August Anniversary

I never finished this post from back in August, and I figure it’s time for something cheerful, so here you have an August flashback in October.

This past August we celebrated 12 years! We had wanted to do something “big and fancy” to celebrate this year because we failed to do much of anything for our 10th anniversary. I think it was because I hadn’t been in that Santa Fe job very long and didn’t have much vacation time. Our 11th anniversary was right after we were getting moved back to Albuquerque from Santa Fe and Placitas and we were very busy. Now for our 12th – who would have predicted a cancer diagnosis and a pandemic this year?

We’re still being very careful in regards to covid, so we didn’t want to fly anywhere or stay in group lodging such as hotels. What would be local, isolated, yet still special?

I found a little casita in the North Valley on airbnb. The North Valley is a green section of Albuquerque along the river that looks completely different from the rest of Albuquerque. It’s only 20 minutes away but it’s like we’re in a different state.

The casita is the guesthouse on the property of a larger, very nice house on at least an acre of land with a swimming pool. Here’s the airbnb marketing picture:

And sure enough, it was that nice.

At first though, we were a little baffled trying to find it. The North Valley is an odd mix of shabby/funky and wealthy. It’s not even one or the other – it’s the two mixed together. It’s hard to know what to expect.

They told us to take the driveway on the left.

Here’s what’s on the end of the driveway on the left.

Hmmm, ok, so we decided to continue around to the right…

This might be the casita?

But those stairs are looking truly funky. They are beyond quaint, that’s not even safe.

So I walked past the stairs.

I saw a pool on the other side of the fence, but it was covered.

Why is the pool covered? Is it closed? We had reserved this place specifically for the pool!

Well, it’s certainly green.

Could this be the casita over here?

Hey, that looks like an operable door, with a key pad. This must be the casita! Unfortunately I had written the key code down wrong. More bafflement. Maybe it’s not the casita after all?

Then John appeared with the correct code. Ta-da, now this isn’t half bad.

It was very large, with a full kitchen, separate dining area, an enormous bedroom, and a patio out the french doors off the living room.

Look at all that shady green!

That’s the owner’s house in the distance, on the other side of the yard.

Turns out the pool has a retractable cover on it to keep the leaves out when not in use. It’s motorized and runs on a track. It’s very easy to operate. The pool was open after all!

We had a great time in the pool. It was shady in the mornings.

It was perfect in the hot afternoons.

Don’t you love our covid haircuts? John has it easy.

Hmmm, how does this thing work?

Summer fun!

See the roadrunner on the ground at the foot of the chair?

Beep beep!

In addition to the pool, I also chose this area for the walking and biking opportunities along the canales and the Rio Grande. It’s such a beautiful oasis in the desert.

This is one of the many canals that run through the area. They are commonly called drains or acequias or just “the ditch”.

This is one of the main canals, the Riverside Drain, which parallels the river. Along this section the Bosque bike trail goes between this canal and the river.

The drain has almost more water than the Rio Grande. Here’s part of the actual river.

The Rio Grande is very low, and summer is our rainy season. We got almost no rain this year.

Here’s another ditch. I found it a bit rough for bicycles, but great for walking.

Here’s a great bike path we discovered that is a gravel spur off the paved Bosque trail. It was surprisingly smooth for a dirt and gravel trail.

There were occasional peek-a-boo views of the river.

Here’s a nice wide resting spot down by the river. New Mexico has mandated masks outside for several months now, even while exercising and distanced.

Oh no! Aliens from outer space! New Mexico is famous for alien sightings.

At this point I was just tired and wanted to get back to our casita. But no, one more picture. Remove your mask and glasses for the photo! Oh, ok.

We weren’t going to restaurants back then, not even on outdoor patios, so John bought take-out and we ate our anniversary dinner on our own patio. Yum, yum, an entire carrot cake!

Happy 12 years to us!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Oceanside (California epic van trip, Post 4)

After relaxing in the mountains for several days, we headed down to the beach. We were still biding our time, waiting for the smoke to clear further north.

