If you don’t know, I have another blog where I discuss nothing but books. I decided to have some fun doing a retrospective reading journey and post about books that have shaped my reading over 64 years. It’s been a fun project looking over my book journals to see what books impressed me or became a juggernaut in the world of literature. If you’d like to join me in my nostalgic trip back in time, check out https://robinsbooks.blog/  and sign up (on the right side of the page) if you want to be notified of new posts.

Like many of you, we are still ensconced in our home with periodic trips to the grocery store or Lowe’s, and am feeling a little more comfortable with the process. I’m still paranoid about cleaning my groceries and waiting three days to unpack unrefrigerated items which sometimes leads to a minor disaster, such as the jar of salad dressing that should have been immediately refrigerated.

We are getting restless and are looking forward to taking a day trip to the beach but will wait until we feel it is safe to do it. The State canceled our June campground reservations but we are keeping our fingers crossed for late July or August. We are pretty sure we won’t make our annual trek to Lake Tahoe and that is kind of hard to accept.

I still find something to laugh about every day and it’s usually in the form of a parody video such as those published by the Holderness family. This one is particularly funny since if you’re like me, you’re yearning for a decent hair trim.

“Holding Out for a Haircut”

Hey, what’s up with everyone? I know it’s been a while since I posted, but since we all seem to have a little more available time, I’d love to hear from some of you as to how you are coping and what you are doing. While you’re forming your responses, here is the latest news from me.

Arizona Again

Those of you who have paid attention to our activities may remember two years ago we sold our villa in Green Valley, AZ, with plans to spend the winters in Salem, which we did. It was fine until about mid-February (2019) when we started missing Arizona and wouldn’t you know, we ended up buying another villa in the same complex, only this unit was a 2-bedroom in a lovely location overlooking a green commons area. We drove there in June and spent three weeks cleaning, refurbishing, and painting then returned to Salem for the rest of the summer.

We returned in October with plans to stay until April. We had more work to do, including refurbishing the kitchen cabinets, which was a significant job, but I am very proud of what I accomplished. In between painting, cleaning, and repairing, we did manage to get in a few pool visits. But then in late February, the virus news started emerging, so we skedaddled back home, arriving after the start of March. However, I’m sorry to report that we now have the villa up for sale. You can see the listing and some of the work we did by going to the Zillow site here.

Gimme Shelter

It wasn’t long after we arrived back home that staying home was recommended (especially for us older folks) so we stocked up on supplies and, aside from a weekly stressful grocery shopping trip, haven’t left the house in three weeks. And I have to say we had no idea we could be so comfortable being in our home–in fact, it’s rather odd how it has become such a “normal” thing. We do miss our trips to the beach and occasional restaurant visits (I’ve got a bad hankering for Mexican food from La Hacienda Real and yes, I know they have take-out but it’s not the same as sitting in a booth, swilling a beer or two with hot chips), but we know we are just going to have to be patient and hope we can use our beach campground reservations this summer.

In the meantime, we are keeping busy with the neverending home projects, cooking (also neverending along with kitchen clean-up), reading, organizing, and like many, fussing about the future. We are also working on creating a backyard garden, something we’ve done occasionally but never delved too deeply into making it a success. Like many, I’ve been baking more than usual. My first attempt was an old recipe I had for Irish soda bread. My first loaf was a bit overdone but tasted good, and while the second loaf turned out beautifully, it was a tad underdone, and I forgot the caraway seeds. My second project was banana bread with oatmeal, pecans, raisins, and chocolate chips, and again, a bit underdone, but it was delicious, and the uncooked part was used for french toast.

Since I’m lucky enough to have some yeast (although it expired March 2020), I may try some bread next, maybe ciabatta rolls. And at this rate, I may need new clothes by the time this quarantine thing is over, but as long as my sweatpants and pajamas still fit, I’m good. The following meme made me laugh really hard but was also a warning that I could go from “Little Robin” and skip right past “Big Roberta” to “Gigantic Roberta May” in no time.

Book Grateful

After being unable to concentrate on reading, I’m finally getting back in the groove and plan on writing a book blog soon. In the meantime, you can check out my last post on “UpLit” or “Feel Good” books here.

