Hundreds of dollars saved

I drove the RV. I really did it. I didn't run off the road, knock anything over, or scratch the side. I stayed between the lines, made great turn,s and stopped at the white line. And, Angela didn't have a worry. I was sure she'd be  scared to death, white knuckled, and sure I'd kill us all. But she wasn't. She was calm, nice, and complementary.

Here I was ready to spend bundles of money to have someone else teach me, and I have a perfectly wonderful and FREE instructor - Angela, of course.

Shame on me.

I should have given her more credit. I should have trusted that her transition would have made the difference -  and it has. Gone is the dictatorial, seething, near-shame based trainer. Instead, I had encouragement. I heard, "You're doing great.", "Keep it up.", and "Perfect." , and what's more, I got a kiss at the end of our drive.

 "How about more lessons?" I asked.

"Tomorrow," she said.

What more could a spouse ask for?

Up and Over

This was a I'm Glad It Wasn't Me day.You see, we were busy loading up the RV when Angela put the tow dolly on the back of the coach. Every thing was going just fine until she decided to load-up the car without ole vigillant eyes, me. Oh, she's put the car on alaone before, and she's even winched up smashed up race cars into place. I knew this was nothing particularly new. But, since we've had this rig, I'm usually out there giving the Left - Right - Move-up and Stop signals. Not this time, though. So, you can guess what happened. She went right up, over, and off without stopping. She came into the coach with a rather sheepish grin and said, "I, uhm, need your help outside."

That was putting it mildly. When I got outside, I couldn't stop laughing. There was my car (of course) straddling the tow dolly. The front wheels were not quite on the ground because the automobile was resting on its frame. "Now what do we do?" I asked.

"Well, the first thing we are going to try is to jack up."

"Uhm-huh," I said doubtfully. "Even once it's up, you have to get the wheels in place. So, we're going to be using lumber to make a ramp, right." She nodded, and we proceeded to raise the car, place lots of 4x4s and 2x4s beneath the wheels followed by a long piece so she could drive back into place. Naturally, we didn't have exactly matching piles of wood, but we managed.

I held my breath as she took her seat and grabbed the wheel. The engine started and ever so slowly, she backed squarely into the sweet spot. I motioned STOP, and it was done. We both let out a looong breath.

"Boy, it was a good thing you weren't driving when this happened," she said as she climbed out of the car.

"Me too," I said, laughed, and then gave her a kiss. "But I get to tell everyone."

A Crappy Weekend

Okay, I confess that it wasn't all crappy, but . . .

You see, it all started durring a lovely RV outing. We had a wonderful time with everyone in our delightful RVing Women's group. The food, conversations, and doggies and kitties were great, but Saturday was very wet. I love my dogs, but neither wet fur and muddy feet, nor removing stickers are high on my Fun Monitor. After a riotious Trailer Trash dinner with the group, we returned to our coach to prepare for a quiet, dry, peaceful night. Angela went out to dump the tanks while I took the puppies for a walk. When I returned, Angela was still outside. I opened a window and asked, "Need help?"

"Nope," came the reply. Ten minutes later, however, she said, "Okay, I need you outside."

That did not bode well. First of all, it was raining madly, and it was 11:30, well passed Angela's bedtime.

"It seems the RV park's sewer hook up for our rig is backed-up or blocked," Angela said. "The rain could be the cause, but if that was so, the whole park would be in trouble. So, that means we're stuck with the problem. Of course, the office is closed too."

She didn't have to tell me that meant we really had a problem. What were we going to do with a sewage hose full of well, sewage? The good news was that the park link in the spot next to us was working. But, it was 40 feet away. Fortunately, we carry extra sewage hose for this sort of problem. Unfortuately, we usually know about the issue before we are hooked up for two days and can make the alterations before any thing fills the hose.

I could see by Angela's bussling around, getting out hoses, and thoughtful expression that it was going to be me holding our 'difficulty" for this switcheroo. I had visions of spending all day Sunday cleaning up a huge, smelly, yucky mess, even though it was not technically our fault.

