SUNDAY WAS SOMEDAY

On my way to the Chapel service at "the lake" on Sunday, I told Mr. W, "Today is someday."

I have been coming to "the lake" since around 1979.  I have owned my own membership since 1982.  I cannot begin to count the number of weekends, weeks, and even months that I have stayed here. I have always enjoyed my stays and the thought of having to go back home and go to work and get back in the "rut" was always a downer.  The last day of each stay I was here was always spent packing up, cleaning up, and leaving the laid back lifestyle behind. I did this along with many other campers while many retirees sat back enjoying their cool beverage and grinning at us as we sweated away. I always told Mr. W, "Someday we won't have to pack up, clean up, and leave  on Sunday like everyone else. We can sit and watch everyone else that isn't retired having to do all that work and grin while feeling sorry for them."

So, Sunday afternoon, as we watched all the "working" people pack up from a fun filled time, dreading the drive and unloading once home, and wishing they could stay longer and not have to go back to work, I realized that Sunday was indeed someday. My cold beverage sure tasted good and that grin on my face sure felt good.  :)

MOVING DAY

Last Tuesday was moving day.  I figured out that staying anywhere 1 month was too long! It worked out good to be where I was with everything going on but I had been ready to move for about a week before it happened.

I have had a place up out of Trinity for MANY years.  It is on Lake Livingston.  My children were raised coming here.  They learned to ride the inner tube, knee board, 2 skis and slalom ski at this place and have great memories as do I. There are 2 swimming pools, a grill, and a pavilion that has hosted many dances over the years.  So, on moving day, I headed for "the lake".  That has become the official name of this place in my family since Son and Daughter were little kids.  Also, now that Son and Daughter are grown and have children of their own, they want their children to experience some of the same things they experienced here.  Thus, we are starting 3rd generation experiences.

I told Mr. W that I was worn out on moving day!  After all, I had to push the buttons to slide the slides in, push the button to turn off the water heater, and push the button to turn off the a/c while we travelled.  Once I got here, I had to push the buttons to slide the slides out, push the button to turn on the water heater, and push the button to turn on the a/c.  Exhausting work! :)

Here's my new home base for the next 3 weeks.

I finally have some trees to keep me shady during the day.  Straight out the back window you see the lake.  You just walk right across the street and you are there.

Of course, once I got settled, Daughter wanted to come up with Curly and Popcorn.  Daughter called the day before and wanted to know why I wasn't in a spot that was right on the water, was the boat running and in the water, did I have the skis, and did I have life jackets for Curly and Popcorn.  She definitely has the routine down.

So, Thursday was spent as a fun filled day of boating and swimming.  Curly, age 5, got up on the knee board and road around the entire cove of the lake 1 full time.  She told me later, "Mimi, I would have kept going but my hands hurt from holding on." More than my hands would have been hurting if I had ridden that knee board! She did an awesome job.  I am very proud of her.  Daughter told her that she had to try at least 2 times.  The first time, she let the nose get underwater and "splat".  She immediately blamed her Pops for not driving the boat correctly, which is exactly what Daughter did when she was that age!  Deja Vu!  But look at the grin when she took off on the second try!

Last summer, my oldest grandchild, Boy-child, learned to knee board and wanted to do it every minute he could.  Since he has been back home, he has reminded me that knee boarding is the first thing he wants to do once he gets to "the lake".  That will be next weekend.  Curly will be here too, so I may have to bring out my referee whistle to allot time on the knee board.  I'm telling Son and Daughter that Mimi is now out of the water toy business.  It is now their turn to buy water toys for their children.  We will see if that flies or if selective hearing sets in!

MY FIRST HOME BASE

Ever since I retired and sold my house, everyone keeps asking me, "Where are you living?"

I explain that I am staying at a RV park that is actually pretty close to my former house.  It worked out great when I was in the process of moving.  The drive was not far and I was able to keep the fifth wheel plugged up and cool as I transitioned belongings.  However, people that don't RV, don't understand and cannot comprehend where I am or what this place is like.

This is a nice place to be in the middle of the 3rd largest city in the US. (At least I think H-town is now the 3rd largest city.) As nice as this place is, most places we will stay are even nicer. Sure, you can always wind up in a real dump while travelling around. But once you start travelling, you get to know what parks are the places to be.

There is a lake here where you can fish.  It is catch and release but Mr. W is loving it.  He is actually kind of showing off.  He fished with a certain bait/lure and was catching 5-7 fish in a fairly short period of time.  Pretty soon, the shoreline was getting a little more crowded with other fishermen trying to get a look at Mr. W's bait/lure.

The pool area is very nice and they advertise it as a "mosquito free" zone. For those of you that are not from this part of the country, that statement seems very far fetched! I will say, that they spray 3 times a day around the pool and I have yet to be bitten by a mosquito and you would have no idea they are spraying unless you actually catch them in the act. I'm really pretty impressed.

There is a nice, clean laundry room, a computer room, a workout area, a pool table, a "dog wash" station, 2 dog walk areas, golf carts available to rent, and a common area that has a couple of couches, chairs, free coffee, popcorn, ice and several vending machines. There are 2 outdoor kitchens, rocking chairs/swings under little covers, and 2 fire rings surrounded with chairs for colder weather nights.

All in all, it has been a nice place to transition.  Don't you think?

The golf carts are a hot item.  As you can see, they are all rented!

