Celebrating the Holidays

The whole point to being in Naples this year is to celebrate and enjoy the holidays with our relatives. We wined and dined for four days around Christmas with them, and enjoyed every minute of it. We had Christmas day dinner at Maria and Vincente's house, where we are parked.

On the left is Consuelo's aunt Titi carving up the Christmas ham with the electric knife. A whole fresh ham is something that is very delicious, and I rarely encounter one. I ate more than my share, I expect, and it was extraordinarily good, if I do say so myself.

In good Cuban tradition, we had a roast pork as well, which disappeared almost instantly from the pan as it was served. We also had white rice, black beans, chatinos (large flat fried pieces of plantain). For dessert, Consuelo made a cheesecake with strawberries, and I made apple and pumpkin pie. The pie was a bit of an experiment, as I didn't have enough white flour for the crust, so I used 1/3 whole wheat flour. I think it turned out pretty good, but my brother-in-law Stan was put off by the idea.

The wine was left over from the previous evening, a Chianti that was a little acidic and bitter as a good Chianti should be. I asked Consuelo (at left with Ali) to get some for the spaghetti dinner I prepared for Christmas eve at Stan and Carmen's house, but Stan had a much better meritage that he wanted to share with us. The spaghetti sauce, which I created from bottled sauces, 3-1/2 pounds of lean hamburger, some green and red peppers, onions, oregano and basil. Fairly fast and easy food for 13 people. Stan had some Texas-toast garlic bread which was a perfect complement for the rest of the meal. All this happened at Stan and Carmen's house.

One of the traditions in Maria's house is playing "continental" cards with Lolo (at left), Titi, and whoever happens to be available for the game. Lolo gets a lot of grief for the time he takes to play ("Today, Lolo!"), but somehow he seems to win more games than anybody else. I was pleased to win a couple games myself this year. The game consists of 6 rounds of rummy-like play, where the required down cards vary with each hand. If you can lay down all your cards at once, before anyone else, it's called a "Wamasso", a word the family made up for the game, kind of like a whammy. Lolo usually keeps score, and marks each game with the winners initials in capital letters, and he has score sheets on hand for the last hundred years, it seems. Charter members to the game are marked in a single initial, whereas latecomers like me have to use two letters to avoid confusion.

It's now Friday, as I write, and most everybody has gone back to their homes and lives. Titi (83) and Lolo (85) live in Delray Beach, and left Wednesday morning. Vincent (Maria's son) lives in Plant City and left Wednesday afternoon. Vincent received the gift-horse of the holiday, Consuelo's old laptop, the one that had coffee spilled on it several times. We re-installed the OS and got it setup newly before he left. Annie and Bryce are still in town, but left to visit Bryce's family nearby. Gray is here for a couple more days, then returns to Orlando. Gabe's girlfriend Jen returns today from Minnesota, where she was visiting her family. They live in an apartment across town.

The sad part of this Christmas is that Maria's husband, Vincente, has been diagnosed with MS, and is nearly immobile, in addition to feeling weak most of the time. He's a person who enjoyed work, it was his way of making a difference, and is now confined to the house, almost unable to move. His left leg and right arm are most immobile, and showering and shaving are difficult. He is eating with his left hand, difficult under any circumstances, but more difficult with the limited mobility that he has. And it is depressing for him. He rarely engaged in family activities, so he has little opportunity to engage with us and get his frustration off his chest. I am saddened and angry that he has been stricken in this way. It's so unfair.

We're still parked in Maria's driveway, and will be until Monday, New Year's. The weather has warmed up again. Consuelo is ready to go to the beach. I told Vincente that I would mow his lawn today, so I have to get to work on that.

Visiting the rellies

We're now in Naples, FL for the holidays, and while here, we're staying with our relatives. My Aunt Flo has a place here in Naples, and we stayed in her driveway last week. Consuelo has two sisters here in Naples, and we're in one of their driveways until January 1st.


Staying with the rellies has its pros and cons. On the plus side, we get to visit with the aunts, sisters, brothers in law, nieces, nephews, etc. And we're not paying the outrageous camping fees that we would at any other campground in Naples. We have the use of a static shower for a couple of weeks.

On the down side, we're limited to 15 amp electrical, not enough to run our AC, and it's been warm here, with temps in the low 80s. With all the kids coming home for the holidays, we're critically short on parking spaces for cars. Finally, when we need to dump our tanks, we have to run out to a campground somewhere.

Naples is also a town with high growth and appreciation. So the zoning laws are written in meticulous detail. For us, this means we need to have a permit to park our motorhome in town for more than a few hours. Two years ago, when we stayed here, we did not know about the permits, and the code enforcement officer provided a free education. This year, Aunt Flo and Consuelo's sister both got us permits before we showed up, so we were legal. Didn't stop one person from trying to make a stink, but we had the law on our side this time. When we move to Consuelo's sister's house, Consuelo posted a "Permit" sign with an arrow to make sure the neighbors knew we were legal.

We also found the dog beach in Bonita Springs today, and Thumper and Consuelo's niece's dog Roxy had a wonderful time romping around in the salt water, off-leash. We spent about an hour there with them, and they had dozens of other dogs, from pugs to labradoodles to a great pyranee to play with. We got to wade in the water, too, which was quite nice.

Fixing Things

Just as with a sticks and bricks house, our motorized home needs to be repaired from time to time. Being parked in a static location is good for me to get things fixed, because I can dig out the tools and treasures I may need from deep within the storage bays, call local vendors and arrange appointments, and tear things apart as necessary and go look for parts.

This week we have several things to fix. I finally got up enough energy to get some of them going.

