Ok, So I Need To Blog Something

Seems like forever since I've written on my blog & right you are. It was before Thanksgiving. By now everyone is in the Christmas spirit of either shopping or baking. I wish I could do more baking for my family, but I don't think it would travel too well in my suitcase, so the less I bake, the less I eat. Although one of these days I will have to make a couple batches of fudge or sea foam to give away (I might eat one piece, ya right!).

Last week when I was reading my friend LaVon's blog (Baker's Blessings), I saw this picture & asked if I could borrow it for my blog. I sent it to my nephew who is a welder. I thought it was a neat Christmas tree project for him. It is made from horse shoes. Really neat idea. So David, here you go...gifts for the family next year!
I've been getting a few more scratch art pictures done since class began last month. Most of them are gifts again. I hurried up & did the surfer to put in my Christmas package to my granddaughter. I couldn't find what I was looking for at the Market Place at 2 parks out here, so I opted to hurry up & do this one. I worked fast, but it went well. Let's just hope she doesn't read my blog before Christmas.
Elk
The weather has been quite cool the last few days. I guess you can say winter has arrived in Arizona. But I keep thinking at least our day time highs are warmer than back home. As I look above at my computer it is now 25 deg. in Warren, PA. It is 58 here. We have been down in the 40's at night & the furnace has been running at night. I'm not one of those people who turn their thermostats down at night. I already paid for the LP gas, I'm going to keep warm!

Speaking of keeping warm.....if we hadn't gotten things straightened out today, we might not have been able to run the furnace! We have been having trouble with our 12V lights blinking a lot for quite a while. Lately when the furnace kicks on they draw way down. Well, for those of you who don't have an RV, you probably won't understand about inverters or converters (we don't really understand it all either!). But after 4 gentlemen coming to our rescue today we think we've got it fixed. Roger showed up at our door this morning with his battery tester. He & Bill proceeded to eliminate one thing or another while I kept busy turning on 12v lights & the furnace. He was pretty sure it was the battery since it would draw down so much when the furnace kicked on. We got Gene's battery charger, but then started reading the trailer book & decided we didn't dare put that on without another opinion. So Gene sent us to Jim in the park. Okay, so now we have 4 opinions. Bill was right. That little battery that comes with the RV isn't enough to keep up with our 12v needs even when we are connected to shore power. So thanks to Jim, we now have 2 parallel bigger batteries. Right now we can read without the lights blinking...and the furnace doesn't waver when we turn on a light. All we have to do is keep track of the voltage to make sure it isn't draining the batteries again. If that happens then we have a converter (I think) problem. Always something!

Today I got this cute email. I sent it to some of my readers, but in case you didn't get it I wanted to share it. It sounds so much like "someone you might know"!

RETARDED GRANDPARENTS (This was actually reported by a teacher)

After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school..

One child wrote the following:

We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa.

They used to live in a big brick house but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Arizona. Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass.

They ride around on their bicycles and wear name tags because they don't know who they are anymore.

They go to a building called a wreck center, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now, they do exercises there, but they don't do them very well.

There is a swimming pool too, but they all jump up and down in it with hats on.

At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it.. He watches all day so nobody can escape.

Sometimes they sneak out, and go cruising in their golf carts.

Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And, they eat the same thing every night --- early birds.

Some of the people can't get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked center for pot luck.

My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too..

When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.

.... PRICELESS

Tonight we are going to play cards with friends from Georgia (MaryJo & Frank) at their motor home. We've decided to drive the truck since it is too cold (& dark) to ride our bikes, & Bill doesn't like to walk in the cold air. Too hard to breathe.

Tomorrow morning will be church & then in the evening they are starting a Bill Gaither video concert series. One of my favorites, so I'm sure that will be our Sunday evening.

Next week I start helping with a Microsoft Word class for 3 evenings. That will keep me off the streets for 3 nights anyway.

So, until next time.................The Traveling Cardinal's