We got take-out fish tacos at the Oceanside marina and ate them on a bench off the beaten path with a view of the boats. Then we rented kayaks and paddled around the marina for an hour.

After kayaking and a quick rest and change of clothes in our handy camper van, we went for a walk along the beach.

We were thoroughly enjoying Oceanside but then I had an unexpected freak-out on the beach about cancer. I am finding that I’m almost more stressed about cancer now than I was when I was in middle of treatment. I’m scared it’s going to come back. But most of the time I can put it out of my mind.

This trip is for my mental health, and it truly is helping. Some days I have setbacks, but being outside and seeing the beauty of the world is reassuring.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Idyllwild (California epic van trip, Post 3)

After leaving Tucson early because the air conditioner in the van wasn’t up for 100+ heat, we made our way up into Mt. San Jacinto State Park, which is just southwest of Palm Springs, California. We stayed there several days, near Idyllwild, and it was idyllic 🙂

Pines, oak and manzanita…

John was very impressed with the pine cones.

Yes, Laura, you’re right, there was a lake in the distance, which we did finally catch sight of.

Our campsite was spacious and the weather was perfect.

The original plan was to be in the Northern California mountains along the Oregon border, but it was smoky up there. Eventually we felt ready for a bit more adventure and we drove down out of the mountains to the San Diego area.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

The start of our trip (California epic van trip, Post 2)

We have finally left on our vacation. Whew! For the last couple of weeks John has been very busy at work. We have also been looking at houses (remotely). Also we had tenants move to Florida and we needed to get new tenants in.

Tenant change-overs are always a lot of work. I get the house thoroughly professionally cleaned including the carpets steam cleaned. There are always various handyman items. At minimum we touch-up paint and change the locks, but sometimes quite a lot more fix-up needs done. Also the yard inevitably needs landscape maintenance (no matter how much tenants earnestly promise that they love yard work).

I think I mentioned I had tons of applicants for the house. We had no trouble renting it, the only trouble was going through all the applications and making the very hard decision between multiple qualified applicants. The worst part was having to tell everyone who didn’t get it. I don’t like disappointing people! I wished I had a house for everyone.

We got the lease signed on Tuesday, and Tuesday night we dropped the puppies off at Sandy’s house. Wednesday morning we were off on our big road trip.

The dogs, by the way, are doing great with Sandy. Except now that Kai is comfortable there, he’s being a butthead and testing her. He’s a well-trained dog, but he’s pushing his limits. He would be in charge if you let him!

We had planned to go camping in northern California, but it’s still completely smoke covered.

We don’t know for sure what we’re going to do the whole week we have set aside for camping, but first, a quick stop in Tucson to look at the potential new house.

We got to Tucson Wednesday night. The local state park campground was deserted. No wonder – it was searingly hot. Luckily we have a portable air conditioner in our camper van. We had reserved an RV slot at the campground with an electric outlet (we have some of our own electricity from solar panels on our roof, but not enough to continuously run an air conditioner). The air conditioner ran all night long.

The next morning was my birthday, but no time for that yet – we had an appointment to see the house we are considering buying! It was exactly what we expected – everything is smaller and a bit more rundown than what it looks like in the marketing pictures. That’s usually the case, so we were not surprised. The house is generally solid, but it needs some TLC.

Broken tile

Funky cabinets

Back of oven peeking over the counter top

There’s no pre-existing, built-in space for a refrigerator, although there is a wall we could put one on for now. It would just block a couple of cabinets and an unfinished pantry space until we were able to redo the cabinets. At least there’s already an outlet on the wall.

They’ve done some painting in a blueish gray that’s stylish right now, although the white trimwork needs refreshed.

But it’s perfectly livable.

And when it’s 70 degrees in January and snowing in the rest of the country, we probably won’t mind a cracked tile or two in the kitchen!

We like the exterior style of the house, which is fairly unusual.

I would remove the iron gate. There was a similar iron gate across the archway at our current house in Albuquerque when we bought it, and we took it down right away. It doesn’t seem welcoming and if someone really wanted to break in, there are easier ways than through the front door.

