Settling In, in Hampton Roads

We are now celebrating our fifth month in our new home. Our original goal for a new location was to be in Hampton, but we found THE HOUSE in Newport News, and if there were no city limit signs, one would never know when they left one and entered the other. Actually we are truly starting to feel comfortable. We did get hit with a shafting by the individual who did the home appraisal for the mortgage company since she did the comps in the area outside of Kiln Creek and the housing in this area is worth a lot more, but we wound up coughing up another 6 grand to get the process to close. We also encountered some pretty hefty fix-up costs at the start, replacing the first level floors and sealing the slab for water intrusion, then staining the fence a nice color to eliminate the old bleached out look around our back property, but that is now behind us and we are truly settling in to this neighborhood and our home. Our community, Kiln Creek, is an Award Winning Golf Community, with the home neighborhoods intersected by a very nice 18 hole golf course, complete with a Resort Facility including a small hotel and a nice restaurant.

October is finally in the bag, expecting a small group of kiddies for the trick or treat thing, but hoping for a lot more, since we sort of went crazy with the candy buying.

Halloween done and done.

Well, there it went, October 31, and we did have had a nice Halloween in our new home/neighborhood. Many little kids and some not so little, appeared at our door for treats. We were very happy to see them, since we had a ton of candy to give out. Had not been involved with Trick or Treaters for over a decade, since we lived in condos and four years on our motor yacht for all that time. This night was a fun time for us, these kiddos were so cute in their costumes and we handed out candy by the handfuls. We had sort of over bought on the candy side, we couldn’t remember from our time many years ago and of course being in a brand new neighborhood and a brand new section of our state, we had no concept of what sort of traffic for the trick or treaters. Turned out we did get a good number of trick or treaters, so our huge candy supply was sufficiently reduced. Perhaps we can find a good locale to donate a few pounds of small candy bars and protect us from the sweets. But we made it and we don’t have that huge bag full anymore. Still have a lot, but far less than we started with or thought we would wind up with.

The Year is winding down

Wow, November is already here and the holidays are fast approaching. Next Tuesday is Elections Day, and hope springs eternal regarding the winning candidates. Both myself and the Bride know exactly how we will vote, and it will be as we have for the past several years.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and this will be the first time that we have been so very far from our kids and grand kids. Just going to be me, Charlotte and the two fur babies. Those two probably will not be joining us for our Thanksgiving dinner. But the Bride and I will have a meal and give thanks for all our blessings. Still, will miss having all the kids and grands around a table.

Major Changes oh my!

Well, as some of you may know, on October 17th Charlotte spent her last day at her large company employer. Rather than retire, we both felt that she had so much expertise and experience in her career field to share, so just stopping simply wasn’t in the cards.

She has now become an owner of a Small Woman Owned Small Business. Yep, we formed a company to have a facility for her to share her extensive experience in all things payroll. From Process to Regulatory, from Data Analytics to Seminars and Formal Classroom Training, She will be marketing her skills for those who need the kind of experience and expertise that she has become quite well known for. Of course I will help out, someone has to be the driver, and work on the computer thingys, and look cute around the workspace.

So she landed her first small contract with a major consultant company and will be billable for at least two months, perhaps three. We are hopeful that additional work will be following and she will stay busy. The plan is to hopefully grow the company, especially along certain paths, and try to keep the staff ranks as lean as possible to ensure that everyone has work and that the company continues to exist.

Of course if the worst thing happens and no follow-on appears she would also be able to simply retire.

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Author: harv1941

Just a summary, I am 84 years of age, retired in July 2013 and settled down to promoting the dangers of bacterial meningitis, which killed my beloved son, Mike in 2009. My wife, Charlotte, and I embarked on an adventure of live aboard cruising, aboard a large Blue Water motor yacht. While our beginning was rather fraught with hurdles, we continued to look forward to the day we moved aboard the Misty Lady and cruise the eastern seaboard and associated waterways. After more than four years of life aboard this Bluewater Motor Yacht, I developed an advanced problem due to interaction with medications and experienced rather frightening balance problems. Therefore, getting on and off the yacht was fraught with danger of falling between the docks and the boat's hull. Walking the docks was also problematic considering that our yacht club docks were all floating docks and my balance problem was a danger during the walk from our yacht's docking slip to the clubhouse or out to the DC Wharf facilities and our car housed in the yacht club's reserved garage. SO, we had to regretfully put the Misty Lady up for sale and move back on shore. We moved on shore, first into a condo apartment in Alexandria, then after two years there, we relocated to the city of Newport News, in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Our original desired location was in the city of Hampton, Virginia, which is the oldest English-speaking settlement in the United States having been established originally in 1610. My ancestors came to this country through this settlement in the mid 1600s and lived in that area for around 100 years before beginning a migration of one portion of our family toward the west. I looked forward to moving back to this area and exploring the roots of my family, both maternal and paternal ancestry, but we found a great house in the Newport News area and became ensconced in the terrific neighborhood of Kiln Creek. My wife, being still actively employed, received a substantial offer in a position with a government contractor firm back up in Northern Virginia. So we put the Newport News house up for sale, receiving and accepting an offer withing two days. We then relocated back up to the city of Alexandria and into another high rise condo. My wife reached a point where considerations for retirement were becoming very important. She indicated that she really didn't want to retire in Alexandria, so once again we began a house search in the Tidewater area, this time in the City of Williamsburg and in a community restricted to 55+ age owners. We found the ideal location, initiated the sale and closing for our retirement home. We then put our condo on the market. Alas, the market was not as robust as before so we had to change asking price a couple of time, but finally the Alexandria Condo was sold. Now we are set to enjoy the great locations found here in the Tidewater/Hampton Roads area, considering that we are history buffs and there are literally hundreds of historical sites in this segment of our nation. Of course living in Williamsburg is the epitome of history living life. So, now we are in our retirement home, in a great retirement type community. A great clubhouse with a fine dining restaurant, a grill/pub, an award winning PGA designed golf course and miles of walking trails. Looking forward to my wife's eventual full retirement and the two of us visiting all up and down the east coast historical spots.

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