"Wake up! Look Outside!" - Jan. 16, 2012

Sparks, NV (6:30 am): I woke up to Bob excitedly saying, "Wake up! Look outside!" In my half-awake-half-dream state, I said, "Which window?" (thinking there might be an animal outside he wanted me to see). He said, "Any window." Nope, not an animal. 

I raised the blinds and looked out. Snow! Nice. About an inch covered the ground. The snow had been in the forecast earlier in the week: 20% chance of snow on Sunday afternoon. However, snow was taken out of the forecast and moved to Thursday of this week. So it was a surprise to wake up to it.

When we checked into the RV park we were told if it snowed we should sweep our Astroturf because if it got wet then froze it would turn into a sheet of ice. Outside temperature: 15 degrees. 

At 7:00 a.m. I dutifully got out of bed, bundled up and went out with our little house broom. I swept the snow off our cars, then proceeded to sweep our little patch of fake grass. LOL. I felt like someone was playing "snipe hunt" with me. Sweep Astroturf with a house broom? Are you kidding me? I was fricking freezing and I felt like this was some big practical joke. No one, and I mean NO ONE, else was out sweeping snow off their little plot of land. 

I gave up and went back inside. My fingers were getting numb through my gloves and I didn't want frostbite. I'm thinking to myself, "Why would I want to walk around on the Astroturf in this weather anyway? It's not like we're going to have a picnic out there and fall on the ice taking food to the table. If it gets icy we'll just avoid it!"

Friday night Bob took me to University of Nevada Reno to see the Reno vs. Hawaii basketball game. Exciting game...lead changed many times. Unfortunately Hawaii ended up losing.

Yesterday was super windy. The barometer dropped below 31 for the first time in weeks and the change in pressure makes it VERY windy. At night, the wind was howling around our windows.

Bob went out on a 16-mile walk yesterday (four hours) on the Truckee River Trail. Temperature was around 48, but with the wind chill it was more like 42. When he came back he was pretty chilled, took a nice warm shower and we went to see "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol." In my opinion, this MI is the best of all of them. I have seen it twice. Bob enjoyed the movie but said he didn't need to see it again.


Today is absolutely gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky. Weather is amazing. It's around 11:00 am, the sky is crystal clear and the temperature has warmed up to 30 degrees F., although I admit that's still pretty cold.

This morning, two people packed up and left. Was it the snow? Some people can't handle a little snow.

We've experienced a shift in our thinking regarding working in Yellowstone National Park all summer. Bob talked with HR person from Delaware North Companies (DNC) one of the employers at Yellowstone...seems there are only minimum-wage jobs (i.e. $7.40/hour) left. Even though we want to spend time in Yellowstone, we don't really want to do the menial jobs. Sooooo...because Bob really likes his roofing job in Sparks and it pays well, instead of taking off six months to work in Yellowstone, he's going to propose to his boss that we take off three months over the course of the year and he will work here the rest of the time.

That frees us up to go to Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas for a month WITHOUT WORKING. We can hike and sightsee as much as we want. It looks like late August to late September is when we'll go. That way we'll avoid "Hot August Nights" in Reno when the RV park space rent gets very expensive and the city is crowded.

With two more months off, we can make two more trips of a month each to destinations unknown at this time. We're talking about going to an RV camp/seminar to learn more about our RV and how to take care of it. There's one in Texas in April that we may attend.


Our discussion also included me not working. I will, instead, take care of our place, do the shopping, chores, write my blog, work out, read, etc. We will be reviewing the budget and our future financial situation to see if this is doable. For us to take off and do the things we want to, I could not work a conventional 8-5 job Monday through Friday. If needed, I will look for temporary jobs. We'll see what happens.

Bob signed up for the Red Rock Marathon in Las Vegas the first weekend in March. We will make a quick (three-day) trip to Las Vegas. Our plan is to drive to Vegas on Friday. Rich and Kris, our good friends (like family) offered us their guest room in northwestern Las Vegas which is close to Red Rocks park. We are blessed with good friends! Bob will walk/run the marathon on Saturday morning. We'll spend time with friends and family Saturday night and Sunday morning, then drive back to Sparks Sunday afternoon. Whew! Quick trip is right.

Since my last blog a week ago, Bob has been working during the day. In the evenings, he walks with a group two nights, works out, watches TV and spends time online. I have been working out, spending time with the kitties, grocery shopping, doing chores, reading. In the evenings, I am online and watch TV.

Bowie (starting to yawn), Susan and Sunnie.

I love looking out our windows at the hills surrounding our RV park, watching the clouds, the birds and, from time to time, we see cottontails in our RV park. Life is good.