We wish you all a happy and healthy 2014!

We have had a very quiet week since Christmas so have had nothing to write about.  We are still avoiding the shopping lines and the tourist places with all the kids on vacation so we have hung out around the RV park and caught up on reading, emails, end of year financial stuff, etc.  

We are both well and working hard at eating right and walking for exercise.  Not being a creative cook (or any kind of cook for that matter) it does get a little boring, but we are healthy and maintaining a good weight, so I guess it is working.  We have our "ache du jour" most mornings as do most folks our age but that is expected, I guess.  When we think about how old we are we marvel that we are in as good a shape as we are.  

We've had a great year, starting with a visit by our kids and grandkids last January.  (It was a good visit until daughter-in-law, Pam, shattered her upper arm bone on her first attempt at snowboarding.  It took a while but she is all healed up now.) After everyone left, we dug the RV out of the snow and ice and headed south!  We added our Maggie to the family in April after returning from our "wintering" here in Santee.   Roger did his woodworking during the summer and we kept busy with our trips to the gym and projects around the house.  We took a two month RV trip starting in late July, returning in mid-September. We visited our Colorado Springs family as part of the trip.  We then left again mid-November to come here so that we wouldn't have to dig out again this year.  (It worked well, as we got out before the nasty Arctic storms brought the frigid temperatures and snow and ice to Sparks.)   We are looking forward to our trip east  to Florida when we leave here. (Except the part where we have to cross Texas.)  We probably won't make any summer trips this year since this current one will be about 6 months long.  We plan on heading back here late November next year if all goes well.    

Our kids and grandkids are doing well and we enjoy hearing from them when they email or text!   

The weather has been awesome here since Christmas!  We have had sunshine every day with temperatures reaching the high 70s.  We do start out cold, though, with Maggie's first trip outside around 8am at about 40 degrees.  (The furnace is still running at night!) We turn the fireplace (aka space heater) on while we have our first coffee/tea and breakfast.

 We start our two mile exercise walk between 9 and 9:30 and it's about 50 degrees by then.  We start out in sweatshirts but by the time we turn around and head back home we are ditching them because it is already in the mid 60s.  By the time lunch and showers are done it's warmed up to the low 70s outside with the inside of the RV already in the 80s.  (ALL our big windows face the sun.) Then the sun sets about 4:30 and the temperature starts dropping precipitously!  Back into sweatshirts and long pants for the evening.  The space heater goes back on about 8:00 until bed time and then we start the cycle all over again.  Several changes of clothes are required per day!  But, that's OK.  The forecast for the next 10 days is the same, so we are quite happy!  That is why we are here.  

The neighborhood has been busy with families that came for the holidays but we suspect by the weekend it will be back to just us old geezers again.  Across the street the lights have come down, the inflatable decorations and the snowman have disappeared.  We still have the shrine to the Virgin Mary and the fallen soldiers, but it is so much nicer to look at.  (Next year they tell us they will be in a spot along our row behind us so we won't see their site except passing to get to ours!)  Several people went out and bought new motorhomes and 5th wheels for Christmas. There is one two spots down that we checked out on the web. $389K.  Wow!   In contrast, yesterday a tow truck hauled away a motorhome that caught fire on Christmas Eve.  It was a burned out shell.  Fortunately the people were away at the time and no one was injured.  A very sad sight.  

The "shrine people" have a dog named Maggie and she comes over to play.   The two of them chase each other back and forth between sites running at top speed.  They tussle and play and have a great time.  Yesterday our Maggie grabbed her ball and was teasing the other Maggie with it.  She was not sharing very well and at one time actually curled her lip and bared her teeth when the other dog attempted to get it.  Eventually she did get a hold of it and took it back to her home and it took forever to get it away from her!   They are funny to watch and the exercise off leash is really good for both of them.  

Our Maggs still hates her coat which she wears on the first trip outside in the morning, but she tolerates it.  Today I decided that with it on, her head and tail down, and with a slow gait she looks like an armadillo going down the road!  She is funny!!

Again,  Happy New Year, everyone.  May you have only good things come your way in 2014!!!