Patiently Waiting For Summer

This is the longest gap that we have ever had since we started this blog almost 2 years ago. My Mother passed away on the 24th of May. She was almost 95 years old, and had been in and out of the Hospital about 8 - 10 times over the last 2 years, so it wasn't a complete surprise. I only hope that I can stay in good health as long as she did.
Joyce and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary later this week with a short 4 day trip to Las Vegas. It will be near 100 degrees there, which will be a shock to our systems since it has only reached 70 2 or 3 times this spring! We have not seen 75 since we left Arizona in April. It's beginning to look like it may be "one of those summers" in Seattle. This is the only time that I can remember that it hasn't hit 80 at least once by now. And the long range forecast doesn't show anything above the low 70's. Maybe after the 4th of July our summer will start. That's been known to happen.
It looks as if I will be returning to the work force for about 10 weeks beginning in mid July. There is a small project that I have been approached about doing the inspection on. I have committed myself to do it, so unless something unexpected pops up to circumvent that plan, I will be working until the end of September. If for some reason it falls through, we will probably get in a road trip for a couple of weeks or so. Otherwise, we have a week scheduled in mid August at Angels Camp in the Sierra Nevada's in California. We are now in the "thinking stage" for a BIG road trip in 2011. It will probably be a bigger (more miles and more time) than the original "Big Adventure".
We are also in the beginning stages of figuring out where to hang our hats for the next stage of our lives. Now that we are both officially retired, except for my occasional transgressions, we are trying to figure out where we want to live. We know that we don't want to be too far away from Seattle, but would definitely like to get out of King County. We've looked a little in all directions over the last couple of years, but are now concentrating on heading north. We shall see. I'm sure that nothing will happen for at least a year. We're not in a rush, but don't want to wait too long either. So right now, we're just doing a little talking and looking. We have decided that when we do make a move, we will not go much more than an hours drive from Seattle. Almost all of our friends and family are in the Greater Seattle area, and we don't want to lose contact with anyone.
Today is Father's Day, and we are getting ready to head up to Keith and Sheila's for dinner. And now that our lives are back to normal(?), we will try to not let the blog slip again. Ernie