With a great deal of care, Angela removed the sewage line from our rig and with much trepidation coaxed a bit more sewage into the park's input, unhooked it, and dripped more yuck into the near overflowing gap. Then, with a towel wrapped around it, just for me, she handed me that end too. Now, a 20' long 3" diameter hose filled with gunk is heavy, and rain was rapidly dropping into the upturned ends - splash, splash, splash - as I stood there with my hands full and my nose turned away.

She gingerly put extensions on each connection, hooked up to the rig, and then we inched our way over toward the new hole. She connected it slowly, but nothing happened! Dang. Okay, worse than Dang. You see, the new receptical was ever so slightly uphill. We have an 8 foot declining contraption to help with that, BUT, we now had 60 feet of hose slanting the wrong direction. It was not going to drain.

After the cloud of blue words dissipated, we got down to pulling lumber out of the rig's storage areas, looking for rocks, sticks and anything else we could use to overcome the problem.

It took half an hour more, but in the end, sewage was flowing, we'd had a nice warm shower and a few laughs. We crawled into bed and I said, "I'm so glad you thought of that towel."

Yes, it's a great thing to be married to a T.

Pop! Zzzzzt! Fire! Dast Oh Dear! Damn!

Yes, that's what happened. First came the POP, then the Zzzzz. I went to investigate figuring the dog had pulled a kid's toy over and broken it. No such luck though. I stepped into the laundry room and flames were shooting out of an outlet. Now, that gets one's attention immediately. I'm all ready paranoid about fire (having been in a couple of small ones), so this was frightning to me. I yelled for Angela who was outside, yanked out everything that was plugged into that wall, got the fire extinguisher, and yelled for Angela again, "Fire! Fire!"

The flames were gone as quickly as I'd seen them and called out the door, but Angela came rushing in, "Fire? What? When? Where?"

I pointed to the singed area around and below the socket. "We're going to sound like that Abbott and Costello Who's on First routine in a minute," I reply. "We had 2 inch flames pouring out of there a minute ago.".

"We need to check other sockets all over," she said. So, we went through the house, garage and shop to see if there was any other damage.

Of course, there was all sorts of electrical units that smelled like fried eletronics. My computer was first on the list. "Dast Oh Dear." Thanks goodness for back ups and thumb drives. A clock was a goner, so too the toaster, blender, DVD player, and other small appliances. Every now and then we still find something else that was damaged in the episode. "Damn."

Angela fixed most of them, including my computer. Bless her little Novel Engineer heart. The rest we just replaced over time. Wanna know what the cause was? A gopher. He ate through our land line from the transformer to the house! PG&E had to replace the whole thing, so we were without power for several days (thank goodness for our RV coach - no it wasn't plugged in at the time).

Yep, this is just another Best Thing About Being Married to a Transsexual.

Pumphouse Blues

"It appears your pump is dead, and your grass is not doing well," said the gardener over the phone. "We're expecting hundred degree temps this week too."

This is not a good thing to hear when home is in California, and we are in New York. Needless to say, we headed home. It's not quite a 3,000 mile trip, so it was not exactly an overnighter, given that we were traveling by RV. We had one planned stop we had to make. That added two additional days to our all ready 6-day trip.

"It's the motor, not the pump," said the repairman the day after we finally arrived home to browning grass. "We can fix it in one day, but you'll have to trim some of these trees so we can get the truck with the winch into your back yard."

Now, if you've been reading this blog, you know what I think about having Angela up in trees. However, given the circumstances, and with me standing by with 911 on the speed dial, we began two days of tree trimming. We also had to take the roof off the pumphouse.

We filled the dumpster to overflowing with branches, and then had another huge pile to fill it again the next week left over. The motor was done the next day.

Our poor grass, trees and few remaining flowering plants sucked down water three times a day for four days before we saw the first signs of green shoots again. The RV finally got emptied and cleaned out. Whew!

We finally stop singing the Pumphouse Blues.

Saved by the T!

Whew! Talk about being lucky, Angela saved the day again! Not only did she save the day, she saved our lives. On top of all that, she made us very comfortable as well! Okay, here's the story. You know we go RVing, and this past week was no exception. We had a lovely stay with the Rainbow RV group at Morro Bay. We had glorious SUN (which we don't see a lot of in Fresno), too much wind, just the right amount of wind, and perfect temps mid day.

