We arrived this afternoon in beautiful Anaheim, California. The town that surrounds Disneyland. Although the temptation to visit the Magic Kingdom is great we have work to do. A weekend investor’s workshop, and then we’re out of here! It was a toasty 99F when we arrived, and it isn’t much cooler as I write this. When we checked in I remarked on how warm it was, and the guy checking us in replied “Yeah, I think a little heat wave is starting….”. I immediately retreated into my heat-wave mantra, the one I adopted while walking Rome 2 summers ago in 95 degree heat: Gelato, gelato, gelato….

We loved staying at Avila Beach, our neighbors were wonderful (as are MOST neighbors in RV parks). Steve and Ellen on one side were recently retired from education (sound familiar?) and Frank and Claire were returning to their San Luis Obispo roots from Palm Springs. We wish them safe travels.

Moonrise over Avila Beach

Sunrise over Avila Beach

The moonrise on Thursday evening sent us to bed. And we were greeted on Friday morning by the promise of a very warm day indeed!

Our blog today is centered around our Person Of Interest: Max Mudd. Max was living at home with us when we pulled the plug and leased it out, and he had to hustle to find other digs. Of course, as with most things Max, this didn’t go as smoothly as one would hope. Initially he had a couple of lines on rooms for rent with friends in apartments that would fit his budget if he could only find another 20 or so hours to work per week. That led to yet another job (#4?) working at Jump Up, a child-play and party palace that enslaves young people at minimum wage with a less-than-scrupulous boss who regularly shorts pay checks. Add this gem to his 24 Hour Fitness shifts, private trumpet tutoring, and Dungeons and Dragons Mastering at a local game shop and he was pushing 50 hours a week of part time minimum wage labor. Then he gets introduced to Vector Marketing as a Cutco Knife Salesman. This work actually suits him. I’m a past Cutco purchaser and it’s a great product that teaches basic sales skills to young people and actually pays decently. Things are looking up!

Then he gets an offer from a workmate for a room to rent in exchange for household duties and chores. Perfect! Now things are really rolling! But D-Day approaches, the absolute move out date, and just 2 days short of that all falls through. No rooms to rent, no apartments to share, no couches to sleep on. Nada. That same day the starter in his ’92 Honda quits. And he loses his cell phone. All of this while we are packing the entire house into either storage or the rig. Doom. Gloom. Disaster. Oy.

Things happened quickly from that point on. A new starter was found just a few miles away, and 2 hours later it was installed and working. He was due for a phone upgrade, and that could be taken care of quickly. Phone calls were made and some brainstorming was done and Justin, a past acquaintance, appeared with a newly vacated room in his house in need of a tenant. And to top it all off, a new job opportunity with Delta Airlines materializes. Wow! By D-Day Max is moved into Justin’s, his new phone is in his pocket, his car is working fine, and he has an interview scheduled for Monday. Double Wow! To make this incredibly long and sad story short and happy, Max got the job and starts next Monday.

So we salute Max. Good job all the way around. Even his younger brother is relieved.