Bikes, mortgages, and whatnot.

I've been working my butt off. A whole FIVE days a week these last few weeks. I've managed to ride to work every day except when it was raining yesterday. And after one atrocious stressful driving commute downtown, next time I'll don the rain gear and pedal there.

The funny thing about cycling is that it never feels like it takes long to get anywhere. After a very short time, your body kicks into shape and everything is easier. Biking makes you feel healthier all around. I've been contemplating shipping my bikes out from Iowa. It's about $80-100 a bike with shipping and boxing of the bikes. I miss my them. I've been thinking about it long enough to just do it.

This evening I worked on attempting to secure a mortgage pre-approval. Normally this would be easy. But with my foot-loose and fancy-free lifestyle of the last five years, I am a non-traditional applicant. The only one who will consider me is my local credit union. Without a W-2 form of pay, no one wants to touch me, even with a stable total income for the last three years and assets as back up. I find this rather annoying, but what can I do but be thankful that there are credit unions who are willing to listen and work with their members. I've been pro-credit union forever; this only deepens my commitment.

Workwise, I continue to get job inquiries for the Portland metro area. I am reluctant to sign on for days which will require extra commuting for not a lot of take home pay. I'd rather wait out an extra day at Costco. Or just do fill-in as it comes up. I am taking a few more extra days here and there so I can justify some time off in case I want to return to Iowa for a while. Maybe the Outer Banks in the October.

I've been rolling around scenarios in my head. I feel that continuing with a 2-3 day work week is the most dominant goal as far as work goes. I'm not thinking about quitting, or moving somewhere else, or going on to the next place. Strangely, we're rather contented. What does that mean?