Good News is Always Welcome

Today is actually the day after Thanksgiving Day — I’m writing a few days ahead again.  Can there be anything better for a grandparent than to hear good news about their grand-kids?  I think not.  Yesterday’s quiet Thanksgiving Day was pleasant enough — until we called Milwaukee to talk with Kathryn, Mike, Melanie, and Drew.  Everything we heard was hunky-dory until the end of the conversation when Drew broke the good news.

When he finished his schooling in Chicago he snagged a grant to work in the Minneapolis City Planning office on a special project.  The 6 month grant began the better part of 2 years ago and was renewed a couple times — but he really wanted to be hired by the city and to pursue his degree interests right there in Minneapolis.  Well, after delays and some typical bureaucratic nonsense they hired him recently.

time for our happy dance

I’m so glad for the both of them.  Working for a governmental agency is so not something that I would ever have wanted to do but it is what he wants to do and that’s what matters.  So, Peg & I are sitting here this evening with big smiles on our faces!

Other than that all is well.  Plans for the wedding are moving forward.  All are healthy and as well as can be expected.  Life is good.

There’s a construction project going on at the property West of the park.  It’s some sort of international educational complex that I don’t know a lot about at the moment but I was surprised to see that there were workmen there on Thanksgiving Day.

In fact, the day before they pumped concrete to form several brand new foundations and floors — and this morning they were out there already framing in the building.  I can’t believe they did that barely 20 hours after pouring concrete!  Texas is different — or at least different from what I’m used to.

A short post today.  I’m still full from yesterday.  Thanks for stopping and check in tomorrow to see what’s up!

 

My Network is Re-Worked

About a week later (post hard drive failure) and the office looks about like it used to, but with fewer wires, fewer pieces, and more storage.  An hour or two here, and an hour or two there and the rearranging is done.  A couple long days of copying files to get the file system back to what it was — and make a few improvements while I was at it.  Doesn’t look like anything to an outsider but my life is simpler now.  Good!  I like simple. 22 terabytes of storage isn’t “simple” but we should be good for a few years with the way we’re set up now.

It’s Wednesday before Turkey Day and the unscriptedness of our Life Unscripted may be showing itself again.  We’ve been looking at used mobile homes in situ in local RV parks.  I’m not going to go into all the details about why we are even considering this now — I’ll share our thinking if and when it becomes relevant — but suffice it to say we are willing to consider a serious change in our lifestyle for the right unit in the right place.

Nor do we know — at this point — what that might mean for our vagabond habits. Short & Long term.  We’ll still travel.  But how, how long, and during what times of the year will depend on whether we buy something.  One of the properties we are looking at is rented through April — so it could occur that we don’t actually purchase anything till then — and then do we head North?  Or to we stick around to see what a summer in S. Texas feels like.  Decisions awaiting enough information to make a choice!

It could turn out that this is a false alarm.  I don’t know.  Like that sailboat that I had already started writing the check to pay for — I have changed my mind before committing a few times.  We’ll wait to see what happens before we know for sure.

So, on the day before Thanksgiving Day we have a lot to be thankful for.  Life is good.  We’re feeling good — as much as we know anyway.  And there are exciting prospects ahead — no matter what decision we make.  Thanks for stopping, and why not stop by tomorrow to see what we’re up to.

Know Your Limits

The Crested Caracara is a border violator.  Usually they stay South — in Mexico — but they do sneak over the border from time to time and this guy was seen at Laguna Atascosa.

The Caracara reminds me that we can get away with ignoring our limits for a while but we can’t do it all the time.  They visit South Texas from time to time but they aren’t common full time residents here.  It’s kind of like being an RV’er — or an older person in general.

Time was I could drive 700 miles a day for several days in a row.  I don’t do that any more.  In fact I purposely try to keep our travel days to a couple hundred miles.  And when I insist on stretching for a day anything over 450 miles ceases to be ‘fun.’

That kind of stamina is something I’m accustomed to thinking about.  What I’m not accustomed to thinking about are the new rules for living that the doctor has given me.  With two different cardiac conditions I’m slowly learning to think about life differently.  It has not been an entirely comfortable transition.

