Good morning good morning, guys and gals!
21* with a high of 31 and very bright sunny skies.
Coffee is good; having a Breakfast Blend fair trade coffee from Aldi.
Not bad, not bad.
Feeling the light at the end of the tunnel with Christmas orders, which is nice. I'm expecting two more long work days and then a rest, for shopping and baking. Our family Christmas party is on the 23rd, and all the kids except our youngest and his family will be coming to our house. We do a pot luck; Allen will cook the turkey, and I'm going to make some diabetic-friendly chocolate chip cookies and chocolate pecan pie bars. And maybe pumpkin donuts. Hey... where'd those elves go???....
So Allen was showing me his proposed disc golf tournament trips for 2018, and I realized M&G is the same month as 2 major events.
The first one is our biggest "home game" so to speak, The Ledgestone Insurance Open, August 9-12. It's on the National Tour and is the highest purse Pro payout tournament in the world, so it draws thousands of people, including all the male and female pros... last year's pro purse was over $90k. For what's still considered an emerging pro sport that ESPN is really just now acknowledging, that's a pretty decent payout! They have generous payouts for the Am divisions as well, it certainly covers the cost of your registration fee and then some, if you make it into the payout range in your division. We volunteered at the tourney in 2014, Allen played in 2015 and made payout, but missed payout in 2016. The other big event is the MVP Open at Maple Hill, August 24-26, in Leicester, MA. (It used to be called the Vibram Open, or older was called the Marshall Street Open.) It's a big deal for us on a personal level, because our oldest son is the Marketing Director for MVP, and negotiated this deal; plus he manages the MVP Pro Team. This is the first year that MVP is sponsoring a major event on the National Tour, so again a big deal for us in terms of being part of history with the sport, too. While I'm excited to participate in these events (I caddy for Allen), still it makes me very sad to think I might never make it to a M&G, even when we retire. I'll have to keep my eyes open for other opportunities, though. So as you guys travel, if you're doing the midwest do do post here so maybe we can connect somewhere.. Charlie, we'll have to play DG sometime, we'll make it work.
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Roy, that 6 or 7 inches of s-word is certainly gonna make a white Christmas for you. Agreed though... Arizona is definitely looking good,
especially after Christmas is over.
Ann, happy belated birthday!!! And what a nice looking truck! Purrrrrty. Congratulations on it. Just out of curiosity, why use the old truck over the winter instead of the new one?
Lynne, I hope you were able to be safe on your way to work today. Thinking about you on the way home in the dark. Take it slow-- black ice. Too few days left to have an accident, I agree 1000%. 31.5 miles one way? UGHH. What do you do on your long commutes? Listen to music or books on cd?Pretty soon though, NO COMMUTE!! And yes, Gordon is right about ending on a high note.
Yeah I hear ya about Jerry wanting to have a place where he can putz around. Sometimes you don't know what will work until you try it. Finding out you like something is a win, but so is finding out that you don't. Experience with those first two years of taking off for extended trips can't be substituted with head knowledge.
You made a really good point about the expenses of working when compared to a SS income. I hadn't thought of that part.
Frank, I saw a recent documentary about people who were FT who drifted along with short-term jobs; they would work the Amazon warehouses, pick fruit, and workcamp. I dunno if the people doing the documentaries had a jaded perspective about FT, so just looked for and found the poorest, most bedraggled people they could find to interview, but they made it seem like these folks were the dregs of RV gypsies, basically transient homeless people. If scaring you off retiring and going FT in your RV was the purpose of their documentary, dude they did a good job. But to hear you guys say, yeah I'm workcamping so I can go on a cruise next summer.... jeez what a polar opposite perspective, yanno? I'd rather hear the pros and cons from people living it here.
Lloyd, Wow Miss Prissy is looking like they're doing a fabulous job. You sound so much more confident than you were last month around this time. What a difference a month makes. How'd that driveway go yesterday?
MK, best of luck on your treatment and chemo. Hope and pray this means the end of cancer for you forever.
Gordon, you crack me up about the sandals without socks. Allen is like that, except he says shorts instead of pants.
Charlie, I hear ya about the waiting on the Eagle before filling up the tank. Read Allen what you said about taking out a loan the other day to fill up. Hahaha, yeah thank God the prices of fuel these days aren't what they were 5 years ago!!
We'd probably do the same thing you do-- Mostly national parks, Corps of Engineers, and Boondocking. Allen is also very interested in solar!
You and Martha have fun Meeting Up with Ron and Emmet today.
Well, here ends another Charlene-o-novel!