Here’s a couple pictures from the street side of the house (it’s on a corner lot). Lots of prickly pear!

After looking at the house, we got take-out street tacos from Seis Kitchen. If you’re ever in Tucson, we totally recommend that restaurant. Their street tacos are excellent!

We went back to the state park with our tacos, plugged in our portable electric air conditioning and watched while the temperature in our van continued to climb. It’s a good little room-sized air conditioner, which cleverly vents out a port John made in the wheel well. It does a good job of making cold air, but we were sitting in a metal box in the middle of the desert and it was 108 degrees outside, and our air conditioner just couldn’t keep up.

The temperature inside the van kept climbing, until at 91 degrees we gave up, packed up, and decided to continue driving west. I enjoy Tucson in the summer, but only with whole-house air conditioning and a pool in the backyard!

We drove west in the heat and smoke. Our car said it was 118 degrees outside as we drove through Phoenix.

We were ok though, because the regular vehicle air conditioning that runs off the engine is more powerful than our portable electric one that we run when the engine is off.

This huge thing is a blade from a wind turbine being transported, slowing traffic near Indio, California. It would have been a better picture but I took it through our filthy windshield, lol.

The drive up into the mountains scared me. California is the worst for twisty roads on the edges of cliffs with completely inadequate guardrails! It was dark when we got to our campsite, but blissfully cool at 6,000 feet.

We fell into bed exhausted, but just before going to sleep I opened my birthday presents. John got me candy wrapped in decorative computer paper, lol.

He actually planned to get me a really cool flight simulator game, but it needs a decent gaming computer, which we don’t have. So he wanted to check with me first to make sure I would be interested before investing in a gaming computer.

Darren is like, YES, DO IT! If we had a gaming computer, Darren wouldn’t have to lug one here to visit. And I’m happy to do what I can to encourage the kids to visit as often as they can!

I also got a llama picture (photo taken on the campsite picnic table the next morning). It’s a little painting, only about 5 inches across. Very cute!

And I got a fun road runner from a friend. John and I appear to be unofficially collecting road runner items – I guess that’s what happens when you live in New Mexico!

All in all, a good but exhausting birthday!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Three Tucson Houses

A friend of mine, who is looking at houses in Tucson, sent me a link to an adorable – and affordable – little house.

It was undeniably cute, with nice high ceilings.

Clearly some thought and creativity went into the remodel.

And it had a pool!

By the time my friend told me about it, it had been on the market for 4 days and was already under contract.

Soon after, we took the plunge and tried to make an offer on this cute little one, but even though it had only been on the market one day, they were overwhelmed with a huge number of offers and wouldn’t take anymore.

We liked the round fireplace, which they call a “beehive” fireplace in Arizona. We call them “kiva” fireplaces in New Mexico.

A pool and a very handy covered gazebo.

But that one was the house that got away. We are now trying for this one:

It’s in central Tucson near a branch of the bike trail we like. It’s on a corner, with an alley and a large property behind it, so it really only has one close neighbor. It’s old and the kitchen is going to take some work.

At first glance, the kitchen looks ok. Never mind a little bit of broken tile here and there. But wait…where’s the refrigerator? Is it supposed to be there where that open shelving is? That doesn’t even look big enough for a refrigerator! And it turns out, there’s no outlet back there. Oh and yeah, that’s the back of the stove peeking over the counter. Not a good look!

We would just have to put the refrigerator awkwardly on this wall, blocking cabinets, until we got around to doing a remodel. You can also see broken and missing tile in this photo.

It has some mudbrick walls and a few wood ceilings, which we like, although it’s not in style anymore. Most of the ceilings are painted, but still the wood adds character we think. It also has a kiva (beehive) fireplace.

This was probably once an exterior space (we would not be putting a couch across the doorway).

The backyard is sad-and-sorry looking, but it has good potential. Lol, when people find themselves using the word “potential” in reference to buying a house, they should drop everything and run. Backyard potential is much less intimidating to me than kitchen potential.

The shed-like addition with the two identical red-rimmed doors bugs me. But there’s potential there – an entire functioning bathroom lurks behind one of those doors! I just need to figure out how to make the space more practical – and not so shed-like.

