The New Year, 2024

Thank you God for this New Year. Thank you God for the last year. A year is like long day ODAAT.  Carpe Diem.  Thank you God for the present.

Thank you God for the weeks I had the pleasure of the company of Laura who returned to Canada yesterday. Thank you God that all our plans full filled and she remains safe and well.

Thank you that Madigan is just a joy..  He is sleeping now across from me on the other camper booth seat.  

Thank you God for this Camper and my truck. It gives me pleasure, being a living a work space so well designed and serving me now. Thank you for Star Link and this ipad.  Thank you for the refridgerator, the peanut butter and raspberry jam and the sandwich I’ve made at 330 am.  I have no idea why I woke so early. Bladder. I was having good dreams, fond encounters.  It was a delight to look on facebook and see the good times that people I know are having, their New Year’s Eve parties and their company. I am pleased and thankful for them.  Conviviality and companionship.

I’m feeling the solitude.  Laura’s departure has left me and Madigan alone. I had a memory of the solo Pacific crossing in winter my sailboat, doldrums and hurricanes.  

My anxiety meant I was in the future.  I was trying to worry against zen training about finances and health whereas here and now all I have is back pain and nothing a peanut butter and jam sandwich can’t cure.

I stepped outside in the night letting Madigan run free around this campsite. He bee lined to the neighbours trailer where Ted, their chihuahua puppy had last been tied.  I looked up at the star spangled sky.  I picked out the Big Dipper and imagined this was God’s blessings being poured down upon us. The moon was half full. I was in my tshirt and Calvin Klein shorts.  The weather was that nice.  Laura said she arrived in cold rain with snow forecast this week.  I had a long drive back from Phoenix, a day of 6 or 7 hours driving there and back. I found a good jazz and mellow rock radio station called “Border”.  They played a Steely Dan from 25 years ago and said their last album before that was 25 years. I thought of getting the album and remembered nights listening to music.  Music as the primary past time not as accompaniment.  I was inspired to find my travel guitar in the bedroom closet.  The closets need cleaning and organization.  I have to get back the things I put in the storage locker to make room for Laura.  I was using part of the bed for that purpose on the way down.  I booked another month here but then plan to drive on the weekend to San Diego and again travel on the next weekend north for a couple of days to shorten the length of time I’m continuously driving.

I don’t play guitar or sing as much since I found how deaf I’d become and began wearing hearing aids.  Then with Covid I began to wear gel nails continuously to stop me biting them. I’ve black nails now. Just before New Years I stopped at the salon and had them painted black.  

My motorcycle is on my mind. It’s in the shop waiting for an ignition module. I’ve brought this new Harley from Canada here on a rack I have on the front of the truck. It’s a major ‘thing’.  One more variable to add to the camper.  Yet here I am a month of a couple of month time in the dessert and I’ve not been able to ride my Harley.  I know it’s covid and supply lines.  Now there was a time when I’d be major upset and complain and be a nuisance and just maybe expedite matters. But Laura has been here and though I brought her helmet she doesn’t ride anymore. I’d hoped to cajole her but that was me not here. She’s slowed down and is dealing with her anxiety and resentment in her own way. I’m the one that is into adventure while she’s content to take less risks which we both are. For her she was intrepid to fly down to Phoenix, meet up with me, go to Mexico for the first time and have 4 root canals done there.  It had been 1-2 years in planning to check it out and to get Laura there. It felt good to do good and have the task completed. After that I missed having my motorcycle.  We made a coupled of extra trips to Los Algodones. I enjoyed getting new glasses while Laura was having dental work done

I’m enjoying the desert air. My aches are less. I mostly only feel my back pain at night in bed turning over.  During the day it’s not an issue walking the dog or going about leisure but is an issue if I try to lift or do anything out of the ordinary.  The motorcycle seating position is actually healing so I miss that. I also miss my inversion machine.  Maybe even the sleep apnea machine. My plan in being here is to be more healthy. I’m usually focussed on work primarily and surviving the stress of that endeavour. I’ll continue to work starting this week and look forward to that if only for purpose but also so that I have money coming in and can pay taxes license and all the rising cost of government administration mismanagement greed and stupidity.   

