12/25/2021

Sunday morning we left Mitchell and Rhonda's (Round Top, TX) about 7:00 a.m., planning to put in our longest day on the way to Green Valley. About 10:30 in the morning we pulled into a vacant parking lot which was under construction to have breakfast. Mitchell had prepared locks and bagels with cream cheese imported from Zabars in New York. Delicious. We carried on and spent the night in Fort Stockton Texas, camped in a rather rough looking park on KOA Road - it was definitely not a KOA Park.

Monday a much shorter ride was booked. We got under way around 9:00 and drove West on I-10 through El Paso, Las Cruces, and on to Deming in New Mexico. We are still listening to Where the Crawdads Sing but are saving the last disc for tomorrow's run to Green Valley. We gassed up for Tuesday's drive and stayed in an in an Escapees Dreamcatcher Park where we have overnighted

several times in the past. After a walk around the Park we went 'home.' I finished listening to The Tattooist of Auschwitz while Melanie is reading The Yellow House on our new Kindle Oasis. It got rather chilly, around 25 F, but we didn't lose any pipes to the frost.

Tuesday all went as scheduled and we arrived in Green Valley just after noon. The countryside out here is certainly different from 'back East' or even the mid-west. At this time of year it's a dry dusty brown with some green shrubbery and saguaros. We parked the Casita in Fran and Tony's drive and unloaded it - that means removing food and clothing. Melanie has also spent time the last few days cleaning it up before we move it into winter storage. We also unpacked the truck and now have boxes and bags strewn throughout the house. Michael and Patty invited us for dinner - it was great to see them and we had a good evening catching up on activities and events since we'd left Green Valley in April.

Wednesday, as we unpacked several system failures cropped up: leaky taps under my bathroom sink, a leaky toilet in the front bath, and a florescent light fixture failure in the kitchen. I guess only three things isn't too bad. except that Melanie was up mopping floors in the middle of the night to keep from flooding our bedroom - I slept through all the excitement but it's a good thing Melanie was up or we'd have awoken to a flooded house. The upshot of all this was that I repaired the light fixture in the kitchen and we have a plumber coming in Monday morning to fix the other items. After dancing the dance with COX Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, we finally got TV and internet service restored. Every year, though we have services turned on before we get here, there always seems to be a new twist in how to actually get our services back. One problem this year was that they restored our internet cable connection but never mentioned that it had a new title under our list of available networks. Duh!

Thursday we went to the Clay Studio and were pleasantly surprised to find only a few people working there. We'd been afraid that it would be crowded and busy. Green Valley and the Green Valley Recreation (GVR) organization, as well as most of Arizona and much of the rest of the country, have not responded to the Covid epidemic in a responsible manner - no masking or vaccination requirements, its all optional.... That may be changing, slowly, but we'll have to wait and see. Later, at Sprouts, we ran into Katy, a friend from the clay studio, and that helped us feel as if we'd arrived.

Now it's Friday morning, Christmas Eve. It's raining. We took the Casita up to a local storage facility,

the same one we used last year, and have made arrangements to take it to Tucson in late January to get a weight distribution hitch mounted and a few other small items attended to. 

Joan & Paul had a party in the evening. With the rise of Omicron, all are concerned about the possibility of catching, or re-catching Covid. Since we are recently 'from away' we took a Covid Rapid Test at home before going out - just in case - others did the same. Joan had made several tourtieres which were excellent and Patty made a Yule Log for dessert. We also got to meet Max and Mary's new Schnauzer, a great pup, very reserved.

On another note, I've noticed that in recent blog posts my text seems to be much more about what we are doing and less about the world around us. I don't like that. I've been less observant of both my surroundings and my thoughts and feelings. I'm not sure why that is but think it may have something to do with environment, the density of population. This is something I haven't thought about for a long time but I recall, years ago, having the idea that being in a more densely populated area, exposed to the psychic energy of others, seemed to have a negative effect on my self-awareness. It's about time, and spaces, and people. In Nova Scotia, at Coldspring, we have much more 'space.' I miss that here, in New Orleans, and in the cities along the Eastern Seaboard. Looking through photographs taken since we left Nova Scotia, I was surprised to find I'd only taken five pictures. Several of those were documenting items - lemon powder, a candelabra/ceiling lamp - nothing to do with our activities, people we'd been with, or our surroundings. Nuff said for the moment.

Christmas Day: Melanie was up bright and early to finish unpacking boxes of stuff we'd brought from Florida, don't know what we'll do with the set of china??? She also baked some pecans with sugar while I renewed, refed, my sourdough starter,; it's coming along well and should be ready to use in the next day or two. Michael came over in the morning with a Stollen which we put to good use. In the afternoon we took a walk, about an hour, and came home to get ready for Christmas dinner at Fran & Tony's - nine of us - a lovely meal, roast, mashed potatoes, Brussel sprouts, etc... prepared by Tony who worked his fingers to the bone slaving over a hot stove, poor fellow.

And here we are on Boxing Day. Happy Holidays to one and all. See you next year i.e. next weekend.