Merry Christmas 2008

As you can see, its Christmas in the desert Southwest -- the temperature today is just above 60 F, but with a bit of an east wind blowing.   Its supposed to get up a few more degrees later in the day, and cloud up a bit, and the wind is supposed to gust up to 25-30 -- but its a lot better than most areas of the country, and we're thankful for that.
Mandy's sister Penny and her husband Rex, who introduced us to the Yuma area years ago, will be coming over this afternoon to have small Christmas dinner -- Mandy's fixing a really great soup that we were introduced to earlier this fall by our friends in Bastrop, TX, Claire and Al.
Our friends from our Safari days, Pat and Ron, called yesterday to let us know they'd arrived in town, and it will be great to see them next week.  Our good friends from our days at Sunset Point in Marble Falls, TX, Jim and Yvette, will be arriving just before New Years for a couple of month's stay, and Claire and Al will be coming to Yuma for a couple of weeks later in January.  We're really fortunate to have such good friends, and such a great RVing community.
We also got a call yesterday from our son Brian and his wife Christi informing us that their new arrival (May 09) will be a new granddaughter!  No names have been selected yet.  We plan to leave Yuma in time to be in Texas for the birth.  No firm plans for what we'll be doing this summer, but we're exploring a couple of promising opportunities.
We're getting back into our bicycling here with the Foothills Bike Club -- neither of us is working this winter (well, Mandy is still doing her Friday morning volunteering at the Salvation Army) so we've got plenty of time to get and to stay in shape.  In addition to our road riding on our singles and our tandem, we're trying to get in a bit of mountain bicycling just to round things out.
We had a bit of a repair adventure the other day -- our 8 foot powered roller shades which cover the windshield had a bit of a problem -- the shade material for both the sunshade and the blackout shade was coming loose from the roller (the manufacturer did not anchor it properly) and the shade material was rolling unevenly and was self-destructing.  After talking to MCD (the manufacturer), who had done work on them just over a year ago, we decided the only option was to take them down and repair them ourselves.  Mandy and I managed to get the rollers down, unroll them out all over the floor, re-attach the fabric to the rollers (with special tape supplied by MCD), and remount them.  After 5 hours of tedious work, they were back in and working flawlessly -- but we were pretty nervous during the whole operation.  I guess it just goes to show that with the right mental attitude and a deliberate approach, you can accomplish some pretty amazing stuff!
Guess that's about it for now -- we're planning on having a New Year's Eve dinner with relatives and friends (better get here quick, Jim and Yvette!) -- but we'll miss our traditional hike up to the Telegraph Pass towers with Harry and Verena (Mandy really sprained her ankle last year, so we decided against this year).  January will be filled with cycling, visits from friends, and some time to go up to Quartzsite for the RV show.  The really good weather returns in February thru April (which we'll enjoy to the max), and then we're on the road again to see our new granddaughter, and look for more adventures.
I guess when we stop and reflect on things, life is pretty good -- we've both got our health, it looks like we'll make it through the recession, we're doing what we enjoy, we've got a great home which we can move wherever and whenever we want, and we've got a great bunch of family and friends to help us through it all.  Couldn't ask for much more, could you?  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all !! 

Back in Yuma for the winter

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we've arrived back in Yuma after an enjoyable month in central Texas with our sons and their families.  We got back about 2 weeks ago after an uneventful 3 day run across west Texas and southern New Mexico and Arizona. 
It was good to see all of our friends and family here, and to get back regularly riding our bikes with the Foothills Bicycle Club.  Of course, it was also great to get back to high temperatures in the 70s and no humidity.  Our lot here was in good shape, and our landlady had cleared the rest of her things our of the storage shed, so we have about twice the room that we had before -- which we'll use for bicycle storage and for a workbench.
We've been busy getting the last of our Christmas shopping and mailing done, and getting miscellaneous things done around the motorhome and the lot.  We also have set up the Wii that our son Brian gave to us, and have been enjoying playing all the games -- the game display looks pretty good on our large front TV, and we've got plenty of room to swing our arms and legs as we play tennis, baseball, bowling, and golf.  We also particularly like a marble game that really tests your hand-eye coordination, and is a blast to play!
The last several days have been pretty dismal weather (at least for here) with rain and wind and clouds -- but we're thankful that we haven't had to cope with the winter weather that is sweeping the rest of the country.  We're looking forward to having lots of friends head this way over the next month or two, and to go up to Quartzsite for the RV show at the end of January.
We've got to mention that we really hit the jackpot the other day -- we filled up with gas at Sam's club and paid $1.44 per gallon -- if you'd asked me a couple of months ago if I'd ever see that level again, I'd have absolutely denied it.  I guess it's an indication of the current state of the economy, and we hope that things stabilize soon.  Looking around today, it appears that prices have already increased (due to the OPEC news on limiting output) -- these are strange times we're living in.