Busy, Busy, Busy

This retirement stuff can keep you pretty busy. This is the first week since my retirement that I really considered myself "retired". In my former work a day life, I normally took whatever vacation time I had left for the year during the Christmas, New Years period. With a lot of other people on vacation too, I really didn't feel seriously retired till the beginning of this week.

I have managed to clear a few things off my "to do" list around the house but the list is long enough and dynamic enough that I cannot foresee my ever eliminating it completely. My daily routine once again includes exercise....and to top it all off I have been taking it upon myself to do a lot of cooking around the house.

I have been able to sleep about a half hour longer on some days, but most of the time my body clock still gets me up pretty early. The picture above was taken a few days ago on a particularly fine morning. The wind mill is from the original ranch on which my housing development sits. Makes for a nice picture...

Right now I am limiting my cooking adventure to crock pot dishes. I figure once I get comfortable with that I'll expand into other things. So far I've done some pretty decent hearty soups, a Basque style chicken stew and tonight I'm working on a lamb stew.

On Wednesday I needed to take my trailer, Bivouac to an RV dealer to take care of a safety recall related to the propane refrigerator. Driving it there to get the work done ignited a small bit of road fever. It felt darned good just to be towing it anywhere, although I wished the direction of the tow could have been south towards New Mexico. I have a trip all laid out that will take me from here to Carlsbad, NM over about a two week period as soon as the weather breaks a bit. More on that in a future post.

Last night Guitar, Pic-E, The Bride and I went to the RV show downtown. K and Too Tall-Two Timing were supposed to accompany us but Too Tall has come down with the very nasty cold that seems to be making the rounds. I have been to the event several times and I always enjoy seeing what's available, even if I can't afford most of it. In past years I have gone either on a Friday or Saturday afternoon and it was somewhat of a hassle because of the size of the crowds...It gets a little cramped when 15 people try to get into the same RV at one time, regardless of the size of the RV. I've gotta tell you that Thursday night is the time to visit this one if you don't like crowds! What a great time. Everything was fully open but there were very few people.

We spent about two hours looking and dreaming and then decided to get some dinner. Bubba Gump Shrimp Company has opened up just about across the street from the convention center so we decided to give it a try. For Denver...not bad. Guitar and I both had a bucket of peel your own shrimp. This is a favorite of mine from way back when I lived in Savannah, GA and would catch my own shrimp and eat them this way. A good time was had by all.

Today, Guitar and I are headed for the Cowboy Poetry Roundup. I'll post later about how that goes. Also tomorrow we are planning on going to the National Western Stock Show. If Too Tall-Two Timing is not feeling up to it we may just wait until next week but check back soon to see.

Because of the Stock Show, many buildings downtown have not taken down their holiday lights. I tried to get a picture of a few of the buildings with The Brides new digital camera but only one turned out ok...that the one above.

Thanks for visiting.