Back home...............

As most of you know, we are back in Florida and settled in our house - minus one. The return home did not turn out quite as we had planned and my husband of almost 18 years never got the chance to see the new home. I think it is safe to say he is greatly missed by all who knew him as he was a super person. He was the calming side of my rather turbulent personality and watched over me much as Tuff did when we worked together. He would have enjoyed the house we are in as the neighbors are practically non-existant (he liked his privacy unless you were a good friend) and the garage is huge. Would have been a great workshop for him. We raised a glass of water and ate bowls of won-ton soup in his honor at his favorite Chinese restaurant. I miss you babe - you left us way too soon...............

Florida Bound

We are getting down to the wire with our moving plans. Since I have retired, there doesn't really seem to be any reason for my son and I to stay our here when we could be setting up housekeeping back home in Florida. Our realtor is looking into rental/lease to buy options for us and my good friend Tuffenuff is also doing some checking. I will start doing some packing in earnest this week - maybe even methodically this time. It's a bummer finding underwear mixed in with pots and pans!! That always happens when things get left to the last minute. We also don't have nearly as much to pack this time as the load has been lightened significantly since our last move. I listed our 1989 Jeep Cherokee on CraigsList yesterday and have had 2 email inquiries and one phone call already. My 2001 Ford Ranger has been sold to one of the officers I worked with. That just leaves the 2007 Honda Ridgeline which will be coming with us.

My son Ed and I had a good time in upstate NY at his brother Michael's wedding. Michael married a girl that he proposed to when she was 14 and he was 16. He then went into the Navy and didn't see her again for 20+ years. They reconnected when he went to NY 2 years ago for his aunt's funeral.

The wedding was held in a restored historical mansion in Canandaigua NY near Canandaigua Lake. The reception was held in a restored barn on property owned by the brides mother and boyfriend, who just happens to be a builder. Since our side of the family is very limited, Ed and I and the boys' father were the only relatives there for Michael.

The weather was the worse that Rochester has had in July for several years. It was cool and rained most of the time we were there. Ed and I had planned at visit to Niagara Falls but changed our minds due to all the rain. We did manage a trip to Mendon Ponds Park, where we use to go in the summer to swim. The pond is still there and looks lovely, but it has been closed to swimming for several years due to a high bacterial level. We saw many deer in the park and since it was raining, we had the place to ourselves. I look forward to having Michael and Kim visit when we are back in Florida................

Hola Everyone!! This is me being excited. That magical day finally arrived and I have RETIRED !!!! And I will probably end up like my buddy Tuffenuff and never have enough time to finish anything. My mind is going 20 miles an hour thinking of all the things that I can do and plan now that I don't have to work around days off from a job. My eldest son and I are flying out of Albuquerque to Rochester NY on Wednesday for the youngest son's wedding. I haven't been back there for 20 years so this should be interesting to say the least. It will be good to see everyone there that I know.

We are still hoping to be out of New Mexico and headed back to Florida by the first of September. The packing and loading will keep me occupied for awhile and then there will be the unloading and unpacking when we reach the new destination. We are going to try and find a house to rent for a year, possibly with option to buy. We are leaning towards 3/4 bedrooms with a den. Whenever we have anyone come to visit, they end up sleeping on the sofa in the middle of the livingroom. Lots of privacy there!! I would love to have a pool also, even an above the ground one would be good. The water is one of the things that I have missed the most since we moved out here. My skin has also become as dry as an old winter leaf. Didn't think I would ever miss humidity.......

I am still doing a lot of knitting and some crocheting, but in the future I will confine my yarns to cotton blends. Not a lot of call for wool sweaters in South Florida. I am taking a 3 month hiatus from my online course for medical transcription. Our internet access at the house we are renting now is through HughesNet satellite. If you know someone you truly hate/loath/detest, suggest that they order HughesNet for their ISP. It is only slightly fastest than dial-up. And it is super expensive. I have tried doing my online course here at home, but I become too frustrated just waiting for the pages to download. I am nearing the part of the course now where I will actually be starting to do transcribing and the internet here would be a hinderance. I will start back up with it when we get back to Florida.

