NO WARNING LIGHTS.

Green light means "GO".  This was told to Ray and I this past week during our meeting with our financial planner.  He saw no red or yellow warning lights in our quest to retire to Panama.  Our  numbers went into a computer.  I am picturing a 1970's model, just for kicks. The kind of computer that would take up a small office.

Ray was nervous about this meeting.  He didn't let on.  I was just excited to see what the retirement reports would show.  It was a seventy degree day in January, we drove the hour to the meeting with the top down on my car, the wind was in my hair, and I was daydreaming about our next trip to Panama this coming March.  And the 23 months left to work.  And what would the crystal ball show for our future. We are "sensible people", our planner says to us.  He will skype us or face time us if he is concerned.  He gives us his blessing (he just returned from a trip to Israel and swimming in the Dead Sea), and he tells us to come back in a year mostly to talk about further developments in our pursuit in moving to Panama.  We like his confidence in our decision to retire in just two short years, and we like our confidence in ourselves!

SCANNING, SPANISH AND SNOW

After scanning hundreds of pictures over the course of two weeks, I had wishful thinking that I had finished the task.  But I knew better.  I was missing photo albums but just didn't want to find them.  Of course, being a bit anal retentive I knew I couldn't call the task complete until I found the albums that weren't really missing (they were just stored in a totally different location).  I wonder what all the expats in Panama have done with albums and albums of pictures?  Is it that they have just had crates shipped to them with all of their prized belongings, and we are not doing this?  Do they have them stored in the States with loved one's?  I have a few more albums to go, and with those, Ray will have to help.  They are of his childhood, so he is willingly going to pick and choose which pictures he wants saved on a flash drive.  Eventually, and hopefully within the next month, I will disassemble the albums to reduce the bulk.  I want to put the pictures into photo boxes and the flash drives along with my external hard drive (I use the "Click Free") into our firebox.  I will take the flash drives to Panama with me and a few framed pictures (taken out of the frames for traveling).  This is the plan anyway.  Subject to change.

I had to pause the scanning this afternoon to start a Spanish lesson with Ray.  We re-learned the alphabet, some phrases, how to get around town, and some simple statements.  Again, my biggest concern is when learning, the teachers speak so slow.  This won't happen in Panama.  But I will do my best to just say "Hable despacio, por favor" (speak slowly please).  The dialect is different, and the speech is rapid.  And then there is my hearing loss.  I do know that we want to have some basic Spanish under our belt when we move there.  I also know that it will be a constant process of learning the language and needing to be immersed in the language with others.  And I know even more that I will tend to get lazy and just want to speak English.  And lazy may win out.  This is why I hope to live in a Panamanian neighborhood rather than an Expat community.  We will get to that when we get there.  We have to see what's available to us at the time.

And finally, it has been too cold in Virginia!  We have had temperatures in the teens and twenties during the day.  Last Wednesday we did get snow.  The weathermen were predicting a trace of snow in my area.  We ended up getting two inches of snow that morning.  It made the schedule at work a bit confusing.  Some patients canceled, but more patients came in since school was closed and many did not go to work.  I was at work for the day.  Ray had the day off by chance.  Then on Friday we were supposed to get another inch in the area during the evening rush hour.  School was canceled for the day again, since the streets were icy and snow was coming at the end of the day.  (It's just the way things are done here.  School is canceled the night before, just in case.)  We ended up getting a sprinkle of some snow flakes.  So what we do know is the weathermen have predicted the temperatures right.  Just not the snow.  Still.  And what I know is that I don't really enjoy the cold.  I never seem to thaw out.  I walk to the store, to my car, into work or to a restaurant just thinking warm, sunny Panamanian days.  I will even settle for seventy degree temperatures (this is what is coming on Wednesday--high sixties--the weather is crazy this week.  Then snow on Friday again so they say.)  I am just done with the winters. Lack of snow, freezing rain (what we are to get tonight supposedly), frigid temperatures and having to get out of bed to go to work in it.

THE SNOW THAT WENT FURTHER SOUTH (AT LEAST IT FOUND THE BIRTHDAY GIRL)!

