Well, it’s been more than a week since my last post. In that time we have settled into life at home…somewhat. I’m not sure we can ever settle into what life was like before our adventures of the last year. Beside my being retired, our travels have changed the way we live. In addition, some things have changed at home in our absence and required attention.

Our television no longer receives shows through the digital decoder. It does play DVD’s. Of course we have gotten quite used to limited TV during our winter travels in Picasso and our sojourn in Europe where we didn’t understand the language. Therefore, we have decided for the moment to go sans television. I’ve been scanning the listings and have yet to find anything that makes me want to get a new TV. We have been watching some of the art videos we purchased in Europe. We’ll see how life without television progresses.

Painting has been delayed. When I unpacked my paints from Europe and began to put them away I discovered that the floor of my studio is caving in on one end. Therefore, rather than setting up to paint I have been packing and removing everything in my studio. When that is complete I will tear up the floor to see what is causing the problem. Then we can plan remedial action. In the meantime I have set up a couple of easels in the music room so I can paint a couple of hours a day. I’m determined to work on the deconstruction/construction no more than half of each day.

Picasso needed to be winterized as well. When we returned from our trip last winter/spring I didn’t winterize the trailer. One day last week I completed that task and put our rolling home to bed for the winter.

Another project was to extend our deck railing and build a bannister down the steps. This is to assist with getting down the steps during bad weather. Jean’s studio is in the back so she goes back and forth a good deal. The railing will make it a safer trip. That was another couple of days.

As you can tell it has been a busy ten days since we returned. In a few days I fly to Texas to visit my brother and his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren! What happened to a relaxing winter of painting?