11/20/12

Alone again. 

Drove down to Houston yesterday.  Got an eye exam and ordered some new glasses.  Woke up early today for ACLS, PALS and BLS classes and then drove home.  Sarah and the boys are staying there and I will return Thursday night for Thanksgiving festivities with various family members. 

On the way down I got an email reply from the cruise line saying that the policy we read online restricting Michael to cruising only 60 days a year has been updated and now any kid can sail up to the same 240 limit I have.  So we are back on as scheduled. This back and forth and scanning the rules and regulations for possible roadblocks has been tiring.  The uncertainty has been a little much too.  And I can tolerate a pretty good amount of uncertainty.   We have been putting off travel recruiters with January openings in places we might want to go because we were waiting for the cruising thing to come in. 

And it is coming in.  There appears to be only a few paperwork formalities to finish and then we are ready.  Oh yeah, and a few back end things we are working on.

See, one of the big concerns we have is what to do with our house while we are gone.  Cruising doesn't pay anywhere near what travel ER gigs do.  We are going to be pretty cash strapped as it is.  We were planning on leaving the RV with a friend in Texas who used to live in an RV, but that fell through in pretty spectacular fashion.  So we were looking at storage...too expensive. 

Then Michelle, my sister, stepped up and said we could leave the RV on her place.  That was great, back on track.  But...

Neither Sarah nor I liked the idea of leaving the RV just shut up and parked in a field in Oklahoma.  The humidity would be wildly variable, the temperatures would be as well.  We were worried that the wear and tear from all that would damage things.  Also, what if we were only off a week or two and wanted someplace to live?  What if Sarah and the boys weren't on a particular cruise with me, what would they do?  Having the RV just sit there would work, but there were some problems. 

Then we had an idea.  What if we could put a pad with full hookups on Michelle's land?  Then we could keep basic environmental controls going.  We could use the house on short notice for short duration without having to unpack and move each time.  It would give us a central location from which to operate.  I could work on getting my Oklahoma license and pick up some per diem shifts or contract work if I am in town for a longer stretch.  Also, it would give a place for potential visitors to stay at Miche's while we weren't there...or while we were too I guess.  And, if Sarah and the boys wanted to take a cruise off, they could watch Michelle's animals while she came on a cruise.  Mom too.  Heck, maybe even Dad could use the pad sometime on a trip.  It seemed like too beneficial and idea not to do it. 

So we called Michelle to propose the idea to here.  Apparently she is smarter that we are, because she had already taken the next day off to get some people out to start working on it.  Thanks Miche...we love you. 

So, it appears we are taking the Adventure Nickel international.  Should be interesting. 

Housekeeping note:  I am going to try to change a few settings and see if I can make it easier to comment on the posts here.  Someone try a comment in the next few days and see.