January is almost gone and we are still waiting till my retirement and our new lifestyle to begin. I found out that my earliest date that I an eligible to retire is June 1 of this year. So Donna and I are making plans to 'make it so' on June 3rd. I met with my financial advisor and we went over my budget and plans. He said that everything looks good, so it is go. The only thing that ..may.. post pone our date is the fact that I may have to have another round of back (disc) surgery. I had surgery July of 2011 and still have numbness and weakness in my left foot and leg. I'll find out the details next week. If it happens, I still have plenty of time to heal.
Donna and I will drive to Moses Lake (65 miles) to the Elks Lodge there and get initiated. There are many RV parking/camping opportunities around the country through the Elks. On my main page, under the tab 'Maps, Maps' Maps' I have maps of all the Elks RV spots. I never imagined there were that many. Dues are only around $105.00 or so a year. I am sure we will use them. That makes us members of Thousand Trails, Escapees, RPI, K&M, Passport America, Good Sam, and now Elks.
We are still living in the basement of our very good friends (Bruce & Carol) house. We have reservations at the Thousand Trails at Crescent Bar near Quincy, WA starting March 5th. They are just amazing people. After house-sitting for them, they invited us to winter with them. It works out beautifully. Here is how our day goes. I get up at 5 AM and am to work by 6AM. I am pretty quiet and leave the house without waking anyone. I work Mon-Thur 6 to 4:30. While I am at work, Donna hangs around the house, sewing, reading, watching TV, or hanging around upstairs with Carol. Bruce keeps busy tinkering around the house or working in their apricot orchard. When I get home around 5PM, we watch the news of the day (Fox News), till the girls have dinner ready. We all alternate cooking dinner. We hold hands and bless the food. After we eat, we take turns reading the daily devotional out of the 'Our Daily Bread' booklet. Then we all say prayers for family, friends, and what ever comes to mind. Then some small talk, clean up of the dishes, then we split up and Donna and I go back down the basement for our 'alone time'. This works out great. Weekends, we do what-ever. Visit friends, go out shopping, or something.
Counting the days. And they are just flying by. I keep up to date on many blogs, and continually plan, dream, plan. we are so excited to get going.
