Happy Halloween!

It seems somehow fitting that our last day of volunteering is Halloween. We wore our orange shirts with the ghosts/aliens on them to our kitchen duty this morning, but of course the aprons pretty much covered up the aliens!

This afternoon Brad came over and helped us take our headboard off the wall. He located the screws that had evaded my search, hiding deep under some cording. The next step will be to find some fabric we like to recover the headboard and a bedspread or comforter set to match. I really liked the one that Jacalyn had. She also brought over their sofa mate table so I could take a photo of it. We'd like to find something very similar to fit between our recliners.

On our walks around the park, we've followed the same routes many times, but we still see new and different things. Here are some interesting bird houses:

On our walk tonight, we saw a new looking Excel 36GKM. The door was open and two friendly schnauzers were outside, so I walked over to comment that we were fellow Excel owners. The couple warmly invited us in, and we talked for over half an hour. They started fulltiming less than a year ago. We've noticed that we are running into more and more folks who are newer at this fulltiming game than we are. The rig was beautiful, roomy, and luxurious--not surprising since it's a Limited and actually 38 feet long.
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Dishes

Ken commented tonight that it seemed he'd been washing a lot of dishes! Not surprising since we were on weekend dishwashing duty today, so we did KP for the noon and evening meals. Yesterday we were kitchen assistants for the evening meal, but the regular staff dishwasher went home because of a family emergency, so we had to do all the dishes last night too. Plus, of course, our dishes at home.... Good thing we mostly wore gloves, or we'd really have dishwasher's hands.

We did get to sleep later this morning--always nice. We weighed in, as usual on Saturday morning, and neither one of us has gained any weight this month. That's a miracle, since the menu here runs to southern favorites (lots of fried foods and sweets available all the time). Volunteers get three meals a day, if they want them, and we did eat some meals with the group, but often we ate at home instead. I did appreciate the chance to eat lima beans and turnip greens and black eyed peas, all things my North Carolina relatives fixed often when I was a kid visiting there. We will miss the endless supply of ice, iced tea, and coffee.

We got a tour of Brad and Jacalyn's Hitchhiker Champagne today. Jacalyn has personalized it and gave us some great tips. For example, it turns out you can remove the trim strips from the walls easily. Most fifth wheels come with these "decorative" strips of wallpaper-like trim, and I've hated ours from the beginning. I can't wait to pull them all down. She also has a couple of lightweight oak finish tables just right for between our recliners--the kind that are designed to pull up under the sofa (only of course in an RV, there's no space under the sofa!). And she suggested taking the bed headboard down and recovering it so we wouldn't have to deal with matching the print--she also didn't care for the bedspread that came with the rig. Read more!

Endings

Today we packed up our Hughesnet portable satellite internet equipment and donated it all to the CARE Center. I have mixed feelings about this. It's the end of our ability to be online anywhere we could see the southern sky, but our Verizon USB modem works in most places and is so much smaller. The Hughesnet equipment took up a lot of space and weighed quite a bit, and the service cost $73 a month. Our two-year commitment was up this month, and we reluctantly decided that we'd be better off without it. We're hoping that CARE will be able to get a good price from someone who plans to spend lots of time out where 3G service hasn't reached yet.

We're coming to the end of our one-month commitment at CARE, and that too leaves me with mixed feelings. I've enjoyed the camaraderie with the other teams and staff. It's been a pleasure to be of service to the residents and to get to know some of them a bit. On the other hand, we are ready to move on again and glad that we'll be "retired" again.

This morning we were on call, so we had to be at the Center before 7:00 a.m. Ken was driving Gerry to Kingwood for a doctor appointment, so we let Gerry in early to eat breakfast. They left at 7:15 a.m. and didn't get back until nearly 11:00 a.m.

