Category Archives: F250

Launch delay…

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Years ago when I was still working (that still sounds weird) we had two employees, in a different department, that always complained about things going on in the office.  When they retired we thought they would be happy then.  Nope.  They came back to work with the office on a contract basis!  We could never figure out, other than monetary reasons, why someone that hated their work so much would do such a thing.

When people knew about my retirement, about 3 years ago, they would ask if I was going to come back and contract with the office also (which new CalPERS rules don’t allow now)?  My joke in return was, “The day of retirement, I will have the trailer hooked up and we will be taking off!”

Well, that didn’t work out, yet.   Since there was so much for us to do to get the trailer and truck ready and so much to get rid of at home we shot for the end of January.

This got further delayed due to:

  • Me falling off the ladder and being limited in my activities
  • Ripping out the master shower at home and building a new one from scratch (never having done this before)
  • Waiting for the Snugtop shell for my truck

It turns out that I had 3 fractured ribs not just two and my tailbone is broken/displaced.  There is still pain at certain times but nothing like right after I fell!

As mentioned in a previous post, we will not be returning to California to live but we still have our house.  Our son, Aaron, will be renting the house from us until he decides he can buy it.  If he doesn’t buy it then we will sell it.  Either way, the house will be sold so we are looking at it from a resale aspect.  Hence the shower redo.  Here are two current pictures:

Since I got a new model year truck I have been having to wait for my shell.  I ordered it in October!  Every time I call for a status it is two more weeks.  Sigh.

During the month of January, I was hoping for the end of February.  As I write this on the last day of February it is obvious we are going to be delayed again.  I have pushed the date back to the end of March.

Maybe…  (Don’t hold your breath)

 

End of the Year Trifecta!

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Thanksgiving

We celebrated at home this year and it was very enjoyable.  A couple days after Thanksgiving we decided to put the rest of our rain gutters back on the house.  We took them all down when we had the house painted.  We were working in the front of the house (me, Roxie and our son Aaron).  I went to the back yard to get up on the roof to get some leaves off the roof.  I setup the ladder and started up to the roof.  When I reached the top rung the ladder slipped out from under me.  Down I came, hard!

Roxie heard a crash and me moaning and rushed to the back yard.  I was on top of the ladder and writhing in pain.  I was checking arms and legs for any major injuries and wanted to stand up.  She didn’t want me to but I was able to.  We knew the next stop was the ER.

After about 3 hours in the ER I was found to have 2 displaced broken ribs (not fracture but completely broken), a very sore tailbone, two gashes in my elbow (even though I had a coat on) requiring 10 stitches.  The rib pain was manageable but I developed a cough shortly after which was pretty painful.

Here is the ladder that I landed on:

A couple of days later I realized that we had a surveillance camera right where it happened.  Here is the video:

Youtube

Christmas

This is the first Christmas with Atlas.  We knew we wanted to celebrate with him, Hannah and Lukas.  However, we are not the only set of Grandparents.  He has Lukas’ side that lives in Auburn.  Luckily we were able to spend Christmas with the Prassinos family.

This turned out as an opportunity to tow the trailer on the truck’s maiden tow.  It did very well and I had a heck of a spot to get the trailer in there.  It was down their driveway and a hard 90° into their spot.  It was pouring rain and there were people watch so it was a double hex.  I was able to get it on the third try and just chewed up a small portion of their ‘lawn’.

It was really cold and we had both of Aaron’s dogs in the trailer but we did just fine.  There were 10 people and 7 dogs to make a grand old time!  We were able to spend Christmas with both of our kids and both of our grandkids.  Win!

Retirement

I started working at the Tulare County Office of Education on August 26, 1985, as a Programmer Analyst programming on the HP3000 minicomputer in COBOL.  4 positions and 31 years later, it was time to retire.  I was planning on going a year earlier at 55 but we were in the throes of building a new building and were given a 4.5% COLA.  That was enough to push it back.  It worked out well.  It gave me a chance to prepare for the afterlife a bit more.

It was a bit surreal to retire at 56 but you never know how much time you have.  It also felt like the right time to do it.

As I write this entry it has been over 1 month of retirement and I don’t regret it at all.  I have achieved a milestone of sorts, I don’t really remember what day of the week it is now.

Retirement allows us now to move off to our travel plans, but we have to finish our shower in the house first.  <sigh>