Happy Birthday, Julie!

 Today is Julie's birthday. She worked this morning but was looking forward to celebrating with the family when I talked with her. She said she got lots of hugs from the kids.

Michigan played Ohio State today. It was an exciting game, even though by the time we watched the recording, Ken had seen the final score, so we knew it was a heart breaker.

We biked down to the park this morning, mainly for exercise, but we stopped at the Green Jay Blind. Most of the birds there were indeed green jays, but we also saw an assortment of doves and small brown birds. A flicker flew in and grabbed a bite a couple of times but didn't stay to pose for the camera.

Long billed thrasher
 

A Group of Green Jays

We saw very few flowers in bloom and almost no butterflies. We're guessing the recent cold nights were hard on them.

After the ride we spent the rest of the day on and off working on prepping the Texas room for painting and trying to figure out how much paint of what sort we will need. There's plenty of advice online, but it seems there's no perfect paint and people disagree about issues like whether primer is necessary and whether and how to tint primer.

We're pulling nails out of the walls and even screws used to hang pictures. Ken managed to remove the power strip that had been glued to the kitchen wall without doing too much damage to the wallboard. We'll definitely be doing lots of patching and sanding.


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Progress

 This morning the sun was shining, and the weather was warmer than it has been for the last week. We decided to go for a bike ride. We biked the road to the east of GGG and back west on Mile 1 South Rd. to Bentsen Palm. Then we made the mistake of biking west on Snowbird Ln., which is a short dead end populated by several loose and apparently vicious dogs. Scary situation, and we won't go back there again. We have been talking about carrying pepper spray, and now I'm even more motivated to find some.

We biked on south to Tanglewood and Retama. We didn't see much construction in either park, but Retama had a new model. It's a very small house or overgrown casita (750 sq. ft.) with an RV hookup and nice patio out back.

We made a little progress on our Texas room project today. We're washing down the ceiling and walls to prep for painting. Ken tackled the job of replacing the toilet innards, but all the fittings are extremely corroded, so it looks like we have a bigger job than we thought.

Meanwhile, we replaced the sediment filter in our whole house water filtration system. It was about time, but we decided to do it today because the water pressure seemed low, which usually means the sediment filter is clogged. Today the reason turned out to be that the park water supply was turned off for over an hour because Agua Sud was working on the pipes.

I boiled the turkey carcass today to make soup. The rig smelled like Thanksgiving all day. Now I just have to get around to making a pumpkin pie. Read more!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We shared a Thanksgiving feast with our friends today. Hardy and Judy hosted the feast, and everyone brought something to share. Of course we had a delicious spread and plenty of conversation. I think the most unusual food was the persimmon pudding that Jan brought.

Jan and Steve's daughter ,Cheryl, and her husband Curt are visiting from Wisconsin, so they brought along some Wisconsin cheese and summer sausage for the feast. The little black stray cat hanging around the Pottinger front door was quite partial to the sausage Hardy shared with her.

 Chris and Anara and Shawn called this evening to wish us a happy Thanksgiving. They're on the coast, celebrating the holiday with Shawn's family. They were all really impressed with the delicious pumpkin cheesecake with salted caramel sauce.


Shawn, Chris, and Anara on Winema Beach

Ken talked with his sister, Romaine, today. She had good news on the health front. Her doctors tell her that the mass in her lungs is gone and the one in her abdomen has gotten smaller. Evidently the strong chemo she's been taking has really helped.

I missed a call from Edward today. I'll try to get back to him tomorrow.

We got up early this morning and started to work on dinner. We made two kinds of dressing, the traditional bread stuffing my mom used to make and some Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing. Most of the bread stuffing went into the turkey to be infused with the turkey juices. Then the bird went into the roaster oven, which sat on the counter in the Texas room. Later we put the cornbread dressing and the overflow bread dressing in our oven to bake.

When the turkey was done, it wasn't well browned, probably because it was too big and touched the lid. I decided to try to brown the bird in our oven, which required lifting it out of the roaster and putting it on a large biscuit pan. Ken and I had to coordinate a lot and managed to get all the food together and ready to go in time to take our morning walk (well actually, it was after noon, but that's a technicality).

In the midst of all this, we heard a repeated pop. It turned out that the electronic ignitors on the cooktop were firing. We tried everything to try to get it to stop. I took apart the burner tops and knobs and cleaned everything. Ken tried to find the circuit breaker that controlled the cooktop, which turned out to control the microwave and oven also. We read the cooktop manual and tried to locate the plug to unplug it. We looked under the sink and removed the bottom drawer next to the oven, but didn't find any plugs. We did find some measuring spoons that had fallen out the back of the drawer. It looks like we'd have to remove the oven to get to the outlet where the cooktop and oven are plugged in.

Then as quickly as the ignitor misfiring had begun, it stopped. We're hoping the problem won't recur.

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Again?

