Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Ready, Set, Go!


Kentucky Lake at Land Between the Lakes Rally

It is way past time to get this blog updated!  Where did this year go? And these past three months have flown by.

Three months in a nutshell....two fiberglass rallies and one hip replacement.

By mid September it became increasingly obvious that David's left hip was not going to last until March, 2018. We call the hip surgeon and set the process in motion, hoping that it will all work out time wise and not interfere with the winter desert trip.

We have reservations for the Land Between the Lakes rally in early October.  Arriving a few days late due to doctor appointments, we find old friends already there.





We take a break from socializing and go paddling!






We are camping in a different loop and it feels like a new rally.  Managed to get a few nice sunset shots.





We spend time with old friends, make some new friends and just enjoy life.



.......A brief interruption here...I am working with Blogger and Google Photos.  Just experimenting, trying to make blogging easier.

We get back home, wash clothes and head for another rally at Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park.




Now this bunch knows how to party!

(Anticipating some protest, I deleted the karaoke video!)





By mid-October the surgery date is set for 11/6/2017 and we need to get the Escape ready for winter before the operation.  As the trailer lives in storage, we decide to camp at our local county park, Chester Frost, to perform the clean up.








After 4 days of washing, polishing, adding gutters, and winterizing, we are exhausted and ready to go home.



This is the best these two senior citizens can do.  Think we will hire professionals the next time!

Two weeks later we are at the hospital and David's getting another hip replacement.  Definitely a scary procedure for an eighty year old but it is a successful operation.



David is working hard to rehab the hip and doing a great job of it!


Checking up on our neighbors' new house

This brings the blog up to present time where we are counting down to the winter journey.  This will be our 6th year to winter in Arizona! Looking forward to being back in the desert and also to seeing friends.

Miscellaneous thoughts:



Normally each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I get depressed.  Nothing major, just mild sadness possibly attributed to seasonal affective disorder.  But not this year!  Maybe it's because we have been so incredibly busy but I want to think that the different state of mind is due to internal changes.



This has been the most difficult year.  I have experienced the whole spectrum of feelings from sadness and isolation one year ago to rage, fear and hopelessness.  I have been astonished by a few friends and fretted over their behavior.  Yes, I am talking politics.

But through this pain and darkness there have been gifts.....for I am a better person than I was 


a year ago...a stronger person more willing to say what I need to say and a more forgiving person. Forgiving myself when I react negatively and forgiving others when they are unkind.

I am loving more, including those who want to label me.  And I have hope.

Wishing that everyone finds love, peace and happiness under their Christmas tree this year.








Saturday, December 19, 2015

Blog Confusion, Simple Christmas and Travel Plans



Tennessee River and Lookout Mountain
The above photo is from my phone while walking last week. 


And this is a shot of what's on our mind.  Dome Rock in Quartzsite!



Sylvester

We were planning to leave for Arizona today.  But my 88 year old mom is to have surgery in January. She told me to go on with our plans but I could not handle being that far away. 

The jello plans are to leave a few days after the surgery, sometime the first week in January.

Still hope to make it out to Quartzsite for the RV show. But you know how it is with jello plans. 



Are you confused with the blog changes?  Apologies are in order! Wish I was less confusing!

My blog of four years, between 2012-2015, was called Casita in the Desert, Casita in the Mtns.  After we got the Escape travel trailer I sought professional help to create a new blog on Wordpress...but the price was too high!

 I changed the blog name to Winter in the Desert, Summer in the Mtns but it still showed Casita on the blogrolls. Then we got busy selling our home, remodeling the duplex and nothing got changed.

So there are two blogs.  The previous blog is called Winter in the Desert, Summer in the Mtns.  And the new, current blog is called Winter in the Desert, Summer in the Mountains...with the "mountains" being spelled out and not abbreviated.

Hope to get a link on the new "Winter in the Desert" blog that will go back to the old one...for reference.  Tried twice yesterday without success.  Will try again, soon.

Again, the new link is winterindesert.blogspot.com

I've been neglecting the blog for months, procrastinating doing the change.  Sorry there has been so little activity.  

But behind the scenes I have been listening to Geeks On Tour and learning how to use Google Photos, an amazing product!  I just asked it to show me "desert rocks" and the search engine came up with my photos of Dome Rock, Skull Rock and Jumbo Rocks Campground! 


Quartzsite


This azalea was blooming on my street.  It does not realize that it is December.  
Other photos from home.





Sunrise from our porch


Fog filling the Tennessee River Gorge

Christmas!
Christmas just got too stressful a few years ago!

When we downsized, we gave away everything Christmas!  The decorations, the tree, the candles, the wrapping paper!  
Our plan, this year, was to have a private celebration on the road.

Since we will be home around family instead of on the road, it's going to happen after all.  
Guess who just got drafted to cook the family turkey?


David just bought another bike...one he calls an "old man" bike due the high handlebars and cushy seat.  Our bike riding has changed a lot this year due to his heart rhythm abnormality. He has an appointment with a heart doctor in Phoenix in January... hoping it can be fixed.

I am a little sad that we are not on the road heading west.  But it is a bit cold out there right now! 

Overall, I'm feeling happier than ever with our life and it's because of the downsizing.  I love waking up in our three rooms on the side of the mountain, gazing at the rocks and the woods as I drink my coffee.



My writing nook.




David and Sylvester (cat carrier) in the back yard.

I've come to realize that being in the desert means peace to me and I can create that peace while looking out the windows of our new home.
  
I may write again before Christmas but just in case I don't,

Merry Christmas!!!