Life After 60, Day Three :-)

Happiness is......going to work in blazing sunshine, and having it last all day long!  Wow, how nice it is to have the sun shine!

Happiness is...... using my sales tax exempt card at the grocery store for the first time today, and finding out I can get an additional 10% off by shopping on Wednesdays!  

I got my sales tax exemption number yesterday, WOOHOOO!  This is for the City of Klawock, so I no longer have to pay the 5% sales tax!  Hey, that's like a raise, right, especially since they tax food here.  

Our experiment with one car is going very well.  In a walking village of only 800 people, where one can walk home from work easily, walk to the store and post office, walk to take a hike along the Klawock River, one car is more than enough.  It's a new experience for us, one we haven't had since, let's see, the mid 80's.  At some point, I bought a new Ford Ranger pickup, when we still had our 1984 Toyota Corolla, so that was the first time we were a two-car family.  I think I bought that Ranger in early 1989.  

As we look back on our year here, and our arrival, we remember the 80 days we spent in housing limbo, moving from place to place.  Even the last six weeks we spent at one place on Pt. St. Nick Road, we still didn't completely unpack.  Wow, crazy that it was a year ago.  We did survive it, but there were times when we weren't sure we would.  

I must be missing my parents more than I realized.  They don't travel anymore, much as I'd love to have them visit us and see the amazing place that is Prince of Wales Island.  On Saturday morning, my birthday, I had a vivid dream:  I hear my Mom calling me from outside our log house.  I get up and answer the door, and standing there is my Dad and Mom, 15 years younger.  Ha, my mind found a way to get them to travel:  just make them much younger.  :-)

I walked home from work yesterday, and saw a blue jay, and heard it chattering away.  Nothing takes me home more quickly than hearing that chatter.  It takes me right to Palomar Mountain, and many, many fun memories of camping with family.  It still surprises me when I see or hear a jay, because they are here, but I can go weeks without seeing or hearing one, just the opposite of our times on Palomar, where they are ever-present, loud, and usually in groups.  One of the many differences between San Diego and Prince of Wales Island.