Photos of upcoming vacation home in Nevada!…

Posted by worldwide-admin on December 17, 2012 with 0 Comment

Pool and hot tub in Nevada house.

Living room.

Below are the photos of the Henderson, Nevada vacation rental we’ll be moving into this upcoming Wednesday after a five-hour drive across the desert. We posted these photos many months ago, doing so again today for our newer readers.

Master bedroom.

Second of three bedrooms.

A charming house with great reviews in VRBO.com located in the fabulous Green Valley Ranch area in Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas, will definitely serve our needs for eight days over the holidays with family and friends coming to visit for the three days between Tom’s 60th birthday on the 23rd and Christmas. We couldn’t be more thrilled.

Third bedroom.

Over the next two days, we’ll busily pack for the eight days in Nevada, finish the balance of our paperwork, pack the food and cooking supplies we’ve accumulated while in Scottsdale, and the hardest part of all, decide what we’re leaving behind in one final bin we’ll leave at son Richard‘s house.

Kitchen, dining area.

This is the hardest part. Once we leave the vacation house in Henderson on the 27th, we return to the vacation house in Scottsdale for our final packing before leaving on January 1st for San Diego to ultimately sail away on January 3rd. Any items we don’t bring to Henderson now become a part of our luggage, an impossible scenario.

Casual dining and lounge area off of the kitchen.

We have warm clothes that we aren’t bringing (Good thing we brought them along for the cold weather we’ve experienced lately), piles of papers to pass off to my sister Julie who’ll spend Tom’s birthday and Christmas with us as well.

Pool table in the living area.

Julie will keep our medical files with test results, our health care directives, and stacks of legal documents that we completed on Friday. We’ll leave our tax prep receipts in a banker’s box with Richard.

The kitchen is dated, but serves our needs.

Oh, it goes on and on. There’s so much to remember much of which I listed on a Nevada “to do” and others that require me walking around and “looking” at everything to further remind me. Thank goodness, my memory is serving me well.

Main living room.

Not only will we move into the house below, but we’ll get ready for Christmas, baking (for guests), decorating (just a little), and go to our dentist appointments for final cleanings. After the dentist, Tom has an appointment at a local travel clinic for his last TwinRix vaccine.

Hot tub as part of the pool.

Plus, we’ll complete the arrangements for the sale of Tom’s car (prospective buyer in the works), hopefully, to transpire while we’re in San Diego over the last two days. If that doesn’t work out for any reason, of course, we have a Plan B.

On January 2, we’ll take the SUV to a local dealer and sell it for whatever they’ll give us. Apparently, there’s a shortage of clean used vehicles. After pricing it at Edmunds, we feel confident that we will sell it for close to the dealer’s wholesale price. It’s a 2010 model and in perfect condition. We’re already prepared for a low offer accepting this reality as part of the process, especially after doing so poorly at our estate sale. Ouch! Nobody cares to pay what we feel “our stuff” is worth.

Here’s the link to the details and photos about the Henderson home. (Please excuse the formatting issues. It’s rather tricky copying and pasting photos from other web sites. As I’ve mentioned in the past, web design is not my forte).
http://www.vrbo.com/301335

Windows 8 pluses and minuses…

Posted by worldwide-admin on November 22, 2012 with 0 Comment

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May your day be filled with amazing food, animated conversation and an abundance of love.

After 18 days as owners of two new lightweight Acer Windows 8, 15.6, 64 bit laptops we’ve had adequate time to determine its flaws and merits as typical, not expert, PC users. (Well, not quite the typical user, as far as time online is concerned in preparation for our upcoming travels).

Back in 1991, Tom and I each had our own over sized desktop computers when we both became obsessed with an online beta game called Netplay, one of the first of its kind at that time. It took 8 hours to download the game via a phone modem. Wow, times have changed!

Over the years, we’ve updated our computers every few years, intrigued by the latest software and technology, finding ourselves enjoying their use as a tool to enhance our lives, to learn, to entertain us, to shop, to read aloud to one another, maybe spending more time online than other users.

As we planned our travels, we knew that our two old workhorse Dell Inspiron 17.3″, 7.8 pound laptops, had their day. Once Microsoft started promoting Windows 8, we decided we had to make the laptops last until the new laptops were available.

It was a long wait. My case broke and was held together by a huge plastic clamp. Tom’s monitor’s light dimmed beyond repair (believe me, I tried) leaving us both chugging away waiting out Windows 8 release date. Alas, it arrived on the market a week before we left Minnesota.

We decided to wait to purchase the two new laptops until we arrived in Scottsdale avoiding any concern of a possible hotel room thief along the way. One day after we arrived, we headed to the local Costco store, credit card in hand, chomping at the bit to get back to our temporary home to begin the process of transferring the data. Ugh!

Mistake #1: In order to get a “good deal” of $1658 (including 9.5% Arizona sales tax) buying at Costco, we short-changed ourselves in some ways. Don’t get me wrong, we love Costco, always have.

However, buying a computer from Costco resulted in zero in-person technical service, all precipitated by the desire to save a few hundred dollars. Add a new operating system of which we had zero experience with limited information online, we were in a quandary.

