Victoria home, News on Becky, holiday planning

Victoria made it home yesterday; Mama was a little worried because of the storm on the east coast this weekend. That worry was exacerbated by the fact that she could not get in touch with Victoria to make sure her return flight was leaving as scheduled. (She is not a voracious cell phone user.)


Victoria got to meet some great people in North Carolina. One family in particular lives in a farm house that is more than one hundred years old. It is the childhood home of the father of the family living in it right now. I cannot imagine that. We have moved too often to understand such a life, but I can imagine that it has a beneficial impact on the finances of the family generation after generation.

I called Charles yesterday to get an update on Becky. His understanding of the situation is that she will be honorably discharged some time in late September. There was some question about her needing gall bladder surgery but that seems to have been ruled out – as I understand it. Charles said she could reenlist in six months, but I am betting against her wanting to follow through with that.

We talked a little about the coming holidays. With September upon us it is a subject of some interest. We moved last November and it looks as though we will do the same this November. The only question is whether we will move within Amarillo or move to Bowie. We are thinking about taking Grandma and Grandpa’s house so we can save money but the timing has yet to be worked out. It would mean about $450 per month savings. That might be worth the step down in amenities.

I am on call over the Thanksgiving holidays so my ability to travel is very limited. I have to be within one hour of a ConocoPhillips office – which is why we are leaning towards being in Bowie if possible. It is at least five hours closer to everyone than Amarillo.

We are not sure yet how to work out the logistics, but we still have time.

By the way, Victoria got her braces off today. She said the orthodontist gave her a goodie bag of some of the things she was not supposed to eat while in braces: air heads, beef jerky, popcorn, etc. She said she cracked up laughing when she looked in the bag.
I thought it a clever idea.