travel

Lovely Lady Land Yacht Bits.

PaulasPonderingsLeave a comment
pehrump - drive through mtns
enjoying the open road

So the Lady Land Yacht was purchased from a dealer in Pahrump Nevada.  Pahrump is about 50 miles West of Las Vegas Nevada.   When I tell people about Pahrump, they all tell me about legalized prostitution.  I had to look it up, they are right, it is where the Chicken Ranch is…  Why did I not know this???

Lady Land Yacht was sitting on a lot of what I call the “auto graveyard” – where autos go to die.  I wished I had taken a picture of this.. I think I was in shock when I first saw the whole scene.

Onto the Lady Bits and her “under the dress” bits.  The mechanics.  She has been with the mechanic for a few weeks now and they have assessed her… and it is not as bad as I thought.  There are 5 major areas that need fixing,  most of which are turning out to not be that big of a deal.

Now, I share all this with you because when you buy a used motorhome, you just don’t know what you will get.  Yes, you can have a mechanic check it out (I did), but unless you are in the same location as the apple of your eye or you know the original owner…  you take a risk.

So, on with the assessment.

First, the good news.  Brakes, belts, tires are all in good condition.  Engine is in excellent condition (with only 87k miles on her, she will last a lifetime!)..

Now, areas of improvement:

  • Generator – is not getting fuel due to burned up wiring to the fuel pump. Replace these and a few carburetor parts.  The generator only has 56 hours on it.. so essentially its brand new.  Should last forever.  Now she/we can go boondocking!
  • Air conditioner blows hot air – yes, I drove this beast home from Vegas (to SLC Utah) NOT only without air conditioning, but BLOWING HOT AIR.  In July. Yes. You read right. This is story for another day.  The reason for the hot air? There was a “crack in the cap”. The cap was replaced and cool air is now blowing.
  • Steps not operational – the stairs that get you into/out of the motorhome through the main door were not working. Or rather, I could hear them working, but they were tied up, which I didn’t untie because I thought they were probably tied up for a reason. Yep. They were.  Bad wiring. Wires have been fixed and steps go up and down as needed.
  • Leveling jacks not functioning- the things that are used to level the RV when camping. You have to keep the RV as level as possible – for sleeping, but more importantly to keep the refrigerator working properly.  Gotta keep the drinks food cool while RV’ing!
  • Missing battery  – bought this lady from what I call the “car graveyard”. When I drove up to the lot, it looked like the place where cars go to die.  Seriously.  Anyway, It makes sense that a battery was missing.  He probably took it out to get another car started/sold.  It was clearly missing – the battery cage/holder was empty and there were wires that were hanging out that clearly where meant to be attached to a battery.  Anyway, I got myself a new battery which should help. 😉

So there you have it.  Not so bad. Not as bad as I thought it would be anyway.

Once I get her back I am planning on taking her to her first RV park so I can gain some new skills – RV Hookups.  Once I’m done I’m ready for the open road!

Do you live near a beautiful park you can recommend?  Have you been somewhere you would highly recommend?  Share your favorite, memorable, or bucket list places so I can check them out!!

 

 

Speak Up or Shut Up (or as my mom would say: Please Share Your Opinion).

PaulasPonderings4 Comments

airstream in driveway

Hello.

So my intention since my last post was to write every week on Wednesday. You can see I’ve failed miserably…… but in all fairness, I’m writing now, and it’s much more timely than my last last post.  So treat me like a millennial and give me some kudos.  🙂

After my last post I received several emails from folks asking if I was dying.  My response:  Yes, we are all dying and we should want to take care of those we love.  No, I do not have any disease or illness that will shorten my expected life expectancy.   Summary: Don’t worry, I am not dying prematurely, or if I am, I am not aware of it.

