The Ball is Dropping...  Get with it... or Get out of the way..... 

This ball was dropped annually between 1955 and 1999

2012 is here whether you want it or not...  I like to think when the ball drops at least my Tombstone will show I lived one year longer. How's that for perspective...
Don't Ya hate it when people send those end of the year Christmas "All about us Letters".
So look at me doing an end of year look at US... But isn't that what we're supposed to do tonight.  Why because we did have a good year... In spite of how so many are hurting.... we are part of the 99% after all.  On reflection... 

I have to say we have had a life changing year... 

We have been living fulltime in our RV for over eight years (sold the house in in Iowa in 2003) (you can read our travels... just click on the index link at the top).
But for this year after spending another winter season in Quartzsite and sinceTerry was done with his tour on the board of directors of the Quartzsite Gem and Mineral Club. We dicided we should look onward for a winter home base location as housing prices were wery low, as we looked at things. So I got on the web and did the searching. After looking at many listings on the web and after driving across around the state found most of them to be much less than what we were looking for. I raised our price range and refined my search.  I found a brand new listing in the Branson, AZ area. We rushed over and looked at at it and made an offer the next day. We were the first to see it and the seller was motivated as it was a child selling for her father who had to move do to health.
The bottom line is we made an offer and it was accepted. From offer to move in, two weeks. How about that... And would you believe now that we have checked the Zilllow.com  Real Estate site. Our property has gone up in value about $56,000 since we bought it this spring. Zillow seems to be respected for their Zestimate® on property values. 

Link to all about the new winter property with lots of shots of the inside along with the huge all metal gar/shop. 
 http://www.fulltime.hitchitch.com/mar2011-1.html

And we got Terry in for eye surgery to correct his double vision in December. That was a big event for us and all went well at the U of AZ hospital. 

We moved Terry's woodworking and metalworking shop stuff down from IA in August with the help of his brother. 
A U-Hual adventure big time. But we are here now and loving the area and meeting our great neighbors. It is high up and remote and on the end of the private road. So safe for us to leave for RVing adventures in the summer as this is just our winter home and also as we are now getting rady to head off to Quartzsite for a month.

Terry is out this week getting the 5th wheel ready for travel... leaving Jan 3 for Quartzsite for the month.
He has a follow up appointment with eye Dr. on Feb 1st.  He is seeing normal and is happy with how it all went.

I went and spent big bucks on a new desktop computer at Best Buy got $200 off. Dell XPS 8300 Intel i7 processer, 1.5 T hard drive, and fast video card.  Top of the line for sure.  So having fun. 
We had to go to Serria Vista and take a desk chair back as it was busted right out of the box so stopped at Walmart and got some computer games. 
You only have to set up a new computer once trying to move all the programs from an old one to a new one sometime to go nuts.
I bought a special crossover LAN cable and program PCmover program. Had trouble with some programs as the old marching was a 32 bit machine and the new one is 64 bit.   Uninstall wouldn't remove a couple of the 32 bit programs from the new machine as they wouldn't run so their built in uninstall also wouldn't run...had to get into registry. Scarry.    Did find a new feeware program for help in the removal... Take a look at... 
http://www.revouninstallerpro.com/  30 days free trial.  It's a keeper.

The new machine came with McAfee Security which I will be removing when it expires.   they want $60 a year to run it. That's just nuts..   I had been using Microsoft Security Essentials on the old machine when it was moved by PCmover to the new machine. No go. Got it removed with Revo Uninstall but can't reinstall it. Get error message. So working on that. I have since installed AVG Internet Security.

I wanted to change one of the multi function  keys on the keyboard to bring up my correct email program. No documentation on how to change the keys  so called Dell Support and got Manila in Philippines and let the tech take control of my machine remotely.  Watching her move my courser and look my system.  She gave up after an hour or so and  a couple of days later I found a way to hack the registry to make it work the way I wanted. Google reveals all.  It got me started and after much reading figured it out.  Now I think I am hot shit...  knew more than Dell Support.   Anyway have to get back to the important stuff ... Time to play games...

But now it's time for champagne and watch the big ball drop in NY... 

Lady Gaga and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg prepare to push the button to drop the ball in Times Square.

We are watching CNN with Kathy Griffen and Adnerson Cooper...They are nuts and the best show on.
CNN switched to the Key West event...

Duval Street in Key West, Fla., is packed with New Year's Eve revelers just before midnight as female impersonator Gary Marion, known as "Sushi," is lowered at the Bourbon Street Pub complex late Saturday, Dec. 31. The Red Shoe Drop is a Key West tradition that celebrated the dawn of 2012.

