As anyone following this blog knows - we have been spending our time getting ready for Christmas. Decorating and shopping. After-all - that's what we Americans do this time of year! Why? Because we must like it!
But what happens after that?
Our Winter 2012 escape involved leaving Maine and driving south shortly after Christmas. That worked pretty well as we missed any and all significant snowstorms and the trip south was just like we like 'em - "uneventful."
The previous year didn't work out quite as well when we left Maine (the first time) on January 21st after having to dig out Winne a couple of times --
and then had to dig out Winne again in NJ after a major snowstorm in order to return to Maine to attend a funeral -- and then had to dig out Winne once again to head south for the second time on February 4th at -8 degrees.
Our snowbirding trip for the Winter of 2010 was not much better when we left on January 12th it was right around 10 degrees above zero!
If we are going to leave Maine for the winter with a minimum amount of hassle - you would think that based on our past experiences we would plan on leaving Maine no later than shortly after Christmas each year. Our experience has shown that the difficulty factor really increases once January arrives!
But we just got home from our sorta unplanned west coast trip in early October! We're not ready to leave yet!! So now what do we do?
We're pretty darn sure that we've had enough of staying in Maine all winter ... so it looks like we are going to do the worse possible thing - compromise - and leave once again at the worst possible time. Right now we are planning on leaving around the 25th of January. I'm sure this will be on the coldest day of the year following a major snowstorm! I sure hope Winne is up to the task of being awoken once again in the middle of winter and expected to perform flawlessly!
I'm sure our plans will include a short stay in NJ to say Hi to the NJ Gang but then I think we will head south in a hurry! At the moment we plan on heading down I-81 to the Knoxville area where we hope to spend a couple of days resting up, warming up, and visiting with our RVing buddies Gene and Judi Curp who live nearby in Maryville, TN. After a short respite in the Volunteer State we will probably head straight to the gulf in Lower Alabama and our winter home away from home at the Rainbow Plantation - arriving just in time for Mardi Gras.
After spending several weeks in "LA" we plan on heading back to the southern east coast and doing some serious relaxing/sightseeing in and around Savannah, GA. We may even plan a route through the Pine Mountain area of Georgia. I wonder what we could find to do there?
After that? We have lots of options and plenty of time to make a plan.
First things first. We still have Christmas shopping to finish!
We have continued with our Christmas decorating these past few days - but not without "issues."
As I recall - we purchased that fake, pre-lit Christmas tree some number of years ago to minimize the hassle of braving the cold weather to choose the tree, then prepare and mount the tree on the Tree Stand, then bring the tree inside and let it acclimate to the warmer temperatures, vacuum up all the needles from all the tree maneuvering, find the tree lights, hang the tree lights, repair the tree lights, water the tree for a few weeks, take the tree outside, vacuum up all the needles again, and finally - take the tree to the Solid Waste Facility. Yes indeed - that fake tree was to solve most of those issues - and it did - pretty much up to this year.
It all started out OK. I retrieved the three tree sections from the storage box, put them together, and plugged in the lights. The top and bottom section lights worked fine. But only about half of the middle section would light up. Not to worry I says - last year I bought the magic light fixing gadget and it worked pretty well. Unfortunately it only worked partially well this year! Making a loong story somewhat shorter ... that middle section light string was "unrepairable." At least it was unrepairable by Mikee within Mikee's tolerance for repair effort!
So after several hours of repair attempts we made the big decision to remove all the pre-installed lights from the tree. Believe me - this sounds easier than it was. I wonder what child slave factory in Thailand is used to have all those lights wound around all those fake tree branches?! There we sat after a days work - with a nice looking fake tree with no lights.
Day two of the 2012 Christmas tree raising effort involved yet another trip to Home Depot to procure new Christmas tree lights. Not just any lights mind you - but the new fangled LED technology lights. These new lights will light up your tree real nice, draw much less power than those "old fangled" lights, last for 10s of thousands of hours and put out right next to zero heat. I gotta tell you - some things really are better these days!
Whew - I'm glad that project is almost behind us. I figure we still have another weeks worth of effort to complete all the decorating. We still have the door wreath, the nativity scene, Peggy's snowmen and Christmas angels. Then there are the several dancing santas that our son Eric and DIL Jen have given us over the years!
