Phannie

Phannie
Photo taken near Monument Valley, Utah

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Settling In for the Holidays

At the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, Willis, Texas...

Now that the flea market frenzy is over and there is only a wisp of smoke emanating from my depleted wallet, we are settled in here until early January, when we will be attending another Tiffin owners club rally in Marble Falls, Texas. Before that, however, we will probably be stopping in Austin for a brief visit with our pals Steve and Jackie, who also own a Phaeton and will be accompanying us to the rally.

On our way back from Canton, we stopped in Nacogdoches, my home town, to visit old friends John and Pat, with whom we had a nice seafood dinner. We also visited my aunt Joyce who, at 92, is just about as spry as someone thirty years younger. Would that all of us could have such genes:


Thank you, Aunt Joyce, for the wonderful pecan pie you made for us; your cooking skills are just as good as ever.

We spent a good deal of time riding around town, remembering how things used to be and seeing how much had changed. For some reason, these visits seem a trifle maudlin as the memories flood back. That feels odd, since the memories were mostly good ones, but I think they were accompanied by the reality of knowing that the people with whom I shared those good times are largely gone, except for just a few. Thomas Wolfe was right: You really can't go home again. Well, yes you can, physically, but the magic of the experiences of youth will forever remain out of reach except through memories.  

We stopped for dinner in Lufkin and, by pure happenstance, found ourselves in the same restaurant as a friend and former employee, Ray, and his wife Carolyn:


I owned a trucking business in Lufkin many years ago, and Ray was just a likable young pup when he began to drive for me; I think it may have been his first job. By his calculation, it had been 44 years since we had last seen each other, and it was a sweet reunion. We will look up these fine folks next time we're in town, for sure.

Back in Conroe, we are staying busy with the never-ending periodic visits to dentists and doctors, who largely keep us alive with modern chemicals. We're not complaining, though; retirement is only as good as your health, really. We're still sorting through thousands of old photos and slides--something we should have finished years ago--and culling out unimportant ones (which should be most of them, if we're doing it right) before digitizing them. 

And then there are the grandsons, of course, whose energy knows no bounds and who keep us laughing as we near exhaustion when they're around. Here are a couple of photos of Mason and Pryce, who found one of my old pilot's uniform caps:


I thought this was a great photo of Mason and his mom and grandmother:



I also need to tell you about a cool new porch light that I acquired for Phannie. I had mentioned to friend and fellow Phaeton owner Steve that the little led bulbs in my old porch light were burning out, and he dragged out this one that he had just purchased himself:


For about 50 bucks, this has some neat features, including motion sensing, a photocell to keep it shut off in the daytime and a coach battery voltage monitor, of all things. 

After ordering it from Camping World, the question was, who will install it?  I suppose I could have, but that sounded a lot like w*rk, something that is now, for me, the eighth deadly sin.  Not wishing to fall into perdition in this way, I enlisted the aid of son-in-law Tyler, a towering hulk of a guy who can fix most anything he doesn't choose to demolish. He readily agreed and had the old light off and the new one installed in no time, complete with silicone waterproofing. And guess what? The mounting holes on the light matched the OEM holes perfectly! Pretty smart design, huh?


I really like this light; it's pretty doggone bright, and it seems to work exactly as advertised. Thank you, Tyler, for being a good guy and doing stuff for me.  (This won't be the last.)

And so it goes; a happy Christmas season is approaching for our family. May God's blessings be manifested for you and yours during this festive and holy time.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I fail to appreciate it 
as I should each day.

I would rather see the world and own little than to own the whole world and see little of it.  
--Alexander Sattler




10 comments:

  1. So true that things are never the same when you try to go "home again," but still, and awful lot of fun to check things out. . .

    Your grands are adorable, and thank goodness for boys, whose arms you can twist into doing projects. We always seems to be in a different state when there's a project our boys could help with. Good timing on yours!

    Have a wonderful, wonderful holiday. Sure wish you guys were headed this direction!

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    1. Thanks, Janice! And who knows? We're talking about heading out around the gulf coast in January. We might run into you (figuratively speaking, of course)!!

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  2. Exactly true about going home things are never the same as the memories are. Home is where we are right now until we leave. s\
    Love those motion sensor lights but have not bothered to get one yet

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    1. Hi, George! Yeah, I'm a gadget freak. I'm pretty happy with this one--and especially since I didn't have to install it.

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  3. Happy pre-Christmas season! Enjoy all the good things ahead.

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    1. Thank you, Patsy; may the Christmas season bring joy to you and yours.

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  4. I have to agree on going home also, great memories but not the same. Thanks for the tip on the motion sensor light, having been looking to get one.
    Wishing you and Sandy a Very Merry Christmas, safe travels and health for a happy 2018.

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    1. Hi, Bill! I had been looking for a light for a while, and I was glad my friend got it first so I could check it out. I'm pretty pleased with it. It's bright enough to suit me, but not so bright that the neighbors complain. I would call that to be about right.

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  5. Whahoo....your coming to our hill country before the rally in Marble Falls! We thought that was a grand idea! I’m jerking Maddie’s baby seat out of my car so we can haul you two all over Austin! I think it’s about our turn! Steve is quite proud of your decision to mount the motion detector light and happy it works so well, your son in law is quicker than ours we are still waiting☹️ We have a restaurant we want you to try! Go figure....
    Merry Christmas see you soon!

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    1. We have a family event here that will not allow us to get away to Austin until about January 7. Then I guess we'll leave for the rally on the 9th or 10th. I'll nail it down soon; looking forward to seeing you guys.

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