I grew up in the South West, Barstow, California to be exact, and my best friend and his sister lived 2 houses down the street. I've been in and out (mostly out) of touch with them over the years but today I had the pleasure of hooking up on the phone with Joan. I last saw Joan and her husband and kids in Costa Mesa, Ca probably in the late 70's or early 80's! We talked for over an hour and exchanged some info and tried to catch up - long story but if I could have picked a dad it would have theirs - David (the dad).
Now I'm waiting to talk to my best friend David (the son). I called and left my phone number but wasn't sure that I had the right David, but Joan confirmed that I did. After all, his last name is Swink and he lives in Swink, Oklahoma! Had to get in touch with Joan in Lincoln, CA to be sure!
Monday, June 29, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Custom Home
We received a call from our architect yesterday afternoon! He will have a new conceptual presentation of our estate home that we plan to build in Kerrville Texas available for us to review next week. We took a long hard look at our plans for our dream home and decided that 2 stories just did not fit. If/when I get old I don't want to deal with steps and so we totally redid our concept and are now going with a single floor layout.
We also did not want to deal with a crush of humanity anywhere near the I-95/I-75 corridors so we staked out our little piece of Paradise here. When we first returned to the US we lived in Northern Virginia. We very quickly decided that this part of the county was not for us. We enjoyed a lot of the things that the area had to offer but not the traffic and in some cases the attitude! So, on one of our several road trips, we drove through the Texas Hill County and the rest is history.
We've been fortunate to live all over the country, all over the world and have always had the dream of building a custom home. That dream is nearing realization as Mickey will present his plan to us on Tuesday using gotopc. This is interesting in itself since Mickey is about my age and is using state of the art CAD and current technology to design dream homes in the Hill Country. We've seen many of the homes he has designed and they are awesome. More later!
We also did not want to deal with a crush of humanity anywhere near the I-95/I-75 corridors so we staked out our little piece of Paradise here. When we first returned to the US we lived in Northern Virginia. We very quickly decided that this part of the county was not for us. We enjoyed a lot of the things that the area had to offer but not the traffic and in some cases the attitude! So, on one of our several road trips, we drove through the Texas Hill County and the rest is history.
We've been fortunate to live all over the country, all over the world and have always had the dream of building a custom home. That dream is nearing realization as Mickey will present his plan to us on Tuesday using gotopc. This is interesting in itself since Mickey is about my age and is using state of the art CAD and current technology to design dream homes in the Hill Country. We've seen many of the homes he has designed and they are awesome. More later!
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Factory Refit
I've been working on an IP-38 for several years and got to the point that some of the items needed required a major refit. Shipped the boat up to Largo last week and will update periodically with photos and narrative once work is underway.
In the meantime time I'm still busy, Leopard 44, IP-380, Hunter 33, an Albin Trawler, and a kitchen rennovation!
In the meantime time I'm still busy, Leopard 44, IP-380, Hunter 33, an Albin Trawler, and a kitchen rennovation!
Friday, June 26, 2015
Diamond Back
We received a frantic call from one of our neighbors yesterday late afternoon - she had seen a GIGANTIC snake slither by one of here sliding doors. I went down expecting to see maybe a small python etc but was really shocked to see the BIGGEST Eastern Diamond Back I've ever seen. Man was it big!
I tried zapping it with a shovel but was not willing to get close enough to be able to deal with it. All I did at this point was piss it off. Lots of rattling and then it moved to the side of a nearby home. We tried calling 2 calling 2 different animal control offices - both open 9 - 5 only, then we call 2 different Sherriff Dept's - they referred us to the Cape Coral Police who then referred us to a private animal control guy. He was busy so he referred us to another guy who was about 30 minutes away.
I did not want to risk loosing track of this snake so I asked Lesley to go down and get my gun (.177 cal air gun). I was able to hit the snake with two shots to the head and that seemed to immobilize it but did not kill it, yikes what a monster.
The animal guy arrived and got his snake tool out and managed to lift the thing up away from the house. It was not dead and started going with the rattles again. He moved the snake out into the front yard and held it up for all to see. At least 6ft long and 3 - 4" in diameter - way big.
I tried zapping it with a shovel but was not willing to get close enough to be able to deal with it. All I did at this point was piss it off. Lots of rattling and then it moved to the side of a nearby home. We tried calling 2 calling 2 different animal control offices - both open 9 - 5 only, then we call 2 different Sherriff Dept's - they referred us to the Cape Coral Police who then referred us to a private animal control guy. He was busy so he referred us to another guy who was about 30 minutes away.
I did not want to risk loosing track of this snake so I asked Lesley to go down and get my gun (.177 cal air gun). I was able to hit the snake with two shots to the head and that seemed to immobilize it but did not kill it, yikes what a monster.
