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Gary’s post: Well, we’re now the proud owners of a Volvo EX30 EV. This thing is a computer on wheels and it’s definitely going to challenge me to remember everything it can do and use the features effectively. Fun little SUV for running around town instead of using our big cars. And for Wendy to commute to work. Gets good mileage on a charge and we managed to get the $7500 EV rebate as we’re leasing it. And NM will give us a $3000 tax rebate next year, so all in all, made sense. While gas is MUCH cheaper here than in Washington, we’re 20 miles from Albuquerque, so using this to run up to ABQ and run around Los Lunas make sense.

It’s my Granddaughters birthday today. She’s officially two (she’s a leap baby). Since we’re not there to celebrate, we’ll video call her. Wendy and I miss her and Lucas. While we didn’t see them a lot, when we did it was pretty special and made us feel wonderful. I do wish they were closer, but now that we’re here in New Mexico, I think when they visit it will even be more special.

Lots to do today. I MUST get a yard hydrant sock to keep the darn water hydrant from freezing in the morning. Giant pain in the arse. I have to take Wendy’s hair dryer out and heat it up until it starts running again. Makes the mornings interesting. We need to make a Costco run, start our taxes, I have to help Jaret pick up his motorcycle for Utah. Just a lot of stuff to do. And I think we’re going to unload the “wherehouse” to find our stuff on Sunday.

Okay, time to get moving. Everyone reading this, have a great day and remember to spend time with your loved ones.

Later!

Gary’s post: Excellent morning this morning. Woke up to no water, the hydrant froze, and I drained the freshwater tank. Nothing better to wake up to – and to start a Friday. So, I went out and took a hairdryer to the hydrant to unfreeze it. Fortunately, it worked, and we have water in the RV now. I MUST get off my ass and get some heat tape put on the supply line and FINISH insulating the supply line. Has to be my first focus and stop getting distracted.

I need to stop trying to get everything done at once. Then I get nothing done. And it makes me insane, crazy frustrated and stressed out. After I get some oat milk (another thing I didn’t get done), I’m going to focus on finishing the water supply, stop the leaks and get an insulation bag for the top of the hydrant. Then I MUST focus on work as I have a deadline on Tuesday that I’ve been procrastinating on because I can’t seem to get focused.

I wonder if my issue stems from the fact that I can’t seem to feel good. I wake up every morning and feel like crap. Shoulder keeps hurting, jaw hurts and now my hips are starting to hurt. I really need to find a good doctor here, which is impossible, and get this crap sorted out. I think some of this is because I’m not exercising in the morning and keeping active. I was better in Seattle when I exercised on a regular basis. Exercise here is more aligned around yard work. It’s raking rocks, digging trenches, running the tractor and generally doing farm work. And at the moment there’s no room in the RV for exercise. I’ll get it figured out, but for the moment it’s just distracting.

Lots of errands today. I have to keep focused on getting the water fixed and getting work done for Itron. We have a car appointment and Jaret wants to get his motorcycle today as he leaves for Utah on Monday. Too much to do.

So, I need to defeat my Type A thinking today and work on living in the moment and try to keep the stress at bay. It’s hard to live in the moment as you get older because the moments are so brief, and nothing gets done or the list keeps getting longer. Maybe that’s part of living in the moment – not worrying about tomorrow and the “to do” list. Something to think about.

Anyway, enough complaining (even though it’s therapeutic to a point) and it’s time to get positive and make Friday a good day along with a great weekend. So much positive stuff in my life, I drive myself crazy thinking about the little stuff and making it negative. I blame my grandpa… 🙂

Off to challenge my brain and piss poor attitude today. To anyone reading this mess of a blog today – please take the time to NOT do what I’m doing. Slow down, enjoy the moment and hug your family and loved ones. Especially the dog (or cat)….they love you no matter how much of an idiot you are….

Later!

Gary’s post: Crazy wind last night. 25+ mph winds across the property. Hard to sleep and blew stuff all over the place. Winds are supposed to drop around noon today. Made sleeping a challenge.

