DELAYS, DELAYS, DELAYS,……

Internet service is nearly nil for me.   I haven’t been able to connect since Christmas Day  Please forgive me if I haven’t  respond to e-mails.   I’m going to the library tomorrow to see if I can connect long enough to post and if I can stay connected long enough, I’ll try to answer e-mails also.

Also, please excuse duplicate information - since I can’t get on the internet - I don’t know what I last posted.

Well, Christmas, New Years, and Birthday have all passed by.  

Christmas Eve there was a party and a gift exchange - Actually, the exchange should have been called a free-for-all as there were several bottles of booze on the table and they changed hands multiple times.   My contribution to the food was a flock of olive/cream cheese penguins - they were very popular and I received many  compliments on them

My gift was a pottery microwave baker.   Since I had decided to get along without a microwave, I wasn’t sure I should keep it, but Diane talked me into it, and then the day after Christmas, she bought Miss Daisy a microwave.   I have to say the microwave baker makes wonderful eggs.

Adventures in cooking have been very interesting.   Before the microwave - not having use of the propane, - I had a crock pot, a George Forman Grill and a toaster oven.  I learned to make poached eggs in the toaster oven - after trying to make scrambled eggs in the crockpot - the toaster oven method was quite an improvement - but the pottery baker was even better.  I had to stop and think about what I needed to cook anything we thought to eat.  

Yes, life in Miss Daisy is quite a rustic experience.   I’m not hooked up to water since something inside is leaking copiously.  Every day, I fill 3 gallon jugs with water to do us for the day.  

As for washing dishes?   First I go out and fill the 3 jugs.  Then I fill my hot pot to heat water..  I pour the whole pot  into the washing sink and fill the pot again.   I pour cold water into the one sink to bring the temperature down.   When the second pot is hot - I pour it into a half full jug - for rinsing.   And eventually, the dishes are washed, rinsed, dried and put away.

Right now, I can’t even wash dishes - the campground has a problem with their sewer disposal - we can’t empty tanks for 2-3 days until it gets repaired.  In our case, that means no washing dishes either, because my gray water does not go to a holding tank - it empties directly into the sewer line instead.

It’s been cold - in the 20’s at night and if there is a wind - it blows right through Miss Daisy.   We have an electric heater, and I finally talked Diane into getting an electric blanket - so we sleep quite comfortably.   Although, for about 3 days after she got the electric blanket, I’d ask Diane if she slept warm and she’d replay - not really, then I’d ask her if she had turned up her blanket and she’d say “no” - so I quit asking

Christmas day we had rain - but the Florida Mountains had a fresh coat of snow.   The mountains are very close to here and seem to poke straight up from the desert floor - no foot hills.

My birthday arrived and I thank you all for the wishes for a happy day.

About the internet - I can’t get on with my computer, but occasionally my Kindle connects and downloads e-mails, but usually by the time I catch it, Kindle is off line again - in addition, I’m a touch typist and have a miserable time typing on the tiny keyboard.

One morning I woke up at 6:20 and caught the weather - “Light snow to commence at 6:30 a.m.”   I looked out the window - no snow yet -   I looked out again at 6:30 and yep!  Snow in large fluffy flakes floating gracefully to the ground.

We had planned a trip back to visit Kit and Ken during the second week in January.  My daughter, Brooke, mailed my Christmas present to Kit’s for me to pick up when I got there.  Then, Kit’s son decided to visit at that time and in order to avoid a crowd, we changed our plans to visit the end of January instead.

A couple days ago, I called Kit and she said  “guess where we are?   We are headed toward your place”   I asked, “where are you going”  She said   “Deming”   She and Ken were on the road to Deming to deliver my Christmas box - It’s a 350 mile drive +each way!   How many of you would do that?  

Well, on my birthday, Kit reminded me we’d been friends for 57 years.   The only person other than family I’ve known longer than that is my good friend Barbara who still lives in Montana.

When we went to the hotel to see Kit and Ken, of course we took Tucker to visit with Sammi and Christi - what a free for all -  Tucker chasing Christi, Christi chasing Tucker, Sammi chasing Tucker and Christi.

Today, I finally figured out how to transfer files from my old computer to the newer one.  That includes putting my photos on an exterior hard drive - that means that starting with my next post, I’ll be including photos again - But before I can do that, I have to crawl into the back of the truck to find the box containing my camera accessories.

Had pizza for dinner the other night at a place called,  “Forghedaboudit”  The pizza was great - but not even close to the delicious pizza made by “Bodacious’ in Virginia!!!!!

I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to get on line at the library -  Headed there now!
******** Well, now - I stopped at the visitor's center first and got right on line - so here it is.

Until next time,

Bear Hugs
Boots & Tucker

“She believed she could do it and so she did!”