A forward movement.

A great big Thank You to all our friends and relatives for your support!

It has been just over a month since we lost our home to a catastrophic fire and slowly the events in our life are moving on. Some positive and some not so much so! I sincerely hope you never have to go thru something like this in your own lives!

Yesterday we received a phone call from park management stating their insurance would not cover any portion of our trailers demolition expenses or lot restoration. So I made a call to the demolition company, went over concerns I had with the quote they had submitted and gave them authorization to expedite their services at my expense. To the tune of just over $11,000.

We also went to our fire destroyed home for the last time attempting to salvage what little is left of our lives possessions. Typing this attempting to make sense of what Cindy and I have gone thru since the day of the fire might sound tragic and it is. But at least now we can pick up the pieces, pull up our big boys and move on with our lives.

Yesterday we met with Brian and Carol, a Canadian couple that live in the park during the winter months, and came to an agreement with them to purchase their house. If all goes as planned, thanks to the generosity of all our friends and relatives, we will take occupancy on Dec. 29. Putting us back on the same block we lived on when we first moved to the park. Just 5 homes south of our first house here.

Brian is only a few years older than us but because of medical issues this will be their last year of coming down. So they, after hearing of our plight, have agreed to sell us the home “totally furnished”. Which under the circumstances is a very huge deal to us.

Brian has lived in the park for approximately 12 years, first like us coming down in their 5th wheel trailer and then later purchasing the home from its original owner. So he could fill me in on a lot of the changes and remodeling that had been done to the home during his and the original owner occupancy.

And although there will be a few things that need to be addressed to make it a year round residence this far south. The home itself is one of the better built homes in the park. Resting on concrete pillars and steel beamed foundation, it even has landscape blocks under the home for off ground on site storage.

The new home also has a second bedroom which is unique in that most homes here only have an Arizona room which is generally described as a three season porch. Where this, unlike our last home, has a completely self supporting structure for the second bedroom. It also comes with a washer and dryer saving Cindy from the commute to the in park laundromat.

Now on a reality note keep in mind even with all the storage this home offers, everything we own and will be moving to the new home will fit in one trip in the back of my pickup. And we are not talking any stacking……. The doctor said I needed to lose weight, I wonder if this is what he meant.

It is Always an Adventure!

Mark

Trying to survive

 With our lives turned upside down and flushed down the toilet, we are surviving...well trying too anyway. Each day does bring us closer to being in our new home,  but  waiting is very hard. The little cracker box we are living in now makes it hard to breath or move around and tests our patience constantly. Our fifth wheel rv had more room and it was something we chose to do. We did not choose the situation we are in now. It's a darn good thing we have a strong loving marriage, because it is tested often.

Yesterday we got our flu shots and I got my new computer. This is the first time the shot hurt, but at least the pain was short lived and didn't take long to be forgotten. The new computer is making my life easier. Some things just can't be done on an iPad, but I did the best I could. Finding room to set it up was no easy task. We no longer have a place to eat or we carefully eat around the computer. 😟 Forty five more days and we hope to be in our new home, so the inconvenience will only last that long. But it seems much longer.

Pool time is few and far between now. The pool has a lot of snowbirds enjoying the nice weather and the pool. Which makes it rather crowded to really enjoy the time spent in the pool for us. It's too cold for me now, so I don't care how many are in the pool. Mark is going there less and less too. So we will have to start walking more so get our exercise now. 

Good bye

For a few weeks before the tragic fire that took down our home we noticed Lola was slowing down and not enjoying the things she used to. We attributed it to her 8.5 years of age. After all we all slow down to some degree as we get older.  But after the fire Lola went down hill even more. Each week she slept more and more, ate less and drank less as well. She digressed to the point of not wanting to move or anything. That lead us to take her to the vet. 

On Monday November first the vet squeezed us in and said her lungs seemed to be restricted and her stomach felt like there was an obstruction. He needed to run some tests. The cost was something we could not afford so opted out. As Mark was leaving the office, both of us in tears, the nurse asked me to wait. When she returned she told me that they have funds for situations like the one we were in and said that all charges would be waved. She and I went to the car to tell Mark. Back into the clinic we went with Lola in Marks arms. The tests were done as we waited.

We waited at the car for the test results and prayed. We hoped that Lola could be made well with some kind of medicine. The nurse came and got us when the results were ready. The doctor did not have good news. Lolas kidneys were failing and nothing could be done to make her well. They but fluid in her since she was so dehydrated and sent some pills to help with vomiting. Leaving the office with very heavy hearts and another devastating low to our already shredded life.

On Wednesday, November 5th we had no choice but to take Lola  back to the vet. She crossed Rainbow Ridge after we said our sad good byes to our precious little Lola.

We hope and pray that we will see better days in the days ahead. I honestly don’t know how much more we can take. We both are just hanging by a very thin thread.