Today will be more gravel, 7 tons, to spread. I’m going to try and get some of the loose dirt covered so there isn’t as much dust blowing around and gives us a bit more parking space for the cars. I’ll expand the car wash area a bit more too. That way when we wash the cars, it’s not a mud bath when you’re done. We’ll use the tractor to get things spread. I need to take the tractor in for a hydraulic rebuild or service. The bucket and backhoe aren’t working smoothly, and the hydraulics seem to be a bit weak. I’ll check it out over the next week.

More work today that I need to get done. I managed to book travel to Orlando for the 2nd week of March. Hard to get work done though with our youngest here. More fun to hang out and get some things done. Thank goodness my company is going to let me go to 25 hrs/week, still be considered a full-time employee with benefits. I think I’ll do that for the rest of the year, then fully retire at the end of the year. Makes the most sense financially and from a health, benefits perspective.

My contractor will be picking up our final building permit approval today. That will open up our ability to start the dirt work in two weeks and get the foundation poured. That will really start making this real and having a house! Looking forward to celebrating that.

Going to keep this post short today. I have a lot of morning chores before I can start real work. Need to get focused and ready. Take care and stay present.

TTYL.

Gary’s post: Humpday. Our youngest arrived yesterday after a crazy two-day drive from Seattle. The RV is now so crowded with dogs and stuff that walking around is difficult. Fortunately, it’s only for a week, so things will settle into a routine.

I’m finding that the longer I sit in the trailer, the less flexible I am. I get into a routine and find that I don’t want to do anything but just stay here, even though it drives me crazy to stay here all the time. It’s one of those personality traits that I need to overcome. I can see my dad in myself. I love him, but I’m not him, so I need to drive myself to do better. Hard stuff.

I’ll be good to have Jay here. Keeps me from being a hermit. And there’s a lot he can help me with to keep me mentally healthier. He can help us rearrange our “warehouse” full of stuff so it’s more useful. Lots to do. I need to start working on getting out and meeting more people. I’ll have to attend the local gun club meetings, and we’ll start getting engaged with our local church down the street. It’s all about just restarting for me. Wendy has roots here so she’s already working on building a new network.

We have a skunk somewhere on the property. Every morning it smells like a skunk has been around. I’m worried the dogs will find it and get sprayed which would be nasty. I can’t decide if we should shoot it or trap it and move it somewhere. I’ll talk to my father-in-law and get his opinion.

Today is about work. Need to get travel arrangements made for Orlando. Still not crazy about going, but it’ll be good for me to go and get out of NM for a few days. Need to get some more dirt spread, so that will be tractor work. And with a front coming through, there will be wind tonight. Things are starting to fall into a routine which helps me. I used to thrive on change and being busy, but now time goes so fast that it feels like I never get anything done, so that’s frustrating. I also need to check with our contractor and see if we got CID permission and when the groundwork starts.

‘nough for now. Today is busy, especially with adding another human and dog to the party. Take care!

Gary’s post: Tuesday, last week of February. Wow, time as passed so quickly. Yesterday was madness, between work, contractors and trying to get some personal items completed, it wasn’t until four o’clock before things slowed down. Had to move a bunch of dirt from the holding tank install, with 20 mph gusts. Fun stuff. Thinking I’m going to order more gravel just to keep the dust down when the wind blows.

Today is going to be chaos. Jaret arrives with his crazy dog Juni. That will generate drama as he’s a walking drama generator. It’s crazy how he can generate so much stress. BUT, it will be awesome to see him before he heads out to Utah and his new job. We’ll put him to work at his grandpa’s cleaning up leaves and getting the place cleaned up. And I can use him to help with building out our gate access. We need to get his truck registered here and a NM driver’s license. Someday he’ll find his footing and get established. His sister is considering buying property in Utah to snowbird and be close to us and him. I think that’s a great idea and will give her someplace else to work from.