Desperate, a few days later, we attended a free one hour course at the local Microsoft store. Had we not had a few days to “play around with it” the course would have been way over our heads. Fortunately, by that point we knew exactly which questions to ask, coming out of the class feeling more at ease.

Mistake #2: Not purchasing a new data transfer software program or paying $69-$99 to have a professional do the transfers. The software we brought with us for this task was obsolete for Windows 8. Yes, we had transferred most of our data to the free 2 G DropBox before we left Minnesota, which we are now transferring to Microsoft’s own new cloud, SkyDrive with 25 G of free storage.

Fortunately, we had brought along the CDs for Microsoft Office and Outlook 2007, which miraculously, we were able to install. We didn’t want to buy Office 2010 when Office 2013 is coming out in February.

Fortunately, we brought along a zip drive, enabling us to transfer all of Outlook files which included all of our communication, rental agreements, receipts and instructions with the owners and managers of the many vacation homes we are renting all over the world. (I had placed the actual leases in Dropbox).

If I were to say, we each spent about five days setting up our computers, it’s no exaggeration. Finding support online was difficult with little consistent Windows 8 information available. This will change quickly. We were a few weeks ahead of the availability of reliable online guidance.

Somehow, we figured it all out while swiping our fingers across our “touch screens” trying to maneuver those pesky little tiles. Somehow, all of our data, contacts, pictures and settings are in place. Somehow, we’ve learned the zillions of nuances one will only find in Windows 8.

The biggest issue we discovered, using Adobe Flash player, supposedly pre-installed into Internet Explorer 10. Not the case, with error messages on many websites that require Flash.

After hours of looking for solutions; patches from Microsoft or new versions of Windows 8, I stumbled across what proved to be a workable download, when several downloads didn’t solve the problem. (Of course, I uninstalled the non-working version we had but even the uninstall feature had issues). Quickly, I repeated the exact same process that made it work on my laptop, onto Tom’s laptop and it didn’t work! We had the exact same computers!

Days later, after downloading and re-installing several versions, I finally got Flash to work, enabling Tom to get into his historical documents in Ancestry.com, his favorite site. At one point, I was so obsessed with finding a solution, I sat here in this not-so-comfy chair, palms sweating, until almost midnight, bound and determined to fix it.

Lo and behold, a few days later, it stopped working!

The next day, I spent over an hour on the phone with Costco’s technical support in a conference call with a rep from Acer, neither of whom could resolve the issue.

Our laptops are quietly humming along loaded with our stuff, access to our travel files, filled with new apps, mine with little blocks of tiles, categorized by topic, each a single click to what I want to do. I’m learning to love it, now that the worst is almost over with (the Flash issue remains).

Would we recommend Windows 8? Yes, tentatively, provided one has professional assistance in transferring data from the old computer, getting Adobe Flash Player working correctly which we have yet to do, attending online or in-person training, and a willingness to spend considerable time learning its unfamiliar commands and hand gestures so unlike former Windows operating systems.

We both have found that the learning and the resulting mental stimulation from acquiring and getting up to speed on the latest technology may ultimately prove to be instrumental in keeping our brains working and perhaps, in keeping us young. That would be nice.

We have lots to do today, including going out to Thanksgiving dinner at The Wandering Horse Buffet at The Talking Stick Casino in Scottsdale.

After dinner, perhaps another hour long walk to walk off the meal, as we did yesterday perusing past the 100’s of art galleries in the art district in our neighborhood. I told you, “He’d walk!”

Have a happy day!

P.S. Since writing this post this morning, I have found a solution for Flash Player. Actually Internet Explorer is supposed to be pre-installed with Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash Player. In both of our computers, it was non-functioning.
1. Download the patch at this Microsoft site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2770041
2. Open Internet Explorer on the DESKTOP, not the TILES START SCREEN. In the upper right hand corner is a little gear (settings), click on this and then click on Manage add-ons.
3. In the middle of the box that appears, click on Show and select ALL add-ons. Scroll down the right inside of the box and find Shockwave Flash
4. Double click on Shockwave until a box appears. Check ALLOW ALL WEBSITES. This should do it.

That fix worked on our Windows 8 computers. We now both have working Adobe Flash Players Hopefully, it will work for you. If you have trouble, feel free to comment here or email me and I will gladly respond promptly.

I don’t profess to be a Windows 8 expert, but with the lack of “free” tech support that knew how to solve this problem, we had no choice than to figure it out on our own.

Now have a happy Thanksgiving day! With both of our computers in full function mode, we sure will!

Why 2nd passports?…Visit to Nevada…

Posted by worldwide-admin on November 18, 2012 with 0 Comment

Over the past many months of writing this blog, I have mentioned the need for 2nd passports. One may ask, “Why isn’t one passport sufficient?”

Usually, one passport is sufficient for most travelers. If visas are needed for travel, one must send in their passport to the appropriate embassy along with other pertinent documents as required by the country into which one is seeking access. Doing so, would leave us in a foreign country without a passport in our possession for a week, a dangerous situation.

Visas are not required by all countries, many are only required for stays of 30 days or more, many for as much as 90 days. It is imperative that we check the requirements at the embassy of the countries we’ll be visiting, found easily online at a number of sites.

