Do you smell that?

Spring is in the air!

It’s been so long since I last posted, I’m having to look back on my last post to see where I left off. 

Quite frankly, the weather was so lousy for two weeks that I was just in too bad a mood to write anything.  I know just about everyone suffered the effects of the winter storms that cruised through the nation, so I’m sure that most can identify with my winter weather blues.

Our “blizzard” moved through and left us snowed in and sub-freezing temperatures  and wind for four days, then before all of it had a chance to melt away, we got another bout of snow and freezing temps.  The second “attack” was shorter lived and after what felt like an eternity of winter yuk, the temperatures rose and the sun was shining again. 

 Finally!

So the views out our window looked like this for most of two weeks.






So, it was a winter wonderland around here, but I can’t say that we enjoyed it much.  Although we had heat tape on the incoming water source and it continued to work okay, the pipes between the kitchen and the bathroom froze, leaving us with no hot water at all and no water in the bathroom.  So we trudged through the snow to the public shower every night and had to both go into the men’s shower room because the heat wasn’t working in the women’s.  Since we were the only occupants of the park during all the bad weather, it wasn’t a problem.  We just went together to the same one.  I gotta say it wasn’t bad for a temporary inconvenience and it gave us a chance to “get out of the house” for a little while.  And it could have been much worse.  We managed to stay nice and warm and we had plenty to eat, so we survived just fine. 

Bentley, being his usual self, took turns either sleeping the day away….

Or getting into trouble with his uncontrollable bursts of energy that just had be burned off…..

As you can see, he was literally “climbing the walls” at times.  He certainly keeps us on our toes.  He’s so curious that we have to watch every time we open a door, a cabinet, a closet, or even the shower because he tends to want to run right in and explore.  If we aren’t paying attention, he gets locked into one of the above mentioned and we spend a while trying to figure out where he is.  We bought a laser light that he loves, so when he gets energetic and looking for trouble, it gives him something to play with and burn off some energy.  Can you tell he has us trained already? 

I’ve been making my appointments with the Chiropractor when the weather and roads would permit, so I have three visits left and I can tell it’s doing some good, so it’s been worth it.

A very dear friend of mine passed away last Friday, the same day that DeWayne was attending the funeral of one of his life-long friends.  So the past week has been a sad one for both of us.  Judi was my age and was suffering from early onset dementia for the past several years and had lost the ability to talk very quickly in the progression of the disease. 

It was very hard to deal with the fact that Judi was not Judi anymore, and I know she didn’t have any quality of life, but I will miss her so much.  I could go on and on about what a great person she was and the good times we had, but I won’t.  I’m working on getting past the grief and focusing on the good memories.  Her funeral was very nice and a wonderful tribute to her life.  Rest in peace, Judi.  I’ll miss you.

We made it home from the funeral on Tuesday and we’ve spent the week catching up on projects, doing some cleaning and enjoying the warm weather.  I finally got a chance to run the car through the car wash last night, so I spent part of the day cleaning the inside of the car and the windows.  Now my little red wagon is sparkling again and that makes me feel better. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside in the warm air and sunshine.  Oh, it was so nice!  I put Bentley’s harness on and took him out to play in the pine needles and chase leaves or anything else that moved.  I had him hooked to a 12’ lead, so he could roam only so far.  Well, he wasn’t happy with that for long, so I watched him as he pulled hard on the lead, turned around, and proceeded to wiggle right out of that harness.  Ginger was here by that time, so she helped me get him all hooked up again.  Within 10 minutes, he shed his bindings once again, so I had to put him back in the house.  Then I had to look at his pitiful little face as he sat and looked out the screen door.  Poor baby. 

DeWayne thought we should give it another try, so he helped me get Bentley back into his harness and held him while I adjusted it to a point that we were fairly sure he couldn’t wiggle out of it.  So kitty was free again to get into whatever mischief that suited his fancy and it didn’t take him long.  He managed to pull the small cooler over that is sitting outside on a stool and it spooked him pretty bad.  So back in the house he went, but this time he didn’t sit at the door.  Nope.  He was so spooked that he made a beeline to the bedroom and hid under the bed for a while.  Again…..poor baby.  lol

We’re thinking that it’s time to get back on the road in the next week or two.  First destination – Georgia.  Then we’ll move up the coast to Maryland to see Tracy and Tom, then as the weather heats up, move on up the coast to Connecticut (probably). 

So we’re getting all our projects done in preparation of moving on.  I’ll try to post again before we take off, then I’ll have lots of “traveling news” to report. 

Well, folks, that’s all the news for now, so I’ll sign off.  I hope everyone is enjoying weather as beautiful as ours has been and you too can smell spring in the air. 

Catch ya next time, but in the meantime…..

HAPPY TRAILS!