HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I had cabin opening duty this morning as it is my housekeeper's well-deserved "DAY OFF!"  As I was treking from #3 - down by the river - to #9 - up above the loop road - I suddenly realized what a LOVELY back yard we are blessed with!!  No wonder folks are willing to pay to stay three to five days here in paradise with the sound of the river, the clear blue sky, and on these unseasonably warm days, even birdsong!

What a blessing not to be living in a "senior apartment complex" with folks above, below, and beside us.  We get to know some incredible folks who DO live in the "anthills" that we know as cities!!  We did our time in those places and I am sure that at some point we might have to again, when the bodies will not keep up with the work required caring for 2.65 acres and nine houses other than our own - I guess that is TEN HOUSES!!

My husband's construction skills have been tested these four years since his retirement from the Sonora United Methodist Church!  He has tackled rebuilding a 60 year old swimming pool, and just recently finding a replacement for a gas log that had expired and was too close to its "life expectancy" to repair, so said the only repairman in the area!!  Did you realize that, like all appliances, gas log fireplaces have a life expectancy.  If properly maintained they might even make it the 15 years they are designed for, if not...

 Likewise, furnaces are appliances and need at least bi-annual checkups.  Fortunately, because we do have power outages, only the two cabins with wood burning fireplaces even HAVE forced air furnaces.  NO POWER, no furnace as the fan requires electricity in order for the furnace to work!  The things one doesn't know about "mountain living" could fill a book!  Like a bag of snow keeps the refrigerator cold during a power failure, going to bed when it gets dark solves the NO TV problem, a camp stove will heat water for coffee in a power failure (and we have camp stoves and propane bottles just for those "emergencies")   No such problem this week though - no snow but gorgeous hiking weather and some of our guests even brought their "off-road vehicles" and went exploring in them!

ALL in ALL a good time was had by all since the ice rink at Long Barn was open as well as the hard working crew up at the SNOWPLAY.com facility at Leland Meadows making snow on our cold winter nights, which unfortunately got pretty slushy in the warm daytime temperatures!  They were not as busy as they could have been, but people did choose to use their equipment and could be heard laughing and hollering for JOY!

Joy to you all and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Tom and Martha

thankful...

Praise GOD from whom all blessings flow…we are still living in the beautiful mile high hamlet of Strawberry – over 4 years now since Tom retired.  Last August I was allowed to retire TOO, at least from the daily Post Office job.  USPS decided to close our Strawberry Post Office, so I just answer the phone for reservations at The RiversResort.com and go to Pinecrest to pick up the mail. 

NEW ADDRESS:  PO Box 1279

PINECREST CA  95364

Tom got busy and rebuilt the former Post Office to be our OFFICE and guest room.  Thanks to a spare futon from son Tom the grandkids have two places to sleep at Grandma and Grandpa’s house – the futon in our living room and the futon in the OFFICE.  The “pantry” is now the “Japanese Hallway” - Thanks to the silk paintings from one of Tom’s many trips to Japan, a dark blue half curtain and our 1,000 cranes from Takane, our exchange student from Kyoto one of the summers that Kathleen was in High School. 

Kathleen is coming for Thanksgiving from her new home in Boise ID where she will be doing her internship and licensing as she earns her Master’s Degree in Counseling.  We were able to see her new location in June when we took some boxes that wouldn’t fit in her car when she made the cross-country move.  It was only a days drive from the Griffin’s 50^th Anniversary Celebration in Salem OR.   And a very pretty drive through a section of OR that we had not visited – Sisters & Ontario.

Grandson Brandon is working on his Senior Year at Long Barn High School and splits wood and hopefully shovels snow for the Resort after school.  Miss Ashleigh is an 8^th grader at Summerville Elementary and doing quite well with her grades.  Cassidy is pastry chef and chief baker at the Casino in Tuolumne, and Joey and Tom both work at Amazon in Tracy – different departments.

Our first great grandson – Lane Robert-Michael Lema – arrived on Nov 7^th to join Amy and Wyatt and their two doggies.  Lane was 8 lbs 2 oz and all of you on Facebook, by friending Amy Weathers, can see LOTS of photos.  Personally, I cannot remember how to post photos, maybe Kathleen can show me when she is here!  He is an adorable and sweet baby – eats, sleeps, poops and has his parents wrapped around his pinkie!

Joe Poley, Allan’s oldest, has THREE adorable little girls along with his wife Marisa.  They came right up on Tuesday last week to greet Amy and Wyatt’s little one.  Her brother Tom was not far behind – we remarked that the reason the parking lot at the Sonora Hospital was so FULL that day was because everyone came to see LANE, Amy and Wyatt!!  Grandpa Allan had to drive his logging truck that day but was there before nightfall – we pulled up some “baby Allan” pictures and Lane bears quite a resemblance to his Grandpa. 

Our other excitement this Fall was surgery on Tom’s cataracts – both eyes two weeks apart with three eye doctor checkups each.  We decided that the closing of the Post Office was a blessing, just trying to do all the doctors, dentists, hearing specialists for me…we must be in that “falling apart” stage of life!!  “One day at a time, sweet Jesus, one day at a time!” 

MUCH to be THANKFUL for this season and we include you all in that thought!!  Have yourself a BLESSED Christmas and the best of LIFE in 2018.

Adrenalin

It has only been 24 years since I even WORKED in a restaurant, let alone had the responsibility of operating one.  So, why am I still being blessed with nightmares involving THE INN?  Years ago another former restaurant owner in our area and I were discussing the frequency of our nightmares regarding our former lives operating eating establishments; she had decided that when she was stressed in her new vocation, the old stresses of the restaurant would haunt her sleep.  I agreed with her at that time and we congratulated ourselves that we could awake grateful we did NOT have to deal with that situation any longer.

New theory - I am an adrenalin junkie!!  Do you suppose there is a 12 step group for that?  I am not stressed; quite the opposite in fact.  But low and behold, there I was this early AM dealing with a new table arrangement in the dining room, a new menu printed from the cook's computer, and a customer who had a omlette served at DINNER TIME when our breakfast menu clearly said breakfast only until 11:30.  If one customer gets an omlette for dinner, everyone will want a breakfast any time of the day!!  Oh, and then he was giving me a hard time for taking so long to add up the hand-written ticket...that is when I realized that NO ONE in this century uses hand-written tickets in a restaurant - OK, maybe Mike's Mountain Deli in MiWuk does.  Even the INN now has a computer touch screen with progam that does inventory and ordering based on the items served, and spews out a ticket based on the current prices, taxes, and even a gratuity if your party numbers over SIX. 

I had to chuckle that my restaurant nightmares have not gotten into the 21st Century!  So I awoke charged up with adrenalin and grateful, but also laughing that the haunting had not progressed into the current way of doing business in the restaurant industry.  Like I said above, 24 years ago we did things much differently!