Rotten storage door. This is a door on the front middle left side storage bay. The hinge and lifter gas cylinder create a reasonable amount of torque on the corner of the door when it is closed. Closing this door after storing our satellite dish as we were leaving Knoxville caused the left hinge to separate from the plywood, which was rotten and loose. As a secondary effect, the cover strip along the side covering all the hinges was knocked off as the door flew up, then fell on the ground. Consuelo and I were able to get the door closed and latched on the remaining hinge, and then duct tape the loose end to secure it until we could get here.

After the rain stopped, we removed the door. The screws in the remaining hinge were rusted, and I had to drill one of them out to remove the door. We were able to locate one truck repair place in Ocala, but as so often happens in Escapee parks, in a discussion with another RVer we found out about a truck body shop in Leesburg, quite a bit closer. The door fit (just) in the back of the bug, so I took it up there for them to look at. In 5 days, they had it repaired, and provided me with a quart of matching paint to touch up the areas that were damaged. Cost was around 400 bucks.

Yesterday, I propped the door up on a table, and as I was looking to see how it might fit, two walkers stopped to help, so I screwed it in place immediately. After readjusting the screws on the hinges to tighten things up, and moving the latch on one side and adjusting the latch pin, it is working pretty well.

I replaced the hinge cover strip, and applied some white silicone caulk over it. Actually, I noticed that there were cracks along the strip on both sides, so I re-caulked the whole thing.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and dry, and if so, I'll touch up the paint where necessary. Then that job will be finished.

TV Antenna. Since we're no longer getting standard networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX) on DISH at the moment, I tried to get the local channels on our roof mounted bat wing antenna. Nothing. I tried earlier in the week to replace the cables, to no effect. Today I researched other possible problems with bat wing antennas, using the Escapees Forums as a resource. I found out that there needs to be 12 volts at the bat wing on the roof. So I pulled out our ladder (one of those things buried in the bowels of the storage compartments) and climbed back up on the roof, and sure enough, no 12 volts at the batwing.

There was a cable connector taped up with electrical tape, which I removed, and found the 12 volts was available on the roof side of the cable. So I replaced the short section of cable going up the bat wing mount, and we now have marginal but watchable network channels from Tampa.

Meanwhile, a 3rd party company, AllAmericanDirect has made a deal to supply distant networks on DISH equipment. It appears that this is in violation of the injunction against DISH, but the courts have not yet spoken. We are signing up with them tomorrow.

Changing and filling batteries. Batteries are a real important component in our lifestyle. We have 6 heavy duty lead acid batteries below which provide 12 volts for our lights, furnace, and other things. They also provide, through an inverter, 110 volts when we're not plugged into a outlet in an RV park. 2 of the 6 start our engine, when needed. All of these batteries get charged from a charger that runs off the 110 volts when we're plugged in, by our alternator when we drive down the road, by our diesel 7500 watt generator when we're running it, and/or by the solar panels on our roof if none of the above are in use.

Today was the day that I checked the water level in these lead acid batteries. One pair was OK. The other needed some water. Doing this task sometimes ends up with a little splashing on my clothes, and m clothes end up with little holes. So I wear my oldest stuff when I do this.

I also needed to change the batteries in our indoor outdoor wireless thermometer. The indoor unit takes 2 AAs, and the outdoor part takes 2 AAAs. Also, Consuelo reminded me to change the batteries in the refrigerator fan. It takes 2 Ds. We have to keep these on hand.

Other battery operated devices (not counting our laptops) are our weather alert radio; my handheld GPS; 2 pairs of FRS radios; 4 cameras; 2 short wave radios; 4 flashlights; the BirdDog satellite tuner; 4 or 5 remote controls for the DISH receiver, the TVs, and the DVD player; 2 cell phones; my amateur radio transceiver; a power drill; power screwdriver; and Consuelo's iPod. Many of these have built in rechargeable batteries. We use NiMH rechargeable batteries in some of them, but NiMH batteries have a relatively short shelf life, and would just discharge on their own before some devices would consume them, so alkaline batteries are better there. Sometimes changing and recharging batteries can keep me busy for a while .

Winter Golf

I like to play golf. Consuelo tried it and doesn't like it. As we travel, I look for opportunities to play.
I'm not likely to go play by myself. So I look for golfing buddies in the parks and nearby where we go. Several of the Escapees parks have enough golf interest to have a sigh-up sheet so folks can get together.

Last week was unusual in that I was able to play 3 times. When we got here to Sumter Oaks, I signed up on the golf sheet. On Thanksgiving, two of the other guys that had signed up found me (because of my name tag) and we made a date to play on Monday. Meanwhile, I had started a conversation with another friend who we met in Washington state and is now in Tampa, and had suggested playing when we arrived in Bushnell. That came together on Tuesday, and I drove to Tampa and played on the Air Force base there. Then, on Friday, one of the guys I played with on Monday wanted to play again. I had to work around some RV repairs and making Xmas presents, but I got the golf in on Friday, too.

Monday and Friday we played at Whispering Oaks GC in Dade City, FL. It's not the best course around but not the worst, either. The course is embedded in a residential development, which means that many of the fairways are lined with houses and back yards. If you know how I play golf, as much to the side as straight ahead, you know that all of these houses and back yards are targets for me. I got first hand knowledge of some of those back yards. And since they're all out of bounds, I had lots of strokes to accumulate, too. Besides the houses, the course is generally in fair condition. The greens had some damage, unrepaired, and even the good ones were pretty rough. A lot of the fairway area was dirt. I shot 112 and 105 respectively.

The course at McDill AFB was in better condition, and I played to a 47 on the front nine. Then my muscles started revolting from all this golf activity after not having played since September, and I shot a 52 on the back.

I had fun all three days. I'll probably play again during the next two weeks while we stay here, and not play again for 2 or three months. That's the way it goes in this lifestyle for me.