Our critters are doing okay. The newest guy (has been with us 11 months now) has settled in well, although still doesn't like or trust outsiders. Can't fault him for that. Don't take much to outsiders myself. The two oldsters are holding their own. Hope I can find someplace on the Gulf coast where dogs are still allowed to swim. I want to see how Lakota and Tala like the water.

I have been invited to Facebook (as has the rest of the world apparently) and I do have an account there. But I really don't understand how it works and most of the time I don't want the whole world to see what I am writing. Emails and my blog work for me.

Suitcases that have to be packed are calling me..................

It has been unseasonably warm here and I am loving it. The dogs are enjoying it also, although they don't seem to mind the cold as long as they aren't left out in it for to long. We have an area fenced just out the back door that runs across the whole length of the back of the house. When the weather is warm we leave the door open and the guys can go in and out as they please. The flies haven't discovered just how warm it is yet but I am sure we will be putting up a screen door with a doggie door on the bottom when they do. I miss our friends in Tularosa and Alamogordo and have been making more trips down there ( 4 hour drive ) lately. My husband just came back today from a visit and brought two wooden bookcases that one of our friends made for us. He was a carpenter before he retired and does super work. My husband brings the furniture back au naturel and stains and varnishes it at our house. We are gradually replacing some of our old second hand tables and bookcases with nice wooden ones that will be going back to Florida with us. We still have a balloon closing date of Sept. '09 and hopefully everything will go according to plan. I really miss the green plants and grass and especially the water. I guess when you grow up on the East coast and spend your summers at the beach it is difficult to adjust to mountains and brown dust all the time. At least it is for me. Everyone keep those fingers crossed...................

The continuing story.......

Since my last posting we have once again moved. The old adobe and the repair work it needed became more than we could stand. The straw that finally broke the camel's back was the need to remove the roof from over the garage, master bedroom and bathroom. For those of you that don't know anything about adobe dwellings, this entails tar paper, gravel and tar and the removal of the old. Our landlord, his son and a friend removed the old roof which left nothing but the vega beams over the garage and a lot of daylight. The bedroom and bath were not quite as wide open, but they used a leaf blower to clean all the small debris off the roof and of course, it all fell down into the rooms below. And of course, most of the debris was left in the yard behind the house and not cleaned up until we moved and he had to find new tenants. The help that our landlord hired (which I am sure got paid dirt cheaply as they didn't speak a word of English and the landlord is very cheap) did not do too bad of a job replacing the roof, but they were very messy and tar leaked down the walls, into the bathtub and all over the comforter on my husband's bed. By the time it was finished, it was either find another place to live or do grievous bodily harm to the landlord. We were also finding the electric bills to be extremely high and didn't even want to find out what a full month of gas for heating would cost! Someone told us to check on Craig's list for houses for rent and we lucked out. The rent is cheaper and the heating bills are normal. The electric is still high, but that seems to be the norm around here.

The new house is smaller, brighter and much easier to keep warm.
The living room holds most of the furniture that was in the other house but is still not used. We each have computers and TV's in our rooms so conversation is done over the kitchen table at dinner time. There is one major complaint that I have about rental properties in New Mexico for anyone out there who may consider moving here and renting. Unless you rent from a large complex you will find that the places are generally not clean when you move in. I have shampooed the carpeting 6 times now in the 3 months we have lived here and still can't get the stains out. The house is well built and it is unfortunate that the original owners went into foreclosure and never got to finish what they started. We were going to do some finishing work in here and then thought better of it. I am really tired of doing work to a home that doesn't belong to us.
I am eagerly awaiting the day of the final closing on the house in Tularosa. Once we have the rest of the money from the sale of the house we can make our plans for travel. The people in our house have until Sept. 1 to refinance and close. I am hoping that it is sooner so that we can head back "home". The warm weather and salt water are calling me................

Summer into Fall

It has been a month today since Murphy left us, but seems like just yesterday he was the trouble making pup that he is in this picture. Time passed too quickly. It is good that we have the other guys to keep us busy. This must be the time of year for them to blow their old coats and ready themselves for the coming winter. I have black fur balls the size of tumbleweed blowing through the house. With what they have lost and all I have brushed out I would think they should be bald by now !!

