Sunday, January 22, 2017

More Rain, More Paintings And Surgery

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                    Sure looks like a river, but it is actually trail. 

The rains and the winds come and go.  Fortunately there are a few days in between storms where the water can drain away from the campground.  For the most part we are staying dry.

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                Just sharing a picture of a couple of my neighbors.

With all the rain, there isn’t much to do except watching TV or working on my painting.  Below are some of the latest watercolors. 

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This is the view out of the front window of my MH.  If you look close, there are three deer in the meadow.

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These guys were on the side of the road and I had to stop to take pictures.  The deer in the park are so used to people that I was able get pictures as a resource. They were only about 20 feet away.

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           This is the campground parking lot.  My MH is to the left of this view.

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In our watercolor class there is always a small still life to paint if you aren’t working on something else.  This is one of them.  Those are supposed to be pomegranates.

 

As most of you know, three + years ago, I fell and broke left arm and they had to put a titanium rod in the bone to connect the ball to the shaft.  Even after my arm healed , I experienced pain and have tried to get the doctor to remove it.  It has finally happened. Yea!  This is what was in my arm.  The rod is 10” long.

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No wonder it bothered me.  Now I just have to heal from the surgery.  I was fortunate that my son, Ted was able to take the day off to take me to the hospital and get me settled in at home.  Surgery was scheduled for 3:00PM and of course it got pushed back because of previous surgeries earlier in the day and it didn’t get started until 6:00PM.  It was out patient surgery, so I didn’t get home until 11:00PM.  Whenever you have to have surgery, try to be scheduled as first in the morning.

I will probably take a couple of weeks to recover from the surgery and of course I will have to build up my strength to get back to where I was three years ago.

I hope that you all are staying warm and dry and are having a great 2017.

Thanks for visiting

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Susan and Angel

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

I Might Need Water Wings Soon

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Good Morning China Camp!  Yes, this is what I woke up to.

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Just to the right of the camp host sites is the creek that flows from behind our sites.  My car is in the picture on the right.

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The road into China Camp Camp Ground has been flooded at high tide.  The picture on the right is at the entrance and just past that car is a dip in the road that today was 2 1/2’ deep.  Ranger Dan called to check on what’s going on here and to tell me that he wouldn’t be stopping by until later when the tide goes back out.

Even with all the rain I have been able to get to my painting classes.

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18”x24” acrylic painting of Angel burrowing  under a faux fur rug

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the view out of my front window   (unfinished watercolor)

I haven’t had to break out those water wings yet, but sometimes I wonder if they may be needed.  The winds have been sever here and a lot of things have been blown over.  The whole coach really shakes and the sound of the rain is so loud that I cant even hear the TV.  Angel doesn’t like the storms either and is happier in my lap.  When I leave and don’t take her I have been putting her in her crate.

I hope that you all are staying warm and dry.

Thanks for visiting

IMG_2579 Mom’s lap is soooo comfy.

Susan and Angel

Sunday, January 1, 2017

The End Of 2016 and Happy New Year to All

Angel Hiding

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It has been a while since my last post.  I’m afraid that I have no excuse. 

I did spend a bit of time decorating the coach for Christmas.  Below are some pics.

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Yes, there are 4 trees, 1’, 2’, 4’, the one with the poinsettias, and 5’ that has all of the favorite ornaments that I saved when I first began full timing.

There has also been the routine activities in the campground as well as the occasional “spotting” for maintenance when they were cutting down trees.  In the fall an arborist goes through the campground tagging trees that may not be safe.  There were over twenty of them.  There was even one that was just outside of the campground  (not tagged) that fell across a service road inside the campground and trapped one of the maintenance workers where he couldn’t move his truck until they cleared it out of the way.

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Since I’ve been here in San Rafael I have been going to a watercolor class every Tuesday at the senior center.  Below are just a couple of paintings that I did.  The still life was for a Christmas gift.  The other is one of the buildings down at the China Camp Village.

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Below are some ornaments that I made with clam shells and pearls.

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When it comes to my duties here as Host, I share them with Don, the other Host.  For the Holidays, we took turns taking time off.  He has family in Burlingame, south of San Francisco, so he spent time with them at Thanksgiving.  I spent the Christmas weekend with Ted visiting Steve and Kyle in Fair Oaks.   Steve is the pastor at our church, so we didn’t see too much of him, but we did enjoy their traditional Christmas Brunch and Dinner. Thank you Steve and Kyle for your hospitality.

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          me                     Ted                                  Steve       Kyle,  their son, Spearman

This past year has gone by so fast.  I haven’t done as much traveling as I would have liked, however I have still enjoyed this lifestyle more than I could ever have imagined.  I’ve met a lot of people that I would never have met otherwise.  They come from all walks of life, but have the same positive outlook and are the friendliest I have ever spent time with and of course Angel makes friends with them all.

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and that you’re  New Year bring you great joy and prosperity.  I hope that I will meet many of you along the road.

Thank you for visiting

IMG_2548  I do get cold, but this hat is a bit much.

Susan and Angel