Winter 2022

 Hello from Borrego, I’m a little under the weather this week, I’ve managed to catch a nasty head cold. With Covid still a very strong virus, I was naturally concerned but I’ve tested negative twice. We had a nice Christmas, low keyed but went to three parties at Jeff’s, Carole’s & Don’s.  Chris & I spent a couple days with Ben & Matt, wonderful food, plenty to drink and a nice pool/spa to enjoy. Murphy and Riley got to spend a couple days at the Grand Paw, where they played hard, got bathed and got their nails trimmed.

There is news to report…Matt has been appointed to be a judge! With the appointment he was also able to pick a location to serve. He could have stayed in Seattle but he and Ben love Palm Springs, so they have moved. As I’m wring this they are taking ownership of their new house. They are so excited.

Because they have moved, leaving us with no immediate family near Hoodsport, Chris and I are going to list our home when we get back with the hope of moving closer to Jacob, Em and of course Grace.

Travis and Anne are also over in Spokane, so it just makes getting together easier. We really want to spend our time up north watching Grace grow up. It will be hard to sell that home, it was our dream to have a custom built house and it is so beautiful there. It is not a favorable real estate market, interest rates have really increased. The nice thing is we don’t have to sell, if we don’t get fair market value, we’re both good with staying there. It will be interesting at this time, next year to see where we are. 

On top of all that, I will be going through shoulder replacement surgery when we get back (probably) in early May. Recovery time is 4-6 months, it could come right as we are trying to move.

Mom and I have gotten very comfortable with streaming (hard to believe). We do it both in Hoodsport and here in Borrego. We really enjoy the variety of shows we can watch, many of them we watch together.

In order to get “in shape” for this upcoming surgery, mom and Ben helped me to order an e Bike. I can’t walk much anymore, I’m hoping I’ll enjoy this and lose some lbs to get my bmi down where my surgeon recommends, that probably means 15 lbs or more in the 4 months we have left here. More to come on that!

We’ll, time to feed the boys, I’m starting to get some evil stares as the clock hits 4:30.

Bye for now!

Spring of 2022

 Hello again, I always take such a long time between posts. From the fall of 2020 through all of 2021 the country suffered through the Covid 19 and all the preceding variants. We are far from normal but in a much better place now. Vaccines are now common place, there are still those that refuse to be vaccinated and there are still deaths associated with this virus. Masks are voluntary many people still mask up, especially in public places.

As I write this, we are still in Borrego but only for a few more weeks. It’s been a nice winter and we spent 4 days or so with both Ben & Matt in Palm Springs and Jake, ‘Em & Grace here in Borrego, we really enjoyed both visits. This past summer we spent 4 days with Jake & family on the Oregon coast, really had fun (Jake needs a mini-van)! We had several great visits with Ben and Matt (yummy food) and even had Travis & Anne spend a few days with us. One of the highlights last summer was learning how to grow sunflowers, we really enjoyed them out our bedroom window, Ben has already planted 36 new starts for more sunflowers (and maybe some sunflower seeds) this summer. 

Chris finally retired last fall and by now is getting comfortable in retirement, that just isn’t as easy as one might imagine. It’s hard to let go, its hard to see the money stop coming in and it takes time getting comfortable with how to spend the time. Chris is very involved in the ladies golf here at the Roadrunner. While she isn’t a big golf fan, her responsibilities have helped keep her busy and she has met a lot of ladies. 

I continue to run the men’s group (Coyotes) here in Borrego and I also enjoy that responsibility. My golf game is good, not great but I do have my moments. On Dec 13th I shot a 70! That’s the lowest score I’ve ever shot. I’ve never even shot par before let alone shoot 2 under.

Murphy is now almost 3 and still a handful. Riley keeps hanging in there, he’s 10 now, not in great shape but still good enough to go for an occasional walk. Both the boys will enjoy coming home and having their back yard and freedom to roam around.

After the major kitchen project last season, we’ve not done much in the way of improvements down here. Back in Hoodsport, I spearheaded a fiber-optic cable install in our development. 

As a result, we now have high-speed internet both at home and here in Borrego. We have officially cut the cord. We have purchased smart tv’s for both places and we now are “streamers”.

Ben and Matt set everything up for us back home. In addition to new tv’s and new sound, they installed programmable light switches and thermostats that will allow us to program lights and temperatures remotely, sounds cool, hope Chris & I can figure it out!

Another change, I traded in my truck. Much harder than it should have been. With Covid, many things like computer chips coming from China were in short supply, this really affected the auto industry. Love the new truck, I’m still trying to get use to the RED! 

 As far as our family goes, not much change. Travis and Ann are living in Spokane and seem happy, they both recently started working for Amazon. Jake & family are also doing well, Grace is great!!! As she gets older she still keeping her charm but we are having even more fun now with her. She recently taught me how to talk to her via our apple watches (walkie talkie). She continues to be very active in sports and school activities.

Looking forward to returning home, temps are in the mid 90’s here (hotter than normal). Maybe I’ll try another post in the fall.