Salute to 2014 and Looking Forward to 2015

We wish all our friends and family a happy and healthy 2015!

The weather outside was definitely frightful today, cold, rainy, windy and just generally dismal. We celebrated the New Year this evening with some of our friends in our Texas room. It was a bit cozy, but we had a great time, with plenty of snacks and wine. We had a FaceTime call with our friend Jean in Indianapolis. She has had good news: her latest x-rays show that her bones are healing, and she is now planning to come south in mid-February for three weeks.

We had two tables playing games. Steve and Jan brought their Play Nine! game (which we have played as Golf using regular playing cards). Pat Boyink was the winner at their table of six. Our table of five played Farkel. Bob Boyink had a very slow start, with six rounds before he got on the score sheet, but he pulled out a surprise victory, rolling two sets of three pairs in a row!

As midnight approached, we all went over to the Majestic to watch the ball drop in Times Square and toast the new year. At least that was the plan, but it turned out that none of the channels we get was showing the ball drop at midnight CST. We could have recorded the event at midnight EST if we had realized. We didn't let that dampen our spirits, though. Ken played Auld Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo's orchestra and we blew our party horns and blowouts, toasted the new year, and hugged.

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Dancing and Shopping Again

We danced at Randy's C-2 workshop this morning and did pretty well. Also learned some things.

Afterwards we went to Subway for lunch followed by a trip to Costco, always an expensive proposition. We got some wine and cheese for tomorrow's celebration and lots of vitamins and such, so we're well stocked.

Tonight we watched a Masterpiece Mystery episode featuring Miss Marple, one of our favorites. Read more!

Routine

We got up this morning to find out that we had no heat. Our propane tank was empty, so Ken ran out and turned on the alternate tank and we put our tank out to be refilled. The propane truck was quite late today. We figured that lots of people are using propane to heat and so needed their tanks filled just as we did.

I talked to Terri today. It was nice seeing her on FaceTime on the iPad. One of the things we chatted about was her recent trip to Australia and New Zealand. We are tentatively planning to go to visit Terri and Blake in Singapore next spring and visiting Australia and New Zealand while we are there.

We danced to Darryl this evening. We had seven squares plus a spare. Even more dancers will be arriving after the new year. Last season we had up to ten squares, which can be a bit crowded at TVA, but the more the merrier. We were very glad to see that John and Sandy were there. Sandy was sick over Christmas but seems to be recovered now. Yay.


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Sunday, Dismal Sunday

We started the morning at Rosie's having breakfast with our friends. It showered and drizzled all night and was foggy and misty when we woke up. The weather didn't improve (chilly, damp, overcast, drizzly, you get the picture), so we went to Home Depot to do our walking. Not nearly as inspiring as the state park, but warmer.

We've been checking out the gas grills, but we haven't made up our minds to actually buy one. We have a Weber tabletop that works pretty well for us. One thing we did go ahead and buy was an inexpensive "digging shovel." We need to fill in some holes in the yard, and we've run into some other tasks that a shovel would be good for.

We made split pea soup for dinner. Somehow this just seemed like a soup day, and we had a bit of leftover ham from the Christmas dinner at Hardy and Judy's.

We spent some time checking out possible times to visit France this year and looking at flights. They are not cheap, and none of the airlines gets really good reviews on sites like TripAdvisor. We are thinking of traveling in June at this point, but we don't even know for sure where we should fly from. Read more!

Tip O Texas

We went to Randy's C-2 dance at Tip O Texas today. We had two squares plus two spares, so everyone had at least one out. I wasn't feeling great, and so made lots of errors. I've been dragging all day, but don't seem to have anything serious wrong.

After the dance, we shopped for Christmas markdown and got a tree for the patio next year and some LED light sets, to save energy and hopefully avoid having bulbs burn out.

We didn't get a walk in this morning, so we took an extended walk around the park this afternoon. We'll probably go to the state park to walk tomorrow after breakfast. Read more!

Back to Dancing

After a few days off for the Christmas holiday, we were back to dancing today. We went to Darryl's C-2 dance in McAllen. G.W. and David brought their Canadian friends along. Peter and Pearl from Ottawa were on their cruise last spring, and they became good friends. G. W. and David invited them to come to the RGV this winter. They are renting a place for January through March, and the guys hope to get them started in beginner square dance lessons.

We stopped by the 99 Cent Only store on the way home. After we put the food away, we took our afternoon walk, and then it was time to move on to dinner. We have plenty of leftovers, so that wasn't much of a production. Today is the last day of our Verizon month, and we still had bandwidth left, so Ken is spending the evening uploading photos to Flickr.

I went over to the Friday night movie at the clubhouse, The Holiday. Steve and Jan and Hardy and Judy were there. It's a cute movie, but not my favorite, and something I ate wasn't sitting well, so I came home before it was over. That's one advantage of a free movie a short walk from home. Read more!

Merry Christmas!

We had a great day today, celebrating with friends and talking with family and friends. We gathered at Hardy and Judy's house. It's always good to get together with our square dance bunch. Sandy wasn't feeling well so she is missing from this group photo, but John came bringing a large fruit salad and took her a plate when he left.

