Homeless in Bend

Have you ever noticed how life tends to motor along on a somewhat even keel then, without warning, almost as though a switch is thrown, the keel turns upside down and you're swimming for your life? Well that pretty much is what has happened to us since my last post.

Here's a greatly abbreviated summary... otherwise this could become a novel called "John and Jill Yo Yo On".

The "Villa"

As you may remember, we put our house up for sale. Mr. Doom and Gloom (that would be me) believes we are headed for a real s**t storm economically and those who have cash when it hits will rule the world... well perhaps not the entire world but certainly our small corner of it. Hence we wanted to get the equity out of our house. We got an acceptable offer which surprised us, so we did the victory dance and traded in El Gato for a new 5th Wheel so we could continue our grand adventure this fall in style.

Oops forgot a small detail... the appraisal. It came in $50k lower than the offer, ouch. No more dancing. Now we're with less cash, a house, mortgage and a 5th wheel. Needless to say Mr. Doomy is feeling like Mr. Stupee!

But wait... evidently the buyers really like our place so they come up with the extra cash to close the deal ... Oh yeah, Mr. Stupee is Mr. Smartee now!!!

So the happy couple go out and lease a space in what is arguably one of America's nicest (read expensive) RV parks, Crown Villa in Bend. After all, we have a chunk of change coming in soon right?

Oops... the bank (the buyer's bank) needs more info and does not fund on time... now Mr. Smartee is beginning to feel like Mr. Overdraftee.

But wait... there is a purpose to sleepless, worry-filled nights and sciatica from packing boxes and lifting stuff. It feels so good when you get the call that the money is in the bank... Mr. Absolutely I Told You So is feeling grand and living large (well as large as one can feel in a trailer park). We intend to spend the summer in Bend playing bad golf, fishing and loving life.

I must admit there was a wonderful interlude while all of this drama was unfolding. We spent a week in Hawaii on the island of Lanai celebrating Jill and our friend Janet Storton's birthdays. If you are like most people when you think of Hawaii you think of Waikiki, Diamondhead, beach hotels, bikinis and bars.  Lanai is just the opposite.
The island used to be known as the Pineapple Isle when it was owned by Dole and grew over half of all pineapples in the world. The pineapples and Dole have moved to the Philippines, but now there are two Four Seasons Resorts and two golf courses, along with a small 12 room hotel (formerly Dole's headquarters) where we stayed in the quaint little town of Lanai City. Talk about laid back... it was wonderful. Fried Spam and eggs for breakfast at my favorite restaurant in the whole world, The Blue Ginger Cafe, with dinner on the lanai of Pele's Other Garden Bistro. No tourists to speak of, just a bunch of locals hiding out from civilization.

Shortly after returning from Hawaii we went to Jill's brother's home in Tacoma for a family reunion and to celebrate Olivia's (our niece) graduation from high school. Jill's lovely family does not get together often so it's always a treat to see everyone. Allan and Krystine were great hosts. Here's a photo of Jill (the midget) with Jim, Don and Allen.

I did manage to finish an epic poem I've been working on for over 3 decades... yup... thirty years. It's called The Count of Byle. It's an adult fairytale which means it's loaded with sex and mayhem... not what one thinks of when one thinks of poetry. It's too long to post here so I've created another site where you can read it if you are so inclined ... http://countofbyle.blogspot.com/.

One final note ... don't forget you can access Amazon through this blog by clicking on the Amazon icon on the right side of this post. Costs you nothing but will make me the richest guy in the trailer park if you all comply!

  Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?