I’m no better. I’m looking at the Jensen radio cd player on the wall. I don’t use it. I forgot how to and rather than find a user manual on line I think of upgrading it.  Maybe when I get back Maybe I’ll find a user manual. If I were to retire I’d have to ‘budget’ and be more responsible but then I’d have more time to do these things I’m fixing the shower hanger in the bathroom simply because I had time and enjoyed going to the Rv hardware store.  Events like this are ‘outings’ like getting one’s teeth cleaned. Back home they are errands and obstacles because I’m so exhausted by work and the worry and stresses that people bring and the constant demand for perfection from the incompetent disgraceful government, 

Now I’m here and life is good I’m certainly grateful for the weather and my presence here healing in the heat and dry air. I don’t worry about Covid or respiratory illness.  I realized that last winter was stressful not just because of the cold but  because my toilet holding tank froze and took weeks and various trips to have it fixed all the while the weather was freezing and walking on ice was frightening.  I had another working toilet but it was just all that extra stress.  This year I’m reduced to a camper but everything is working and it got me here.  I’ve used up the savings I created to do this so want to work to pay the January round of licenses and taxes.  When I get back I’ll have to pass on all my accounting data and see the annual taxes done.  Running a business is more stress ful with the inflation but I figure I’m doing well compared to so many others. I have nothing to complain about really. All Cadillac problems .  My 2 friends have had major surgery, one their second hip replacement and other quadruple bypass. I’m praying for them.

I’ve done several meetings weekly now and getting more in the centre of the program. I was on the outskirts partly because I thought I’d go east to work but never made it. My brother’s death and Covid certainly through a monkey wrench into those plans. Now I’m trying to sell the boat I’d outfitted for doing an Atlantic crossing.  Yesterdays plans.  I motorcycle instead.  I drove a truck 2500 km or 1550 miles.  It’s 24 hours driving and why I’d like to reduce the distance by taking off for a weekend drive in 4 weeks.  I do 6 hours driving well a day whereas more is increasingly stressful. Interesting that’s the amount of mileage I did on the motorcycle.  I could do 12 hours in a car by comparison,  Carying the camper is more stressful with the motorcycle on the front rack.  

No wonder I woke up I had all these thoughts running around .  When Laura is here I can discuss them and get closure The hampster runs around in the cage till I put the brake on with journaling or discussion. Prayer helps .

Yuma, Laura joins us

I sometimes am quite amazed at all the moving parts in the grand adventure. I resist worrying. I have to. There’s so much that could go wrong but thankfully mostly everything goes right. I pray a lot.  Really a lot. 

Laura was afraid of making the Phoenix Yuma connection. There’s no direct flight or good connecting flights from Vancouver to Yuma. Laura’s sister was a stewardess and they both poured over the scheduled without finding anything that would not cause panic for Laura.  I finally said I’d meet her in Phoenix.  The flight from Vancouver to Phoenix was perfect.  I just had to drive 3 hours to get to her. 

Her flight was to arrive at 2 pm.  I decided leaving at 9 am would give me sufficient time. I’d drop off another load at the storage locker to make room for her and her stuffin the camper. I’d pick up my laundry I’d dropped off the day before at 9 am.  Then I’d be on the listening to the conclusion of the audio book, Louis Penny, Madness of Crowds.

I was again thankful for my Ford GPS guidance system.  It took me right to the employee parking lot of Sky Harbour International Airport.  Thanks to Google I was then able to find out Terminal 4 was where international arrivals and west jet came in.  I only had to circle the airport twice to find the turn off. Then I got into Terminal 4 Parking only to have my antennae hitting all the overhead pipes to my horror.  I was thankful to be park.  It seemed like my truck’s roof would be torn off countless times but only the antennae was scraping over head.

When I stepped out of the elevator with Madigan a delightful agent asked what I was looking for. I told him and he pointed to the arrrivals 30 feet away. The sign said the flight was on time.  I was a half hour early and had time to walk Madigan who was very excited with all the activity around the terminal.