One of our friends, Jean, was unable to come down from Indianapolis this season because of problems with healing a  broken ankle. She was able to join us virtually through the miracle of FaceTime on an iPad. It was a treat to talk with Jean and see her.

Hardy was able to FaceTime with his daughter, Stacey, too.

Of course one of the things that draws people together is sharing a meal. We had a delicious array of food to enjoy.

Desserts included Judy's pecan pie and Pat's signature sugar free pies. One of these featured lemon pudding with pineapple tidbits and mandarin oranges. The other combined cheesecake pudding topped with cherry pie filling.

Ken and I enjoyed Christmas phone calls with our kids today. Jeff has announced his engagement to Sabrina. Chris and Anara were preparing food for a Norwegian potluck. Ed and Julie and the kids all appeared in a FaceTime call. I find it much easier to understand the kids and relate to them when we can actually see each other. I talked with Aunt Iris and Carol too.

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Happy Birthday, Chris!

Today is my eldest son's 49th birthday. Chris was the best Christmas present I could ever receive. On Christmas Day 1965, I had a brand new baby boy and a candy cane on my breakfast tray.

It's been a lovely day here, blue skies and a high of 65°, great weather for our walks, and a prelude to even better weather Christmas Day.

It has been cooler in the evenings. We had homemade chicken soup for supper. After dinner we did some prep work for the veggies we're taking to Christmas dinner tomorrow. We watched White Christmas that we had recorded. It was made in 1954, but the version we saw has been digitally enhanced and is in HD. Somehow this takes a bit away from its nostalgia effect, but it's still fun to watch. Read more!

Wash and Wax

This morning after breakfast we heard footsteps on the roof. No, it wasn't Santa Claus--it was Roberto and helpers starting to wash the Majestic. Three guys spent four hours washing and hand waxing the rig and the truck. Boy do they shine!

Ephraim, Modesto, and Roberto, packing up to leave after transforming our rig and truck.

Clean and shiny!

This afternoon we went to HEB to pick up some things for our contribution to Christmas dinner. We ended up parking out near the street because the parking lot was jammed. We weren't the only ones doing some last minute shopping for Christmas. At least we won't be going into any stores tomorrow!

We filled up with diesel at HEB too, for $2.99 a gallon, down from over $4 earlier this year. The last time we paid under $3 for diesel was in 2010. Read more!

Birthday Cookies

Today was Decah's birthday, and to celebrate, she baked cookies and brought them to the dance this evening. She made two kinds: one like chocolate chip cookies, but made with M & M's, and some really delicious peanut butter cup cookies, like these:






We had planned to pick up John and Sandy to go to the dance, but Ken got a text saying that they were at a doctor's office and then on their way to a pharmacy. During the dance Hardy got a text with more details. John and Sandy had spent hours yesterday at the ER and then hours today at an ophthalmologist's office. We are hoping that John is okay. He has had some very serious eye problems this year.

Earlier today I spent some frustrating time trying to straighten something out with an insurance company, always fun.


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Another Walk in the Park

We went to breakfast this morning with our friends as usual. Judy was with us again, sounding much better than last week, so we are glad for her continuing recovery. She decided not to walk in the park after breakfast, a smart move since it was damp and chilly.

We stopped by Green Gate Grove to pick up Sandy to join us on our walk. It was overcast, but not unpleasant in the park. We didn't see very many birds, but Sandy spotted some coyotes at a distance on the road ahead. We've been noticing a lot of coyote scat on the road, a change this year. The coyotes used to stay mainly to the east of here, but we did see one in the park last year.

Later we watched a Peter, Paul, and Mary 50 year retrospective special we had recorded. It was a reminder of some great music and social activism. The trio supported the anti Vietnam war movement, civil rights, farmworker rights, and work for the homeless. Their music and some of the other folk music of the 60s is part of the soundtrack of my teen and early adult years.

Ken watched a Star Trek movie, Undiscovered Country. Of course he has seen it before, but he always enjoys watching any of the movies or reruns of TV programs. I have a definite fondness for the first generation cast. Read more!

Disappointment

We started out this morning with two disappointments. First, we thought there was a square dance, but when we got to the park, we found no dance today. We had checked the RGVSD website, which did not show the dance as dark today, but it turns out that it is always dark on the third Saturday. The experienced C-2 dancers all know that.

Next, Jan found an ad in the Winter Texan offering a butterfly table and chairs in light or dark oak on sale at Craig's Furniture Store. We were excited and called to order the light oak, but it turns out that the manufacturer has discontinued the light oak, and it's only available in dark oak. Sigh.

Since we were in Pharr, we decided to go to Costco. We went to the nearby At Home store first. That store turned out to be actually the same as the Garden Ridge store we visited in Flower Mound. We found a step stool I've been looking for the last two years, so that was good, but the only other thing we found was a box of marked down Christmas cards.

Our replacement florescent tubes for the kitchen arrived yesterday, so today we replaced the two burned out bulbs. Now the kitchen is twice as bright!

Tonight we watched Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on PBS. It offered a variety of songs and dance and even staging of A Christmas Carol, and all with lovely harmonies. Read more!

