When Does Being Equal Really Mean Equal?

 

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

Have you ever tried to buy a HUD home?  I know that most reading this blog have no desire to try to buy another home.   The closest thing to another home they want is a homebase for their RV. They had trouble getting rid of the home they had just so they could get on the road in their RV after retirement.

HUD home purchasing has been around for a long time and sometimes you can get a great deal.  In the past the homes available weren’t as good a deal but this economy and the sliding value of homes has changed some of that.

We have never purchased a HUD home.  Heck, I never really thought much about HUD homes.  Bidding on them wasn’t that popular in my book until recently.  Now I’m not real estate ignorant.  When planning my retirement from an airline, I got my real estate license and worked in that field for a while.  My timing getting into and out of real estate was good.  Homes were still going up when I started and the slide downwards was just beginning.  However, it was nothing like we’ve seen in the last couple years.  I did work with several short sales at the end but working with HUD homes or working with land sales was definitely not my thing. 

 

With that said ….. Tammi and her husband found a HUD home and wanted to check it out.  As a matter of fact, we all checked it out since they  thought they might bid on it.  That’s about the time we all got a little education about HUD homes. 

First, the home can be offered as Lottery or offered as an Exclusive.  Usually an exclusive means that one particular real estate office holds the listing and the home isn’t submitted to the multiple listing service.   To HUD an exclusive means not everyone can buy it. HUD has several selective bidding programs which opens homes only for bidding to certain people.  The bidding changes from lottery to exclusive to extended.  Basically it means that to begin with bidding on homes that had been guarantedd by the government and then foreclosed on are only opened to specific employees of select nonprofits and select government agencies.  Okay, with their stipulations of owner-occupied, I can see that for HUD employees as an employee benefit.  Most companies have some type of employee benefit.  However, I believe it should be at market rate.  If not, guess who's picking up the tab.  You got it!!  The taxpayer would be buying it ... again.

HUD has a Good Neighbor Next Door Program (GNND).  We wondered …. what is that??  This is what we found out.   Only people working in certain fields and for certain employers are able to bid on some homes.  They get the first chance with lots of incentives and some stipulations.   Only if none of the “right” people bid, is the home even offered to the general public.  Who are the right people?  Who does HUD consider to be good next door neighbors?  It’s all based on the employers?  Well, the employers vary just a tad between federal government  county or city employers, etc.  In other words they are all jobs funded by taxpayers in one way or another.  It's not all employees working for these entities but just certain ones.   I read a little about it and the whole idea was originally to move teachers, police officers and firemen into these neighborhoods.  It’s a type of neighborhood improvement.  I’m sorry, folks, a job doesn’t make a person.

I’ve known folks in all of these professions that I would never want to live next to. I also know people in those professions I would want to live next to just as much as I would want to live next door to a nurse, a mechanic or even a store clerk.  So, why is it that people in these jobs are considered an enhancement to a neighborhood where others might not be?  We've read the news.  We know there are good and bad in every job.

It actually doesn’t stop there. 

A value is placed on the home for what HUD feels it is worth at that time.  Many of the homes aren’t in the best of shape but some are.   What do they actually pay for the home?  They are allowed to buy it for 50% of the listed price.  As an example, if the home is listed at $200k, it is available for sale to this special group for only $100k.  All they have to put down is $100 with home, closing costs and repairs all wrapped into one loan.  Doesn’t that sound like you (as the taxpayer) get to subsidize the home a second time around?   Now with the offer of half of the current listed price, taxpayers subsidize it again.  If the home does not sell during this period it is then offered to the general public.  There is no 50% subsidy and your tax dollars would not be contributing.  I just don’t get the special treatment and why taxpayers are picking up the tab for half their house.   No wonder we have a huge deficit.  Was this a pork belly bill?

I understand extra benefit given to veterans on civil service tests.  I do not understand the GNND program and why one segment of employees are considered better in a community than others based on who they work for.  Give the young veteran returning from Iraq or Afghanistan the discount.  Give him the benefit and help him get into a home.  That I would understand.  This I do not.