Usually the on call team has a lot to do in the morning, but since it's Friday, Bobbie came in early to start cooking the "Big Breakfast" and a team was assigned to help her, so they came in early too, plus the new couple was "shadowing" that team. The result was that the coffee was made, the tea and water and ice were set out, and everything else had been done. I unlocked the doors at 7:20 a.m. and turned the checkoff sheets and the phone over to the receptionist, who comes in early on Fridays. I hung around for a while, since the book says the on call team is on duty until 8:30 a.m., but after a bit I asked the kitchen team if they really needed my help. Of course they didn't, so I came home and got a few things done before my haircut appointment at 9:00 a.m. I asked Joe to cut it pretty short over the ears and in the back, so I hope it won't get shaggy looking too soon.
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A Visitor

I was delighted today that my friend Loretta drove to Livingston from Nacogdoches to visit. We walked around the area, and I got to show her all the facets of Escapees life here. There are actually four separate operations: Rainbow's End RV Park, the Escapees National Headquarters and Mail Service, the deeded lots in the Rainbow's End neighborhood, and the CARE Center. It was great to spend time with my friend--and of course I completely forgot to take any photos. We were lucky that the weather has definitely cooled, making walking around here much more pleasant than it was yesterday.

We stopped by a table in front of one residence with the remnants of their garage sale on it. A sign indicated everything was half price and money could be deposited in an honor system can. We each found a couple of small things. Always fun to find a bargain, especially if it's something really useful. I got a "Plug Dog"--a handle to help pull a 30 amp plug out of the socket. Now I want one for our 50 amp plug too.

Ken and I started our morning early again. He had a driving assignment at 7:40 a.m. I stayed for the 8:00 a.m. volunteer meeting (our last). Tonight we went on duty at 5:00 p.m. for our last stint on call. When I went to move the aprons from the washer to the dryer, this is what I found:

Volunteers are cautioned to loop the apron strings and tie them together to prevent this kind of tangle. Amazing how many come untied in the washer!
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Day Off (Really)

Today we had an actual day off, so of course we slept in. Eventually when we got around to taking our walk, it was hot, hot, hot!

The Activity Center is decked out for the season.

Escapees Total Support Network for RVers

After lunch we went to town. Our first mission was to get some cash from the Allpoint ATM we found online, supposed to be in the hospital cafeteria. It wasn't there. Our next stop was Walmart, where it occurred to us that we could use our debit card and get cash back with no charge.  Then we stopped at Brookshires to get seafood--it's the only place in town that has a decent selection. We got some wild-caught salmon from Alaska and some frozen wild-caught mahi mahi from Chile. The great sale price on the mahi mahi made up for the pricey salmon!

Finally we stopped at the library to return everything we had borrowed, since we'll be leaving town next Monday. I also renewed my library card for another year ($5 for a county resident).
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Propane

This morning while I was fixing breakfast, we discovered that we were quite unexpectedly out of propane. It's been very warm, so we haven't been using propane for heating, so to have used two tanks in less than three weeks was surprising. We went on to our assignment to work in the kitchen (8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.). Ken sliced strawberries for strawberry shortcake, and I got to peel potatoes for potato salad. We had lots of people for the noon meal, since Bobbie was fixing barbecued ribs.

After lunch, we called the Red Barn Building Supply to verify that their propane department was open. We had to tell the coordinator that we would be off the grounds, since we were on the driver availability list. When we got to the Red Barn, it turned out that their propane guy had "probably gone to town for a part" and would "probably be back soon." We ended up waiting half an hour for our propane. Vern pulled up just as we returned and graciously carried the heavy tanks to their holders.

Exciting day.
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Easy Day

We actually got to sleep in until 8:00 a.m. today, and our only assignment was to help in the kitchen and wash dishes for the evening meal. It was an especially easy job, since many of the residents went on an outing to Ci-Ci's Pizza for dinner, so only 17 people were signed up to eat in the dining room. Greg and Patti fixed sloppy joes and pork and beans, a popular meal, and it created very few pans to wash.

We took advantage of the free time to disconnect and reconnect our entire AV system. We had been having intermittent problems with the sound and video that required us to jiggle the wires and hope. We labeled both ends of each cable and wire and wrapped up extra lengths to keep the connections a bit less cluttered. We also stripped new wire ends for each of the speaker wires. The result, so far, has been positive. The picture is stable, and we get sound from all the appropriate speakers. Yay!
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Still On Call

This morning we finished up our on-call assignment by opening the CARE Center before 7:00 a.m. and helping Carl in the kitchen. We also kept track of breakfast eaters and answered the phone until we were relieved at 8:30 a.m., when we took our morning walk. Then we were free until 4:00 p.m., when we went back to help Carl with the taco supper.

