Texas Travails

Thinking Beyond the Box

2011-07-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

It is funny how sometimes you stare at the same thing everyday, it sits in the same space and then one day you say, "why is it there??" That is what happened with my kitchen TV. In the old days, BC (Before Computers), I think everyone had a kitchen TV that sat on valuable counter top space because well, since we spend so much time in the kitchen, we needed it for diversion from the hum drum.
One day whilst I had a High Definition moment with another bedroom TV which is used because that bedroom also doubles as my exercise room, I decided why not put the HD box that was in the kitchen in the bedroom. That left me with the ah ha moment. I not only got rid of the "box", I got rid of The BOX, the TV. I realized I am no longer tied to the TV. I have replaced that special relationship with my computer, followed closely by my iphone.
I am totally loving my new box free space. Now if I could so easily get rid of the bar sink in my island that is never used except to house the dog toys. Why oh why did I want two sinks in my kitchen???

Rental Property is it really worth it?

2011-07-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

We've owned one rental house for about 5 years now and acquired a second one last year. I don't think there are any really good "rent house" tutorials out there and I find myself gravitating to other landlords for my info and solace. Would I attempt being a landlord if I wasn't retired......I haven't thought about it enough to say yea or nay but it is more work than probably most people realize.
I'll start with saying we bought the first house more out of a desire to protect our own residence. These properties abut each other and are in an older part of town. The pattern here has been to raze the old house and put up a "much improved and, of course, bigger house" for the expanding family....translation...about 3000sf for maybe 3 to 4 people, some are very small people. If this had happened on the property behind us, it would have been tragic for us. In the past 25 years, I've gotten used to the view from my back door. I put in a swimming pool (a necessity in Houston) and it was situated in such a position that if anyone built a large home on the lot behind us, they would almost certainly have built something which would loom over that pool. We don't need that much privacy. We aren't skinny dippers but we do like the view of the trees and birds from the pool. We aren't really swimmers. We are floaters and therefore admirers of nature as we serenely float and marvel at nature around us.
The first couple of rental experiences were sublime. I befriended my tenants and had the passing thought that being a landlord was, "a piece of cake." That changed and, in the interest of brevity, I will save that for later posts.
Suffice it to say, I realized I needed to be a smarter landlord and I would have to work at this situation as hard as any other position I wished to be successful. If this interests you, stay tuned for later posts. Like I said earlier, there aren't a lot of resources out there to prepare you for the landlord experience and I am not sure why that is the case except it is a complex issue and there aren't easy answers. Are there ever???? Thanks for reading.....

What do you do????

2011-06-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

I have been retired for five years now and I still don't have a good answer for those people I meet who ask me what do I do with my days. Retirement is a strange state. A lot of people dream of it and plan for it but really don't give it much thought as to what they will do when they are actually there. To some it is terrifying and they shun the idea entirely. Retirement can be confused with growing old so I can understand why people are afraid of it. The two states should be thought of as different. Growing old is a condition of the body. Retirement is something you have earned. The latter doesn't mean you stop doing anything but working at what you did before you retired.

I am lucky. I got to retire when I was 50. My former employer was willing to give me a generous pension and I realized I had been working non-stop for someone else since I was 16 years old and had enough of it. I decided it was time to start doing things I wanted to do. Even so, when I say this to those curious souls who want to know what I do all day, it doesn't seem to satisfy them. I have concluded they don't really want to know what I do all day, they are more concerned with their notion of retirement and want to know if I have the answer. I guess I don't have their answer, only my own.

Retirement is a wonderful thing. Embrace it, cherish it and don't be afraid.

This blog is just my ramblings but I hope to include more about early retirement or just retirement in general and I would love to hear from others about their thoughts. Thank you for reading.