I’m also grateful for publishers providing me with advance reading copies of books in both print and digitally, and for my library colleagues across the nation who continue to participate in our monthly GalleyChats.

A Typing Fool

And last but not at all in the least, I am not ashamed to say I am addicted to an online game called Typing Maniac. I figure it’s not a total waste of time considering it is an excellent way to hone my typing skills and is great for the mind/hand coordination, which keeps our brains young, amirite? Yesterday I reached the milestone of reaching a million points twice in one day, and I consider that a significant accomplishment. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Favorite Things

I’ll leave you with two of the recent acquisitions that make me smile every time I look at them. One is the cookie jar I found at a garage sale in Green Valley, and the second is a couple of mugs we decided work quite well as wine glasses during this stressful time.

I know many of you are at home and have a bit of time, please chime in the comments below and let me know how you’ve been spending your time and what helps keep you sane.

As they say, stay safe, and if you haven’t yet seen it, check out this wonderful video of an English family singing “One Day More” from Les Miserables.

Yes, I know, bad pun.

There is nothing earth-shattering to report, just an update on what we are doing for the winter, which is pretty much sticking close to home.

We had a great summer. Started with a nice trip to Lake Tahoe in late June and despite the crowds with discourteous people and campers, had a good time. We weren’t sure about returning next year but after thinking about it and getting a different trailer, decided I’ll be on the computer first thing in the morning this December/January when it’s time to make campground reservations.

Our other trips were mainly to the beach, both camping and staying in hotel/motels. Our biggest failure was trying tent camping. I’m not sure why we thought it would work at our ages but it didn’t. Hated putting up the tent and while the beds (sleeping bags and air mattresses) were comfy, climbing in and out wasn’t particularly easy, not to mention those middle-of-the-night potty breaks. Also tried a yurt and while it was better to sleep inside, decided that wasn’t our preferred mode of camping, either. So we’re sticking with our little trailer and the Ocean Terrace in Lincoln City.

Which would you rather do while at the beach?

In late September we drove to Reno for a few nights where we had a really nice suite at the Peppermill Resort casino for a fairly low-cost. Then we drove up to Lake Tahoe for a night and then headed to Santa Rosa to see Ken’s mom, who was turning 95. Original plans were to drive to Las Vegas for a week but bagged it as we weren’t quite in the mood to drive that far.

So what’s next? Nothing, really. We are truly loving our newly installed gas fire stove and think it’s an essential addition for spending the winter in Salem. Also important to keep us happy is rejoining the Courthouse fitness club and for me, the purchase of multiple pairs of really comfy pajamas from JJill. I’m tempted to jettison much of my wardrobe and just wear them all day long. 🙂 Also important is my library trips and also keeping up with what’s new in books through my network of librarian pals.

And I’ve been having fun with my bookblog, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, head over to http://robinsbooks.blog and sign up to receive emails whenever something new is posted.

Probably the biggest personal news (for me anyway), is I’m finally going silver! I’m officially tired of coloring my hair (wait, did you think that was natural??) and am now working on growing it out. Fortunately, I have a superb hair stylist who is making the transition very easy.

That’s all the news for now. We are still thinking about Arizona and missing it but no plans to return. We are thinking of a spring trip but it’s still in the thinking stage.

Happy autumn!

Best view from a loo! Inn at Spanish Head women’s restroom.

Since we returned to Salem, this seems to be the question I’m most often asked. The answer? Right now we are pretty much sticking to staying in our Salem house and being home for the winter with our travels and camping happening during the rest of the year. We closed on the sale of the Green Valley condo so if we return it would be to rent a villa, which would be easy during the “shoulder” seasons.

We are in the process of cleaning out even more stuff from our house which has resulted in us having enough crap–um, I mean good items for a garage sale. It will be held this Saturday at 7-3, so if you don’t know my address, please email me – novelrambles at gmail (dot com).

The other news is after eight months of dithering around and broken promises, I finally figured out WordPress (again) and created a book blog! You can find it at https://robinsbooks.blog – catchy title, eh? It’s still a “work-in-progress” so there will be continued tweaking but my first book content blog will be posted when the magic number of 50 followers is reached.

And rest assured this blog will continue with life updates and I’ll probably post about as often as I have been. 🙂

Happy spring everyone!

