A New Year, A New Decade

Yes, we’re still out here, enjoying life in Santee, California.  The Christmas and New Years holidays have come and gone, and we’ve settled into somewhat of a routine, or at least as much of one as we can tolerate.

Jim has progressed quite well in his healing and is able to eat many things, although there are some foods that he isn’t quite ready to tackle.  He has regular checks at the dentist, and now it’s just a matter of time before he’s at a point where we can take ourselves back on the road.

I had my eyes checked right before Christmas and just picked up new glasses on Monday.  Wow, I hadn’t realized what bad shape my old lenses were in until I put on the new pair – I can actually see clearly now!  The old lenses had a type of coating on them that had started to crack and peel just enough to make everything fuzzy.  I just thought it was my eyes getting worse!  Actually, my prescription didn’t change all that much, but enough that the new glasses are just a little stronger.

I’m still attending a weekly Weight Watchers meeting and enjoying this group very much.  The leader is very energetic and dynamic, and her “other” job is public speaking on the subject of health maintenance, so she’s very well versed in healthy living.  My weight has stayed stable, which is a very good thing.  Santa brought me some new Wii games for Christmas, including the Wii Resort and new Wii Fit Plus, so I am hard at work on those.

An early Christmas present to myself was the purchase of a Kindle electronic reading device, and I’m thoroughly hooked on that!  It’s so easy to get new books, the reading goes quickly, and it’s a great weight saver as far as not having to haul books around.  Jim has borrowed it to read a book I bought that he wanted to read also.  Now if I can just get him converted and purchase a second Kindle for him, we can stop carrying books with us!

We also moved again – from one site at Santee Lakes to another, our third since we got here.  The online reservation system evidently is at the base of what is known as the “Santee Shuffle”.  When you make a reservation here, you’re assigned a specific site, and if you decide you want to come in earlier or stay longer than your original dates, you could have to move.  Since we did both, we’ve had to go with the flow.  It gives us a little practice in our packing and setting up, plus we get a different view and new neighbors, so we really don’t mind all that much.

Yesterday we got our chores done in the morning and took a ride a few miles north to the Bernardo Winery, where we enjoyed a light lunch, a little wine tasting and some shopping in the village there.  The winery was started in 1889 and is the oldest continuously operating winery in Southern California:

We ate lunch in Cafe Merlot:

In the tasting room, I had some questions about the wine:

Today was the first day we’ve taken time to go to the beach!  Jim looks relaxed:

And we enjoyed watching some very young surfers:

At the risk of “rubbing it in” I have to say that we chose correctly this winter as far as outguessing the weather, and have been enjoying some very nice, warm days here in Southern California.  (But, I think there’s a cold front on the way, and we could be seeing a cool down and some rain showers before too long).

We wish all our friends and family could be here too, and not having to endure the deep-freeze that winter is bringing to many other parts of the country!