The first day started out just fine except for a cold wind which pretty much ruined our evening gathering since it was outdoors. Because it was so windy, we pulled our 4 slides in (it was too noisy otherwise). When we did that, we noticed we had no heat in the front of the coach. After putting the slide in and out a couple times, everything was working fine again, so we went to bed. The next morning, Angela said she'd "worried through the night." So, she decided to "check it out." Good thing! What we had was a kinked gas line! I don't know if you know much about propane, but it's deadly - as is most gas when it gets out in an enclosed space. We hadn't sprung a leak yet, but because the hose flexed and kinked-depending on where the slide was, it was obvious it was eventually going to break/spring a leak/open a hole. Of course, it was Saturday, and we were in a small town we weren't familiar with. It was also 4:30 p.m. which meant anything open was likely to be closed in 30 minutes. Angela turned off the gas and set about removing the line. The RV folks told us of a local hardware store, and Angela dashed off to find them. The nice folks at this ACE Hardware (that's a plug folks) helped her get all the connectors and so forth. She was soon back to work replacing the whole thing, and redesigning how it would be routed so we wouldn't have the same problem again. After it was all said and done, she admitted, "I didn't think I'd be able to do that." That's a first for her! She can fix almost anything, and I just assumed, because of that, that she had worked with gas lines before! I was blithely unworried as I handed her tools and held the flashlight for her. As usual, though, she did a perfect job. So, she saved the day, our lives, and our comfort, as we'd have frozen our buns off if we hadn't had heat all night! She is a wonder, and yep, this is just another "Best Thing About Being Married to a T!" I am very thankful for her "can do" attitude, and her willingness to tackle new projects. Her mechanical abilities never cease to amaze me. She later said it was because she had so often replaced hoses on cars that she was willing to tackle this job without fear. Most of us "girls" don't have the experience with cars that most guys do, so again her "guy knowledge" came to our rescue - without the attitude though! Boy, am I lucky to be married to a T!

My transsexual nurse

It was my turn, I guess. I've always played Nurse Nellie when David/Angela managed to have any of his or her variety of accidents. They ranged from falling off a ladder - once as David and once as Angela; two heart episodes, again one as each; many bangs, bruises, cuts and gashes. I've been the one with the hydrogene peroxide, gauze, ace bandages, neosporine et al. I've also been the one who insisted, "We're going to the hospital on this one."

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, and there was no rain in the forecast for at least two days. It seemed the right day to spray the "No-Vegetation-Forever" weed killer. Our RV parking area was overgrown, and the sprouting vegetation in our driveway was forcing cracks open in the asphalt. So, I got busy. What I didn't do was pay attention to where my head was. Yep, I gave it a solid clunk on the corner of one of the RV room extentions. I assured myself of no serious injuries, and then I made several rude remarks to the offending corner and about my own inattention. I was soon back to work, however, although well away from the RV. Ten minutes passed, and then I noticed something dropping from my nose and then off my chin. I blinked away a bit of dampness on an eyelid, and puzzled, I reached up to see what the heck was going on. My forehead was covered in blood, and it was rapidly dripping down my face. I headed for the woodworking shop where Angela was putting together her latest project for baby Brooke - a desk/toy box arrangement. She took one look at me, grabbed my arm and headed me toward the sink. Due to previous accidents of her own, all the necessities were readily available. After a thorough washing out, hydro-peroxide and etc, she applied pressure to the top of my head and marched me into the house for further aid.

I'm happy to report that, outside of a gash about 3/4" long on the top of my head, I'll survive. She wouldn't even let me go back outside. She picked up all my stuff, and then returned to make me a cup of tea and hand me my book. "You're in for the rest of the day," she said. See how lucky I am to have my own T nurse around. She continued to check up on me through the afternoon, touching up any oozing, administering gauze and refilling my tea. What more could a wounded, inattentive person ask for? Yep, this is another Best Thing About Being Married To A Transsexual.