Closet Organization

2010-03-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

This is totally a girl thing but I am into closet organization these days. I have several closets that are in need of it and I recently spent a couple hours at The Container Store (TCS). I circled around the store several times and almost ran out of there screaming when I decided to tackle one project at a time instead of organizing all my closets on one visit. This is basic organizational management which was not working for me and totally ironic considering my mission at the time.
First off, I want this pantry. I love it but am not sure where they are stashing their boxes of cookies and cereal and where are all the cans?! Still, I love it for its basic simplicity and cleanliness. This must be a show pantry because who takes all their stuff out of nice packaging to put it into other, albeit prettier stuff?This wasn't the project I started out with on this most recent foray into the world of organization, TCS, but trust me my pantry looks nothing like this and I am not going to include a photo here. I am no fool.
Instead, I decided to work on my bedroom closet. My first effort wasn't bad but there is still much work left to do. Let me begin by saying, my closet has only 4 drawers and they are big drawers. Looking for an item of clothing in them is something close to digging for buried treasure except you don't remember what you buried in there and when you pull out some little prize it is usually the wrong season for it. I found these paper Swedish boxes at TCS and they work well for jewelry organization and for small lingerie items. So far, all is well and now it is time to fine tune the rest of this place. Here are my little Swedish boxes sitting atop the bigger "bottomless pit" drawers.The little photo display just isn't working for this spot so I need to think this whole thing over next. It looks like another trip(s) to TCS is/are in my future.

Decadent

2010-02-19T11:16:00.001-08:00

That was the word used by a friend of mine you saw the new project I am working on. It is big, bossy but decadent??? I don't think so. There is a certain art form to home theaters. They are a complicated fusion of design and technology. I didn't want the pseudo theater design a lot of home theaters go for....the velvet curtains, the massive stained wood panels and, of course, the movie posters and popcorn machine. No, this one needed to blend in as much as an 8 foot high box with a 110" screen in the middle could fade into the background. The theater is also a poolhouse which is sometimes a guesthouse and more often than not, a home gym. Its multi-functional personality said paint me to match the woodwork. It's brains are tucked away neatly in an over-sized closet which is out of view but is in range of the super hi-tech remote and this is all thanks to radio frequency technology. It also boasts a 7.1 sound system which translates to 7 speakers and one sub-woofer. When you can find a 7.1 DVD, the sound is pretty awesome. Of course, the next wave is 9.1, 11.1 and on and on. That is the way with state of the art technology. One day you are cutting edge and the next day you are way behind. But for now, this is a pretty killer theater.

Cabo San Lucas

2010-02-07T14:24:00.001-08:00

I have wanted to go to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for awhile, ever since I went on the website for Las Ventanas. Who wouldn't want to go to a place that looks like this when you drive up to it? Suffice it to say, this place is mucho dinero so I filed it away for "after the big lottery win". As luck would have it, though, we did win (sort of kind of) a week at Playa Grande. We were the high bidders (the only bidders) on a penthouse suite offered as a auction item for a fundraiser. It isn't Las Ventanas but it is in a spectacular location, a short walk to Cabo San Lucas and right on the Pacific Ocean.

There are some things you really need to do if you find yourself in Cabo. At least for one day you need to rent a car and drive to Todos Santos. The town is a little art village and is worth walking around. You must, though, drive to Posada La Poza which is a inn and restaurant on the water in Todos Santos. You can't really miss it because there are a lot of signs which will direct you there. Lilly, the proprietress gave us a tour of her seven room inn and then we had lunch in her restaurant. The food was incredible and her margaritas were divine. While we were sipping our margaritas, we observed this mama hummingbird feeding her baby. I've never seen a hummingbird sit still this long.

I'll close with this pretty picture of the sunrise taken from our hotel balcony. We will be back.

