Awake: 7:35am Temp 51 sleep 7+20 sunny overnight @ Bushnell, FL.
My buddy, Ray & I Skype for (25) min with good signals.
We leave @ 12:40pm, drive about (42) miles one-way & visit (2) couples we used to hang out with over the yrs in Alaska; Jeri & Gene + Jackie & Ben. They usually spend (6) months in Alaska during the summer & (6) months near the Villages (where they used to live) in Lady Lake, during the winter. Jeri gives us a house tour; much larger (about 2,000 sq. ft) than their place in the Villages with (3) bedrooms each with a walk-in closet. Ben & Jackie, who have bought a house just a few blocks from Jeri & Gene, arrive & we do some reminiscing, some updating & family talk, etc.
Jeri has a late lunch prepared & serves all (6): pork roast, corn, potatoes au gratin, coleslaw, apple sauce & brownies for dessert. Afterward, Jeri brings out a picture calendar that their friend Ann made & the ladies spent many moments identifying, naming, & reminiscing about each & every person they could find in the photos. We guys were simply dazzled & rendered speechless.
Later, Gene gave us a tour of his Stained Glass-making workshop; very impressive. Gene has been working with stain-glass for (20) yrs or more & he’s very good. He has a separate building for his workshop now rather than just a corner of the garage. Then Ben let me drive their Hybrid Prius; my 1st experience with an electric-diesel auto & I couldn’t help but be impressed. Then it’s time for our goodbyes for now; we haven’t seen each other for over (3) yrs so it was wonderful being with them again. We are back in our coach by 7:00pm.
We start watching DVR movie: “The Count of Monte Crisco.” Then I take a planned break to continue Skyping Ray in WA for another (20) min & a good signal.
Back to our movie for (25) min & then we decide we better call Gary J for his birthday before we forget; we plug in our splitter head set so we can both talk & hear @ the same time….only to find out: both his & Grace’s cell phone…no answer, so we left a message.
Back to the movie; it wasn’t but (10) min & Grace returns our call. Gary is in Chicago with their motorhome getting a replacement new awning. Grace will let him know we were thinking of him on his birthday. We did have a short but nice chat with Grace.
Back to our movie: about (7) min later, Melissa calls; we plug in our splitter headset to get the latest adventurous news. Last evening, Andrew was doing his falling on the living room couch routine when he fell too close to the other side of the couch & cut his tongue in (3) places; they rushed him to the ER & the doctor stitched his tongue in those (3) places. Melissa also reports: Kevin still has to manually start the furnace when they begin getting cold. We talk & listen for nearly an hr of mostly good stories after that. It was great having such a long, uninterrupted phone conversation with Melissa.
We return to our movie; then Katrina calls: she is on her way to her condo after spending some time at a neighborhood Christmas party where there were mostly “old” people. After picking up a bag of pretzels, she was on her way to another party where there would be mostly middle aged people
Back to our movie; Katrina calls at 10:50 once more on her way home. This time she will stay home, do some laundry, clean her room, & get ready for school tomorrow. She has had quite a busy weekend, spending Fri, Sat, & part of Sun, snow-shoeing up to the 3,000 ft mark & back down & camping in between,
We have no problem with incoming phone calls; we would rather hear from our kids/cousins/friends, etc then watch movies….so do call anytime (within reason). We like our splitter & the ability it gives us to both hear & speak during a phone call.
We end up watching about ½ of our movie & then….lights out: 12:43am
Leave a comment