For all intents and purposes, I planned on sleeping yesterday until the "I have to get up time" of 5:45 am.  It was my first Friday back to work in five weeks, and the first patient is scheduled for seven am.  Let's go back to Thursday though.  Our weathermen, whom I now believe really do take a college course called "Backpedaling 101", were showing rain for the day.  We had not seen the sun since last Thursday.  One week of cloudy, rainy, and dreary days.  On Tuesday, things were changing.  A storm from the South!  For those of us in the Northern Virginia area, storms from the South are the best!  Sometimes if it is cold enough they turn into Nor'Easters, and we can get a dumping of snow!  Thursday morning most of the weathermen (meteorologists, whatever, they just annoy me with their "wrongness") were calling for my county of Stafford and south of Stafford (where the lake house is) to get two to possibly six inches of snow.  The snow would start around three pm.  I thought the patients would cancel.  Not.  I thought the patients would start getting moved up the schedule.  Not.  I though Ray was so lucky to have taken the day off, because traffic coming home would be a nightmare.  Not.  Patients told me they were flying down the highway.  Then I thought there would be no work yesterday.  Or we would go in later.  Not.  We didn't get snow here, we didn't get snow there, we didn't get one iota of a flake anywhere.  And the weathermen kept saying their usual "remember we said the DC area would get a trace of snow but probably none at all".  Yes, I remember that well.  I was just so excited because I wasn't in the DC/Northern VA area (Fairfax, Alexandria, Arlington County).  I was south where they (those people that get paid lots of money to be on television to give me the forecast--shoot, I will even wait until that day to listen so as not to want them to have to predict too far in advance) were expecting the snow.  The inches and inches of snow.  And even I know from years of living in this area that the snow should be coming from the true south, not the southwest like how this snowmaker was happening.  But then again, maybe I really didn't know what they know.

But going back to the morning.  Yesterday morning.  I woke up to no snow.  BUT I did wake up to the fact that it was my daughter's 21st birthday!  The day had come for her.  The day for her to be almost caught up with all of her friends that are now still one year older than she is, but she can go out with the best of them!  She can wine and dine (not that I am encouraging overuse of the "wine-ing" part) with them, and now she does not have to go to the same establishments that will only allow her in because she has the stamp "DD" on her hand.  I was energized.  I woke up five minutes before her delivery time twenty-one years ago. Odd, but I loved it.  Then, I crashed and burned at work at about the same time I did twenty-one years ago.  I was very tired at nine am.  I should have still been in bed.  There should have been a snow delay for me--but I was happy my daughter had a two hour delay, since she saw three inches of the white stuff (in an area that NEVER gets snow).  I worked the day thinking of all the milestones my daughter has crossed.  And being so very proud of her accomplishments and successes, and also quite proud of Ray and myself for her fantastic upbringing.  She is growing up.  She is making so many decisions.  I am excited for her future.  I am hopeful for it, too.  That she will continue to grow and make the same great decisions.

 I know better than to work Fridays.  They start too early.  They are too fast paced (no lunch hour at noon, but I do leave at one, while some stay until three), they are at the end of a long week of patient after patient, and they are the start of the weekend.  I have things to do, places to go and people to see.  And yesterday, I wanted to see snow.  I wanted a "snow day".  I don't have as many winters left in VA so the chances of snow days are getting slimmer.  BUT then I remind myself that in less than two years, I will trade in hoping to see snow and wanting a surprise day off from work thrown my way to living everyday in a warm, tropical environment of play (and whatever else we find ourselves doing while being retired in Panama).  And if my daughter does in fact live and work in the area she is hopeful for, where she has had the dream to move to, I will see snow when I visit her during the rainy season of Panama.  I will see the snow, play in the snow, and then I can leave the snow behind for her.  Maybe the weathermen are right that this winter is going to be a snowy one on record for us (it is only January 19th afterall).  I think my predictions of retiring to Panama are way better than anything they have ever tried to predict in life.  I will stick with my predictions and just choose to ignore them.

