viajando05

Hi! Thanks for checking in. We are into the heart of a Texas fall. We don't usually get color here until November, and then it's fairly pretty. We have had a really active year with literally dozens of little trips sandwiched between a couple of big ones. My publishing company is attracting interest from a variety of people and places, I'm happy to report. Check out the link at the right. 

AS WE SPEAK

One of the most fun trips this year was to leave a steamy August in Texas for the COLD, FOGGY, MISTY weather of Carmel, CA. We liked the whole area and did all the predictable things. Best of all was the wedding of dear friends in one of the old missions. 

We have also been making the trek to Kansas more often. Paola ( a small county seat) continues to grow on us as one of America's most delightful small towns. Only 40 or so miles south of Kansas City, it has all the charm of little town American life with a city nearby for occasional shopping. I have thoroughly enjoyed reestablishing family life -- something I really missed with a Navy career.

 I spent September in Santa Fe, another place I'd like to call home at least occasionally. Although the beauty there isn't as staggering as the Grand Tetons, for example, I love the change of seasons, the quietness, the back country, and the pace.I was able to work there, much to my happy surprise.

what are we up to?

Five years ago, David and I could not possibly have even imagined the kind of activities we have today. We knew we would have to reinvent ourselves in retirement, but we didn't have a sense of what that might be. Today David calls himself (with a chuckle) a farmer, and I appear to be a publisher. Who knew???? We also seem to have a new hobby. We now find ourselves making weekly trips to old, dusty antique shops around Texas in search of vintage sheet music and dairy bottles. We have acquired both these habits from my uncle. There's really not much to like about an antique shop: the smell, the dust, the idea that most of the stuff belongs to old, dead people, etc. I have never seen so many dishes in my life. Many of these places have little sandwich parlors attached, where, if you are lucky, you can get a raisin and walnut salad on a bed of something right out of the pasture next door. You can overhear the little old ladies at the next table discussing their pastors, their mothers, or their scrapbooks. I don't like to talk about any of those things. Well, ok, maybe scrapbooks. David and I discuss where we'll go next week.

I've equipped the car with a bucket of antique shopping paraphenalia: vats of Purell, boxes of kleenex because all the dust makes my nose run, antique roadshow newsletters showing every possible old place one could shop in a given radius, and Snickers for when it gets really bad.