Winter Over, Time to Head West

 

There's Indy, sitting in the sun, looking for the Alligator that lives in the pond at the local library.  Well, I think she was looking more at the Birds, which were out of the picture to the right...but DAD always has a vigilant watch while there for that Alligator.  Sometimes I see it, sometimes I don't.  I have never seen it out of the water.  A funny thing happened about a week after this picture was taken.  

Out on the lawn was this HUGE turtle with a long neck, like the one seen in this picture.  Indy looked at it...the stare down lasted about 3 seconds...then Indy took a step toward the turtle, and BAMMM...the turtle ran down to the pond.  Indy did not bark, did not try to follow...I only wish I had it on camera.  It is called a Florida Softshell Turtle, found mainly in Florida, but also in neighboring states.

As we prepare to head to California, there are certain things that need to get done.  One of which is our taxes.  Well, that dirty deed is done as I mail the IRS our 2024 tax forms, and mail our 1st Quarter taxes.  Never a fun thing to do, but someone has to do it, and it is done.  I have done my own taxes since 1973 when I filed my 1972 taxes...of course, Dad helped.  In 1974, I did my 1973 taxes and Dad looked it over and gave me the big OK.  I have pretty much done my taxes ever since then, except for a few years after marrying Marcia when her accountant did them.  There were some write-offs back then that spanned over six years or so, so Tom did our taxes until those write-offs were finished.  The year they stopped, he did the taxes, but so did I.  When we agreed that I could handle them, and I have done them ever since.  Of course, our taxes are very simple so I just have to triple check all the math before signing and sending them off.

This (above) is most likely the general route that we will be taking.  "IF" the weather allows, we will be going through Salt Lake City.  I have a route going this southern route, and I have another taking us up to I-70...but my thoughts are that it will be too cold at night to go that route.  And as we get close to SLC, like in New Mexico, the weather will tell us to head up that way, or to stay south on I-40 and skip SLC, going on in to Sacramento.  Having lived in Utah, I know that Utah Snow Storms can dump a lot of snow, and can do so into April, even May.

So Friday we head north, will be gone for about 4 months.  Will try and keep the blog updated each day, after all, I want to test out our newest purchase...The T-Mobile AWAY™ – Unlimited Plan.  Costly at $160 per month, but it can be put on vacation twice a year for up to a total of six months, costing $10 per month.  That brings the cost down to $85 per month.  As for speed, tests here at home had speeds of over 250 Mbps.  Of course, speeds will vary while on the road, but should be better than our 4G Verizon Aircard gets.  Draw back is that we will have to run the inverter to power up the 5G Gateway TMO-G4SE device (shown above).  When we get back, I am dumping Frontier (100 Mbps at $115 per month) and get the T-Mobile All-In Home Internet for $70.  Overall, when we dump Verizon phones for Consumer Cellular, we will have faster service at about the same price.
 

 

 

Blink, Dog Park, IRS Goof, Aunt Mary

 

To say that I am overly pleased having the motorhome so close is such an understatement.  The "Blink" cameras came in Friday, and I spent a number of hours learning how it all works, and got them set up Saturday for their first night of duty...that brings even another level of satisfaction to this situation.  

Above is a picture I captured from each camera, one looking to the rear, and one looking to the only entry to the storage area.  On Tuesday I am taking the motorhome for a drive, and when I park I am going to park just a bit further away from the fence, and at a slight angle, so that the rear camera will capture more of what is going on behind the motorhome.  Also, there is a tree which has a branch that is hitting the main entry door...I want to stop that from happening.  To get notifications I have to leave my kindle on with the Blink App activated, but that is not a big deal.  (We don't have smart phones, otherwise a smart phone would work too.)  Found a notification that I downloaded to my sounds which says, "Motion Detection", which I now have set up for ONLY the Blink Motion...before it was a general notification, and that was driving me nuts.  Overall I am pleased with the Blink System.  I did add a WiFi extender which allows the cameras to hook onto our existing WiFi system.  It only provides one bar, but it is ample for allowing the cameras to talk to the Sync Module 2 which captures and controls the cameras.  When the motion detection goes off, it captures a minute of video.  I can also manually activate the video, or take camera pictures.  Amazon owns Blink, and two outdoor cameras and the Sync Module 2 comes to $115 through Amazon.  I am opting for the yearly Cloud Service which will allow us to see what is going on inside the Condo when we are gone (will bring the cameras inside, of course), otherwise video would only be captured and stored on a USB drive, which you have to take out and put into a computer.

         

The first two times I took Indy to the Dog Park, she was the only one there.  I went at 10 am on Tuesday, and found eleven dogs there!  A guy I sat next to told me they come just about every day, some as early as 8:30, and by 10:45 they are all gone.  And yep, at 10:45 it was just Indy and I again.  On Friday we went back at 9:45, and there were 10 dogs there, a few that were not there Tuesday, so a few who were there Tuesday were missing.  So this is going to be our routine, go on Tuesday and Friday early enough to beat the heat and see other dogs there.  Saturday Marcia got her hair cut, so we went to the park which was nearby, and we were happy to find one other dog there at 12:30. 

On Thursday I gave Indy a much needed haircut.  It is nice to see her eyes again, and I am sure she enjoyed less hair the next day when we were at the Dog Park.  (Even at this earlier time period it is well into the 80's with humidity in the upper 70's!)

On Monday we got a refund check from the IRS...but we had marked that we were going to take the credit on our first quarterly payment, which we did.  I looked it up on the IRS website and they have a section on "Returning an Erroneous Refund."  This is what it says as it applies to us:

   If your refund was a paper Treasury check and hasn't been cashed:

1. Write "Void" in the endorsement section on the back of the check.
2. Submit the check immediately, but no later than 21 days, to the appropriate IRS location listed below. The location is based on the city (possibly abbreviated) on the bottom text line in front of the words TAX REFUND on your refund check.
3. Don't staple, bend, or paper clip the check.
4. Include a note stating "Return of erroneous refund check" and give a brief explanation of the reason for returning the refund check.

So we followed their directions, and I returned the voided check with an appropriate letter.  I always try to remember to take a photo of any letter I send to the IRS...you just never know, having that picture might save a penalty/interest charge if they don't get it.  Oh ya, they actually have us interest on the less than a hundred dollar erroneous refund check...I told them to keep that interest since I took the credit on our 1st Quarter Check (which I provided a bank statement copy for that check.  And YES, I erased our address in the picture.)

Well, my Sister Sandy heard from our Cousin Debbie that Aunt Mary passed away in her sleep Wednesday night / Thursday morning.  Here is a precious picture, which I shared on the blog back in late July, of Mary and Mom together.  We knew at that visit that Mary had stopped eating a few days earlier, and that it was just a matter of time.  This leaves mom the only survivor of the eleven children that Grandma had.

It has now been two weeks since I got the HHR out of the shop.  It 'seems' to be running ok, but I want to give it another few hundred miles before I write about it.  I need to take it back in a week or so because it does have a check engine light, but I read that with a new computer this is not unusual as the computer learns how the car operates.  It has 160,000 miles on it, and another 100,000 tow miles, so I don't expect it to be perfect...just hoping it gets us around town here and other areas we might tow it to.