Transsexual Bests after 42 years

Yeah, after 42 years we do finish each other's sentences. Not only that, we know what each other really meant when we misspeak. Both of those are Best Things About Married to a Transsexual by the way. This morning I said, "If we were to ever win a lottery, I'd buy a place between Lead and Deadwood." What I meant was 'between Durango and Silverton,' which Angela noted quietly, and I agreed. We know each other pretty well, you see. We both like both areas, but there is really something earthmovingly (yep, that's probably a new word) beautiful about the area between Silverton and Durango, Colorado. If you've never taken the drive, or ridden the old steam train, you've really missed SCENERY, and yes, I mean every one of those capital letters. And yes, I DO suggest you also go see Lead and Deadwood in the Black Hills. In fact, I suggest you get out and see the country! All of it. That's another thing we agree on, which is probably obvious given the fact we have an RV and use it to see the sights - local, national and state parks and monuments - and all parts in between.

Angela grew up near Niagra Falls, so falling water has to go some to impress her. However, while living in New Mexico, we took a drive to go see Sittiing Bull Falls. It wasn't an easy trip either. We drove along a state highway, then a county road, then a gravel road, and finally a dirt track, and I do mean track. Then we hiked nearly half a mile to see this place we'd heard about. Sitting Bull Falls is quite a sight to see. It's really a grotto, where spring water flows over rocks and drops into a small pool of water. In the grotto, there's lots of greenery. It's quite pretty. Next to Niagra, it's not much of a falls; you'd see more water coming from your bathtub faucet. But, given that it is smack dab in the middle of the dessert, it's pretty spectacular. Would I suggest you go see it? You bet - especially if you are married to someone like Angela, who's willing to go to some of these otherwise hair-brained places I hear about. You see, that's another one of those Best things about being married to a Transsexual.

Traveling through history

I'm a history freak; I admit it freely. I enjoy walking in the footsteps of those who made history. I love standing in a place where history was made. I get goosebumps when I think of the men and women who built our country. Recently, we've been RVing along the Oregon Trail. It always amazes me when we stop at a place like Independence Rock and few travelers even give it a passing thought - much less walk the small distance to actually touch history. Independence rock was a place (large rock) the emigrants wanted to reach by Independence Day. Doing so meant they were likely to pass through the mountains before the snows came, generally assuring them a safe passage, weather wise, to either Oregon, California, or Salt Lake (depending on the destination desired). Independence Rock was a place to celebrate our country's independence, even if the wagon train were a tad early - or a tad late. If they were near their goal date, they often afforded themselves (and their oxen or mules) a day of rest. What a treat that must have been after days on end walking the prarie! They had left their families and comfortable homes and farms behind, they had set out with little knowledge of what was ahead. Their courage and determination lead them and egged them on. They had visited Fort Laramie and resupplied. They had already begun to leave some nonessentials by the wayside. Many had already lost a child, a spouse, or another member of the family or close friend. Accidents along the trail were common. Bad water, illness, wagon, animal and gun mishaps each took a few members of the traveling party to their grave. Yet the members of the wagon train carried on. They buried their dead and moved beyond their grief. Me? I'd have taken a first look at the Rocky Mountains and decided trying to farm in the middle of Indian Country seemed safer than taking a wagon through the mountains! Heck, I doubt I'd have made it to Independence Rock. I have nothing but admiration for those that carried on. I figure it's the least I can do to is to take a little walk to an important place to them, doff my hat, and say "Thanks!"



I encourage all of you to go to the historic & beatiful sight you pass as you zip along a freeway. Stop for a moment, say a Thanks, and pay homage to those that found these beautiful places, or that left their footprints along the way as they made history and built our nation. Go, visit history. Give yourself a chance to be awed. Think what it might have been like to endorse the Declaration of Independence, to die at The Alamo, or walk the Oregon (Mormon or California) Trail!

