RV Poetry

My brother and his girlfriend just had a ball making this video in 2008. This is one of his original songs. The roller coaster was shot at Busch Gardens – Leon is up there in one of those. This video is the only Roller Coaster I want to ride – other than the one I have been on with Leon – the roller coaster of marriage.

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We gave up on an exact fit. I found a sink I could live with after literally looking at thousands online. (Most of that time was spent trying to find a close fit to the opening.)

The original sink was white acrylic, double bowled, so each side was too small. I wanted a single bowl. Guess what?

I found one big enough for my large pasta pan to fit in with room to spare! And the sink is nearly three inches deeper than the RV sink was. (I know, I probably won’t even take the pan with me, but….)

Yes, we are giving up height beneath the sink, but are, also, gaining space by removing the plumbing for the second sink drain.

The existing sink opening is 14.75 x 23, too big for our new sink. Leon dreamed up two possible solutions for solving the obvious, the cut out is too big. Will he be successful? Yes. Will it look good?

Function over beauty is my choice, but you never know, if either of his ideas are successful, I’ll be thrilled with it! I’ll post the brand and store name with pictures when he is finished….

Now to see if I win the faucet battle or not. Leon and the salesperson ganged up against me. They both refused to give an inch that I could/should try to make my favorite faucet work. I need ONE measurement from a manufacturer to be what I am hoping to win. And if I am wrong, it’s going to cost him (us) a lot more to get my second, third, or fourth choices! Because I will not settle for another “style” faucet.

Keep searching for what you need. You will either find it or find something better.

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Schedules rule most. I think the lure of RVing for some is not so much the travel – as the lack of a restrictive schedule. There is something to say for schedules though. I have taken the lack of a schedule to the extreme since I retired early years ago. Even now, having gone back to work for/with/beside Leon, I find it hard to make my schedule less flexible. I’ve made some attempts to incorporate a schedule in my personal life, but it always becomes just another list – something I thoroughly enjoy writing, but rarely look at again. You know, like the schedule I’ve attempted several times for my blogs.

My lists may as well be blank, but then I wouldn’t have the joy in writing them.

UNSCHEDULED

Uneven
Nuances,
Spontaneous
Chaos,
Heralded
Excitement,
Dulled
Urgency,
Lazy
Excuses,
Delightful!

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Home…

I know home is where the heart is.

I know we can make a home from a house.

But, those past 2.5 years in the apartment and condos – just weren’t home. That is so obvious now that we are in our rental house. I have seen a change in both of us. Doesn’t say too much that we let our environment get to us so much, does it?

That said we did have good times in all locations, they just never felt like home – and the last condo, though “cool”, was just too dark.

I can feel a change in my attitude, see a change in his. We have settled in, thinking of it as home rather than our son’s rental home. I’m even becoming more domestic….

Hey, Honey. We’re home!

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Daddy, before me:

Daddy, with my cousin, before me. I’m pretty sure that is a grandfather of mine in background, but I didn’t remember my cousin being that much older than me that he was still alive…. (I know, to most of you that is pathetic, but they all died before I was born.) I love this picture ’cause I loved Daddy in that hat and it is looking toward the lot next to our home in NC at the time, all those trees. No, I don’t remember living there – other than one or two things – but it was a beautiful brick house with all those trees scattered around.

Today, my dad, William L. McLees, Sr., would have been ONE HUNDRED years old – but vicious Alzheimers took him in the mid 90s. Sucked for everyone, but mostly for him. No sugar coating that.

However, that doesn’t stop me from being in awe at the words “one hundred”, not sure why, but today I am emotional over it. For years, I have not been. I have remembered my dad with smiles not tears. (Don’t read into this, there were moments…. scattered along the years.)

We did not have the “daddy’ relationship a few people have, nor did we have a horrible relationship. I think it was a good relationship. I never felt like – and still don’t feel like – I missed anything. He was who he was, I was, and am, who I am – and he was always there when I needed him – without fail. And, I love this picture of the three of us holding hands on the ferry from St. Petersburg to Bahia Beach. I love his shades, grin. And obviously, the pelicans managed not to drop anything that day.

He HATED movie theaters, LOVED golf, liked taking us to the beach, tolerated yard work. I always thought of him as shy, yet, I think that may not have been accurate, a bit introverted (true meaning) may be more like it. I saw how he enjoyed talking to people at the hotel he worked for, the few people he played golf with when he got the chance.

Daddy seemed to have two primary focuses in life – other than Mom, I mean.

One was working to provide for us – ’cause he did NOT believe in a mother working. He was very old school, after all, he was born in 1910. He worked for years after he retired at a menial job to continue providing.

The other was to raise my brother and I – in the way he saw fit – to be decent people. He/they succeeded in the decent people mission, though, Daddy never completely won the battle to do it his way, lol. Mom spoiled us rotten all those years he was working hard – by deed, not by showering us in material goods. From the time we were around 8 and 9, they had barely enough money for any more than true needs, not even a car. But trust me, she would have!

My letter to Daddy last year.

I filed this under “Made a Difference? Yes!” because my dad did!

Happy Birthday, Daddy. Wow, 1910 seems so very long ago. Oh, it was. Say hi to Mom, please. Hope y’all’s vision of heaven was what it turned out to be.

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