From the Back Seat

We both arrived home in the late afternoon and needed to get to Orange County for an appointment with Jack, the man who is our financial advisor. I had let the pups out of their crates and walked them around the backyard, but I wasn't excited about having them get back into those crates for several more hours. Mr. Fun said, "Let's take them with us." So it was time to put them in their little harnesses so they could be secured in the back seat of the car and travel safely.

Putting those harnesses on is always a hoot. They get so excited. Finally we were in the car and traveling west. We arrived a little early in the vicinity of Jack's office, so we found a parkway of lawn and walked the three until we knew they had all sufficiently relieved themselves; then we put them back in the car and we were headed into Jack's office.

We've know Jack since he was just a kid. We've watched him grow-up. He's about to celebrate 20 years of marriage to his lovely wife and they have 4 kids. We've watched Jack become a very successful professional. It was probably 12+ years ago when he just got adamant with us that we needed to sit down with him and get prepared for retiring someday. So we did; I'm so glad. Jack says our finances are ready if we want to retire, but we're not yet ready to do that. I'm pleased that when we do, I think we'll be financially capable to survive and not scrimp.

The appointment with Jack lasted much longer than we thought it would -- we were just sharing lots of memories and catching-up on the news in each other's families. He's about the same age as our kids and has for years considered Mr. Fun to be like a Dad to him. It was good time with Jack.

When we departed, we drove a few miles further west into the setting sun to get some dinner and avoid the traffic jam that was headed east toward the Inland Empire where we live. I was sitting in the back seat with the pooches and it just seemed like the most relevant place to capture today's photo. Certainly this is not award winning, fabulous, or anything to write home about, but this photo does freeze a moment in our day -- a good day.

Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun, and Chloe, Mitzi, and Max, our three pooches), aka Carol