Back to North Carolina for Christmas

Limo checking my whereabouts

Last year at this time I was packing the car to join my friends Terry and Vange in North Carolina. Vori, Vange's brother and I made the trip on the Prius in the famous Christmas blizzard( Happy New Year blog January 10 2010). We drove right through it with hundreds of cars abandoned along the road and it and it was hell on wheels. We left the house early am and after abandoning the car at the bottom of the hill made it up to the ranch to have warm delicious soup at about midnight. What a drive!

Also, what a difference a year makes! At that time I was sure that I would move to Asheville, North Carolina to join other retirees and find paradise in that mountainside community. Well, as you can see I am little further south. Many reasons prompted the decision to come to Florida that range from weather to home values and property taxes. Certainly the house I found in Florida could not be passed up.

Just this weekend, I went to a party in the Seminole Heights section of Tampa. This is a historic neighborhood of Florida bungalows similar to mine. The party was at a friend from New Jersey that exited there about two years ago. He lives in a glorious house which has been for the most part restored and modernized to make for a splendid home. As a consequence of its condition the house was purchased for almost three times the price of mine. It made me happy to know that when I get through with my remodel I will have something that will command quite a price as I am by the beach, more or less.

A little plaster opening for the new vent grew quickly!

For now, I have a lot of work ahead of me. As a matter of fact, while I write this blog a repairman is fixing the damage caused by the AC/Heat pump people last week. The new more powerful system needed an additional vent and a return. The crew installing the new vent cut the hole for the new vent and created a little damage around the vent. Plaster is great but if you break the way it is attached to the lath it starts pulling away from the ceiling and can pull more plaster in the process. The repairman has made quick fix of what was a sore on the ceiling of my house. The AC people are not happy about paying for the repair but it was their inability to deal with the plaster correctly that caused the problem. They tried worming their way out of their responsibility blaming the old house, but I applied Teddy Roosevelt diplomacy without a big stick and it is now almost repaired.

Meanwhile, I have a few more simple gifts to wrap and a little packing to do. I am sure I will have to clean up after the repairman as part and parcel of this adventure. Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn we shall take to the road again for a ten hour trip North. With any luck there will be no snow this time and even if it is cold I will be able to drive all they way up to the front door. Limo, I am sure is awaiting a chance to go running with horses as his Christmas wish. Enjoy yourselves, we will.