Rather than take the time and effort to apply for all the visas we will need as we need them and, based on our long stays in many countries, we have decided to use the services of VisaHQ, a company located on Embassy Row in Washington, DC. They have the ability to quickly and easily process the paperwork, not only for our 2nd passports but also for our many upcoming visas.

Unfortunately, it is necessary to wait about 30 days before traveling to a specific country, since they usually are only good for a specific period.

Of course, there are additional fees for processing each visa, usually under $79 each. Early on in our budgeting discussions we decided to include this expenses rather than taking the time and the effort at each of our locations to do the paperwork ourselves. Doing so would create stress, distracting us from the enjoyment of the experience at the time.

VisaHQ, along with other such websites, has the traveler complete a master form kept secure on their site. When a visa is needed a single page is all that is required to complete online along with sending in the 2nd passport and any necessary documents which are quickly returned.

Second passports are only good for two years. We’ll note the renewal date on our calendar upon receipt. For this reason, we are waiting until we are down to the wire to ensure we have full use of the two years.

Once we apply and have experienced the process of our first application online with VisaHQ we will report back here with the details. Of course, we already have our “first” passports, good for another nine years in our case. (US passports are valid for a of a total of 10 years).

This past Friday while here in Nevada, we had additional passport photos taken at a Walgreens pharmacy, who along with CVS are certified to take passport photos, making this process easier than in years past. The cost for each pair of photos is $10.99.

We each ordered two sets leaving us with a total of four passport photos plus a fifth we already had of an older photo. Generally, passport photos are valid for six months. (Yes, us old timers do change in appearance in six months, I suppose).

The time here in Henderson, Nevada has been low key as we continue to prepare to leave the US, visiting family, playing with family kids and dogs, Monty and Owen.

We dined in the past two nights. On Saturday while at Whole Foods we purchased a huge chunk of bison sirloin steak, gluten free of course, that I cut into two nice sized pieces to marinate. After all, we are trying “new things.”

Nah, Tom took one bite and gagged. It didn’t help that we were watching a show on TV, Extreme Cheapskates, whereby the “star” of the episodes would go “dumpster diving” at restaurant dumpsters for dinner.

That didn’t bother me! I busily chomped away on my big steak, noticing a “gamey” flavor but hungry enough to eat the entire thing. I eyeballed Tom’s plate considering attacking his steak also deciding not to “pig out.” Bison in the future? Not so much.

Undoubtedly, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to try new foods along the way as we travel the world. Later.

Our new residency…State of Nevada

Posted by worldwide-admin on November 16, 2012 with 1 Comment

It feels different living away from Minnesota, not better, not worse. Just different. No snow, no cold, predictably warm and sunny days and a mad excess of shopping and restaurants.

Yesterday afternoon, while driving the five hours to Las Vegas from Scottsdale for the weekend, we stopped for gas in the desert town of Kingsman, Arizona, a familiar stopping point for a travelers along their way to California or Nevada.

Getting low on gas with another hour plus to go, Tom pulled in to a busy gas station, right off the highway. Lo and behold, they didn’t accept credit cards, only cash a customer may have on hand or, from their cash machine conveniently positioned on the gas pump island, in order to collect a $2.75 “processing fee” from the machine for every transaction.

By avoiding paying standard credit card fees by allowing only debit cards, the gas station was allowed to line their coffers with the excess revenues they were generating from the cash machines!

What a rip off! Customers were furious as they were sucked in by this scam grumbling as they begrudgingly complied.

Not my guy! He whipped out of there so fast that his SUV’s tires were squealing, We proceeded a quarter mile down the road to pump gas at a station with no such policies. As he was filling the tank he realized that the gas he was pumping was $.50 more per gallon! Oh good grief!

Everyone had warned us about getting ripped off outside the US! Ha! It was a good reminder to be suspicious; not paranoid, to be mindful; not obsessive, wherever we may be. So we shall.

So today, situated in to our comfortable family member’s home in Henderson for the weekend, located in an ideal area, we prepared ourselves for several tasks today:

1. Go to MailLink in Las Vegas and pick up all of our accumulated forwarded mail from the past two weeks.
2. Go to a CVS or Walgreen’s pharmacy to have take additional passport photos necessary to apply for our second passports (will explain this soon) and also as required when applying for certain visas around the world.
3. Apply for Nevada driver’s licenses and voter’s registration. (We’ve been warned that the wait is horrifying. More on that in a moment.)
4. Find a good restaurant for breakfast.
5. Find our bank in order to deposit some checks that had arrived in the mail.
6. Locate a Target store to purchase a new FitBit pedometer after the most recent device fell apart. (I must get back to tracking those 10,000 daily steps, severely lacking over the past two weeks.)

OK. The Nevada DMV, a pure nightmare, we heard. We had talked to several residents warning us to be prepared for hours spent waiting in line. Of course, we had a plan. Showing up 15 minutes before they were to open at 8:00 am and getting in the growing line outside the building seemed like a reasonable solution.

Upon arriving at 7:43, we cringed as we witnessed no less than 40 people in line while a light rain was falling on a chilly morning in the low 50’s. Unprepared, arriving without jackets or rain gear we decided to tough it out. We were tempted to drive away and come back at a later time, anticipating that the line might lighten up later in the day.

