We have been waiting patiently for several years and now it is finally beginning. We have begun construction on our new house in the Philippines.

It was always our plan to retire in the Philippines. We need to build two homes to accomodate our needs. One in Cebu and one in Bolusao. Back in October 2013, we began to start building our Bolusao home in Marasal. Funds were sent to Bolusao and construction materials was being purchased. At that time, we were going to build the home on a strip of land that was near the coast. However, the next month, Typhoon Haiyan (Super Typhoon Yolanda) hit the Philippines and Bolusao was devastated. All construction material was lost to the storm and to the rebuilding efforts after the storm.

After the storm, Arlyn and I reexamined the location of the home and came to the conclusion that the strip of land in Marasal was too close to the Pacific Ocean. It was also located at the bottom of a sharp hill that I felt was subject to mudflows. Sadly, this theory was proven in 2015 when the hillside that was stripped of all foliage from Typhoon Haiyan buckled and blocked the national highway. We had to find another location.

In 2015, Arlyn learned of some land becoming available for purchase in Mokid-Bukid in Bolusao. It was located much further away from the sea shore and was at a higher elevation. We purchased the land February 2015.

Since that time, we worked on plans and obtained the necessary permits to build a home on the land. We secured a contractor to build the home. Some of the features we wanted in the house include:

• Dirty kitchen (ask any Filipino...they'll explain)
• Deep foundation to survive any storm
• Concrete, secure roof
• A smaller subsection (6m x 7m) area of home will have A/C
• Two Bathrooms
• Three Bedrooms

The house has been named 'Balay na Bato'. This is Waray for 'House of the Rock'. It illustrates the deep foundations and connections the home has into the earth. It is going to be a solid house that will not move.

A dedicated page has been written to capture the information and to post progress reports. It can be found on the Bolusao page.

House Pictures

Design Video

Last month, Elizabeth Abanador took advantage of her newly acquired American visa and flew to visit with her daughter Elyray. Elyray lives in Long Island in New York. Elizabeth flew into John F. Kennedy International Airport on the day when Winter Storm Jonas dumped copious amounts of snow on the eastern seaboard on January 23, 2016.

On February 27, Arlyn and I flew Elizabeth to Sacramento to spend the next several weeks with us.

I had a meeting with Claraview HR department. They laid me off. I was on the bench and the bench needed to be cleared. As of March 15, I am on my own.

MaEly returns to New York to continue her visit with her daughter Elyray.

While MyEly was with us, we traveled and experienced many things. To chronicle her adventures, I put together a video that highlights some of those moments. It can be found on YouTube.

This year, 2016, marked the 54th birthday celebration for Rodney. It was a quiet evening. Arlyn and Rodney went to Sizzler for a steak dinner.

On October 11, 2015, I purchased the tickets needed to fly to the Philippines. We planned on leaving on May 8, 2016 and would stay for 3 weeks. It had been five long years since we traved to that island paradise. We were unable to go in 2014 because of Typhoon Yolanda. In 2015, it was for financial reasons. Arlyn was getting very home sick and needed to return.

MaEly was in New York State during the time when we are to be in the Philippines. So we did not plan on stopping in Cebu City. We were to fly into Manila, then catch a Cebu Pacific flight to Tacloban, bypassing Cebu City altogether.

However, I was laid off from Claraview in March. And as the departure date to travel to the Philippines got closer and closer, it was becoming clear that I was going to have to make the tough decision to not go. I would have to start my job search from the beginning when I returned or I would have to delay my new job start date until after we returned. That would not be a good career move. So, Arlyn and I talked about it and decided I would not go.

This meant that Arlyn would make the trek by herself. I felt she was ready. She took many trips with me all across the United States and Canada. She knew the process and the language. She was nervous and uneasy about the solo trip, but she was determined to make the best of it. She really wanted to see Balay na Bato, have some fresh seafood, and most importantly, see her family.

On Saturday, May 7, Arlyn and I drove to San Bruno and stayed at the Marriott Courtyard. That night, Arlyn was so anxious and excited about the pending adventure that she did not sleep a wink. The next morning, we made the short drive to the San Francisco International Airport and said our tearful goodbyes. She negotiated the TSA checkpoint and disappeared into the crowd. I drove back to the hotel, caught a quick nap and then drove back to our home in Sacramento.

This is a map of the flight plan that Arlyn took to get to the Philippines. She arrived in Tacloban Saturday afternoon at 4:25 PM (PST). If you do the math, from start to finish, she traveled for approximately 31 hours, 20 minutes. Add on the lack of sleep the night before the trip. Needless to say, she was exhausted.

I receive and accept a formal offer to join Hewlett Packard Enterprise. My start date is May 23, 2016.

My first assignment was to be with Health Net Federal Services located at the Aerojet facility in Rancho Cordova. This means I have a 52 mile commute everyday.

It was becoming clear that the Alienware m17x that I purchased on June 10, 2010 was having some issues. The highend graphics card did not work any more, the battery was shot and could not hold a charge and the blu ray player only worked about 20% of the time. The Alienware was a good, work horse that saw many hours of play and work and there are a lot of good memories. So, I cannibalized the machine for memory and 2 HD drives and said 'cya'.

In its place, a new shiny HP Envy is a new member of the family. Coming in at about 1/2 of the weight of the Alienware, it is a sleek, silver laptop that has some work ahead of it.

