Because We Can - Fulltime RV'ing

 

What Did We Do Today?

Friday May 29 Livingston, TX

A Happy Linda Day

In the realm of the mundane, we had our Care Center volunteer orientation meeting today. Of course the scintillating personality of our volunteer coordinator, Crystal, made it anything but mundane, but that is a story for another day. Mostly refresher, the remainder was refreshing as it seemed they changed the areas that desperately needed changing when we were last here and the changes were definitely for the better. This time we will actually get days off where they are actually days off. We are both happy campers and really looking forward to the next month.

So what about the photo of the mail truck? One of the greatest joys in Linda's life has been to get the mail. Obviously she had a getting the mail deprived childhood, but she had a get the mail six days a week marriage. At least she did before we ran off to the fulltime Life. But Livingston and the Escapee's Park is home. It is where our mailing address is. That means this afternoon we walked over to the mail window, Linda gave them the magic six digits, the six digits being our box number, and soon the young lady returned with a bundle of mail.

I don't have a photo of Linda receiving the mail, stupid me as I forgot to take a photo, but she was excited as a teenager on her first date with a college senior. That is, if my memory serves me correct. Cradle Robber Bob.

But back to what the photo means. The Escapee's mail center is reportedly the largest mail forwarding operation the country. I don't know if that is correct or not, but the fact that everyday a semi load of mail is delivered in the morning and a semi load of mail leaves in the afternoon says it is huge. (You can probably guess I forgot to take any photos today when I write so much on a photo of the back of a truck.) Bad Bob. And truth be told, it was Linda who took this photo. I was even worse than I let on. Really Bad Bob.

The real reason Linda captured my heart nearly a half century ago. And no, just because she is holding a dish drainer in this photo it wasn't because she loved doing the dishes. It is the smile. The giga-billion watt smile that lights up any room she is in almost as much as it lights up my heart. The real story however is the cause of that smile which is the dish drainer she is holding.

RV kitchens are not like homes with acres of counter space. A better analogy would be they are like the counters in an aircraft restroom. Its there but there just isn't much to it. Doing the dishes is the easy part. Finding a dish drainer that fits in the space beside the sink, doesn't get water everywhere but where you want it, and is easy to store is a near impossibility.

We had only been fulltiming a few months when another customer in an RV store saw Linda looking at dish drainers. He showed her one and said it was the only one to buy. She did and it eventually was worn out but as luck would have it three years ago when we volunteered at the Care Center we found one just like on the share table. Today was, as Yogi would say, deja vu all over again. There was another one on the table. The smile says it all. Linda now has a spare should her current one break. That's why the giga-watt smile. Most women want jewelry or meals in expensive restaurants or the like. The woman I married gets ecstatic over a dish drainer. How did I ever get so lucky?

The Escapee's Care Center. Just to let you know, we will never post any photos of the residents of the Care Center. Over the next four weeks we will be telling you more about the Care Center, but for now, it has been a long day and it time to say good night. But of course me being Bob there is one minor aside, but it speaks volumes for how appreciated our efforts are by the residents. One resident provides free high speed internet to the volunteers. On the other hand, we could never thank the residents enough for the joy they add to our lives from merely knowing them. More later on the familiar faces we see and the sadness we feel for the ones that are no longer with us.

It is appropriate to end the day with a quote form author, educator, and clergyman, Henry Jackson van Dyke. "Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live." Virtually every resident here at the Care Center lived the fulltime Life until the decided to hang up the keys. Some day this will be Linda and I, but before that day occurs, we will have lived our dream just as they did.

 

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