Jersey Boys

This evening we went to a showing of the movie Jersey Boys at the clubhouse. We enjoyed getting together with friends. We had our full square from GGG and Jim and Pat, square dancers from another park. The movie drama didn't do much for us, but we loved the music, as we expected we would. We were reminded that we had seen a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons tribute group perform "Oh What a Night" on our Alaska cruise.

Earlier today we took our walks, of course. We enjoyed the holiday display at one house. The snowman to the right had a sign that said "Clap," so Ken did, and we were treated to a cute animation and musical performance.

This afternoon we went to Darryl's C-2 dance at Our Savior Lutheran Church in McAllen. We had only four squares, since some of the dancers have left on holiday trips, including Sue and Arnie. Hardy and Judy aren't dancing yet, but they came to the movie tonight. Judy says she is much better.

Ken installed our new outdoor faucet at the rear of the Texas room, so we have city water again and no leaks. Yay.

Ken got his new camera today. It's a Samsung NX300 20.3MP CMOS Smart WiFi Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 18-55mm Lens and 3.3" AMOLED Touch Screen (Black). He is enjoying checking out its capabilities.

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Dismal, Drizzly Day

Ken and I agree: we would not do well in Portland. Even one day of this miserable overcast drippy weather is too much for us! We are glad to be snug in our warm home this evening, enjoying the warm colors of our Christmas lights and some homemade pizza for dinner. Read more!

Memories

Today would have been my brother Joe's 67th birthday. He passed away nine years ago December 21 and left a big hole in the lives of lots of people. May he rest in peace. This time of year is problematic for me, as it is for many people who have suffered losses in the holiday season. I am thankful for all the loving, supportive people in my life, but my grief seems fresher as these sad anniversaries roll around.

We were planning to go to Jerry Story's C-1 dance this afternoon. Instead, Ken and Steve went to Home Depot to pick up parts for a plumbing repair. Ken was out trimming our citrus trees when he heard a bubbling noise. The faucet assembly at the rear corner of the Texas room is where it was coming from, so he turned the water off. Good thing we have water in our fresh water tank!

It turns out that whoever installed the faucets did not make any provision for repairs. The pipes were made of PVC and a T was glued inside a three foot standing PVC pipe. Steve brought over his saw and cut the large PVC pipe down to allow access to the piping. We are very fortunate to have such talented good friends.

On our walk this afternoon, we stopped by Jan and Steve's and made arrangements to pick them up for Joe's dance tonight. We stopped to see how Judy was doing. She says she is better, although she is still sounding very congested. She's hoping to be back dancing next Monday.

Next we stopped by lot 190, which is where John and Sandy Walenter are staying this season. They arrived today, tired from their journey. We are delighted to have them here. They delayed their arrival because John's eye suffered a hemorrhage, which they were hoping would clear up. At this point his eye surgeon is still counseling him to wait and see if his body will naturally reabsorb the blood, so they decided to go ahead and come south.

This evening we picked up Steve and Jan and headed to Pharr for Joe's C-1 dance. As usual, Joe had some complex calls to challenge the floor with, including some block formation calls that required collapsing and reforming the blocks. Those can be really tricky. We will not be dancing to Joe the next two Wednesdays, since they are Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.



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Changeable Weather

We walked around Green Gate Grove this morning but didn't get our evening walk in. By the time we got home, it was dark and drizzly.

Ken had a cataract check this afternoon. We learned some things about cataract surgery. Ken's cataracts haven't progressed so far that he would need surgery to be able to see. The doctor left it pretty much up to him to decide when to have surgery. Ken decided to go back in a year for a cataract check.

We went to Costco afterward since we were nearby. We got mainly produce, but of course we also got lots of free samples.

Our friends Steve and Jan had their truck damaged today. While they were stopped at a stop sign in our park, one of the residents backed into them. Fortunately the truck is high enough and the car was low enough that damage was limited to the passenger side running board. That's a $1,500 fix... And Steve babies his truck, so it's a low blow.... Read more!

Christmas Cheer

We really enjoy coming home after a dance to find our cheery home lit with Christmas decorations. Merry Christmas, y'all!

We went to the park to walk this morning again. This time we saw more birds and butterflies, but not a lot more people. We need an exotic bird to show up to increase traffic in the park!

Tonight we went to Darryl's C-2 workshop. We had fun, but we are still missing Hardy and Judy, who is still sick with a sore throat. Read more!

Christmas Parade

The annual golf cart Christmas parade was this evening, so of course we went out to see the sights.

Looking up the street toward the clubhouse, waiting for the parade to appear....

Here they come!

Playing Elvis singing Blue Christmas

Our neighbors Chuck and Carol, have arrived for the season. They usually come earlier, but his sister has been very ill. We're glad to see our good neighbors again.

We went to breakfast this morning with friends. Judy was there, but she was clearly congested and not feeling well yet, so Hardy and she left early. We're hoping she'll be feeling better soon.

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Grillin' and Happy Birthday, Sam!