The animal guy arrived and got his snake tool out and managed to lift the thing up away from the house. It was not dead and started going with the rattles again. He moved the snake out into the front yard and held it up for all to see. At least 6ft long and 3 - 4" in diameter - way big.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
To Texas and Back!
We've spent the past 12 days on the road to Kerrville, in Kerrville, then on the road back to Punta Gorda.
We had a great time in our new hometown and had great success in dealing with our builder, architect, new banker, new insurance agent, etc. A few interesting points of comparison to our home here and prospective home in Texas:
Insurance - cost will be about the same but with the new place valued at 2.5 times our place here. Except we no longer will have to purchase Flood Insurance or deal with significant windstorm deductible.
Taxes - Property tax as above will be nearly the same but sales tax will be 8.25% vs 7 % (still no income tax to deal with).
Driving distance - 7.2 miles from our house to the HEB grocery store. We now drive approximately 10 miles for groceries.
Home Owners Association - NO MORE!
We will be having a custom home build on our 3.12 acre lot just south of town sometime next spring or summer. We visited our lot with architect Mickey Thompson and settled on location and some grading details. We have also changed the design of our home significantly over the past few weeks since I posted a photo of a look alike home. Once I have drawings and details of the new design I'll post them here. Included in the new design is an outdoor kitchen and I've already picked out the charcoal powered grill/smoker that we are going to install.
We intentionally did not cook anything to east while we were in Kerrville as we wanted to try out all of the different places to eat. The first thing that amazed us was that a town of this size (approximately 22,000) could have such a variety of good restaurants. We had breakfast at 2 different donut shops and settled on the place that had the best egg/cheese/meat/croissants. We had chicken fried steak twice at our favorite chicken fried steak place and that was the only time, other than breakfast, that we repeated in the restaurants. We have 3 places that we did not try - next time will include Yeo Bo's (Korean).
We enjoyed being in town for the grand opening of the expanded River Trail. Having now walked the entire length and enjoyed the dog park with Lewis.
More to follow.
We had a great time in our new hometown and had great success in dealing with our builder, architect, new banker, new insurance agent, etc. A few interesting points of comparison to our home here and prospective home in Texas:
Insurance - cost will be about the same but with the new place valued at 2.5 times our place here. Except we no longer will have to purchase Flood Insurance or deal with significant windstorm deductible.
Taxes - Property tax as above will be nearly the same but sales tax will be 8.25% vs 7 % (still no income tax to deal with).
Driving distance - 7.2 miles from our house to the HEB grocery store. We now drive approximately 10 miles for groceries.
Home Owners Association - NO MORE!
We will be having a custom home build on our 3.12 acre lot just south of town sometime next spring or summer. We visited our lot with architect Mickey Thompson and settled on location and some grading details. We have also changed the design of our home significantly over the past few weeks since I posted a photo of a look alike home. Once I have drawings and details of the new design I'll post them here. Included in the new design is an outdoor kitchen and I've already picked out the charcoal powered grill/smoker that we are going to install.
We intentionally did not cook anything to east while we were in Kerrville as we wanted to try out all of the different places to eat. The first thing that amazed us was that a town of this size (approximately 22,000) could have such a variety of good restaurants. We had breakfast at 2 different donut shops and settled on the place that had the best egg/cheese/meat/croissants. We had chicken fried steak twice at our favorite chicken fried steak place and that was the only time, other than breakfast, that we repeated in the restaurants. We have 3 places that we did not try - next time will include Yeo Bo's (Korean).
We enjoyed being in town for the grand opening of the expanded River Trail. Having now walked the entire length and enjoyed the dog park with Lewis.
More to follow.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
On the road again!
We left Punta Gorda Sunday morning heading for Kerrville with stops in Pensacola and then Columbus, TX before arriving here about noon today. Trip was uneventful but my god there is a real problem with LEFT LANE LARRY'S on the Interstates.... Way to many people just don't either know how to drive or just plain are not paying attention to what's going on on the highway.
We plan to be here for 10 days taking care of new home building details and enjoying the area.
This afternoons fun involve Lewis playing with a black lab in the Guadeloupe River. Lewis had a ball and the old black lab did to but must have though Lew was crazy with all the zooming around he did! Probably his way of saying that he was glad to be out of the car!
Billy Gene's tonight for chicken fried steak.
We plan to be here for 10 days taking care of new home building details and enjoying the area.
This afternoons fun involve Lewis playing with a black lab in the Guadeloupe River. Lewis had a ball and the old black lab did to but must have though Lew was crazy with all the zooming around he did! Probably his way of saying that he was glad to be out of the car!
Billy Gene's tonight for chicken fried steak.
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