May You Live An Interesting Life

Fear the old Chinese curse.  Tho according to Wikipedia, the oft thought Chinese origin is doubtful.

Uh oh.  It doesn't even mean what I thought.  No matter.  I refer to the interpretation of multitudinous distractions taking one away from the true meaning of life.

And so we live an interesting life right now. 

• Buying a house in less than two weeks.  
• Followed by a car.  
• Then moving out of our RV into the house.  
• And preparing our RV and truck for sale.  
• Plus establishing residency in Arizona.  
• Memorizing our new address and a third phone number.  
• Finding new doctors.  
• Selling unneeded stuff from our former abode, as well as stuff in our new house.  
• Closing out our lot at Park Sierra and selling some stuff we left behind.  
• Keeping a ready supply of beer.  
• Chasing Clancy around the house as he discovers new places to hide under and behind.

And we chose all this ourselves.

Interesting.  Yet we feel so fortunate to have these options, to have found a place that speaks to us.

And also preparing for a new adventure yet to be announced.  Stay tuned if you have nothing else to do.

Bruce

Swan Song for the RV Life

Sung to the Willie Nelson's tune
On the Road at Last

Off the Road At Last
Sure enuf we're off the road at last,
Happened quick and happened fast.
Can't believe we're off the road at last.

Off the Road At Last
Gone many places in this country vast,
Seen some things I really should have passed.
Which is why I'm off the road at last.

Off the Road At Last
Found a deal we couldn't really pass.
In a new house that will really really last.
Just like that we're off the road at last.

Off the Road At Last
No more sewer hoses to attach,
Got my water without busting ass,
Easy now we're off the road at last.

No more towing now,
With a truck that looks like it could plow,
Coast down hills fast and not have a cow,
Drivin' quick as John Law will allow.

Off the Road At Last
Didn't think we'd stop till out of gas.
Feelings mixed but know that this will pass.
New paths open, nothin' really lasts.

Bruce

Stranded in Prescott

Day two of snow.  Seventeen inches so far.  Good God, Obama, how have we angered you?

Completely cut off, with only our cell phones, land line, cable TV, Netflix videos, and Internet service to remind us of the outside world!  What I wouldn't do for a home visit by Newt Gingrich during this time of travail!

Is anybody out there?  We have exhausted our supply of biscottis!  And are running low on beer!! 

SOS!!!  Send Out Salami!!!!

Bruce

Housebound in our New House

When we looked around Prescott, many people said that we get snow occasionally, and that it disappears in a day.

However, in the past 24 hours, a foot of snow has fallen.  Forecast predicts more snow over the next 24 hours.  Freezing temps tonight will likely turn the roads to ice.

And so we spend the time unpacking and gazing out at the white.  Nothing prettier than snow on tall pine trees.  We are content.

Bruce

Out of the Old, Into the New

We have moved into this 2 BR, 2BA house,

 complete with all this nice furniture and appliances and decorations and linens and....  
Click here for more house pics

and bought this car, a 2009 Hyundai Genesis 4.6. 

 in the span of two weeks.

Quite fortuitous, considering we only own a sleep number mattress and two recliners.  Jenna says she feels like we moved into a bed and breakfast.

Pine Lakes in Prescott, AZ, is a lovely housing community filled with 350 manufactured homes.  Set up against 1.25 million acres of National Forest.  Home sites set at different angles along winding streets.  Reminds us of Park Sierra, but with four mild seasons and closer to town.

Our new house was built in 2005.  1,400 square feet.  A separate bedroom and bath and ample space at the dining room table for guests.  Rather than sleeping on an air mattress on the living room floor and Clancy licking your face.  Waiting your turn for the small RV bathroom and sitting on a chair squeezed up to the dining table,

Oh yeah.  We put our TV in a cabinet, rather than sticking it under the dining table on the floor.

One day after moving in, Jenna's sister and hubby arrived for a visit.  With a fully furnished house, we were ready.

Want a "sign" that this was meant to be?  After years of local anticipation, the Prescott Trader Joes store opens the day of our house closing.

Bruce

P.S. Song on the way

P.P.S.  We are selling our fifth wheel and truck.  If you are interested, please contact us by posting a comment.  If not, post a comment anyway.

Hell is Moving

We are in moving mode again.  Again.

Flash back to pre-blog times.  In our 27 years together prior to this RV, we owned nine houses.  Thus bought and sold 18 times, including two sold on our own.  Twenty mortgages, if memory serves, and it often doesn't.  With this tenth house, the Realtors association may send us a fountain pen in appreciation of fees paid.

Plus rented several apartments and houses.  Mostly because of the cats and dogs who lived with us.  So we moved in and out of places every two years on average.  Mostly via our own power, instead of hiring movers.

Bruce lived in six places in undergraduate school.  And several apartments after that.  Five apartments before age 18 too.

Jenna lived likewise.  Even lived in Norway with the pre-Bruce spouse.  [Jenna says she was just preparing for Bruce.]

Then we lived in an RV.  And entered a different phase of moving.  Easier in some ways, harder in others.

By our behavior, you would think we enjoy moving.  You would think wrong.  Shifting possessions about, calculating and manipulating money to facilitate the process, readjusting to new environs, sometimes starting new jobs or schools.  It puts a strain on a body...and mind.

And, in the end, there you are anyway.

So we are moving again.  This time from our RV into a house.  Actually from one vehicle to another.  The RV is a vehicle of course.  The manufactured home is considered a vehicle.  Two actually, as it was made in two parts.  You have no doubt seen parts of these houses slowly moving down the highway, wide loads on flatbed trucks.  Pilot car with flashing lights.  Plastic wrap flapping noisily in the wind.  Thus we purchase two plates at the Division of Motor Vehicles. 

We are also buying a car to replace the truck.  Vehicle three.  If Jenna and I kill each other over this, you can call it vehicular[s] homicide.

Since we rent, not purchase our lot in the community, we are not purchasing real property.  Tho the house looks real enough to me.  Which makes this simpler.

Not simple.  Just simpler.

Your possessions possess you.

Bruce

Back to Normal

On a whim, we stopped to look at Prescott, Arizona.  Ten days here and we purchase a house!
Here ->  Pine Lakes

When we set out almost five years ago, we sought adventure and eventually a new place to live.  A place with good weather, a small town suitable for retirees, a reasonable cost of living, a public radio station, a college, and a Costco and a Trader Joes.

We found plenty of adventure.  And met plenty of nice people.  But, as we moved about, we couldn't establish a real feeling of community.  You know, what they now call Face-time as opposed to Facebook.

Came so close with Park of the Sierras.  But for all the beauty of the members and the land, we would still need to live in an RV.  And that was the deal breaker.  Too much fooling with sewer and propane and water hoses and all that stuff.  Bumping my head in the bedroom and the storage areas.  Living in 300 square foot space with steps up to the bedroom.  No - not for the rest of our lives.

And we're a bit weary of towing and setting up and breaking down.  Looking for internet and phone service.  Driving a BIG TRUCK.  Always using the GPS to get around, cause we don't know enough about where we are.  Not seeing familiar faces. Getting lost in the latest grocery store.

Time to come in off the road.

We intend to continue traveling, visiting friends we have met and those we have left behind.  But we won't take our house with us.  Just our dog and a change of underwear each, with our names on the associated briefs. 

Will we become boring now?  Yes.


Will I continue to write this blog?  Maybe between games of scrabble.

Bruce, the Bland