 Today is Sam's eighth birthday. Julie took the kids down to Houston for a big birthday bash with Sam's cousin Avery, who is celebrating her eighth birthday today also. They were going horseback riding. Cate reminded me that she went to a birthday party last spring that also featured horseback riding. Lucky kids!

Another Saturday spent mainly on chores and errands. Ken got the grill out and set it up, so we had some yummy turkey burgers for supper. I put up a lighted garland along the slide top frame over the sofa and kitchen. It has "music" and flashing lights. The music is a rather tinny music box type, so I listened to it for a few minutes and then switched to just flashing lights.

Ken went to Home Depot and got some replacement fittings for the water filter where it's been dripping slowly for some time. I'm sure he felt good about getting that fixed. We ordered some replacement florescent tubes for the ceiling fixture in the kitchen. They're an unusual type that's hard to find locally, plus less expensive on Amazon Prime. Read more!

RV Steamer Saves the Day

I had a calendar reminder set to call Jack Cook, the RV Steamer, as soon as we got to the Valley. He has cleaned our carpets every year since 2008, when he came to Bentsen Palm Village to do a demonstration on carpet care. Of course he was promoting his business, but his presentation made a lot of sense to us. This week I finally got around to calling him, and he showed up today to rescue us from the scourge of dirty carpets. And they were definitely dirty: he showed us some of the dirt he had extracted. So now we have clean carpets--yay!

This afternoon we went to Darryl's C-2 dance. We did pretty well again, but clearly still have some learning and practicing to do. We missed Hardy and Judy. Judy has a sore throat and wisely decided to allow herself time to heal (plus avoid spreading the germs). We hope she's feeling better soon.

After the dance we did some shopping and ran some errands, so by the time we got home and put away the groceries, it was time for our walk.

Sam called to thank us for his birthday/Christmas present, an iPad. Hmm, we sent him a Fire HD, not an iPad, but Ed reports that the kids call any tablet an iPad.

Ken got a nice compliment: someone with the Rails to Trails Conservancy asked permission to reprint some of this blog photos in a new digital magazine about trail vacations that that they are developing called Trail Traveler. Read more!

Green Gate Grove Goes for Christmas

We spent some time today doing more decorating for Christmas, and this evening we walked around the park admiring the lights. One home stands out above the rest. We're not sure how the lights and star were raised high on this tall flagpole, but it's quite impressive.

This brightly lit tree caught our attention.

Here's someone proud of our park, showing off the "Green Gator"!

I guess this person decided to go with a symbol of our balmy climate, a pink flamingo standing on the roof.. That's even better than the pink lighted Christmas pig we saw at Target today!

We ran into Maddie Stephens twice on our walks around the park today. We are glad to see Jerry and her back in the Valley. They own the other New Horizons fifth wheel in the park. Read more!

Another Walk in the Park

We went to the state park for our walk this morning. It was a perfect day for walking, in the 70s and overcast. We saw lots of butterflies, but not too many birds. We saw some chachalacas, some little brown birds, some cardinals, and this cute roadrunner.




We spent some time today on decorating for Christmas, but we still have more to do tomorrow. We picked up Steve and Jan and went to Joe's C-1 dance tonight. Glenn and Char have returned to the Valley. After they left Paris they traveled to California for the month of November and danced with some of our friends. Frank and Sharon Walters have arrived from Canada. We had four squares plus a couple tonight, but the holiday season will take people away, so there probably will be fewer dancers for the next few weeks. Read more!

Interstellar

We finally went to see Interstellar this afternoon, along with Hardy and Judy. The movie is almost three hours long and very intense. The intensity of the music and sound effects matches the extraordinary cinematography and special effects, but the greatest intensity is in the emotional relationships and conflicts. Much of the film has viewers on the edge of their seats, moved by the dramatic tension and suspense.

We started the day this morning with our doctor appointments at 8:15 a.m., which went well. Since it was only the second appointment of the day, we had minimal wait time. When we left there we drove to Pharr South for Randy's C-2 workshop at 10:00 a.m. We had three squares plus one couple. After dancing we went to the nearby Subway for lunch and then to Costco, mainly for food. We got the last loaves of La Brea multigrain bread that were out on display. We also got several free samples, the best of which was Ghirardelli triple chocolate brownies.

Tonight we watched a documentary titled RICKOVER: The Birth of Nuclear Power. Rickover was an eccentric genius, and the film clearly dramatizes both his triumphs and his decline. Read more!

Drizzle and Dance

Today was another overcast and chilly day, with mist interspersed with drizzle. Today was also the day we finally installed our ladder mounted drying rack. Unfortunately, that means the rugs hanging on the rack are wetter than when I hung them there!

Tonight we went to Darryl's C-2 workshop. Just for tonight it was held at La Hacienda. We were surprised and glad to see Tim and Gayle back in the Valley. Dave Heffron was there too, and we danced with him the first tip, when he was paired up with David Hilse. We didn't do too badly, but only because we had lots of help from our friends when we needed it. We also managed to have lots of laughs even when the squares momentarily broke down.

We left La Hacienda a little after 9:00 p.m., but we'll be back in the area eleven hours later. We have doctor appointments at a nearby office at 8:15 a.m., which means we'll be up early. Read more!

