I'm Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas Done

I have allowed six lazy weeks to slip by. Okay, we've done Christmas shopping/wrapping/shipping/cookie baking, holiday stuff, etc and we've played golf a few times but Denny and I have also just sat on our rear ends a lot lately. It probably has something to do with being separated from family over the holidays and some of it has been the cold and sometimes wet, rainy weather but we've just done a lot of cocooning lately. I think it's time for a bit of a shake up.

We did get at least one good thing accomplished today; we found a RV service tech who actually discovered why our heat pump was causing our entire trailer to vibrate. It seems that whoever installed the air conditioner or perhaps one of the many service techs who has worked on it over the past year after we've complained about the vibration tightened the unit down so firmly that it literally squashed the rubber gasket flat to the roof so there was no play in it at all. Thus, when the compressor was on its vibration could be felt throughout the entire trailer. Plus it was noisy. Now, the vibration is minimal (there is still some vibration but we think it's a problem with the roof construction/mounting) and the unit is much less noisy. Yay! Everyone kept telling us "that's just how it is" but we knew better because we've owned two other fifth wheels with heat pumps on our roof air conditioning units and we've never had this problem before. Even better is that this young man who is just starting his own mobile RV service does not charge a service fee for coming to your campground as is normal and his labor fees are less than anyone else we've dealt with over the past couple of years. So we had a belated Christmas present!

Denny and I wanted to play golf one last time before we left this area since we'll be going north into colder temperatures, but it's just going to be too darned cold here so we'll have to wait a while. Even Patches comes out just long enough to see if the neighbor's cat is sitting outside and if he's not, then she wants back inside the warm rig. Thank goodness.

I really haven't even bothered to take my camera outside with me on my walks with the cat since I haven't seen but one gopher tortoise here this year, although the Sandhill Cranes wander our section of the campground every day. Other than some raccoons that I believe have distemper since I've seen them out in the daytime, there haven't been any wildlife picture taking opportunities here. Instead I've added a couple of shots from our campground in Wauchula, Florida taken a few days ago.
This pileated woodpecker wouldn't cooperate by clinging to a tree in an upright position but insisted on foraging along a branch. I have several shots where his head is a blur as he rat-tat-tats along the branch looking for yummy bugs. This shot was the best I could do before he flew off into the distance. They are shy creatures.
If you look closely at the right side of the oak tree hiding in the palmetto leaves about 1/4 of the way down from the top you'll see a very brave stupid squirrel debating on whether or not it should investigate the gray and white creature sitting crouched at the base of the tree. It was pretty obvious the squirrels at this campground were not familiar with cats because more than once they came down the trees to within 3 feet of Patches, who I held on a very short, tight leash. Because she has her claws and will climb trees to chase them.
I'm thinking that my New Year's resolution should be to get out and move more this year, starting with our next campground. Might as well get a jump on the new year there and the trails along the Suwanee River begged to be walked so it's a good place to start. Got to walk off those Christmas cookies that I had to eat.