I feel fine.  But then I felt fine before I was diagnosed — and when the doctor saw what I had been living with his face went pale and gave me some initial rules for living that brought me up short.  Since he has stabilized me using meds life has gotten a little more normal but there are a couple activities which, in particular, can get me in trouble and hasten the need for surgery.  Accepting what that means for our life together has been a hard adjustment.  Can we do this, but not that?  How much is enough, how much is too much? I’m a guy who likes specificity and assimilating the doc’s rules hasn’t been a natural thing to do.

With the slides retracted it’s easy to get into the “basement”

With the slides extended getting into the basement isn’t quite as easy.

Among the “little problems” for me is that I am not supposed to be bending over a lot.  And where do they put the storage in a Class A coach?  Why underneath the flooring in the bottom of the RV.

But those extendable slides make it a little more difficult to get into the basement.  The large storage bay sits directly underneath the longest slides on both sides.  It’s down on hands and knees to get in there — and then hauling whatever you’re looking for out of the basement is tricky too.

storage bays get filled with all sorts of stuff.

We don’t go down there a lot — but each time we do it’s not a good thing.  So we’re rethinking what we’re doing and how, and maybe what we should be doing. And if it seems like I’m beating around the bush and not saying what I really want to say — that’s precisely the problem — because I’m not so sure what I want the solution to be.  We’re thinking about it. That’s all I can say for now.

the bottom of the slide is about even with the top of my head when I’m sitting in a lawn chair.

Today is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  We have our turkey breast (picked it up yesterday at H.E.B. — so it’s in the fridge defrosting).  I’ll be making cranberry relish today.  The rest of the menu is super simple — no big feast for us this year — except for the pie we bought.  H.E.B. does this lovely thing where they bake 12” pies, cut them in half and sell 1/2 of one and 1/2 of some other kind of pie as a package deal.  So we’re pecan pie and pumpkin pie prepared for Turkey day.  Yum Oh.

There you have it.  Another Life Unscripted day!  Check in tomorrow to see what’s up.

Thirteen years and dead

Don’t worry — it’s not a person!

When we bought our last house, 13 years ago, we had masonry walls between my office and my studio.  I could not get a wifi signal into the studio to save my life.  I solved my dilemna by buying two Apple Time Machines and moving my WiFi signal over to the studio in short steps.  Those two Time Machines were essentially servers and lasted all this time.  No matter what you say about Apple products — they do work, and work well, and work well for a long time.

And now one suddenly quit altogether; and the other is wonky — I mean really wonky.  So, I’ll be replacing two drives with one, and backing up stuff for a few days until I get back to my safe-and-secure comfortzone!

Among the things flitting through my brain on Friday were how many Dairy Queen stores there are in Texas.  We have 4 within 15 miles and if I extend the circle a little the number doubles because that count doesn’t include San Benito or Harlingen.  In my truck driving days I would stop every day for an ice cream; I enjoy my dairy products.

I’m becoming a little aware of changes in people.  A couple of the sites where we knew the residents from two years ago are no longer being occupied by the same folks.  We need to begin checking on the well-being of some of the folks who won a place in our hearts last time; we’re hoping that the reasons they aren’t here are minor — but as you age it’s obvious that people pass on, or become infirmed, or simply give up heading south for the winter.

The new owners brought in 4 new park model RV’s on spec.  I see that half of them are sold now and there’s a regular trickle of lookers stopping for a tour of the remaining two.  A couple used units are available — none of which are appealing to us at all. — which sentence I wrote a few days ago… pausing at this point in the writing of this post.

Well, add a few days and it turns out we’ve been talking between ourselves and the topic of finding a Southern seasonal home base has been raised by “She who must be obeyed.”  So, we’re going to have a look at one of the units for sale here, and another for sale in a park 40 miles away and see how we feel then.  I’m thinking that we’re just feeling our way around a big decision and we might either do nothing for months or make a move in 24 hours.  You just can’t tell about us.  That’s Life Unscripted……

Thanks for stopping and I’ll be here again tomorrow to chat.

 

Looking Around Corners

Ok — we’ve been here (Los Fresnos) before, but only for a short few months.  We know something of the area we’re in, but we don’t really know it as a person knows their hometown. When we arrived at Highland Ridge last spring we had been there for shorter stays over five years — so getting “in the groove” there was different there than it is here. It may be a while before we get settled in to the point that a week will go by and we will not have gotten into the car to go anywhere.  Acclimating  is a process.  One that we seem to repeat pretty often in this RV life — and maybe it’s a bigger part of that life than people give it credit for being.