Why do I write today?  First to calm your fears about the length of my existence. But I also have some exciting news.  I BOUGHT A MOTOR HOME. Yes, you read right, I purchased and old school 1997 Airstream Land Yacht.  It’s in need of renovation. Yes I still work full-time so, No, I do not have the time to fix it… But I gone and did it anyway – she is mine. The lovely lady is all mine.  I see great adventures in our near future.  I named her Rosie (from Neil Diamonds song Cracklin Rosie), but when I picked her up, she isn’t a Rosie.. she is something else. I’m holding off naming her until she is all gussied up.  No matter what, in all her perfectly imperfect wonder, she is mine and we will have wonderful adventures together.  It cannot wait to travel the USA, meeting new people, and see all the amazing natural wonders of our great country.  My first big adventure – Mt. Rushmore!!

Soooooo… my friends are saying I need to start an entirely new blog to speak to my new adventures to come – in the Airstream. They tell me that this blog is stale…. and I should start anew.  I don’t see why I need to do that.

What are your thoughts?  Your opinion matters.. reply or direct message/email me with your thoughts since I cannot figure out how to insert a Poll plugin for free (free being the key word here)..  speak up now or forever hold your tongue.

Tell me what you want

 

Taking Some Time Off.

PaulasPonderingsLeave a comment

southern_coast_of_turkey

Hello all.

So much has happened in these last few months.

  • Family – AbFab’s husband lost his legs in a work accident.  Here is a news video of how he survived – inspirational.  They are both so strong, so resilient. The kids – Mayonaise and Shanaynay are doing well and they love their dad with or without legs.
  • Travel – I had an opportunity to go to Turkey and I did it.  I went to Turkey for 10 days with one of my best friends – Unicorns. She suggested it one week, we booked our tickets the next week, then we left the next week. Impromtu.  It was one of, if not the best trip I’ve ever taken. More on this later.
  • Work – not going well at all…the product doesn’t work and leadership is lacking – in both inspiration and direction.  Every team works in silo’s – Sales selling product we don’t have, Product delivering product that doesn’t work.  Since I work with customers every day, I feel the chaos. These people, our customers, put their careers on the line to purchase and adopt our technology. And we consistently let them down.

So, I’ve made a decision.  I made it a few weeks ago, but I’ve been letting it stew in my brain for a bit before making it a reality.  I am resigning.  I will let my manager know on Friday. My last day will be Nov. 13th. I am resigning before having another job.   My plan is to get centered again. This will include spending time with myself, getting healthy, traveling, and reconnecting with family and friends.

Not only will I be starting an exercise regimen, I will be traveling.  I plan to go back to Istanbul during the Thanksgiving holiday. Then I plan to spend a few weeks in Utah with AbFab and her family. I will also see my twin sister and my parents. My goal during this time away from work is to focus on me and doing what makes me happy.  And in my spare time I will look for work.

I am aware that this is extremely risky.  But I am burnt out. I may just do some consulting work and continue to think well into 2016…  Only time will tell what opens up to me.  But I’m not doing “this” again – busting my ass for a company that doesn’t appreciate the work that I do. I will not make myself physically sick with stress and work overload.  I WILL find a great company, that has great leadership, and that will appreciate my skills, abilities, and what I bring to the table.  That’s it.  Until this time, I will find consulting jobs that will support me.  That is my decision.

So yes, I am throwing caution to the wind and moving forward with what my heart is telling me is the right thing for me.  Although I am tidying up things around the house and checking out local yoga studios, I will officially begin my journey of self-rediscovery on Nov. 2nd with Oprah and Deepak 21 day meditation series – Become What You Believe.  I plan to update this blog very regularly as I go through my reinvention – writing thoughts down really helps me.

If any of you have ever done this before, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what worked, what didn’t.. Or if you haven’t, I’d love to hear what you would do if you made such a decision – would you travel, stay at home, visit with family, friends, etc… ?

My next blog will be about my experience in Turkey – which I loved – both the country and the people.

What a GREAT Weekend.

PaulasPonderings1 Comment

So you would think that after my Friday travel day disaster that my weekend would be wrecked…. not so.  I had a fabulous weekend.

I usually do not plan anything on the weekends that are directly after my work travel trips, largely because I do not know what I’m going to need to do (work, run errands, etc..).  This weekend, everything I did was impromptu, and it was fabulous.