A Walk in the Park

When we woke up this morning, Ken was not feeling well at all, so we didn't go to breakfast. Ken stayed home and rested while I went walking with Judy and Arnie and Sue at the state park. It was my first visit to the park this season--hard to believe. We have just been so busy. It was great to be in the park, surrounded by greenery and Green Jays chattering away. Of course we were chattering too, so the time went quickly.

Today is our friend G.W.'s 70th birthday. The gang got together at Pepe's to celebrate this afternoon. We sent a card and our best wishes.

Today was overcast all day and threatening to rain. I think it only misted, but it was enough to make the outdoors uncomfortable later in the day.

I talked with Carol and Ed and Aunt Iris. All seem to be doing well. Aunt Iris will be starting her gastro workup at Mayo Tuesday. She had a bowel obstruction in early October and has been waiting for an appointment at Mayo. She is still having symptoms and is afraid that the obstruction could reoccur.

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Parade

McAllen had its first annual holiday parade this evening. Steve and Jan took a couple of ladies from the park, leaving early to insure that they would get good seats in Veterans Stadium. We didn't go in person, but we saw a lot of the parade on local channel 4. It looked like a great family outing, with lots of balloons and floats and Santa at the end.

We had a quiet day. It was mainly cloudy but the sun broke through a few times. We enjoyed a soak in the hot tub and spent some time reading.


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Chef

This evening we joined friends in the GGG hall for a showing of Chef. It served up some predictable touching moments between dad and son, but the best part was the rollicking laughs. We needed a comedy, since the world seems full of tragedy just now.

This afternoon we went to Darryl's C-2 dance. We danced with Hardy and Judy and other friends and got a chance to wish G.W. a happy birthday. His 70th birthday is Sunday. Read more!

I'll Never Grow Up

We watched Peter Pan Live! on NBC tonight. We found it an enjoyable experience, with good acting, singing, and technical feats. But I still have a little corner of my heart devoted to Mary Martin's performance in the title role.

This afternoon we picked up Jan and Steve to go to Randy's C-2 review session at Tip O Texas. When we got there, we were the only two couples. After a bit, Hardy and Judy joined us (they had gone to Pharr South first). So Randy and Darlene made a fourth couple, and Randy called from the square. We reviewed some of the C-2 calls, which Randy called from different starting formations. The next review session is in two weeks, and we hope to have more couples there.

Steve used the picker to harvest some of the higher tangelos on their overproducing tree for us. We ended up with a bag full, and when we left, they had started picking some for Hardy and Judy. They like to juice the tangelos. We've been having them for breakfast. They are very sweet and delicious. Read more!

We Have Our Truck Back!

Steve and Jan picked us up for Joe's dance tonight. We had four squares. Bill and Beverly came south early. Ron and Ginette from Canada are here too. Arnie and Sue were dancing. He had a couple of stents inserted in his leg arteries, which were nearly 100% occluded. He says he's as good as new. Meanwhile, Steve is still waiting for his second knee injection.

 Hardy and Judy are back in town. We stopped by while we were out for our walk and talked with Hardy and heard some tales from their trip. Judy was out at the grocery store. Both of them were at the dance tonight.

We finally got our truck back this evening. The good news is that the oil leak fix was covered by warranty. Plus we got our truck back. Yay! We hope they also checked the coolant additive, but at least they turned off the message. They didn't fix Ken's key fob. Instead they offered to sell him a new one for $280. He decided to fix it himself this evening by cleverly inserting some thicknesses of light cardboard to keep the battery in more secure contact. Cheap fix!

I am finding it hard to believe that the grand jury in New York decided not to indict the police officer whose choke hold of Eric Garner was caught on video. Garner, an asthmatic, can be heard pleading that he can't breathe, and the coroner ruled it a homicide. Read more!

Wheels

Well, we have wheels again--but not our truck. Claudia in service assured us this morning that our parts were scheduled to come in this afternoon and our truck would be ready. However, this was not to be. Claudia called again this afternoon to report that the truck bringing our parts (and lots of other people's parts) had been involved in an accident. Oh, no!

However, she did say that she had arranged an Avis rental for us and that Avis would pick us up. We had to go out and wait by the gate because we weren't sure if they would arrive before the office closed and Ken didn't want to have to explain to them how to use the call box at the gate. They did show up around 4:00 p.m., in a bright red Camry, and took us back to their office in the Comfort Inn near Spike's Ford. A long delay ensued while we explained that our insurance would not cover us driving an automobile and that we would need both liability and collision and comprehensive insurance on the vehicle. A few phone calls later and a long delay, and we were finally out the door around 5:00 p.m. Of course the first thing we did was go to the grocery store.

So now we have missed three square dances, had to ask our friends for a ride to our dentist appointments, had to reschedule our doctor appointments, and have spent hours on the phone and in waiting rooms, and we still don't have our truck back.

On the other hand, we have much to be thankful for. Our friends Hardy and Judy arrived home safely after their trip to L.A. We have family and friends and health, good food to eat and a warm place to stay and square dancing on the schedule for tomorrow night. Life is good. Read more!