We had ten couples at Joe's dance tonight, so two squares. Some people must have been home preparing for Thanksgiving. We still had an interesting dance and lots of laughter and fun. Joe said that unfortunately his wife Chris is not feeling well, so he's looking forward to fixing her soup for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

After the dance tonight, we stopped at the HEB near Tropic Star to pick up some final items for Thanksgiving dinner. About halfway through the store, in the midst of noisy crowds and half-empty shelves, I remembered that we had stopped at this same store last year the night before Thanksgiving, only to find that some of the items we were looking for were sold out... I hope now I've learned my lesson and won't procrastinate again next year!

Then we came home and started our own preparations, chopping onions and celery and cubing bread for the stuffing. We cleaned out the roaster and got the turkey ready to be stuffed in the morning. While we worked we watched the news and then the rest of a Frontline special on the life of Lee Harvey Oswald. I think it's the last of the JFK documentaries we had recorded.

Part of what I came away with is a sense that the assassination might so easily not have happened. Oswald might not have gotten the job at the school book depository if someone hadn't mentioned they were hiring. He might have spent the day looking for an apartment if his wife Marina had agreed to move back in with him. Life seems to turn on such minor, chance circumstances that it fairly begs us to engage in counterfactual thinking. "If only Oswald had ..., Kennedy would have lived." But all the counterfactual thinking in the world can't change what happened.

Chris called today. Parent teacher conferences at Anara's school happened this week. Anara's pre-calculus teacher was very positive about her "special abilities" in math, saying that it's impossible to challenge Anara without discouraging the rest of the class and suggesting that she could easily earn a doctorate in mathematics. We're hoping that Anara will stay motivated and interested in math as she moves to higher level classes in her junior and senior years. Read more!

Sunshine!

We actually woke up to blue skies and sunshine today, although the wind was brisk and the temperatures still lower than we like. We walked around Green Gate Grove bundled up, but enjoying the outdoors and the sunshine.

This afternoon we went to Randy's C-1 workshop and dance. As usual, he worked on some interesting things, mainly with rotates and concentric calls. It was enough to keep all the dancers on their toes. He also called an as couples vertical half tag from lines facing in. That requires the right hand couple to pass right shoulders with the opposite right hand couple, an awkward traffic pattern for sure. We had three squares exactly, but only because Randy called Jean and Dennis to join us.

Tonight we finished watching the latest Bill Cosby special, but we didn't delete it from the DVR. Some of our friends would like to see it, and I'm sure we'll enjoy watching it again. He manages great physical comedy while staying seated, relying heavily on his extremely expressive face. We laughed out loud.

We also watched a NOVA program titled Cold Case JFK. It was fascinating to watch the forensic investigation taking place so long after the assassination. We learned a lot about the technology of shooting case forensics. The bottom line is that the evidence continues to confirm that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

Today would have been Mom's 87th birthday. It's a day to mourn, but also a day to recall many happy memories. I miss my mom now, six and a half years after her death, and I expect that I will always miss her. I think often of calling her to ask a question about some event or person from our shared past or to share something with her from my daily life. Read more!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is Ed and Julie's 13th anniversary. Geni tells us that this is their "Lace" anniversary. Hmmm, I wonder what kind of lace Ed would appreciate 8-) Congratulations and many happy returns.

It's also the day we celebrated their anniversary with Bruce and Mary Sue. They've been married a bit longer--45 years! Their actual anniversary is Thursday, November 28. That's Thanksgiving Day this year, and it was Thanksgiving Day in 1968 when they were wed. Bruce said that they were older when they got married, so they had time to experience life as singles, both the opportunities and the loneliness. When they found each other, Bruce was 26 and Mary Sue 28, and their relationship "Felt like home." Ruthi sang "It Feels Like Home" for them.

Ruthi put on a great dance for the happy couple and their many friends. She's a wonderful entertainer with a lovely, interesting voice, and she mixed up the dance tunes so that there were some easy line dances and some slow numbers (good for even "non-dancers" Ruthi said). We took advantage of those. During the two steps and waltzes and such, we just sat back and watched the dancers. Bruce loves to dance and has so much energy that he's out on the dance floor for every dance. He and Mary Sue had the first dance, and she wore a diaphanous white veil. We hope they have many more good years.

Today is also Debbie (Hurzeler) Frith's birthday. She was born in 1977, so she is 36 today. Julie was also born in 1977, so she'll be celebrating her 36th birthday on Saturday. It's a busy week for birthdays. Tomorrow is Bill Jameson's birthday, and it would have been my mom's 87th birthday.

This morning we went and walked indoors at Walmart. It's still too cold to be inviting outside. We picked up a fresh turkey at HEB to roast for Thanksgiving.
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The Play's the Thing

Our breakfast group at Mi Challitas has grown. Next week we expect George to join us. As usual, we had good food and good company.

Hardy, Bob, Pat, Steve, Jan, Jean, Ken, and Lee

After breakfast we went to Just a Cut so I could get a haircut (something Ken no longer has to worry about). It came out really short, partly because the woman who cut my hair had limited English. Of course, it will grow, and meanwhile Judy says it's cute.