Remember this Equal Housing Opportunity symbol.  That is required on all ads for housing by realtors.  I’m wondering now what “equal” really means. 

Being equal means different things at different times.  Some have found when job searching that they may not be as equal as they thought they might be.

My question to you is, "When does equal really mean equal?

That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.  I am all for equality but I just don’t get this.

‘Tis life on the road.

Updating My Garmin

 

We're all pilgrims on the same journey - but some pilgrims have better road maps.

About a year ago we decided it was time to purchase a new GPS.  The one we had was old and I really wanted one that showed lane changes, traffic and speed limit.  Now it had been a long time since we had been without a GPS.  We couldn’t get by like our friend, Denise, does.  Check out the picture below.  This is what she calls her GPS.  It may work for her but certainly wouldn’t work for us. 

After our purchase of the new Garmin we were constantly comparing this particular one to the Magellan we had previously owned.  There were a lot of differences between the two.  Some were due to technology changes and others were just the differences between the companies.  There are some things we definitely preferred with the Magellan and some things we definitely prefer with the Garmin.

Over the last year we had been places made it obvious our map was out of date.  In March that update became available.  The model of the Garmin we have is the 2365LMT.  The LMT stands for “Lifetime Maps and Traffic”.  That’s pretty cool, huh?  Well, hold it a minute.  After finally accomplishing the many hours of trying to get this thing updated, I’m beginning to think that the offer of free upgrades is definitely a gimmick.  It’s certainly not as easy as it sounds when you’re doling out the cash and making the purchase.

I’m not saying we didn’t get the update.  We did …. finally.  I made the first attempt to update it when we are on the road using our air card.   When the download first started I was given a timeframe of about 984 hours!!!!  Do you know how long 984 hours is?  It’s not that we care but we certainly knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.  The upgrade was put off until we could connect to a wired DSL or cable line.  We knew there was no way it was going to happen on the road.

The time came and the wired line was available.  Our son was paying for it.  The estimated time for the download was 9 hours!! That's still a very long time for a file that size. However, it was better than the first estimate of 984 hours.

Garmin gave an option of upgrading the computer or the device and the computer.  I figured it would be faster to just upgrade the computer and then transfer offline to the device.  That's not how it worked.   A good nine hours later the download was complete and the computer upgraded.  However, that was just the computer and not the device.  It took another three hours to download additional files and update the Garmin itself.  Ever done that?

Here’s my thought.  I know I had a good connection.  I also know my son has downloaded other much larger files without a hitch and in a much, much shorter time.  Here’s my guess.  1) With the release of the new maps others were probably trying to download at the same time.  2) Garmin isn’t set up for fast downloads from their servers for free software.  I bet the purchases are off of different servers than maps actually purchased.  I googled for information on download times.  There were lots of complaints so I know our situation wasn't necessarily different from others. 

I’m glad it’s done.  When the new software comes out next year at least I’ll know what to expect.  We needed an updated GPS map or I wouldn’t even have attempted it.

‘Tis life on the road.

A Muddy Day at Bradley Trails

If the family were a boat, it would be a canoe that makes no progress unless everyone paddles.      (we were paddling!)

Jordan and Sabrina getting ready to ride!

We’ve had some nice weather since we arrived in the Pacific Northwest.  It’s not been hot … thank goodness.  Most of all we’ve not had the strong winds we experienced just a few weeks before.  We’ve had intermittent showers and intermittent blue skies.  There have been some chilly mornings but we’re not strangers to chilly mornings.  We had plenty of those in Arizona.

Changing oil

Saturday was especially nice with temperatures flirting around 70-ish.  Sunday was supposed to be nice too.  I was ready to ride the ATVs.  However, at that time I figured we’d need all four ATVs for the riding but we didn’t.  One of the ATVs desperately needed an oil change before it was ready for the trails and at $60 that’s not a cheap thing on a Polaris.  That was just the oil and filter.  The boys were able to do the change themselves!