Dental Duty

We accomplished a necessary but not very enjoyable task today: we went to the dentist and got our teeth cleaned. Big thanks to our friends Steve and Jan who drove us to our appointment and picked us up afterwards.  Steve just detailed their truck yesterday, so it really gleamed.

We were hoping to get our truck back this afternoon, but the parts did not arrive today. Claudia tells us that "Ford was closed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday." We assume she means the parts distribution department. So now we're hoping the parts will come in tomorrow morning.

We spent some more time today getting a string of LED lights installed along the bottom edge of the patio screen. We'll need to get another string to finish the other half of the screen.

Terri called today from Singapore to wish us a happy Thanksgiving. We haven't heard her voice in quite a while. She has been off in Australia and New Zealand with her dad and stepmother and a friend for the last month, posting tantalizing photos on Facebook of their adventures. Next Sunday she will be flying to the States for six weeks for the holidays. Quite the world traveler! We are hoping to see her while she is visiting.

I am definitely feeling well, finally. It was a lovely day today. We enjoyed the sunshine and blue skies, which are not forecast to return any time soon. A cold front is dipping into Texas, and it's already bringing some rain to our area. Read more!

Happy Birthday, Julie!

Today is Julie's birthday. She celebrated by having a LuLaRoe"Pop-up Boutique" in her living room. She is just starting out as a LuLaRoe consultant.

We've had another quiet day around here. I'm feeling much better tonight, but I didn't have too much energy today. Ken was feeling a bit under the weather too, but seems better tonight. Julie reported some similar symptoms, so we've decided that something is going around--something we don't want to see any more of.

We just got our first Verizon bill with our new plan on it. It was a lot of sticker shock, but then we realized that much of it was "catch-up" charges for November. You pay for phone service in advance, evidently, so next month's bill will be much more in line with what we were expecting.. Read more!

Quiet Day

I'm still not feeling well, so it's been another quiet day. Ken spent some time trimming trees. We took a couple of walks and watched some recorded shows. One was a special featuring Kristin Chenoweth. I first became aware of her for her role as a press secretary on West Wing and really had no idea she was a singer. We were impressed by her voice and her range of emotion. Read more!

Truck Upset

Ken got up early this morning and took the truck in for repairs to be completed. He was given a ride home and told not to expect the truck to be ready until this afternoon. So when we hadn't heard from Spike's by 4:00 p.m., Ken called to check on the status of the truck, only to be told that the tech had determined that another part had to be ordered. Maybe it will come in tomorrow, but maybe not, so we may not have any wheels until Monday.

Meanwhile, I have been miserably sick since last night, so instead of pumpkin pie for breakfast I ate a few pieces of fruit. Later I managed to eat half a can of chicken rice soup for lunch and the other half for dinner. Ken had leftover Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm hoping I'll feel better tomorrow. We did get out and walk a bit, but very slowly. It was a lovely sunny day with a high of 75. Read more!

Thanksgiving Celebration

We went over to Steve and Jan's for Thanksgiving this year, so our total travel was about two block--on foot, and in great weather. We've been watching the storms in the north and the transportation difficulties, so we know how lucky we are. Here's Steve carving the turkey, which turned out moist and delicious.

Pat and Bob Boink joined us, bringing butternut squash and apple salad and apple bread (thanks to Michigan apples).

Jan made the dressing and gravy and mashed potatoes and lots of munchies.

As usual, we had plenty of food and drink and good conversation. We gave thanks for our friends, those present and those far away, and many other blessings. After dinner we played a round of golf--the card game, of course. Then we had the pumpkin pie to top off the celebration. One of the neighbors stopped by with her little dog, Peanut, who is Steve's friend. We think Peanut smelled the turkey too!

We talked to some of our family members and texted or left voicemails for others. Everyone seems to be doing well. We hope all our readers have had a great Thanksgiving, too.


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Trimming the Trees

We have seen folks out putting up Christmas decorations, but we did another type of tree trimming today: whacking errant branches off our fruit trees, especially the ones encroaching on our neighbors' properties. We had our lopper and one we borrowed from Steve, so we were both whacking away. Then of course we had to drag all the branches out to the curb to be picked up. That was definitely more physical exertion than my old body is used to, so I was pretty well tuckered out.

Jan heard from our friend Jean in Indianapolis, who has injured her ankle. We were hoping she would still be able to join us in the Valley, but she got some bad news from the second opinion doctor: her bones are not knitting, so she'll have to do some at-home bone stimulation for three months, to see if that will encourage the bones to knit properly. The bottom line is that she will not be coming south this year. We'll definitely miss her and hope her bones heal well. Meanwhile she'd like to find someone to take over her seasonal rental just for this year, since she hopes to come back to it next fall. 

We did get it together to go to Joe Saltel's C-1 dance, where we were couple number 12--the people everyone loves to see, since we made the third square. We took along some info about Jean's rental, which Joe announced. He will spread the word, and we hope someone will be found to rent the place.

