CELEBRATING AN EARLY NEW YEAR

Sharon and Bert Sargeant visited yesterday with bottles of wine in hand. We toasted the New Year early since they will most likely be snowed in with a good fire and  plenty of food and water. In fact, they attempted to visit the previous night and were snowed in. Then the melt. So, they came last night
Bert is also a local prankster who at one time ran a county survey line across the front of our property and convinced husband George that the County was planning to confiscate 20 feet of frontage to expand the road. He enjoyed seeing George turn purple. He also put a very cheap priced for sale sign on a friend’s 49 Ford and gave his friend’s phone number to field all the phone calls. Well, that’s Bert. We’ve managed a payback or two along the way.

My brother Norman is staying for the rest of the week. He’s had some amazing unconventional experiences and we’ve enjoyed rehashing old stories, about his visit to the Peoples Temple in 1975, and meeting the “False Christ”  Jim Jones. Jones, if you remember, took 900 people to Guyana in 1978 and induced them to commit suicide by drinking cool-aid spiked with poison. He spooked Jones. He attended with his friends, John James and family and declared Jones a fake. Mrs. James was so upset with Norman’s declaration that they never resumed their friendship.
Norman’s been rich and he’s been poor but he likes poor for the challenge better than the ease of the “easy” life.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
If you celebrate, be careful. We will have icy roads and plan to stay safely tucked inside. Yesterday, just going out for my shoulder therapy at 10:00 a.m., I found the roads were slick and treacherous and there were a number of small accidents locally during the day from the slippery ice.

PEOPLE KEEP REMINDING ME

I’ve spent the last couple days catching up on some badly needed cleaning, like window washing and yard work. But, family and friends keep reminding me its my birthday. E-cards, Facebook greetings, a delightful rap from grandsons, Owen and Theo, with about 70 ways to say and spell and write 70;  A call from the youngest grandson, Austin before he headed off to school; a hep best wishes from one headed off to college, hey! There are benefits to being an old bag. My computer got robbed of its mechanics yesterday and I’m really happy that its fixed and that I can get on it and make it work. Definitely makes for a happy birthday. But, I’ve had a happy year and thought I’d look back at some of the favorite places I’ve been this past year. I left home in January, 2010.

I met long time friend Sandee Voges at Biosphere in Tuscon, Arizona in January. A very unusual and fascinating place to visit.
Chiracahua National Monument was one of my favorite places in Arizona as well.

Jim Jones In Luckenbach, Texas sang a song about his lost love by the name of Mary. He dedicated it to me when he found out my name. An unusual, off the beaten path kind of place. Homey and wonderful, also unforgettable.

One of the worlds most fun places, Fred’s Bar in Mamou, Louisiana. Jim and I shared a dish of gumbo made by a couple of volunteers out behind the bar.

Mardi Gras was an unforgettable, exciting experience. I still have the beads collected there as part of the curtains on the motor home.

The cold, cold boat ride to Pilot Town. That place, destroyed by Katrina, still haunts me, especially now with the spill in the gulf.
I began to sift through pictures and so many memories of the good times came flooding in and I realized I couldn’t continue because there were so many wonderful places and experiences, I just can’t put them in one blog. I never expected to be a gypsy in my golden years, but I highly recommend it.