Ken decided to try once more to get his kite in the air. It seems that on our morning walk we see flags blowing in the wind, and since we have a large field right in front of our campsite, it's tempting to think it may be kite weather. However, the wind usually dies down and is inconsistent, and that happened again yesterday. Ken got some practice putting the kite together and adjusting the lines, but that was all.
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Transformation

Today was the final day of the big garage sale. From 8:00 a.m. to noon, the ladies at the door sold 30-gallon trash bags for $2, and people could take whatever they could fit in the bag and haul off. One person actualy needed help to lift his bag and carry it out to his vehicle! Ken couldn't resist--he bought a bag and actually found a few things to put in it, although things were pretty picked over by then.

At noon, everyone took a break for lunch, with the idea that we would come back after lunch to box and bag up the leftovers to donate to a local church. Much to our pleased surprise, the church members packed everything up and moved it out while we were eating!

That left the job of cleaning up, taking the extra tables and stuff out, and rearranging the furniture to restore the room to normal. The next few times we walked through the room, we marveled at how pleasant and peaceful it seemed. It's over! The CARE Center made over $3,500 on the sale, so all our hard work paid off.

In the afternoon, we started the laundry, and I left Ken in charge while I ran to the grocery store. One of us had to stay on the grounds, because we were on call. Fortunately no emergencies came up, although Ken did have to answer the phone several times (mainly calls from people interested in buying the car and truck the center has for sale). He got one call from Carol (our nurse, whose church picked up the remnants) to say that every needy family on their list had gotten something and was very grateful.

 

HughesNet dish set up for sale.

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SmartWeigh

Today was our "day off"--no CARE assignments, but the garage sale was still going on, so we were expected to show up. On our walk this morning we noticed that the rig weighing was still being done today, so we signed up for a 10:40 time slot.

On the way back from our walk, I stopped at a yard sale (timed to correspond with the CARE sale). I found a colorful Melamine tray. I've been looking for something like it for quite a while (well, actually, I didn't have flamingos in mind....). We used to have a very nice tray that we used next to the sink to hold the coffeepot and water carafe--especially good to catch any spills. That one was broken when it fell down while we were moving and was crushed by the slideout as it opened up.

Ken got his hair cut by Joe at 9:00 and then we packed up to go over to the nearby weigh station (by the laundry). Unfortunately, we weren't in our usual careful mode. As we brought the dining slide in, we heard a loud crack! The nearest overhead cabinet to the slideout was not properly closed, and the knob caught on the slide as it came in, bending the knob and screw and popping the hinges off. Ouch! We picked up the pieces and went over to be weighed.

We were sure that we were overweight, and the question in our minds was mainly by how much and what could we do to lighten up. To our pleasant surprise, we were within our rated limits on all measures (although we were closer than we'd like to some). The best news was that our side to side balance is excellent.

We drove back to our spot, where we had left the awning mat laid out. I followed Ken's directions and backed in. We started to hook up the utilities, etc., when Ken noticed that we were too close to the water faucet and telephone hookup. We decided to try to adjust so that those items could pass under the wheel wells. After again hooking up utilities and putting out the slideouts, we realized that we weren't level. We decided to take a break and eat lunch.

Then, we hitched up again to move over 10 inches back into the spot we had originally been in. After lots of stress and banging the slideout tray up (another story), we finally got in the proper position. We set up the Hughesnet dish (which we wanted to do so we could take an advertising photo and try to sell it). We bent the cabinet door hinges back more or less into position, and actually got the cabinet doors to be functional (sounds easy, but actually lots of effort and several trials).

At 2:30 I finally went over to help with the sale, but it closed at 4:00 p.m. Ken stayed home to chill. Then, more stress trying to get the router to connect to the new source...

Altogether, a pretty stressful day for a day off!
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Sale-a-bration

One of our fellow volunteers, Mary, draped some bright shiny beads around her neck and invited all of us to "have some fun"! I picked out a Christmas top and some beads to get in the spirit. We managed to sell bunches of stuff  and spent the day rearranging and straightening our wares to attract more sales. At the end of the day, it didn't really look like much was missing, but estimates were good for our total sales for the day--pure profit.