This afternoon Hardy and Judy rode with us to South Texas College for a performance of "Daddy's Dyin',Who's Got the Will? by Del Shores. It's a comedy, but also shows some of the family dynamics around the death of a parent, some negative and in the end, some positive. Photos were not allowed. The performances were a bit uneven, but the student who played Daddy was spot on.

Tonight I had a Google Hangout with Ed and Julie and kids. Even when the video is jerky, it's still great to see everyone. I called Carol and talked with her and her sister Gail from Boston. She was in Texas for the Dorey sibling reunion.

Carol and her siblings, Gail, Fred, and Linda

It's still pretty darn cold here, so we didn't get much walking in today. Jean said she had gone to the mall to walk after breakfast. We'll try that some time.


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Lowe's

We started out to walk around the park, but it was chilly and windy. At Bentsen Palm Village we used to go to the exercise room and walk on the treadmills, but Green Gate Grove has no exercise room. Another option we've used is to walk around a mall or large store. We decided to go walk at Lowe's. We wanted to go there to check out wardrobes and propane grills.

Our plan worked well, especially in the building supplies end of the store, where the aisles are wide and there are fewer customers. The only difficulty is that I have to restrain myself from stopping to look at things. After we walked around Lowe's we went to Home Depot and then on to Walmart, all good places to walk around.

When we got home, we noticed it was chilly. We had run out of propane in the outer tank. Ken turned on the inner tank, and the water heater started up easily, as did the stove. The furnaces refused to come on. After a bit we remembered to try removing the fuse from the thermostat. That worked like a charm. Read more!

Norther!

We've been experiencing some really balmy days, with highs in the 80s. Today also started out sunny and warm. Around noon it was in the 80s, and we spent some time in the hot tub before having our lunch poolside. Then things changed in the blink of an eye. First rain started to fall. Then a few minutes later, the wind picked up, and the trees were whipped around. We grabbed our lunch and ran inside.

Within a few minutes, the temperature dropped nearly 30 degrees. The downpour pounded on the roof and overflowed the pools. We were happy when we arrived home to find that we had no leaking, probably because we're sheltered.

This evening we watched three programs on the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This was in addition to watching the network news coverage. Of course we both remember where we were when we heard the news. In 1963 we had just started college. Kennedy had captured the imaginations of a generation of Americans, including us. What a tragic loss. Read more!

Happy 17th Birthday, Cathy!

Today is Ken's granddaughter's 17th birthday. She's in California, so we won't see her, but we are sending her birthday wishes across the miles. She celebrated early by going to one of her favorite places, Disneyland, with her mom.

Today was another hot and humid one. We had thought about biking down to the state park but decided to save that for a cooler day. Judy came by with a mirror from our Texas room. It was a sickly yellow, and she took it home and painted it black. It's much more dramatic now. She said that Shonas uses black as an accent color.

This evening we went to Darryl's C-1 concept dance. We've been having three squares, but tonight there were five. More dancers are returning to the RGV, including Dick and Mary Ann. Steve and Jan were there. They danced this morning and of course have been working hard to get things straightened out at their place. We heard more about the tire blowout, which apparently did more damage than we thought at first. Steve said the tire must have actually exploded. The inside of the rig was littered with gravel and bits of tire rubber everywhere, and they think they probably have some suspension damage too.

Glenn and Char came too. Since we left them in Paris, TX, they've been to Ohio for the Heartland weekend and out to California for Romney's Hemet weekend. Ron and Margie were there too, and Ron sent us a newsy email message. We had hoped to see them in the RGV this winter, but they've changed their plans. They've booked an RV caravan to Alaska next summer.

Ken got the grill set up, and tonight I grilled a whole chicken. It came out moist and delicious--and the kitchen wasn't heated up by the oven. Good deal.

I've declared war on ants. We've had little tiny ants, just a few at a time, for the last few weeks. They show up around the kitchen sink. Yesterday they made it into a container of cereal, which I had to toss, so today I pulled out everything under the sink, cleaned, and sprayed ant poison and put down a trap designed for sugar ants. Then I pulled all the drawers of the pantry, emptied and cleaned them, and checked all the contents for ants. Before replacing the drawers, I put a trap and some spray in the back of the cabinet. Ditto for the cabinets above. So you can imagine how frustrating it was to come home from the dance tonight and find some ants on an empty salad dressing bottle on the counter.

We have been having trouble with our Verizon modem recently. It seems to work okay if I put it in my laptop, but regularly drops the signal when it's in the router. Grrr. Read more!

Carpet Cleaning

We're going to look really spiffy. Today we had the RV Steamer, Jack Cook, in to clean our carpets. We don't have very much carpeting, since we opted for tile in the kitchen and living area. Only the bedroom and the large living room slide are carpeted.

This evening we danced at Joe Saltel's C-1 this evening. There were 14 couples, so still only three squares. We danced with Carol and Rich for the first time this season. At the dance we managed to give away several lemons, but we have many, many more where those came from.