Then she was there!  Madigan was beside himself, jumping up and down.  I was hugging her.  She was happy and we were all glad that the moving bits had aligned just fine. I was even able to find my truck on the second try and drive out of the parking lot to the sound of the antennae making recognisable music on the overhead pipes.  Still I was glad to be free of the parking long and back on the highway listening to the GPS lady’s directions

It was beginning Friday rush hour and a whole lot more traffic heading to San Diego than there had been coming in. I was glad to get off Hwy 10 and back on Hwy 8 heading home We stopped a couple of times and walked Madigan because he wouldn’t stop trying to hump Laura. He was great prancing about the desert as part of the gang but bored in the truck thought she was irristible. I had to hold him to my side but he still wined and complained. It was nice to stop in the dessert though.  I took Laura’s picture by a large Saguarro, the perennial cactus .

 The views driving were spectacular. It was great that the connections had been made and I’d even found my truck in the parking lot.  

Fortuna Road suddenly appeared and then we were here at Bonita Mesa.  My tiny home.  The camper we’d shared on many a hunting and camping trip in BC, here in the hot and dry beside Laura Sumac and Spanish Dagger. The sunset was a spectacular yellow and orange as we pulled up to the camper.  

I left her to settle in and have a break from Madigan planning to pick up KFC chicken.  I found the Fry’s immense grocery story by Fortuna and Frontage road first.  The roast chicken was healthier and they had potatoe salads and lots of other things we’d need this week.  I bringing back bags of groceries and drinks. I heard Laura say what she always says, “but there’s no more room in the refidgerator.”   We made do

I portioned out soft drinks, roast chicken, and salad. Then it was lifting the tv off its bed room mount and setting it up on the kitchen counter to watch while we ate dinner.  This was something we did so many times before. I’d had steaks planned but forgot to take them out of freezer.  The chicken was terrific and we shared with Madigan who ate his fill.

Reacher, the Lee Child, creation, season 2 was on Prime. “My sister and John are watching this too,” Laura said. We all like Reacher.  Two episodes in we were ready for bed.  I replaced the tv on the bedroom mount.  

Madigan whined off and on through out the night because he couldn’t get up on the bed.  At home he’d be lying in between us but here he was forlon, jealous and miffed.  Also the propane ran out making it cold for the little guy around 5 am.  I got up at 8 and took him in the truck for more propane. 

Laura was up when we return. Instant oats and coffee.  Madigan had to be put in the truck to stop bothering Laura.  She’s had her shower and is drying her hair. She ‘s really beautiful looking good in the sand coloured Harley Davidson Yama t shirt I bought her,  

This morning we’re off to Mexico to make appointments for our dental visits. Sandra our much admired FB friend told us she loved St. Thomas so that’s our first choice. Laura’s not been so we’ve leave the truck on the American side and have a walk about Nogales, I’d like to find the hearing aid folk and get a couple of pairs.  Another couple of pairs of glasses are planned. We’ll watch for gifts for the nephews and for Laura it’s her grand kids.  Last time I was there on a Saturday they had a band playing in the park.  

I love the atmosphere in Yuma but the Mexican enthusiasm is such a contrast and fun.  Yuma is the snowbird capital of the west with all us older folk visiting right now I met a ‘senior’ from Oliver yesterday. Nogales by contrast is young and professional. The town is full of health care workers . 

Laura is cutting down the bouquet of flowers I bought her, They have to sit in a cup because I’ve not got a vase. Something for the list as I do enjoy getting her flowers on occasion She brightens up our life,  That’s for sure. Madigan is such a dog and I can tend to all work and no play.  

I’m enjoying having a ‘holiday’ today.  Yesterday was the ‘work’ of picking up Laura and all week I’ve been doing virtual work despite the failure of the Telus roaming and rescue of T Mobile and Star Link that kept the process going.  Next week I have about 20 hours of clinic and then Laura and I have a true holiday for another 10 days, off the clock.  We can focus on self care. I’ve got the lawn chair set up outside and expect to get a couple of hours of tanning mid day.  I’m scheduling this as an important rest and recuperation activity.  

I walked Madigan to the dessert where he did his business. It’s a good walk so he’s doing his physio therapist work.   I’m just needing to do more stretching and exercising to hopefully address the bank pain and instability.  This hot desert clime is so good for lungs and joints.  I’m blessed to be here.

I’m blessed to have Laura here now too. 

Thank you God . Thank you Jesus.!!!!