Our scheduled assignments for today were 8:30 kitchen and afternoon driving availability. Bobbie had her husband, Calvin, with her, so she asked us just to come back at 11:30 a.m. to wash pots and pans, etc., and help serve. The pork chops she was cooking looked good, and we were tired and hungry, so we ate the noon meal at CARE--but standing up in the kitchen, in case someone else came up to the window.

We didn't have any driving assignments in the afternoon, so we told Bob we were leaving the premises to go vote. Early voting started a few days ago, but we haven't been able to get away until today. Voting was easy. We drove to the courthouse, parked across the street, and walked in. Two people were ahead of us in line, but it didn't take more than 10 minutes for the whole process. It was my first experience with touch-screen electronic voting. Very smooth, lots of feedback and checks. Now if the computers aren't hacked, our votes will be counted.
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Organizing the Huge Garage Sale, Day 2

The volunteers all spent another day organizing and beating off early shoppers... No one is really in charge, so different volunteers tend to have different ideas about how things should be handled, but overall, the results of all our efforts are quite impressive. Just wait until we open tomorrow morning and the crowd arrives to dig through everything.

Ken's driving assignment was interesting, since the resident didn't think she had an appointment this morning. Turned out she ended up with a very long appointment. He got back in time to rest briefly before lunch. Then he had another driving assignment.

A new volunteer couple pulled in late this afternoon, yay! They will have tomorrow off to rest up from their trip, and then they'll join us on the schedule, meaning everyone will get more breaks.
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Organizing the Huge Garage Sale

We started today at 6:45 a.m. on call, opening the CARE Center. When we were relieved at 8:30 a.m., we were on the schedule for doing residents' laundry. In between loads we joined the other volunteers in trying to organize huge quantities of stuff of all sorts. Every time we got some things a bit organized, twice as much more would arrive from storage.



We took a quick break to eat lunch before heading over to our next assignment: cooking spaghetti for 35 for the evening meal. (Somewhere in the volunteer handbook, it suggests that volunteers prepare simple soup and sandwich meals on Monday and Tuesday evenings.) When we finished for the day, we went for a very short walk before heading home to collapse. At that point we realized that we had been on our feet for most of 12 hours. Ouch!
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Lee's Driving Adventure

This morning I had my first driving assignment--taking Walter to the doctor. All went well until I tried to fold his wheelchair up to put it in the van. I couldn't figure out how to do it, and he didn't have any ideas either--except to put it in the back of the van just as it was--so that's the way we traveled.

The next issue arose when I set my Droid to navigate to the doctor's office. The problem was that the address was on Ogletree St., and there are actually two Ogletree streets in this small town. Of course the Droid took me to the wrong one, and again, my passenger didn't have any clear ideas about where to go. I thought I knew that the doctor's office was near the new hospital, so I set out in that direction. I ended up calling Ken, because I suddenly remembered that he had taken a resident to an address on Ogletree. Fortunately, we arrived at the correct address only two minutes late.

When I got my first driving assignment a couple of weeks ago, I printed up a Google map of the route and stopped by Dan's office to pick up glossy overhead photos of the locale, but for some reason, that whole process escaped me this time. All's well that ends well. Walter was happy with the results of his appointment and we made it home safely.

Later Ken had to go pick up a prescription at the Brookshire Brothers' pharmacy, but that's another story.

Tonight we were on call, so we were busy from 5:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m., except we got two breaks. On the first we ate dinner, and on the second we played a round of Ingenious! which I narrowly squeaked out.
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Nice Day

We had a good day today, starting with actually sleeping in until 8:00 a.m. We had eggs Florentine for brunch--substitute fresh wilted, chopped spinach for ham in eggs Benedict, and voila! They were yummy.

When we started our walk, we stopped by the CARE Center to turn in our time sheets for last week, mail a card, and donate a hat to the garage sale. In the dining room, Shirley asked if we were eating the noon meal. We said no, but then I saw the entree was pork loin, and I couldn't resist. We stopped after our walk and got two meals to go, including pork loin, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, salad, and cherry cobbler. Patti and Greg were serving, and Ken snapped a quick photo with his Droid.