Simultaneously, we’ve been messaging our daughter about her visitation plans.  I’m sure those conversations have kept us busier chasing around than had we not been talking about such things. Texas is a doggone big place!  Making travel plans in Texas is — well, tiring.

When I was younger I was particularly impressed by the Bible verse that talks about walking (or “living”) circumspectly. If you remember your Latin you’ll remember that the meaning is to look  “around” at a thing, and to look “carefully.”  I’ve always thought that Circumspection isn’t about jumping to conclusions; it’s about examining the details and making a considered decision.

Which begs the question:  how do you see?  What enables one to see?

I have had a lifelong obsession with light. As a result, photographs have always been a big part of my life. What a wonderful way to capture a moment forever — or at least as long as the paper lasts or the digital “0’s” and “1’s” last.  In the 70’s & 80’s our family vacations often involved more luggage for cameras than for clothing. “Traveling light” is not a phrase I’ve ever understood.

As I neared the end of my working life I had gotten tired of making images of things without people and I decided to take what I had learned in landscape photography and still life images and put that to use shooting people.  I spent a few years doing light studies of people, rather than things.  When I did so, the ideas of looking “around” and “close” took on vastly different meanings.  Because I was mostly concerned with light — most of my images were B&W.  Light was everything; color didn’t matter (most of the time) What’s revealed. What’s concealed.

Which is sort of what trip planning is all about, isn’t it?  You make plans based on what you know and what you don’t know.

At that time in my career capturing the “edges” of light became an obsession with me. The time I spent in studio was some of the happiest of my life because it was all about focus on what I was doing.  Four hours would disappear like the blink of an eye.  I kept up a patter of conversation with my models but my brain was all about light & shadow & form.

If you put a meter on many images you’ll find that they don’t use much of the black-to-white range.  My obsession was getting that entire range of light while still controlling the grays to retain the mood I was looking for.  That wasn’t the easiest thing to do, success was like finding the holy grail. It existed in light focussed in millimeters and captured in hundredths of seconds.

What does all this have to do with getting settled in a new place or the size of Texas? I think, it has a lot to do with it!

How high your awareness level is
determines how much meaning
you get from your world.
Photography can teach you
to improve your awareness level.
–Ansel Adams

It’s like this.  I can be perfectly happy — and still be looking for something other.  The search is not about dissatisfaction it’s about pursuit; about going from place to place;  about progressing through life.  When I was in the studio I might have been frowning, cursing, or asking models to do something bizarre; but I was always pursuing just the right amount of light in just the place for just the right amount of time — on a surface — on an object — on a body.  Whatever I was shooting would never again be under exactly those same circumstances.  My goal was to capture the transitory moment. I was in creative Utopia; my models thought I was verrückt / crazy.

The fact that I talk a lot about the places we visit should never be understood as being dissatisfaction.  Talking — or writing in the form of this blog — is what I do.  I comment on what I see, what I understand, what perplexes and delights me.

I can’t think of a place we’ve been in the last five years that wasn’t right for that moment in our lives.  It may have been different than we anticipated; life is like that — but each place we’ve gone has been another transitory moment — except that in our RV a ‘moment’ might last a night, a couple weeks, or a few months.  I’m no longer dealing in hundredths of seconds —  think of travel writing as time lapse photography or something.  

Like poses in a studio, we’ve made deliberate choices — sometimes struggling over which option to pick, other times seeming to jump at the first opportunity — but always with purpose and having a ball doing it no matter what we might have looked or sounded like from outside the coach.

I was looking at our map of the states we’ve travelled since going full time.  You know, after a lifetime of travel and 5 years of full time RV’ing I think I can say that whether we continue RV’ing for a year or for 25 more years I’m quite happy with where we’ve been.  If we never saw another state I’d be quite happy.  The states that remain — by and large — are overpopulated and don’t hold a lot of interest to me at this point in time.

Montfaucon, France

We probably will hit some states/provinces that we haven’t visited in the RV; but they aren’t bucket list items — those we’ve hit already. We’re at a point where we’ve looked “around”  and maybe we’re spending more time look “carefully” at places.  For any reason?

Are we will looking for a place to call home?  I don’t think so.  I think we know what we’ll do when we find ourselves needing to get off the road.  And both “when” and “how” we get off the road would be different depending on who’s health lasts the longest.