Let’s stay, I coaxed Tom, he too in a lightweight long sleeved shirt. In line we went. At 7:55 they started letting us inside. Much to our surprise, there were no less than 25 stations utilizing a sophisticated numbering system, reminiscent of a computerized female voice moving the cattle-like crowd in sci-fi movie we watched years ago.

In no time at all, we were both seated in front of a DMV “officer” providing our copious documents to satisfy the state’s requirements. We were well armed.

An hour later, we were out the door with our Nevada residency in tact, former Minnesota residents (Tom, a lifelong fifth generation Minnesotan, that predates Minnesota statehood) and me, having enjoyed the frozen tundra and Minnesota nice (to be missed) for the past 40 years. Thank you Minnesota. Hello, Nevada.

And, soon, my friends…48 days…hello, world.

Technology updates…new items, photos, prices…

Posted by worldwide-admin on November 10, 2012 with 0 Comment

Note: Please keep scrolling down to the end of the post as you read. Copying photos and descriptions from other web sites prevents easy editing.

Without a normal mailing address, other than our mailing service in Las Vegas Nevada, fulfilling our needs for specific equipment not generally found at local computer stores presented us in a quandary.

The best solution was to order our equipment now, head to Las Vegas next week as planned to visit family, and get to our mailing service’s office to pick up our awaiting equipment. If, a few items don’t arrive by the time we return to Scottsdale, we can pick it up when we return to Las Vegas a month later for the holidays.

Before we arrived in Scottsdale, we contemplated a few options for receiving the items we wanted, not sure as to the situation until we actually arrived. There was a waiting list for a PO box at the Scottsdale post offices and we didn’t want to incur the cost of yet another mailing service for the short period in Arizona.

As a result, it was necessary to hustle to do the research in the past few days to determine which newer products have hit the market since researching months ago. A few new item had in fact be released, much to our delight. (Ah, my delight. Tom doesn’t seem to get so enthused over this stuff).

With the learning curve for Windows 8, transferring over all of our files we hadn’t placed in Dropbox (now to be transferred to Windows Sky Drive) and the difficulty I encountered getting all of my Outlook folders containing all of our travel information, confirmations and contracts, I was concerned.

To facilitate the process, I made an appointment and brought my old and new laptops to the Microsoft Store in the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale for a 15 minute $49 session. Arriving on time, hauling both laptops through Nordstrom’s, I made it right at 10 am, when they opened. Tom had offered to go along and carry but, I insisted I could go alone.

Waiting for my turn for over 20 minutes, the tech seemed annoyed when I told him my plight with Outlook. He said if he couldn’t fix it in 15 minutes, I’d have to leave both laptops resulting in the price going up substantially.

OK. In a situation like this, after calculating the prospect of $196 hourly rate increasing “substantially,” I decided to recall the value of Minnesota nice with a dash of warmth and charm that I’ve called upon in the past to have a good end result in a win-win for everyone.

Fifty minutes later, after considerable chatter and chuckles the tech sent me on my way, both laptops in their respective bags, one on each shoulder ouch) and…he waived the bill! No charge! No bill! No $49 fee! Thanks, tech!

By the way, on my way out of the mall, I stopped in that Nordstrom’s store when a table of sale handbags caught my eye. All of my bags were sold at the sale, except for a few smaller bags and the awful bag I had been using since leaving Minnesota. I needed a huge fully zippered leather bag and had yet to have time to look for one suitable for travel.

My new roomy, fully zippered leather handbag ideal for travel.

Ah, success! Minutes later I walked out the door, a laptop bag on each shoulder and a Nordstrom’s shopping bag in my hand containing my new purse, on sale for $99, as opposed to its regular price of $249. Designer name, I didn’t notice. Quality and function, I did.

Hurrying back to our “home,” Tom still sitting in the same spot as when I left him, he picked up his head from his new laptop long enough to say “Hi, Sweetie” with a big grin on his face when I told him about the $49…and the new purse. He didn’t ask about the price of the new purse. He never does. I never offer it. (Its a girl thing).

Immediately getting to work online to continue the search for a few more digital items for our world travels, most of which I have mentioned in the past in this blog, knowing precisely where and what to purchase:

1. Mini portable projector, purchased for $269 (no tax, no shipping) at B & H Photo, that we will plug into our laptops, find the external hard drive and project the TV show or movie on to a wall for up to an 80″ viewing area.

The manufacturer claims the resolution is so good that one can project a movie on the back of the seat in front of you while flying in an airplane. We shall see about that.

(Please bear with the inconsistent editing on the photos and information from the three items below. Copying and pasting from other websites is discouraged and thus, doing so is cumbersome).

Price: $248.00

Product Highlights

50 Lumens
1024 x 600 Resolution
15,000 Hour LEDs
60+ Minute Battery Charge
Full Function MP4 Player
Full Size HDMI Port
1W Audio

USB Host Reader
Smaller than Two Stacked Smart Phones
Headphone Jack x 1

For the purpose of watching the many movies and TV shows we’re downloading now from Graboid, a web site that, for $19.95 a month, allows downloads of unlimited movies, TVs, and Audiobooks.

We’ve begun the process of downloading videos onto our new “My Passport,” the two terabyte external hard drive we purchased a few days ago at Costco for $159.95 with tax at 9.5% totaled (as mentioned in a previous post), $175.19.

