Moving
 

Well for those of you who know me I wanted to share our news that we just found out what our next post will be. My wife will be the Executive Assistant aka (OMS Office Management Specialist) to the newly appointed US Ambassador to Prague. We may have to make a quick pack out and move within the next month or two. We are all excited and pleased with how this is working out for us. So I need to start packing up all of my R/C toys, before the packers can get a look at what we have. Wish us luck. I will be in here during our move, and will get setup on the other end pretty quickly once they get us into our new home. I have never been there before, but my wife was posted there in the early 90's, and she says it is beautiful there.

Respectfully, Jerry Hill Seoul, Korea.

Congrats Jerry.

You got a pretty cool job there dude. Get to see the world and get payed for it as well. Congratz man.:mdr:

+1

My wife would be so jealous.

Sounds good jerry!! Enjoy it!

Thanks guys
 

Yea thanks guys. Its her job not mine. I retired from the Navy in 1997 and now I am on the other end as a dependent following her around the world. I work, but not because I have to anymore. She has a great job and she loves what she does in support of our country. We get to see places that most people can only dream of, and all on the Gov's dime. Yes I am a very lucky man, and I know it.

OK, now I don't like you as much. LOL J/K. So you get to travel the world, your wife works and you don't which leaves you so much time for RC. You've won the lottery dude.:yes:

Life
 

Life has had its ups and downs. Trust me I have dealt with my share of some real hardships in my life(serving 20+ years in the US Navy, two failed marriages) and now it seems that the sun is shining down on me. My wife is truly a blessing in our lives and we share a sort of equal billing in our relationship, which is wonderful. I am a very lucky man, and as my mother use to tell me I know which side my bread is buttered on, BOTH SIDES. Prague looks like it will be a nice place to live for 2 to 3 years, and then it will be on to another worldly adventure. Don't worry I will share some of our experiences along the way. I plan on being here on RCM for a long time as we play and learn whatever we can about R/C. The boys are turning 14 & 15 now and seem to be gaining an extreme interest in R/C as well. Life is good.

Good for you Jerry! Everyone deserves a slice of the good times, but you have also had some hard times which makes you appreciate the good times that little bit extra. Good luck with the move. :smile:

I wish you and your family the best durring your move Jerry. If ya need someone to watch over your collection of R/C'S for a while pm me and i'll be sure to get you my addy ASAP! :yes:

Thanks everyone.
 

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. We know that everyone out there has their own real life delemas to deal with. Some good and some not so good. I just wanted to share some of our experiences. The one thing that has always kept me going is HOPE. In our darkest hours hope may be the only thing that gives us the motivation to keep moving forward. We only share a small amount of our dark hours, but when we fall on good times we want everyone to share in our excitement. I know that a lot of people can not and will not get to experience some of the things that we will, so why not share our gifts with others.

Our 14 year old son is excited for all of the snow sports opportunities in Prague, and our 15 year old son is excited about attending the new Prague International School. Our 12 year old daughter is confused and unaware of anything going on outside of her own head. She lives in her own little world. We look forward to living in a new place, and for the other travel opportunities throughout Europe. If any of you travel through the Prague area please shoot me a PM and maybe we can get together and share some R/C activities. Who knows, R/C may even be something new to the Prague area when we get there.

Jerry, wishing you and your family all the best on your new adventure! Best of luck to your wife in her new job.

Life is definately a journey and many of us don't exactly know where we are headed yet...the trip along the way is half the fun

Wow i just realized
 

WOW it just dawned on me this afternoon that we are going to Prague, in the Czeck Republic, which is where MGM is located. Must be a sign. Since I have a couple of MGM ESC's in our collection now I can learn some first hand tech stuff about these controllers and have great first hand service without having to ship all over the world for repairs. Pretty cool. I think I am going to like it there. I believe I will be delving into the MGM controller world for a while.

You are moving from Quark country to MGM country. Nice!

If you need help surviving in Prague let me know :)

Why?
 

Why? Do you live in Prague?

