Touchy Feely Nonsense

One of my sister’s has been demanding a touchy-feely post – so blame her for this….

What is going on…

I’ve spent this winter around Truth or Consequences (T or C), NM.

Not because T or C is the warmest place I could find or because there is a huge population of beautiful, wealthy, single women – at least that I could find.

Ok, I didn’t even look…

Ok… ok… ok… Actually, I did everything I could NOT to look!

Anyway… staying here mostly has to do with the fact that my airplane is safely tucked inside a hangar.

When not around TorC, I’ve been a bit closer to Albuquerque. Mostly house and pet sitting for friends. That consumed several weeks and sure was nice to be near friends.

Missy is not exactly “winter ready” but Truth or Consequences doesn’t exactly have “winter” so it all worked out ok. Most of my time has been spent boondocking which is somewhere out of the way without power or hookups. I couldn’t find the energy or excitement to work on the diesel fired heater I purchased last fall so, when necessary, I’ve used a shot of heat from my Big Buddy heater running on propane.

I recently had a really great visit from some friends – Pete and Nannette (and Clancy and Finigan (their dog and cat). These are the folks that purchased my last motorhome – JBAM – when I was making my escape to sea. We all stayed at the Monticello Point campground in the Elephant Butte NM State Park. They over-fed me repeatedly!!! And it was super-fantastic to spend time with them and learn of their travels in and improvements to JBAM. They are from West Virginia and are making a long winter trip the west coast and then back east.

I have done a good bit of flying this winter which has been wonderful. The nameless Van’s RV-4 and I seem to know each other fairly well now and all is going well. I don’t think either of us has scared the other – at least not too much. Of course, some of the modifications I’ve made to her have been documented here.

I spent a good bit of time over the winter attempting to purchase an airpark property in New Mexico. Apparently, bank lending has really tightened up since the housing market crash and no bank is willing to finance a hangar home. The common theme was that it was “too unique” – apparently they don’t like that any longer. In this case, it is a 50′ x 50′ steel building (a hangar) with a one bed/one bath residence constructed inside of it. As someone that really does not like using the telephone and being pushed to talk to SIX different banks, the whole experience was very ‘not fun.’ The deal is dead so that was all wasted time. I suppose it kept me out of trouble for a while though.

I know… I said I would never own a property again.

What’s up with that??

Well, owning an aircraft again has changed some things. Having a permanent hangar and ‘base of operations’ would certainly make some things easier. I am not interested in owning a “house” anywhere. However; a hangar does make some sense for me.

I also gave some thought to acreage on which I could create a dirt runway for the plane. This would likely be in western New Mexico where people are very few and far between. I spent a good bit of time researching that option – and exploring possibilities. Of course, this style of living does NOT align well with my promise to another sister that I would spend more time around people. I also suspect that constructing one’s own dirt strip is far more work than I can imagine. Again, lots of time that feels like a waste but I didn’t get into trouble so perhaps time well spent!

My drive and energy levels have continued to decline and, once again, I find myself in the worst physical condition of my life. I’m not very good with selfies but here you go…

It is very frustrating to think of the thousands of miles that I rode my bicycles to get in reasonably good shape and now that is all gone. All due to a speed bump that someone decide to not paint/mark and hide in the shadows. Thank you very much genius speed bump builder(s) – I pray that you never have to experience what I have!

I went to see a doctor who did blood work and found that my testosterone was very, very low. He put me on a program called BioTE and injected a bunch of capsules in my backside that are supposed to slowly bring up the testosterone level which is supposed to fix everything. 🙂

My blood results indicate that my levels are increasing. I can’t say that I feel like a twenty-year old again but I have clearly been more active and more interested/motivated to do things the last few weeks. I am REALLY hoping that we’re on the up-swing.

The bus boys are doing well.  They seem to be happy and they eat and poo like horses!!  They are pretty big now.  Here they are as kittens.

And here is Buzz now in the same basket thing on their climbing tree.  They don’t even try to both get in it at the same time any longer! 🙂

How was that? Touchy-Feely enough?!?!? 🙂