Time may change me, but I can’t trace time. – David Bowie

June 22nd, 2024.

Hello again, Friends! I hope this finds you well and that everything is okay on your end. It’s been a few weeks since my last blog, and I haven’t posted much on social media. Life has been busy! Actually, I started this blog a couple of weeks ago, but we *just* got internet at our house here in Kentucky and it was just too frustrating to try to do anything on the computer. In my last post, we had left Felix, our RV, in Branson to be repaired and went to Kentucky for what we thought would be only a month. Turns out it will be more; we bought the cute, little, round house in Eddyville that I wrote about last time, and we also adopted a pup. Two big things that we hadn’t planned on, but that’s kind of like how life has been with us for more than 46 years. Uncertain. Surprising. Wonderful.

When they were young, our kids loved reading choose-your-own-adventure books, and I’m beginning to think my life is a lot that way. Some kind of opportunity/adventure presents itself; we either take it or leave it. Usually we take it and see where life goes from there. I remember trying to justify my motley employment history to a friend who worked for the telephone company her entire life. Those who know me best are unphased anymore by what seem to be out-of-the-blue decisions.

The house is about 30 miles from our daughter Kate, who now feels better that we’ll be closer “if something happens.” Of course, there’s always the chance that we won’t be “here;” we’ll be at our RV lot in the Arkansas Ozarks. At least that’s the immediate plan: to go back and forth. Right now, our schedule is being determined by routine doctors appointments made months ago. I imagine that at some point we’ll get tired of the 425 mile trip (one way), but that’s somewhere in the future…

In late May 21 we picked Felix up from Branson Motor Coach. As it turned out, our air bags (that we thought were shot) were fine! Turn out that a $17 part that kept things balanced by feeding air into the air bags had broken, and that’s why the the air bags deflated. So, what we feared would be $$$$ turned out to be $$, so that was a real blessing! It was great being at the lake and in the routine of kayaking again. I still see Crisco the Table Rock Lake goat most every time I go out; now he has nearly 11,000 followers on his Facebook page.

Chewy, the pup we adopted through Max’s Hope in Hopkinsville, is a LOVE. He’s a little couch potato who loves nothing more than sit alongside Dave, who’s much happier now that he has a little sidekick again. Actually, getting Chewy wasn’t exactly as impulsive as it may seem. We both have missed having a pup ever since we lost Victor in February, and we agreed that if we ever were to get another one, it would be a rescue and an older one at that.

We don’t know much about Chewy’s background, except that he was surrendered and that he possibly has issues with men, especially men wearing sunglasses. He goes ballistic when he sees one! He appears to maybe be a Corgi and Chihuahua mix. He’s one terrific pup! He doesn’t beg for food. He sleeps in his own bed and not in ours. He travels extremely well in his kennel. And he’s a great little watch dog!

A couple of weeks ago we headed back to the house with a U-Haul trailer full of stuff–on a ferry across the Mississippi River from Missouri to Kentucky–things from the RV and odds and ends that we had bought thrifting. Now, THAT’s been fun! I have no decorating sense, so putting this funky little house piece by piece has been challenging. I’m just grateful it’s small (just a little more than 800 sq. ft.)

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been doing a lot of work here at the house and learning much about this new-to-us area. I consider us living out in the country since we are surrounded by woods, corn and wheat fields and farms. Today, we had to drive to Hopkinsville to buy paint. We could take I-24, but we prefer to take the scenic route. Cerulean is a little town on the way, and there we found a wonderful Amish produce market and variety store.

And on the way home, we stopped at a house just down the road that sells farm fresh eggs.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this read. It wasn’t as detailed as those written before, but I’m fairly exhausted from the past couple of weeks. Things are settling down and I sense “routine” will follow shortly. That will hopefully open up more room for writing. Until next time, stay safe and take care. Much love… ❤️ ☮️ 🤗 ~Maria