I am sure that the US Department of State will take good care of us while we are there. We have lived all over the world and this is merely another adventure in our careers that will forge lasting memories for many years to come. Meeting good people and developing friends along the way is always a plus.

I do ;)

Very cool
 

WOW it feels good to know someone in Prague knowing that we are about to go there. We will have to hook up after we get settled in. Is there a track there for running R/C's.

Update 20/jan/2011
 

Well it seems that the main hold up on our move has been getting the kids into the International school in Prague. Because of our diplomatic status most places that we go in the world our kids attend international schools. The reason for these schools is so that families that get assigned from nations around the globe to each country have a common place for all of those kids to come together and learn under a very strict standard that is acceptable to most acidemic standards.

Anyway they have been telling us that the school is full and that they have no room for our three kids. The new US Ambassador arrived on Monday and he attended a meeting with the school board at ISP yesterday. Incidentally we received a conditionary acceptance this morning from ISP. So now we will actually receive contracts for each of our kids that have to be agreed to and signed before the kids will be allowed to attend. One of those requirements they have to abide by is that they have to work with a tutor at least three days a week in order to keep up with their classes due to their performance up to now. Our kids have been through a huge transition over the last two years after lossing their mother and having to move with us overseas, because no one was focused on their education and they were left to do whatever they wanted. The end result is that they were behind other kids their own ages. Leaving us with a gap to overcome with each of them. They have come a long way and it has been difficult to get them focused on their education. Now they are finally getting it, and their lives will be better for it.

So we should be moving forward in wrapping up negotiations this week, and hopefully moving to Europe next week. WAPITA, but our kids are worth it. The next task will be getting me a job as soon as we arrive in Prague. The one good thing is that I am locked into a specific tax bracket and no matter what job I end up with my pay will be better than $50K. I may end up working the mailroom, or even doing janitorial work for the US Embassy, but for the pay who cares? For a retiree at my age I am more than happy to work and bring home a descent sallary while living overseas in whatever country we may get assigned. Its all good.

Awesome Jerry. Wallot is a racer, so hopefully you are close to him.

How long of a tour and how many more does your wife have?

I'd be happy to live in your house in California until you get there, ya know, to keep it safe:whistle:

It sounds like all will go well.

Life is good.
 

Yea its cool. We are all looking forward to the move. From the sounds of it we should be there at least two years. Since the Ambassador is a presidential appointee he stays in office until Obama leaves the WhiteHouse, and then it is totally up to the new President. Normally our posts are three to four years.

Sorry Harold, but the new tenants moved in 15/Jan/2011 and plan on staying for a while. We can only hope they would stay until the property values come back a little bit, and we are able to sell the house.

From the info shared by Wallet there are no tracks in Prague to run at, but who knows maybe we can get one going.


Anyway we were supposed to depart Korea this Saturday, but it seems that with so much snow on the East Coast that DC is suffering from too much white powder. Not enough staff to get our travel authorization/orders completed, so we are delayed another week or so. What a crock. I hate delays.

Finally
 

OK well finally we have received our travel authorization from DC. We are packing out Thur & Fri and departing for Prague on Saturday. Our new home has already been setup for us and all of the furniture is in place per our request. Everyone is so excited for the move and finally we have a date. We will arrive in Prague some time Saturday and begin our latest adventure. What a great birthday gift. We will miss Korea as we have many friends here, but life goes on. OK well back to the big game(Superbowl 45) Greenbay scored first.

Hi Jerry,

I hadn't seen this before. Good luck and it is MGM country... I'll let you know if I'm heading that direction as I travel frequently.

Jerry I hope everything goes well in your move! And Happy Birthday!!

Sounds great.
 

Sounds great. We love having visitors wherever we get posted. We have had a few people visit us here in Korea, and now all of our family and friends want to visit with us in Prague. I have not been there before, but my wife has. It seems to be a very beautiful place to live, and in fact it has been voted as one of the top five places on the planet to visit. There is a Hotel in Prague that was voted as the number one most beautiful place to stay in the entire world. How cool is that? If anyone happens to be passing through the Czech Republic please drop me a few lines and I will see if we can meet for lunch or something.

