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It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. It’s my intention, once 2018 rolls around, to establish a more regular cadence to the material I produce for The Watchmaker’s Pulse, but until then, I’m just using the site(s) to experiment and practice some of the tasks that I have planned. This is what I was referring to in an earlier post titled The Framework is Coming Along!. A lot of details have to be figured out before The Watchmaker’s Pulse is fully up and running, which will be after my actual retirement date of Dec. 21, 2017.

With that in mind, I wanted to create a “to-do” list here, both for my reference, but also to highlight for you more of the plans that I have. I welcome feedback and comments.

• Prepare our house for sale. Not a minor task, it includes
  • Remodeling the kitchen
  • Remodeling 3 bathrooms
  • Updating electrical and lighting from the original 1965 configuration! (about 1/10 is complete now!)
  • Tearing out all the upstairs carpet which covers beautiful hardwood (1/4 is complete now!)
  • Refinishing all the hardwood in the house
  • Tearing out carpet on the lowest level and redoing wall and floor coverings there
  • We also have some cracking in the garage and lower level concrete, inadequate insulation, and no lawn sprinkling system. We’re still unsure if we’ll try to rectify any of these or not.
  • Replace the front and back doors.
  • Clean the HVAC system.
• Determine when and with whom to list the house for sale.
• Get rid of stuff. We have been in our house for 31 years. We’ve also lost all 4 parents in the last 9 years, 3 of which have been in the last 2 years. We have a lot of their stuff packed into various places in our house. We also have 2 adult children who no longer live with us, but whose apartments don’t have room for stuff which we still have – not to mention all the “non-junk” stuff with memories attached that we have to figure out what to do with. So, we will be:
  • Selling anything which might be useful to others, except I HATE THE PROCESS OF SELLING THINGS!
  • Giving away anything which might be reused by someone else
  • Throwing away things (sorry… landfill… I know)
  • Somehow archiving, through pictures, scans, etc. those items which have sentimental or practical value but which may be too voluminous to keep
  • Keeping stuff in a rented storage unit that we might eventually want in a small apartment in the future
  • Keeping the stuff we’ll want designated for use in our not-yet-owned RV
• Change our residency. I’m learning from a number of full-time-RVers that certain states (e.g. South Dakota, Florida, Texas) have set their laws in such a way that works better for people without a permanent residence location. I’m still investigating that, along with its impact on taxes, vehicle licensing and insurance, and voting.
• Change our health insurance. I’ve been fortunate to have insurance coverage provided by employers for nearly 35 years. In November/December, which is the standard open-enrollment for insurance, we’ll have to make a decision about our health care moving forward.
• Figure out mail handling and banking. I haven’t researched either of these much at this point, but we’ll need to ensure both are set up in such a way as to be fully accessible and functional from the road.
• Make sure we leave necessary paperwork in order. We need to update our wills and life insurance policies and make sure necessary people know about them.
• Get necessary medical and dental work taken care of before we leave, along with a plan on how to communicate with our doctors while on the road.
• Obtain an RV which will suffice as “home” for the foreseeable future.
  • I’m leaning toward a Class A motorhome. Gas or diesel?
  • Darlene (my wife) is leaning somewhat toward a 5th wheel trailer.
  • A standard trailer is still not out of the question.
  • Whatever we end up with, we really want it to include: a king-size bed, an oven, a bathroom with shower and toilet in the same room (as opposed to across the hall from each other), a length of about 35 feet or less, a couch, ample storage, and a functional and comfortable secondary vehicle either towed or used for towing. Additional preferences would include a dinette with chairs (rather than a booth), an oven, a residence-style refrigerator, slide-outs, an awning, outside kitchen, fireplace, ceiling fan, solar capability, and a means for Darlene to continue with her love of jigsaw puzzles.

Specific to The Watchmaker’s Pulse, I need to:

• Design a more permanent logo. When I created this site, I threw this together…,  and , but would like to engage someone to create a more refined look for me.
• Similarly, for my videos, I’d like a theme. I’ve worked with some ideas but would like to engage someone to help me create a more defined, professional theme.
• Also for this website and the associated sites, I’d like feedback and help in refining the theme and continuity of the products.
• Purchase necessary equipment for planned activities:
  • Internet and data coverage sufficient to keep us connected on the road.
  • Adequate video and still photographic equipment
  • One or two new laptops for each of us to use
  • Decent video editing software
  • A dashcam for in-motion driving video
  • A drone for aerial photography
  • Necessary tripods, audio, and storage equipment to support the video and audio creations
  • Memberships for any necessary activities, including national and state park passes, fishing licenses (yes, that too), campground or travel memberships, TV coverage
• Create a few sample videos and get feedback on them on our YouTube Channel
• Figure out potential podcast formats and methods
• Develop ideas and sample modules for The Watchmaker’s Pulse Academy, a planned for-profit homeschooling resource center
• Figure out the best approach to engage with and inter-relate the various social outlets connected to The Watchmaker’s Pulse, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
• Identify missing elements from The Watchmaker’s Pulse idea and develop those. This might include speaking engagement activities, RV-park ministries, publications, other product lines, business cards, advertising, financial support options, …?
• Plan out our initial route and destinations
• Convince Darlene that she really does want to participate in these videos

I realize that I may not have thought of everything yet, and also that God could very well change the course of this plan, but this will at least give you an increased understanding of what we think lies ahead for us.