RVing with a T spouse 2

Patience. That's what I'm developing. We are at a huge rally called an Escapade. If you are into RVing part time, full time, or even now and then, this is an outstanding group to join. They have one or two Escapades per year. They are well attended - we have more than 1,000 rigs here. It's being held at Cam-plex, a large conference area in Gillette, Wyo. The staff here, and the Escapee staff have done a wonderful job of planning the whole event. We have been busy from 8 a.m. until around 10 p.m. nearly every day. Before the official conference started there were tours and social events. While the conference has been going (today is the last official day) there have been outstanding seminars, boot camps, driving schools, tips and tidbits to share, and loads of friends to make. There has been only one minor problem, and that has been the internet and phone connections. Phone has been better than Internet, but both are sometimes things. Angela, being the computer nut that she is, is really missing the computer hook up. Both of us miss the newspaper, but Angela is decidedly having computer withdrawal! We've seen no newspapers and seen no TV since we left home more than two weeks ago, yet the computer is on every day, "just for checking." So, patience is a good thing, don't you think? We'll eventually get a signal. You see, hormones don't change everything!

RVing with the T Spouse

One of the Best Things about being married to a T is that they know all the things a guy knows, and they're learning all he things a gal knows. So, when you are in a tech seminar together at a huge RV gathering (Escapees RV Club 48th Escapade & 30th Birthday bash in Gillette, Wyo), she has no qualms about asking tough questions, correcting instructors, or answering for them when they get hung up! That is NOT the case when it comes to Keynote Speakers. In fact, my T got all teary eyed -just like me - when the speaker gets to all the warm and fuzzy stuff! Last night we had an excellent speaker talking about such things as finding the kid in ourselves again, letting go of our worries over things we can't control, and being as enthusiastic as children are. One of the things we did was the typical "say hello to two people you haven't met." That was just fine, as it always is. Then there was a major change: "Now greet two new people as if they were long lost friends." Wow! What a difference in enthusiasm, in smiles, hugs and backpatting. I think both of us will try to remember to greet more folks like that for now on. How about laughing? Kids, 4-5 years old, laugh approximately 400 times a day! Adults laugh about 7. Isn't that a shame? Let's change that! Laugh more often, worry less, greet everyone like they were long lost friends. Share more of yourself, and stop being embarrassed about little things noone will remember anyway.

Being Together

This long weekend (Fri-Mon) we spent a lovely time with the Rainbow RV group in Bodega Bay. There were 30+ RV units with the club signed in when we began. Our first official meeting was a potluck hors d'ouvres gathering. Trust me when I say it was way more than simple hors d'ouvres. Not a soul left hungry, I can tell you that for a fact! There are obviously CHEFS in this group, as well as the run-of-the-mill homemade treat makers, and a few who bring store bought munchies. All in all, it was a terrific meet and greet; we met many new folks, reconnected with a few couples that had been at the first gathering we attended in Gold Country, and we formed some nice friendships that began at this gathering. The second day was a tour-around on your own day, but the evening's potluck dinner added pounds to every one's waistline! What treats there were. This gathering showed just how important being together can be. There were several birthday celebrities, but more important were those celebrating anniversaries - 37 years, 23 years, 19 years, 32 years, 27 years, 18 years - and so it went. The numbers, with two exceptions were always two digits. The two exceptions were one man who had recently lost his partner of nearly 30 years, and one new relationship of only a few months. Again I was struck by the fact that virtually all of these GLBT+ folks are in very long term relationships. They believe in being together, and they deserve the right to be married. They deserve the same rights as everyone else that is committed to their relationship. Yes, Angela and I are married - 42 years come July - but we are unique in the GLBT+ community because we married as man and wife, and that cannot be undone. I am absolutely dumb founded that anyone thinks that because two men sleep & have sex together, or because two women sleep and have sex together is any one's business. What other group is repressed because of what they do in private. I don't know what my best friends to in bed with their spouses, and they don't know what my spouse and I do. So, why would anyone care what GLBT+ folks do in bed with their loved ones, and why do they think thy have a right to judge that? As we've seen in the news, many of the most vocal leaders of the religious right, who say they are against all the things they say are sinful, continue to get caught doing exactly those things they preach against! Guess what, most of the things they do are certainly much worse than being in a committed relationship with someone of the same sex! The point is, gays are asking to be allowed to make their long-term, commitments to another person legal and equal in the rights of the law. I can't see how anyone can see 2 peaople being in a committed relationship as a bad thing! You'd think the religious right would be all for gay marriage, but they aren't. Good heavens, one can find almost anything in the bible, and use it to as a hammer on someone else. I'm sure there's a verse about looking after the log in one's own eye before going after another person, but that doesn't count of course. In fact, very few foks on the far right follow what is in theBible to the letter. If they did they'd all still be living the same way folks lived in the first century after Christ was born, sacrificing animals and a whole raft of other things! It's time to allow progress, particularly in the human rights department. Let's get a focus on the child abusers of the world rather than on folks that want a committed relationship! We continue to allow child abusers access to the very children they abuse! That's nuts, plain and simple. Loving another person enough to want to marry them is a good thing, folks. Okay, I'll get off my podium, with one request: think how important it is to love being together enough to want to make that love legal! Then let everyone have that right and quit worrying about what someone else does in the privacy of their own home when they are loving another person (not abusing them). Turn the energy being expended against gay marriage into energy towards protecting the children of this land from their abusers who are most often their own relatives!