It’s interesting working with contractors here. There’s a lot of “cash” work that gets done. I’ve done a couple of jobs with contractors that are all cash. And I write a lot more checks for jobs. In Seattle, it was all about Venmo or Zelle. Interesting how different contracting is getting work done. And the contractors are a lot more concerned about the quality of their work and how they are perceived because it effects their ability to get more work. Lots of work based on referrals.

Weather here is a big deal. We’re supposed to get some rain this weekend which is the talk of the town. This has been the driest winter in 50 years, so the news is all about the weather. We do live in high desert, so being dry is to be expected. Of course, more wind as the fronts move through. I’ll keep an eye on my Tempest weather station, it’s pretty cool and gives me something to geek out about.

Talked to my VP about retirement. We’re working through if I retire in April or just reduce my hours to 30 a week to keep benefits through the rest of this year and actually retire at the end of the year. That might be better as we’re building the house, and having the insurance, cash flow and ability to get a small loan if necessary. We’ll see how that works out.

Time to get dressed, have one more cup of coffee and get moving this morning. Lots of meetings today, so I need to be on my “game” so to speak. Need to keep the energy levels up today, somehow.

Take care and to anyone reading this – have a great day and be present and thoughtful.

Gary’ post: Sunday, last week in February. Not much happening today. For anyone interested, here is a link to my Tempest weather page: Tempest. You can see the weather for today and at the moment. One thing I’ve noticed here is that the sky isn’t as blue as in Seattle (when you can actually see the sky!). In NM, we have a lot of sun, with a lot more intensity, but it’s a lot higher in elevation than Seattle, so there’s less air to reflect the sun’s light. That’s results in the sky being a lighter shade of blue than in Seattle. But I’ll take the sunshine over all the rain and grey skies. I’m susceptible to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) – so I do better emotionally in NM that Seattle. Now if I can just figure out why my joints are sore all the time….. and NO it’s not old age!!!

The plan today is to have our weekly breakfast with Wendy’s brother, then hit up Costco for a few things (like that every happens at Costco) and come home to move the RV (Beverly) to her new location, 30 ft north of the existing location. Not sure why Wendy has the need to “name” our vehicles. Personification, have to explore that more in another blog…..

Last night was hysterical. We went to a local BBQ place called Tractors. We sat down at our table and about 2 minutes later Wendy jumped up yelling “What the heck!!”. Turned around and was ready to slap the guy behind her – turns out it was her parents’ neighbors from across the street, Tim and Susan, who are becoming good friends. Absolutely great people! Both of us were oblivious and Susan recognized us and prompted Tim. We ended up sharing a table, having some great BBQ and beer, swapped stories and ended the night in great company. Tim bought us dinner – so we owe him. We’ll see them next Sunday when I break out the Kamado BBQ. Should be a good time.

This coming week should be a bit calmer. I have a lot of Itron work to do, and I need to sort out if I can go to Orlando. Not crazy about that idea. I’ll put together the travel request today. No luck in finding my corporate travel card. Giant pain in the ass, finding the card, finding business clothes, finding suitcase for travel… All of it is in our “warehouse” in a jumbled mess. Such a pain for the next 8 months. And we HAVE to get a wine fridge ordered along with another safe and then find a place to put it in the warehouse… Sigh. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I thought this was going to be a “good idea”. I guess I was hoping that we could throw out more crap before we moved – and then we added Jarets crap.

I’m thinking that we should sell our RV when the house is built. I know we’ve put a lot of work and money into her with stringing Ford specific camera’s, TPMS and everything else. Maybe we should sell the RV with the truck as a package. I’d lose money on it but frankly, it’s one less thing to pay for and take care of. I probably need to seriously consider getting rid of “things” as I enter my last stages of my life journey. It’s a good concept that the Swedes endorse – it’s called “Death Cleaning”, reducing the amount of crap your loved ones have to deal with after you pass. Something to consider as every life ends.

Well, enough for now. Have to get organized and out of here to meet my brother-in-law for breakfast. Have a great Sunday and life each moment as best you can.

Take care!

Gary’s post: Above is a screen shot of the Tempest app that records the weather. It’s actually pretty cool, and I can geek out on the weather. Even better is this screen shot, which shows more technical details.

