Author: Roadtirementvintage

A wet start to 2022

/ Roadtirementvintage / 39 Comments

Rain falling, dripping off the Christmas lights

We are starting 2022 off with a drab and wet day here in central Indiana. It’s been raining all morning and the rain continues as this post is written. We’ve had about a half inch of precipitation since early this morning. It’s suppose to stop later this afternoon, then colder temps move in.

We usually take down the Christmas decorations before New Years Day. Too much crummy weather has kept us from taking down the outside lights yet. It is not fun nor really safe to mess with the ladder when it’s raining!

The temperatures are going to drop overnight tonight. We could easily see snowfall tomorrow morning when we wake up! Oh well, it is January. Hopefully your weather is not bad for the start of New Year 2022.

Roadtirement’s 2021 was one to remember

/ Roadtirementvintage / 51 Comments

January 2021 was the start of the second year of the pandemic. Now  we’re 12 months later and pandemic is still a word we see daily. Sigh…

January 2021 saw us waiting for COVID vaccines to become available for people our age. We did get our first dose of the COVID vaccine in February. With the pandemic raging, we did not go out much. Safer to stay close to home, enjoying our backyard and the occasional trip to a winery or brewery. We did discover the fun of working on those thousand piece jig saw puzzles!

Backyard bird watching

One of our sons got married in August in Columbus, Ohio. That was a fun party! All of our kids and grandkids were able to attend, the first time in a while when we all got together. We did decide that after we were fully vaccinated we would fly out to Seattle and down to Austin to see our long distant families. So we were off to Seattle for 3 weeks followed by a 3 week trip to Austin.

We did have most enjoyable times while we traveled and stayed with our families. Lots of neat restaurants, wineries, breweries and other local attractions. We did not use our RV for these trips not wanting to be on the road for that long a time. All in all, 2021 was a strange year. Hopefully 2022 will see less COVID problems. Maybe we’ll be able to get some more RV travel in!

Have a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2022

 

 

Indy’s Circle of Lights celebration

/ Roadtirementvintage / 27 Comments

Monument Circle, the “center” of downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, is a large traffic circle with the Soldiers & Sailors Monument standing in the center. Each year the monument is turned into an impressive display of Christmas lights. It has been dubbed by some as being the “World’s Largest Christmas Tree”.

Photo courtesy Indiana War Memorial Foundation

Each November the Indiana Brotherhood of Electrical Workers IBEW 481 decorate the Soldiers & Sailors Monument with 52 garland strands with 4,784 LED lights, strung from the top of the Monument to its base. The Monument will continue to be surrounded by 26 larger-than-life toy soldiers and sailors and 26 peppermint sticks.

Last year the pandemic forced the lighting of the monument and fireworks to be on TV only.  This year folks viewed the celebration in person. The celebration started with a talent show on the circle. The lighting of the nearly 5000 colorful LED bulbs signals the beginning of the Christmas Season in the Hoosier State.

COVID messed with our Christmas plans

/ Roadtirementvintage / 69 Comments

A lovely spread on our snack table

We were planning on spending time with family in Columbus, Ohio this Christmas season. One of our sons and his family and our daughter and her family from Seattle were getting together in Ohio. Sher and I and our son who lives with us were planning on going to Ohio for a Christmas celebration.

That pesky COVID-19 put an absolute damper on those plans. Our Ohio family started feeling bad, and yes, the at home tests showed positive. Our Seattle daughter and her family had traveled from Columbus to our son-in-law’s family in Cleveland, and you guessed it, they started showing signs of infection. They had a real struggle finding testing sites or at home kits. Finally they got tested, and yes, they were positive. None of our family is having real bad symptoms, fortunately nothing requiring hospitalizations, and all are reporting feeling better.

This damned COVID is spreading fast everywhere, and we did not want to take the chance to travel, so at this point in time we are staying put in Indiana. Maj is in the age and health very high risk category. No need to take any chances. We were going out to eat for Christmas Eve dinner, but have scratched that now. Sher was able to put together a wonderful shopping order for a Christmas day meal. Ham with all the trimmings will delight and fill us on the 25th.

Have safe Christmas and New Years celebrations, folks. 

A shade of red in that squirrel’s tail

/ Roadtirementvintage / 46 Comments

The gray squirrels we always see

We see lots of gray squirrels in our area of Indiana. Within the past week we have seen several squirrels that have a noticeable reddish color to their tails and along the center of their backs. Their coats are not red like the red squirrels we saw at our son’s house in Austin when we visited a couple of weeks ago.

Note the red color of the tail

These are not red squirrels. Reds and grays are two different species, and are incompatible for cross breeding. Reds have much more red coloring all over their bodies. These grays have gotten some reddish tints in their tails and their backs. Anybody seen these kinds of colorations in your area’s populations?

Some folks like squirrels. Others think they are just “tree rats”. I’ve heard it said that squirrels are nothing more than rats with a good Public Relations Department…

A frosty gallery

/ Roadtirementvintage / 22 Comments

This morning we woke to a very heavy frost. These pictures were captured at 10 o’clock, with the ambient temperature still at 28 F.

Frost covered sage

Rose leaf edges attracted the frost

Another leaf edge with heavy frost

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A heavy frost should not be a surprise: Winter Solstice is three days away!