Going to California for a while

Gradually recovering from the China trip. It really takes a while to readjust to all those time zones. But now thinking about going to California as was our wont for the summer. This is first time that I will be leaving the new condo and I need to try and think about what I need to do to get it in shape to leave. Should be a lot easier than leaving the house. I know I will need to come back here at some point when all the repairs are done to get the house on the market and also to try and get all the money from the bank and the insurance company. If you have ever had a disaster to repair, both the bank and the insurance companies make it as hard as possible to actually get it done, even when you have had approval for all the funds needed. First, the insurance company has something called "recoverable depreciation" which in my case is about 20% of the total funds. So I have to get the house repaired, show that I actually paid what was estimated, and then get that money released. Second, the mortgage company, in my case Wells Fargo Bank, takes the money that the insurance company has approved and puts it in an escrow account, and then releases it a little at a time, based on the amount of repairs completed. So you have to pay for the repairs up front to get the money. No wonder so many people have not gotten what is owed to them after hurricanes, tornadoes and such. If you don't have the resources to pay for most of the repairs yourself, you can never get the money from these guys. Anyway, enough of that rant.

I have honed down the pictures I took in China to a still large collection. For those who are interested, you can see them here. I hope you enjoy them. There are three short film clips near the start of the photo collection so try and play them if you can. It was useful to go though these pictures and relive that most wonderful trip.