We also thought we needed to buy a Washington State Discover Pass so we took care of that too.  The Discover Pass in this state is good for two vehicles.  That’s not necessarily the case in other states but we thought it would work good for us.

This is what we saw on the way to the trails.  Doesn’t he look like a friendly fellow?




With three ATVs and five people, we were ready to check out those trails.

Using the staging area at the Bradley Trail site

Then the real “work” began.  The trailer was moved to level ground and the very clean ATVs loaded.  We were only able to take three ATVs with us since that’s all we had room for but the group ended up only consisted of five riders in the end and not as many as we thought.

Muddy Jordan

We figured this would be a good place to practice.  We didn’t expect many riders to be around and there weren’t but we did get to talk to a few.  With so many trails around we did not run into anyone on the trails.  What we did encounter was mud and more mud and more mud.

Some places Lee tackled the mud .... other places it tackled him.  Some were easy rides and others a little more difficult.

That was another new experience and an absolute blast!!  Matter of fact it was one of the most fun rides I had ever had.  I think I say that every time we get  a new experience riding. Again, it was a blast.  There are several other places around here that I want to go but I’m sure we will definitely be back.

Yours truly!!

We had a little company at the trails.  Two trucks using the staging area to take pictures.  One of the boys had bought a “new” truck so he wanted pictures of both of them together.




The ATVs were clean when they left.  They didn’t come back so clean.  However, neither did we.





Terry wanted no part of riding In the mud.  This is about as close to the muddy ATVs he wanted to be.  Lee put him in charge of clean-up.  With a good pressure washer it wasn’t so bad.





Our summers are so different than our winters but we always seem to be busy.  We look forward to the wonderful summers somewhere in the Pacific NW and to the winters  in the south. 

‘Tis life on the road.

A Special Place for Sassy

 

"A dog is nothing but a furry person."

Yesterday was a tough day for daughter,  Tammi,  and her family.  They had to say “good-bye” to a family member ~~ their family pet, Sassy.  Sassy had been part of their family for almost eleven years.  If you've ever had a pet you've loved, you know how much they miss her.

GOD also loves our canine friends, HE's installed a 'doggy-door"!

You have a special place, Dear Lord
  that I know you'll always keep
A special place reserved for dogs
  when they quietly fall asleep

With large and airy kennels
  and a yard for hiding bones
With maybe a little babbling creek
  that chatters over stones.

With wide green fields and flowers
  for those who never knew
about running freely under
  Your sky of perfect blue.

I know You keep this Special Place
  And so to you I Pray,
For one special Sassy
quietly died today.

