Almost Time to Leave

I doubt I’ll leave on the day I had planned to leave because I don’t think I’ll be up to driving 10 hours and stopping and spending the night along the way isn’t something I want to do. I have a doctor’s appointment next week (annual . . that I need to get before Medicare starts). I have a hair cut appointment next week. I need to meet with our insurance guy to get the Medicare Supplements all nailed down and I need to go to the Medicare office to file the paper work to reduce my premiums. The premiums are based on income tax returns from two years ago and due to several things, the greatest of which is Vince’s retirement, our income is way lower than it was then and that will cut my premiums by about half. So, I really do have to be home by early next week. It’s easier for me to leave here on a weekend anyway. Chad and Nicole will go do fun things with Addie and I’m not saying goodbye to her and then dropping her off at school.

The flip side of all this is . . I’m at the point in every trip where I don’t see why we can’t move here. There’s a house not next door to Chad but next door to the house next door .. close enough . . and it’s coming up for auction. It has a basement and it looks good from the outside. It’s an older home . . most in this town are. If I felt more secure that Chad and Nicole would be staying here forever, I’d be more likely to go home and make a case that we investigate that house but . . I would hate to buy a house here and have Chad and his family leave.

I did find a house about 40 miles north of here that seemed real close to perfect. It’s probably about 40 miles south of Kansas City so medical care wouldn’t be a problem. It’s on 20 acres, has a full unfinished basement, has two shops, and a separate apartment/guest house. They even have mature fruit trees that are bearing fruit! Vince seemed excited about it so I got more info but there are a couple of things that were negative enough for us to not go farther. The air conditioner and roof are 11 years old. We replace our air conditioners when they’re 10 years old and for a house that’s two story with a basement, that’s a pretty big expense. I’m not even sure that it has more than one air conditioner and if not, that would mean we wouldn’t consider it for sure. And, the property taxes are outrageous. I’m not sure why since it’s in the county and not in the city. There’s probably no one who would disagree that property taxes everywhere are only going up so we have a set price that no matter what we buy, the property taxes cannot be more than “X” and these were double that! Crazy.

I am encouraged that Vince seemed open to the ide when I first sent him the pictures and told him about it.

Even though Vince, for the most part, refuses to move back to Missouri, I understand. We have calculated and it will probably cost us $1,000 more per month to live in MO than it costs us to live in TX. But, if we buy a small house here and remain TX residents, all it will cost us is minimal homeowner’s insurance/property taxes and utilities but we’d be here less than half the time. Therefore, I suggest we rent something here and be looking for a place to buy til we have more confidence that Chad will be staying here.

Having said all that . . Addie’s school has a program towards the end of the month. Addie has a solo singing part AND a large speaking part. I want to be here for that. There’s a summer school program where they have something called “Tour the World” and it’s foods from other countries. They’ll have sushi and all kinds of different foods. Then there’s one for safety in the kitchen. Those are the two classes Addie wants to take and I want to be here to help pick her up and get her there since the classes are at weird times during the day. So, I can see trouble ahead. If I don’t get home til say April 14, then I want to come back on April 27, til probably May 4; then I want to come back again around May 29 til about June 10 . . that is NOT going to go over well at all.

My thinking is this: Move closer, or rent a place there, or understand that sometimes I need to be there more often than other times. Wish me luck with selling that idea!