Texas Sky on Fire

2010-01-27T13:25:00.001-08:00

Sometimes the Texas sunsets are pretty amazing. This was taken a couple of days ago from our backporch. What a beautiful sky. Often, I ask myself what is my favorite season here. It depends on the season we are in because normally that is the answer. I love the spring for the flowers and the buds on the trees just before the pollen starts. Then, I love the summer because everything is in its heyday and we are swimming in the pool. Fall, is a favorite for the cool evenings but then the falling leaves are bothersome especially when they fall in the pool. Last but not least, the winter is a favorite for the beautiful sunrises and sunsets. We live in a beautiful state although not many people outside of this state think so but that is ok.

Happy 100!!!

2010-01-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

As near as I can figure it, our house is 100 years old this year. A little bit of sleuthing determined the earliest recorded resident for our house was in 1910. This was determined from both the neighborhood and city directories. 100 years old might not be any great feat for architecture in some parts of our world or even in our own nation but, by Houston standards, this is pretty old. Our harsh climate makes maintaining a structure sometimes difficult so often houses are just bulldozed instead of remodeled.
We bought this house in 1985 and remodeled it several times in the past almost 25 years. We once had a builder advise us to tear it down and build new but we were glad we didn't listen to his advice. It probably cost us more money in the long run but we take great pride in this place. I read somewhere that you shouldn't love something that can't love you back. Well, I do love this house. I am proud to have preserved it to see its 100th year.

Travel Tidbits

2010-01-06T06:38:00.000-08:00

Stealing an idea from the May-December blog (we would be more December-December...ha ha), I am chronicling our travel in 2009. We started out in February with a trip to Puerto Moreles, Mexico. I actually took this picture and I am not any kind of photog. The place is actually this beautiful.

Our second major trip was in March when we went to Portugal. We spent a couple of days in Lisbon and then rented a car and drove to Porto and to many other beautiful cities in Portugal. Driving in a country where the roads are sometimes as big as sidewalks in the US can be a challenge but the country is gorgeous and driving challenges become the source of much laughter.In June, we went to Vienna and Budapest. It rained a lot but we had fun. This is an artsy shot taken by my husband. We are near the Mozart Cafe in Vienna.

Our next trip was to Seattle on a bike trip with friends. I am not much of a biker. We rode about 30 miles a day. I am smiling here but my butt is sore.
In October, we went on our second trip to Miami (first was in April to see my best bud Carol)...my hometown! How pretty is this place?!

And last, but not least, in November we went to Paris. I can never get enough of Paris.

Other travel included: Huntsville, AL; Asheville, NC; New Providence, NJ; and Roanoke,VA for family affairs.
2010 is already shaping up to be a big travel year!!! We have at least 2 trips to Italy planned.

This is Scooter....the Bad Scooter

2009-12-24T13:56:00.001-08:00

Under our Christmas tree you won't find any presents for our pool cleaner Scooter. He has been a very bad boy. In an obvious escape attempt, he broke from the wall attachment which connects him to the pool. He has been isolated to the pool deck until the replacement part can be sent. You can see the twisted mess he has made of himself and the mess in our pool. Bad Scooter.

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly

2009-12-19T08:46:00.000-08:00

Fa la la la la.....I found this Ilex at the Central Market floral department here in Houston. Nothing says Christmas like Holly. Of course, there is always evergreen, lots of lights, presents...and on and on.

Paris

2009-12-19T07:43:00.000-08:00

Vowing not to be a one post wonder, I am going to post a comment on our latest adventure. We went to Paris for Thanksgiving. I mean how traditional can you get, the Moulin Rouge on Tday? We stayed in a wonderful apartment off the Place St. Sulpice. We ate way too much excellent food and loved every minute of it. One of my fondest memories of all time will be the lunch at Le Grand Vefour (who could afford to eat dinner there!?)

Birth of a Blog

2009-10-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog. I've been an avid blog follower for some time and felt it was time to start my own and jump into the whole world of blogging. I hope you will bear with me as I learn the ropes. Surely, there will be a few oops and, with any luck, I hope to keep this interesting. Stay tuned for my recipe for retirement success which includes travel, activites and interests. Thanks for stopping by!