The Adventure Begins - Again

With a pretty much uneventful summer behind us, autumn was a busy time getting ready to leave. The sheep and goats that were visitors during the summer months went home. They were here to keep the pastures mowed and the brush from taking over. We had lots of small projects to get the house and RV ready for the winter.

One of the projects was getting the new security system activated. The system we used last year quit working several months before we returned home and the security company never notified us it wasn't working, although they still collected their monthly fee. When we contacted them to question about it, they said that nothing unusual showed up on their monitoring. Funny, because when we got home we found the system wasn't even reporting anything to them, and hadn't been for months. They got fired and a new system went in. We also have a friend who's staying at the house through the winter so that it's occupied.

Another project was to put new caulking on the seals of the roof of the RV. The integrity of the seals is all that prevents water leaking through the roof and causing rot and mold inside. And we also installed a vent cover on the bathroom vent so we can keep it open for circulation when it's raining, as well as a slide cover, which is a rolling cover for the slide out to keep branches, leaves and debris off the top, as well as protecting it from rain.

The summer was also filled with necessary doctor and dentist appointments. After breaking my back last year (compression fracture at T12) I had to have some physical therapy. One of the exercises the therapist prescribed for me to do aggravated an old shoulder injury. So when the PT on the back was done, the doctor changed the order for PT on the shoulder. All that seemed to irritate my right hip somehow, and, you guessed it, after the PT on the shoulder was done the order was changed to the hip problem. I figured everything needed to get better before I ran out of body parts!

Other than that, my physical, eye exam, and dental checkup went very well, as did Jim's. Based on my eye health and cholesterol bloodwork, I'm apparently not 73 anymore but quite a few years younger! Now if my knees would only agree. I'm beginning to sound like Rice Krispies when I get up out of a chair. I hear the distinct music of snap, crackle and pop.

We were blessed to receive a loaf of Challah bread from my good friend Judy Jacques in Colebrook. She makes the most wonderful bread and this is my favorite. We shared it with friends who joined us for dinner one night. Friends are one of the greatest blessings in our lives and we cherish them all.

The cold and snow began in late November. We went down country to southern NH for Thanksgiving with family and it was well below freezing during the night and in the low 30s during the day. I was thinking maybe I didn't want to go away this winter but the onset of wintry weather reminded me of why we leave. We left Thursday morning for our trip south and Mother Nature gave us a seasonal send off with some fresh snow overnight. It wasn't nearly as much as we had received in the north country, but enough that we were glad to leave NH.

As our winter trek begins, we are looking forward to this year's trip. Not sure we'll have the dramatic experiences we did last year, like getting lost in the desert, or Jim getting attacked by the cousin of the whomping willow, but we're ready for whatever comes. Hopefully we won't get snow in TX again. Let the adventures begin again!

My son and his wife made us these sweatshirts