We wanted to post pics of Brad and Jacalyn's rig. We love their quotation: "Nowhere to be, All day to get there"!





This afternoon we went to buy eggs from a local man who lives nearby. He has 37 laying hens. He sells his eggs by the honor system--leaving them in a small fridge at the end of his drive twice a day. The price is $1 if you bring an egg carton and $1.50 if you don't. We of course took our plastic egg holder. At least we know for sure these hens aren't in little steel cages. He says two hens are sitting on a clutch of 16 eggs right now! He commented that he just tries to pay for feed with the egg money--must be another guy who enjoys poultry. We told him about the couple we met who collected exotic fowl.
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Laundry Day

Not much new happening here. We had 8:30 a.m. kitchen duty and got off a little after 1:00 p.m. After lunch we did our laundry (yawn).

Octoberfest begins tomorrow here, but you'd hardly notice. We've gone looking for info about it. People at the center seem unexcited about it and say it's mainly just food.
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Going to Work in the Dark

We were up early this morning so we could arrive by 6:30 a.m. to help Bobbie with the "Big Breakfast." It was dark when we walked over to the Center--must be time to switch from daylight savings to standard time soon.

After work, we took our walk, and I worked some more on the desk area. I made a cover to hide all the power cords.

The uncluttered look . . .

Later we walked over to pick up our mail (mostly junk). We stopped at the headquarters and the clubhouse to see if we could find out more information about the upcoming Octoberfest, but didn't find anything. We did spot the card on the bulletin board offering to sell fresh eggs for $1 a dozen. I'll call that number tomorrow.
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Project

We had a busy day today, starting with arriving at the CARE Center by 6:45 a.m. for our on call assignment. At 8:00 Ken left to drive one of the residents and his wife to a retinal specialist, while I attended the volunteer meeting. Then I spent the next few hours doing residents' laundry. When Ken got back from the doctor trip (three hours later), he helped with the laundry.

We had a break between laundry and our 4:00 p.m. kitchen assignment, so we enlisted Vern's help to cut a shelf for the desk area. We wanted to replace a strange little metal cabinet we had the printer sitting on, partly to improve the looks and partly so the Wii Balance Board could sit flat on the floor under the shelf.

/Everything cleared out.

Ken smiles--success!

We got some very sad news today. My Aunt Helene called to say that my cousin Mike's son had passed away. I knew that Christopher had been diagnosed with lymphoma, but did not realize that his condition had worsened so much. He was 23 and planning to be married next Saturday. What an agonizing experience for any parents to watch their child wasting away from cancer. My heart goes out to Mike and Darlene and to Chris's sisters, Amanda and Laurel.

Mike and Darlene live in Virginia Beach, and Mike is retired Navy, so Terri and Blake know them. Terri will attend the funeral on Sunday and stay with one of their friends who lives near Virginia Beach.
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Errands

We didn't have to be at work today until 5:00 p.m., so we ran some errands. Our DVD's from the library were due, so we stopped by to return them and of course got more DVD's and books. Then we went to Lowe's, where we bought some oak shelves to install under our desk in the living room. Then on to Walmart where we bought a good, bright flashlight for the truck and picked up some groceries.

We were also looking for a solution to keeping our generator clean and out of sight in the truck bed, but an examination of all the containers at Lowe's and all the duffel bags at Walmart didn't yield any good fits. I'd like to find some waterproof fabric to make one.
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Another Day Off

We have a whole day free--actually more, since we are not on assignment until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow. Ken took the truck in to the dealer. One of the roof marker lights was burned out, and his efforts to take it apart to replace the bulb had not been successful. It turned out that it's an LED light, and the entire unit is replaced, not just the bulb (parts and labor over $90). The service tech admired the truck and said it looked like new, so that made Ken feel good.

We are taking advantage of being where we can receive Fedex/UPS shipments. Today we got our new awning mat to go with the step rugs, so our entry is looking much spiffier!

It's much brighter green than the picture online!

Ruggids step covers lookin' good.

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New Step Rugs

We got our new step rugs today--or should I say "Ruggids"? A couple of years ago, we bought an outdoor runner and made our own, and they looked and worked fine--until the edges wore through. Rather than doing it ourselves again, we decided to buy some heavy duty commercially made covers. Here's hoping these last many years.

We were assigned to 8:30 a.m. kitchen duty, which means we kept the coffee going, cleaned up the breakfast things, and helped the cook with the noon meal and clean-up. There were plenty of pots and pans to wash! When we finished at 1:30 p.m., we were tuckered out, but we cheered ourselves up by thinking that we are now off until Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. A whole day free!
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Dishwashing

Today our assignment was to wash dishes and help clean up after the 12:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. meals (the meal schedule is later on Sundays to allow for people to attend church in the morning or vespers at the center at 5:00 p.m.). The job was not too difficult, especially since Carl decided to use disposable plates for the evening meal.

Chef Carl dishes up lasagna and veggies, while Jacalyn and Brad add salad and dessert.

Happy people in the dining room

We were very pleased to have a new volunteer couple arrive this afternoon. Greg and Patti have been here before, so they know the ropes. The other old timers know them too. They have a new travel trailer now, but we're told they spent their first year full-timing in a pop-up camper, with their dog and cat. We haven't met the cat yet, but we did meet the dog, a large, wrinkled bulldog named Hippo. As a result of the new arrivals, we have a revised schedule for the week, and we actually get TWO DAYS OFF! We'll count our chickens when they hatch.
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Another Early Morning

We got up early again this morning so we could take our walk before heading over to the CARE Center to help Carl with the noon meal. It was chilly, so we walked fast, but we did stop to listen to and watch a plump, cheery songbird, a kind we didn't recognize. It seemed to be putting on a show for us.

When we arrived for our assignment, Carl was preparing meatloaf, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, lima beans, and corn. We got to fix the big salad. Carl added a sugar free cherry cobbler, sugar free peaches, and cake as dessert choices. He also put a chicken in the oven for those who didn't eat red meat.

We had a full house for dinner, so every bit of the meatloaf, potatoes, and veggies was eaten. One guy (not a resident) came in 45 minutes after the noon hour, famished and begging for food. He ended up with peaches and cottage cheese, salad, and bread and butter.

Ken took some photos today of our fellow volunteers.

Jacalyn and Brad Dacles

Mary and Vern  Miller

Shirley and Al Coleman

Bob Maybee exhorts volunteers

On our evening walk we remembered to take some photos, too.

Put it to bed for the night???

Escapees' big red truck!

Cute dog is the first we've seen at the dog park

Nice dog park!

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Root Beer Floats

We finished our on-call assignment by showing up this morning at 6:45 a.m. as directed. On Fridays  the cook prepares the "Big Breakfast," so the morning kitchen people are asked to come in at 6:30 a.m. They had made the coffee and put out the tea and water and ice and juice, etc. The housekeeper had already folded and put away the kitchen laundry. The receptionist told us that it's her job to check people in and collect the money (everyone pays for the Big Breakfast). So our assignment came down to unlocking the building at 7:20 a.m. and turning off the porch lights. We could have slept another half hour! We told the coordinator we would come back after folks had left to wipe up the tables and chairs, but he said the staff would do that.

So we checked the driving schedule--no assignments. Our next assignment was to help in the kitchen for the evening meal. That means arriving at 4:00 p.m. on some days--but not this day. Ken decided to read over the volunteer manual, and suddenly he said, "We have to go over at 2:10 p.m. to help with root beer floats"--that's a Friday afternoon tradition here. Fortunately we had an hour before we had to show up.
We walked in through the multipurpose room, where a group was playing Bingo, and went to the kitchen. Joe had already started handing out floats to the early birds. We took over the job. I scooped the ice cream and Ken poured the root beer. We had regular and sugar free ice cream and regular and diet root beer, so one of the challenges was to keep straight which was which and who wanted what. When the Bingo game broke up, the crowd arrived, and we were busy for a while. When everyone had been served, we had our own floats--a perk of the job 8-)

The weekend and evening cook, Carl, has been on vacation, so the volunteers have been doing lots of cooking. Today he was back at work, for which we were grateful, since otherwise we'd have had to cook. He made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. He certainly knows his way around a kitchen. We heard that he had cooked for years on offshore oil rigs.

