Labor Day = Vacation Time

At least this year in our house. We'd planned a road trip to my sister Patty's weekend place near Berkeley Springs, W.V. with our dog but life happened and we ended up going further up north as well.  We started Thursday with an all-day drive to New Jersey to visit my BFF who was recently diagnosed with a fast growing skin condition/ cancer.  Though I'd seen her not long ago, hearing the "C" word in relation to my BFF is a game changer.  We also planned to very reluctantly relinquish our rights to Baxter, my son's beautiful and soulful part Lab part who-knows-what-big brindle type dog with the most soulful eyes on four feet.

The drive up was on its way to being fun until some construction/traffic-from-hell in Pennsylvania added 2-1/2 hours to our already 14 hour drive.  The dogs were wonderful though and it broke our hear to say goodbye -- for now at least -- to Baxter.  Instead of the usual trip to NY, we stayed close to Bindy's for some great quality time on her deck. The seashore picture above was painted there on a crisp late-Summer morning on the deck, based on a photo of her lovely daughter Jordy.  A surprise birthday reunion dinner party with some very old friends (fellow members of the Cold Ass Ski Club -- a story for another day) topped off the brief visit before we headed to the wilderness of West Virginia Sunday morning.   I did feel reassured leaving Bindy, though, confident she is in capable hands and will come out of this relatively unscathed.

The 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid wasn't eager to cooperate and what should have taken us 4-1/2 hours took more than 8 and meant riding backroads for safety reasons.  A safety switch on the car would shut the engine down once it heated up to a certain temp.  We discovered the backroads were both safer and made the car less prone to shutting down, and by the last 2 hours of the trip, the car didn't stall once, even when we went back on the highway.  Still, it was an incredibly stressful ride and we were ready for the cool beers handed us when we got there.  And the beautiful nieces my brother Kev and his wife Les brought along to join us for the day.  Great food, glorious vistas from their deck looking outward at the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the purest river in West Virginia meant a wonderful, soul-healing visit.  We forgot all about the car and David fished, I kayaked and swam, Smokey sniffed and paraded around like she owned the mountains, and I broke out my watercolors for an early morning painting session as the fog eased its veil from over the mountains.

Wow! Two weeks since my last post!

Didya ever find a time in life when things just mush together so tightly you don't have time to breathe?  That's been the case the past two weeks for me to wit:

My consulting business (international credit reporting - and if it sounds dry, it totally is, but at least it pays the bills mosta the time) had a huge month last month, like double the regular business volume it normally has - good in some ways, really lousy for my sense of balance though. 

During all that mayhem and scrambling to meet deadlines and demands of customers on four continents, hubby's shift at work changed from early morning to mid-afternoon start after many years on that early schedule, we had to figure out how to change eating habits, awake times, and what have you. 

On top of that, there was the replacement (finally!) of the full air conditioning unit - $8600 and change but we'll see a $1500 income tax break, and are getting an additional $250 state rebate on top of that.  It meant a couple of days with workers in and out, but lots of filing papers (for the financing), and moving stuff out of the attic so they could work in there.  In the end, it's a good thing though, so we can deal with it.  Plus, we have a 10 year full warranty on this puppy so we're happy.  Parkers Heating and Cooling in Smyrna did the project after we ran 3 contractors through bid process.  (Being a former designer in Prudential's Eastern Home Office Planning & Purchasing Department taught me those ropes & I applied the system like our little home was a multi-million dollar corporate complex!).  BTW, Parker's did an exceptional job and were very, very professional about the process and in working with us.

Then, you gotta figure, when mortgage interest rates are so low and you are already looking to make a major home renovation purchase, you might as well refinance right?  Especially when you have a sister in the business (VP of BB&T's Mortgage Banking Division in Maryland in case you need one).  So, of course we had to refinance.  Meaning, dig up all sortsa records, request more, and coordinate the hell out of things to get it all to the underwriter within 30 days of the Air Conditioning bid so we could get it all done & coolness restored.  Alot of money changed hands last month, at least on paper. I'm sure our transactions alone contributed to at least a .25 point increase in GDP!  Yay America!

So ... home finance and repair work done, ... check! 
Adjustment to new schedule underway, ... check!
Business invoices sent out at eom, ... check!

 Nothing left to do after that but take a Labor Day Vacation, right?

Read all about that in the blog entry to follow.