So, speak to Sassy softly please
  And give her a warm hello.
She's a special gift to you Dear Lord
From the family who loved her so.

~~~~   Jan Cooper

‘Tis life on the road.

Diabetic and Changed Eating Habits

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely

Golly … I can’t believe I started this blog about three weeks ago and I still haven’t finalized and posted it.  We've had beautiful weather here for some time so I'm guessing this was written just after we arrived back in the Pacific NW.    It's one of my back-up blogs when we've just been way busier than we should be.  Here it is.

- -- - - -

When the weather is nasty it’s not even fun going out to eat because you actually have to go outside to do that. So, we have stuck around pretty much. One thing we have discovered is that sometimes eating in tastes better than eating out. At least it has around here. You get your food just like you like it most of the time. After all, you’re the cook so you know what you like. It’s usually seasoned perfectly …. because it’s just like you like it too.

Speaking of food – and we usually are often – Terry is a diabetic. He’s the one who usually ate three or four desserts, filled up on bread and then gulped down his favorite foods which were white potatoes and pasta. Folks who know him know a lot about his eating habits.  They’ve seen him down three and four helpings of bread pudding for dessert.  Well, in January it finally caught up with him and he had to change.  He has discovered all kinds of things in his system changed when his eating habits changed.  Mostly they change for the good.

He has given up spiking carbs including most desserts most times. As a diabetic the carbs he’s concerned with are the ones that cause his blood sugar to spike. We have been testing for those spikes. White potatoes for dinner have been replaced by butternut squash and sweet potatoes. Brown sugar topping has been replaced by Splendid mixture with butter and the list of changes goes on.

We have discovered a few low carb foods that don’t cause spikes and fill slots left open by foods we used to eat that did.  For example regular pasta has been replaced by Dreamfields Pasta. Dreamfields advertise this pasta has having a net of 5 grams of carbs.  Other pastas have about 40 grams of carbs. The key is digestible carbs. At first we doubted.  However, after trying and then testing for blood sugar spikes, we no longer doubt.  There were no spikes in blood sugar. 

This is what we have found out -----   net carbs = total carb grams - fiber grams - sugar alcohol.

Some people subtract half of the sugar alcohol grams. Some people subtract all of it. Some people only subtract fiber. It really depends on how your body reacts to sugar alcohols and all the other "non-digestible" chemicals they toss into those products

Another food item we’ve replaced is bread.  Breads can be really, really bad.  We have a new bread.  It’s Sara Lee’s 100% whole wheat with honey.   Two slices of bread contain 14g of carbs and one slice is only 7g.  Don’t forget to subtract out the dietary fiber which would leave one slice of bread with 5g of carbs!!  Compare that to the bread you currently have.  Actually, it’s really good bread too.  We use it for sandwiches and even for French toast.

I did say French toast and we do eat it with syrup.  It’s not regular syrup but low carb sugar.  There are several syrups with low carbs.  The one we bought was I Hop low carb syrup.  However, there are others that might have even lower carbs.   We just haven't checked them all out yet.

Terry loved pancakes.  Pancakes was one of the food items that came right off his food intake list.  However, we have discovered Adkins has a pancake mix we have yet to try.  Tammi has ordered some of the pancake mix for us and when it arrives, we'll going to put it to the test.  The carbs:  Well, according to the package it only has 5g net carbs.  We have yet to test the sugar spike but we will.  Terry will get out his little blood sugar tester and test it before he eats, an hour later and then two hours after that.  That just about does it.

Obviously our food items have changed.  Terry’s been concentrating on protein and low carb green vegetables.  It’s been like a miracle to his system.  We’re continuing to test for sugar spikes and getting educated at the same time.  Eating at home has been easier and with all the other changes we’ve been able to add items back in that we first took out of the diet. 

Reading labels of products happens more often now .   It’s amazing how much we’ve learned about foods.  It’s certainly been an education.

Smucker's Sugar Free Blackberry Jam with 5g of carbs.

IHop Sugar Free Syrup with 1g net carb.

Check out the dessert that Sabrina fixed.  It’s a cheesecake in a strawberry.  Obviously there are carbs in cheesecake but by eliminating the graham cracker crust you do cut those down.  

~  I bet you can’t eat just one??!! ~

‘Tis life on the road.

Selling the Home Base?

The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes.

I really had no intentions of posting this for a few more days but I keep getting these little comments from Sassy and Bennie so thought it best to get this posted.  I wanted to make sure everything was really finalized first and money was in hand but here is the news.

It’s sold!

Buyers wanted us to leave as much as we would.

