Tuesday, May 20, 2014

2 1/2 Weeks and Still Much to Do

Hope Church held a wonderful retirement party for me on Saturday then told me I must still work three more weeks!  Well, I knew that already, and so did you, probably, but it was funny to be reminded by so many to show up on Sunday as we left the party.



Our grandson Tristan placed the party balloons on our house's lamp post.  That makes it easier for the house inspectors to find the address; as if the presence of a 20 ton motor coach wasn't enough.



Its been really great living in the coach since we moved in permanently last week.  The size makes some think it will be a problem but both of us like the fact that it takes about 5 minutes to vacuum all the floors and a walk from one room to another is, like, three steps.

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SIMPLIFY has been a popular 'word sign' in home decor for a couple of years.  Interestingly it often appears on walls or mantles of anything but simplified homes of people who lead the most complex lives.  We don't have that sign in the coach. We are simply living simplification.

We do have a refrigerator magnet that reads, "SLOW - Grandparents at Play", but we've owned that, and have tried to live it, for years.  And the 'SLOW' part, I think, is a signal from Mona to me.  What do you think?

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Just a word about the reason for what we are doing. Some call this, "living the dream". Others look in wonder at the size of our new home and politely smile, or share their misgivings about living quite this simply.  For instance while we will have running hot and cold water all we drink and cook with will be bottled, or otherwise truly fresh. And some can't fathom why anyone would not want to live in a fixed community with the same friends, church, doctors, and neighbors.

Our reasons are somewhat simple.  We have always enjoyed new experiences, and our travel times and vacations have always been high points of our years together.  Witness the joy our kids take in traveling themselves when they can. But beyond what I typed above living simply does not mean living sparsely.  It means, for us, living well, comfortably, and with less worries than we've ever had since either of us lived at home as teens. North America, all of it, is more than well served by medical professionals within a short hop by the Good Sam medical helicopter or ambulance team to where we may need to go.  and besides, All of our most serious accidents have happened around our homes.  Less home to maintain- less accidents?

And community?  There is a vast community of RV'ers around this continent who we have just started to get to know.  From the service people we've dealt with since purchasing the coach who do their darnedest to get us into their shops and out again because they know we live in the coach, to folks like the Snader's, who we met last week at French Creek Park.

There are countless new people God has in mind for us to meet in churches, historic sites, natural wonders, campgrounds and even a few bar and grills.  With the internet we can all stay reasonably well connected until we roll into someone's home town, put down the levelers, and stay a while.

Where will we spend Christmas this winter?  Wherever it will be, it will be warmer than we had it in 2013!

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Some minor updates on 'stuff':

On the HOME:
-The replacement latch for the basement door which I broke last week came in and I actually installed it MYSELF!  Mona applauded but told me not to get a swelled head.
-We take the coach to the D and D garage in Pottstown next week to have the two windshield leaks we discovered in the storm last Friday checked out and they will also replace the dried out hub seals in the two front wheels. Paul told us we'd have to leave it overnight.  I said, "No problem, but do you have a level spot for us to live in it?"  He said, "Live in it?  Uh. bring it Tuesday early. We'll get it done." How accommodating!
-Tom from Tom's TV in Baumstown comes tomorrow to give us the final, we hope, set up on the main TV. We want it's audio to run completely through the home theater system, and the Wii to play well on that TV and through the 5.1 speaker system.  We may need to get a new signal distributor (receiver) to replace the 8 year old model we now use. technology does cost, doesn't it?

On the HOUSE:
-A house inspector for the buyer has found sign of carpenter ants in our basement so we had Ehrlich come out to check themselves. Tomorrow they come back to eradicate the little buggers. We don't want anything to hold up settlement on June 10!

-Ken

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