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Shiny Majestic, Good Friends

Roberto and his crew showed up at 7:15 this morning to start on washing and waxing the Majestic. That's a big job, and they do hand waxing, so it was 10:40 a.m. when they packed up to go on to their next job in Alamo. The Majestic is squeaky clean and shiny again. That's probably why it decided to rain briefly this afternoon.

While the guys were working on the rig, we tackled some jobs in the Texas room and outside. Ken removed the screws attaching an old lattice work in the back, and we leaned it up against the back of the shed. We still have to dig out the two posts and figure a way to dispose of the thing.

Meanwhile we cleaned out the cabinets and put in shelf liner. It definitely looks better, and I was able to empty the two boxes of china that have been in Ed's attic from 2008 until we picked them up this summer. The sink stopped up when I dumped a pail of water, so that led to a bit of kerfuffle. We don't own a plunger, so we borrowed one from Chuck. He tried to clear the drain, but no luck, so he suggested taking the p-trap apart to check for clogs. We didn't find any clogs, but now we have a small leak under the sink. One thing leads to another....

We were expecting Jan and Steve around 2:00 p.m. Judy came over around 3:00 p.m. to tell us the dinner had been rescheduled to 6:00 p.m. instead of 5:00 p.m. Our friends had a blowout on US 281 outside of Alice. Of course it damaged the skirt, but at least there was no damage to the undercarriage.

They pulled in late, but very happy to be home, and very welcome. The first thing they did was eat some of their delicious tangelos. Then Steve parked the trailer, slotting it right along the edge of the drive.

We finally had our welcome home dinner at Mi Challitas. There were eleven of us: Hal and Dorothy Case, Bob and Pat, Hardy and Judy, Jean, us, and of course the guests of honor, Steve and Jan.

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Delay

We've had this date, 11/18, on our calendar for a while. Our friends Jan and Steve would return to the RGV today, to their place in Green Gate Grove. We've been walking by their lot or riding by on our bikes, seeing the empty driveway and anticipating their return. Hardy and Judy planned a welcome home dinner at Mi Challitas.

Then this morning we got the news. Their replacements would not be arriving today. In fact, the man was in the ER and possibly facing surgery. Jan and Steve were all hitched up--with nowhere to go. The dinner was postponed, and we wondered when we would see our friends. As it turned out, their company is sending temporary replacements to the gate tomorrow, so their arrival will be delayed by only one day. The dinner and welcome home party will happen tomorrow.

We went to Darryl's dance this afternoon. Jean was there, dancing with G. W., because David is home sick. Terry has returned from Canada. More and more people are gathering to form our annual Winter Texan community. It was fun to dance with Jean and Terry and catch up some on their summer adventures. Jean took a tour of Ireland. She says it was very nice, but she won't have to go back: there are no mountains.

Tomorrow morning, we have people scheduled to arrive at 7:30 a.m. to start washing and waxing the Majestic. The forecast is a 40% chance of showers, so we're hoping the rain will hold off until our rig is waxed and Jan and Steve have a chance to set up. Read more!

Concert

Today started out warm and then got really hot. The high was over 90 degrees. Just the right kind of day to work on our tank sensors, which have not been working for months. We got some expensive sensor cleaner some time ago, but just didn’t find the right opportunity to use it.

The recommended method is to fill the tank and put in the stuff and then drive around a bit to mix things up. Afterward you let it sit for 24 hours before driving around again to loosen any crud adhering to the inside of the tank. Then you dump the tank and rinse it. The best time to do this is when it will be very warm. In fact, it shouldn’t be done if the temperature is below 75 degrees.

Since we live in our Majestic full time, this procedure just hasn’t been practical. The other approach is to fill the tank ¾ and put in the stuff. Then you use the tank as normal before dumping (again, the warmer the weather, the better this works). There’s one catch: since our sensors don’t work, we can’t tell when the tank is ¾ full. We ended up filling it completely. Oops. Now we have to run over to the Texas room to use the bathroom. We’re sure hoping this works!

We had breakfast at Mi Challitas with our friends, as usual. There were six of us, but next week we'll have more of the gang. Jean is coming in today, and Jan and Steve will arrive tomorrow.

Tonight we went to the first Community Concert of the season. The show was high energy and very entertaining. We weren't sure what to expect when we saw that the featured artist was described as a "guitar master." Pavlo is the lead performer of a group of four musicians born in Toronto but with a variety of roots from Greece to Italy to Portugal. Their unique style is described as Mediterranean. Instruments include the Greek bouzouki, bass guitar, and percussion in addition to Pavlo's hot 6-string guitar.

Our seats turned out to be next to Bill and Bev Kramer. We saw Jean, who has moved seats again and is now way down front in row H (we're in Q and have aisle seats--very nice). We talked to some other folks too, including Hardy and Judy of course. Judy is organizing dinner tomorrow night in honor of Jan and Steve's arrival.

