Friday, May 8, 2015 -- Morning

The morning arrived wrapped in the beauty of multicolored gray clouds. It poured rain here last night from about 10:00 to midnight. So everything here was quite wet this morning.

My morning didn't seem very productive, but I did phone my sister in Portland because she had mentioned in an email that she is refinancing the rental home she owns, which is right next door to her house. I wanted to know if she had found a good interest rate and that phone call was very helpful. She gave me the name of a loan rep and his number.

So early afternoon I started the phone marathon of calling loan reps. I gained somewhat of an education about refinancing a mortgage, "line of credit" home loans, fixed rates, variable rates, and 15 year, 20 year, and 30 year loans. I think I am now on the road to finding us a loan so that we can accomplish some improvements on our Central Coast retirement home, which we now call a shack, but we want to convert into a home.

I took one mini-pause during all the phoning this afternoon to write a note in a Mother's Day card to a dear friend. Because my mom has been dead for 30+ years, this is always a strange holiday. Currently with our family rather dysfunctional, because our daughter and son-in-law are separated, it's difficult for our two adult grandkids that belong to our daughter. And of course it is difficult for our daughter. But in spite of all that, I think tomorrow my daughter is going to spend time with me (I think she's not availabe on sunday/Mother's Day). Not sure yet what we will do, but I'll have the scoop on that in tomorrow's blip.

Then Mr. Fun took the mail to the Post Office and when he returned, I talked him into going out for a casual, but delicious dinner.

When we arrived back at the house, I wrote this message to my students and to my friends on FaceBook:

You have the power this weekend to work some magic -- just take an ink-pen a piece of paper and write your mom a meaningful note or letter about a memory of her. Even those of you who do not have a good relationship with your mom -- you out to be able to at least think of one memory that you could write that would express something nice to her. I double-dog-dare you to write her a note and tuck it into a card, even a home-made card, and give it to her, maybe even include a cupcake. That special note could save you lots of bucks and would mean more to her than you'll ever be able to imagine and mean much more than anything you could buy for her. Come on, you can do this. Here's a special video that could spark some ideas:

Love Letters to Mom: Some Suggestions from Kids to Card Shoppers
http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/love-letters-to-mom--some-suggestions-from-kids-to-card-shoppers-442337347943
From NBCNews.com

Now it's late.
Good night from Southern California,
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol