Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Hello, it's me again,
  Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!!!! March is movin' right along now, I didn't think it was ever gonna get to the middle of the month! Not that I want to wish away my days, but I am wanting it to be warmer. We woke up on this Saint Patrick's Day to a gloomy, cold, and cloudy day.  It is so hard for me to be up, and perky on these kind of days.  What do you do to motivate yourself on days like this? It's not as if I don't have things I need to be doing!  Mike and the dogs are so motivated that they are taking naps!  LOL!   Me, I can't sleep during the day,  unless I am sick.  I'd rather not be sick, so here I am awake with no clue what I want to do, but knowing I need to get up off my butt and do something!  Well I did the usual dishes, and then I got on the computer for a while, not much exciting in that is there? Lol!   

   Then I got a call from our son Gary, he is bringing my little Sweet Cheeks, ( aka, Charlotte, aka Charli ) over for a visit.  Translation, " Mom, I need you to watch Charli, so I can fix the wife's car ".  Haha!  That's okay, I don't mind, Charli is our youngest Grand Daughter and she is  2 1/2 years old.  She is a smart little cookie, and really keeps me on my toes, just what I needed to chase away my boredom!  After spending a few hours with her I will be ready to kick back, and relax for a bit!  I am really enjoying having a little one around again, since the others are 9 and up! I get to do all the silly stuff that toddlers find amusing with her again!  The other Grandkids are much more sophisticated, and are not into Grammy being silly, it would be embarrassing to them!  So I have to behave myself when I'm with them, lol they are more into games, crafts, and shopping!

   Wow, this is two posts in one day, so that brings me back up to date.  Also, since it is Saint Patrick's Day ya got twice the blarney from me in one day! Ha ha!  This time I'm going to be sorta smart, and save something for tomorrow. That way I won't be brain dead when I go to write something for tomorrow's  blog !  So I'm off to the Ohio State Parks web site to look for a reservation for a week in late April. See Ya's...

This N' That and a Few Glasses of Wine

Saturday:
   Today was spent mostly playing with the dogs, and cuddling them.  Finally I got so sleepy I had to get up and make myself do something. So I called one of my friends and we went shopping.  What ? Surely you didn't think I'd look for some kind of housework to do, although I could do plenty of that!  One thing I have found out about housework, is that it will still be there waitin' on you when ya get back. There is no sense in feeling guilty about not doing a chore before you go do something  else that you wanted to do first. No fairy godmother will do it for you while you're gone so you can just do it when you get back!  I have  never liked the idea of my life being ruled by my house. Nor have I ever, been one of those people who are so rigid about the house being spotless with nothing out of place, that it doesn't even looked lived in.  Our house always looks lived in. If someone comes and it's a little messy I don't let it bother me too much. Mind you, I don't like a lot of clutter, but I'm not a fanatic about it.  Anyway I figure they came to see me not my house!  If they don't like the way my house looks then they don't have to visit me there. Okay enough about cleaning and chores, it's boring even though everyone has to do it.  I'll get it done a little later, no biggie.

   So, like I was saying to begin with my friend, Sue  and I decided to go shopping.  I needed to go to Dollar General to get some Easter Basket fillers, so that is where we went.  We walked around there for about 45 minutes looking at things, and picking out things we thought our Grandkids would like.  I always get them things they can use instead of a bunch of candy.  They always like getting things they don't buy for themselves, like new nail polish, pens with glitter ink, journals etc...  They get one bag of candy, usually their favorite thing and a chocolate bunny or egg.  The rest is always other stuff, and none of that stupid grass in their baskets for filler!  Can ya tell that I hate that stuff?  LOL!  What a mess that makes when they go through their basket to see what they got! It gets all over everything and it is hard for the sweeper to pick it up!  Okay, I think my rant about Easter basket grass is over now!

   When we were done shopping we went back to Sue's house.  We decided to enjoy the rest of the early afternoon with a few glasses of wine and some good conversation.  It was nice just to sit and talk about things we needed to catch up on, and spend time with each other, since we don't get to see each other very often!  ( We used to go camping  a lot with Sue and her husband Rick, before he passed away 4 years ago. She doesn't like to hang out much with couples now, it's still very hard for her.) I could handle more afternoons like that, it was just nice and relaxing! That is exactly what we did until about 7 p.m. until I had to go home and fix dinner, it is nice that she only lives around the corner from us so I didn't have to drive very far after having a couple gasses of wine.  I also had to give Mike a break, since he had the dogs from about 2 p.m. by himself. Poor Mike had to put up with the dogs until I got back.  I'm sure Bella kept him busy getting up and down to let her out!  Ha ha!   Well I think I better go start o those chores so until we meet again...
  

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday:

  We spent yesterday pretty much doing nothing but sneezing!  Spring allergies have arrived!  There must be some kind of tree pollen in the air, because I had the whole gamut of symptoms.  Watery eyes, runny nose,headache, and did I mention sneezing?  Good grief, I bet we went through a half of a box of tissues!   It isn't too bad today, just have a slight headache.  A few chores were done in between the sneezes.  It is really hard, and not too sanitary, to try to do dishes when all that is taking place though.  So I waited and finally my allergy meds  kicked in about 4 pm.  I forgot how bad I hated having to deal with allergies!  They are not a major inconvenience, but I would go as far as to say it is a minor pain in the ...head.   Come on admit it you thought I was gonna say something else didn't you? He he! I know what you were thinking!  Mike was  also sneezing, so I guess his allergies are acting up too, or else he is allergic to me!  I think we have been together far too long for that to be the case!  Anyway, if allergies have arrived, I know Spring can't be far behind! 

Today:

  Today is gonna be errand day.  Just a few places we need to hit before coming back home.  We need a few grocery items that we're out of, and  I need to pick up some things for the four Grand Daughter's Easter baskets, cos the Easter Bunny will be making an appearance before we know it!  Okay just an  idle observation here, but have ya noticed when you are in stores these days, that no matter what time you're there that they are busy?  It used to be that if you went during the day it wasn't very busy.  Now it seems like no matter what time you are there you have to wait in line. The longest wait in line is still after quitting  time, and on the week ends, so we still try to go in the middle of the day rather than in the evening. Doesn't anybody work during the day anymore, except for the store employees? Well, that is my observation, what do you think, is that the way it is in your area?

  Today's blog is gonna be short and sweet. I think I fried my brain the other day, when I wrote so much, and can't think of much to write about!  No new ideas miraculously appeared in my head when I got up the yesterday!  So I'll leave ya here and maybe something will pop in later!  Until then...

  

Good Thing Plans Are Written In Jello Around Here!

Hello,
  Ever have one of those days?  I'm havin' one today!  When I get up in the mornings I kinda plan out mentally what I hope to accomplish for the day. Needless to say, not much that I was going to do has gotten done!   Now mind you, all this isn't written in stone, but I sorta hope to get some of it done. I thought I would pot some plants, make vegetable soup, do dishes, sweep etc...   I did make the vegetable soup and it is in the crock pot cooking away.

  Mike had another Doctor appointment with the pain specialist today, and he had to leave so I was flying solo for part of the day. It's hard for me to to do things, and keep an eye on the dogs too.  Lilly seems to have a problem with chewing things, that we still haven't been able to break. No matter how many things we use to distract her, she manages to get to things before we see her. Things like cell phones, pens, shoes, tissues, glasses  etc... I'm sure you can picture it, everything but the toys and bones she is supposed to chew on!  It's starting to get expensive too, luckily we were able just to replace the back on the cell and the glasses were the cheater glasses (magnifying) from the dollar store.  She is really sneaky about it too, so I feel like one of us has to keep and eye on her all the time.  Lately we have been using her shock collar on vibrate, and telling her NO!  That ought to do it,right?  NO!  Haha!  Now before all that can happen Bella enters into the picture.  Bella is the bully, anything Lilly gets Bella takes away from her, and then she chews on it too!  So then I have to find the remote for her collar and vibrate her too. The only problem is ya gotta catch them doing it, and by the time ya get the remotes they quit chewing, cos they saw ya get the remotes!  I swear sometimes they are tag teaming me, and playing me for an idiot, and succeeding!  Lol!  Then all of a sudden you're chasing the dogs and saying give that back to me!  Now it's great fun and, it's a big game to them!  They're havin' a ball and you're NOT!  Good grief it's like a comedy skit, and I feel so stupid!  It's like watching 2 two year old  kids at the same time!   I need the Dog Whisperer to come and train ME!  The only good thing about it is I got a really good workout, and didn't have to leave the house! Haha!  

 So, like I said I had to watch the  furkids until Mike got back home.  Now it is too late to pot the plants, and I'm too tired!  I  had already swept the floor and I didn't want to have to do it again if I spilled the potting soil, so maybe tomorrow.  Granted, it is not one of the worlds greatest problems when I don't get something done that I planned since we're stuck here at home. I can just do it tomorrow unless some other thing captures my attention.  Ha ha!  It just seems like I wasted the day when I don't get things done! I am having trouble keeping up with our dogs shedding, I think I swept enough hair up to make a very small dog!   For short hair dogs they sure shed a lot.  Could it be they are shedding their winter coats?  That would at least make it worth while to be sweeping it up everyday, at least I'd know Spring is on the way!  Sometimes it's like my workload has increased 10 fold since we got the dogs in August. Don't get me wrong, they more than make up for the work with the companionship that they give us. That sounds there should be a but at the end of that sentence doesn't it? We have always had pets in our house, and I doubt that will ever change, we used to have a cat too. After she passed away several years ago, I found out that I am allergic to cats!  I guess that's why I always had bronchitis and my asthma would flare all the time when she was here.  I still miss not having a cat though.

Is there such a thing as a perfect pet to Rv with?  I think fish are out of the question for obvious reasons!  Water doesn't travel well, unless it's in an enclosed container!  We enjoy taking our birds with us, but 2 parrot cages can reduce the amount of floor space you have.  We have never taken dogs with us, so I guess we'll find out how that is this spring.  I know that means more stuff we have to make sure we don't forget.  I imagine, I will not like having to take them out when it's raining.   Oh well they're worth it, so I guess I'd better invest in a rain poncho, we already have the little baggies for you know what! lol!  I'm betting, in the end it will come down to how much work you are willing to do to have your pet with you.  Our birds are not really any trouble, except lugging the travel cages with us.  I would imagine that a cat would be the least trouble in a rv, but then I really don't know.  So if you travel with a pet, what is it, and how did you decide on that particular pet? Did you have the pet before you started rving and gradually get it used to going with you?

  See how things can go in a completely different direction than you had planned?  I hadn't planned on talking about the dogs or pets at all!  I was going to discuss writing a blog, punctuation, and spelling.  I've been worrying about this for a few days now, not that I want perfection, just don't want to be thought of as stupid. At this time I want to apologize for mistakes in grammar, punctuation, and spelling in my blog, I know there are many!  I try to use spell checker as much as possible, but I am not perfect, and sometimes I miss things even when they're underlined.  Do you have problems with using these words: there, their, and they're, or how about, to, and too, and you're, and your?  I know it drives some people crazy when they are used in the wrong place in a sentence for the wrong word!  They're all very easy to get mixed up and common mistakes to make. These words are the worst ones, but I'm sure there are many others too.  I had a very strict English teacher who marked all of these things, and was always telling me my punctuation was bad, and my sentences tended to run on too long.  I'm sure I have only gotten worse the older I have gotten. I guess we all need an automatic editor just like spell checker!  I think I use too many commas, and I'm never sure how many spaces to leave after them. My English teacher would probably give me a failing grade on this blog.  I know I tend to use a lot of slang words when I am writing too, guess it's just the way I talk.  I don't want or expect this to be formal, I just want it to be like I am talking to you, with half way decent English!  Maybe I need to go back to English 101, and brush up on all this stuff.  When I am typing fast I also tend to hit the space bar more than I need to between words.  I do hit the preview button, and I do a lot of corrections before I publish, and sometimes I still have to edit this after it's published.  So you can imagine how bad this looked before I hit the publish button! ;)  
Hey, just consider it a work in progress please don't judge too harshly, and I promise I will be working on the mistakes.  English Grammar 101 here I come!  :)

  Wow this developed into quite a long post. I probably used up all the data in my head, and now I won't be able to think of anything to write about tomorrow!  Maybe something will miraculously appear in my head overnight!  Until then see ya's!  See old habits are hard to break.

Promise Kept: This is How Our Saga Began !

Well as I told you last time, I am going to tell you all how my blog got it's name. My nickname has been Sassy for as long as I can remember, I guess that's because sometimes I am!  So that is where the first part of the name came from, and because I knew I was going to be the one who would be doing most, if not all the writing on this blog I thought it should have Sassy in the title.
After we found our fiver, and bought it, we were waiting to pick it up until the weather was better.  You see we  bought it in January and didn't pick it up until March, so the dealership agreed to keep it for us until then.  Anyway,there was a bunch of us in RV Dreams Chat one evening, and the subject of blogs came up.  They said that since we had just bought our fiver, we should document our story in a blog.  I told them ( the chatters) I would think about it, but didn't know if it was something I would be able to do.  So I thought and thought, what would I write about, what would I call a blog etc...
I had just finished reading a book about the pioneers traveling west in their Prairie Schooner Wagons. It got me to thinking how modern man (and woman) were not so much different than them, if ya think about it they were the first Rvers.  Just like them, modern man has not lost their urge to wander ,to look for a better life, and a more full filling way to live it.  So this was the reasoning behind the title of this blog.  Although the pioneers of yesteryear faced great hardships and trials on their travels, modern man has found a better and easier way!  Where they had to use Prairie Schooner Wagons, horses and oxen, modern man has the RV, or Recreational Vehicle!  So our  34'7" Silverback Cedar Creek, 3 slide fifth wheel is our version of the Prairie Schooner Wagon, and our Ford Super Duty 350 dually diesel truck is our horses and oxen.  All the conveniences of home go with you, no roughing it for modern man and his spouse!  I know there were other names for their covered wagons,like the Conestoga, but this was the name of the wagon in the book I read and then the story was called a Saga.  So I took my nickname and the schooner part of the wagon name and then saga for the story part.   I liked the idea of Sassy's Schooner Saga and the way it sounded, and Ta Da my blog was born!!!  Funny, now I can't even remember the title of that book, but at the time it sure left an impression on me!  I liked that my title was   original, and there weren't any other blogs that sounded like it.  I was quite pleased with myself!  lol!  So this is how our story or our saga began.  At the beginning, if you wish to go all the way back, it tells about this, and about some of our history camping and what we used to do before we retired.

We're considering ourselves to be Half Timers, right now that is the best we can do!  We still consider ourselves to be wannabe Full Timers!  We'll have to see what the future brings for us after our lawsuit is finished, so maybe next year we can spend the winter somewhere warm .So Que Sera, Que Sera, whatever will be will be!  Until  we do that, I hope I will be able to keep ya interested with the short trips and things we do along the way, so hopefully you won't be bored out of your gourd.

How many of you do something on your blog, or a hobby that you have been able to turn into a money making enterprise that helps finance your travels?  I have been thinking about a way to make extra money, to use for entertainment when we travel. Do you link your business to your blog, is it something that you can do by computer via the internet?  We can cover our expenses, but we would like to have extra money to play with, go out to eat, see the sites when we're somewhere new  etc...   How do you distinguish your RV lifestyle from a vacation?  Those are some of the questions that I am pondering, and hope to find the answers with this blog for my information as well as yours.  If you have the answers, please don't hesitate to inform me via comments.  I look forward to the research that it will take to answer these questions, and the knowledge I will gain when I find the answers!

So I'll see ya's again somewhere along the way...  on this journey of ours!  Sometimes on the move and sometimes going in circles, but on the go just the same!

Happy Daylight Saving's Time!!!

Good Evening,
Did ya remember to spring forward this morning or last night?  I was so happy to see DST come back!  It means it's so much closer to spring, and the time we can unveil the fiver ( take the cover off) and get it ready to go somewhere, anywhere, I wouldn't care it it was just in the next county!  Ha ha!  Spring Fever,"uh yeah",( as one of my Grand Daughter's would say) I got it!  You bet I have a serious case too, like I told you all the other day!  Today's temp here in Ohio, was 66 degrees, it was seriously a beautiful day!  Now all we need is for the Forsythia bushes to bloom.  We have tulips coming up and, I am praying that the frost doesn't get them! Anyway it was a nice day!

So nice of a day in fact, we decided to drive to Columbus, and see Mike's 88 year old Mother!  She has Alzheimer's, but right now she still remembers her kids, and their spouses!  Bless her heart!  She knows we all have kids, but can't remember their names, or her Great Children's names. We are very fortunate that she remembers her own kids from what I've been reading about Alzheimer's!  Her long term memory is still very much intact, and she loves to talk about the past.  Her short memory is pretty much nonexistent now though.  So she repeats things a lot, but we just keep answering her like it is the first time we have heard it.  She gets overwhelmed easily when a bunch of people are around, so we try to visit in small groups.  We're also fortunate that Mike's Sister owns a double, so she lives with them, and they just leave the door open between the sides, so she will never have to go to a rest home!  She is never really left alone, so it works out great. I am making her a memory book of each of her children's families.  When someone says a name, and she doesn't know who they're talking about she can look at their picture and refresh her memory of who belongs to who.  I hope to have it ready for Mother's Day!

In case any of you were wondering, I don't really have a set  time of day to do my blog.  I am trying very hard to do one every 24 hours.  So if you still see the same one, please check back soon!  I have been working on this mostly in the evenings, so you may not see it until the next morning.  In fact, I just started doing it again after almost a three year absence.  To those of you who still came, looked, and stayed with me I  apologize for keeping you hanging!  I know I have lost many followers from doing that to all of you.  You see, I was convinced, by someone that I didn't have anything to write about since we were not RVing full time.  Well I think I am going to write about rving Half Time, I don't know if anyone does this or not but, Hey maybe I will start a new trend! So some of the stuff I write will be about rving, and may pertain to you.  Some of the stuff I write about will just be our everyday lives, and maybe you can still relate.  I hope I can keep it interesting enough for you to want to read it!  Anyway this is my plan, until such time we are able to go Full Time.  I figure this is going to help keep our dream alive of going full time. Some of you probably have camped, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten that full timing bug or hitch itch! 

We have camped and owned Rv's since 1983.  We started out with a little 16' Shasta trailer, and with 3 rambunctious little boys!  I want you to know that thing really got small when we were camping and it rained!  We were ready to pull our hair out trying to keep them entertained when it was raining!  So now our boys are grown and have family's of their own, and we have a 34'7"  fifth wheel.  Looks like we did that backwards huh?  Should we have had a bigger rv when the kids were smaller, maybe?  Well we like our fifth wheel, and enjoy being in it and taking it places.  Our dream fifth wheel, or I should say my dream fifth wheel is a Mobile Suites fifth wheel, I love them!  Rather than wait longer to get our dream, we set our sights on something more financially attainable for us!  Now don't get me wrong, we love our  Silverback, by Cedar Creek, but there are things we would have liked upgraded.  We figured that we  would try to do that later, and get used to towing and making our mistakes with this one. That doesn't mean that I still don't cringe with every ding we get!  If we manage to upgrade sometime fine, if not that is ok too. We're pretty easygoing and will enjoy our fiver, the Bear, and our truck the Beast.  So we have the Beast and the Bear! lol!  Hmmm, that sounds like a good name for a blog!   Wait, I didn't say that, did I?  No, I have a good name for my blog, maybe tomorrow I will tell ya how this blog came to be Sassy's Schooner Saga!

In the end, like the song from ELO, You gotta "Hold Onto Your Dreams", and this was the best way we could hold onto those dreams and live those dreams at the same time!  So we'll take Half Timing, over No Timing, until we can do Full Timing!  In the mean time we're still, (like the song from Herman's Hermits, my fave 60's band), sang " Something Tells me I'm Into Something Good! ", and we are!    ;)

Another Box Checked Off the List / Campground Comedy!

