Finally, a new post!

I figured I'd best sign on and say hi, so you know what's up. I'm still at my parents' house, mostly relaxing although trying to get things done. I've loaded up all my pictures on Flickr, since there are probably too many to put on here; to see them go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/delphee/3648786854/in/set-72157620057572035/

The cats and Pennie are doing surprisingly well. There was some misunderstandings and hissing and such at first, but other than the odd bad moment (Puck tried to sniff a biscuit that Pennie had decided not to eat, and then Pennie decided she wanted the biscuit after all and barked at Puck who jumped and ran) things are going wonderfully. Even Nell is beginning to trust Pennie, at least a bit, and she's also letting my parents pet her.

I got the rig checked out (they didn't find anything) as well as getting the oil changed, which apparently was a huge ordeal. It is a bit cleaner, although I'm going to take the rig into a Sprinter dealer for its 40,000 mile checkup in about 3500 miles, where they'll change it again. I've also arranged all the drawers and everything so it's efficient and less likely to come falling out of cabinets and such. My mother has her heart set on making slipcovers for the couch and dinette chairs, and she's begun them now. Between that, my rather wanting to go to the Calgary Stampede, and my being in no hurry to get back to Florida (it's been 98 with a heat index around 110 lately--ye gods), I may be here a bit more. My parents seem glad to have me.

I did go to Vulcan for the Spock Days. I've been meaning to go; it's only a bit over an hour from here, and the weather was fine, if hot. I borrowed one of my parents' cars (I feel as if I'm reverting to high school at times!) and headed out. It was easy to spot Vulcan: it was the only town with a replica of the Starship Enterprise next to the highway!

The town itself is larger than many of the tiny towns around here, and it's still alive mostly due to some residents decided to ally Vulcan with Star Trek fans in the mid-1980's. Now people come from all over the world to here for the celebrations, as well as to just be here. I wandered a bit, bought a few souvenirs, and stayed for the parade, which was a fascinating (sorry!) combination of small-town parade and science-fiction convention, both familiar from my teen years. A lot of the usual stuff was gussied up a bit for the Vulcan connection: the Shriners had some very interesting little bitty cars, for instance, and I don't think there ever was any sort of hay ride on Vulcan. Lots of Klingons, since it was the 20th anniversary of the founding of one of the Klingon societies. And the Klingons were collecting for the March of Dimes--yes, I gave them money, since you don't want to cross a Klingon.

I'll let you know if anything exciting happens. I may go to Fairmont Hot springs next week; I know I'm going to Glacier when I head out, and then meander down the Rockies to Colorado, cut across Kansas as quickly as possible (and hopefully when there aren't tornadoes going on), maybe go to Branson, and then back to Florida. But these things, as always, are subject to change.