Our new external hard drive, My Passport.

If we download videos, as opposed to streaming, we can watch them without an Internet connection at our own pace.

2. Mini Portable Scanner, purchased from Amazon.com for $196.27, no tax, free shipping. We’ll be keeping records of all of our travel expenses. Traveling with hundreds of receipts for every expense is bulky and ridiculous. Every few days, we’ll wirelessly scan (Bluetooth) all of our receipts directly into the app Evernote on my computer where we’ll keep all of our travel records going forward.

This app is also available on mobile phones. Once we get our new phones, I will download Evernote and be able to scan receipts while sitting in restaurant, right to my smart phone while we’re sitting in the restaurant. Cool, eh? (The printer and scanner will fit into my new purse!)

Doxie Go – Cordless / Mobile
Paper Scanner

by Doxie

1352565734
false
1
17
17
1

List Price:	$199.00
Price:	$196.27 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Deal Price:

Product Features

Doxie Go delivers smart and simple scanning you can take anywhere – no
computer required
Doxie’s tiny size makes it easy to scan at your desk or on the go – just
insert your paper. Scan full color pages in just 8 seconds
Scan up to 600 pages (2400 photos) with built-in memory, or insert an SD
card or USB flash drive for additional storage
Award-winning ABBYY® OCR technology recognizes the text in your document and
creates searchable PDFs
Doxie 2.0 included: Amazing scanners deserve amazing software. Doxie 2.0
syncs scans, creates multi-page stacks, and sends directly to your favorite apps

3. Portable mini printer, purchased at Amazon.com, for $176.51, with no tax and free shipping: Since we won’t be staying in hotels very often (in between cruises for a night) we won’t have access to the hotels printer to print boarding passes, itinerary and copies of our legal documents that some countries require in order to gain entry at the time of arrival. The thought of finding our way to a printer is outrageous both in cost and time. We found a tiny paper storing mini printer that is amazing.

PS900 USB ONLY MOBILE PRINTER
PAPER CARTRIDGE INCL

by Planon
Systems

Be
the first to review this item | Like (1)

Printstik PS900 Portable Thermal Printer

Battery Powered
USB Interface & Charging
Compact & Durable Design
No Ink or Toner

List Price:	$199.00
Price:	$176.51
Deal Price:
You Save:	$22.49 (11%)

We’ll share our own photos once we receive the scanner and printer. Now I am wondering if we’ll need some type of mini sound system since the external hard drive doesn’t have external speakers. But then, maybe the sound will come out of the laptop while it plays. Of course, we’ll test it all before we leave the US in 54 days. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hummm…more on the “to do” list.

Solutions as we wind down..

Posted by worldwide-admin on October 26, 2012 with 0 Comment

Although now sick with the flu, I’ve had no time to rest in an effort to speed my recovery. Forcing myself to continue running around, making phone calls and completing tasks in preparation for leaving Minnesota in five days has been trying.

Tom’s retirement party is tomorrow, Saturday at 5 PM. My voice sounds like Minnie Mouse and I’m weak, coughing and foggy headed. Perhaps, this is Nature’s way of warning me to slow down. Not a good time to teach me a lesson, Mother Nature!

The mailing service, MailLink requires notarization of legal documents with literally no daytime hours for Tom to go to a notary. After speaking with Eric at MailLink he reassured me that there was nothing to worry about.

He suggested we go ahead, sign up, pay the $156 annual fee for the largest mailbox via PayPal to get the documents notarized when we get situated in Scottsdale. In the interim, they won’t be able (due to state laws) to forward our mail until they receive the forms.

Over the past several months I’ve reduced the amount of mail that we receive by contacting the various companies requesting they only send online notifications and statements. Most were able to comply.

In the near future, it appears that snail mail will become a thing of the past as evidenced by the financial difficulties of the USPS. Today’s fast paced technological advances continue to have an enormous effect on the use of paper and mail in general. Perhaps, in time as we travel, we’ll no longer need the services of any form of a mailing service, receiving all communications by email

A portion of Tom’s income from his work will no longer be paid by direct deposit as his paycheck had been over the past many years. This in itself presents a dilemma. How do we get the paper check “mailed” to us into the bank? He requested direct deposit for these payments to no avail.

We considered asking one of our adult children to receive the payments by mail immediately depositing the checks. Realizing how annoying and inconvenient it would be for them with their full and busy lives to be watching for the checks and subsequently depositing them, we decided it was too much of an imposition. We didn’t want that inconvenience ourselves! Why would we impose this on our children?

In speaking with MailLink, they suggested we do what their other clients do in a similar situations:

Use the provided MailLink address as our mailing address
Provide them with deposit slips and mailing envelopes made out to to our bank’s department that handles incoming snail mail deposits.
MailLink opens the envelope, scans a copy of the check to our email, signs the back of the check, “deposit only” and then mail in one of the envelopes provided. No deposit slip is required per this service offered by our bank.
Within 2-3 days the deposit it made into our bank at which point they email us a receipt for the deposit.
Check online banking to verify the receipt of the deposit.

Cumbersome? Yes? Alternative? Hire an accountant or certified money manager and pay $100’s in fees each year? No, thank you.