Waiting on Stone Stairs

We’re looking for different things nowadays.  In days gone by I’d spend time doing close-up photography — down here with the wind as it is leaves and flowers and tiny objects get blown around too much so I don’t shoot those kind of subjects here.  Not only do I not shoot them, I also think differently about them because of where we are. I am constantly adjusting my living to fit where I am.  I don’t insist on doing something because “that’s what I do.” Rather, I try to “do” what works where I am.  So here when I pick up a camera my subject is different than it would be in Wisconsin; and when there’s no camera in my hand my life is different than it would be there.  Always in pursuit of the transitory moment.  The optimum combination.

Stuck in among all this is a coming-to-terms with life’s changes.  Who we were when we first went RV’ing is not who we are now.  We need to start thinking about adjusting to some of those.  We don’t yet know where those adjustments will take us but it would be smart to pay attention to life.

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll be here again tomorrow to chat.

Seasonally Confused

I’m smiling today because there are Christmas decorations, and autumn flowers and palm trees all in the same view. To tell you the truth — just like last time we were here — it’s hard to have any sense of season.  For all I know it’s the middle of summer in Wisconsin except for the geckos and the Boattailed Grackles.

While we are talking about seasons, next seasons vegetables are coming along nicely.  This is such a farmer’s basket of produce;  I love it.  I like broccoli but I hate cleaning the stems.  I’ve been buying nicely trimmed broccoli florets for about $1.00 a pound.  Apples are about 2/3 the cost they were in WI.  Of course apples are not one’s reason for coming here — I’ve been enjoying my carefully doled out grapefruit — seeing as taking too many of them with my med list isn’t advisable!!!!!

Thursday we did a birdwalk at the SPI birding center.  Not only did we see flying critters we also saw turtles and a couple gators.  I didn’t bring a big camera along so no photos; instead I got to keep-looking-at-someone-else’s photos.  Funny how many guys (especially) insist on showing all their “wonderful” photos and telling you all the details that go along with them.  Maybe that’s part of the reason I tend to post photos with little or no explanation.  I get tired listening to everyone’s explanations of all the details.  After years of setting exposures and lighting ratios it’s not as interesting as once it was.

That said…. it was a lovely bird walk.  Only about a dozen other bird walkers.  The leader was quite knowledgeable;  I kept hearing species names I seldom hear; some of them I could see, but alas, some of them were far enough away that even with binoculars I couldn’t make them out.  Still, it was a wonderful morning spent with people seriously interested in birds.  It worked out we were there right around low tide — so we had the best situation in terms of seeing shorebirds.  I’m sure as we go along I’ll get motivated enough to drag my camera along.

It was a good day in South Texas.  It’s good to be here.

Thanks for stopping and why not stop by to see what’s up tomotrow.

To Give Thanks

We call the day “Thanksgiving Day” but I sometimes thing we are making a grammatical error. For the most part our citizens celebrate Thanksgiving Day by pigging out on food and watching sports.  I don’t see where the  giving comes in.  

Oh, sure, there are communal meals where some folks ‘give’ a meal to others — but those who come to partake are taking not giving. I know there are a lot of folks working today;  my dad was one of those sorts of people, he worked for Wisconsin Electric Power (now WE Energies) and we need electricity every day so he went to work every day — holidays or no holidays.  Like millions of others who are working today — he provided what we all need to carry on with life day by day.

As Peg & I move into the day  I’m pondering how I can give more, in new ways, perhaps to new/different people.  For us, today is a bit different from what we’re accustomed to, as far as the Thanksgiving Day routine.  We’re here in Texas, on our own.  We opted to skip the communal dinner at the RV park;  I’m still working on losing weight to make the doctor happy, so having a big meal will just set me back a few days so we’re just chilling today.

As I get older, I care less about the historic Thanksgiving day — and how much of the historical record is accurate or inaccurate. What I do care about is that anyone living on the North American continent whether rich or poor has reasons to be thankful. Yeah — I know — life can be tough at times, for long times.  But we have it so much better than people in war-torn countries, with dictatorships, with famine, with disease, perhaps lacking even the most basic necessities such as clean water.  Life is tough but our starting out point is light years ahead of what millions of people dream about as their goal.

I never dreamt that retirement would be as wonderful as it has turned out to be. I have a lovely wife with whom I get along marvelously; an adult daughter who still seems to love me no matter the mistakes I’ve made;  the best son-in-law I know; a remarkable Grandkid and her fiancé.  We have enough resources to eat well, to see some of the country, to make new friends. We have our problems but we also have enough attitude to get through our problems — and Lord willing, we’ll have the time to do so as well.