WINTRY, BIRTHDAY ROAD TRIP

Early last week while scaling a patient's teeth (this is the action performed when removing calculus aka tartar but not called scraping or picking ever by me, just the patients), I was mindlessly daydreaming.  As usual.  A few of my daydreams usually incorporate visions of my next trip to Panama, my retirement to Panama, and/or my last days of working/scaling.  These are mixed in there with "I wonder what Carly is up to today at school" or "what will Ray and I do this weekend" or "I can't wait for the day to be over, and the weekend can't get here fast enough".  Carly's 21st birthday is this week.  She has been able to enjoy the BIG birthdays (18 and 21 in particular) at the start of a new college semester, this one being no exception.  She does have plans for the big night.  But I knew there was something out there other than dinner that the three of us could do on her last weekend home after her winter break and to celebrate her birthday, albeit early.  Ideas that formed involved driving within a few hours to Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia or Cape May.  I have been to Cape May for girls weekend, but they had not seen this city.  Cape May has been around since the 1850's.  Many vacationers from Philadelphia would drive to this beach for summertime fun, and it is recognized as the country's oldest seaside resort.  Along with this, for Ray's enjoyment, I thought an overnight stay in Atlantic City would be enjoyable.  We could have Carly find an amazing restaurant (which she did) to have dinner at, enjoy wonderful treats or cake in celebration of her (checked that off, too), and the three of us could kick her birthday week and  the new year off in great celebratory fashion!

Birthday girl!

Our view from Caesars Palace and the Atlantic Ocean

Daddy and his daughter out for tapas and Sangria!

The oldest roadside attraction, Lucy the Elephant, can be found in Atlantic City, NJ.

One of the more elegant of the B & B's, Angel of the Sea, in Cape May, NJ.

The bell of the S.S. Cape May (1943-69) is at the entrance to Washington Street Mall ( seaside shops and restaurants)

Momma and Carly at the start of the water show (The Piers, Caesars Palace)

I had emailed Ray my daydream.  Carly didn't have a clue until Tuesday night.  And both were on board.  Both wanted to take the trip.  It was a longer drive than I originally had planned (five hours), but an easy enough trip up the highway. This was a wonderful way to finish Carly's winter break.  This was a fantastic send off for her final semester of college before she starts working.  This would be the last trip the three of us take for a while.  I am unsure of where we will travel to and when that will happen, since she has to job search and will start a new life.

  Ray did have a point in that we know she is going to have to go to Panama with us before we retire there.  This trip will get planned eventually--trouble is she will be a new teacher, and we will  be working around her work schedule.  I do not want her first trip to be in the hot months of the rainy season.  Perhaps it will be during a winter break?    And then, while living in Panama, I can think of gardening, sitting in my hammock, laying on the beach, exercising (haha), internet surfing/facebook stalking,  to be my mindless tasks which will allow me to daydream. Although then, our jaunts with her can be to spunky and spirited countries such as Costa Rica, Ecuador and Argentina!

2013 RETIREMENT INDEX

Panama holds its ground staying in second place (second to Ecuador again) in the International Living Global Retirement Index.  Mexico moved to fourth below Malaysia of all countries, and Costa Rica is fifth.  Where Panama took the hit was in the real estate department.  One year ago it scored a 95.  This year it was given an 83.  This makes perfect sense because most of the time (three out of four houses now) Ray and I will buy high and then most likely lose money or break even when it is time to sell.  The cost of real estate in the area we would most like to buy in Panama is going up.  Not a surplus in houses for sale.  We could very well change our minds and settle somewhere totally different.  We have to see what is even out there for sale or go knocking on doors asking the Panamanian owners if they would like to sell their house. But I am pretty sure by the time we do get to buying any real estate in Panama, the cost of housing might be astonishing.  Too many people are getting the same idea of retiring to Panama.  Another big change was in the Cost of Living category.  In 2012, IL gave Panama a 96 and this year it scored an 86 (again, prices are going up, up, and up).  Ease of Integration went from 96 to 93 (everything is done tomorrow with many hoops to jump through, and patience must be lacking even more among the expats), but Entertainment and Amenities went from 91 to 95 and Health went from 82 to 85 (hopefully, Ray and I won't have to test this category out too soon upon our arrival).
FINAL SCORE one year ago in 2012= 90
FINAL SCORE                         2013=89

The point of this post (besides my just loving numbers and stats) is the continued reassurance that Panama is still showing great value among retirees.  And the continued belief that Ray and I are still on the right track to making an excellent retirement decision.

