We live in an RV now, homes are too expensive and we're too old to pay down a large mortgage....nor do I want to have a large mortgage.  RV life is fine, B. rents a working shop where he works on his cars and I get the office for my stuff so creativity isn't a problem.  Except for motivation, but that's another subject....

Anyway.  Living in an RV park where a lot of the residents are permanent is pretty interesting.  Entertaining may be a better word. Amusing might be even better.  Weird also comes to mind.  We have characters here, oodles of characters.

There is (in no particular order except that the further from us geographically the less we are likely to know them well); Cat Man, Heffe (Juan Carlos right-hand man), Big Mama, Big Daddy (Big Mama and Big Daddy aren't together, I thought they were but Big Mama is married to Big Mama's husband not Big Daddy-got it?), The Drug Dealer, Bo's Mama, Bo's Daddy (Bo is a black dog Jenny is VERY interested in but his parents aren't with each other either...that's just what we call them), Flat-Faced Dumb Shit Dog and his owner, The Bus Driver, his wife and daughter, The Park Admin and The Asshole That Drives the Maroon Truck (TATDMT), the unnamed 94 y.o. man who wears the same clothes all the time...., and assorted critters.

I'll update on them individually to keep each post from being too long.

Meanwhile, it's spring here and the days are beautiful and everything is blooming. I'd load a picture but haven't synced my phone lately...motivation again.  I think I have spring fever.  Or old age.  Could be old age.  Nah, spring fever it is.

It's not spring yet but it's not snowy....  winter is different here in Southern California.  There are cool days, windy days, a few rainy days, but so far, no COLD days.  Colorado was beautiful but I got sooo tired of being cold but it was home (but then, so was Florida).  Here, flowers continue to bloom, trees are still green, birds sing.  The orange tree is getting ready to blossom and yesterday I picked a tomato from an 8 month old tomato plant.  The hummingbirds are here all year long.  I finally got around to putting up a feeder and two are fighting over it.  So, I hung up two.  More to fight over perhaps.

I definitely have a love/dislike relationship with where we live.  There are good-yep, this is great weather, scenery, places to go moments and depressing-nope, dislike this dusty, dry, crowded place moments.  Rarely have I had such a mixture of reactions to a place.

Christmas in Santa Barbara

Since we have no family here in CA, even though we were invited to others homes, we decided to go 'away' for Christmas.  At first we had reservations for a BnB but then acquired a new dog so motel it was.  La Quinta takes dogs so we stayed downtown Santa Barbara.  I ordered half a ham, made some small versions of our usual side dishes and packed them up.  We looked like the Clampetts in a Honda Si but whatever...

It was a very artful, pretty town.  The staff at La Quinta were friendly, helpful, and patient.  Brett was ill for a day and a half so Christmas was low key but still we had fun.  A walk to the wharf, a walk with Jenny to the nearest park, and a drive along Hwy 1, some shopping in a few great stores.  We had fish n chips at Mac's Fish n Chips and the best Cajun food we've had lately on the way back home.  I'll have to look up the name of the place.  It was wonderful!  I trust YELP and they never disappoint.

A few pics of the trip....

Jenny looking pitiful but actually she likes the kennel.

An older part of the road.  A fish ladder was underneath.

Cajun food.  OMG good.

One of the statues downtown.

Beautiful tiles