Danita is still suffering from her mystery pains, but things are starting to look up. She saw a rheumatologist who said she probably has PMR. That’s what I had some 20 years ago. The best way to diagnose PMR is that it responds very quickly to prednisone. Danita started her regimen Friday evening. Fingers crossed! She’s still doing her PT, mostly working on range of motion.

Our condo (Kendall 1) had some really great news. When the contractor built our houses, they installed some of the flashing upside down. This allowed water to leak into affected houses. The symptoms weren’t obvious for years. When the symptoms became obvious, it took time to figure out the cause, find an engineering company to do a study, and do a test repair on one unit. The condo sued the builder. The builder brought in the subcontractors and the architect. Then the builder merged with another company, and we started all over again. This has been going on for the last 3 ½ years. Residents who want to move out have been able to sell their houses, but it was tough. Most banks wouldn’t offer a mortgage. Most sales were cash deals. About a week ago, the board announced that they have settled the suit in arbitration and they are very satisfied with the deal. Residents don’t know what the deal is yet because the final papers are still being drawn up, but it’s obviously a multi-million deal. So far as I know, my unit isn’t affected. But the condo will be carefully inspecting all units to make sure. We haven’t even started planning the repairs. The general hope is that we can start construction next spring, with construction lasting about a year. After that, we’ll have to work on some sidewalk and street repairs we’ve been putting off. With heavy construction equipment moving in and out, those repairs are expected to grow. We have some residents with professional experience in the construction industry. We’ll be calling on their expertise as we move forward.

We’ve had some delightful weather. I got a nice set of rides. That’s good because it looks like it will be a rainy week coming up.

Danita’s been working on her retirement papers. She’s made good progress, but somehow the package sent by Raytheon got returned as undeliverable. I’ve been working on my minimum withdrawal from my IRA, which is with TRP (T. Rowe Price). It’s a slow go. I linked our savings account to my IRA funds. TRP had to do micro-transactions for verification. After the micro transactions, I didn’t receive the Email that told me what to do next. I went to their website to see if I could figure it out, and found their login system was down. I called customer service and they fixed me up. I’m all set to buy more funds from TRP, but I have to wait another week before I can move funds out. After that, I’ll be able to set up an automatic annual transfer. And after that, I’ll be able to set up charitable contributions directly from my IRA, so the donations don’t count as income. That last is important because the new tax laws are very unfavorable for Danita and me. My goal was to get all this done before July 1. It’s going to be close. Fortunately, there’s noting special about the July 1 date. It’s just a goal.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.