There’s more data too, but I like that it has a lightening detector, which is really useful in the Fall. NM is one of the states, outside of Florida that gets a lot of lightning strikes during monsoon season. And you can see the intensity of the solar radiation. So cool….

Today is devoted to getting some $$ to pay for the RV holding tank next week and spreading the gravel for the RV pad. I’ll shoot a picture when we’re done…. so exciting…. not. There are a few things we still have to get done, but it’s starting to feel a bit more normal. Once I get through taxes next weekend, I think we can start spending some time together visiting some of the attractions and enjoying some of the new things that have happened while we were away.

I’m going to have to get going on finding local medical support. NM health care isn’t the greatest and there’s a lack of good doctors. I need to sort out the shoulder and jaw issues as they are keeping me awake at night. Might just be the cold, but we’ll see. I do need to get organized with a dentist, regular doctor and the heart people.

Next month I’m being recruited to travel, which I’m not excited about. We’re not at a point where we have our support system figured out yet. I’m not comfortable leaving Wendy with Harp and Juni for 5 days and dealing with deliveries. I haven’t got a delivery box set up yet or a way to put the garbage out to the curb. We have to drag it for about 1/4 mile to Hwy 47. We’ll get it figured out but it’s going to take a few more months.

This weekend, I’m going to make my flights to Seattle to see my Cardiologist and do labs for my last visits with my primary care physician. In April, I’ll get organized with the health system down here. I’m still not sure how or if I’m going to retire in April. My company would support me working part-time (32hrs/wk) until I wanted to stop. I’m thinking that might be a good thing to do while we’re building the house, then once we have occupancy, retire at the end of the year. We should have a good handle on our finances and cash flow by then.

Next week should be exciting. Hopefully we will take delivery of our EX30. That will let Wendy start driving the EV to work and keep the gas costs down. I’ll get a cover for the XC40 and probably the truck – we’ll see. We really need to get one of those portable carports to protect the cars from the sun. Since we’re now officially NM residents with Real ID drivers’ licenses and registration plus bank accounts – we need to start protecting the cars and trailer from the damage of UV rays.

Well, enough. It’s almost 8:00am and we’re still in PJ’s. Time to get moving and go to the bank in Albuquerque. Then it’s spreading gravel and going through the workshop to find my Corporate Travel card and some other items we need. Tomorrow we’ll move the trailer, get some heat tape for the water line and generally get the RV situated in its final location until the house is built. I’m thinking about selling the RV once the house is built, then consider getting a different one that’s more attuned to NM – like an Artic Fox or Brinkley. That’s more for a different blog.

Take care. Have a great day and take time to enjoy your day and the people around you. Be present!

Gary’s post: Man, I do love the colors of the sky during a sunset. I HAVE to update my camera as these colors are washed out or figure out how to use photoshop on my laptop.

We finally got our gate installed. I think it’s a blessing and a curse. On one hand it secures the property and only those who have an opener can get in. On the other hand, deliveries are a pain in the ass. We did put in a gate to the south (left in the picture) which should help, but for now the delivery drivers just drop stuff over the fence. Not a good plan with fragile stuff. I’ll have to get some gate signs and a better address sign.

Today is a busy day this morning. I have the garage door guys coming in the morning, so I need to move a bunch of boxes out of the way so they can install a garage door opener on the workshop. Giant pain in the arse. I also have 10 tons of gravel coming this morning for the new RV pad. I’ll start spreading that later this afternoon and tomorrow. As always, sunny weather with some wind. Spring in NM. We will see how well the tractor holds up. It definitely needs some maintenance, and the hydraulics rebuilt.

I bought a Tempest weather station. I know, I know, why do you need a weather station in NM? It’s easy to predict the weather – sun and wind…. Well, first off, I’m a geek about this stuff, and it’ll be interesting to know the Solar intensity and wind speeds. I’ll get a post today and get the station mounted. If we ever get any rain, the station might measure that too.

