Getting Ready to Go

Our planned departure date from the bay area is fast approaching.

I will miss the gorgeous views from the bay trail system and runs with my favorite bay area runner peeps when we are gone.

The biggest task we have to manage is getting the renters signed up to a lease, and packing and storing all of our belongings so that they can move in.  This is a huge undertaking -- the local rental market is quickly shifting, and being seen as an attractive option without being underpriced, while also being responsive to all of the various inquiries, is quite time intensive.  We've toyed with the asking price quite a bit, and after 3 weeks of relatively little interest and declining listing prices, I think (hope) we've hit the right number as we gave tours to 4 potential rental groups this weekend and received inquiries from another 4 out-of-town folks who are visiting this week and will be stopping by.

I've been taking the approach that I only want to interact with people online and in person (mainly because I pretty much hate the phone).  This seems to be working reasonably well, although there is a subset of potential renters who respond to the ads with very terse messages along the lines of, "Call me."  I don't call, right now, responding via email to let them know that they can ask whatever they'd like online, or set up an appointment to visit, and they typically don't respond again, or if they do, they still say, "Call me at your convenience, please."  Filtering for good clients in my law practice has taught me that as a general rule, people who want something from you but demand that you reach out to them on their terms (rather than asking how they can make themselves available to suit your needs) are difficult to deal with and generally bad clients.  I assume the same is true for renters and I'd really like to avoid difficult renters if at all possible.  However, I have to acknowledge that if we still don't have a signed lease and deposit near the move-out date, I may have to change my response policy.

Every day, we do something on all of the million little tasks that have to get done.  Last week I found a buyer for my car, and I'm so excited it's going to a good next life (don't worry, good old electron blue has been loyal and wonderful for 16+ years, it'll get its own blog post).  We continue to eat random meals to draw down the pantry as much as possible.  Identify potential storage options.  Sort through yet another area of the house.  Think about getting rid of all running medals except those from marathons and memorable events.  Shut down wine clubs.  Figure out who will take the wine fridge and keep it plugged in.  Discuss husband's collection of books and T-shirts.  Evaluate electronics that are likely too old to even be interesting to anyone but the oddest of collectors.  Set up mail redirection to a remote mail scanning/forwarding provider.  Take donations to GoodWill yet again.  Pre-fill prescriptions for long periods of time.  Get all bills/statements set up electronically.  Research travel/international health care, trip insurance, etc.  Evaluate COBRA vs. California Covered (Surprise! Through Covered CA, supposedly we can opt into an even higher risk plan HDHP than what we've already got and defer health spending even more, saving close to $5,000 if our health issues remain constant -- and potentially exposing ourselves to an increased total risk of $1-2K after we spend the saved $5,000 depending on exactly where we land with the higher deductible and out of pocket maximum.  Of course, the CA Covered website is broken for us right now due to fraud protection on our credit profile that won't let them verify us easily, so we'll see how that dream actually plays out.) 

This week was short on mileage due to travel and business (both winding down my practice gracefully, and keeping my current clients happy) while preparing for the move. But, it was very good on heat acclimatization.  Total mileage was only 16.85, but most of it was running in the heat, including 2 trips around the Palo Alto Airport 6 mile loop, once by myself to scout, and then on sunny but enjoyable version with Jen and Angela on Saturday.

Other than running, completely skipping all of my assigned Tabata workouts, and preparing for our departure and work, the other big (supremely enjoyable) time suck in my life right now is the latest puzzle.

It's been almost a month, but we are getting SO CLOSE!

I'm hopeful we can finish it before the end of the week.