It was a horrible night-- I was up and down all night, couldn't sleep, I was so wired about this election. Poor John, I kept getting up and sneaking into the kitchen to turn on the TV and check the results. I was channel surfing all the major networks to see the map of "red and blue" states. When they announced Florida as an official win for Bush, I went to bed in disgust. Then, to wake up and find the election still in contention. I held on to that thread of hope that Ohio would not fall into the Bush camp, but I guess, in this case, God was not on my side. To see your fellow countrymen looking at the same issues that you are- and making their voting decisions based on "moral issues" like gay marriage rather than on a mis-managed, wrong war in Iraq, an economy in turmoil and a whopping deficit.... I can't tell you how disheartening it is! John still talks about moving to Canada- but I've told him it's far too cold and too boring. John keeps telling me that I have to stop obsessing about all this and just realize that we're watching the death of our country. Oh well, 4 more years of that Bush smirk and his horrifying cadre of advisors. It's a sad day for the US...and for the world, I fear.For our part, we're settling back into Florida...although our "re-entry" was less than smooth. Between my sleepless sand-flea nights and the general state of things in the house and yard, it's been less than fun. We got back on Friday and had to leave the motorhome at the local repair shop for the night (another slider was giving us problems). So, we took the essentials out (makeup, food, etc) and went to the house. The hurricane damage was pretty mild (considering that this place took the brunt of 3 storms). We lost one of our bottle-brush shrubs and another one is hanging on by a few stakes. One of the screens in the Florida room is torn. But, given what we saw in other parts of Florida, we were very lucky. Having said all that, all of the plants need pruning and fertilizing, the house needed cleaning and it was a bit depressing to be "grounded". So, we spent the weekend cleaning the house, making a "Wal-mart" run to stock up again and then, once we got the motorhome back, transferring all of our stuff and cleaning it. It's been most unpleasant - and we've decided that next time, we're going to contract to have the yard and house taken care of before we arrive home.
The park is filling back up with snow-birds, so we've met with a few of our neighbors and immediately got hit with all the local TGO politics (which didn't help John's mood very much). It turns out that while we were gone, the Board of Directors got together and banned all motorscooters over 50CCs. We can be grandfathered in on our scooter (if we fill out a package of forms- including getting the forms notarized and providing proof of purchase date, mileage, etc). But, we can't sell the scooter to anyone in the park. On top of all that, they've banned motorcycles completely. We used to be able to drive the Triumph from the storage unit on site to get out of the park. Now, they've banned all motorcycles from passing the guard post. This means that you have to trailer the motorcycle to the guard post. Needless to say,John was absolutely furious!! He's never been much of a fan of this place- but to have some biddlies telling him what he can and can't do at his age has got him angry beyond belief. On top of all that, our neighbor (across the street) has spent over $50,000 of his own money in a lawsuit against the park to get the motorcycle issue resolved. He's the one neighbor that John and I really like, and he's so frustrated that we think that he and his wife may move. So, we're talking about our options- and nothing is really obvious. I guess it's time to take out the big "T-Chart" and list all the +'s and -'s of our options. So, we're looking at 1) Doing nothing and holding our nose until we get tired of motorhoming (since this place really does work with the motorhoming lifestyle) (And then, probably moving back to the Northeast at some point-- at least we would be living in a "blue" state) or 2). Looking at a place in Louisiana - either property on a bayou or a place in New Orleans (which would give us a fun place to live in the months we're not on the road and lots of people to socialize with) or 3). Looking at property in Cocoa or Merritt Island (which is probably a bit too much money).
