Sidelined

The frustrations are ramping up as we cannot seem to get traction for any trips. We made a brief journey over Thanksgiving to Nacogdoches, Texas, my ancestral homeland, but that was it! We were so looking forward to our planned trip back to Corpus Christi last January, but the weather was horrible at the time. Our window of opportunity then closed, with work demands and Sandy's health challenges. She has suffered for months with knee problems and finally had surgery on March 29. Her knee is now remarkably better, but now she has been beset with a return of another very painful problem involving kidney function for which she had a difficult surgery in 2005. We are dreading the prospect of yet more surgery. So, Homer sits forlornly in his berth in Keller and the Hornet has probably grown moldy from underuse.

The doctor's prognosis for Sandy's knees has amounted to this: Avoid stairs or you will be back for more repair, and sooner rather than later. That pretty well cinches it--the big two-story house has to go. We didn't really need that unpleasant prognosis to convince us that a move is in order. Our only child, Mindy, has grown up and abandoned us for college, and for some time, Sandy and I have lamented the fact that we are roaming around in a 3300 sq. ft. house with five bedrooms and four bathrooms. Makes no sense whatsoever.

So, we're preparing this monster house for a sale. We've bought a smallish lot in a nearby area that will accept RV parking. Construction on our retirement stick house will begin in a couple of months. The new place will be single-story and about half the size of the monster. If I had my way, I think I will chuck it all and go to full-timing in the RV, but Sandy doesn't think she could bear not having some roots somewhere. She doesn't really mind traveling for long periods of time, but she cannot comprehend the "homeless" lifestyle of a fulltimer. For me, it would be a blessing. I truly detest the upkeep of a house and yard, and when Mindy gets out of college, I'm hoping to convince Sandy that fulltiming is the way to go...or, at most, to maintain only a minimalist stick house--such as the one we're going to build in a few months.

With the medical problems facing Sandy and the demands of getting rid of one house and building another, I think our travels will be a bit sparse this season. But stay tuned, as we'll will hopefully be shoehorning something in before long.