Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

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Samhain Weekend

Most of you by now know that Damsel and I share ancestry originating from the Celtic tribes of ancient Ireland and Scotland. To that effect, we have come to celebrate some of the festivals and traditions of the Celts. This weekend, we decided to celebrate the festival of Samhain.

Samhain, (Celtic: “End of Summer”) in ancient Celtic religion, one of the most important and sinister calendar festivals of the year. At Samhain, held on November 1, the world of the gods was believed to be made visible to humankind, and the gods played many tricks on their mortal worshippers; it was a time fraught with danger, charged with fear, and full of supernatural episodes.

Sacrifices and propitiations of every kind were thought to be vital, for without them the Celts believed they could not prevail over the perils of the season or counteract the activities of the deities. Samhain was an important precursor to Halloween.

Of course, we are not Pagans and don’t believe in all the spooky stuff the Celts thought to be true. We are Christians and merely celebrate our heritage while being true to the One and Only God. We celebrate Samhain on the first Sunday of November with traditional Irish and/or Scottish feasting.

This weekend turned out to be atypical weather for November since it got up to 85°F on the patio today. We celebrated the Samhain cross-quarter event with an actual Feast – Corned Beef, Cabbage, Root Veggies (lo carb, of course) and an Irish Coffee.

We hope everyone enjoys the good weather while it lasts.

05 Nov 2023 by Ancestors Food & Dining Notions 2

Home Again!

We’re relaxing at home after the last leg of our vacation. Damsel and I saw a number of cool things on the return voyage. Here are some of the pix from the days collection of over 500 images in the Damsel Camera:

Mission San Xavier Del Bac, Tucson, AZ:

Picacho Peak near Eloy, AZ:

Casa Grande Native Ruins, Coolidge, AZ:

Now that we’re back, we have numerous things we need to attend to pertaining to our normal retirement routine, plus a couple of other business items that popped up. We’re prepared for all of that and we’re glad to be back home in our little desert paradise.

23 Oct 2023 by Arizona Notions Photography Travel Wanderlust

Camping Day 7 – More R&R

We let the dogs wake us this morning, which isn’t exactly sleeping in, but we were rested enough. We spent the day relaxing again with an afternoon walk and venture into the souvenir shop where Damsel got a pair of earrings and I got a watch cap, both with the little green men thing going on – we are in Roswell, NM after all. See the image below.

I did take a short work-break to clean some of the bugs off of the windshield – it takes a long-handled brush and squeegee to reach up the 12 feet to get to the top.

Tomorrow, we’re off again, heading southwest and winding up in Deming, NM for the next couple of days. Our route takes us by the White Sands National Monument and we may pull in there for some photo ops and to walk the dogs.

18 Oct 2023 by Notions Retirement Travel Wanderlust

Camping Day 6 – Roswell, NM

Image above: one of the aliens that abound in these parts pointing to his “other” home.

We’re camped in the central area of Roswell, NM this evening after driving from the Texas Panhandle I didn’t get a photo of the camp site, but showing the little green greeter at the campground instead.

I did get a photo of the RV while we were still in Texas at Palo Duro Canyon State Park, however, pictured below.

The “Little Grand Canyon” of Texas, near Amarillo, is nice, but having been to the real thing many times over the years, this place was OK, but not on the same scale as our Arizona “5th wonder of the world” Grand Canyon. Damsel got a couple of photos of the little canyon one of which is shown below.

We will be taking another rest and relaxation day tomorrow with only a couple of chores, Damsel may want to do some shopping for creepy little UFO and Alien souvenirs at the gift shop here. We will be headed southwest Thursday, planning to get back closer to Arizona, but still at a leisurely pace.

I’ll post anything significant (or maybe mundane) tomorrow.

17 Oct 2023 by Notions Photography Travel Wanderlust

Day of Rest and Dining

We’re still in the RV Park here in Canyon, TX doing as we said yesterday, that is relaxing and dining. We got up leisurely at around 9:30 AM local time (7:30 AZ time) and spent the day doing the routine with the dogs and getting in a shower for both of us.

The only real work effort was to get out the Grill and Propane bottle and set it up. The other work was done by Damsel to get the chicken ready to grill and prepare the salad.

Image: BBQ Chicken Roasting in the Grill Box

Image: Chicken and Dinner Salad, Served

After dinner, we took the dogs for a walk; when they had done their business, they went back in the motorhome and we continued our walk around the park. This evening, thanks to the on-board satellite TV system, we’re watching some baseball games; thanks to my new smartphone, we’re getting a 5G connection on our computers through the shared Wi-Fi feature. Life and retirement is good.

16 Oct 2023 by Food & Dining Notions Retirement Technobabble Travel Wanderlust

Fourteenth Retirement Anniversary

These various anniversaries seem to be coming faster and faster. Perhaps it’s just my imagination, but it seems like we just celebrated thirteen years of retirement! Tempus Fujit!

Our goals that we set a year ago never seemed to come to fruition; we were supposed to take the RV on a shakedown cruise and never got to it. We were too busy enjoying retirement I guess. Anyhow the plans for the cruise have changed and we’re going to head out soon. We had the Diesel shop inspect everything and got new tires for the trip. It should be fun. See our Eclipse Countdown Page for a preview of one planned destination.

During the next year, we have a loose plan to visit the homelands of some of our ancestors. We have traced our lineage back to the 6th great grandparents in some of our family trees and wish to see the places where they farmed, built homes and lived their lives as pioneers. It should be interesting and inspirational.

And now, as we head into our fifteenth year of retirement (25th for Damsel), we thank God for our good health and plan to ask His blessing on more of the same.

01 Oct 2023 by Notions Retirement Wanderlust

Blogiversary No. 18

Every year our Blogiversary falls on or around the Autumnal Equinox; in this year’s case, equinox is tomorrow, so happy fall y’all! Our weather has been like “second spring” for over a week now, and we’re expecting the same until near the end of October when the temperatures usually start cooling down.

As for the Cap’n Bob and Damsel Blog. we are now old enough to be considered an adult blog (however, not in the nasty or obscene sense). Our sporadic blogging still continues with a few offerings a month and when warranted, daily accounts of significant events such as traveling reports, etc.). We should be reporting on our Eclipse excursion next month.

Thank you all for watching over us these many years and hope to see you here whenever we post something.

22 Sep 2023 by Blogosphere Cyberspace Notions Retirement Wanderlust

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