Yes, we appear to be considering doing everything I’d advise against – don’t buy in a hot market, don’t buy a house that clearly needs work…apparently we don’t learn!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Smoke

I am continuing to worry about the fires. Not only is the smoke affecting Laura and my friends in the Bay Area, it’s been getting worse in Boise too, where Darren is. The smoke is even affecting John and I, all the way out here in the desert. We both have sore throats; I’ve been having red eyes and migraines. I can only imagine how bad it is closer to the fires.

I’m frustrated that I have an evaporative cooler rather than refrigerated air conditioning. New Mexico residents are being advised to turn off their evaporative coolers at night, but it’s hot! No one would sleep. Evaporative coolers, which are very common in New Mexico, work by blowing outside air over water and then into the house, continuously, with the windows cracked open. So we can’t shut our windows against the smoke. We had planned to upgrade this spring, but with cancer, covid, etc., it never happened.

Here are the air quality reports from last night and again this morning:

Santa Clara – where Laura lives

Livermore – where my friends are

Boise – where Darren lives

Albuquerque – we are apparently fine (moderate air quality), but the smoke is still irritating my eyes and throat. Imagine what everyone in the worse areas must be going through!

Last night:

Am I the only one, or does today’s smoke pattern look like the Native American bear symbol?

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Vacation plans – going up in smoke? (California epic van trip, post 1)

The plan was to go camping in California this coming week for my birthday (after a brief but necessary stop in Tucson, more about that later). Following the camping trip, we were going to spend some time in the eastern edge of the California Bay Area. John can work there, because his company has a branch there, and it’s fairly close to Laura and good friends of mine.

We’ve rented a cute little Airbnb in Livermore. It’s a stand-alone guesthouse so we feel fairly safe from COVID risk (stand-alone and thus having its own airflow). It also has a covered outdoor seating space for visiting Bay Area friends and relatives.

But look at the smoke in California!

The smoke covers the entire western US (except Seattle), including the coastline, from Mexico to Canada and all the way to the Great Lakes.

We are all having migraines, Laura, Darren, and I, but Laura is closest to an active fire and has it worst. The air quality numbers where she is near San Jose are abysmal. Because she lives right next to one of the larger fires, the SCU Lightning Complex, the smoke is hanging low in the air. For us, the smoke is higher in the air and not impacting our breathing as much.

The red outline is the The SCU Lightning Complex fire boundaries as of Sunday morning. John and I plan to stay in Livermore, just north of the fire, and Laura lives near San Jose, just west of the fire.

I’m thinking we may need to reconsider our plans to go camping this coming week, but darned if I’m going to miss my trip to the Bay Area the following week! I haven’t seen Laura since Christmas! It seems like a lifetime ago – before COVID, before cancer, before the word “apocalypse” started seeming relevant to real life.

John and I are talking about going up to the far northern edge of the California coast, near the Oregon border to go camping.

But that is a heck of a long way from Albuquerque (especially via Tucson). And with just a slight shift in wind, that area could be inundated with smoke too (see where it says Rogue River and Siskiyou and Six Rivers, nearish to the ocean on the edge of the smoke lines).

Not to mention two or three days of smoke-filled driving from Albuquerque (via Tucson). It’s starting to sound less like a vacation and more of a miserable idea.

Our vacation plans are up in the air – and it’s smoky up there. Plan B anyone?

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Rental craziness

I advertised our townhome in Albuquerque for rent on Zillow at around 10:30 this morning. I already had one person ready to sign the lease, a neighbor who had seen my tenants moving out and contacted me. But I thought I’d list the house anyway, in case the neighbor fell through.

Within minutes the applications started pouring in – the first one at 10:37 and the voicemails started at 10:39. They’re sending me their credit scores and everything, trying to make a good case, and some of them don’t even want to wait to look at the house, they’re ready to sign the lease now.

And I just started crying, because I feel bad for everyone who is struggling to find a house right now. Not to mention the thousands who are currently losing their homes due to no fault of their own.

