Walking Across The Golden Gate Bridge

So often we forget to take advantage of the beauty that surrounds us close to home.  We travel across the country or around the world to check these bucket list must-see's off our list and forget to enjoy what's in our own backyard.  I'm guilty of this! A few weeks back I realized in a panic that I had not walked across the Golden Gate Bridge.  The nightly news was reporting New Orleans Saints fans, coming in for the NFC playoff game, were making it their first stop. That did it for me.  :-)

And so it was that in January hubby and our youngest son (22 yrs.) set out.  It was a cool and crisp Sunday morning; the sun appeared and disappeared at the will of the clouds but I smiled from ear to ear the whole way across and back.  It was a blast to the senses - the noise of the cars flying past in the lanes; the brisk chilly breeze tossing my hair and slapping my cheeks; the views, oh, you can't imagine the views!; my wobbly knees as I got anywhere near the railing to dare to look down to the water below; one particular dancing (loose) streetlight post kept things thrilling; the beautiful and familiar San Francisco skyline under a January morning sky; the rowing team slipping under the bridge - it was all exhilarating.  I took a few pictures. It's about 3.5 miles across and back and I highly recommend it. It turns out they are sprucing things up for the 75th anniversary which I believe is in March. 

When I was little I remember my grandmother telling me that people walked across the GGB when it first opened.  I want to say she walked across, too, but I may have that confused with the opening of the Bay Bridge. 

It's a holiday weekend for many. Go do something you've been meaning to do.  Enjoy!

Your Level Of Commitment Shows

Readers may benefit from what I am primarily writing here for my own self development. 

Historically I've always been someone irked by people who are late and have worked very hard to be on time or early both in business and in my personal life.  Lately though, I notice that when it comes to many things I'm no longer exhibiting this behavior.  I actually excused this trend as a positive.  A  mellowing of sorts from my legendary uptight nature now that I have landed here in mid-life.  Today I read a post from Seth Godin that really struck me as he cleverly compared the difference in meeting a train vs. making a train.  They sound so similar its easy to think they are one and the same but, BAM, they are not!  I now really believe my relaxed commitment to things is showing and impacting my work and personal life and I thank Seth for kicking me with his terrific post. 
Please feel free to share this as it would apply to church groups, service groups, corporate America and your family. 

Meeting vs. Making


As I was scurrying to meet someone coming in on the 11 am train, I realized that there's a huge difference between meeting a train and making one.

If you're rushing to make a train, you have to be there before the last moment. Five seconds too late is too late. The cost of error is absolute.

If you're hurrying to meet a train, though, there's a soft deadline. Five seconds is no big deal. Thirty seconds might be annoying, particularly for someone returning from a long journey. And five minutes is really rude.

Too often, we treat our obligations as meet, not make. We impose a sliding scale, a soft penalty, and we not only show up just a bit late, we show up a bit behind on quality or preparation.

Making is a discipline. Meeting opens the door for excuses.

February TV Favorites

So it's the middle of a dark and cold winter with endless days of gray skies, and we're all so tired of being indoors...wait, scratch that - I live in sunny Northern California where we've had nearly no winter at all.  We seem to be stuck in a near springtime weather pattern this year.  Apologies to my friends shoveling their way out of their homes each day.  Brrrr!  This list might be of keen interest to you. Still in all these shorter days lend to a good TV watching season. 
Here's what's catching my attention right now:
1)  Downton Abbey on PBS You can get started with Season 1 on Netflix or DVD.  Beautiful!
2) American Idol - yes, I've a wee Steven Tyler crush  :-)  It's Hollywood week!
3) Justified on FX  Great dialog and characters.
4) Blue Bloods - yes, I've a wee Tom Selleck crush, again! You fall in love with this family.
5) Here is where perhaps I reveal too much.  Some nights, after my husband goes to bed, I try to find The Real Housewives of Atlanta on-demand.  This is my guilty pleasure.  Ha ha!  For some reason this mix of ladies holds my attention - like a circus act on some episodes - and I feel like it would be a trip to be a part of their little diva group.  Of course I'm gonna need a spending account to keep up.

Downsize complete

Well my friends downsizing took over my life - what can I say? I only wish I was better at documenting with pictures all that we have experienced since Oct. 2011 when we moved out of our home after it sold. You may not know this (since I was not keeping you posted - 'duh!) but there was limbo time between having to be out of our house and being able to move into the new "downsized" house. Yes, we had to move twice. Luckily you were not so close as to hear my blood curdling scream when first I realized there was no avoiding the dreaded-double-move. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Oh well, it's past us now. Now that I'm all linked back up again you can look forward to some future posts that include some before and after pics . Here are some highlights from the past 4 months:

• House sold for full price! We only owned it 2 years but we didn't lose any money. What a blessing. As they say - location, location + the improvements we made were desirable.