I remember years when Thanksgiving Day morning was crammed to overflowing with details: food to be prepped, Christmas parades to be watched, dishes to be cooked, tables to be set, decorations to arrange, and of course football games to be suffered through. By the time we sat down to eat I was exhausted.  I didn’t need tryptophan to blame for my afternoon nap; I was flat tuckered out.

Nowadays our celebrations are smaller.  I don’t mind that. Well, I don’t mind that a lot.  Because I do mind it a little. I love family but part of the down-side of RV’ing is that sometimes you aren’t where your “people” are. I’ll be thinking a lot about family today.  We’ll try to call Milwaukee and talk with Kathryn & Michael; we hope Melanie & Drew too.  Edi, the deaf cat won’t be on the phone call. But I presume he’ll be watching Kathryn talk on the phone.  Grace the Australian Shepherd doesn’t have great phone manners, but at least she doesn’t bark while the humans are talking — so that will work out fine too. It will be a wonderful few minutes I’m sure.  And we’ll all remember how much we love each other.  Peggy may shed a tear after the phone conversation.  And then life will go on about it’s normal routine.

I’m was going to say that “I’m going to be thankful today.” But the truth is I’m thankful every day.  And I try to make other people happy too. I’m not great at it.  My personality type isn’t known for being exuberantly gregarious, but I have my ways.  I smile to whomever I see; help them where I can; goodness knows I’ll talk to almost anyone, anywhere — just not for long. You know — it’s that taking-people-in-measured-doses-thing.  I don’t know why we have to have a “day” to celebrate something we ought to be doing day by day.

And on this day when most of us are home with family, I’ll be thinking once again about those who work today so we don’t have to.  The utility workers, and the police and fire, doctors and nurses, truck drivers and subway drivers, the millions of ‘worker ants’ who go on about their business while the rest of us chill.  I think my dad missed a good 1/3 of life’s holidays.  I know when I was driving truck for a few years I did too — but many, many fewer.  Thank you folks, out there, for all the things you do that we seldom think about.  And thanks to those who carved this nation out of rock and forest; who had the foresight and vision to see something better than the place from which they came.  I hope somewhere in this country there are still men and women with that kind of foresight; goodness knows they don’t show their heads very often — but I’m sure they’re there someplace.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.

And reader, thanks for stopping.

Sunny but the roads are still mucky

Wednesday dawned with more fog; but a fog that burnt off early. With still muddy roads here (the one really annoying part about this park) we wanted to take our morning walk outdoors — but not with muddy feet.  The solution was a drive to the outlet mall and the hopes that we’d find something interesting to do from there.

Last winter we were both huffing and puffing in less than a mile.  Over the summer we walked up and down the gentle hills at Highland Ridge and we were walking at a better pace without getting winded at a little over a mile.  We’re now up to  two to three miles a day with a better pace and feeling pretty good about things.  It’s nowhere near what we used to do; but we’re improving and that’s what matters — and we’re having fun doing it.

 

We were close to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge so after our mall walk we headed over there.  Santa Ana is called the gem of the NWR system and it’s easy to see why — critters and birds abound — but it’s also a refuge that suffers regularly because of Momma Nature’s hissy fits — in the form of flooding.  There’s construction going on near the visitors center this year so the only restrooms are porta-potties. There are a variety of walking trails, a pay-per-ride tram ride three times a day, and nice educational exhibits.  We’ll spend more time there during the winter I expect.

On our way down to the refuge we drove past one RV parks that rang a bell.  We had looked at it two years ago — weren’t interested at the time — but the other day while perusing the mobile homes for sale  I had come across an interesting listing.  After finishing at the refuged we drove back to the park and checked it out all over again.  Not surprisingly we weren’t seriously interested in the unite they had for sale but it was another chance to remind ourselves how we felt about larger corporate owned RV parks. This one has 400+ sites.  The individual sites are reasonably sized and there are a lot of activities but it’s not a likely home for us.  Just not what we’re looking for.

Looks like we should stay dry for a few days.  Maybe the muddy roads will dry up.  There’s a cold front coming through in a couple days with highs forecast around 66º — cooler for sure but more than adequate for my taste.  Thanks for stopping by and check in tomorrow to see what’s up!