King of the Road

The RV is warm at bedtime. At 6:00 a.m. sharp Buster is a little chilly and wants to snuggle giving me tiny kisses and snuffling my neck. Sometimes he can be appeased with a pat or two and part of the blanket but more often I surrender the warm spot and toss my blanket over him, go brew my coffee and start my day. He sleeps in until his breakfast is ready.

Park life is evolving. Betty stopped by on her trike, introduced herself, and we had a good gab yesterday. She is a cancer survivor who went through the experience here last year and was warmed by the community response. Cheered by the effort, but everybody brought food and all she wanted to do was throw up. They have been coming here for awhile. Their Christmas display is a little on the gaudy side complete with a lighted pink flamingo. A very nice lady-15 years into this marriage. She wants me to come to the Bunco games in the pavillion- "You don't have to be smart." (thank you for that assessment, Betty). After she pedaled off I went over and introduced myself to her husband Ken. He was weeding their evidently reserved site. They have had it for years. Betty had her weekly maintenance chemo to do in Boynton in the afternoon.

Greg and Lew dropped by-they had already scoped out the wood and supplies for the dock box and had spent the day removing a hot tub from "Pop's" backyard. He, at 90, has no desire to use it anymore so they took the moveable parts and arranged to ship the tub to New York where Greg has plans to install it near their rock wall. They continued on their walk with JJ and Pupper (not Pepper)

Harold (not Howard) stopped by in the dark after his trip to the showers last night-they had rescued my tablecloth before it blew away and were even prepared to roll up my awning when I was in Deerfield. He is a very nice man. They left this morning for Christmas in Moncton, New Brunswick-temperature 3 degrees. He wanted to see the grandkids but was reluctant to leave Florida. "Next year they can come here." He seemed concerned that I might be alone on Christmas. I told him we celebrated early before the kids go to White Deer, Texas. He shared some philosophy with me: essentially "Carpe Diem" make the most of this day because you will never have it again.

So I seized this day (Wednesday) by doing almost nothing except taking a good bike ride, visiting with Lisa at the office and ordering RV campground guides for her from the ARVA of Florida, watering my petunias, and pruning my tree-it is already rewarding my efforts with new leaves. The Park Ranger came by telling us to boil our water for the next 48 hours because a broken pipeline might have stirred up God knows what. WXEL, National Public Radio provided the soundtrack for this pleasant day.