Next task? Oh, yes, they continue. Insuring our belongings. With the documents signed on the sale of the house, we are ending our homeowners insurance on the day we leave, October 31st. At that point insurance ends on our belongings as well. Today, I will wrap up the details of our new “personal property” insurance.

The estate sale is in progress. Yesterday, the first day, was a bit challenging. It was snowing, the roads were slippery and the wind was whipping at the time the sale was to begin.

At 7:00 am yesterday morning, sick and miserable, I showed up the house to meet with the estate sale people to finalize pricing and details. The wind and sleet on the peninsula felt like a hurricane as I nearly was blown away finding my way from the driveway to the front door in the dark. Somehow, the detector for the exterior lights were turned off.

By 9:00 am, as the sale began, I was visiting with our friend and neighbor two doors down, peeking out the window to witness the caravan of cars driving down the narrow road to examine and hopefully buy “our stuff.” It was hard to watch. I left an hour later for a delightful stress-reducing lunch with the neighbors at our favorite local restaurant, as opposed to the breakfast we had planned earlier. Its so hard to say goodbye. The worst is yet to come.

Once again cocooned in this comfy leather love seat as I write today, my voice is gone, my throat less sore and the cough is slightly better as I prepare for the tasks of yet another day in limbo:

Finalize personal property insurance policy
Go to bank to get extra deposit slips and arrange for the mailing service to send them the pension checks
Pack a box of overflow to be shipped to Scottsdale and held by UPS until we arrive on November 4th.
Check on final details for Tom’s party tomorrow.
Grocery shop and prepare dinner as I have done each evening since moving here last Sunday. After all, a good house guest must earn their keep.

Yep. Five more days.

“Leaving” is bigger than “moving”…

Posted by worldwide-admin on October 22, 2012 with 0 Comment

We are now situated at Karen’s home for the next nine days. Everything for our stay here is unpacked and put away. We’re welcomed by Karen and her two sons with open arms. We haven’t been overnight guest in a friend’s home in almost 20 years. Its an odd feeling. We’d better get used to being in a home “other than our own” based on the upcoming travels.

This move was more work than any move I can ever recall. Under normal circumstances, when moving, one opens a drawer, examines its contents and in a somewhat systematic manner proceeds to fill a box with the drawer’s desired contents and the rest is thrown away. Simple.

Later, the box is moved to the new location, either near or afar, opened to reveal its contents while finding an appropriate spot in the new home. Simple. That’s called “moving.”

Nope, not us! We aren’t “moving”. We’re leaving. Big difference. Here’s how ‘leaving” goes:

Open a drawer, examine its contents
Remove all the contents from the drawer
Consider the resale value of each item
Remove all items of sentimental value
Place items of sentimental value in one of four separate boxes (one for each of our children’s families)
Determine if anything in the drawer is appropriate to travel the world with consideration for usefulness, weight and least of all, it’s desirability.
With all items out of the drawer, wash the interior of the drawer.
Place the items to be kept in containers for future packing
Return all remaining items to drawer in a neat and concise manner
Close the drawer
Scream! Go to the next drawer, closet, cabinet, storage bin, plastic bag, refrigerator, freezer, chest, trunk and repeat the same process, over and over again.

That’s leaving!

In the past few months, finalized in the past few days, we have prepared for the following considerations:

Clothes, medications and supplements, special foods, technology, cords and chargers, toiletries, cosmetics and my special pillow to last us for the nine days here.
All of the above plus comfortable clothes, jackets, cooler, beverages and snacks for the four day road trip which begins in nine days plus…the roof top carrier for the car, yet to be installed.
All of the non-perishable food and supplies purchased at Costco on Saturday for Tom’s upcoming party on Saturday for anywhere from 100-200 guests. I’ll be picking up the food and cake for the party mid-day on Saturday.
Documents, tax receipts, medical records and forms, insurance forms and additional paperwork to attend to in Arizona.
For the two month stay in Scottsdale, Arizona and Henderson, Nevada; everything listed here plus food to purchase while there.
For our upcoming world travels; six suitcases, two carry on bags, a duffel bag of med and supplements, two wheeling carts, two laptop bags, and a purse and a over-sized murse (man purse which Tom hates!).

Done? Yes. Much to our surprise. Exhausted? Yes, but will be better in a few days.

So, I sit here writing this blog in a comfy soft leather love seat, my hot tea in my mug, overlooking the calming lake at Karen’s home, her big fluffy dog Wrigley, sitting at my feet, the chill of fall in the air and for now…I am home.

Last visit with Nurse Marsha…Ouch!

Posted by worldwide-admin on October 3, 2012 with 0 Comment

Never in my entire life have I walked into a medical clinic and felt so welcomed. Only minutes after I checked in, Nurse Marsha, head travel clinic nurse at Park Nicollet Travel Clinic, warmly greeted me, telling me how enthused she was to see me on her schedule for my last round of injections.

She knew how anxious I had been about possible side effects through this entire process, having had a few frightening immunizations in the long ago past. My fears were worsened after many hours of relentless online research looking for all the reasons why one should not be subject to such an obvious health risk.

