Another Year Winding Down!

I hope everyone is doing great as we're diving head first into the holiday season. Maureen, Liam and I are well into our fifth year here in Western North Carolina. We will be hosting a few friends for Thanksgiving this year which of course means Maureen and I are scrambling to put everything in order in time for dinner Thursday. I'm sure everything will come out fine, it always does. One potential inconvenience that didn't materialize, we're in the process of having the exterior doors, windows, trim and decks painted. The work was supposed to be started at the beginning of November and be finished by now. Best laid plans huh! As luck would have it our contractor was delayed getting started due to weather and delays on his previous job. However, he has also been delayed on our house due to rain so he didn't have an opportunity to mask everything off before the holiday week, so we won't be ducking under plastic to get in and out of the house thank goodness.

I took another drawing class and I've been producing the odd piece here and there. I had migrated to just pencil (gray scale), then did a few ink and pencil (still gray scale), and now I'm trying my hand at just pen and ink (black & white).

The Point Lookout Maryland Lighthouse (above) was a first effort. It's a bit more challenging than using pencil but I think I might like using just pen and ink. I've posted a few of my more recent efforts on my drawings page (select link). 

I've also been playing a bit more golf, at least while the weather was cooperating. I took a series of five one-hour golf lessons and I loved them. Joe was patient and persistent and although I was a bit stubborn, I think I got quite a bit out of the lessons. Having said that, I'm still on a bit of a learning curve but at least now I have something definitive to work on and I'm not just out there flailing around grooving bad habits. We'll see for sure this coming spring if it was worth the effort.

I've given up on the whole "Kayak Experiment!" I mentioned before that Maureen is just not interested in the whole "down in the waves, whitewater experience." And I couldn't get anyone from our new social group to take the plunge, figuratively speaking. So I just sold the Torrent. I did manage to make a profit with that transaction.

What is seeming to take off is my bowling alley drinking group. My text notification group is up to eleven. We're going almost once a week and getting a decent turnout. And, as I've always said, "you get good at what you do", and my bowling is improving as well!

213 is my second best score ever. When I bowled in a league with John O'Doherty I had a 214 once.

Speaking of bowling leagues, quite by accident, I just joined one. I was at the lanes waiting for my group and an over 55 league was in progress. I saw the league director hard at work on her books so I queried whether they could use a substitute bowler occasionally with the possibility of joining a team if they came up short sometime in the middle of their season. As it turned out a vacancy had just opened recently (read on to find out just how recently). I said fine, gave her my name and number so the team leader could call if he were interested. In short order I was tracked down by Harold and offered the spot (he didn't even ask about my bowling skills). 

After filling out the paperwork and signing up for the league I moseyed on down to meet the rest of the team. That is when I learned that the vacancy had been created that morning. Their teammate had passed away just after midnight. I'm just a little leery about the implications of that and I'm cautioning my drinking/bowling cohorts not to replace me in the league if something happens. I'm not usually superstitious but just in case!

I finally did it. I broke down and bought myself a backpack leaf blower. Short of cutting down a half acre of trees I'm never going to get ahead of the leaves that cover my yard all fall long. I've blown leaves and dragged piles of them into the surrounding woods twice so far this fall. I'll need to accomplish that task at least once more this year but at least I have the tool for the job now. I'll be dragging my new blower, and hopefully Liam to help, down to Richmond in early December to tackle mom's yard as well. 

I've managed to regain first place in my poker group and I'm clear by about eighteen points. There are about eleven more opportunities for someone to catch me this year and that's if we play on Christmas and New Year's eves.

Maureen is keeping herself busy. She claims to not have any trips planned for the next few months but I'm not so sure.  She spends a lot of time researching travel sites "just in case!"  Liam is doing what Liam does, which is mostly not communicating with us about what he's doing.  Liam has been working quite a bit and I'm due to pay his spring tuition.  Other than that we anticipate seeing him for Thanksgiving and Christmas but otherwise he usually has to have an excessive amount of dirty laundry before he is motivated to make the drive home.

As you can see I didn't have a great deal to share, I just wanted to take this opportunity to drop a note and wish all of our friends a wonderful holiday season!

They're predicting a more severe winter for us this year.  This might be me in a month or so.  

Thank goodness for my kindle and fireplace!

Best wishes to everyone and enjoy your holiday season!

Rick