Arlyn boarded her plane in Tacloban and began her journey home. She flew Cebu Pacific from Tacloban to Manila. Once she arrived in Manila, which was about 9:30 AM, she gathered up her luggage and headed to the All Nippon Airlines ticket counter. She needed to check in her luggage for the next portion of the trip because it was international. She was scheduled to have a leisurely five hour layover in Manila. AFter getting her luggage and walking to the ticket counter Arlyn, it was about 10:15 AM (Manila time). After standing in line, she finally had her turn. The ticket agent reviewed Arlyn's itinerary, punched in her information into the system and discovered that she was not on the flight. It was cancelled by Hotwire. Arlyn powered up her hotspot she had purchased in Tacloban, connected her iPhone to the hotspot and sent a Viber message to Rodney.

Meanwhile, in Sacramento, Rodney had just finished dinner and was at the computer monitoring Arlyn's flights in real time. He received Arlyn's frantic text at around 7:30 PM. It was obvious that Arlyn was stressing over the situation. Rodney quickly attempted to contact Hotwire but was placed on hold for incrediblely long durations. Hotwire service members were placing Rodney on hold and never returning. Hold times kept getting longer and longer. 30 minutes...45 minutes...an hour. Rodney starting posting message on Hotwire online help system to try and get somebody's attention.

At 30 minutes before Arlyn's flight was to take off, the All Nippon ticket agent in Manila tried to see if anything changed on Arlyn's ticket. It had!! Arlyn was now a confirmed passenger on the flight. She was quickly checked in by the ticket agent and Arlyn headed for the gate. She arrived minutes before the gate agents closed the flight. Arlyn was on her way to Japan.

After the 4 hour 20 minute flight, Arlyn arrived in Haneda airport near Tokyo. She arrived at Haneda at 7:55 PM and had a 4 1/2 hour layover. She headed over to the United Airlines ticket counter to check in. After the events that occurred in Manila, she was anxious. Thankfully, the reservation was still present and she was confirmed. At around 12:30 AM, May 29 (Tokyo time), she boarded her flight to San Francisco. She was on the last part of her journey and was on her way home.

Arlyn arrived in San Francisco, at 6:05 PM, May 28. She was on time and exhausted. Rodney picked her up and brought her home.

The lesson here is this: Don't use Hotwire to book your travel. If you do use Hotwire, don't make any changes to your itinerary. Verify your booking with the airlines.

Arlyn and I were invited to a party that Jim Swan threw for one of his van riders that was retiring.

On August 3, 2016, Screen & Shade Solutions installed screens on the east windows. At the time, they used Suntex Suncreens. The frames were white 1" frames. The color was brown (80%).

If you want to learn more about our efforts to lower our electricity usage, please visit our HVAC page.

As of this time, I have been commuting everyday to the Aerojet Rocketdyne facility located in Rancho Cordova. This is where my current client, Health Net Federal Services, is located. I have been making this journey every workday since I started with HPE in May. This meant that everyday, I was racking up 60 miiles on my 2007 GMC Envoy. The number of miles were accumulating faster than ever. This meant a loss on our low-mileage discount with State Farm insurance.

The Envoy does not get great gas mileage either. I have been averaging about 15 MPH during this time.

On Sunday, August 21, while still in our garage, the Envoy failed to start. We called OnStar to have it towed to Woodland Motors. Once it was gone, we used Uber for the first time to get a ride to the Sacramento Airport and, specifically, to the Car Rental counter. We picked up a rental from National Car Rental, buring the last free car rental day I had left and drove to Roseville Toyota.

Arlyn and I had already looked at the Toyota Prius in Folsom back in June and already had a good idea what we wanted and what we were willing to pay. So, after only after a couple of hours, we had a car picked out and paid for.

Arlyn and I got back into our rental Camero and drove back to the airport. We returned the car and took the airport shuttle to the terminal. We hailed a taxi (Uber is still not allowed to pick up at the airport) and drove back to Roseville Toyota. After paying the taxi driver, we hopped into our new car and brought it home.

To learn more about our newest addition to the family, please see our Prius page.

On October 12, 2016, Gary Neely fell and hit his head. He had amnesia and remained in hospital care for a very long time. Gary's wife, Rose, and Rose's nephew, Justin, did not have the time or energy to celebrate Thanksgiving properly. Arlyn and I never got around to making any plans for Thanksgiving, and this was probably a good thing. We saw this as an opportunity to do something with Rose and Justin. Arlyn and I picked up everything we would need for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We threw everything in a cooler and drove done to Belmont. Once there, we prepared the meal and set the table. We got the dinner served at the appropriate time. Everybody was thankful for the blessings and family we have.

I assembled a video that captures the highlights of the evening. It can be found on YouTube.

Our original plans for New Year's Eve fell through. Upon hearing about our sad demise, Jim and Gigi Swan invited us to join them. We met up with the Swans at their apartment complex. We then headed to the Tower Cafe to have dinner around 5 PM. Just prior to sitting down, Jim and I went next door to grab some movie tickets at the Tower Theater.

The dinner was excellent and the company was great. The Tower Cafe has a quiet back area where noise levels remain low enough that allows for easy conversation without ever shouting. I had a great Malaysian Chicken sandwich while Arlyn found the seafood plate to be more to her liking.

We took our time enjoying the atmosphere as we had plenty of time to spend. Finally, we took the short walk to the Tower Theater. The movie for the evening was to be Lion. The movie wrapped up around 9:30 PM and we dropped Jim and Gigi back at their apartment.

Upon reaching home, Jim and Vine Smith were just pulling up to the house. Their plans for the evening changed and allowed them to join us for the final hours of 2016. Arlyn and Vine proceeded to broil a fish and enjoy some wine while Jim and I took in The Martian. Midnight rolled around while we were in the middle of the movie. We paused the movie, switched the TV over to watch the ball drop and toasted in the new year with some champaign. The girls went back to the chit chat chit chat while Jim and I finished our movie. Because Jim had an early start the next day at work, they could not hang around for too long. They departed shortly after our movie ended.