Sunday Dec. 25

Welcome to the Jolly time we call Christmas

This is the little Santa I hanged  from my work desk for many a year when I was a working slug.  JUST SAY BAH  You would think I would get lots of comments about it and I did...  most were that's COOL. And when they took a swipe at it the bell  on the leg would tingle... It was cute and no one took offense.  But that was then and this is now. Now days you could be fired for this kind of display on your desk.  It was a time when things like this were just funny. I was just expressing even back then that Christmas was being turned into a sales event and had lost its meaning. It should be a day once a year to gather and express our love for each other... and if you want to... give a gift to a loved one... so be it... but not because corporate America sez we must do so. 
Terry and I hope you are in a warm pleasent place, and content with life as you know it. 
So many at this time of year are alone... some who have lost a loved one .. or just have not yet found a partner... so this can be a sad time for many... If you are having a great holiday experience... we hope you will reach out to someone who is not doing as well.
 For many this is the saddest time of the year... Beyond all that... we wish you and yours all the best... 
 

Saturday Dec. 3

 December it's all about the start of winter.

And you thought it was all about the month the leads to Christmas.
That's for another Bah Humbug post as we get closer... 

Looking southeast from our AZ property.

But Gee Whiz we're in Arizona and winter is a thing that our friends up north have to worry about, right. Well look a the shot from out our place to the southeast... See the Huachuca Mountains to the south. 

We are used to day after day of sunny wonderfulness.  But today all that is a memory...  We are warm and happy in our seasonal winter house thinking how we would not be that way if we were still boondocking in the desert in Quartzsite.  That was fun and we did that for so many years...but this is now ... and a warm seasonal winter S&B is where it's at for us right now. 
Besides we figure when if all hell breaks loose we will still have this place free and clear with a fence and gate we can lock... and not be living in a broken down RV under an overpass so to to speak. Ruff talk but it's a mind set we came to find on what our next life move should be. Now feelling secure that we can still fulltime all we want but also have a place to fall back on. 

Oh as I type it brings ugly thoughts of clearing the drive and driving in it to work... and OH the temps ...  of 20 below or more... 
That'll freeze off a gonad or two...   Ya know where the tires a have flat spot on the bottom as they sat all night. You haven't lived till your drive with frozen tires.  Clanking on down the road in the morning.  How sweet was that.  That is if your car acutally turned over and started.  Back then you were part of the 1% if you just had a garage so you could expect your car to start in the winter. Let alone not have to scrape off the snow and ice each morning. We felt really rich with a garage. 

To be sure I spent many years on and off without a garage so I remember what it's like to work for an hour to just get your car ready for the bouncy drive over frozen slush filled never fixed pot holes. If you had any hub caps left after the winter drive you felt lucky. 

I had a saying I liked to say that it gets to 20 below on the 20th of January each year.  And I wasn't off by much..  How could I go wrong for god sakes.. It was that cold for weeks at a time. We were talking Iowa here after all. 

All that time I thought putting up with that crap I was building character in myself to be able to withstand the riggers of life. After all everyone else was out there scraping right along with me. I grew up in the midwest (worked for a time out east, but came back... roots ya know)  I had a great job I loved and was in it for the long haul. So we put up with it all till we could find a way to escape to retirement.  Many times the joy of the season was being able to be the first one out and using our snow blower to clean out a neighbors drive especially right after the snow plow had just gone by and blocked us all back in again. 

Thinking back winter was hell and summer was just as bad but on the other side of the fence... summers in IOWA are tropical steamy hell. You thnk FL is humid in the summer come to IA. (I haven't been in FL in the summer so you may have me on that one) BUT You had to hide inside just like you did in winter so what difference did it make which season it was? And spring let me talk about spring and the constant storms and rain. 5-10 inches a day. A big expense was to keeping batteries in the weather radio as the NWS had it seemed constant alerts to take cover. 

I never had to go off to war (that's a whole other story) but anyone living in the Midwest knows about PTSD  first hand just by living with mother nature.  I hate going back to IA in the spring as I have to find the weather radio from where it is hidden in the RV and keep it outfront at all time. It's called stress, not good for man or beast. 

The only time it is liveable back home where I grew up was about two or three days in the fall. 
You have to understand my chiIdhood was spent in the 50-60s without A/C in the farm home. So I may have a somewhat heat damaged memory. A farm kid growing up in that age will like I said before will build character. Me thinks us farm kids were lucky that we did grow up where we did. I doubt life as a kid in a large city was a any better, to be sure.  We all have a history and wish we could just underststand we are all unique...  It's not me and it's not you It's US. 

I may exaggerate a bit about the shitty weather in the Midwest... but and for those who love it there take a vacation. You'll find it's true it is greener on the other side of the fence. Well in AZ not so much greener but for months on end the weather is like the two days you get each year that you think are heaven. I know, I know... You love to throw out the line... "Is this heaven... No It's Iowa".. Get over it...   Unless your into the baseball  Field of Dreams Movie set.

BUT Ouch we are getting a taste of the nasties this week. In AZ.... stop it. 

We are right up on the county line at 4200 ft west of Benson  north of I-10  at the +
See the snow in them there hills.  Say it ain't so... 

 

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