Tonight I finally got around to checking my old computer for any files I might still need from it. Then I ran the recovery program, which wipes the computer clean and restores it to its original state, so now it's ready to put on Craigslist when we get back to Dallas.

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Driving

We started the day at our 8:00 a.m. volunteer meeting. One of the other couples was unlucky enough to have today as their day off--some day off! After the meeting, Ken went to check out the red Dodge minivan he would use to drive some of the residents to the doctor.

The rest of us, plus some other helpers, stuffed weekend backpacks for schoolkids on food assistance programs. In each backpack we put two individual servings of cereal, two small cartons of milk, some cans of ravioli and beans and corn, some pudding, and some canned fruit. The idea is to provide these kids with something to eat over the weekend. We packed 50 backpacks for delivery to a local school. We had a real assembly line going, and everyone had fun.

One of the residents scheduled for Ken's van had fallen during the night, and the EMTs were called out to assist him, so Ken ended up with two passengers. He drove them to a doctor's office near the new hospital. When the woman was finished with her appointment, the man was still in the waiting room, so Ken drove the woman home and went back to pick up the man. Fortunately, this is a small town, so the drives weren't very long. By the time he and his second passenger returned, they nearly missed lunchtime.

Ken and I ate at home and then went for our "morning" walk (by now it was 1:00 p.m.). We decided to try again to get propane, but we unfortunately forgot that the propane department was closed from 1:00 to 2:00 for lunch. Sigh.

Then we spent some time culling our Grand Tetons photos before going back to the Red Barn a third time at 2:30 p.m. Third time was a charm, so now we have a full propane bottle backup.

We were due for our evening on-call assignment at 5:00 p.m., so we got everything ready to finish fixing dinner when we had a break. We went back to clean up the dining room and then again at 9:00 p.m. to close up for the day.
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A Day Off!

Today was our first day off. We gratefully slept in and had a leisurely brunch. Our walk took us outside Rainbow's End. Ken snapped a couple of photos.

Inviting homesite in the trees

Pony!

 

Then we set out on some of our errands. We loaded our empty propane tank in the truck bed and drove first to Kwik Lube to get a new Texas State Inspection sticker for the truck. There was a line and a predicted wait of half an hour, so we moved on.

It turned out the next place on our list was Moore Auto Sales, right across from Walmart, so I stopped in Walmart to return some things while Ken went to get the inspection done. The timing worked well. I was just picking up a new fire extinguisher to replace the outdated one we had bought last week when Ken called to say we had passed the "inspection" (they hadn't actually checked much).

Next we stopped at the Murphy Memorial Library, where we checked out some videos and books. Then we went on to Brookshires, where we got some really good mahi-mahi and salmon. On the way home we stopped at the Red Barn for propane, only to find that the propane department is now closed on Wednesdays. Good thing we have another tank which is nearly full!
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Did I Mention That We're Tired?

Today we had 8:30 kitchen duty. We made a giant bowl of cole slaw, fortunately with the help of a Kitchen Aid food processor. Ken cut up a big bowl of fruit for the sugar free dessert. With one thing and another, we were busy until our shift ended at 1:30 p.m. and we went home for lunch.

We were on the driver availability list this afternoon, but got no assignments, so we heaved a sigh of relief and enjoyed the prospect of a free evening and a day off tomorrow. Yay! Read more!

Another Full Day

We started the morning by arriving at the CARE Center at 6:45 a.m. to complete our on-call duties. When we were relieved by the 8:30 kitchen team's arrival, we took our walk and then decided to get some shopping done.

First we stopped at West RV and picked up some replacement halogen bulbs and an extra awning wand. Next we stopped at Valero for diesel and then the Ace Hardware store. We went on to Walmart where Ken got a replacement for his lost Swiss Army knife and we picked up an HDMI cable so we could look at our photos from the laptop on the TV. Then on to Lowe's for some white coax cable (we saw another camper using it and noticed how well it stands out on the ground, so there's less danger of tripping over it).

While we were out, we got a call from the CARE Center with an assignment to take one of the residents, to the hospital for a checkup after a fall. Oh, no! We were on the driver availability list and forgot to tell the coordinator that we were leaving the grounds. He said he'd find someone else (thanks, Brad!).

We got home in time for the noon meal, which was cranberry chicken. I'd had my doubts when I saw Bobbi starting to prepare the chicken in the morning. The first thing she added was French dressing. It tasted good and the chicken was moist. We sat with a couple from the park. It turned out that he had worked for aerospace companies in SoCal, so he and Ken had something to talk about.

We had a brief break before arriving at 2:30 p.m. to start our kitchen duty. On Monday and Tuesday evenings, the volunteers prepare the evening meal. The menu called for fruit plate, and Ken turned out a beautiful platter of fruit. We also made brown rice to serve with some leftover sweet and sour pork and banana pudding (regular and sugar free). I mixed up some vanilla yogurt (again, regular and sugar free) to go with the fruit. Shirley offered to help with the serving, and everything went well, except that towards the end, we started to run out of fruit, so we had to rush some more fruit prep. Everyone ended up happy, and all the food was gone, making it easier to clean up.

When we left the CARE Center after cleaning up, setting out breakfast, and starting the kitchen laundry, it was after 6:30 p.m. and we were tuckered out. We ate a light supper and walked and then decided to watch another Masterpiece Mystery episode (we're several episodes behind on the TIVO). Read more!

On Call

Today was our first "On Call" assignment. Basically the on-call team responds to problems and emergencies that may arise, answers the phone, secures the building at night and opens it in the morning. At each meal, the on-call team keeps track of who eats and collects payment from guests. In the morning, the team records as residents call in which meals they play to be at. If someone doesn't call in by 10 a.m. (and they haven't been in for breakfast), the team has to try to contact them to be sure they are okay. Most times they have just forgotten to call.

After meals, the team cleans up the dining room. On weekends the team has additional responsibilities, like taking out the trash and vacuuming and cleaning the hallway and traffic areas of the multipurpose room. For newbies like us, it can seem a bit overwhelming, but we're sure we'll have it down after a couple of times.

By the time we finally hung up our hats for the day, I was exhausted and could hardly keep my eyes open. Read more!

Cooking at Cafe CARE

Today we had kitchen duty for the noon meal, so we had to be at work by 8:30 a.m. The weekend and evening cook is still on vacation, so guess what? We got to cook dinner for 35. The menu was pork loin, but we had to figure out how to cook it and what side dishes to serve. Fortunately, we had the help of one of the more experienced volunteers.

I found an interesting recipe on the web for roast pork loin with a spiced cranberry sauce. Everyone was happy with the meal, and after four hours on our feet, we got to eat before cleaning up the kitchen.

Shirley and Al Coleman in the foreground: Shirley was our advisor/helper in the kitchen.

We had no driving assignments this afternoon, so we took advantage of the break to get our laundry done.
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October 1--Official Start of Our Volunteer Month

Today didn't start too auspiciously: Ken was up in the middle of the night with severe abdominal pain, and we almost decided to go to the emergency room. Fortunately a pain pill eased the pain while his body recovered a bit. Though he remained under the weather all day, he decided he was going to live.

I managed to get a bit of rest before heading over to the CARE Center at 6:30 a.m. to help with "the Big Breakfast." Every Friday Bobbie fixes eggs to order, bacon, sausage, grits, biscuits, gravy, and hashbrowns. My job was mainly to help serve, and a steady stream of people showed up.

When things had died down around 8:20, I left to see how Ken was doing. He was actually up and getting dressed, so we ate a quick breakfast and went over to our 9:00 a.m. volunteer orientation session, which was a run-through of the "On Call" job and emergency response. After the two hour session, we took a brief stroll, since Ken wasn't up to our regular walk. Then he was ready for a nap before lunch.

The noon menu included some yummy looking bread pudding (one of my favorites) with lemon sauce. I got a to-go box with a large salad and two pieces of the bread pudding for us to have after lunch. Ken was ready for another nap, and I decided to lie down too and try to catch up on my lost sleep.

Tomorrow it all starts over again with an 8:30 kitchen assignment. They promise us it does get better!
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