Mid Winter Break......Post Views 9592

Hello Once Again!   Happy New Year!!  Welcome 2014!!

      I was on mid-winter break.  That sounds much better than saying I simply checked out for five days. 
      Actually I am considering different ways of expanding my blog.  Since I didn't know how to or have any fresh ideas, I "simply checked out for five days".  Sure hope all you, my faithful readers, have not checked out on me.  
      Sunday I was tired from hosting Grandma G's Christmas so slept away the afternoon and watched TV all evening.  
      Monday I got busy and caught up on laundry, figuring out various items to return to stores, and, and, and?  At my age it is easy to forget what one has done.  
      Tuesday was a big day.  Got myself up for water aerobics.  The next several hours were spent getting ready for "dinner out" with folks from the neighborhood.  At 4 PM.  That is to beat the crowds (and so some can be home for their evening routines and early to bed).  We went to Black Angus steak house.  The meal was good and I met a couple new to the park.  We had good conversation. 
      Upon returning home about 6 PM I was all excited because I decided to go to a single's dance.  I was feeling energetic, felt like dancing and meeting new people---single guys.

       It's my first night out alone in Vancouver, WA. Woo! Woo!

  I left after 20 minutes.  The strobe light in a dark room with people sitting along the walls just didn't do anything for me. 

Figured the party at the neighborhood club house was more rockin.   It was.  I watched 4 couples play a card game called Sequence.  Then we all went our own way at 9 PM.  Goodbye 2013.  You are ending on a quiet note.  I did feel warm all over...... 

 ......after checking the weather in Park Falls, WI.  I was 65 degrees warmer all over. 
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                        HELLO  2014!!!  
       Watching the Rose Parade from Pasadena, California is a great way to start out a brand new year.  Two sisters, Kate and Betsy, from Indianapolis were there somewhere in the crowd. They had invited me to join them but it didn't work out.  I'm sure they had a great 5 days in Pasadena.  They fly home tomorrow with visions of flower buds and people dancing in their heads.  
      So....2014 started the same way 2013 ended....quiet.  Which isn't all bad.  I am looking forward and eager to get on with life here in VC for the coming year.  
      Today, Thursday, a new motor was installed in my furnace.  I got a peek at the "crawl space" under my house.  I did not crawl under there but when the "air doctor" did I was able to get glimpse of it.  So now the furnace motor does not sound like metal scraping on metal or someone rolling a metal ball up a metal hill.  Yeah!  I was telling (and asking) the repairman that the house still feels chilly when the thermostat is showing 72.  He concluded that the fault was either with the thermostat or with me.  I was happy when he discovered that indeed the fault was with.....the thermostat.  
       

 I feel a connection with the Antarctic scientists and tourists who were stuck in ice for the past week.  On the BBC news today they said how the ice breaker Aurora Australis was there to receive them from the Chinese helicopter and to take them to Tasmania.  I observed and took this photo of the ship 4 years ago when Kate and I were visiting Tasmania. (That was such a fun time.  I had always wanted to visit Tasmania.) 


This evening treated us to the most beautiful sunset I have seen here in VC.  Such a lovely pink and blue sky.  
  

    








      So, loyal readers, keep reading (preferably, my posts).  2014 promises to bring more new and fun adventures for Grandma G.  
Perhaps a new and improved blog.  One grandson said it would be more popular if it weren't so boring.  He recommended adding games to play. 

  This has been a good 5 "mid-winter break" days in the life of Grandma G.

     "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life'."  (John 8:12)