AND WE ARE OFF!!

 I SURVIVED NEW YEARS 2024-2025!  And no, we really aren't OFF to anywhere but into the new year.  One day down, 364 to go.  Ergo, 364 chances to remember to take more (and better) pictures.

What could be better but kitty pics?  Meet Snoopy.  This little rescue turned out to be one of those sweet ones who follows her Mom around like a shadow.  They forgot to tell Dan that she didn't really like MEN.  Though she will allow male "pets and rubs", she will not climb up into, nor sit in a man's lap.  Surprisingly, she likes me too, since she will actually jump up in my chair for some love.  If Patty is not to be seen however, she will wander the house meowing until she comes home.

Meet Missy ... another rescue found on an RV trip through Idaho I think it was.  She wasn't particularly fond of ANYONE at first, including Snoopy ... but the family of four learned to get along in their big RV in spite of the close quarters.  Both of these kids have traveled more miles than most people.

And so after I got in my morning Kitty fix, I turned on the Chance TV for the Rose Parade.  It brought back lots of memories of cutting flower stems to the exact length required, dunking small glass vials into ice cold water, into which the stems were stuffed.  Not hundreds, but thousands.  In a big huge barn.  With NO heat!  

That was a wonderful experience brought on by Barbara and Tom Westerfield who went down several years to help decorate the floats.  I drug along another RV friend and we stayed at the Elks Lodge not far away.  What an experience it was!!  This was the Elks U.S.A. float for this year.

My second favorite was this backyard train that went around the tiny village and even through a tunnel.  What fun would it be to have this in your back yard!

In the meantime, Patty slaved away in the kitchen making WAFFLES!!  Where's the REAL picture you ask?  Well that's my New Year's resolution ... try to remember to take pictures before you inhale those waffles.

Of course I had mine absolutely SWIMMING in pure Canadian Maple Syrup!!!  YUM!!

I tried to catch up on a little sleep after a night of carousing fireworks, but it was not to be.  Instead, Patty and I sat out on their back patio admiring the view and the multitude of quail that they feed every day.  This is the gourmet kitchen in the BACK yard, and there is another in the FRONT yard.  These blocks don't even last a week before they disappear.  

In no time there were a dozen or more quail, chortling the entire time.  When this little group is full, they move off and the next covey moves on up.  Patty and Dan have now adopted about 300 quail!!

We skipped lunch and I headed off to see if I could locate the engine battery disconnect.  Come to find out, the battery is under the floorboard.  Way over there near the weird looking accelerator, there is a panel that they say will come open, in order to disconnect the battery.

I finally got it open ... the one with the weird pictures that mean absolutely nothing to me, and couldn't see a thing.  With my head resting on the brake, I held my phone in my left hand to see inside.  It appears there is something with a red button.  Yup that's it .. push down on the button and pull to the right.  I should have been born left handed.  There's no way you can get your right hand into that hole.  

I didn't try too hard because I didn't want to get electrocuted, but I was finally able to reach in with my left hand and push the button.  Pulling it to the right didn't happen.  And if I DID get it off, how the heck will I get it back on?   Needless to say, I gave up, at least for the time being.   I'll try again later when my back isn't yelling at me.

The best news of the day however, came when Mr. Chance, who is a whiz on internet searches, came up with an installer of the Winegard traveler RV dish, the same one I had on my other two rigs.  Not here, but in Quartzsite no less.  I'm not sure if they will work on vans, but I'll be calling them today.  

The night brought out a weird moon, along with cold winds.  There is only a sliver of new moon visible with my eye, but my camera picked up the ENTIRE moon.  That's weird ........  

Patty and I have been discussing a trip to the fabric shop, but in the same breath we both say BUT WE AREN'T BUYING ANYTHING.  We have WAY too much fabric already.  So I rather imagine it will be a nice quiet day of enjoying good company, the critters and the warmth of the desert.