When we got home, we watched a BBC movie being shown on both the Science Channel and the Discovery Channel, The Challenger Disaster. It was riveting. William Hurt plays Richard Feynman. His bottom line: nature cannot be fooled. Thanks, Hardy, for recommending this one to us.
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Happy Birthday to Hardy and Pat

We went to Progreso today to celebrate Hardy and Pat's birthdays (or was that just any excuse for a party???). We rode with Hardy and Judy. We were surprised to find that the parking lot we usually park in was closed and empty. Hardy suggested that not enough people had arrived in the RGV yet to justify opening two parking lots. We walked across the bridge, after paying our toll, into a different country.

Our friends led us to Santiago's new place, "The Spot." It's open to the street. We ended up sitting near the street at the end of a long string of tables, which was good, because the music inside was cranked up high, especially the bass. We also noticed that since the place was wide open, street vendors were practically lined up to offer us jewelry and gum. One little boy offering gum didn't look over three years old.

We saw G.W. and David. They said they had spent the summer close to home and dancing. They are planning a long cruise around South America leaving February 14, 2014. They have had to mail their passports to Brazil in order to get visas to visit there and are understandably unhappy about that. Lots of our friends and some higher level dancers we didn't know were there. Bob and Pat arrived a bit late. Bob said they had been stuck in traffic behind a house. Ken asked if he meant a mobile home, and Bob said no, it was an actual house.

After a bit we adjourned to the Red Snapper for lunch. Ken and I shared the Paradillas for two, mixed grill with chicken, beef, and sausage, onions, and peppers with tortillas. G.W. had brought a delicious chocolate cake to celebrate the birthdays, which we all shared, and the musician played “Happy Birthday.” A good time was had by all.

Hardy and Pat, the birthday honorees
 

Dorothy, G.W., David, Hardy, and Judy

Hugh, Lila, Mildred

Bob, Harold Lee, Dorothy

Happy birthday to Hardy and Pat!

A parade to advertize a circus passed by

Pat Yount and G.W. cut the cake

Mildred and Bill

Earlier in the morning Ken and I combined a bike ride for exercise with visiting our neighbor park, Bentsen Grove, to check out their park-wide yard sales. We found a few treasures—and saw lots of junk. Ken got some brand new sandals that fit him well for $5 (what a deal). I got a vintage Scrabble game, one with the nice wooden tiles, which I have been hunting for four years now, and a few other things.

This evening we watched a special on the Kennedy assassination called JFK 50. It brought back memories of the shock and grief of that terrible time. Since this is the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination, there will be lots of retrospectives. It's hard to imagine that our president was so exposed to danger. The Secret Service would never allow a president to ride through the streets in an open car anymore, and actually Kennedy was warned that Dallas was not a safe place for him to visit. Read more!

Mongo Tour

The highlight of our day today was a tour of Mongo, Willis and Rebecca's new 17' Spirit Deluxe Casita. It's white and shiny and brand sparkling new throughout. They picked it up at the factory in Rice, TX, on November 5 and headed out for their shakedown run. They're pleased as punch with it.

It's well designed and very compact. The all-in-one toilet/shower room has watertight compartments, including one for the toilet paper so it won't get wet during showers. Nifty. One thing it doesn't have is a TV. Willis says that if he's out camped by the Grand Tetons, the last thing he needs to be doing is watching TV. He does have a Kindle.

They traveled for five years in a Roadtrek, so they're very used to traveling light. Mongo suits them just right.

We also got a tour of Nick and Toni's 20' Class C Winnebago. They don't make them like that anymore. Both these rigs have the advantage of being able to handle back roads and small parking lots, so they have more flexibility in routes and destinations that a much larger RV like ours has.

It was a warm sunny day, so of course we hit the hot tub for a soak.

We stopped by UTPA to check out the Robot Zoo exhibit. When I walked into the exhibit space, somewhere around 70 or more small children were zooming around the room, excitedly operating the hands-on exhibits. The noise level was intense. I wasn't able to look too closely or actually touch any of the exhibits. They are designed to reveal the biomechanics of animal movement. If we had children visiting, it would be a great place to take them, but we decided that our guests might not be as entranced as the six-year-olds.

Tonight we went to the hall for the Friday night movie. We met Hardy there, but Judy decided that she wasn't interested in a two-part movie. We joined the popcorn eating crowd and enjoyed the first half of the movie. It was originally shown as a television miniseries. The second half will be shown next Friday. Read more!

Third Time’s a Charm

Today is Hardy’s birthday. He’s kicking up his heels with joy! We’ll celebrate his birthday and Pat’s upcoming birthday this Saturday in Mexico.

We finally made it to a Darryl dance! After missing two dances, the first because we didn’t notice the time was changed and the second because we were stuck in a traffic jam because of a terrible accident, we were beginning to wonder if we were jinxed. We had exactly three squares plus one dancer, so it’s a good thing that we made it.

Darryl mentioned that we can expect some changes to the Callerlab challenge call lists in the next year. I’m guessing that Top It Off is being considered for the C-1 list. It’s a great call (written by Lee Kopman of course). It dances smoothly and can be easily combined with a variety of opening calls (e.g., start with a Right Roll to a Wave and you have “Right Roll to a Wave It Off”).