University of California at Hayward

What a delightful time we had at UC Hayward yesterday. The drive from Fresno to Hayward was beautiful, but windy. We had only one hitch - an accident in Merced closed the freeway for an hour. We used to live in Merced, so we knew a quick side route and managed to only be delayed 1/2 and hour. Good thing we always leave a tad of slack in our drive time hmmm?! So, we arrived at our appointed hour and met Prof. Maria Nieto in her office. We quickly headed for her lecture/classroom after a bit of paperwork and a short chat. Nearly 100 students filled the room to overflow when we began our talk. We always try to engage the students with a bit of fun, banter between us, and them, and questions. This class was most responsive and asked good questions and answered ours quickly, willingly and frankly. We always have a good time when we speak, and having a class like this one makes it even more fun. Obviously, we hope we keep their attention, address issues and impart knowledge and understanding. We find that if folks have some experience with someone in the GLBT+ community, they are less fearful of all of us. Believe it or not, that's usually all it takes to turn us into real people instead of those fearful unknown, otherwise scary folks. We hope, of course, that our stable, long term (nearly 42 years!) marriage proves that we in the community do, in fact, have long-term relationships/marriages. In fact, we are going to a rainbow RV gathering this weekend. When they have a dinner, they celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and other special events in their members' lives. Without fail, there are always MANY with long-term relationships. Several of our friends also have children, some because they were born to one of the partner/spouses, and others that have been adopted. All of these children are thriving, normal, and healthy children. You might gather that I'm in favor of allowing gays to marry. You're right. That brings us the question: are we gay. I'll leave that answer to you; you see, we married straight; we're still married to the same person. We certainly appear to now be a lesbian couple, but we don't quite fit that mold do we? This might be a good time to think about labels and how they often don't quite fit individuals, even though they may be okay when speaking in group terms. Alright, I'll get off my podium.

Thank you, Prof Nieto and everyone in your class, for a delightful time. Ask us back! Tell your friends and other teachers. We love to speak at forums and classes. Let us hear from you! See, being married to a T gives me (and Angela) an opportunity to meet new folks each time we speak. So, that's another Best Thing about Being Married to a T!

A Tree

"A tree jumped out in front of me and ate our RV mirror!"You might think I'm kidding, but that is what Angela said while I surveyed the damage - and the mirror on the ground. Now, if that had been David, the quote would NOT have been printable. Neither would anything about our extended weekend in Kings City, nor any outings attached to it. So, what's another Best Thing About Married to a Transsexual - attitude. Accidents happen. They are unplanned, and in most cases unavoidable. There is just no way to horse around a 39' motor home and not occasionally whack a tree branch. Angela does an OUTSTANDING job of driving, backing, parking, and otherwise maneuvering the RV in all variety of tight spots. It's always a blessing when the roads are good, the parks have good pull-through parking with all the branches cut to accommodate our RV, and there aren't lots of stuff for the dogs to pick up in their fur. However, more often than not: there are bad roads on our routes; there are no pull-throughs at RV parks; and the parking spaces that one gets are not always great for our sized rig, even though they are advertised as being "just right." So, a mirror got whacked this weekend. It'll cost a small fortune to get it replaced, no doubt, but we had a GREAT weekend! We made a passel of new friends, we had a couple of wonderful meals, we saw a good museum, and we just had a good time. I can absolutely guarantee that had the mirror - thing happened with David driving and not Angela, "he" would have pissed and moaned all weekend. He'd have been miserable with self blame, and I'd have been miserable listening to it all weekend. Not only that, but he'd probably have been a hermit the whole weekend. Not so Angela! She took it as an accident, put the mirror in the bin to deal with when we got home, and spent the rest of the weekend (Thurs-Sun) having a good time.