Ken's replacement phone arrived, after some anxiety caused by Verizon's having left our lot number off the Fedex delivery address. Fortunately, Mickey in the office was able to sign for the package (though she hadn't thought that Fedex or UPS was at all likely to stop in the office, so we were lucky). Read more!

Warranties

Following up on our oil leak issue, we took the truck to Spike's Ford today. When we arrived for our appointment, their power had gone out, so they were unable to do anything. The service writer suggested that we could leave and do something else and call his cell at intervals to see if the power was back on, so we went shopping. When we returned to Spike's, their power had just returned.

We sat down in the customer lounge to wait. Meanwhile, starting yesterday people had complained that they could not hear Ken on the phone. The problem was getting worse, as we could easily tell when he called my phone. So we called Verizon's tech support. For once we got a courteous, competent, patient person who walked us through several possible fixes. None worked.

About this time, the Ford service person told Ken that they had to order parts, so they had put the truck back together. Now we have an appointment first thing Friday. The service writer said the work would be covered by the warranty.

When we got back home, the tech walked Ken through backing up all the data on his phone to his laptop and doing a factory reset. Still no joy, so they sent out a replacement phone by Fedex overnight. Of course it's covered by the warranty, since the phone is only two months old.

Warranties are wonderful, but they don't replace the hours of your life spent getting things fixed or prevent worry and frustration.

We did have a little time to spend on the patio. We got the chairs set up and tablecloth on the picnic table. We started on putting up some LED lights around the canopy. Tomorrow we really need to start trimming our fruit trees before they take over the neighbors' yards! Read more!

Dancing

We went to Darryl's C-2 workshop tonight. Carl and Jo Beth and Dick and Mary Ann were there. We're starting to recognize some of the other dancers too. We had fun and did pretty well and learned a bit.

This morning we got up early to go to our doctor's office for fasting blood draws for lab tests. Not my favorite thing to do. We did take some coffee and bananas along for after the blood draw.

Later today we took our truck in for a regular oil change. It took three hours, and we were told at the end that the truck had an oil leak. It's never had an oil leak before, so we went on home, figuring that it must be very slow leak. However we did notice an oil drip on the driveway, so Ken took the truck back to Walmart to talk to them about what might be causing the leak. They showed Ken where the leak was and said there was no way anything they had cone could have caused the leak. Hmmm. We're taking the truck in to Spike's Form tomorrow and hoping the leak will be minor and easy to fix.

We spent some time today to clean up the patio, which always collects plenty of black dirt over the winter. It looks decent now, but we've got more work to do.


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The Breakfast Club

We went to a new restaurant, Rosie's on Griffin Parkway, for breakfast with our friends this morning. Another first of the season for us, though some of the gang have been enjoying Sunday morning breakfasts for a while already. They have definitely picked out a good restaurant.

We didn't know how long it would take us to get there, so we left early and were the first to arrive. Soon Bob and Pat joined us, then Jan and Steve, and finally our table was completed by Hardy and Judy's arrival. Arnie and Sue are traveling, and we're still missing our friend Jean, who is recuperating in Indianapolis from an ankle injury. We hope she will be able to join us soon. George has moved into a facility where he gets all his meals, so we're not expecting to see him at Sunday breakfasts.

After breakfast, Hardy and Judy left on their trip to L.A. to see the latest grand baby. Along the way of course they'll be doing some geocaching too.

We took advantage of the warm sunny day and spent some time in the hot tub and lazing around the pool. Ken beat me at two games of 8 ball. I think it's because he's using his new lucky cue stick. Read more!

First Trip to Mexico

Steve and Jan picked us up this morning for our first trip to Mexico of the season.

The stated purpose of the trip was to celebrate Pat and Hardy's birthdays, but it's not like this bunch needs an excuse. We started out at Pancho's Bar, where Bob and Pat, G.W. and David, and Hugh were ahead of us. Hardy and Judy came along shortly.

Pancho's Bar

After margaritas, we went to El Rancho Grande, a new restaurant next to Jessica's Center. The food was good, and the service was fast and friendly, so we'll definitely be back.

Lunch at El Rancho Grande

G.W. and David brought a birthday cake for the celebration.

Happy birthday, Pat and Hardy!

The live music tempted Jan and Steve onto the dance floor.

After 49 years...

Hardy and Judy followed.

We stopped at Craig's Furniture on the way home. Jan and Steve are looking for new recliners. We were hoping to buy a light oak butterfly table like the one Jan and Steve had bought a couple of years ago, but it turns out the light oak was discontinued.

We had some stormy weather this evening, with thunder and lightning and a real downpour. It was so loud several times that we paused our recording of  PBS Great Performances Cats! because we couldn't hear the TV. Read more!

Happy 18th Birthday, Catt!

Ken's granddaughter Cathy turns 18 today. She is passionate, mercurial, funny, a black belt in karate, a person who never lets things get too quiet or boring. Happy birthday, Catt! Hope you had a wonderful day.

We went back to Darryl's C-2 dance today, the one that we had so much trouble at last week. Fortunately, we did better today. Darryl says you have to walk across hot coals to toughen your feet. Guess we'll have some calluses from all our efforts.