It appears as if it’s time for my “quarterly” update on what we’ve been doing this past winter. So here you go…

We were in Green Valley, Arizona, until two weeks ago. Over the past five months (I can’t believe we were there for that length of time!) we had great weather (especially loved October and November) and enjoyed the patio and pool (poolside was a great place to meet new friends). We also spent Thursday and Friday mornings traveling around to garage/estate sales (it was great way to explore neighborhoods, especially the estate sales where we went into the houses) and found lots of treasures for the condo and to bring back to Salem. I also loved going to the excellent Green Valley Library which meant that since the White Elephant (a very well run volunteer run thrift store) was next door, my spouse would get  to check out their offerings while I was in the library.

For travels, November found us taking a 3-day circle trip to various 55+ communities around Phoenix to see if any place appealed to us. We visited Casa Grande, Maricopa, Buckeye, Surprise, Scottsdale, Gold Canyon, Oro Valley, and Tucson. We saw a few places we liked (mainly in Surprise and Oro Valley) but it was fun just seeing some new parts of Arizona.

In December we took another “discovery” tour to Las Vegas, checking out various communities in LV, Mesquite, and even St. George, Utah. Again, found a few very nice communities in Las Vegas but determined that once you left the neighborhoods, you were back in, well, Las Vegas. I think our final determination for LV is it’s fine for visits but don’t think we want to live there.

Other than that we watched a lot of football and got hooked on HGTV’s “Beachfront Bargain Hunt.”  We also found a Mexican restaurant within walking distance where we discovered the joys of a Mexican food breakfast, much to the detriment of my waistline.

We also ended up buying a “new” trailer, nicknamed the Big Little Trailer (BLT for short) because of its short length but high ceilings. It’s very similar to a previous trailer we owned but this one seems to be “just right.” We used it on the way home from Arizona and it was very comfortable and easy to tow.

On March 20 we piled most of our stuff in the BLT and took off for the return trip home, leaving the condo in the hands of a competent realtor who managed to get us a full-price offer a week after it went on the market. Closing is May 8 so fingers crossed all goes well.

So why are we selling? Well, after two winters, we have that “been there, done that” feeling and feel the need to find a different way to spend our retirement. We loved the area and made lots of new friends but feel if we return it will be to live full-time which will mean buying a house.

Now we are working on doing more “decluttering” of our house so it would be easy to vacate if decided to fly the coop, and who’s to say what we’ll end up doing. BUT, if truth be told, we are already missing the warm sun of Arizona and not just because we came home with a nasty virus.

The one thing I never got around to doing (and I don’t know why—OK, maybe I do: the condo is small and I really didn’t have a good place to spend much time on the computer, so I didn’t) was to get going on my book blog. Maybe I can now get around to that. Again, stay tuned as you’ll be the first to know.

Happy spring!

Well, we are still residing in Arizona for the winter and for the first time since we arrived in mid-October are wearing long pants and sweatshirts. It’s chilly! Yeah, I know…

I know many of you have been eagerly awaiting the list of my favorite books of the year and today the suspense ends! Here is a list of titles for your winter reading pleasure. Let me know if you can’t open the doc and I’ll email as an attachment.

Happy Holidays everyone!

First of all, we made is safely to our winter home in Green Valley, Arizona, but not without a few minor adventures along the way. One was due to an accident on Highway 58 above Oakridge, which resulted in driving extra mileage to our destination of Alturas, California. The second was on the drive to Reno when some jackass decided to pass a truck and swerved right into my lane. Fortunately, the shoulder was wide enough so I could get out of the way, but the strange part is the guy could have slowed and pulled back but instead waved at me as he went by! Sheesh… We made it to Reno in one piece and had a nice “comped” two nights at our favorite place, the Peppermill Casino/Hotel.

After our enjoyable time in Reno, we drove to Las Vegas where we had three free nights at our favorite Vegas hotel, The Orleans, but in Laughlin had to pay a whopping $35 for a river view room at the Aqaurius. But that’s OK, I won close to $500 on the video poker machine so all was forgiven.

Always fun to drive by one of the most haunted places in America, the Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada. And nothing says “classy joint” like decrepit autos in the front and $42.50 room rates.

