Well now ... we have been home for just over a month and life around here has surely changed. Instead of waking each day trying to remember where we are and wondering if today is a travel day - we are back in the groove of working each day to get the household ready for winter. Fall may have just arrived for some of you but it is in full swing here in New England and I even noticed a few accumulated snow flakes on my truck yesterday morning! The fall foliage is certainly beautiful when the trees are ablaze in color - but those same leaves look pretty ugly after they have fallen in my yard and must be picked up every few days and hauled off to the dump (oops, I mean Solid Waste Facility).
I have also been working on the getting the Evringham Fleet of Toys put away for the winter. The Chevelle made its way over to its storage spot on Thursday, one motorcycle followed it yesterday, and I hope to have the other two restored motorcycles join them today. And then there is the motorhome to deal with. Peggy and I spent a couple of weeks getting everything moved out that needs to spend the winter inside ... and we got it pretty well cleaned up ... but then I lost control.
Pretty much all year I have had "issues" with the transmission not shifting into "Drive" the way it is supposed to. I found a way to get it into Drive ... but it was a "work around" solution - waiting for the right time (when we were not traveling) to get it fixed right and while still under warranty. Making a long story short ... it spent the last week at the Freightliner Shop down in Westbrook, ME but was finally released from repair shop jail yesterday afternoon. It took them several days to find the problem (a failed electric shift actuator), several more days to find and procure the needed part, and another day to get the new part installed. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much considering the repair was done under warranty and it was done by a shop that isn't used to working on motorhomes. Regardless -- now that Winne The Two is back home it's time to prepare her systems for winter and then get her in storage as well.
When not picking up leaves and otherwise preparing for winter we have spent our time catching up with kids/grandkids, keeping a few doctors appointments, and otherwise keeping out of trouble.
Well mostly ... I did finally convince Peggy that it was time to replace our 32 year old kitchen range/microwave and not much younger refrigerator ... so we did a bit of "sh*pping" a few days ago and picked out some replacements at Lowes which should be delivered next week. Hopefully the replacements will last us another 30 or so years -- assuming we last another 30 or so years!
Those folks on the TV news and all the political signs along the roadsides keep reminding me that we have an election coming up soon. As has been the case now for at least 6 or so elections, this one is being described as the most important of our lifetime and a "tipping" point in the direction of our country. I agree wholeheartedly that it is important but I doubt that it is as important as the East and West Coast pundits would have you believe. Most folks I have observed in the thousands of miles in between the media meccas of Boston/NYC/Washington DC and LA/SF just want their governments and elected representatives to stay out of their lives as much as possible. Yes -- they would like stability in things that matter in their everyday lives like healthcare costs, energy costs, etc. but most don't look to the government as the solution. They want to be dealt with fairly (I hate using that word since it has become such a relative term) but unobtrusively by their government. Unfortunately, things haven't worked out that way for many years now so we have retreated to our respective camps where each camp wants government to make others do what "they" think is "fair." So here we are ... about to vote for people to represent our views ... not really believing that those people represent our views ... but sure that the other guy or gal running against them represents the devil.
I sure hope my grandkids can fix what a mess we have created.
Meanwhile ... I'll prepare for winter and will vote in a couple more weeks.
