, and they don’t really want to provide that. Then, when we threw in the towel and gave in to engineered hardwood, Pulte tried to sock us with a $30K upgrade fee. We told them to stuff it where the sun don’t shine, put in the standard/included rug and ceramic tile flooring, and we will tear it all out and replace with the flooring we want after the sale closes. I think we can get it done for $10K to $13K.
Of course, with the road trip approaching, the RV has begun to reveal some glitches. We continue to have a wiring issue with our satellite TV service. I’ve pretty much isolated it to a loose coax cable between the exterior port and the set top box. Our RV repair guys were supposed to have fixed it, but I will have to take it back tomorrow.
Our upcoming road trip schedule has a hole in it from August 6th, when we leave Carmel, to September 5th, when we check into Paradise By The Sea in Oceanside. I am not sure what we will be doing then. Trenching on our new home begins TODAY, and Pulte expects the home construction project to be accomplished in about 4 months or so. That would put completion at around the beginning of September, some two months ahead of the outside estimate that we were originally given.
If it goes down that way, we will probably close escrow, have a flooring contractor drop by and replace the carpet with engineered hardwood, and then move in when that project is done. We would be staying at the beach in Oceanside at that time, so the timing would be good.
So, at any rate, we will have to be somewhere in August…where it isn’t 110 degrees! I will have to ponder that…