Sometimes I am really envious of our full timing RV friends that have limited room to carry all this decorating "stuff." But then sometimes I really like having the house all decorated for Christmas with a gentle snowstorm outside the picture window, and a warm cup of coffee to sip while enjoying the season.
Deck the Halls Ya'all!
Here we sit ... in the post-Thanksgiving, "what do we do now?" position. Stacy and Kaj, with the able assistance of Bailey and Kyla, put on a great feast yesterday complete with both baked and deep fried turkey, smashed potatoes, dressing, green bean casserole, hot rolls ... and all kinds of other food-stuffs. Eric and Jen joined us and contributed the sweet potato casserole, and we brought Peggy's to-die-for Vanilla Cake Corn Bread. Add in some wine, play time with Taylor Anne, and football in the background and you have a complete recipe for a traditional Evringham/Johansen Thanksgiving Day!
I did get some new outdoor Christmas lights and put those up a few days ago - so that pre-Christmas chore is complete and sometime in the next few days it will be time to erect the not-so-real Christmas Tree. Oh yeah - and we need to get in the Christmas gift buying/wrapping/mailing mode as well. 'Tis the season to be jolly afterall!
Now that "the holidays" have arrived - this is also the time of year that I tend to start getting all our year-end financial stuff together. This gets a little easier each year as we have transitioned to "retired" life as I keep track of where the money comes from and goes to on a more consistent basis throughout the year.
I must admit that back in my "working" life I paid little attention to how much I made or where it went. I knew that I made "enough," we spent pretty much all of it, and Peggy made sure that all the bills were paid on-time.
My "retired" life has meant a big change for us when it comes to financial planning and tracking. Peggy has had to put up with my "take over" of the financial tracking duties (although she still performs the monthly checkbook balancing) and I have had to learn all about how much "stuff" really costs.
Although we both have had to change our thinking financially these past few years, a few "truths" have remained. One "truth" is that no matter how much money you have (well this is true for most of us anyway) - you will find a way to spend it. This is also true for our government - which is why I am a fan of taking our money away from them as much as possible! Another "truth" is that although having "enough" is important - our definition of "enough" is more important. If we spend too much time and energy on getting and/or keeping enough - we tend to lose sight of the really important things in life.
So as I watch the evening news and contemplate the future impacts of all the components of the "fiscal cliff," and "fairness" in the federal, state, and local tax codes ... I'll try and keep these (and a few other) fiscal truths in mind.
Meanwhile - exactly what income tax rate should I assume for 2013? Will I really owe that extra $850 in taxes next year? Imagine the quandry I'd be in if I was in that >$250,000 income tax bracket! Will I really owe that extra $10,000 or so in taxes next year? How the heck am I going to pay that and more for my health insurance, my employees health insurance, my house payment, and my kids college education?
It really is a LOT easier being retired!
November 18th - wow - how did it get to be November 18th already? The last time I remember taking a breath it was August something. I guess it's true that "time flies when you're having fun."
It hasn't exactly been a "fun" week around here as both Peggy and I have been on the downhill side of colds. We (especially Peggy) have been pretty fortunate these past couple of years with little sickness - but these colds have hit hard and seem to want to hang on. Not to worry ... we are getting better everyday.
Not only is it the 18th day of November - it's only 4 more days till Thanksgiving! And you know what that means don'tcha? Yup - only 4 more days till Black Thursday, 33 more days till the calendar start of Winter (it's already here in Maine), 37 more days till Christmas, and 80 days till Fat Tuesday!
Stacy and Kaj are hosting the Evringham/Johansen Family Thanksgiving again this year. Apparently this has become a new family tradition that they started back in 2009 when Peggy and I didn't arrive back from a West Coast Trip until a few days before Thanksgiving. They are a great team and put on a pretty darn good feast with all the traditional foods and the traditional NFL games going on in the background. Isn't it amazing how "traditions" change over the years. This year the "tradition" is being modified as we all try out deep fried Turkey for the first time - made in Kaj's new Turkey Fryer. I understand there will be plenty of safety equipment nearby and that the homeowners insurance is paid up!
