With the advent of the current government health care law, 3M company has joined the growing list of companies that have long been known for their outstanding health care plans in making major reductions in those plans to comply with the new regulations forced on them and to avoid the payment of penalties from government for supplying too much coverage. As a part of the reductions, 3M has now pushed those who  qualify for Medicare off of the company plan while giving financial assistance to us for the purchase of private insurance coverage premiums. The result is much poorer drug coverage, so I concluded that it was time to readdress the health benefits that I could qualify for with the Veteran's Administration.

Fortunately, I had taken the time to register with the VA back in 2001, so my date is fairly early, which is important for those of us who were discharged with no disability or retirement. As of now I have been accepted by the VA for health care, although I do have a small copay. That means that I do pay a small fee for drug prescriptions, but it is far less than the copay with my Medicare Part D. I get complete coverage for preventive care and am still learning about the intricacies of the plan, but it will clearly save us a goodly amount on the two maintenance drugs that I now have.

Let me advise that any readers who happen to be veterans go as soon as possible and register with the VA to at least establish your registry date. There is a means test that determines just what benefits you can get but the maximum income is increased each year and your date of registry is also a part of the formula. Do take the time to check it out!

When weather began to warm one of the first things that we did was to begin to plant a few things to make the new home base our home. Our first planting was three rose bushes, followed by two small crabapple trees. There has also been a great deal of work on our lawn as the previous owner did very little by way of landscaping. Our first rose is now blooming! We would have had two roses blooming, had it not been for some hungry rabbits in the neighborhood! I had never known rabbits to eat rose bushes, but ours is not the only one that has been lunch to something. We had a very nice cream colored rose that was growing best of the three and which had at least a dozen bud nearly ready to begin to open, when one night something devoured every leaf and bud on the plant, completely stripping it to the stems! As of today it has begun to put out new leaves so if the rabbits will just leave it be........................ Even so, it great to have some flowers here.

The engine oil and filter have been changed, the chassis is lubed. The genset has had oil & filter and a complete servicing. Most of the storage bays have been emptied, cleaned and what goes with us put back in. Inside the carpets have been vacuumed and shampooed, all woodwork has been oiled, cabinets emptied and cleaned. Clear progress in the direction of readying for the road once more. While there is much more to do, the big job remaining is that the RV sure does need to be washed! I wonder if anyone out there might want to come by and wash it for me? I would even supply the materials and even some wax!

Anyone out there looking for something to do?

This being our first opportunity to do so in almost 11 years, since we moved into the house here we have completely unloaded the motorhome. It was just a little bit surprising what we found that we didn't know was even in it now! Living in an RV one has to learn to stay somewhat better organized than with a larger space and with the constraints of storage space and cargo weights, you would expect that we would pretty much always know what is inside. This not so true as we used to believe for even an RV has those little corners, out of the way places, and even under larger things where items become hidden and either forgotten, or ignored. Over the past few months, Pam emptied every bit inside and I have done the same in the outside storage. In addition, for the first time since the winter of 1999, I winterized it.

Now the process has begun of getting ready and of putting the RV back into service. Pam has been cleaning everything from top to bottom inside, even all of the storage space. Carpets are being vacuumed and scrubbed, woodwork wiped down, and a total "spring cleaning" is taking place. Meanwhile I have begun sorting through the amazing pile of "stuff" from the bays to determine what goes back in, is thrown away, or stays behind, after a complete cleaning of each space. There are rather surprising number of things that we will leave behind with this being a trip, rather than a lifetime. Planning for five months does mean taking a lot with you, but there are still some things that just as well stay behind. I'll leave behind many of my wood tools and some of the other hobby items as we won't have the "down time" that you do when living on the road for life. And I won't need the items to change oil and lube the chassis as we will be back before that must be done again. One thing that we may face that full-timers don't deal with is the discovery that we wish we had brought something that was left behind!

We have begun to anticipate returning to the road and are becoming just a little bit anxious to move once more. This will have been just a month longer stop than what our longer winter stops have been in the past but this has been quite different with living outside of the motorhome. As much as we have come to love our new home and our neighbors here, the feet have begun to get itchy once more and so preparation has begun and not with dread but with excitement!