On Friday, as most of you know,  I missed my flight home and spent the day in Atlanta and Milwaukee.  I did not get home until 1am on Saturday.  The entire day at the airports sucked, big time. It definitely ranks up there as one of the worst travel days ever.  I was so hung over …. could not get comfortable, and when I finally found a place to sleep, didn’t feel safe enough to actually fall asleep. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home…

My girlfriend FreeBird stayed at my house and watched the little ladies (cats).  She obviously took great care of them because they were indifferent to my return.  I love FreeBird.  When I woke up on Saturday, she and I hung out, caught up, and enjoyed a bit of time together.  Then just like FreeBird, she was off to enjoy the weekend with friends and family.

On Saturday,  I cleaned up my room and organized my closet.  FreeBird has helped me update my wardrobe… and I couldn’t be more pleased. FreeBird is so put together, so stylish… so cool.  She has now made me look fabulous and cool… She has totally set me up to meet the higher caliber men I want to meet (and feel super confident that I look awesome when I’m out!!!). 

Saturday night, GFP came over, I fed him some of my chicken parmesan, we watched a few episodes of Curb Your
Enthusiasm after smoking a bowl…  It was so mellow and fun.

On Sunday, I had lunch with a very good friend of mine and her son, My favorite 4-year-old in CA EVER!  Her name is Spicy, and her little man’s name is Little Flirt. He is just darling, and loves his Paula!  Spicy is giving birth to a daughter in a week, a week!!  She is the coolest chick ever…  I can’t wait to see her again, Little Flirt, and the new little lady!

After lunch, I ran a few errands and went to visit C-Licious.  I haven’t seen her in 2 weeks AND she and her dog are sick. I stopped by to see if I could help and to offer my help with Zeke, Black Magic/Sausage….  he loves me .. I love him. We had a great get-together, caught up on the goings-on over the last couple of weeks.  Oh, and she turned on the BBQ and cooked two packages of chicken mango sausages for me (its one of my addictions, but she supports it).  Gotta love a gal who can operate a BBQ.

Now I’m home, blogging about my great weekend, deciding if I should take the time to fill out a “complimentary membership” to a local, “exclusive”, dating service…  Apparently there are men in the area that are looking for a woman just like me – Fun and Fabulous (older, no kids, with a career, and still attractive).  I’ll keep you updated on this activity…

Serendipity.

PaulasPonderings3 Comments

OMG..  what a day. I’ve not only done what I’ve never done before, I’ve done it with someone I never thought I would do it with!!

I know, what kind of story do I have to share??!?!  Interested??!!?  Me too.   Learning something new about myself every day.

So, today was a travel day.  I had to travel back East for work …  it takes a while to travel from the West Coast to the East Coast..   I flew JetBlue (SO disappointed that they didn’t have wifi this time).. anyway, I sat down, did my normal thing… yada yada.  There was a seat change right before the flight took off.  A good looking black man got stuck in the middle seat.  Oh well, my thought was he isn’t fat so the trip will be just fine. 

We started chatting, he was really interesting.  We talked almost the whole tim (this is a 5 hour 30 minute flight)….. and he invited me to dinner when we landed.  Now I would NEVER normally do this, but I felt safe AND I have to say, finding a place to eat in Boston after 11pm has proven to be a very big challenge.  So, he knew of a place that was open, we went to dinner, shared a bottle of wine, had fantastic conversation… He then dropped me off at my hotel and guess what?  He invited me to dinner AGAIN on Tuesday.  I have a date in Boston.. my first one! 

So, first, lets take a look at this – this man is 38 (not the 50-55 range that I like), he is black (never even gone there, don’t know anything about this)…  and is really smart in a scientifc way ( he is a multiple degreed scientist who owns his own company that does something with artificial intelligence around genetics (biotech)).. 

O.k. so not the type I spend my time looking for, but honestly, I was intriqued by him – so interesting (so young… ) but I was so comfortable being my oh so charming fun self.  I shared a few personal things, like my addicton to chapstick, ice, and the Amalfi Coast .  None of these things scared him off…  Yes, I’ll let him know of the other things on the “list” in due time..   😉

Crazy day.. Had to share it with my readers…  Beats the last entry by a long shot!!!

It’s a shocker for me…   Letting go, meeting people, and stepping and letting life take me somewhere new and intersting…  Ahhh….. so good.