Well spring is on the way, buildings going up near us. A neighbor has just finished a large out building to store his farm implements in. Also the vacant lot next to us is having a house built on it this year, construction to start soon. I hope they are prepared for the cost of building materials these days. Wow, have they gone up. Anyway life seems to be reawakening and so are Lesley and I. We both have been vaccinated now and are ready to start doing something, but hard to find a good place to go these days.

Lesley has a severe case of cabin fever and really wants to go somewhere overseas, but most countries are still not accepting tourist type of travel even if you are vaccinated. She really wants to take mum’s remains back to her home of New Zealand, but that does not look likely this year. She is discouraged over that as she would like to be there in September for her son’s 50th birthday, but that will likely not happen.

She has been looking at a do over trip to Hawaii which we did last year just before the pandemic started. She gets daily updates on what is possible now, but I expect her to wind up in Hawaii again soon. I will not be traveling with her wherever she goes since somebody has to take care of our 14 year old frail dog Tippy. Long time readers might remember just after my stroke I asked readers of this blog to help me out by naming the then puppy. A member of this board suggested Tippy and so the dog was named. That lady has the only picture of Tippy autographed by us when Tippy was a puppy. She has been a truly great pet for us and deserves special care now in her sunset years.

i am trying to get out of a lazy funk I have slipped into with the self isolation we have been doing since this pandemic started. Now that we are vaccinated I feel I can start doing more, but now I just have to get the energy back. Outside honey do chores await and the usual springtime maintenance on the motorhome awaits me, washing, waxing, lubricate all sorts of things, oil change, etc, etc. fortunately I have spent the past year doing a lot of routine exercise so I feel good and have my strength back. No excuses I guess.

my music hobby has been going well recently. Those readers that have played music for many years would likely laugh at my meager efforts, but I am seeing some progress. I am now learning how to chord which since my 75 year old left hand fingers do not move all that well is a real challenge. When I started playing a year ago I never expected to chord. I am now starting to play with a friend who has played for many years and that is really helping. Another trick I have learned is that before playing I put my left hand in warm to hot water for a few minutes. That seems to limber up the fingers and playing goes better. Another really neat opportunity unexpectedly came my way a few weeks ago. I was able to have a personal two hour lesson by a former national champion dulcimer player that lives a few hours away from us. We had a great time (I did anyway) and I learned sooooo much from him and the door is open for more if I wish to pursue it. I expect I will go see him a few times a year. It will take me several months to digest all he gave me to do.

Medically we are both doing pretty well considering we are both in our 70’s and I am a stroke survivor. More aches and pains than we would like, but both still active and looking forward to whatever the new year holds.

time for tea.