Apr. 24 - Home again, home again....

Wow, it's hard to believe we've been home a month.  Harder yet to see I didn't update the blog at all our last month in Phoenix - I guess we were having too much fun.  I'm definitely going to try to update this blog more than that going forward - my goal is at least every 3 weeks.  I don't think folks want to hear about the boring, mundane, and daily things going on so I'll try and focus on things going on in Reno and trips we're taking.

Phoenix

Our last month in Phoenix really was great.  We spent a lot of time with good friends, and ate and drank way too much, but hey, it was vacation.  I took a few golf lessons and when the weather clears up here may take a few more and start to play again.  I need a lot of practice but I enjoyed the lessons and am ready to find something to do outdoors (other than gardening). 

We came to really like the Pebble Creek community where our friends live, and even put an offer on a house before we left.  However it was a really low offer and the owner wouldn't go for it.  I'm sure we'll look more next winter when we go back.  Yep, you heard it here, we're definitely planning to go back for the winter next year, and perhaps even extend our time another month.  We just loved the weather and the "camping" lifestyle.  It was a great change of pace.

PEM registration & main activities center

John looked for other places to rent and nothing was as nice or offered as many amenities as Pueblo El Mirage so we made our reservations and will go back in early January.

The pool at PEM

The 19th hole and Pro Shop

I don't think we could move to Phoenix full time, but maybe we could become winter residents and then spend our summers on the road or in Reno.  That would be the best of both worlds.  We'll see, it does mean we'd want to sell our current house which is too big for us and too much yard work.  We're trying to decide if we want to do that now - it's such a lot of work to get it read to sell, and the market is still so bad in Reno. 

Before we left Phoenix I saw an old friend from my days in S.F. - Sharon Baker.  We used to sail a lot in the bay and even took a couple of bareboating trips in the Caribbean.  What a riot to catch up on old times - she's been on the road for the last 2 years in her travel van and is having a great time seeing old friends and new places.



I did finish my weaving project before I left.  It has a few errors in it, but actually turned out pretty nice, especially for the RV.  I still haven't decided if I want to buy my own loom yet, I'm looking for classes in Reno first before I jump in.  I haven't found anything yet, but I did find a Spinning and Weaving Guild.  They meet monthly and are an interesting bunch.  I may go for a while and see what they're up to - they have a small subgroup for weaving that I need to explore.

Reno

As I said we've been home a month.  It's funny, we really weren't ready to leave Phoenix, but it is nice to be back in our house.  We did come back just as a snow storm came into Reno which was something.  We had snow every day for a week; that really sold us on being away.  However, we love being home and back in Reno, but we're finding that we like the adventure lifestyle and would like to spend more time out in the RV so we're working on making that happen. 

John is hard at work helping a high school friend (Ruth & George Tavenia) remodel their kitchen.  And he's big time involved in softball again (he's on 2 teams plus a tournament team) so he's playing a lot.  The tournament team travels so when they have games he's gone for the weekend.

I got back and had another couple of weeks to work, but did finally retire at the end of March.  Now that work is done I've had time to focus on the house and yard work that needs to be done here. I'm actually getting stuff done that I've thought about doing for years - no excuses now!   And a girlfriend invited me to participate in a half marathon walk so I've been in training for that.  Every weekend we go out and walk 8, 10 or 13 miles in preparation.  It's not too bad, just mind over matter mostly ( providing your shoes are comfortable).  Meghan has been coming with us and we're both pooped at the end.   The race is on May 1st so it's coming up fast.  We need to figure out the next one to do so we can set a new goal and ensure we keep up the walking.

So what's up now?  First off we're hoping the weather will clear up once and for all and that spring would come.  We have company coming the beginning of June, and a few short RV trips planned to Oregon and California for the summer.  In September we're headed to Yellowstone, providing the price of gas doesn't get too much worse.

We're trying to decide if we want to try and sell our house; neither of us wants to give it away for some low offer and we aren't sure if it's worth the time and energy just yet.  It would be wonderful to sell the spec house that we have rented, but we know there's no way to get our money out of that yet so we're going to hold off. 

Before I left work my team bought me a gift certificate for an iPad2 - I'm enjoying that and will take that on all our trips so I can keep up on email, Facebook, and of course update the blog.  It's been a really fun new toy, I'm on it every day just messing around.

That's it for now - I promise to come back and update the blog more often, or at least when something interesting is going on.