• We did find a "cute little downtown house" after many frustrating "almosts" and our above the asking price offer beat out other above the asking price bids. Yes, this still happens in the San Francisco Bay Area where job opportunities still exist.
• Could not get the escrow close dates to coordinate (tears) and so we had to rent an apartment temporarily - with our recently returned from college son...roomies! :-(
• One of our 2 dogs had to be put down just as we were moving - she was 14 and I think she looked around and said to herself - I'm too old to move. Poor Mya - we'll miss her.
• Our remaining pup, a German Short-haired Pointer (always an outside dog) moves with us to a small apartment and gets to start a new life as an inside dog. Oh, that was priceless and, yes, you can teach old dogs new tricks.
The little downtown house is frozen in time- built in 1950 and most recently decorated in about 1973. Everything in perfect condition but nothing you could live with. Ha ha! The picture is our "before" of the bathroom. Jealous? :-)

• Hubby had to work full time and manage a full house electrical upgrade - the house only had 70 amp service for the whole house. It never had a clothes dryer and we were told that if we tried to run one we probably could run just one light bulb at the same time. LOL.
• Hubby managed the electrical upgrade, a whole house plumbing re-pipe, inside painting, wall paper removal, complete bathroom gut and remodel. This was the biggest deal because it is a 2 BR., 1 bath house. Yes, I said 1 bath. there is no way we could move in until the bathroom project completed or...well you get the idea. A flush is a must!
• Lot's of stress and one good therapist and we made it to move-in with our marriage in tact
• I turned 50 on 12/19! No time to party - that was a bummer. Hubby & daughter planned a great small affair for 12/30 at a wonderful steak house with friends and I felt special, plus I could breathe with the move and Christmas behind me.
• Move in date - Dec. 20. I mean we were down to the wire getting in before Christmas.
• Hosted our kids and their kids for Christmas Day celebrations.
• Whew!

Roller Coaster Realty

Roller Coaster - say what? (hat tip to Ohio Players - I'm a 70's kid, what can I say?)

They say you only get hurt on a roller coaster if you jump off. I'm just enjoying the ride since at least this adds some excitement to our empty nest lives. Smile. Here's the latest on the house. Last night after 2 days of - offer / counter offer / response to counter offer we accepted the buyers offer. We went to bed excited and nervous that we had just agreed to be out in 30 days. We have no place to go but planned to look at a place with tons of character at 10 a.m. this morning. Got to work early this morning and received an email from our realtor explaining that the buyers, who hammered us for a great deal, talked over night and got cold feet. They are canceling.

Hands up everyone? Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Make It Your Own

Sunday morning is for muffins, well at least today it is. Do you have a Trader Joe's store near you? I admit to loving TJ's. No, they don't have everything but the scale of the store and the products they carry make shopping decisions manageable. Okay - enough of a plug for TJ's - back to muffins, right?
This handy little mix Triple Berry Bran Muffin mix is a delight and I've found with this mix you have the opportunity to safely and successfully add some delicious ingredients. It already includes dried cranberries, raspberries and another berry that escapes me right now - 'doh! This week I had some organic Santa Rosa plum from a local farm. I took one plum and diced it and then folded it in just before filling the muffin tin. Talk about moist muffins - talk about delicious goodness - this is a great way to add even more good stuff into your diet. I did this a few weeks back with apricots when they were in abundance. Fabulous. Again, this couldn't be simpler and the effect is a muffin you can be proud to serve the family or bring to the office to share with your work peeps, too.
P.S. This is one of those rare mixes that actually makes a full 1 dozen muffins.
Be well.

Downsize.2!

I really hesitate to call it downsizing because we really have yet to actually downsize our homes in terms of square footage. We did attempt a downsize when we moved here in November of 2009 but we got a really good deal and really just downsized our payment but not the home or lot size. That being said we are ready for our next move where we will go smaller on both the payment and the footprint this time (we'll try anyway - good deals are everywhere!).

Hubby and I have taken a long hard look at our financial situation and although it is not too bad, it could and should be better. We are not really prepared for a worst case scenario like a job loss. Are you? We have recently been introduced to the smart guidance of Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and both hubby and I are in alignment on having an emergency fund and eliminating our debt. Now please know Dave does not start by telling people to sell their homes. Ha! In our case we just realized that we have more house than we need and if we did reduce that we would have a whole lot more money to apply to other debt and to save for retirement. We figure that with good health we have about 15 more years to work - that's it. Also, we want to start traveling more when we have vacation time and we are a little cash strapped for any major trips.

That brings me to this: Tada! Our house is on the market. Yes, it is all cleaned up and model-home pretty, right down to the glass bowl of fresh lemons on the kitchen table. :-) It seems we are living in some level of suspended animation so that we are ready, at the ring of the phone, to make a quick exit and allow home buyers (complete strangers) to come trudging through our home with their RE Agent. God, I hate this part!