3...2...1....

All systems are go.  The manufacturer having used up every single day of our two-week built-in fudge-factor timeframe, we have received word that the new motorhome will arrive at the dealers lot in Las Vegas Nevada on Monday morning. We will depart the same Monday morning with a car filled with supplies and the dog and us. We plan to converge in Las Vegas and start our new adventure on Tuesday.  Do stay tuned.

1 week and counting down

The loan is approved, the supplies are in hand, the rental car and hotel are reserved and TODAY our new motor home is due to come off the production line up in Manitoba.  Three days shipping down to Las Vegas, then we are supposed to pick it up next week at the dealer's.  We spent this morning moving 6 tons of gravel around the driveway making a new parking area for our guests because our old guest parking area is going to hold the motor home.  Here is the new guest parking-easier to access, too!

UPS-Unlocatable Parcel Schleppers

Ah, here we are, snug at home, after a fine dinner on Christmas Eve and all day I have been feeling sorry for the poor UPS driver who will be delivering a package to me sometime between 4-7 pm.  Or not. 

Once again, UPS has delivered my correctly addressed and labeled package somewhere else entirely.  I have no clue where.  I got the standard text message and email it was delivered at 4:53 pm. Really?  It is not here on the porch as the email says. Nobody came to our door since 1pm today.  We were both here all afternoon.  It is not at my neighbor's.  Or at 77 (we are at 17, and that 7 kinda sorta looks like a 1).  So, somebody else has my Christmas present.  Probably one of the eight other houses on the street, but it is hard to go snooping around on other people's porches in the dark on Christmas Eve, ya know?

Ken, our former UPS driver, knew our address.  But we have been here 20 years.  Ken learned it in the first month.  Ken retired about three years ago.  The new drivers are, uhm, not as quick on the uptake.  So, once again I will call UPS Thursday to ask what can be done.  Once again they will tell me they cannot flag my address to tell the driver 'Hey dude, do not leave except at the actual 17-seventeen-not 77 or 37 or any of the other something 7's on the west side of the street'.  This they will tell me despite the fact that they CAN flag my address to include my unlisted phone number, whether we own a snappy dog, and they do have my USPS box number flagged.  I am not going to take their excuse easily, but I will at least get an investigation opened.  And I will get their mailing address of the Albuquerque office so I can write a very nice letter to the Boss of the Route Drivers in Corrales.

I will again ask to speak to the route driver(s) or their boss and they will tell me it is not possible.  But I have a plan this time.....I know when the UPS driver comes up my street for the morning delivery.  I will be ready with an ambush at 10 am.  He will get a copy of said letter.  And I will continue to make a pest of myself until Every Single UPS driver that goes up this street will know the crazy lady at #17.  Every Single Driver.  At least that way they won't wonder where to deliver my packages in the future.

BTW if anybody knows the real job title of the Albuquerque 'boss of the route drivers' let me know.

Merry Christmas, and to all a good night.

Egads!

Does anyone even use Egads! anymore?  Or know what it means?  I decided to finally repost in the blog and perhaps awaken the sleeping giant.  Yes, we need to decide whether to combine this with FB postings, or leave it separate.  And since we hope to start motorhoming in the next year, it might help to keep everyone updated, but then again it is just another thing for everyone to check.  Decisions, decisions.  Let me know what you think.

This is why I haven't posted much this week

I mean, really, given the choice of going down there and enjoying the beach or writing a coherent literate post, which would you choose?

Long Time, No See

So, after my last post-way back in December-full of intentions to post regularly, that terrible tragedy at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary took place. Frankly, my heart just wasn't into posting about travel and fun. A few more months went by, we got busy with the usual stuff of life, and once again started thinking about posting again. And then the Boston Marathon bombing happened. Only this time I decided the Ba$ta&@# aren't gonna win. We are continuing to travel, and I am going to be posting. So there. Take that you terrorists.

I'll give you all a moment or two to recover from the shock of seeing this blog re-appearing, and let you know that tomorrow I will start to catch you up on the latest two Retirement Adventure trips to the Caribbean and Yosemite National Park. But I will leave you with a photo or two.

Whatcha been doing lately?

I want to thank all of you who paid attention to our trip blog and especially those of you who let us know how much you enjoyed it; we enjoyed it too. So much so that we thought we would post back here every now and then and let you know what else has been going on around our household.

Well, the first thing that happened is that we both came down with colds. But in the last few days we have both been feeling better and we have a couple projects we have been working on. You may all not know it, but one of Cheryl's secret loves and guilty pleasures is working custom-made wooden jigsaw puzzles.  Not the nice puzzles you get for $20 down at the Hallmark store.  These are handcut, wooden puzzles with custom pieces and special tricks.

She first started collecting these about 20 years ago when she discovered Stave Puzzles (www.stavepuzzles.com) and while she does not get a new puzzle every year she would like to!  Her most recent puzzle required a 2 1/2 year waiting list before she came to the front of the line. It 'only' took a week to cut and she just received it last week. This puzzle was made by Custom Puzzle Craft, aka Mr. John Stokes III.  If you want to see more on how John creates these, check out his website, www.custompuzzlecraft.com and scroll down and click on his Journal.

Here are some photos of his amazing work, cut with a jigsaw blade about the size of a human hair:

The Puzzle in the box as I received it, all 650 teensy weensy pieces.

The puzzle on my working table, with the first section put together.  I asked John to cut this puzzle into six sections following a set of cutting 'rules' he developed called a Golden Ratio Compulsory.  Then he cut each section using a unique cutting style.  This section was the Angular style section.  The cutting lines don't show up very well here, but I have a better photo to add later.

This section (below) is cut in the Long Round style.  It is the largest section in the puzzle.  The edges of this section show you what the Compulsory cutting looked like when John did the initial six-pieces of the puzzle. If you look at the swirls in the reddish section on the bottom left below, (they sort of resemble the tail of a cat, or the hind leg of an animal) can you see where those pieces fit into the reddish section the green bush on the right in the section above?

You can see two sections here, the Knob style pieces on the left and a bit of the Earlet section on the right.  See how the round circle end of the Earlet section will fit into the round hole of the Knob section?

This is a shot of the full Earlet style section

I will have to add some shots of individual pieces and something for scale in my next post.  The Creative Style pieces are just amazing swirls and wiggles and angles.  Each piece is a work of art in itself.  And yes, I will show you the completed puzzle shortly.  And then, do stay tuned for Tom's Big Project, which is nearing completion.

HAPPY 12/12/12 Everyone!