You may think that I’m being a little bit crazy here, and to be honest I would normally have to agree with you. But when I saw these mailboxes all gussied up like that my mind wandered to memories of wonderful vacations that I had spent in luxurious surroundings. Thoughts of Norman Rockwell settings of a time and a place when life was less frenzied, and more serene. Odd, I know, but there it is!

His sister Lillian has been living in Florida in Hobe Sound for the past couple of years and she has been trying to get us to come down and visit her for a couple of days. To be perfectly honest I think that maybe we should consider renting a place for the winter months for a year or two before we make the commitment to actually sell our house up here and invest in one of the homes in Hobe Sound Florida.

One of my concerns is that I keep remembering a former neighbor of ours that moved to a place on the east coast of Florida near Miami and then they were really sorry that they moved to that particular community. I remember that they were really excited because it was a gated community and they felt safer in a place like that, but after only one year of being down there they relocated because they said crime was too high where they were.

Another concern is the fact that we can’t get our money out of this house right now – we payed about $365,000 for this place back in 2006 and the real estate market tumbled and it is now only worth about $200,000 – which is what we owe on it! If we sold the house we live in right now we wouldn’t have any money to put down on a new place!  One thing that I’ve noticed about gated communities around here where we live right now is that even though they all have guard houses, the guard houses are never occupied by a guard. So what is the point, exactly? I know one thing is for sure, I’m going to do a ton of research before I move anywhere in the future – I don’t want any unpleasant surprises waiting for me!

It seems that all of our vehicles need immediate repairs.  Brakes, transmission, ignition switch, starter, serpentine belts, steering, new batteries! It’s going to cost a fortune to fix them all. I’m getting discouraged about keeping up with all of the costs of living.  And yet fixing the cars costs less than buying new ones. It’s not just about the monthly payments, although all of our vehicles are paid off. It is partly because the insurance payments would go up too. The vehicles don’t LOOK old and beat up, but they are getting old. I would like to just keep driving them forever. I hope things get better soon!

Recently I’ve been seeing the local ski club has been trying to organize a couple of Ski holidays in Whistler. To be perfectly honest I didn’t remember that Whistler was the site of the Winter Olympics a few years back. If I were thirty years younger I would jump at the offer to be part of the trip, which includes a chartered bus, ski accommodation in Whistler, all meals included and discount whistler lift passes.

But I am now a woman who has too many physical frailties to be able to go downhill skiing any more. Although from time to time I get to thinking that maybe, just maybe, if I got the chance to go for one more day of skiing, even if it was the bunny slope, I would love to go. And feel the rush of adrenaline that I get when I look up the mountain from the lodge and see the slopes waiting to be conquered one more time.

So in today’s mail is a post card from Tiffany, coming from Le Village Arc 1950 in France. The photograph shows a charming Les Arcs Accommodation; it looks like a wonderful skiing vacation village. Much like the village I stayed in many years ago when I went skiing in New England. Janene writes that the Apartments in Les Arc have great amenities and that she can ski right from their front door.

Brings back fond memories of my youth. Thank you Tiffany.

Some day I want to go on a vacation trip that includes going to the Grand Canyon. I figure that one of the reasons that I loved to downhill ski was because I loved to take in the beautiful panoramic views from up on the mountain. Seeing views like that with my own eyes seems to make me more appreciative of just how miraculous the creation of this world is. Whether religious, or scientific, it is still awe-inspiring and I enjoy it very much.

That brought back memories of when I used to go skiing when I was younger. That was so much fun. I used to tell people it was the most fun a person could have while still wearing all of their clothes! I miss those days a lot. So I told Jessica to come on over in a couple of days and I’d try to find them and lend them to her. After all, what are good friends for?

Can you imagine my surprise when I got a Facebook friend request out of the blue from a long-lost cousin of mine in England! Her profile picture looks just like I did ten years ago! Well, she is planning to have a big family reunion this coming summer and she was trying to find her relatives on the “other side of the pond” to invite.

She suggested that she could help us to find some London Apartments to stay in for a week or so and that we could use the time to do some sightseeing while we are there. That is something that I have always wanted to do – go to London and see all of the famous landmarks. I knew from my grandfather’s stories that he had come from London back in the 1920′s and yearned to go back there to at least put my feet on the ground where he was born and raised, but never thought it would happen. The chance now to go over as part of a big family reunion and all stay in some London Apartments and take in the sights is something I would hate to pass up! I sure hope we can swing it!

When I asked him if his compass had broken, or if his GPS unit had been hacked, he just laughed. He said that he did, in fact, go to Texas and traveled all over the state looking for work and simply could not find any work at all. And apparently he had run into some trouble that ended up in a fist fight with some local men at a nightclub and decided that it was in his best interest to get out of town. So he went back to his folk’s home in North Carolina for a few weeks and then was given some job leads in Toronto, so off he went!

The entire discussion reminded me of a few years ago when my sister accepted a job out in Los Angeles, and had to find some Los Angeles movers to help her with her relocation process. She told me that she had hired a Los Angeles moving company to do everything that needed to be done – even the packing! I thought that was amazing, I had never heard of a company that will do the packing for you in addition to the transportation! I wonder if the LA movers are the only ones that do that, or if it is a service available around the US and I just live under a rock.

Surf Camp offers surfing programs for kids, teenagers, adults, and families.  They offer day camps and overnight camps.  My sons are too old for the teenager’s camps, so they want to sign up for the overnight adult camp.  The overnight adult camp would be for one week, off the coast of North Carolina.  The camp takes them to several different islands for them to learn how to surf, and includes side trips that includes a boat trip to an undeveloped barrier island and a trip to the new 84,000 square-foot Fort Fisher Aquarium.

We all agreed that it was a darn shame that her table was ruined, and to make it even worse the company refused to pay her anywhere near the value of the table because they said it was so old that it wasn’t worth anything! And then they said that a little bit of carpenter’s glue would fix it as good as new. Obviously that was very distressing to Alecia, and she was asking us what course of action we thought she could take. Since she had not had the table appraised before the move, we agreed that there probably was not a whole lot that she could do other than to take the table to a restoration company and ask them to fix it as best as they can.

I used to date a man who loved trains.  I think in the end we broke up because he wanted to spend his every waking moment around/in/on a train, and he was neglecting our relationship just so he could be around trains.  So I think that is another big reason I don’t like trains!  Every time I see one, I am reminded of how I was dumped by the guy I was in love with for a train!

My husband never wanted to go to any of these, even though I DID want to go. Since he didn’t want to go, we never did go. Not once. I knew if I pushed the issue he would just pout and make me miserable with his passive-aggressive behavior, and it just wasn’t worth putting up with his crabby attitude.

We were married for thirteen years, and every year he would say he did not want to go. When we broke up, all of a sudden he started going to those Cape Cod family weeks! Wouldn’t you know it! When we were going through marriage counseling he admitted that there were a lot of times that he wanted to go and do things but declared himself uninterested and unwilling to do them simply because he knew that I wanted to do them and he wanted to prevent me from doing them. What a guy!

I’ve been to Cap Code once – to drive around the town, and never did get to leave the car. Maybe one day I’ll be able to actually go there and spend a couple of days and find out for myself why so many people like to go there!