I don’t understand why there’s not nearly enough houses for rent or for sale. I guess my friends in the Bay Area are used to this, but Albuquerque and Tucson?

All the applications are good, credit scores are excellent, incomes are impressive, I could rent this house many times over. I feel bad having to say no to all but one applicant. The house has only been listing for 20 minutes and I’ve already got more applications than I even want to look at.

I took the ad down after half an hour. Why aren’t there enough houses?

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Juxtapositions – power and uneven progress

Yesterday’s smoke map:

Today’s smoke map:

You can find the map here, https://fire.airnow.gov/#

You can change what information is displayed by turning on and off layers here:

(On the top right, click the dropdown menu that looks like 3 pieces of paper on top of each other. That’s the symbol for layers.)

On a related topic, a good friend of mine in California has been having her power turned off at regular intervals, for many hours at a time, by the power company. Apparently the power grid is maxing out in the extreme heat. Everyone is staying home, running the air conditioning, and we’re having a record heat wave. There’s simply not enough power.

My friend is trying to save her refrigerated and frozen foods, but has had to throw out some items. And here I always thought of California as being so advanced. Previously I associated a lack of consistent infrastructure to be something we’d encounter on a trip to Mexico, not something that would become an issue in an expensive suburb of the California Bay Area.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/us/california-blackouts-investigation/index.html

And last year they were cutting power in California during windstorms, out of concern that the power lines would start fires in the wind.

These past few years, and particularly this year, have been very humbling for our country. No longer can we claim to be far more advanced than everyone else.

I would love to have solar panels and be off-grid. We actually bought a roof full of solar panels for our house a few years ago, but then we sold that house. Now I’m afraid to buy them for this house because we still are not settled down. We can’t afford to buy solar panels each time we move, especially if we keep moving every year or two! And we’ve never gotten lucky enough to buy a house that already had solar panels. I wish all houses did! THAT would be progress.

Meanwhile, Laura encountered these robots in the streets of downtown Mountain View. Talk about uneven progress. We can’t keep our grid functioning, and we did one of the worst jobs of dealing with covid in the world, but we have robots bringing us lunch. At least for those in downtown Mountain View.

Here’s the video she took, it’s short and cute:

Laura says, “There were two parked in front of a restaurant. A woman came out of the restaurant, opened the top of one of them, placed a bag of takeout inside, shut it, and walked back into the restaurant. That robot then left the restaurant and drove down the sidewalk, which is what I got on camera. It turned at the corner and I lost sight of it.”

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you! If you live in Silicon Valley.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

Quiz Answers

Did you enjoy the bucket list pop quiz?

You’re all like, “Kristina, first you put out a survey asking where we’d visit you if you lived there, then you try to pretend you’re considering more conventional bucket list items like an overseas trip or a health retreat in the middle of covid. Who are you kidding? We know that all you really like to do is collect houses and puppies.”

For those of you who guessed I was adopting that adorable little pit mix (who, by the way, was genuinely up for adoption right here in Albuquerque), well, you certainly have precedent for your guess. I have been known to adopt puppies!

In fact, here’s some more puppy pictures, just for fun! OMG, this one is only a mile away from me!

Huskies, Chihuahuas, and adorable mixes:

What is holding me back is my uncertainty about my future. I don’t want John to have to deal with two aging dogs, a new puppy, and a sick wife if my cancer comes back. That’s too much. Of course I would like a new puppy – maybe that can be my celebratory gift to myself when I pass my 7-year mark (after which, it’s much less likely that the cancer would come back).

Now you’re all going, “Kristina, you are not going to wait 7 years before you get another dog. We know you better than that.” Ok, you’re right. Probably not. But maybe I should at least wait a couple of years.

Meanwhile, I am super excited to have found a local friend to help me with my current two dogs, Kai and Rosie! When I got diagnosed with cancer in January, we drove the dogs down to Houston and my in-laws generously cared for them while we were in Boston getting my surgery done. This time, if I need more medical treatment, I’ll have local care for them. That’s a big relief.

