FEBRUARY 2002

Earl and I had blood tests taken and found that our cholesterol is high (which we knew). Earl got an appointment with a doctor right away and got a prescription for Pravachol...by the end of the month, when he had a second blood test, his cholesterol level had greatly improved. We started eating better, too (although we still made it out to Las Canteras once in a while).

We also started the process of changing our domicile from Texas to South Dakota. We were going to do so later this year, anyway, because we're planning on purchasing a new rig and the tax in South Dakota is 3% compared with Texas' 6-1/4%. However, last year, Texas passed what was touted as being a property tax "exemption" for trailers which turned out not to be an exemption at all but, instead, a new tax. Once the word got out that the public had been duped, all the politicians started back peddling real quickly saying, "But that wasn't our intention at all, the wording was poorly written, yada, yada, yada." There are efforts to get the new law rescinded, but since the legislature meets only once every two years, there may not be anything that can be done until 2003. Therefore, we decided to make the change to South Dakota prior to May when the first tax bills are supposed to be sent out.

We're using Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls. We got our mail forwarding address set up, I started the process of sending out change of address notices, and by the end of the month, we had our new South Dakota license plates. Now we have 90 days in which to make it to South Dakota to get our driver's licenses and register to vote.