Bob and Pat were there. Bob was dancing with whoever was out. Pat was visiting and knitting. She seemed cheerful and looked good. Clint and Helen were there. We had heard that Jim Booth was in the hospital yesterday, but Chuck reported that he was out and doing fine today.

Earlier today I went to Costco with Judy. Needless to say, our bank account was lightened and I brought home a lot of great buys. One of our favorites is La Brea Whole Grain bread, which is very difficult to find, especially in the RGV.

No good deed goes unpunished. This morning on our walk we picked up the fallen fruit at Jan and Steve’s. Along with the fruit I picked up some vicious ants, and now my left hand is swollen and itchy. It will probably be fine in a couple of days, but right now is quite uncomfortable.
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Another New Horizons Reunion

Our first appointment today was with Dr. Canales, DDS, and his staff. Time for our annual cleaning and exams. It was after 11:00 when we were finished with that.

Bob and Judy will be leaving tomorrow, so tonight we gathered at the Republic of the Rio Grande for a send-off dinner. A good time and great food was had by all. We were regaled with tales of grizzlies pairing up in mating season in Alaska and getting to touch a mother whale and calf and other such adventures.

Jerry told us something about his experience working with the Red Cross to help flood victims in Austin. The flooding was around Onion Creek. That made us sit up and take notice: Onion Creek runs through McKinney Falls State Park, where we stayed just a few weeks ago. Jerry says it was closed by the flooding.

Judy Emerson, Stuart Jeffries, Ken, Lee, Jerry and Maddie Stephens, Lynn Stuart, and Bob Emerson

After an early dinner, we rushed to go to Joe Saltel's C-1 dance at Tropic Star. We were nearly late, but just in time to be the twelfth couple, so we had three squares of fun. Hal and Dorothy Case were there, but somehow we didn't dance with them. We did dance with Joe and Carol White and several couples we had seen at the Paris weekend. Read more!

Town Band Concert: From Sea to Shining Sea

We went to Randy's C-1 workshop/dance at Pharr South today. We had nine couples, so two squares plus one out couple. We danced with Jim and Barb for the first time this year. Barb has had a bad summer with back pain and was limping a bit. We hope she finds some relief soon.

We are hoping to be part of a C-2 class (if enough couples sign up). Randy had originally scheduled that class at a time that conflicted with another C-1 dance, but now it's been changed to Thursdays, which will work much better for us.

This evening we went to a Town Band concert with Hardy and Judy. We saw other friends there, including Pete and Judy, but we missed Steve and Jan--especially since Steve is one of the only Coast Guard veterans (and there were none at the concert tonight).

The concert was titled "From Sea to Shining Sea." Clearly the theme was chosen to honor Veterans' Day, and there were some rousing marches by Jewell and Sousa, and their traditional Armed Forces Salute, but they also had some more unusual selections. One piece was "Earheart, Sounds of Courage" by Robert Smith--a tribute to an amazing American who not only "blazed a path in the sky" but also championed women's rights. Another was "An American Elegy" by Frank Ticheli. It is a tribute to those who lost their lives at Columbine and to the indomitable human spirit.

Band director Mr. David Isadore and Mr. Ray Norton, the "Voice of the Town Band."

Another unusual selection was sung by the Nikki Rowe High School Treble Choir, a large girls ensemble. The song, "Voices of America" refers to peace and harmony and freedom.

We wanted to arrive early enough to get a parking place and good seats. Judy suggested leaving at 5:45 p.m. We were all thinking that the concert was at 7:00 p.m. Wrong: it was at 7:30 p.m. We did get great seats and had plenty of time to chat before the concert. Afterwards we went to our place for more conversation. Read more!

Another Dancing Dud

We started off this afternoon to dance to Darryl at Tropic Valley Acres. The dance is from 2-4 p.m., and we left home in plenty of time, at 1:30 p.m. We never got to the dance, because we made the tactical error of entering the expressway, only to find ourselves in a massive traffic jam evidently caused by a terrible accident involving an 18 wheeler that burned to a black shell. We are hoping that everyone involved is okay, but we saw a large group of emergency workers, so we really don't know.

The accident occurred at the Bryan Rd. exit, the one we were going to take to get to the dance. That exit was closed. The earliest we could have made it to the dance we'd have been 45 minutes late for a two hour dance. We gave it up and decided to do our shopping instead. We went to HEB for groceries, to Valero for diesel, and to CVS to pick up our prescriptions. That's the second Darryl Monday dance we've missed (last week the time had been changed, unbeknownst to us).

On the news tonight we saw horrible scenes of utter devastation in the wake of the super-typhoon. It all seemed unbelievable. 

Here are some photos of our palm tree art installation. We were quite pleased by the result.

On our bike ride this morning we went over to Bentsen Grove, our neighbor park. This froggy caught Ken's eye. I guess it's leaped up into the air to avoid the cactus below.