Once we get the RV moved and the holding tank installed, I think things will settle down and move more into a routine. Then it’ll be all about building the house and catching up on my work items. I keep hoping that I don’t have to travel next month for work. I couldn’t find my corporate travel card anyway – it’s buried in the mound of boxes in the workshop. Speaking of which, I really need to carve out some working space. I think once the gravel is spread-out, we’ll empty the workshop and restack things in a more organized manner.

Should be getting the EV next week. Exciting and will save on gas and wear and tear on the XC40. I’ll apply for a refund from PNM and a reduced power rate as we have an EV. It’ll be interesting to see if the EV really saves money in the long run. The EX30 does have an 8-year battery warranty – so that’ll be a good thing.

I need to sort out why my joints are so sore here. First it was my shoulder, which is slowly getting better. This week, my freaking jaw is a problem. Makes eating a problem as it kills to chew. That is slowly getting better. Making me wonder if it’s medication, a virus or just lack of motion. I notice that doing push-up and strength work help the shoulder. Maybe I should start chewing gum. I’m going to start drinking collagen to see if that helps. One type for skin and hair to stop all the rough skin patches and help with the dryness and another for the joints. I’ll report out in a few months. I think I just need a tune-up! Need to find some good docs here….or better drugs!

Enough for now. Need to do some exercises (a total challenge in this RV), get dressed and start moving boxes. And I need to pair the truck garage door opener with the gate. We’ll see how that works…

Take care and find time to enjoy the sunrise and sunset. Have a wonderful weekend.

Gary’s post: Thursday, finally on the downhill side of the week. This month has gone so fast. I really need to focus on my taxes and get them done. I keep hoping Trump fires all the IRS folks and declares this a tax free year….LoL!!! So much to get done this weekend but I think everything is lined up.

Some totally awesome news. My grandson, Lucas, was evaluated by Seattle Public Schools and found to be “highly capable”. That means he has access to STEM and advanced learning programs through his K-12 years. We’re so excited and proud of him, and Wendy is just beaming. With her background in education, she understands what an impact these programs can have on a student’s education. We knew he was smart, but this is a great confirmation that somewhere in the genetic cesspool of the Kessler family, Lucas managed to get the good genes. Must be his mom!! I know Lucas’s parents will take advantage of these opportunities. So proud of that kid and his sister. They will be awesome human beings.

Today is all about getting our gate installed. And getting ready for a gravel delivery so we can move the RV. I worked on my father-inl-law’s tractor yesterday. It’s a subcompact tractor with a bucket scoop and a rear backhoe. It’s functional but a bit too small for a lot of the work I need done around the property. It’s a 25hp, and I need about 20hp more to do dirt work and move gravel, mow and do more heavy lifting. We’ll use it as best we can, but at some point, I’ll need to evaluate getting a bigger tractor assuming Wendy will agree. That’s a whole different discussion. I’m going to use the EV purchase to win her over!!.

Retirement. I keep getting more work at my real job. I need to get my head oriented and get focused on doing work work. It’s so hard when there are so many options to do more fun things!! And I HAVE to get travel to Seattle handled this weekend so I can visit my cardiologist and see my daughter. My son and his family will be traveling in Europe that week, so I’ll babysit the cats! Love those little furry guys.

As you can see from the picture above, they are “well-trained”. Great pets though and perfect for my son’s family.

Next week our youngest will be here. The stress level will rise, and he’ll bring his drama with him. Love the kid to death, but he really needs to relax and stop creating drama to keep him occupied. I’m hoping this fire training will give him enough drama that the rest of his life is more relaxed!! It’ll be nice to see him, and I’ll put him to work around the property!! He does need to get in touch with his uncle to arrange for sleeping quarters. I’m sure the drive down will be filled with “perceived” drama and excitement. I’ll have to talk to my daughter and see how she feels after he leaves. They’ve been cohabitating for the last several months. Fun family dynamics.

Alright, time to stop for now. Lots to do and lots happening. To anyone reading this – have a great day and thank you for all your support. I hope this blog is interesting. Once the house starts, I’ll focus on that progress. And I’ll start adding video’s.

Take care!