I can easily recommend Monterey County Agricultural and Rural Life Museum and the San Lorenzo Regional Park as a good place to go. It's a lovely park, a good museum, and it has good sites for campers and RVers (but watch out for low hanging branches in some of the pull-throughs). The park is well maintained and there is plenty to do. The museum is interesting. They also have fully restored a home, a 1-room school house, a train depot, a blacksmith shop and loads of farm equipment from the 1880s forward. They also have a museum on irrigation.

Leaving and Returning: they are the best

I don't know about you, but for me, the best parts of most trips are leaving and returning.

Leaving is always filled with the anticipation of what the trip will end up being about. I also enjoy the hustle and bustle of getting packed up and ready almost as much. I even enjoy getting up a bit early on departure morning (trust me when I say that I usually hate early morning awakenings). There have been few occasions when my anticipation has not been well founded. I've found, on looking back, that even those trips that had problems, or sadness, involved proved to be good trips. Of course we always plan our trips well, make reservations early whether we're flying, driving or RVing. We generally know the itinerary planned at our destination(s), but we reserve the right to lay-over a day (or two), to take a side trip, to make a friend, to help another with a problem, or to just take a day off from planned activities. Let me use a recent trip with friends to Pacific Grove as an example. Who would have thought we'd have had an "Elvis sighting!" There we were, in our cabin by the sea, relaxing between activities, when Nancy said, "I think I just saw Elvis go by." Of course we all gave her the ole "raised eyebrow" look, and then rushed out to see for ourselves. Sure enough, there was an Elvis impersonator returning to his bungalow from a performance. He was all decked out in his white get up. We actually thought it might be an impersonator we all knew, but it turned out to be someone completely different. No, none of us are what one would call Elvis fans, but who could resist an encounter like that?! There will always be good memories attached to that trip - the expected, and the unexpected parts

Then there was the return. Ah what a relief to be back home, unpacked, and relaxed, petting my puppies and telling Angela of our adventures.

Now Angela and I are off on a long weekend RVing with a new group we've never met. We've got an agenda, but who knows what all will happen? I do know we'll leave with lots of anticipation, and we'll be happy to be home when we return.

It's the getting ready that's the problem

Getting ready - isn't that always the bane of women? We always seem to take longer getting ourselves ready than the guys (Naturally!), getting anything else ready also takes longer than one plans (Damn!) to load up the RV, there's always something missing (Dang it!), it usually takes a trip to the store (of course!), and something is always forgotten or left behind (Righto! and Darn!)

Yesterday, and today, I'm still getting ready for a Christmas party that's tonight. It's not even here; it's at a friend's place. But, today we're also getting ready for a trip in the RV. That was supposed to take about 2 hours - it took more - lots more. So, now it's nearly time to leave for the party and RV is finally done. We're leaving first thing in the a.m. for the RV trip, so my part of the RV has to be done before I leave for the party. Now, another of the Best Things about being Married to a Transsexual is Angela understands all this. She's my back up. She always double checks the list and catches almost everything I forget. One time we forgot the doggies' bed. Another time it was our sandwich bread. Of course, all these things can be overcome with a stop at a store or a bit of improvising. Good thing, huh?! So, now, the RV is ready to go, and I'm finally ready to leave for my party.

The last minute things I barely remembered to add: the cards for the gifts, the script for my "silliness" part of the dinner, my thumb drive for the RV computer, dish towels, and make up remover. She caught all of it.

So why am I still here, doing a blog? I'm not - I'm gone - goodbye. I'll be back to do the next entry on Wednesday. After that, I'll learn how to do this long distance.