DRIVING MISS DAISY

One day in December I thought what better way to spend some time with my daughter and Ray then to drive into Washington, D.C. to take part in an old tradition of seeing the National Christmas Tree.  Well, old tradition meaning that we have been driving in or taking the subway to view the tree since 1985 or so when my Northern Virginia friends introduce me to this event.  And while in Washington DC, I wanted to try out a historic restaurant called Ben's Chili Bowl (www.benschilibowl.com).  And another bit of fun would be to go to the National Zoo to see "Zoolights".  Fortunately, the two of them went along with my idea so we set out yesterday late in the afternoon for the drive into D.C.  It is 42 miles from Stafford, VA to Washington, D.C.  We decided Ray would drive us into the city rather than take the subway.

While hoping and praying that we would have a simple drive without any incidences which is not normal on a Saturday afternoon, I also thought about my parents and growing up in this area.  When I was little, I lived in Woodbridge, VA which is less than 20 miles from DC.  My dad worked in the Forrestal Building for the Department of Defense.  "Back in the day", it was nicknamed the "Little Pentagon".  My mom was a stay-at- home mom with two children born sixteen months apart.  I remember staying busy with dance, swimming and baton lessons.  I remember taking day trips to Baltimore, Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry, and Williamsburg.  I remember visiting Washington, D.C. when my cousins would visit us from California and Pennsylvania.  We traveled to New Jersey often to visit my grandparents and great grandparents.  What we didn't do was drive into DC often.  I never toured the White House, didn't go to the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn, walk up the steps of the Washington Monument, walk around the Capitol or the Lincoln Memorial or drive in to see the National Christmas Tree.  Everything was in our back yard twenty miles away, but now that I am older I realize why my dad never wanted to get into the car on the weekends after sixty plus hour work weeks.  This was all in his backyard when he went to work.  He and my mom had been to the White House before.  Heck, they lived in DC when they were first married.  They had no desire to tour the museums.  We could go to those on field trips with school. Once I grew up and had my own family, I could get tickets to the White House through my Congresswoman and take my daughter (and the two of them!) myself.  I could go to the Easter Egg Roll on the White House Lawn with friends that were in the military and only in VA for a few years to experience that event.  I even took my nephew along for the fun.  Ray and I would take Carly to the Smithsonian Museum of American History to see pop culture that included seeing The Fonz's leather jacket, the ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz or Archie Bunkers chair. I didn't spend time in the city day in and day out, which made me want to see more of it.

It wasn't until I graduated college and had friends that lived closer in to the city that I experienced the subway.  I learned a lot about DC because that's where we went dancing on the weekends :)  I had never seen the National Christmas Tree until I was with these friends, and we all walked up the steps of the Monument. Georgetown and M Street were the streets to get to know as a twenty-something year old.  And then my daughter learned about DC and the memorials once in school.  She gave me some fun facts about the Lincoln Memorial (General Robert E. Lee's face is carved into the back of his head or his fingers on one hand form an "A" and on the other form an "L", and that there is a typo in the script on the back wall).  She also explained the newer memorials (WWII and Korean Veterans War Memorial) to me.

 So this past Saturday, I was determined to have a visit with DC.  Drive through the city.  Walk the grounds to see the National Christmas Tree.  See the gorillas again at the zoo.  And while I understand why my dad didn't want to drive into the city one more day with two small children, I am happy that I have Ray to drive me around taking me to places on my list of "have to get to before Panama" even when he sits in traffic fifteen hours of the week!  And I know once in Panama, we will explore east to west and north to south.  Ray will be happy driving Miss Daisy no matter where we are.

Ben's Chili Bowl Restaurant U Street in Washington, D.C.

Cute little Golden Tamarinds grooming each other

My favorite was this anteater eating the red ants coming down the hill.

Have to have a panda represented in lights

Momma and baby

Dad didn't seem to want to be a part of anything.

Too many holiday cookies

I did love the Toucan, too!

We found the tree.

White House was undecorated.

National Christmas Tree

The Virginia tree with Washington Monument in background