Once we get past Thanksgiving it will be time to move on to the traditional hanging of the outdoor Christmas lights. We have never really gone overboard on this annual event - but we do like to adorn the front of the house with a few strings of lights. The lights we have been using - we purchased about 10 years ago and they are getting harder and harder to keep working each year as more and more of those tiny bulbs keep burning out. I'm pretty sure I have gotten my money's worth out of those strings and it's time for an update/upgrade this year. While wandering through Home Depot the other day I noticed some new style strings with LED bulbs that are supposed to last for thousands of hours. I also noticed some cool icicle looking bulbs with multiple LEDs that flash on and off in a "shooting star" sequence, and then there was the lighted reindeer with the moving head, and the blow up Santa Claus and Snow Globe .... OK that's over now ... I'm better. I recon I'll just pick up a couple of strings of lighted bulbs.
Don't want to start too many new traditions.
Leave it to me to be on the "other" side of conventional wisdom.
Now that the election is over, the big news is the "Fiscal Cliff." It seems that no politician wants to go over this cliff ... yet those same politicians are the ones that built the cliff in the first place ... and for the very reason that we are facing the cliff today.
I say we go over the cliff with glee. Let's take a look at just a few components of "the cliff."
1. The 2% decrease in the Social Security Payroll Tax that has been in place for the last couple of years is set to expire. If it expires - all wage earners will have to pay more to the Social Security Trust Fund to keep the Fund solvent for a few more years. The tax "holiday" that has been in place for the past two years was a government "good deal" designed to "stimulate the economy. Meanwhile the government was taking all kinds of other actions to slow down economic growth. I say - we will all be better off if the Social Security Trust Fund is better off. Let the tax holiday expire - it has done whatever good it was going to do. Time to fund our future.
2. The "Bush" Tax Decreases are set to expire. Once again - don't you find it the least bit interesting that these tax decreases were "temporary" in the first place. Why? Because - once again - they were meant to provide a short term "shot in the arm" to the economy ... and then be returned to where they were once the economy was "boosted." Did this tactic work? Nope! It's hard to boost the economy when the regulatory framework for doing business is so difficult. I say - let's go back to the tax rates before the "temporary" cuts - For Everybody. It will raise lots of revenue to help decrease our debt, it was "Fair" then ... so it must be "Fair" now!
3. Last year the Congress and the President agreed that the National Debt was too high (hard not to agree with that) ... and since they couldn't come to agreement on what spending needed to be cut and what, if any, new revenues needed to be raised (remember now - they had already agreed to keep those nasty "Bush" tax cuts in place at least through the election) -- they collectively decided to put in place a Trillion $$ decrease in spending as of January 2013 - "The Sequester" (again - after the election). But don't get too excited here ... that Trillion $$ cut is not a cut to today's spending -- only a cut in the future increase in spending that might otherwise have occurred. Said more simply ... the National Debt still goes up - only more slowly - unless they change their minds and spend more anyway. I say - let the Sequester happen. Regardless of the screaming and yelling on both sides of the isle - the world will keep turning and the debt will keep rising - albeit maybe more slowly.
We taxpayers don't like paying more in taxes -- and us receivers of government provided benefits don't like seeing our benefits decreased ... but WE ARE 16 Trillion $$ in debt folks! Since our President and Congressmen seem to like to deal in temporary measures and self inflicted "Fiscal Cliffs" - I say lets call their bluff and move towards living within our means.
I know - a novel concept.
Life has been a bit crazy-busy these last few days since my last post. After our big family get together and BBQ rib-feast on Wednesday night the weather turned a bit snowy as we awoke to a couple of inches of heavy snow in the morning. Most of the accumulation didn't last through the day as it warmed up a bit and the rain melted it away.
The NJ Gang was busy visiting their Lisbon, Maine grandparents on Thursday so Peggy and I did a little furniture shopping locally and ended up purchasing a new Lazy Boy rocker-recliner for me and a new end table. We've only been saying we needed to replace my chair for about 2 years now - and the end table maybe 5 years now ... so we have that chore behind us. I like my new chair. It's pretty much the same model as the old one ... only a different color and this one has foam that actually cushions you!
Peggy and Emily made cookies on Thursday night and Alyssa and Peggy made more cookies on Friday morning. Not to be outdone -- I decided that Friday was to be Mikee's Maineiac Gumbo Day - 2012. The NJ Gang had not had the pleasure of tasting this fine delicacy so I and my hard working kitchen assistants chopped up and stirred up a batch. We didn't have any squirrels or 'gator in the freezer so we had to settle for the shrimp and sausage version. Based on the volume consumed I would have to say that it was a success.
The Jerzee Gang left yesterday morning for their trip back home ... right about the time that Stacy and Kaj dropped off Taylor for a day with GMa and GPa. That Taylor is walking/running all over the place now so watching her is a fulltime job ... for both of us! Add to that the colds that the NJ Gang decided to share with us ... and we're pretty beat this morning. But colds or not -- having Taylor over has been fun. She is at that age now where she is learning something new every second ... and wants to share it!
So that's pretty much the way it is here in Maine on this 30 something degree Sunday morning.
I foresee a NFL nap this afternoon followed by a bowl of leftover Gumbo. Life is indeed - Good.
Another national election is finally passed. Free government stuff will remain free, gay marriage is OK, and pot is legal. 50% of us are ecstatic and 50% of us are afraid. More guns will be sold, more concealed carry permits will be issued, more stocks will be sold. The left gets farther left and more embolden in their leftness and the right digs in for 4 more years of resisting anything the left thinks they just received a "mandate" to accomplish. Sounds a lot like post election day 2008!
Back here in Topsham, Maine - life is good. The NJ Evringham's are up visiting from storm ravaged New Jersey. Actually - they made it through the big "Superstorm" with no real problems but they got to see several long gas lines and a few FEMA convoys as they made the trip north on Sunday. We have spent a lot of time visiting with the NJ kids and grandkids these last few days - we even spent a few hours at the local bowling alley yesterday where a good time was had by all. Grandpa was only a spectator for the big bowling match as he has been having some neck/shoulder muscle issues that I didn't want to make worse ... but I had a fun time watching anyway.
Today is darn-right wintry cold and windy with the temp outdoors right around 36 degrees. Brrrr.
We have a big family get together planned for this evening with the Richmond gang and the Auburn gang joining us and the NJ gang here. Looks to be around 13 of us! Ought to be loud - and fun.
I think I may need to start happy hour early today!
Well here we are ... just a few days from the BIG election ... and guess what the prognosticators are prognosticating? Tied race for president and it all depends on the turnout. Didn't I pretty much predict that would be the case a few months ago?
Since I'm doing so well at my predictions I thought I would throw in a few more ...
Regardless who wins there will be at least 1 and probably more lawsuits regarding voting improprieties.
If Obama wins the world will continue to turn.
If Obama wins the economy will continue to "grow" at around 2-3% per year for the next 4 years and the deficit will continue to grow to around 20 Trillion $$.
If Obama wins he will finally move towards the center and Congress will actually get a few things done. The "Bush" tax cuts will expire for those making over $1M (but not for anybody else), The amount of income that is subject to SS Tax will increase, the SS retirement age will increase to 70 over several years, the medicare income tax will increase for everyone, and the annual COLA for SS will be based on a different CPI index. This will really upset his progressive base - but he won't care - he'll be working on "his legacy."
If Romney wins the world will continue to turn.
If Romney wins the Stock Market will gain 500 points within the first week, the economy will grow at least 6% in the first year and near 10% for each of the following 3 years.
If Romney wins the deficit will get no larger than it is now after the first year and will drop by 1.5 Trillion after his first term.
If Romney wins he will move towards the center and Congress will actually get a few things done. The "Bush" tax cuts will expire for those making over $1M (but not for anybody else), The amount of income that is subject to SS Tax will increase, the SS retirement age will increase to 70 over several years, the medicare income tax will increase for everyone, and the annual COLA for SS will be based on a different CPI index. This will really upset the conservative arm of the republican party - but he won't care - he knows they will still vote for him in 2016.
Bottom Line ... The world still turns and SS and Medicare will be adjusted to deal with reality. If "O" wins we struggle along economically as Business finds ways to make money in spite of the government hassles it was to deal with. If "R" wins the pent up demand for business growth will be unleashed leading to healthy growth and a decrease in the national debt.
Take your pick and get out and vote on Tuesday!
So what path did Mikee choose for his next project? Well I started with the old Toshiba Laptop. My present laptop was purchased in 2007 in Salt Lake City, Utah. I remember the place and time because I remember the incident that brought on the purchase. There we were - parked in Winne in Park City, Utah on a somewhat snowy evening in early October when Peggy was nice enough to brew me some coffee in our under the cupboard mounted coffee maker. Peggy must have gotten distracted because she failed to place the coffee carafe in the coffee maker and the brewed coffee then made its way onto ... and into my original Toshiba laptop. Needless to say it met a sudden catastrophic failure. But I digress .... back to the laptop at hand. Since that day in 2007 my laptop has been used almost daily for all sorts of tasks including a couple stints at being a "work" computer during a couple of consulting jobs. Over all these years I have downloaded and installed lots of different software "programs", unloaded almost as many pieces of software, created and deleted bunches of Documents, Spreadsheets, Power Point presentations and managed thousands of pictures we have taken along our various travels. Needless to say ... the ol' laptop has been used and sometimes abused. The result of all this use/abuse was a machine that had become very slow to boot, slow to accomplish anything if you asked it to do more than one thing at a time, and generally more of a pain in the posterior than a useful tool.
I suppose I could have taken the easy way out and simply purchased a new one. But that just doesn't fit with my (usually) frugal ways. So I opted for the slow and painful solution.
Step 1 was to back up all my thousands of files. This didn't take too long since I do this about every month anyway. All my various documents, pictures, settings, etc are backed up onto an external hard drive. I do not back up the various software packages that are loaded on the laptop's hard drive.
Step 2 was the painful step. Painful because it is irreversible once started and takes a long time to recover from. Using the "restore" disks that came with the laptop I returned the laptop to its 2007 "out of the box" state. The process I used reformats the hard drive thus erasing everything that was there and then reloads the original software. The good news - if it works - is that you start with a clean slate ... all the various registry problems that have developed over the years and other file corruptions that had found their way in -- were deleted. The bad news is that now the work really starts.
Once Step 2 is complete you have a "clean" machine in its 2007 state. The next step is to bring the operating system up to 2012 standards. Remember all those "updates" you have been faithfully uploading the last 5 years ... time to upload them again! After downloading and then installing updates for about 24 hours and 1 gigabyte of download bandwidth later - you have the operating system up-to-date. Yippee! I thought about upgrading to Windows 8 rather than going through all this hassle but that upgrade is only good for one computer (can't be used on another computer) and that didn't make sense to me for a computer this old.
Step 4 is to load the various key pieces of software you routinely use. For me, I use Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Presentations, and Outlook) for most of my non-internet based uses. Since I had to purchase these programs originally - I needed to re-install them using their original installation disks. Once that was done - you guessed it - I needed to download all the various updates to those programs. Another half a day and half a gigabyte later and that task was complete.
Step 5 was to load all the other software that is frequently used and "free" from the internet. For me ... I needed Google Chrome for my internet browser and Picassa 3 to manage all my photos. I may want some other stuff later but that was enough for now.
Step 6 was to retrieve important "settings" including my old contacts list, internet page bookmarks, various passwords etc. A time consuming but essential task.
Step 7 is still ongoing and will continue for who-knows-how long. Loading all the various files I use back onto the laptop from the backup hard drive. Some stuff I use a lot -- mostly financial spreadsheets -- so I've already put those files back. Other stuff -- like all our old photos -- I may take my time and simply archive those onto some other media rather than back to the laptop.
So here I sit 3 days later -- with a laptop that only takes a minimal amount of time to boot and will actually do more that one thing at a time without getting too confused!
I wonder how long that will last? Hopefully a long time since I now do most of my computing using my Ipad.
Whew - glad that chore is behind me so I can get out there and pick up some more leaves!
Have a great Autumn Day!!