We watched a PBS show while we cleaned up after dinner: Secrets of Althorp - The Spencers. Althorp was the childhood home of Princess Diana. It's presided over by her brother, Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer, and it's been in the family for 500 years (so much for Diana having been a "commoner"!). Read more!

Breakfast and Butterflies

This morning we went to breakfast at Mi Challitas with our friends for the first time this season. Hardy and Judy were there, of course, and Bob Boink. Pat has been coming to the Sunday breakfasts, Bob said, but she had chemo on Thursday. She has one more treatment in this chemo series, but then she has other treatments for a year. Hopefully they will not have as many side effects.

After breakfast we drove to Bentsen Palm Village, partly to look around at our old digs and partly to park and walk over to Retama. We stopped by to say hi to Stuart and Lynn and then to Bob and Judy, before going on over to the state park. It's early in the season, but Bentsen Palm Village looks emptier to us than it has ever been.

Butterflies abound wherever you look. The lot Bob and Judy are on has a Betony Mistflower bush out front, so of course they have lots of queens and monarchs to watch. As we walked into the state park and headed to the store to get our wristbands, we saw many butterflies fluttering about, attracted by all the butterfly nectar and host plants. Ken spotted this female Large Orange Sulphur (probably?) sipping nectar from a nearby bloom.

We walked into the park, but didn't get as far as we planned. It was cooler when we dressed for breakfast, and my jeans and long sleeve knit shirt turned out to be just too warm for comfortable walking once the weather warmed up.

Back at home we worked on hanging our new palm tree framed art I found at the yard sale Friday. We used Command picture hanging strips. I did some laundry and straightened up the Texas room. We gathered the fallen fruit to put in the trash and cut a few of the lemon tree limbs that were hanging down and touching the ground. We salvaged some lemons that we hope will be useful for lemonade and put the cut branches out by the road to be picked up.

Lemon tree
 

Lemons!
 

Orange tree
 

Oranges
 

Grapefruit are still mostly green

Meanwhile, our neighbors Chuck and Carol arrived next door and were out organizing and getting settled. Ken chatted with our neighbors behind, Glynn and Bonnie. More people are arriving all the time.

Maddie called this evening to invite us to join the New Horizons couples for dinner Wednesday evening. Maddie and Jerry are in our park, and Stuart and Lynn and Bob and Judy are at Retama. Bob and Judy will be leaving on Thursday, so it's a send-off party for them. Read more!

Laundry

Today we did our laundry—in our very own washer and dryer. Yay! It's so much more convenient than going to the laundromat.

We walked this morning and biked this evening. There was very little traffic, and we actually averaged over 10 mph, which is good for us on our Electra Bicycles. They’re comfortable, but not especially fast. It's getting dark early enough now that we'll have to start using lights on our bikes, although the park doesn't have much traffic now, at least most of the time. This afternoon there was a music jam session in the clubhouse--and a parking jam outside. The Green Gate Grove jam sessions are very popular.
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Yard Sales!

Today was the first day of the park-wide yard sales. I got up early to head out on my bike and find some treasures. I had great fun and actually did find a lot of stuff--including a few really nice things. I found two framed palm tree prints that will fit perfectly in the spaces we've been looking to fill since we got the Majestic eighteen months ago.

When I was done, I got Ken and the truck and we went around to collect the stuff that I hadn't been able to bring home on my bike, including a set of four light oak kitchen chairs with pads for the Texas room. One of my favorite finds was a luscious purple velvet long skirt. Judy had just been telling me that she was looking for a skirt to wear to the Dickens festival in Galveston.

Tonight we watched a DVD of The Bucket List. It's a series of cliches interrupted by impossibilities, but we both like Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, so we managed to enjoy it anyhow. Read more!

Through the Green Gate

We moved to Green Gate Grove today. (Just couldn't resist the allusion to the Alice and Jerry readers of my primary school days.) Fortunately, the rain, which had fallen more or less steadily all night, eased off and quit this morning, allowing us to pack up relatively dry--although rather chilly. The high yesterday was 89°. Today it barely made 69°.

We were also fortunate that most of our neighbors have not yet arrived in the RGV, so we were able to position the Majestic without benefit of an audience and lots of advice! That's good, because it took a few tries before we hit the sweet spot. We have to avoid hitting the corner of our canopy while also avoiding the high curb across the street. With Ken's guidance, we finally slotted it in there just right.

Hardy came over to welcome us to the neighborhood. He and Judy had been over to Mexico with a group of our friends (maybe 20). They went to Santiago's new "Spot"--a bar that Hardy described as basically featuring a roll-up garage door. After the usual great margaritas and other refreshments, they went to the Red Snapper for lunch. He also got his shoes shined--a first for him--and was very pleased with the results.

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Rain, Rain, Go Away...

It's raining cats and dogs! And we're moving in the morning. It would be better (understatement) if it weren't raining in the morning.

Today we spent some time getting ready for our move tomorrow. We did some laundry--which gave us a chance to soak in the hot tub.

