Well, a New Year is here as the old ones slowly slides off into the sunset. 2021 was a very strange year with the entire World under the grips of the Covid –19 epidemic with all that it entailed. People are so frustrated at having to live by a set of rules which they consider are forced on them or having injections to safeguard their lives to the extent that it has caused unrest in many areas of the population. All kinds of theories are circulating resulting in many of that same general population plain flat out refusing to take the necessary precautions. From my perspective, each to their own but as I would rather be on the safe side, I had my two shots plus a booster, and I wear a mask out in public. My life is winding down naturally and I see no reason to quicken up my demise by not taking the right precautions. This is supposedly a free country so hopefully, 2022 will see the end of this pandemic and we can start living our normal lives again whatever they may be and the differences that people have over shots and Covid and other similar things will be behind us. Somehow though, I do not think that will the case as this is now already a divided Nation and not just about Covid.
I drifted off to sleep last evening to the sound of fireworks somewhere outside. Not in the park but probably one of the local neighbors. Shows how old I am getting when I am in bed at 10:15 pm on a New Year’s Eve although to be fair, I have never been one to really celebrate the coming of a New Year especially if the old year was good to me. except in my younger days of course. Then it was just another excuse to drink beer. Thinking back, 2021 apart from Covid, saw several changes in my life. As I started off the year, I split my time living in the Eagle, having parked it at Henly RV Park, and in also the house as I got it ready for sale. As much as I was ready to move into the Eagle full time, the ponds required a lot of my attention as did the preparations for the house sale so I just had to be patient. We survived the winter of February in Texas, the hardest one in living memory with some damage sustained to the Eagle due to frozen pipes and in July, with the house sold, moved full time to Henly RV Park staying there a couple of months before embarking on a trip to 4 different RV Parks, all in South and East Texas.
We planned to return to Henly for the winter but before taking that trip, and after much careful thought and consideration, I sold the Eagle and the Ford King Ranch truck in favor of a smaller Class C which is easier to drive and set up. The Class C is a Coachmen Leprechaun 28-footer and happens to be brand new. Not by design but because it was the only one available that suited my needs and purpose. She is grandly named Miss Daisy and will be our home for the near future, God willing, and the seas do not rise. I also bought a used 2018 Jeep for a tow vehicle to get us about with Miss Daisy parked. It is a nice car and only had 51,000 miles on it. Still, I miss that Ford Truck although as a parting gift to me, the Auxiliary Fuel tank went bad, and it cost me $5000.00 to get it fixed just as I was getting ready to trade it in. Money quite literally, down the toilet from my perspective.
With the house sold, no more worries about fish and ponds and money in the bank, me and my two little friends, Mikey and Sandy moved full time into RV’ing and are now almost old hands at it although, for those of you that follow this blog, know that mistakes still happen as they did by leaving the faucets running not once but twice even if it was an accident. Oh well, maybe I am not so smart after all.
The start of the New Year saw us take our first walk of not only the day but of the year. Thinking about it, I can only say that once a year and just could not resist. Whether she is setting a new precedent, or it was by pure accident, Sandy had us trucking around and by the end of the walk, we had covered 1.2 miles around the park. Great start to the day. With breakfast out of the way, I settled down to write and the dogs found their favorite spots to sleep off the morning exertions. I worked for a while until late in the afternoon before going into Dripping Springs as I needed to make a couple of stops. The first was at the Home Depot as I mentioned earlier that the deer were emptying the seed out of the feeders by tilting them sideways allowing the seed to fall on the ground and then into their hungry mouths. I think I have worked something out to help control this and bought a few items. More on that later when I try to make it work.
The next stop was my other favorite store now that my taste for Starbucks has waned for a bit and that was the HEB store. It was nowhere near as busy as the last time pre-Christmas so in no time flat, I had the few items that I needed plus a couple more and got out of there. The drive back to Miss Daisy was uneventful and I was met at the door by two dogs both demanding that it was time to go out. I made them wait just long enough to put the groceries away before we headed out the door. The weather was quite noticeably cooler and there was a definite chill in the air as we do have our first frost of the year forecast for early tomorrow morning. Hopefully, it will not drop too much, or we might be in trouble again with frozen pipes or worse. Altogether, I walked almost 2.7 miles, the dogs not so much as they did not do the two Super Stores.
Welcome to 2022.
Written 01/02/2022 – Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com