Our foster guy, Lakota, is fitting in well and is extremely smart. He has learned to sit for treats, food and occasionally just when you ask him to. There was never a problem with house training as he already knew to use the doggie door. However, he is a master of escape so the doggie door is locked down for the time being until he feels fully secure with us and does not have the need to try and escape. We have also reinforced the fencing in the yard. I don't know who he belonged to originally or where he escaped from, but someone has lost a really good dog. I cringe at the thought that someone just dropped him off and let him fend for himself although I am well aware that happens all too often. He was in serious need of grooming and had not been neutered when Bob picked him up from the shelter lady. Both needs have been taken care of. He goes this Tuesday for his heart worm test and I have my fingers crossed that he is negative.

For any of you that read this that have older dogs with the onset of cataracts or nuclear sclerosis, I have just ordered some eye drops from Revival that are supposed to help alleviate both of these problems. They say you can see results in as little as 35 days. I am sceptical but willing to try anything that might help Phantom see just a little. I will keep you all updated.

Cool weather and rain are upon us. I think winter is just around the corner and I am not looking forward to it..............

3 Day Vacation.....and newest house disaster !!

We started our jaunt in Aztec NM where we walked the ruins of an Aztec village. There are still parts of several buildings standing. The kiva or meeting house has been rebuilt and is used today. Our next stop was in Shiprock NM and wasn't actually a stop. More like a drive through and quick look. I think the drawing factor here is the large rock formation which is off limits to everyone. We stayed in Farmington NM on Friday evening and had dinner at a very quaint restaurant/bookshop that has live music on Friday night. If you are ever in Farmington make sure you make a stop at Andrea Kristinas. It is well worth the visit. There was a four piece guitar group playing the evening that we were there and the lead singer sounded very much like Eric Clapton. Combine that with a good sandwich and soup and you will have a very enjoyable 2 hour visit.

Saturday morning we did a little shopping in an antique store in Farmington and then moved on to Gallup for the 87th Intertribal Ceremonial. We grabbed a bite to eat when we arrived in Gallup at a great Hispanic restaurant called Virgie's. We had eaten there two years ago and it is just as good now. I did not take any pictures at the Ceremonial as they don't turn out well from the distance at which we were sitting. The dancing lasted for almost 4 hours with tribes from Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Mexico. The Buffalo Dancers from Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) are one of my favorites and they are just down the road from our pueblo. I had seen them on two previous occasions but had made no association as we were still living in Tularosa and did not know the pueblos in this area.

Sunday morning we slept in a bit as we were out late Saturday. We had breakfast in Gallup in a restaurant called Earls, which is also a must for anyone going to Gallup. The Native Americans come around to your table while you are eating to show you their handicrafts in the hope that you will have money left from the ceremonial and be able to buy something. Their work is lovely and it is hard to resist buying something from each one of them. We left Gallup after breakfast and headed out on the scenic back roads to the Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave. I find it hard to believe that northern New Mexico has 29 inactive volcanos. You can see 15 of them from the top of Bandera. The photo below is one of the areas where the lava flow was 10,000 years ago. Also below is a picture of the ice lake that has formed inside of one of one of the caves formed by the molten lava. The temperature is a constant 31 degrees inside the cave area and the water is frozen to a depth of 20 feet. The really odd part is that you aren't down below ground level very far even though you are on the side of a mountain. The temperature drops rather suddenly on the way down the steps to the cave. It is really something to see. I went to Mammouth Cave in Kentucky when I was in my 20's and don't remember seeing anything like this. No one had to rock either of us to sleep that night. The next day we took Lea to the airport for the flight back to Florida and then went to a feast with dancing in the Santa Clara Pueblo.

Later that same evening while we were at home eating dinner we experienced yet another "pleasure" of living in a 100+ year old adobe. We lost part of the electric in the house. Not all lights on one circuit, but just those that drew a lot of power. Lasted about 30 minutes and then everything went back to normal (if there is such a thing). Around 11:30 the electricity went off again and this time stayed off. Our landlord and the electric company showed up this morning and found that one of the 110 leads going into the house had burned out. So wiring had to be replaced and finally at 2:30 this afternoon we had power again. This may be the last straw. I don't even want to think about what will go wrong this winter. Oh - I almost forgot - when I was working at the kitchen sink yesterday afternoon a centipede fell out of the vigas ceiling on to my kitchen counter and ran behind the microwave. My husband the bug killer dispatched it to a higher plain............What's next ??