This just never happens.  It absolutely never happens.  Remember in a post a week or so ago we were tossing around the idea of selling our property with the cabin on it?  Remember that?  Well, we did think about it that day.  Terry mentioned it to a sales person that we might want to sell it.   She showed the property to a prospective buyer the very next day.  The people she showed it to made a ~~ CASH ~~ offer on it.  We hadn’t even signed the listing agreement yet.  Did we accept the offer?  You bet we did.  We had thought we'd be stuck looking at contract offers.  We’re not fools and cash offers don’t come every day.  However, we didn’t really want to post it until the final papers had been signed and buyers had paid the funds.    We didn’t want Murphy and all his laws to show up so we just kept our mouths shut.  It was sold before it was listed.

Some things stayed and some things went.

Selling the cabin meant work.  We had to clean it out and we had to clean it out faster than we had intended to.  The good thing is that they wanted most of the furniture in it so we didn’t have to move some of the big things.  We made a couple trips.  We've been pretty busy people and it's been hard keeping up with everyone else!!

. 

On our first trip we loaded the truck and even took our sign.  We got sad faces from a couple of our trees but they’ll have new people to watch over.

Sadie

Albert

Our next trip we loaded the barbecue, the canoe, the little freezer and the wheel barrel.  We were done except for our part of signing the paperwork.  We were able to do that today (Saturday}.

A couple deer came to check on what we were doing.  Meet Eloise.

We were lucky and we were thrilled.  It was easy.  There aren’t many this easy.  It’s not that we didn’t like the little hideaway in the hills.  We did.  It was just a ways to go to anyplace on a very windy uphill road.  Well, there were quite a few other reasons too.

Hearing the news that we were leaving, a few more deer came to see us off!

 

Does that mean we will no longer have a homebase?    Not necessarily!!

Will we have a new home for our sign?

I’m sure there will  be a P.S. blog to this one at sometime in the future.  Nothing goes smooth and even though the cabin sold quick, easy and effortless, we’ve certainly learned a lot again on the purchasing end  ... yet, again.

Ho hum?

Hum ho?

Is there another Hideaway in our future?

Today was signing day and the new owners were already in place.  We had told them they could move onto the lot the night before.  Terry just had to show them the connections and they needed to know a little more about the pellet stove.

New folks with a new homebase.

So, this is the news.  Papers have been signed but we don't have money in hand yet.


‘Tis life on the road.

Racing at Woodland’s Tulip Fest

 

Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower.

 

About a week ago I posted a picture of one of the fields where Holland Bulb Company grows their tulips.  Every April the company sponsors a Tulip Fest. 

Sabrina is freezing!!

This year the festival was set for two weekends. On the first day this was also the starting place for a 5K race. It was definitely festival time. The weather was nice even though a little on the chilly side in the morning.

Jordie and Brendan

Jordan and Sabrina registered for the race. They do several of these each year. By the time I arrived the parking lot was almost full and it was evident that a festival was going on. Tents were up, vendors showing their wares and the tulips were the background for many pictures.

There she goes!!

I snapped a few pictures of them and off they went.

Jordan came in first for her age group and Sabrina even surprised herself with beating her goal by several minutes. 

The owners of the fields were originally from Holland.  Farming tulips was their dream.  They bought land and that was the beginning of the Holland Bulb company.  Thus, the Dutch influence with the windmills and wooden shoes are a major part of their farm.  Holland is known for beautiful flowers and especially for their tulips.  We’ve been to Holland a couple times but never did time it right to view their tulip fields. 

When we lived in Washington many years ago, we had a good sized vegetable garden plus lots of shrubs and flowers. I also had a little greenhouse where I got to play in the dirt. We had many spring flowers including tulips. I never considered digging in the dirt work when it came to flowers. It was a hobby and I loved it. It’s the one thing I miss by not being able to have my own little flower garden. We saw a little greenhouse at Home Depot the other day. Terry wanted me to buy it …. but where would I put it ??????????????????????

I took a zillion pictures of the tulips at the Tulip Fest.  Obviously, I’m only posting a few here.   Even though I figured I was at least a month early,  I drove by the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens. I thought some of the flowers might be in bloom but it was closed.  We visited last year and the year before last.  It’s another beautiful garden in the middle of Woodland.

Nice weather in this area brings out fishermen.  This is Horseshoe Lake which is in the middle of Woodland and on the way to the tulip fields.

Even a chilly morning doesn't keep the fishermen away from the Horseshoe Lake.

‘Tis life on the road.