Tonight we went to our first Wednesday night Joe Saltel dance, and it was great fun, as always. We had three squares plus two extra couples. We got to catch up with the summer adventures of some folks we haven't seen since last spring.

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Dancing in the RGV

We dancing this afternoon to Randy Dougherty at Pharr South, our first dance of the RGV season! We had two squares (plus one couple) and lots of fun. Hardy and Judy danced C-2 to Randy this morning and came back for seconds this afternoon. So nice to see friends we haven't seen since last spring when we waved goodbye to the Valley and headed north for our summer travels. Many of the rest of the dancers did the same, but some stay here year round (like Bob and LaDone and Hugh).

After the dance, we went over to Green Gate Grove to clean up a bit before moving in on Thursday. We needed to clean the driveway surface that will be under the Majestic. Hardy loaned us a pressure washer and hose, and we tackled the chore.

We need to find a better solution for improving the looks of the driveway and preventing the black stains (maybe mildew?) and rust stains.
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Almost Dance

We set out today to go to our first square dance of the season. We talked with friends and were glad to find out the location had been changed. Unfortunately, we did not also realize the time had been changed. We showed up at 2:00 p.m. at La Hacienda for Darryl's C-1 dance, but we found out the dance had actually happened at 10:00 a.m. Darn! We called Randy to verify that the dance we're planning to attend tomorrow is actually happening at the time and place we expect.

We went over to Green Gate Grove to check on our lot and Texas room before moving there this Thursday. The fruit trees have flourished! We'll be hacking through the jungle practically. The lemons are the size of oranges already. This summer's rains have been good for them. The Texas room and shed survived fine, with little evidence of critters and no mildew, but there's lots to be done to clean them up and decorate before our visitors arrive.

We walked over to say hi to Hardy and Judy. Boy was it great to see our friends. Hardy loaned us a power washer so we can clean the drive before we put the Majestic on it. We'll go over tomorrow after the dance to tackle that job.

Our friends Willis and Rebecca are leaving in the wee hours of the morning to go pick up their brand new 2014 Casita Spirit Deluxe (17’). They are driving to Rice, Texas, to pick it up. They've named it "Mongo." Read more!

Time Change

All of our clocks "fell back" one hour today, as daylight saving time ends. Many of our devices are smart and make the change automatically, like our laptops and smart phones and DVR. So far the microwave and coffee pot are not connected to the internet, so they have to be manually adjusted. My pedometer and small bedside clock and the truck clock also require manual adjustments.

I guess we will also require some adjustments. My body clocks will take a few days to get back in sync with the external clocks. Even turning the clocks back is enough to give me some bit of jet lag for a few days. I'm just not prepared for it to get dark so early. Where has the day gone? It's all downhill from here until the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year.

The time change also announces a change in our life style. Our summer wanderings are over, and we'll be settled in our winter home. Square dancing begins tomorrow. Yay!

We did get outside for our walks today, but the evening walk was in complete darkness. We did take advantage of a sunny afternoon to go soak in the hot tub and relax around the pool. Read more!

Bugs!

We finally faced up to our procrastination. The smashed and dried bugs on the end cap of the Majestic and on the front of the truck were not about to disappear on their own, despite some rain.  These bugs were not the dreaded "Love Bugs," but just ordinary bugs that met their demise on our vehicles. Love bugs mobilized us into immediate action because 1) they were black and ugly and 2) the acid in their bodies destroys paint.

I soon realized the folly of not responding in a more timely fashion to just regular bugs. My efforts to clean the end cap seemed futile. I brushed all over with water, waited a few moments for the bugs to soften, and then brushed some more. No progress. Did it again. And again. Then I got out the ladder and attacked the glue-like residue with my microfiber cloth and Magic Eraser. This is not an easy task, but I did finally get most of the bugs off, as far as I could reach. Tomorrow I'll back the truck up to the front of the rig and set up the ladder in the truck bed.

Meanwhile, Ken apparently had less trouble with the truck. Of course he had the advantage that he didn't have to climb a ladder to work. At one point he was sitting on the ground, hard at work, when a large brown butterfly alighted a few inches away and watched him for a while before fluttering off.

It was cooler today. We noticed on our walks that the wind has shifted and is coming from the north. Fall is in the air. Folks are out trimming bushes and trees and generally cleaning. The rain this summer led to lush overgrowth of everyone's landscaping. More and more people are arriving in the Valley for the winter. Read more!

Sun and Rain

We had a bright, hot sunny day today. We went over to the pool and soaked in the hot tub for a while. It was too hot to walk, so we decided to wait until later. When later came, so did the rain, unexpectedly. Just as quickly it passed, and so did the heat. It went from 89 to 77 in an hour. Nice weather for walking, as long as we watched out for the puddles.

We are seeing a plethora of butterflies. They are passing through the Valley on their annual migration, and we're lucky enough to get to enjoy them. Today we saw a flutter of sulfurs, flashing in the sun, feeding on some tiny red flowers on a neighbor's bush. He calls it his "mystery plant" because he didn't save the nursery tag when he bought the bush and now doesn't recall its name. Read more!