Settling In

Eight months have passed since we first saw what would eventually become our house.  Denny and I have now lived here seven months and we've made a few interior and exterior changes in that time.  I started by brightening up the front a bit by painting the shutters and adding more flowers.  Of course we've made interior modifications, had most of the rooms repainted, added lighting in the kitchen, rearranged the storage units/shelving in the tiny garage, etc.  We are making the house "ours".

Once the initial flurry of furniture ordering and buying was over (remember, we had to start furnishing the whole house from scratch) Denny and I were able start to relax a bit and familiarize ourselves with the executive and championship golf courses that are available to us here in TV (The Villages aka The Bubble.)  Summer heat and the humidity here really did a number on us but we made it through to the cooler season which also heralds the arrival of the snowbirds or seasonal residents of TV.  Which means we'll be waiting in traffic longer and waiting longer for a restaurant seat per our neighbors who have been dealing with the fall/winter influx of residents for years.  Denny and I figure since we're retired and not on any kind of schedule none of that matters--we'll just take a deep breath and deal with it.

By dint dragging Denny kicking and screaming to garage and estate sales (sometimes) I've managed to see to it that he now owns a variety of gently used power saws with which he has created a closet organizer in the guest bedroom closet and also an closet organizer with a file cabinet for our master bedroom closet.  And a cubby for recycling and kicking off my shoes in the garage and soon perhaps he'll try his hand at a bench for the foot of the bed in the second bedroom.   Building things was something Denny missed while on the road, although we did manage quite a few interior modifications in several of our RVs over the years, most of them accomplished with a hacksaw and an old fashioned handsaw--that's work!

As for me, I'm dabbling.  The Lifelong Learning Center for TV has hundreds of classes available at a variety of price levels and so far I've taken a course in QiGong, Zumba Gold, yoga (which I'll be re-upping for in January because I love it) and currently I'm taking beginning watercolor classes which I'm really enjoying.  Of course there are also clubs (over 2,000) and classes at the various rec centers so I don't think I'll ever run out of new things to try.  I just have to pace myself. ;) 

While I admit that we aren't over the moon about this place as so many people living here seem to be, we are having fun and feel like part of the community.  But I have to say, Denny and I both admit to missing seeing a new view out of our windows every few days and the mention of southern Arizona or the Myrtle Beach area tugs at our heartstrings.  I think we'll always be travelers at heart so some day you just may see us back out on the road.  Maybe only for a few weeks at a time, but the lure of the road is still strong.  In the meantime, we've joined TV Convertible Club so we can go on some day trips to have the sun in our faces and the wind in our hair.  It won't assuage the wanderlust, but it helps.

And finally, don't look for a lot of blog posts here.  Quite frankly our day to day life isn't exciting enough for that, at least not for readers.  We're having fun but it's the same kind of fun everyone has so who wants to read about that?  When we explore someplace new or have a great experience, I'll probably share that.  Otherwise? Meh.

Later!