Thursday, June 24, 2021

Overcast, Afternoon Thunder Storms and Rain, Temperature 89 Degrees

We’re Slowly Making It A House

I’m reminded of a saying that goes something like this Inch by Inch Anything Is A Cinch.

Now, to paraphrase that saying regarding our our new digs Piece by Piece It’s Becoming A House.

A picture here.

A clock on the wall in the kitchen.

Ms. Barbara has become to organize her kitchen.

Then today some of our furniture arrived. Note, I said some. Who ever knew that purchasing and having furniture delivered could be such a grueling event.

We have a washer and dryer. A whole lot bigger to be sure than what we currently have in Elvira. I’ll bet our laundry will be finished a lot quicker than it has taken in the past!

In anticipation of our new furniture I emptied out our living room.

Then the delivery team began to bring in the pieces. Assembly was moving smoothly but then we hit a snag, well more like

a defect in the base of the love seat. Yea, it’s that little white spot – a tear – by the handle. OK, it doesn’t look like much but neither of us was interested in receiving even one piece of furniture with a blemish. So, though we have this piece to use for now we have it in writing that it will be replaced at no charge.

We have a swivel recliner in the one corner with a side board table.

Our love seat to the left with two recliners. Our couch to the right that has a recliner on each end. We also have two side board tables.

What do we think of our new furniture? I believe that smile says it all.

So, we have living room furniture. But, we have no bedroom furniture. What a big pain in the you know what that has been. Ms. Barbara has been on the phone for hours trying to get that mess straightened out. As of today we at least have a frame and a box spring and mattress. The rest of the bedroom set has been selected , however, we just don’t know when it will be delivered.

In terms of our kitchen, we have stools for our breakfast counter that we will assemble tomorrow. Our table and chairs will not be here until August.

Piece by piece, item by item, day by day we’re slowly getting there. We see this whole process as more of a marathon and not a sprint. We’ll probably have most of what needs to done just in time for us to move to Jacksonville for three months!

That has been what we’ve been doing on The Road of Retirement. Sometimes, it feels like three steps forward and two steps back. We just keep reminding ourselves to take deep breaths and to take things step by step. No doubt in a year we’ll look back at all of this and have a really good laugh. Ah yes, life is good. God is good.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Remember, take time to stop and smell the roses and live each day that God gives you to the fullest.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Monday, June 21, 2021

Overcast, A Brief Thunderstorm, Temperature 94 Degrees

A Little Bit Of This, A Little Bit Of That

Life has been anything but dull around here. My list of things to do continues to grow by the minute. It seems as soon as I cross two items off the list there are at least four more to add. Hey, I’m keeping busy and its been fun so far.

Yesterday being Sunday we began our day with virtual worship. Our congregation is conducting live services on the church lawn and live streaming the service. It was a wonderful way to begin the day and the week itself.

I decided to do a little reorganizing until our furniture arrives. This is our living room in its current configuration. Our furniture is supposed to arrive this Thursday. That’s what they say. I’ll believe it when it gets here.

Our TV should be here within the next two or three days. It will go on top of the credenza. Or maybe we’ll hang it on the wall.

This is our current breakfast nook/dining room table and chairs. This furniture is not due to arrive until sometime in August. We’ve been cooking in the house and eating there as well. By cooking in the house it keeps the heat down in Elvira.

I also spent some time working on Elvira. I cleaned all the tires and then treated them with 303. I then put the tire covers on to keep the sun off of them. I covered the mirrors and put the front privacy screen and the side privacy screen up. I then began to work on my monthly maintenance list.

About today. I had an early morning appointment with my urologist for my second hormone shot. Oh boy did this one do a number on me. The shot didn’t hurt one bit. But right after the shot it was like my butt was literally on fire. This lasted for several hours. In a few hours I also began to feel just down right awful. I was short of breath and having a difficult time walking. Then just like that it all passed. Thankfully.

Following that we did some shopping for odds and ends. We needed light bulbs, extra keys, hampers, chairs, etc.

Once we got home

the heavens opened up. There was thunder, lightning, and sheets and sheets of rain with strong gusts of wind. This was our first storm since we’ve been here and it was an impressive one. At one point it was raining so hard I could barely see my neighbor’s house across the street. It lasted about an hour and then it moved on.

Our front lawn when it was all over.

Our neighbor’s lawn.

Puddles everywhere up and down our street. Thankfully, it drains quickly so within an hour all the water was gone.

That, in brief is what we’ve been doing on The Road of Retirement. There is never a dull moment down here which is fine by me. One thing we’ve determined is that we’ll definitely try not to spend future summers here in Florida. It is just too hot and humid. And since we still have a home with wheels this will be no problem.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Remember, take time to stop and smell the roses and live each day that God gives you to the fullest.

 Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

June 19, 2021

Overcast and Hazy, Temperature 94 Degrees

Some Assembly Required

Oh my, what have I gotten myself into. It’s all beginning to come back to me as to why I never wanted to live in a house. Ah, but it is what it is and we’re slowly adapting to a stationary lifestyle. Yes, we absolutely love our new digs and it is going to be a great base camp but. . .

But this I believe says it like it really is – You can take us out of the RV park and off the road for the time being; but, you can never take the RV park and the road out of us. While we’re here we’re making some needed repairs and upgrades to Elvira. This is all in anticipation of putting many more miles on her.

We still remain committed to our mission statement:  to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

As for settling into the house, we’ve already done some preliminary shopping. There is, of course, much more to go. We’re trying to avoid taking too much out of Elvira. We don’t want to get caught having to move everything back and forth between the rig and house prior to every trip.

I do know this, Ms. Barbara is having a fun time setting up her new house. I’m so excited for her and I’m having a great time watching her shop. We’re going to make it ours, just like we did when we purchased Elvira, and then we’ll turn this house into a home by filling it with lots of love.

Today’s project, the box said Some Assembly Required. They weren’t kidding! There were a total of twenty four pieces in the box with all kinds of assorted hardware.

Construction Zone. I have to admit putting it together was not all that hard. The kit was well documented and everything fit together perfectly.

There was one intermission. Harry and Janet came to visit us today. Harry is doing fantastic. He had a checkup yesterday and the doctor said that he is now cancer free. That is absolutely the best news ever. We spent a few hours together and then they were on their way.

The credenza all put together. Doesn’t everyone need a nice cozy fire on a 94 degree Florida afternoon! We’ll order a TV to place on top of it on Prime day.

So we’ve been busy putting things together, cleaning shelves, moving things into the house and all other manner of stuff. One thing Ms. Barbara definitely loves is the dishwasher. She gathers the days dishes from Elvira, takes them to the house, loads the dishwasher, and goes back for them in the morning. I must also say it sure was nice last night not having to take a Navy Shower. Yea, I guess I could get used to living in a house again.

As of now Ms. Barbara is putting together her Honey Do List. I told her put everything you can think of on it and then we’ll talk. I just want to keep busy and I’m sure she’ll find plenty of things to keep me busy. Fine by me.

The big issue as of now is that we’re still living in a sort of limbo. Our furniture was supposed to be delivered today. Well, that never happened and we were told the next possible day would be this coming Thursday. Therefore, we are still living between Elvira and the house. Which means, among many things, we’re running the AC in both. I don’t even want to think of what our electric bill is going to be like for this month!

So that is where we are at on The Road of Retirement. This is a new chapter in our lives and we’re going to make the most of it. The house continues to amaze us. We knew that the roof and AC were only two years old. Today we discovered that our water heater is a brand new thirty gallon unit. How about that. We see nice long showers in our future. Oh yes, we are as I’ve said before two of the most blessed and fortune people on the face of the earth.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Remember, take time to stop and smell the roses and live each day that God gives you to the fullest.

Thursday, June 17, 2021

Cloudy, Temperature 84 Degrees

Travel Day, Leg Five, Elvira’s Roost

The day had come. It was finally time to go home. No more putting it off. We were up and on the road by 9 am. We figured with a fuel stop we should be there in no more than four hours.

Sure enough about four hours later we were at Elvira’s Roost in Mount Olive Shores. We have a level concrete pad with an RV port and

FHU with 50 amp.

It also comes with a cabin alongside with parking in front for your car.

As of now Elvira is only part way under the port. We’ll need TV tonight so we left the front half out so we could get our DISH antenna up and working. Yup, it is locked on all three satellites. We can still go back at least another thirty feet. That will be later once we get TV in the cabin. What a fantastic site!

The cabin is a little sparse right now. A couple of camp chairs until the furniture is delivered.

The dining room/work table is an oldie but a goodie for now. It will be replaced when the new table arrives in August.

We have a full kitchen which we really like.

That’s our entertainment center with an electric fireplace. Use your imagination for now, in a day or two it should be together.

Ms. Barbara holding court and making her list of what we need yet to furnish our new cabin. We’re going to be busy for the next few days.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement. Stay tuned and we’ll keep you up to date on what we get into over the next couple of days. We’ll be here for about two weeks and then we’ll be back on the road again. We’ll be going back to Jacksonville so I can start treatment. Ah, what a day it has been. An easy trip. A new chapter in our lives. A lot of adjusting on both our parts. I have a feeling life is going to get real interesting real fast.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Remember, take time to stop and smell the roses and live each day that God gives you to the fullest.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!