MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21ST, 2012

Last week we let Augie stay home and guard the house instead of taking her with us on our first motorhome trip. She does this everytime we go away and I've always known she loves it. Our neighbor Cathy comes over every morning and feeds her and opens the doggie door, then comes over every evening and feeds her again and locks her in for the night. I know . . . I have a wonderful neighbor.

You've seen those funny videos of what pets do when they're home alone. I've often wondered what Augie does while we're away because in my heart of hearts, I've always felt there's another side to my sweet gentle little kitty. Well, I was right because guess who she brought home while we were gone.

Willard!!!

I won't go into the details of where he was or how long he'd been there or how I found him or what became of him. Suffice it to say he doesn't live with us any longer.

And the doggie door? It's permanently shut for the rest of Augie's life. She'll just have to ask when she wants to go in and out, and all presents will have to remain outside.


Look at this sweet content little kitty. I just took this photo of her laying on top of a plastic bag of artificial flowers on my desk, keeping me company while I've been working on my website. She reminds me everyday that loves comes in many different forms!

MONDAY THRU FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH-17TH, 2012

Off we went to Pismo Beach on our maiden voyage in our new motorhome, the beginning of the second half of our lives! It was an exhilarating feeling for all three of us... me and Bill and Andi too. We weren't sure if Augie would like the motorhome or not so we decided to let her stay home and guard the house instead, a job she loves.


Here's a map from Thousand Oaks to Pismo Beach, a beautiful 3-hour drive north up the coast. Bill drove the whole way and kept the speed at 60 miles an hour, a very comfortable speed even driving such a big vehicle.


This is the town of Pismo Beach. We stayed at the Pismo Coast RV Resort which I outlined in red. The setting is just beautiful, lots and lots of grass and trees, right on the ocean, immaculately maintained, and only a few blocks walk to town. It's easy to see why it keeps getting a 5-star rating year after year. We were unbelievably lucky to get a campsite right across from the beach under very big, very old trees. It truly doesn't get more beautiful than this!


This is just after we arrived and popped out the sides. That's our picnic table which the resort provides for every campsite.


A photo of the other side which gives you an idea of how spacious the resort is. Unlike many RV parks, there's lots of space between each of the campsites and a grassy area all the way up and down every row.


You can see how beautiful the setting of our campsite was.


This is looking down the row of the other campsites on our street, and it was typical of all of the streets in the whole resort. If you look back at the map, you'll see how big the resort is. It's why we learned very quickly what camping in a campground is all about. I really thought that when we went camping, we'd have all the time in the world to do nothing. That couldn't be further from the truth. We were up early everyday, having coffee and taking a walk around the campground, and since all the other campers were out too, a 15 minute walk turned into 2 hours. That's because RV people have their own culture. Everyone's super friendly, almost everyone is walking a dog or two, some even have cats, and everyone wants to chat. Later we walked into town, had lunch, went to the beach, met up with other campers walking at the end of the day, often had a glass of wine with them and just relaxed. By the time Bill grilled dinner and we finished eating, we were ready to crawl into bed but then someone would come by and say hey come over for drinks so off we went again, marshmallows in hand which we toasted over crackling campfires. When we finally DID get into bed we were asleep in seconds. We both said this is camping? How do you ever have time to get anything done? We never even turned on our computers! It was nothing like the times we'd been camping in Glacier National Park and in Canada. What a wonderful way of life this is going to be!


Andi is fascinated with our motorhome. She supervised me for two days while I loaded everything for our first trip and she checked every cupboard, closet, and corner a hundred times. Once we got to Pismo Beach though, there was so much going on all the time that she rarely left the windows when we were inside.


This is our first dinner in our motorhome. It didn't take Andi long to pick her own spot.


If you look back on the map of Pismo Beach, you can see the pier and that's where this photo is taken.


This is my favorite photo of the whole trip.


This photo is taken from the pier looking back at our campsite. Right on the water! I can't imagine ever having a better campsite!


This is taken from the pier looking north up the coast. It was a typical winter day with blue sky, fluffy clouds and a light breeze. Winter on the beach in southern Caifornia is perfect!


The end of a long happy day!

Our first motorhome trip was better than we ever imagined, filled with so many wonderful memories. We could easily have stayed a month. It makes the anticipation of our next trip to San Diego in two weeks almost unbearable. Stay tuned!

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7TH, 2012

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 today that Judge Walker correctly interpreted the U.S. Constitution when he ruled in 2010 that California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and violated the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

I believe this as well. We as a society decided long ago that certain things, equality of life being one of them, are not subject to any kind of vote as a means to alter the rights of minorities based on the whims of distaste of majorities. These things that can't be voted on are called civil rights, thus Proposition 8 should never have been allowed on the ballot in the first place.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt reaffirmed, "Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for 'laws of this sort'."

Although various religious groups were extremely influential in getting Propostion 8 passed in 2010, happily the religious viewpoint was never mentioned once in today's 128-page ruling. That's because religion has as much place in this debate as it does in a murder trial. No one tries to convict a killer because he broke one of the Ten Commandments. A trial is a purely secular, civil proceeding in the eyes of the courts. So is a marriage.

That said, no doubt this will eventually be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6TH, 2012

Oh my gosh I can hardly believe it! We bought a motorhome and we're picking it up on Friday. Only four days from now!

It's a 35-ft 2008 Fleetwood Bounder, barely driven and in almost brand new condition. I'm so excited I've been waking up in the middle of the nite, already on the road, trying to decide where to put things, trying to decide which beach to stop at next.

Here are a few photos. More to come after we get it outfitted and ready to roll.

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My Augie Augie
who starts every morning and ends every evening in my lap in bed
I can't imagine beginning or ending a day without her



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