My greatest fear was the yellow fever vaccine, well known for disastrous outcomes in a small fraction of the recipients. Alas, we survived. Tom was a little queasy and flu-like for one day and for me, I lapsed into bed midday for four hours of uncomfortable thrashing about, to fully recover in time to cook a lovely dinner. The worst was over.

Nurse Marsha was delightful, bubbly, and concerned for us, for our safety and for our joy. Lively and animated banter ensued between us as my heart grew full with her charm and interest. For the first time in this process, I freed myself from the monumental tasks at hand, allowing a wave of excitement to wash over me, which I had held at bay all this time, fearful of losing focus.

Upon leaving I handed her our card for this blog, which she enthusiastically accepted, promising to follow along with us. Perhaps, knowing the vital role she played in our health as we travel the world over the next several years. Thank you, dear Nurse Marsha. Thank you for easing us along the way.

Yesterday’s injections: the final booster of three Twinrix injections, for Hepatitis A and B, (ow, ow, ow! Painful!), the latest flu vaccine (nothing to it) and the take home Typhoid Live Vaccine. (Apparently, there is now a shortage of the Typhoid vaccine, which wasn’t the case only a few weeks ago when Tom received it).

Over a period of eight days, I must swallow one of four live Typhoid vaccine tablets (now safely residing in our refrigerator) every other night at bedtime with a full glass of lukewarm water. Nurse Marsha explained the importance of taking this pill at night on an empty stomach to reduce the risk of stomach distress as opposed to the morning when one’s stomach would be more empty after a night’s sleep.

Of course, I complied. At 10 pm last night I poured myself a huge glass of tepid water and chugged the pill. Nothing happened. Good. I went to bed anticipating awakening during the night for a trip to the loo. Well, lately I’ve been waking up at 3:00 am anyway, after a run of convoluted dreams of hotels and other people’s homes, my mind racing with the upcoming tasks of the day.

Oddly, I slept through the night to awaken at my usual 5:30 am, ready to tackle the day, happy to feel well, happy to have slept through the night.

My vaccines are almost over, with three more Typhoid pills to take over the next six nights. Tom must have his final Twinrix booster after his final waiting period ends November 22, 2012. Son, Richard gave us the name of his doctor in Henderson, Nevada. We’ll arrange the appointment soon for one of the few times we’ll be in Nevada in November and December.

After about 15 injections, my share of needless worry, multiple trips to see Nurse Marsha with only a few hours of discomfort, we’re appreciative of the manner in which she eased the way, by that which she taught us about food and water safety when traveling abroad and most of all, enriched by simply knowing her.

Today will be another busy day; off to the office supply store for an ink cartridge for the printer (ran out of ink with documents to print before we go) and to buy a portable keyboard for my laptop. (We’re buying new lightweight laptops while in Scottsdale after Window 8 releases). In the past few days, the case broke and now the keyboard requires Herculean effort to press a key. Not surprising, huh?

Aboard ship for 59 days in the first 5 months…

Posted by worldwide-admin on September 13, 2012 with 0 Comment

On January 3, 2013 we’ll leave the US to embark on our first cruise. Over the next five months we’ll experience a total of seven cruises totaling 59 days at sea. Later, we’ll post more details about these upcoming cruises and house rentals.

First 5 months after leaving the US:

Cruises #Days Start Date End Date
San Diego to Panama to Miami 15 01/03/13        01/18/13
Fort Lauderdale to Belize Cruise 8 01/21/13        01/29/13
Belize to Miami Cruise 3 04/09/13        04/13/13
Miami to the Caribbean                7 04/13/13       04/20/13
Miami to Barcelona   11 04/20/13        05/01/13
Barcelona to Mallorca   3 05/01/13       05/04/13
Barcelona to Venice 12 06/04/13        06/16/13
Total cruise days 59

Homes included in above dates:
Placencia, Belize 60 01/29/13 03/29/13
Ambergris Caye, Belize 9 03/29/13 04/09/13
Majorca, Spain 30 05/04/13 06/04/13We’ll spend November and December, 2012 living in a lovely first floor condo overlooking the pool in Scottsdale Arizona, a commitment we’d made long before we decided to travel the world. That commitment created extra expense and inconvenience but we chose to honor our agreement.

We’ve decided to utilize these two months in Scottsdale to purchase and set up our new laptops (awaiting Windows 8 release soon), our new unlocked smart phones (being released into the market in November) and other technological devices that we’ll describe later upon purchase.

To take advantage of these two months we’ll prepare as much as we can of our 2012 taxes, forwarding everything to our accountant in Minnesota. We’ll get new passport photos taken (outdated after six months), apply for our second passports and visas, download 100 or more movies onto our portable external hard drive and get Tom’s new eyeglasses at Costco (great deal).

With the condo only 25 minutes from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, we’ve decided to follow our doctor’s orders and arrange appointment for Tom in gastroenterology for one last check (as recommended every few years) when one has IBS and Celiac Disease. Although he is symptom free due to our diet these two tests can confirm provide us with peace of mind; a colonoscopy and an endoscopy.

Tom’s sisters spend the winters in Arizona, about an hour’s drive and we’ll visit them. In the first half of November we’ll drive to Nevada to establish residency, apply for NV driver’s licenses and visit family, later to spend eight days at Christmas in a house we’ve rented in Henderson to be close to family and friends for one last time.

We’ll celebrate Thanksgiving in Arizona. In Nevada, on December 20th we’ll have our teeth cleaned. We’ll observe the Mayan Calendar’s End of Time on December 21st (hopefully, not really the end!), Tom’s 60th birthday on December 23rd, and of course, Christmas, away from “home,” the first time as true vagabonds.

A year ago, we would have laughed aloud at the thought of leaving behind everyone we love and everything we own, except for a gaggle of suitcases and hearts full of memories.

Here we are, packed to the gills, totes filled with memorabilia currently scattered about the house for our kids to store for us. Our paperwork and photos are scanned, our documents and spreadsheets bursting with pertinent data stored in Dropbox for safekeeping, accessible from anywhere in the world.

Yesterday I spent an entire hour scanning a lengthy booklet from our well known national bank on wire transfer procedures, accounts which we’ve set up in both of our names. I inquired as to whether this booklet was online to be downloaded. “No, not yet,” they say. “Gee…kind of behind the times,” I thought.

It’s this little tasks that fill up substantial portions of my everyday. As I sit here in my comfy chair, writing this today, I tapped my Android smart phone (on its last days) to take yet another peek at the handy app on my home screen, Retirement Countdown Free and today, it reads: “1 Month 18 Days.”

One month and eighteen days from today we close the door to our home one last time. We leave behind our loved ones, the lives that we’ve known, our three little dogs buried in the yard, the friends on the peninsula, the eagle swooping in the trees in the summer, the coyotes hovering hungrily in the winter and the gentle fluttering call of the loons.

On a lighter note, we joyfully leave behind six foot snow drifts often trapping us for days and, mountains of goose poop. Yes, mountains of goose poop!

Ouch!…Plunge, twist and release…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 28, 2012 with 0 Comment

After two hours of being terrified at the prospect of contracting one of many horrifying diseases throughout the world, I left the Park Nicollet Travel Immunization Clinic with my head swimming. WHAT ARE WE DOING????

If we don’t die from the side effects of the Yellow Fever or Typhoid shots, we might die from one of the many diseases for which there is no immunization or treatment! Why tell me, overly efficient, profoundly knowledgeable, delightfully warm Travel Nurse Marcia, who hugged me when I left, that we could die?

On information overload and losing my competency to make reasonable decisions, I agreed to our taking $10 a day malaria pills (fewer side effects) that we’ll need to take for eight-plus months, $700 rabies shots, $80 for tuberculosis tests, and also, an array of 10 or more other vaccines that will total in the $1000’s. We sure hope the insurance company will pay for these. I hadn’t budgeted $300 a month for malaria pills!

I felt as if I were buying a car from a persuasive, albeit highly competent “salesperson” who was trying to sell me safety features that invoked so much guilt that I couldn’t resist buying. I signed up for everything. Oh, I did hesitate on one thing, flu shots. Why would we need flu shots that are derived from viruses only prevalent in the US? Go figure! What if we went out to dinner with an American couple we meet on a cruise ship who currently has the flu? We signed up for that too!

The dreaded Yellow Fever shot will be on May 1. I am terrified. Four people died from the vaccine alone (OK, four deaths of out one million, not quite a high risk). I said to Travel Nurse Marcia, trying to reassure myself, “Those four people could have died that day anyway, right?” She reassuringly nodded her head. On May 1, please pray for me. Later, for Tom.

Tom has yet to go to his two-hour appointment. I suggested that Travel Nurse Marcia not tell Tom everything she told me for three reasons: 1. He gets bored listening to medical stuff. 2. He’ll pretend to be listening when he isn’t. 3. He’ll refuse the shots and tell her to take a hike.

Oh good grief, I can picture my dear husband, sick with some dreadful disease, ensconced inside a mosquito net, with me at his side, frantically trying to nurse him back to health. Sounds like a scene in a movie! No, thank you. PLEASE my dear handsome, charming, funny, adorable, “best husband in-the-world,” agree to get your shots, take your $5 pills with food and SHUT UP about it!

So, lovely Travel Nurse Marcia left the room after handing me my stack of 100 CDC documents to read, moments later returning with a tray loaded up with four, that’s right four, giant syringes on a sterilized stainless steel tray. She gently set the tray down on the counter, leaving the room again. I stared at the tray, my heart pounding so hard, I could hear it in my head. Minutes later, she returned instructing me to get up on the exam table.

The rest is a blur, rolling up my sleeves, taking a deep breath, feeling the brutal violation of my pale winter skin while each of four syringes plunges deep into the tender flesh of my upper arms. OUCH!!! It felt as if she “plunged, twisted, and released” those horse-sized syringes. Then, it was over, for now at least. I waited for something to happen. Nothing happened.

After sleeping fitfully all night, unable to lay on either side. My arms hurt as anticipated from the warning by Travel Nurse Marcia. After two huge cups of coffee this morning I’m back to my “old” self, dressed in workout clothes, off to the gym and then to the bank to transfer the 25% deposit in 1481 francs (today’s going rate, which is about $300 US dollars) to the owner of the charming “Stone House” in Cajarc, France for one month beginning April 18, 2014 (yes, 2 years from now). Nothing like planning ahead!

BTW, the itinerary will follow later today.

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