Egypt

"What's an old man like me wandering around Egypt you ask? Well doing an operator audit, aircraft survey and an airport inspection. 

Now I know I had said I wouldn’t accept any foreign assignments, having spent the last 25 years roaming around the world. I’ve said before…”the Good Lord knew we would need oil, but, He didn’t put it in nice places….so flying for an oil company we traveled mostly to deserts, artic regions, jungles, and inhospitable locations”!

So when the offer to go to Egypt came in I hesitated…but only momentarily. Egypt, an ancient land steeped in history and “the Pyramids!” “Ok…I will go”.

While the schedule was rather full I did have a chance to drive out to Giza one morning and stand next to  the Pyramids…”Wow”…it is hard to explain their magnitude and considering their ancient construction it become all the more fantastic.

Giza is but one of the myriad of pyramid locations…stretching clear to Luxor, but has the three most amazing ones and the Sphinx…another marvel!

So having breakfast overlooking the Nile and an evening beverage watching the sun set over the Nile was well worth the trip.

I went up to our lake house late yesterday to mow the grass (the spousal unit had dental surgery on Wednesday and wasn’t feeling up to the trip).

Arriving late in the afternoon I was able to finish the "back 40” and decided to quit for the day (forgot I had already walked two mile in the morning!).

I started again early this morning and during an early break thought I would take a wild chance and called the Onalaska number for Suddenlink. Much to my surprise a lady answered, I told her a long winded tale of woe about our recalcitrant internet connection…five years of problems!  To my even great surprise she cheefully said they had a technician in the area and he would be there shortly…indeed he was…within :45 minutes!

“A new guy”…I’ve met many! I told him the history and he said (like all the others)…”no problem…I’ll have it fixed in a minute”.

Well it took a while, he hummed and hawed, checked and rechecked and finally went back to the local hub, way down at the end of our street and confirmed that the signal was weak and “tweeked” the amplifier to a higher setting…seem we are at the “end of the line”...seem I am often at the "end of the line".

By the way, our neighbor also has Suddenlink and has no problem…but… you guessed it…she’s on another line.

Anyway, boosting the amplifier seems to be working. “There”, he said proudly, “you should have no more problems”. I skeptically replied “we will see”?

Join us next week for the next episode of “adventures in cyber land”…0’s and 1’s to ya..

Time flies by...when you are busy!

Some say time goes faster the older we get…well that is proving true! Here we are in the middle of February and tax time is right around the corner.

Where has it gone?

Christmas and New Year’s flew by as we adjusted to our new family member, a lovely little Shih Tzu named Noel, we picked her up on Christmas Eve. Noel was part of a litter of four, three females and one male.

Bobbie couldn’t get the beautiful little male out of her mind (she’d even given him a name…Rowdy) …so finally after three weeks I said call and see if he is still available (thinking I was safe…he was already spoken for and found a home) we would go get him. Well….

You guessed it…he was still available and the deal was struck.

So home we went with Rowdy and added him to our already busy life. Rowdy and Noel enjoy each other immensely, playing, chasing, fighting, eating and sleeping together.  Although brother and sister, they each are uniquely different…showing new and hilarious traits daily.

Noel was meant for Bobbie…her Christmas request and present, however, once Rowdy arrived she was a bit put out (to put it mildly) with the new arrival and began coming up to my office (she was the first to learn to climb the stairs) and hanging out.

If I am busy she wants up on my desk and naps while I am on the computer.

Rowdy is “Mama’s” boy…bigger by a pound he hangs close to Bobbie, occasionally coming up to my office (yes it didn’t take him long to learn to climb). He is also the more trainable, Noel being somewhat independent (did I say “somewhat”). For instance Rowdy quickly learned to ring the bells on the patio door to signal he needed out…Noel stands back and lets him do the work.

While Rowdy is a pound larger than Noel, she can “bowl” him over as they madly run around the house and yard…no push over that little girl!

You are probably getting the idea that we are madly in love with these two precious little dogs…taking pictures, making movies and writing blogs….and that’s why the days are flying by.

We really need to get a life!

Refinance

The word for today is “refinance”. Late last year we saw some of the lowest interest rates in a very long time. Not wanting to miss out on a chance to make our retirement funds go further we jumped on the band wagon. 

Well now let me tell you the ride was time consuming! It wasn’t a new loan…we were just “refinancing”!

The process started with, what seemed like a totally new loan submission of everything we have, copies and originals. Fortunately we were able to scan and send much of the requested data (down load, complete and rescan to PDF…don’t ya love technology?), forms and copies.

As the folder grew we “slogged” onward, interrupted by a trip to Pennsylvania, and Ohio (see blog on “Speakeasy”) we received, completed and resent enough data to qualify for a TOP SECRET national security clearance!

We began to wonder how anyone can get a loan today…if the lending institutions had been this diligent in the past…“maybe” we wouldn’t have had the financial crisis we have….”ya think”?

Before this blog becomes as long as the process…we finally completed the process and closed yesterday. Was it worth it…”oh ya”. We were able to reduce our interest rate by over (2) two points!

And that folks will buy a lot of dog food for Noel.

Noel (Part II)

We last posted on December 4^th. about our new puppy…a delightful Shih Tzu fur ball named Noel (cleverly named because we picked her up on Christmas Eve…well it seemed appropriate).

Christmas is always a blur of activity, hauling out and putting up the decorations, buying and wrapping presents and our annual dinners with friends and families.  Time flew by!

Christmas Eve dawned with overcast skies and a promise of rain. We were up early and anxious to head across town to pick up our newest family member.  Arriving just as the rains arrived (no complaints as we need the rain!).  Noel had really grown, but was still little more than a handful. We bundled her up against the cold rain and headed home.

Nervous at first, a strange new home, she slowly explored her new environment, sleeping often and liking to be cuddled and held. Even strange arms are ok when that’s all you have.

Day by day she ventured further from the bedroom, where her bed was and carpet…the wood floors in the living room gave her problems at first….slipper for her little paws.

She quickly learned what the pads were for and dutifully did her business.  

She played hard, chewing on shoes, untying shoe laces and growling ferociously (well just a little growl).

Slowly she learned to follow us around the house, her little world of three rooms.

Then she was introduced to the outside world….the leaves in the yard were as big as she was!

In a short week she has adapted, grown and thrived!  Now she rules the roost, bouncing around the house and yard, captivating all, old and young, she meets, living up to her heritage of finding a lap a sitting in it.

Still going in spurts of energy, interspersed with naps…sleep, play, eat and poop (sorry but it the only way to describe).

Every day is a joy to watch her developing her character...and "she is a character!"