AS much for myself as anyone here is a recap of some of the highlights of the past Five + years, since losing my late wife, Ginger in August 2012. Of course I grieved my loss and our loss of each other. Against all advice I sold our Huntington Beach home, and our Palm Springs Home and bought a permanent home in Rancho Mirage, a neighboring town to Palm Springs. I continued my work in commercial finance in the sports and entertainment Fields. In that role I traveled and was busy. When home I dated some, dabbled in a few relationships but nothing serious. I established a memorial bench as a tribute to Ginger, at the beach in Huntington Beach. I hiked, worked out, lost weight, decorated and designed the new house in Rancho Mirage. Then I stopped dating and determined to live in some solitude. I visited my kids in Washington State, saw the grandkids and invited them to come to the desert whenever they may. I felt good about a new and growing relationship with my youngest daughter Nichol and her son Devin, but also with my other grandkids Abby, Zach, Raine and Cannon. Then along came Pam. I met her on a "senior people" dating website. We talked for a few months, then when she was on a trip to the desert, we met for dinner. We hit it off. She wanted to teach me golf. Pam was a career operating room nurse, was extremely independent and didn't "need" a man. But she was also very attractive, interesting and kind with a generous demeanor. The fact that she is Canadian was interesting. Soon we were sharing a commuter romance. Pam commuting to the desert on weekends from her home/work in Woodland, California ( Sacramento). It got more serious and I got "cold feet" but still it progressed. I told her that I didn't want to marry again. She was fine with that. I slowly warmed to the golf. We took a few trips, then I started to miss her more on the weeks and weekends that she wasn't here. When Pam was about a year from retirement we started talking about moving in together to my house. Pam had been planning on buying her own house in Palm Springs. Now we began talking about buying an 2nd house as an investment together. On a weekend in October I told Pam that maybe I would not resist getting married again. She said she wouldn't mind being married again either. In December of that year we flew to Las Vegas and were married. Her brother Stan was the best man. I didn't know it then but Stan would end up moving to RAncho Mirage and become my golfing partner. Pam continued to work in Sacramento and fly back and forth on weekends. I would drive out to Ontario airport on Friday nights and take her back to the airport on Sunday's. Of course this grew old after a while, but she was worth it. She was fun and easy to be with. We were relaxed comfortable together. Finally came Pam's retirement date and I flew up to Sacramento to help her pack and move her things to the Rancho Mirage house. We settled in. We made trips to visit my kids and grandkids in the Seattle area. They all embraced Pam and where enthusiastic about our relationship. Soon it was time for my retirement. My final day was September 1, 2017. That August Pam arranged for us to take a cruise to Alaska. Great fun and I learned that I might like cruising. Pam's brother Stan had moved to the desert and was now renting our condo in Mission Hills Country club, which was across the street from our Rancho Mirage house. Stan had semi retired and we began playing a lot of golf. Stan's a great golfer and took me under his wing, although I'm sure he was bored with my poor play at times. He never complained though. Near December 2017 Pam spotted a great deal on a house in Mission Hills Country Club. It was older, but situated on a perfect spot, on the lake and just off the 3rd green of the famous Dinah Shore Tournament course. To be able to be "on the water" and on the golf course would be a dream come true. Pam approached Stan and asked if he would be interested in buying our condo. After a few days he stated "yes" , in fact he was interested. Within a few weeks we were in the process of selling to Stan. Now we made an "offer" on the Mission Hills house, which needed a tremendous amount of improvements and upgrades. To our surprise we got the house at our price and before we knew it we were in Escrow and destined to close soon after completing the sale of our condo to Stan. Now we complicated our lives further. We decided to put the Rancho Mirage ( Mission Point) house up for sale. I figured it would take eight to nine months to sell. We were shocked when in the 3rd week we got a "full price" offer, on the condition that the buyer could move in within 30 days. OMG what do we do. Of course we scrambled to get everything out of the house. We jumped through hoops to do all of the "fix its" that the buyer required. Yet, our new house was now under renovation. We had no place to live!!! To add to all this chaos, when we sold our condo to Stan it was with the proviso that we had already rented that unit to our Canadian friends Bob and Doreen. So as soon as Stan took possession of his house he was kicked out in lieu of our neighbors. Add to that jinx. Stan's son Andy had just moved from Toronto and was living with his dad. Pam and I felt obligated to help them find a place to stay. So here we go to Air B&B, and motels for a few weeks. Finally the contractor reached a point with our "new" ( old) house (the lake house) where we could sort of "move in" but there was no plumbing and no kitchen for several weeks. Well there was a single toilet and a temporary sink set up but we had to get out every day for all of the dust and power tool work that was going on. To make this long story short, finally it all got completed. Bob and Doreen finished there two month vacation and returned to Midland, Canada. Stan and Andy moved back into Stan's new condo and Pam and I settled into our new digs along the lake. It has been a crazy adventure. Now back to golf and in the next blog I'll give some photos of the before, during and after work that we went though in renovating "this old house".
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