OH and PS our flight got backed up to Monday now. Oh well. Delays, delays, delays.

So you will be the MGM contact for us RCM members heh.

Within reason
 

Yes within reason, of course. If there are things that I can do to help people out with MGM I will be more than happy to do so, if I am able to. Besides raising our three youngest teenagers, and planning to work a full time job I will be pretty busy, but I will help others out when I can. I do plan to pay a visit to the main MGM business once we arrive in Prague. I do like their ESC's and I would like to become better aquainted with them so that I can become a source of technical info for our family here on RCM, and on the UE forum. I am registered on other R/C sites, but RCM & UE are the only two that I visit on a daily basis. Reasons are obvious.

It is my hope to become fluent in the operation of the MGM ESC line, because they have some of the most powerful controllers in the industry for the type of R/C vehicles that we use. The only thing that has kept them down in our market is their location, comparitive cost in relation to the USA market, and repair turnaround. I plan to share these concerns with them and maybe something positive will change to make things better dealing with their company. Only time will tell.

So keep an eye out for my thread once I get settled in Prague and get to pay a visit with MGM. I hope it will be an interesting read.

Oh joy.
 

OH JOY today is moving day. Well today is the first day of having the movers in our home. They will pack everything up in boxes today, and finish up tomorrow by loading everything up in various crates for shipping onto the freigter ship. Its 0700 and I already have a headache just thinking about it. We are soooo stressed out. I was up to about 0200 taking down the TV's and trying to get all of our last minute stuff rounded up for the movers. I like to pre-pack a lot of our electronics in their original packaging, so all they have to do is load them up in the crates. Plus seperating everything for regular house hold goods, Fast shipping for things we need right away, and stuff going into storage. Plus we had to pack our luggage last night so they do not pack up the stuff we plan to carry with us. What a PITA. I will be happy when everything is out of the house tomorrow, and I can relax somewhat. Until we have to unpack at the new house in Prague. Yippeeee. That will be in about 2 to 3 months, because the ship has to get them to Brussels, and then the crates will be driven to Prague. Fun, fun, fun.

Moving house is a real PITA whether it's around the corner or around the world, you still gotta pack EVERYTHING. Good luck Jerry I hope the transition goes smoothly here on.

good thing is
 

Well the good thing is that we only pack up items that have original boxes. Everything else is done by the movers for us. All we have to do is watch and record for our own records (insurance coverage) what is in each box. It is exhausting just going through the whole process from start to finish. Plus in some countries you really have to watch out for people working for certain movers so they do not relieve you of the items that they want. So far we have been lucky enough not to loose anything. We also have custom built concert type roller boxes for our flat panel TV's. There are a dozen movers here right now and only three of us to watch over them. What a day.

good luck with the move and all its aspects Jerry! Don't let the movers too close to the RCs!!!! haha

Yesterday.
 

Thanks, but the R/C gear was packed out yesterday afternoon, and I watched every aspect of it to make sure that not only is it all packed up, but it was done with great care to protect it. These guys are pretty good. All of them are senior citizens and take pride in their trade. Today they will finish up with our bedrooms and everything will be gone by 5PM.

Pack out done.
 

Well the pack out is completed and everything is gone. What a tiring two days that was. 12,000lbs of stuff shipped and we are exhausted. Now we get to relax for a couple of days until our flight leaves on Monday. We will be in Prague Monday dinner time. Yiipeeee.

Have a safe trip Jerry.

Uh oh???
 

Well tragity has struck. While going to box up some extra luggage yesterday my wife tripped over a newly installed car stop (curb) took a fall and broke her right arm. I did not even know she fell for a few seconds, but when our son disappeared from helping me unload the back of the van I knew something was up. She had fallen face first onto the icey asfault in the parking lot. Luckily she managed to support the full force of the fall with her right arm protecting her face and head, BUT she broke her arm near the elbow. She snapped the radius ball off the top of the forearm dislodeging it completely. So she is in a sturdy sling until we can get into see an Orthopedic surgen 0800 on Monday for evaluation. She was in a lot of pain, but after a couple percasets she is sleeping.

