Greetings and all that jazz!

New Year came in like a lamb for me. Went off to bed early without so much as a cheer. Hey! What do you expect when you only have 2 cats to talk with…

Norm, my oldest cat at 12

I seriously believe my boys are just as ready as I am to get back on the road.  They are fighting more, restless and under foot more then normal.  They still won’t drink the water here, even tho I have found a source of well water – that I am loving having access to vs the city water. But… they won’t even drink that. Frustrating…  Their fighting is again triggered by something outside their domain.  Its Tucker that fights whoever is outside the window, but now realize that Norm sneaks up behind Tucker to see what is going on. It surprises Tucker, who growls at Norm then bam… I have another week of hissy fits. Norm is having nightmares too.  I would not have thought cats could have them, but Norm is.  Crazy stuff.

Its entirely possible that they are reacting to me hustling around here. I’m not idling sitting around reading a book. So no lap time, no extra scratches behind the ears… I will attempt to alter this and see if I can see an improvement.

I am very focused at the moment, going paperless on a ton of genealogical sources.  I can’t carry this in my rig, but need the data to continue my research.  I have bags and bags of loose paper heading to the recycle bin each day.  I have found some interesting stuff that I either didn’t remember having or have totally forgotten. Its all being processed and put in its pile (I have a few piles sitting around, aiming for different people).  I think by the end of this week, I will have mastered the critical parts of this… the rest will just have to stay in storage. My Mom’s research in particular.  I have taken photos of all her scrapbooks, etc. She had placed all the family data into archival data storage – its impressive what she did before she lost her eyesight to diabetes. I need to preserve all that.

Next task, is to get another sale set up and run it… it will be one of two big sales I definitely want to do. I have only a few furniture items left to head out the door, a box of old, old books have found a home too, but they are still sitting by the door. As a trade for some Henley rain gear, a guy brought me 8 pints of fresh packed salmon (sockeye & coho) – wow!  Overly generous… but he bought my Weber Water-based Smoker Grill back at the first sale and  he thinks I gave it to him too cheaply. Not! So he keeps coming back with salmon. I am not complaining!!!  Another gal, who bought most of my canning jars, pots and equipment for canning brought back some homemade chutney, salsa and tomato sauce to me. Yum!    And I have made my traditional batch of vanilla extract and have given this out to those coming to my sale. Its still a huge hit…and the word has spread because of it. As many have asked if I’m having another sale and ask about the vanilla. Of course, I am now out of vanilla extract once again. But will give the recipe out to those that ask.

I think I would be pushing it to get out of here at the end of January.  I need to do some more organizing – attempting to get rid of the miscellaneous junk that always collects in one’s home. Then to continue to reload my rig. Do I want to get carpet laid before I load it up??? Or laminate?  Or wait on this a bit longer? Then will call to set up an appointment with a moving company.  A few have suggested Graebel Moving Company… any feedback from my followers of this blog?  Send them onto me.

And a surprise of all surprises showed itself this weekend.  Do you remember me expressing my frustration with Alaska Permanent Dividend, how I would need to hire a lawyer to prove my proof was indeed proof?  Well…. drumroll….  the State deposited my Dividend on December 18th into my account. Shocking!  Absolutely floored the heck out of me.  I have not gotten the refund since 2011, I am just stunned by this, but am so relieved.  Then in another twist of mega proportions… are you sitting down…. the IRS sent me a refund of $1700 for the 2012 taxes they have been harassing me about since October. They had been claiming I owed them. I paid them in October, but continued to get threatening letters up to 2 days before I got the refund check.  I don’t believe the IRS knows its arse from… well, you get the drift. Laughing here.