Day 18

Now that the shoot is over I should be able to keep up with an entry every day. Today is the first day that it seems we are really on the road. We no longer have any place we have to be.

The day was devoted to administration. We washed clothes. I drained the gray water tank and added some water to the water tank. We washed the dog (she smelled at 10 feet). I reenrolled for the health care. I hadn't got a notice because Intel had screwed up our address change. Luckily Ellen got a notice or I might have let it lapse.

The dental plan sucks. It costs me $100/mo. They quit paying benefits on me this year because I exceeded their max payment. They paid less than $1,200, so why have the insurance? I didn't re up for it. I'm going to need to work on getting some follow on insurance. COBRA runs out in March.

We also spent some time looking online at real estate. Unfortunately the country near Austin isn't as nice as that near San Antonio. The property taxes up there are enormous. In some cases over $8,000 for a property that lists for $300,000.

While I was working outside today a man, his wife, and son came by to look at Lucy. They also wanted to warn us that the camper who had been next to us had told them that his dog had Parvo. Luckily Lucy has been vaccinated. They had seen Lucy at the shoot. The son (Sean McLelland) is a member of the US Olympic team. He shoots International skeet. That's a difficult game. He's a very nice young man. We talked for quite awhile about his experiences and the travel he'll make next year competing around the world. They were very interested in buying a Pudelpointer.

Finally, we tried to decide on where we are going. We couldn't make a decision based on online info so we are going to stay here another day. We'll drive up to Austin and take a look at a couple of places tomorrow. This is a worthwhile activity because we'll be parked there for a month while Ellen goes back to Michigan. There's also a chance that we will go to Houston next week. We won't know until we talk to a friend on Thursday.