2015 UPDATE

The best laid plans, and all that......

In January, Mom got diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer called Colangiocarcinoma - bile duct cancer - which had metastasized to her liver, and other places.  She moved in with my brother and a lot of time was spent traveling between Oregon and Washington to spend time with her and help take care of her.  She passed away on December 7 and we had her funeral on December 12.  It's only been one day since her funeral, but it seems like it's been forever.

In August, a wild land fire burnt over 100,000 acres around our place, including everything of ours except the house.  So, all the projects we had planned went up in smoke - literally.  The bikes and dirt bikes burnt, the Cadillac, all the tractors, all of Jim's tools, the barn, the shop, the bunk house, the work shop, the outhouse, plus all the trees around our place.

So, as of this time, we are in a bit of limbo.  I quit my job in November at the credit union to help take care of Mom and to recover from surgery. Jim's last day of work will be December 31.  Our plan was to move to Washington so Mom could move back into her house and we could take care of her there to give my brother some help.  We are still going to move to Washington to fix the place up so we can sell it.  We aren't sure what we're going to do after that.  We're hoping to get it done within 3-6 months. We may sell our place but we're just going to concentrate on one thing at a time. 

Jim has a couple of job offers.  He wants to work part time so he can work around Mom's house.  I am hoping to find something I can do online so that wherever we end up, I can be mobile and work from home, or from the road. 

We are SO VERY READY for 2015 to be behind us, but don't dare say 2016 will be better because we made that mistake in comparing 2015 to 2014.  So, we'll just pray God gives us strength to take things one day at a time and enjoy those around us.  We have a new perspective on "stuff." We lost 75% of what we owned, yet we are able to carry on without it.  Certain things we miss - tools and sentimental items - but we have found out that "stuff" doesn't contribute to our happiness or well-being.  As a matter of fact, it drags us down. 

We'll start 2016 with a clean slate and jump into whatever adventures we find with both feet and open eyes.

2015 - A Plan

We don't usually make New Year's Resolutions. They don't seem to last, and if we want to change something - behaviors, eating habits, bad habits, etc... - we just do it when we want to, not just because it's January 1 of a new year. This year we did make a plan, however, and Jim was good-natured enough to agree with me, hence the "we." We have a bad habit of starting lots of projects and finishing few, so this year will be the year of finishing projects, and of simplifying.

Some of the projects on the ever growing list include:

making the '78 Ford drivable

finishing the retired ambulance into RV conversion project

finish the man cave in the shop

side/roof my workshop

finish the bunk house

finish the rock garden around the old John Deere lawn ornament

finish painting the greenhouse

engine/transmission/rear-end transplant into Cadillac

engine transplant into Jeep

and of course the never-ending project of landscaping and yard maintenance/improvements

Some other projects not started but talked about include:

making the back porch a utility room so we can move the washer/dryer out of the kitchen

sheet rocking/painting the outside living room wall

painting the kitchen

removing the carpet in the kitchen, which will lead to a new kitchen floor as the current one is UGLY

We are going to do more riding this year, so have decided to simplify, or downsize. The first thing to go will be my car. I love my car, but I don't love the payment, and I can buy a lot of gas, tires, oil, and motel rooms with my monthly payment. Once I detail it, it will go on the "auction block." That'll be a lotta fun (that's Jim's area)! We are also going to Craigslist, ebay, local classified, and/or give away anything we haven't used in the last year or two. Shoes, clothes, riding gear, tools (Shhhhhhh......don't tell Jim!), and anything else not serving a purpose.

This year will probably be spent close to home so we can accomplish the above goals, but the big picture is that doing this stuff this year we will have more time, money, and freedom to do more riding in the following years. Baby steps, baby steps!!

And as always, plans are subject to change, depending on the whims of Her Highness, as Jim loves to call me!

2014 - A review.....

2014 went by in a whirlwind, as usual, when looking back in time. It started out badly, with Dad passing away in January. After a few months, life started feeling somewhat normal again and we resumed our "normal" lives: trail riding, street riding, Jeeping, and working on the house. We reached a milestone - 20 years of marriage - and we even still like each other - most of the time. People say "aren't you supposed to love each other?" We always love each other - we just don't always like each other. It doesn't take us long to get over it as we both enjoy our sleep too well to fight for long since neither one of us can sleep when we don't like each other.


In a nutshell - Jim agreed to take on the job of Fire Chief for the volunteer fire station closest to the house, and I am on the board. We both stay busy with work and projects around the house. Talk about projects - we bought a '78 Ford F150 to fix up, a Jeep, a retired ambulance to turn into a camping RV, bought a parts Cadillac to fix up the one Dad gave us a few years ago, a fire truck, several old John Deere tractors...and more that I can't think of right now. We bought an old camp trailer that we gutted and Jim sheet rocked and made into a work shop so I have a place to putter with my crafts and jewelry making. We fixed up the bunk house so guests have a place to sleep if they want to sleep somewhere other than the couch or the camp trailer. We hosted a ride and had several friends show up. We plan on reviving that annual tradition.



We took a couple of motorcycle trips - kind of. In August I rode to Wyoming - my longest solo trip. The Sabmag group met up in Cody, Wyoming, so I decided to join them. It was during Jim's busy season, so I went alone. It was a cathartic trip for me - I needed some alone time to think, and what better way to do that than on a bike! I bonded with my little SV650. Up until that ride, I wasn't really sure it was "the bike", but it performed excellently and is the perfect size for me. Later in the year, Jim and I flew to South Carolina and borrowed a couple of bikes from a friend and rode with him to Hunt's Lodge in Tellico Plains, TN., for another Sabmag ride. We rode a Triumph Sprint ST and a VFR. The VFR was both our favorite, and had me reconsidering the SV. But that's another subject... We had an excellent time and are going to do more riding in 2015 than we did in 2014. We realized how much we've missed our friends and riding and getting out and away from home.



So, here's to 2014, and on to 2015. Our goal for 2015 is to finish started projects and to simplify. We have accumulated way too much stuff. We purged a lot of stuff when we went on our trip in 2007. It's all back - plus some! Time to simplify! We're tired of being tied to our stuff and working for our stuff, so we are going to sell what we can, pay off what we can, and make more time for play.