Making God Laugh

And our plans will have him splitting his sides.  Man plans, God laughs.

Back when we were getting ready to put the house on the market and I was wearing out paintbrushes, we were sure the house would have been long gone by this time and we'd be free as a breeze.  Of course as you know, that hasn't worked out the way we wanted.  However, we're pressing on in case a miracle should occur.

To start, I've already had to declare South Dakota as my intended new home state with the Coast Guard for my retirement purposes.  I may at some point either have to make a flight out there and set up things like getting an address, drivers license, register my vehicles and open a bank account, or I have to completely trash that and change everything over to Virginia where the house is until such time as it sells.  Dragging the house sale means I will have to get a job and, lucky me, start paying Virginia income taxes. 

Many have asked why don't we rent out the house, a good option, but not one that would work for us because the rental market here would not cover the mortgage and we'd have to supplement house payments from our pension, which would crimp our full time travel plans.

If the miracle of selling the house does happen, then we can kick things into high gear.  Our plans would be as soon as we get a contract and closing date on the house, the estate sale would go forward.  We'd have to rent a U-Haul for a trip to New Jersey for items our son Corey is getting and another truck to take the items our daughter Heather is receiving as well as the few things we're going to store at her house  in South Carolina.  Then the biggie, upon closing, Marti will give her notice at work and retire.  We will live locally in the Journey until she works out her 30 day notice.

We have plans to be with Heather's family for Thanksgiving,

 then head West to Oregon to spend Christmas with our son Ryan's family.  Along the way, we'd get our South Dakota residency requirements taken care of.

New Years will have us heading down the West Coast to visit my two cousins that live near San Diego.  After that, we want to head to Quartzsite for the RV show and the follow on craft show for Marti.  While there, we want to make a run for the boarder and check out the dentists in Mexico.  If it looks good, we'll go ahead and get some checkups there.

We have some down time to play around (maybe even a Disney World visit with our grandsons Andrew and Owie)  until March, when we have to be up in New Jersey.  Our daughter-in-law Amanda, Corey's wife, is due with their first child and our fifth grandchild.  They're excited and we are, too.

By May we will need up to be back in Oregon, the reason?  New news here, Ryan's wife Amber, is also expecting, our grandchild number six.  We want to be there to help out, be able to babysit our granddaughters, Taylor and Kierra and come June help them pack up and move to Ryan's new Coast Guard assignment, which at this time is unknown where that will be.

After the move and getting Ryan all set up, we hope to take Andrew and Owie out West for a couple of weeks to see some of the great things like the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns and Hoover Dam, to name a few.  We have to have them back by mid August so they can get ready for school, so we'll be heading North to see Corey and Amanda and my Dad and family in New Jersey and then to Rhode Island to see Marti's sister Gail and brother Bob.

That is our "Semper Gumby" (Always Flexible) plan for our first year.  We're hoping the heavenly guffaws will stop and our home buyer will come along so we can put our tentative plans into reality.

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