I can now check my MRI off the list! I am so glad that is over, talk about something that gives ya a headache!  Those ear plugs they give you don't work so well,  it was still very noisy! That is the first time I ever had one on my hand.  By the time it was done my whole arm was a mass of pins and needles.  I had to lay on my stomach on the table, with my hand above my head for over 45 minutes, and not move!  Right!  Ever notice when ya can't do something that is when you need to do it the most?  LOL!    Isn't it ironic  that your nose itches when ya can't itch it, or ya need to go somewhere when your car won't start, and you have no electric when everything ya need to do takes electric!  How many times have you tried to turn a light on by flipping the wall switch when there was no electric because of a storm?  I can't even imagine how many times I have done that!  lol !  So naturally my nose was itching like crazy during the MRI, is it just human nature that we try to do something when we can't ?  So, that was my big experience today, I just hope that they were able to find out what kind of arthritis I have so treatment can be started.  Guess how many times I have to do something so simple as make a note when I can't get my hand to grasp a pen?  Only about 3 dozen ha ha!  There we are right back to human nature, and in my case extreme stubbornness!  I insist on working at it until I do it, even if I am in worse  pain afterward, or I get frustrated because I can't make my fingers tighten up enough to hold the pen and throw it like a child.   I guess we never really outgrow tantrums!  I may have to buy some of those fat pencils like they use in Kindergarten, so I can grip it, I wonder if they make pens with fat barrels on them for griping?  Have any of you had to make changes in the way you do things in order to still Rv?  Ok, I think I've gotten all the mileage that I can get out of this subject so onward to the next!

I have been sitting here thinking about some of the funny things that have happened when we get ready for a trip and when we reach our destination.  Granted some of them weren't funny at the time, but we can laugh about them now!  I have only listed a couple of them, believe me the list  has become endless, and you may eventually hear about a lot of them! When we get ready to go for a trip, we both, (Mike and I) have a checklist that we go through before we pull in the slides and hitch up.  Mine are usually inside the fiver and Mike's are outside.  Then when we get there we go over  the other checklist to set up the fiver.  Heaven help us if we try to help the other one and do something on their list!  Some funny things have happened over the years when we tried to help each other.One time Mike decided to put the slides out before I had checked everything, oops some bottled water was sitting by the slide and it got crushed when the slide went out and tore the molding off the inside of the slide!  It had moved during travel and he didn't know to check that stuff.  Another time, I thought I'd help Mr Perfectionist with the chocks for the tires.  Only thing was I didn't realize he wasn't done trying to get the fiver as straight as he wanted it!  Oops, chocks don't bend very well, as a matter of fact they break when ya back over them!  He he!  Have you unknowingly put on a comedy show when setting up camp or breaking camp for your camping neighbors?  I know we have, and then how many of us take great delight in watching other people set up and break camp? You can see some pretty funny stuff!  Come on,ya know we all do it!  It's always better to watch than be watched, right?! 
Mike loves to sit outside on Sunday's and watch everyone break camp cos they have to go back home and get ready for work the next day!  He says, "That's one of the perks of being retired!"  He always has a cheery little wave for them when they pull out! 
We once actually set up camp in front of people, and when we were done, they came over and complimented us on how easy we made it look!  Now I did only say it happened ONCE!  Ha ha!
How many wives try to help Hubby guide the fiver into the campsite?  Believe me that can cause divorces!  We have tried the handheld walkie talkies (which only work if ya can chew gum and walk at the same time),and I always forget to push the button to talk! Then there are the hand signals, which don't always end up being very nice!  I'm sure ya know how yelling works out! (which only adds to the comedy show) and  now I usually try, and remember I did say  I try, to only say something if he is getting too close to something with the fiver.  He usually always does better if I just keep my mouth shut and let him do it!  When I do that he gets the fiver in the site on the first try, and when I try to help, it usually takes 2 or 3 tries.  Do ya see a pattern here?
I just know now with the 2 dogs we have, there is gonna be a lot of comedy going on !  We just got them in August, so they haven't been rving yet. I'm sure that means we're in for some more funny mishaps this year!  So stay tuned, we may be appearing at a campground near you with engagements throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall !