Taking the back roads

Here I sit, with an ice pack on my left knee, recovering from the final knee replacement.  Generally, I don't make New Year's resolutions or those kinds of things but I tend to make goals throughout a year.  But I did make two specific goals for 2013 and I've accomplished both so far and we are only into the 3rd month of a new year. My first and foremost goal was to get my left knee replaced so I could start to live a life pain-free from most physical activities.  I had been walking around on a badly damaged knee for almost 2 years, not being able to walk very much and being in constant pain.  In 2007 I had my right knee replaced and it was such a change in my lifestyle and how I did things.  That recovery seemed to go very well and within a month I was back to my regular life and walking with no pain or limitations.  Looking back on it and comparing it to this recovery I have to remember 2 very important things:  (1) I was 5 years younger and (...

Nor is it the same in Florida.  Having lived in Southern California most of my adult life, I am used to rain, or usually lack there of, in California.  Not so in Florida where I now live. In CA if it rains at all, it's during the raining season... it is a semi-arid desert there after all. The rainy season usually starts the week before or week of Thanksgiving in late November.  It can last till sometimes March but more likely late February.  I remember one year where it rained for 17 days straight in February.  That was really strange cause normally there is not that much sustained rain.  Also, January usually tends to be the best month in CA because it rarely rains and the temps are always warm. But back to rain. When it does rain in CA especially Southern California, Huntington Beach specifically, it is usually a predictable kind of rain.  The weatherperson shows rain and gives you a day or two when it will happen. Sometimes it does, general...

The other nite my cat, Cali, jumped from the bed to the dresser.  There she discovered something miraculous, well at least to her, or maybe it was just confusing. For whatever reason, it seems Cali discovered the mirror on the dresser and started looking at it.  At first, it was like, "who is that thing in the mirror and what is it." She was probably wondering how another cat got in and how was Cali going to protect herself. Cali is a bit of a scared y-cat. She jumps at the least thing and is always running away, especially when she doesn't get her way.  I was very interested to see how she was going to handle this new thing in the mirror. She looked right at herself and then looked back at me.  I was laying on the bed, not moving cause I didn't want Cali to run away.  She moved a bit on the dresser and sure enough the other cat moved too.  Cali kind of looked at me with that "what's going on" look on her face.  But she bravely moved again a...

The time has come to begin blogging again.  And why you ask?  Or maybe you didn't but I'm going to tell you anyhow. I have recently moved to a part of the country where I hope I will have new adventures, meet new people and generally start a new time of my life.  After living in Southern California for about 44 years of my adult life and then two years in Texarkana, AR as a "nanny" to my granddaughter, I am back in a warm climate with other people who have "grey hair."  I'm in the retirement state of Florida and specially in a town called Fruitland Park.  Fruitland Park (hereafter referred to as FP) is  about 4 miles south of the big retirement community of The Villages, about 30 miles south of Ocala and maybe 60 miles, give or take, northwest of Orlando.  In other words, I'm pretty much in the midle/midle of Florida generally called central Florida. Now why you ask would someone leave the wonderful environment of SoCal and ...

 At pleasant Tuesday afternoon at my friend Judi's back yard patio, we sat enjoying a beautiful Sierra mountain afternoon.  The sun was shining, the breeze was lovely and cooling and the wine was delightful.  The conversation was effervescent and the day was a delight. We had started the day off with a great breakfast of bacon, eggs, fruit and orange juice on the deck and quickly decided that this was going to be a day of "relaxing and enjoying the great outdoors."  After breakfast, that turned into a morning of short naps. I took the first turn of laying on the floor with a pillow on going off for about 30 minutes of "power napping" and then getting on with some person business on the Internet. Judi decided to get some things done around the house and just "play it cool and take it easy" for once in her very busy schedule.  Since she rarely has a whole  day off, this was a unique opportunity for her to take a "short snooze".  So while...

Friday was definitely the day for visiting history.  First it was the Crater of Diamonds, to find precious and semi-precious stones.  Then it was a trip to the historic town of Washington, AR and the state park to see how things looked from 1824 to 1889. http://www.historicwashingtonstatepark.com Washington , AR is a lovely museum village that preserves and interprets the history of the 19 th century town.  At that time Washington was a major commercial and professional center in southwest Arkansas .  It was the home of the Bowie Knife and a major stopping point for travelers heading down the Southwest Trail as well as serving as the Confederate State Capital of Arkansas from 1863 to 1865.  The town is being fully restored so that it shows what life was like in the mid 19 th century of the south. As we drove into town we could see some beautifully restored building and some with scaffolding around it in the process of being restored.  There are many h...

Diamond hunting… now who’d-a-thunk that was possible just an hour from the house.   Well, Jenia and I found out on Friday when we went to Crater of Diamonds State Park a few miles from Murfreesboro , AR.   http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com Just the drive there was quite beautiful.   When I think of Arkansas I kind of think of shacks in the rural parts and not much else.   But when you travel the back roads, as we did on Friday, you become entranced with the beauty of the countryside.   Sure, there are the rural shacks and the cars scattered in the yard, but when you look at the other side of the road you see some beautiful countryside with huge trees and the occasional small stream.   I commented while we were driving that this trip surely qualified as part of my blog of “back road traveling.” Fortunately the Garmin GPS took us on the round-about roads and that was fine with us because we got to see so much of the rural area. Had we taken the inte...