Wednesday, July 29, 2009

What's up?

One day just seems to fade into another...

Sunday was very busy. We have been tapping a local marketing guy to help L's products sell better. J (marketing guy) and L had scheduled a day of video-ing, with the idea of trying to get some traffic directed to his website. From 10 a.m. until about 6 p.m., two guys - D working the camera and sound, and J sort of directing - focused on L and the products he had decided to promote. We had sandwich fixin's that we broke out around 1:30 or 2 (eventually time just got away from me). Other than that, it was pretty steady work for L: reading the promotions, blowing the scripts (sometimes), re-delivering the lines. Just a l-o-o-n-n-g day that we were both becoming steadily more and more tired of.

I should mention here that this day had a conflict for me. A high-school classmate, M, has an annual gathering at her cabin (by coincidence, her place is on the same lake that L resides on). It was to start at noon, with pot-luck contributions of food plus BYOB and so on. I have never been in MN before, when the get-together was planned, so I was looking forward to it. I was hoping to get to see a few classmates for a bit, but the time grew later and later and the filming was still ongoing, and I was thinkin' that this would not happen.

But finally, FINALLY, the two guys exited - close to 6 pm. And L and I went down to the pontoon - the trip would be shorter by water than by road, as we would have had about 30 - 40 minutes by road, as opposed to 20 minutes by water. No gas when L tried to start the motor -- so up to the garage to bring down some gas and he filled it. And we headed out onto the lake... and could not locate the classmate's cabin. L had looked at Google Earth a day or so earlier and was SURE that he could find it. And we absolutely. could. not. So, with cell phone in hand, I informed classmate M of this. And the problem compounded: not only could we not find the party, but now the motor was sputtering. And it eventually gave up the ghost, with the transmission apparently shot. Now we are adrift on a fairly large lake - and then I spotted M's cabin! Furthermore, a handful of the attendees were at the shore, waving to us. L pointed to our left (the direction the pontoon was drifting) and held up 4 fingers - his guesstimate of how many properties we would land AWAY from M's place.

We drifted up to a dock where the owners were NOT happy to see us. They had recently spent a chunk of change on repairs caused by a windstorm and were afraid that L's pontoon, in a windstorm, could re-damage their dock. So, eventually, the owner towed the pontoon several properties to the right of M's, up onto a sandy beach where L tied the pontoon securely to a tree.

Whew... and so we went in to join the remaining classmates (about 4 or 5, some with spouses), have something to eat, and drink a beer or two. Another classmate, B and her husband M, gave us a ride back to L's place in their pickup truck - only one seat available, so I ended up on L's lap, hunkered over, so I would not bump my head into the truck's headliner.

It was a long day, and we were both happy to see its end. On the positive side, most of the folks were SO-O-O nice and helpful, and it is always nice to see that. More later, on how the pontoon got back to L's. And how much the repair$ will cost, I guess...

I think I am re-acclimating a bit here - but it is still quite cool for me, most days. For instance, today it is only in the 70's - a temp that we experience in Houston only overnight, at this time of the year.

Five pm here. Time to post and head for L's grandson's softball game. Later...

Friday, July 24, 2009

Nothing much to say...

... But I do feel that I need to keep in contact. So here's an update.

Still working with my "friend" L at his business. I feel a little more like I am contributing now -- I can write up invoices, mailing labels, enter credit card entries for approval, do hand-labeling, help with the filling line, etc. So not entirely useless.

We have been looking at motorcycles. L previously was a licensed pilot and some years ago had his own plane (seaplane type), and he sold that to put money into his business. He really, REALLY loved flying. So now he's looking at (used) cycles, to give him the "freedom" that he had when he was flying. We are also looking at good helmets (a must, unless you are into self-sacrifice), and even are looking at some pricier jackets with LOTS of built-in protection (which do NOT come cheap, believe me). Time will tell, on whether we have a bike by this fall or not.

My sister's "real" birthday (as opposed to the surprise party on Saturday, marking the occasion) was Wednesday, so she and R, my mom, sis's daughter, and myself and L, went to a local restaurant for dinner. Then up to my sis's for cake and ice cream, said cake baked by our mom. Mom had offered a cake for me, for my bd, and I declined, since I did not have several folks to help us eat the remainder.

L worked on a rental house that his daughter and son-in-law own, fixing the plumbing for the tenants. He does charge her for this, so it's not gratis.

My high school classmates (as many as want to be there) are gathering at another place on this lake on Sunday. Unfortunately, L will be occupied for part of that day by video-ing some "spots" for his website. So I hope that we can get over there for a few minutes or hours if the filming wraps up early enough. It's about a 15-minute trip by boat, but about 45 minutes by vehicle (have to circumvent the lake to reach the classmates place).

Well... gotta run to get some errands done. I'll catch up with y'all later!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Where in the world is Nancy?

Well, for those of you who care and still read to look for updates...

I am in Duluth, MN. Long, l-o-o-n-n-g story, and I will try to make it brief.

When I was in northern MN at the end of May, just for grins, I got on Yahoo! Personals. You have to put in specific info, obviously, but you can be vague, as well. So I put in some info and used the zip code of the town that I grew up in. Truthfully, it was a "fishing" exercise for me... just curious to see what I would find, see who would respond to me. And actually, there seemed to be some good guys, from what I was reading. Older guys who were looking for a nice woman. In less than 24 hours, 3 guys had made contact with me, and then in less than 30 days, 40+ guys had at least viewed my profile, and some of them made contact with me, too.

Anyway, I started e-mailing with a guy who is a bit older than me. I just turned 61 (July 7th) and he is 66. He has his own small business that he is trying to expand. I will give more detail about this in another posting. Seemed very nice, and then we decided to exchange phone numbers, and eventually he asked me to download Skype, a free software that allows you to see and hear each other (provided that you are at a computer equipped with a camera). We both apparently liked what we saw and heard, and I mentioned in a previous post about limiting him to about an hour of Skyping a night.

He pressed me to allow him come down to see me, and I hesitated during that phone conversation. After my last encounter, I was reluctant to dive in again. But he persisted and I told him to fly down. He flew in the evening that I retired from my 24-year-employment. We clicked -- and now I am living at his place (sorry if some of you are scandalized, but by my age, time waits for no one). He is a very nice guy. My family (mom, sis and sis's significant other) have met him and like him. I have met his daughter, son-in-law and 3 grandkids, plus his son and daughter-in-law, and we seem to get along well, also.

His business gets a lot of his attention, and I am working side-by-side with him most days, Monday thru Friday. Thus... not really retired yet. I try to be supportive and do whatever I can.

We are flying back to Houston the second Sunday in August, so that we can pack up my house and get me ready to move. So fast, things are moving -- as Yoda would say. I haven't even had a chance to start doing change-of-address things. My info is at my house in Houston!

Gotta run. More will follow.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Moving FAST!

Well,my dears... just a brief update.

It appears that my house is SOLD -- and to the very first buyer(s) who looked at it! Of course, it would have been nice to get more money than I settled for. But the object was to get it sold. So I am overwhelmed... things are movin' a bit faster than I had counted on.

Tentative plans are to fly back to Houston, rent a car, get the house packed up (rent a truck) and then drive back to MN. As I said... TENTATIVE plans. I guess the house closing is around mid-August. I did kid around hoping that my house sells so fast, that I get whiplash. Well... be careful what you wish for!

Details are forthcoming -- sorry to be so long in between posts, but I was so busy getting my house ready for showing and trying to figure out what I would need to bring with me to MN, that I hardly had time for anything else.

Here I go... another chapter in my life.