On Saturday, October 21, we arrived in Green Valley where my first stop was to the library so I could pick up the books I had put on hold while in Salem. Over the past week and a half we have enjoyed the 90+ degree temperatures with cooking and dinners on the patio along with time in the pool. Life is indeed good.

To Maid or Not to Maid… 

So I’m curious to know what others think of what seems to be a new trend in hotel services. When we checked in to the Peppermill, we were offered the choice of not receiving housekeeping services in return for a $10/night reduction in our hotel bill (even though our room was comped, we still had to pay resort fee plus tax). Since it isn’t a big deal to make our own bed (I usually end up tearing it apart and remaking it anyway), and since we were assured that all we had to do for supplies (fresh towels, coffee, toiletries) was notify Housekeeping, we decided to accept the offer. However, I’m not sure I would do it again. Here are the pros and cons:

Pros:

• I think most of us agree it’s important to straighten up the room so the staff doesn’t have to work around our stuff (and I understand they are under strict instructions not to touch any of the occupant’s belongings, which means they’ll work around a comb left on the bathroom counter). This was one part of the non-service that we liked; it was easy to leave not having to worry about someone coming into the room.
• And it was also nice to be able to stay in the room and not worry about maid service or returning to the room early to find the room not yet cleaned.
• Even though we put our valuables and computer in the safe, we didn’t worry as much about stuff left in the room.
• This is for our inner cheapskate: since we usually leave a tip each day for housekeeping, it meant not only did we save the $10/day, but also the $2-3 tip.
• Before we left the room, we called Housekeeping for more towels, coffee, and soap, and all were waiting for us upon our return, BUT… (see Cons).

Cons:

• I love returning to a fresh clean room and discovered I really missed that part of the hotel experience.
• Yes, we did have our supplies cheerfully refreshed, but we discovered that the staff simply left them on the dresser and didn’t remove the old towels. That means by the time we left, we had a good amount of towels lurking in our bathroom. They also didn’t give us a fresh bath mat, probably because I didn’t ask for it. Nor did they empty the wastebasket and I had to walk down the hall and have the staff take care of it since we didn’t want to have the aroma of apple cores and coffee grounds in our room all night. And while we received the proper amount of coffee pods, the condiments weren’t refreshed.
• I made our bed but it didn’t look nearly as nice as when they do it and stage all of the pillows and such.

Would I accept the same offer in the future? Depends. If we were staying in say like an ocean front resort hotel and wanted to spend more time in the room without worrying when housekeeping would arrive, probably. If we were going to be gone all day and wanted to return to a clean room refreshed with clean towels lovingly placed on the racks and/or staying more than two days, then most likely not. It also depends on how much is taken off the rate. Last year Peppermill offered $5 off which I didn’t think was worth it.

My other concern is how this is affecting the work force. I’m probably a dreamer for thinking this, but is the hotel employing the same number of staff but maybe their jobs are a little easier or not as rushed? Is their income affected by not receiving the tips? Did anyone get laid off because of less work or does the hotel practice natural attrition?

So what do readers think of this practice? Would you consider the offer of no housekeeping?

Instead of regular updates, I seem to get around to posting about every three months which I guess one could call regular, just not timely. The problem is I had planned on doing a lot of RV traveling and having interesting adventures to write about, but so far our lives are fairly boring and I’m not sure anyone would be that interested in our day-to-day activities, plus I don’t have the gift of reporting those kinds of things with humor and flair. So after getting caught up on what we’ve been doing this summer and what we plan for the winter, I’ll tell you about a possible new endeavor.

Summer Travels

In May we purchased a 1984 Fiber Stream trailer that we refurbished for our Lake Tahoe trip in July. We adored the little trailer and due to her pretty side curves called her “Marilyn.”  In July we took her to our beloved Fallen Leaf Lake campground and while Tahoe was its beautiful self, it was crazy busy and because the lake was its highest it’s been in years, the beaches were crazy crowded. However, the ice cream at Camp Richardson still rocked and the weather was perfect so we had a good time. Unfortunately, as much as we enjoyed our camping trip, Marilyn was just a wee bit too small for us and we sold her to a young couple from Portland. Now we own a 1994 Road Ranger 18’ trailer, and like us, it’s in great shape for its age.

