IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME

 Well, we haven't posted since September, 2018. As is typical with us, we get excited at the beginning, but, as time goes by, we lose ambition.

Since then, we've traveled to many places, including SGI again, to upper Michigan twice with friends, and to Vegas/Flagstaff/Grand Canyon/Sedona at the beginning of the COVID Wuhan virus lockdowns. THEY LOCKED DOWN VEGAS!!

An image of Vegas on our morning walk.

So, that being said, we are going to resurrect this blog because we have since retired, moved to a nice, two bedroom apartment in Oshkosh, Wisconsin (to be closer to our granddaughters), and have begun traveling as retired people This retirement has snuck up on us. John had always stated that he'd die at his desk while Sherri maintained she'd teach until she could no longer get up off the floor with her pre-schoolers. But, the stars aligned, God's plan unfolded and we knew it was time to retire. Sherri's mom, who had lived with us for the past twenty years, got to the point where she needed more care than we were able to provide.  So, with her moving into assisted living, we knew it was time for us to close that chapter of our lives in Watertown and begin a new one in Oshkosh.

The apartment search was frustrating. Senior housing units were uncooperative in that they wouldn't return phone calls or emails. Other ones wanted application money just to get information. So, we had to play a waiting game. After many drive-bys and several phone and email contacts, we decided on three to which apply. ONE had an actual opening and accepted our application. After several emails and phone calls (again) a move-in date was finally set and we could get our home in Watertown on the market and set a closing date.

The sale was a whirlwind in that the house sold in two days for a lot more than we could have hoped for and for $20,000 over, what we originally thought was an inflated, asking price! This allowed us to purchase our new car, a Kia Seltos, with cash and leave us with enough money to use as we see fit over time. 

The move was an eye-opener in that we realized how much STUFF we had! Sherri was GREAT in how she was able to down-size everything, sell those items we could, and part with others. We used the capacity of the new car to make several trips to Oshkosh as we were able to move in weeks before the original time frame. We were able to set up the apartment the way we wanted before all the furniture was moved in. We bought new living room and dining furniture, so that was delivered separately.

Our living room. That's a wood-burning fire place!

 The view of the Fox River from our second-story balcony

The next entries will be retrospectives of some trips we've taken since retiring. We look forward to you reading them.