My friend, Sandy, is also going to care for Kai and Rosie while we do a little bit of traveling to visit Laura. Sandy has a teenage daughter – and talk about teen puppy love! It’s a complete puppy love fest over there. I’m not sure my dogs are even going to want to live with me at all anymore! They’re not going to want to come home!

Meanwhile I’ve been stewing about wanting to spend this winter somewhere warmer. I had become obsessed with vacation rental listings. I looked in Tucson and Palm Springs and Phoenix and anywhere warm, but all the rentals were so ridiculously expensive. Maybe affordable for a 4-day trip, but I wanted to spend all winter somewhere warmer – not just a week or two! It didn’t help that I also wanted to have a pool, and to be able to bring the dogs, and have enough room for visitors. My wishlist far exceeded the amount of rent I was willing to pay.

Meanwhile, on a somewhat unrelated front, as many of you know – for a couple of years John and I have been trying to figure out where we want to retire. Our top two criteria are: near the kids, and warm in the winter. Slight problem – it’s not warm in the winter near the kids!

After we got two of our rentals sold this spring, I hired three different real estate agents. One for Albuquerque (because…Albuquerque), one for Tucson (warm in the winter) and one for Sacramento (nearish to the kids).

Ever notice how, when there’s not a perfect solution, your brain just goes round and round? At least mine does!

So here I was, looking both for somewhere to spend this winter, as well as looking for a retirement home, and those two searches started overlapping a bit. Pretty soon I was looking at vacation rentals and/or long-term rentals and/or houses to buy, in various cities in California and the southwest…

You know in the comics when people’s eyes have spirals in them? Yeah, that was me, spiral eyes. It was so confusing! And impossible, because on top of everything the housing market has gone nuts. I hope none of you are trying to rent or buy right now. I don’t recommend it!

In Albuquerque, there is almost nothing available to buy or to rent. We have tenants moving to Florida, and already people are calling me asking to rent the house. I’m not even advertising it – they just saw the POD moving container in my tenant’s driveway and realized they were moving. Oh! Oh! A house is coming available! They got my contact info from my tenants and have been pestering me ever since. I could rent or sell that house in an instant, word-of-mouth only, without even listing it.

Tucson is equally crazy, with multiple offers on the first day of listing, bidding wars with offers going thousands of dollars over list price…it’s cutthroat out there.

In case you’re not addicted to Zillow like I am, that’s an utterly ridiculous number of views and saves for just 3 days. That’s an order of magnitude too high. I don’t know why everyone’s trying to rent or buy a house right now! I would think everyone would be worried about the future of the economy “in these uncertain times”. But I guess not!

Some people may be wanting out of their apartments (these covid times are especially miserable in apartments – shared air flow, no backyards, etc.). There may also be people in the northern part of our country terrified at the prospect of being trapped in their home all winter, unwilling to hang around outside in the freezing cold but unable to go to indoor public spaces due to covid, deciding to wait out this winter in a warmer climate. Also there’s a fair number of people who are now suddenly able to work from home, who are leaving the expensive cities like San Francisco and going to warmer, cheaper places. Apparently it is actually possible to rent an apartment in San Francisco, for the first time in forever.

It’s hard to predict the future. I keep thinking that housing prices are going to drop over the next few years because our economy is struggling. I’m worried that the smart thing would be to wait and buy later. So why are John and I looking into buying now? For us there’s that bucket list issue, the concern that maybe I only have a couple years to live if the cancer comes back. We’re no longer inclined to put anything off!

Therefore…drumroll…the pop quiz answer is…the first thing we’re going to do on that bucket list is try to buy a house in a warmer location. Winter is coming!

I do still have my eye on Sacramento, which is located between the kids, but I’m just not sure if that would be close enough to either of them to make it worthwhile. It’s not actually possible to “buy a house near the kids” because the kids don’t live near each other! They are not even in the same state. So for now, we’re planning to drive out in our van to see them – not as often as we could if we lived closer, but hopefully more often than we’ve managed in the past.

15 years ago I came to Albuquerque from California in search of cheap sunshine. We are now looking at Tucson in search of warm winters and a cheap swimming pool.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com