Someone recently asked if we preferred living in a sticks and bricks house or in the coach. Very difficult question. Have not yet formed an answer. There are a great many similarities (if something can go wrong, it will) and a great many differences. Both abodes seem to need cleaning on a steady basis. Meals need to be cooked and laundry done, repairs made. However….
- Nowadays if I leave the refrigerator door open a little too long, it doesn’t start honking at me and shut itself off.
- The mail forwarding service is on auto-pilot; we don’t have to request a new mailing address every week or so.
- Sunday mornings can be devoted to watching the news shows instead of running out to track down a newspaper which has the t.v. guide section for a city we won’t be in by Monday afternoon.
- One does not have to pick one from Column A and one from Column B (but no others) when using electrical appliances. It seems luxurious to be able to microwave food, dry clothes and run the a/c all at the same time. And it doesn’t take all day to dry a load of towels.
- Much time is devoted to wondering why a certain weight loss group meets at a local mortuary.
- Stay-abeds will not do well at estate sales. The regular trollers are up and about early, scoring all the good stuff although there are real bargains to be had if items are overlooked until the final day. The real winners are those who come very early or very late whereas middle-of-the-roaders are SOL.
- We used to wonder how something could be so easily misplaced with only 400 square feet to be lost in. Now there are so many rooms in which to misplace things. And there’s always the possibility that whatever it is we’re looking for is still in the coach.
- It is considerably more difficult to remember to secure the premises when leaving for a period of time. There’s something to be said for having only one door.
- Being able to cut a rose or two for the house is lovely. “Real” roses smell so much nicer than the kind from the store.
- Living among large numbers of retired people makes me wonder why they drive so fast and shop so slow. Or vice versa.
- Canned goods no longer shift around between meals. We are unlikely to be concussed by a jar of Vlasic dills leaping from an upper cupboard.
- 55+ communities seem to have an unusual number of red Corvettes.
We seem to have leapt off the high-board and into the deep end of the activities pool. With the possibility of lawn bowling seven days a week during most of the daylight hours, Howie has winnowed himself down to once or twice a day a mere three days a week. But only if temperatures are fairly moderate, which they haven’t been lately. He still prefers to stay snug a-bed until the sun has been up long enough to warm things past the frost point. The two beading groups I’ve joined meet at the same time on the same day so I’ve had to make a choice. The three book discussion groups fortunately meet at different times so I can indulge in all of them. Having steady access to a library has really curtailed my book-buying addiction. And we’ve jointly enjoyed meeting the RV Club members and indulging in their monthly potluck dinners.
And a number of friends have “dropped by”. Pat R was in town to visit a friend who was passing through and found time to stop for a quick chat on her way back over the hill to the Verde Valley. She comes to town frequently so we’re hoping to see her several times this winter. John and Rose spent several days at a near-by RV park and we were able to show off some of Sun City’s amenities, including attendance at a potluck dinner with one of the bowling clubs. 
Russ and Rochelle are spending the winter about 40 miles west of here and are in the process of house hunting in the neighborhood so we’ve seen them several times thus far. This past weekend we drove out to spend the day with them and found ourselves in the midst of several FMCA chapters gathering for their annual New Year’s rally so we were able to touch base with some fellow Full Timers. We’re all so busy, however, that it’s unlikely we’ll see them again until we meet in Sturgis in June.
The weather hasn’t been all that warm thus far. It’s even a little on the clammy side. I hadn’t expected to get so much use out of that ski jacket I bought in Denali!!
Our little neighborhood seems to have an abundance of wildlife. We’ve seen coyotes jogging down the street and one marched through our backyard at mid-day big as life. And all this time we thought they were crepuscular. An owl spends his mornings in an old pine tree right next door and does a lot of vocalizing about 5:00 a.m. Gambrel quail, roadrunners and assorted other birds spend time in the shrubbery and the hummingbirds have been regular attendees at our feeder. They are such peeping Toms, hovering in front of the windows to see what might be tasty inside. My red slippers sitting in a patch of sunlight seemed to be especially attractive to them so now I’m careful to keep the slippers in the shadows so the little guys don’t knock themselves silly trying to get at them.
And so that wraps up another year. We hope that it has been a good one for you and that the new one will be even better. Happy New Year to you all.