So it looks as if we may be in Prague for a few more days taking care of this. Surgery should be farely quick as they do not want to let the bone set where it is now. So we should be on our way some time this week. We will let you guys know. Wish us luck.

Surgery
 

Yes it does sound painful. Of course I can only imagine what it feels like personally, but they wife takes the meds like candy trying to avoid feeling it. We finally got in to meet with Orthopedic Dr yesterday, and we are going to the Hospital at 0930 for surgery this morning. Now that we have seen the Xrays more clearly and also a CT scan she must have fallen directly onto this balljoint breaking off one side of the ball. The doctor is going to do exploritory first to anylize the damage first hand, then decide how to proceed. He may repair it, or he may just cut off the entire ball and elliminate it all together. By the end of today her repair should be completed. Then we have to wait here for ten days to have the stiches removed, and have a final Xray to see that the repair is what he expects it to be. That will be on the 25th, and we should be on our way to Prague that weekend (26-27/Feb). Man what a PITA. Our household goods are already gone so we have almost nothing here. Luckily our services have setup a loaner program and we have a kit in use with sheets, towels, and a flat panel TV with DVD player. The kids are already out of the school, so they have to hang out at home during the day. Living out of our luggage, and eating out every day. Oh well it could be worse I guess.

Sorry to hear about your wife Jerry. Hopefully everything goes well today and she has a quick recovery.

Good luck with everything, talk to you soon.

Nick

Thanks
 

Thank you everyone for the well wishes and prayers in this time of need. We always look at these moments in time as if things could always have been much worse. What happened is most unfortunate, but we are grateful for the gifts we are given each day.

Anyway I just brought her home after spending the night with her in the Hospital. She is in a lot of pain, but recovering. After spending nearly 5 hours in the OR the Dr had rebuilt the radial ball joint completely with a stainless steel "T" plate and seven 2.4mm screws. It looks like a nightmare in the Xrays, but the Doc appears very confident that everything went well and that she should be good to go in a few weeks time. Once the swelling and pain subside from the initial trauma of the surgery, she should begin for realize full mobility and strength in the arm in question. He has every confidence that she will make a full recovery within a few months. Now we just have to get through the therapy of forcing herself to work it out and get better. Pain is difficult to work through.

At any rate we have a few appointments over the next week and should be on our way to Europe by the end of the month. Yeppeeeeee.

Finally made it.
 

Well we finally made it to Prague. After several weeks of delays and injuries we arrived here last night about 6PM. We had friends meet us at the airport and drive us to our new home. Its different, but it is very nice in deed. Fully furnished with all new furniture and in fact I am sitting in our master suite with the wife sitting in our new recliners doing our laptop communications. Very much like a hotel suite with a walk in closet and master bath.

We had a quiet uneventful 11 hour flight from Seoul Inchon, Korea to the Prague International airport, and once settled into our new home we all hit the hay around 9PM to get some much needed rest. We took a walk around the neigborhood this morning to see what the place looks like, and it is a very quiet neighborhood with about 1000 private homes. The entire development centers around the international school, which is a five minute walk for the kids. All-in-all it is a very nice adventure so far.

Some friends are coming over later today to take us out on a local sight seeing tour around the area to help us get acquainted with travels around Prague and the general area. We are all excited to be here, and cannot wait to venture out and about to take in all this sights and sounds of the Czech Republic, not to mention travels to Germany, Austria, and so many other European countries. Let the journey begin.

Jerry,
Glad you have arrived safely!.. Hopefully your wife is making progress on her recovery. Make sure you stay away from MGM Factory, you may not want to leave.. LOL
Anyhow, I'm sure you guys will settle in just fine.... Cheers