 

2 WEEKS INTO THIS ADVENTURE

At the office where I use to work, summer hours are 4 10-hour days and Fridays off.  So, my lunch bunch would go out to lunch on Thursdays since that was now our Friday during the summer. Wednesday night, I started texting all my bunch to find out where lunch was going to be on Thursday.  I had business I needed to take care of on that side of town and that presented the perfect opportunity to meet up with my friends/co-workers.  It has been quite an adjustment to just see and talk to Mr. W everyday instead of all my friends at work.  I needed a friend "fix".

Time and place for lunch was set and I was anxious to see everyone.  You know sometimes there's nothing like hearing a little office gossip. :)  I had been out of the loop for 2 weeks and a lot can happen in 2 weeks!  Sure enough, it was great to see my peeps.  We met at one of the Mexican food restaurants that we use to eat at and talked about everything that been happening at work since I left. Some of the things happening around the office made me extremely glad that I had gone through with retirement and had left the stress behind. You know some things never change.  But, here I was anxious to hear what all had been happening at the office and they wanted to know what I had been doing during my 2 weeks of retirement.

I really wanted to have some exciting story to tell or have been to some exotic place to talk about, but alas, I told them about having my driver's license renewed and the address changed. Now how is that for retirement! I bet you can't wait, huh.  I am still in that stage of wrapping up lose ends from selling the house, moving out, moving into a fifth wheel, and everything else that goes along with that.  Of course, I did mention that I had been spending some time in the pool everyday and got a simultaneous grunt from everyone. I guess life can't be too bad if you get to hang out at the pool everyday.  Right?

Anyway, it was great to see my lunch bunch and I hope to have a "touch base" lunch every opportunity I get. Hopefully next time we meet, I'll have something other than driver's license renewal to tell them about.

WHY AM I KEEPING A CALENDAR?

When you retire, people tell you that you won't be on anyone's schedule any longer. I even went around telling everyone that I wouldn't have to keep much on my calendar. Who knew that I would have to keep a calendar because I'm so busy!

At first, I was a little concerned.  My first social invite was to have dinner at the nursing home where Mema lives.  I accepted because I knew she would like it if I was there. OK, calendar entry - Monday, 5:00, Nursing Home.  That was a little scary sounding.  After arriving and sitting in a dining room full of 80 year old  and above folks, I started thinking of things that I could do with my grandkids to make myself feel younger!  I didn't want to slip into the 80+ crowd too quickly. 

Son had called that day too. He wanted me to meet him, Daughter-in-law, and 3 of my grandchildren for dinner.  Since, I had not seen Son since he had gotten back into the country, I agreed to meet them for dinner after I spent some time with Mema. Calendar entry - Monday, 6:30, Dinner w/Son's family.  WOW, 2 calendar entries in one day! Who knew?

Earlier in the same day, Mr. W's brother, Uncle D called and had Diamond Club tickets to watch a minor league team that poses as a major league team play a real major league team.  He wanted to know if I and Mr. W wanted to go.  Heck yeah! Calendar entry - Tuesday, 5:30, Baseball game.  Have you ever had Diamond Club tickets?  I had not either but I am officially going on record to say that if you ever do, definitely use them or give them to me! You get to park on the stadium grounds, you get to eat for FREE in a private restaurant, and your seats are right behind home plate!  Did I mention FREE? In retirement lingo, that's a very important word.  These seats were 3 rows behind where George (#41) and Barbara Bush have seats.  If you could see the games on TV (Comcast vs. others feud), you would have seen me stuffing my face with an ice cream sundae. :)

Again, earlier in that same day, a friend from church called and wanted to have a get together of friends at her house before I leave town.  She asked what Saturday would be best.  So, we decided on a Saturday and yes, Calendar entry - Saturday, 5:00, Friend's house. 

Then there is going to the DPS to renew drivers' license, going to Laundromat, going to grocery store, going to bank, going to resale shop to take clothing that I'm not keeping, going to RV supply store to pick up a couple of things for the RV, going to a 4th of July celebration, going to get a hair cut, going to the swimming pool........My calendar is filling up quickly! How did I have time to work?  :)

DOWNSIZING

Last Friday, June 28, 2013 at 1:00, I closed on the sale of my house.  If you don't remember, my house sold in 24 HOURS and I insisted that I could not close before June 28th. I was still working 40 hours a week and trying to pack up a 2400 sq. ft. house.  I was a tired puppy most days!

Leaving the house proved to be a bittersweet experience.  I cannot tell you how liberating it was to CLEAN OUT THE CLUTTER! I found 2 boxes in the attic that had never been opened from the previous move in 1995! YIKES! I remember moving from a 1300 sq. ft. house to this 2400 sq. ft. house and thinking how much room I had in cabinets and closets. Surely I would never be able to fill them.  HAH! Those suckers were full in no time.

Even though my children were fairly grown when I moved into this house, there have been many milestones that have happened there.  Son and Daughter both graduated from high school and college. Son and Daughter both got married.  All of my grandchildren were born while I lived there.  One of my granddaughters, Curly, even cried because she is old enough to have memories of fun things that she did at that house.  I assured her that she was going to make new fun memories in my new travelling home and that seemed to make it OK.

I needed this past weekend to get everything moved out, so I did not have to give up possession of the house until 1:00 today.  So, by 1:00 today, I left the keys on the bar, locked the doors, and walked into a new chapter in my life. 

So, here's a toast to all the memories made at 3030 Thorne Creek Lane and to all the new memories waiting to be made at Mimi's Trailer, USA!