Well All Scream for Ice Cream

West view from Baldwin Beach

Health Issues

On August 29 I underwent carpal tunnel surgery and was surprised at how much of a rigmarole it turned out to be. It was like regular surgery with IVs and being put (mostly) under (thank goodness!). The worst part was holding my arm aloft for 48 hours, but the best part was I had little pain—heck, I’ve had paper cuts that hurt worse than this did! However, I was a little disappointed not to get to experience the joys of Percocet as Tylenol seemed to take care of any discomfort.

Ken has been seeing a blood specialist for his Valley Fever who put him back on the anti-fungal medicine, but he is finished and right now we are awaiting the blood test results to see if he has to continue.

House Sale

It didn’t happen. After weeks of going over the house with a fine-tooth comb and cleaning areas I don’t think have been done in over 40 years, we put it on the market and had an offer within two days. We were ready to sign when we thought to check our health insurance and the news wasn’t good—at least on my side. So we took it off the market and are still thinking about it. Our next trip will include visits to new areas such as St. George, Utah, and Mesquite, Nevada, to see if we might wish to become permanent residents. But in the meantime I have a clean house with minimal stuff to take care of and that’s a very good thing.

My EarlyWord Column

I no longer have my nice little monthly writing gig as Nora has ended EarlyWord as we know it. And really, it’s OK. I am ready to end all obligations and become fully retired. Our monthly GalleyChats are continuing and I’m pleased as I would hate see those end.  I’ll still keep my eyes on what’s new in the world of books and read as far ahead as I can but I’ll be using a different reporting method.

What’s Next

Right now we plan on leaving in early October for the southland with a detour to Santa Rosa for Ken’s mom’s 94^th birthday. From there we’ll head east to Reno and farther east to Ely then down the east side of Nevada, something I’ve always wanted to do. Plans are to arrive in Green Valley a week or two later, depending on what we end up doing. This year we may stay for 5-6 months and I’m very much looking forward to getting back to the desert.

And Perhaps a Book Blog…

As I said above, my intention for this blog was to report on all of the travel adventures we would be doing during retirement and all of the books I read on those travels, but, as you know, neither has happened. So I decided I need to focus on one thing and I’m thinking I may actually get a book blog going. I purchased a WordPress address of “robinsbooks.blog” and I’ll let you know for sure if and when it starts.

Happy Fall everyone!

The other day a friend said she followed my blog but hadn’t seen anything for a while. I realized I haven’t posted for few months but didn’t realize my last post was in October! My past six months have been a little topsy-turvy, dotted with a bit adventure, spouse’s illness, sunshine (December-February), and, of course, books and reading.

So here’s a short rundown of what has happened since I last posted. I’ll write more later but for now know I am still here and still reading, but also in the midst of preparing our house so we can hopefully sell it in a month or so.

**We spent December through mid-March in our little condo in Green Valley and it quickly became “home.” While the weather wasn’t as warm as it usually is, it was sunny and certainly a lot better than what y’all had here in Salem!

**After spending the first two weeks of January with a low-grade fever, we discovered that my spouse had pneumonia and his test for a regional disease commonly known as Valley Fever was positive. He was prescribed a three month regimen of an anti-fungal medication of which he is almost finished. The good news is that his last blood test was good so he may not have to take it for another three months.

**We had fun going to estate and garage sales for items to outfit our condo. Below are photos of what it looked like just before we walked out the door in mid-March. I had removed prints and knick-knacks so it’s a little plain but we love how homey it now feels. AND, it may be for sale or rent next winter (see below).

**We loved Green Valley and environs so much and felt so much at home that we may make a permanent move (we’ll need to get a bigger place, though). We are in the process of preparing our Salem house to put on the market, so if you or anyone you know needs a sweet little 940 square foot house in a great South Salem location, this is the place! I’ll post when it appears on Zillow/Trulia/Craigslist as a For Sale By Owner. If it should happen we don’t sell, at least we’ll have our house updated and CLEAN!

**I’m still doing my EarlyWord column and even got a raise! I’m also attending the Book Expo in late May with Janice, so watch out New York City!