So hard to believe how quickly time passes, especially when busy making changes and trying to get so much done in a few weeks, or months. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so I want to start with that and pausing for a moment to count all the blessings of this past year, so much for which to be truly grateful and so many people for whom we give thanks. I try to take time out at the beginning of every day to meditate on the vicissitudes of our lives and often get help from a variety of sources other than social media. The Daily Good is one subscription that I enjoy, usually positive and uplifting stories of those people who are trying to be the change they want to see. It's a good way to start my day and often leads to other thoughts and experiences some of which get recorded, many that do not.
After our return to Santa Fe, we decided that was "home" (which is has been for 20 years) and so designed and purchased a mobile home/manufactured house, what we used to call a long time ago, a house trailer. It's a Karsten, about 1000 square feet, two bedrooms, two baths, living, dining and kitchen and 12x16 covered deck. It sits on a small lot behind Trailer Ranch where we keep our motor home when not on the road. It's a 55+ community of some 60 homes. Inside is very comfortable and reminds us of a very large RV but for the time being immobile. Great neighbors in the park who all look after each other and it's a great place to be. It's easy to lock the door and leave which is exactly what we did last Friday and headed for the Newell factory and service center in Miami, OK.
Just spent two days here, great service with tweaks and twerks here and there, nothing big or serious, things like awnings not working, (new card and dip switch settings) new teddy heater, (old one leaking and frozen) new serpentine belt, (old one frayed and too narrow) some welding to secure the hitch/receiver for the toad, and a new latch on the refrigerator. When heading out of Santa Fe, we turned left onto I-25 and the refrigerator door flew open and four bottles of beer broke on the kitchen floor. Place smelled like a stale bar for several days. Had to stop and clean it up about 10 miles out of town. Have just over 10,000 miles on the coach since purchase so did not opt for the annual service. Will wait for another 5K miles and then try to minimize the expense. While they were working on the coach, we made our third trip to Cyrstal Bridges as we had seen a story on CBS Sunday morning about a special new exhibit there on newly discovered American artists, well worth the trip. Look it up on their web site!
Tomorrow we celebrate Turkey Day in OKC with family and then on Friday head east and south with
Key West being our destination and location for the next couple of months. Then we'll have to see about February but I don't think we will be ready to head back to cold winter in northern New Mexico. We will make a flying trip to Vermont for Christmas, put Dude in a kennel and leave him behind in a kennel in KW, and spend several days up north in Stowe with family there. Nice to have kids all over the country, east, midwest and west as there are always places to go, people to see, things to do. I am still working part-time, keeping more busy than I would like to be at times and Susie will be taking a writing class while we are in Key West. We will also go back to the Truman Summer White House for another Living Room series, this one honoring Eisenhower, a Republican no less. Stay tuned and we will report an update on Key West later.