It wasn't sure if it wanted to rain or not today. We were lucky enough to have mostly dry weather for both our walks. We are headed to Mexico tomorrow to celebrate Pat's birthday and hoping the weather will be good then too.

Aunt Iris called this evening. She is having acupuncture and motion therapy, which seem to be helping. At least she says she has quit falling. Of course part of the reason for that is she's being more careful after a couple of painful falls. She says all is well in the extended family. Read more!

Warm Day

We did our laundry today, in our own machines in the Texas room. Yay! It's been a warm day, in contrast to the devastating snow storms we're seeing on TV from the northern states.

We spent some time today preparing for a call from a TIAA-CREF consultant. The call never came, so I guess we'll have to reschedule. Steve and Jan were expecting an insurance agent to come by yesterday, and that person no-showed with no explanation. Is this a trend?

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving next week at Steve and Jan's, but with a much smaller group than usual. Hardy and Judy will be out of town, visiting a new grand baby in LA, Some of our other friends have been delayed by medical issues and will come south later than usual. So we'll have six of us, with Bob and Pat being the third couple. It will be hard to restrain ourselves to make just enough food for such a small group.

We've been watching the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. The finals are tonight and tomorrow night. I'm cheering for Julia Collins, the longest winning woman with twenty straight victories (topped only by Ken Jennings).

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Back at Green Gate Grove

We drove the last few miles of our 2014 travels today, for a grand total of 6,282 miles towing.  It's been an exciting summer, and we really enjoyed all our adventures and spending time with friends and family, but it's good to be at our home base for a few months.

This evening we picked up Steve and Jan and went to Joe Saltel's C-1 dance. We had looked over the C-1 call list and felt some confidence that this would be less taxing than C-2, but Joe had some surprises in store for us. Our C-1 dancing skills are a bit rusty too, but we laughed a lot and had a great time with a wonderful group of square dance friends.

Hardy, our computer guru friend, told us that he had caught a hacker today. We were all ears. He had gotten some warnings from his service provider than an unauthorized user was trying to get into his Google account. Through careful online detective work he narrowed down the possibilities, until finally his results showed that the hacker was actually "in the house!" Turned out to be an older unactivated phone he was using as an alarm clock. It kept trying to sync with his Google account. Read more!

Quiet Day

Not much going on here. It's still cool, so we bundled up for our walks. We started our preparations to move tomorrow. Read more!

More Dancing

We reviewed C-2 definitions today during our walks and meals, and some of it seems to have paid off. We definitely did better at Darryl's workshop tonight and had more fun. We had seven squares on the floor, but only three couples from our C-2 class were there.

Speaking of our walks, we were back to bundling up again as we faced a cold north wind. We saw lots of other people out braving the cold, having dragged out their heavy winter coats and hats and gloves. Read more!

Sunshine!

We had a bit of a respite from the arctic weather today. The high was around 77, and we actually got to see some sunshine in the afternoon, enough to tempt us over to the pool and hot tub. We watched -the water volleyball game, always good-natured fun.

Tonight we watched an episode of Masterpiece Contemporary we had recorded. It was a spy thriller featuring Johnny Worricker, a character we haven't met before. The third episode was recorded tonight, so now we have two waiting for us. Worricker is a complex character but hard to warm up to.

I talked with Carol this evening. She had sent me some photos that Andy took during his visit to Tyler this weekend.

Christine sang in her high school's performance of Oklahoma! She is trying out for a Christmas musical and for All Area (she made All Region).

Sam finally fell asleep on the sofa after an exhausting day of playing.

Dick and Carol

We are chipping away at our paperwork backlog--mainly health insurance related. We'll be dancing again tomorrow evening, so we'll have to continue reviewing the C-2 call definitions. That's a good thing to do while walking. Read more!

Tree Trimming

No, we're not about to decorate for Christmas, despite the in your face displays in all the stores. We'll save our Christmas celebrations for after Thanksgiving, thank you very much. However, we still have those trees to trim, or maybe lop. We'll definitely need our loppers to work on our citrus trees. They all have a plethora of fruit, and they've grown unbelievably since we left in the spring. It's a good thing our two neighbors have not yet returned to the Valley, so we have time to trim our unruly trees back from their property.

Jan and Steve's tangelo tree is ripening and looks to have a bumper crop. Steve picked a few for us. We got to see the work in progress on their trailer. Steve took up the bedroom carpet and replaced it with wood to match what he put in the living room last year. Jan is his go-fer, and both of them complained that everything takes them longer than it used to. They've been working on this project for a while. Steve does meticulous work, and it all looks great.

We went grocery shopping and to Costco, with a stop along the way for Ken to check out what's on offer at Best Buy. Somehow the day just flew by. Read more!

Happy Birthday Hardy and Pat

We went to Schneider's German Gasthaus & Bier Garten in McAllen tonight to celebrate Hardy's and Pat's birthdays (Hardy's today and Pat's next week). The dinner was delicious, but even better was getting together with our friends after a summer apart: Hardy and Judy, Steve and Jan, and Bob and Pat. Hardy has now officially caught up with Judy in celebrating the big 70.

Earlier today we went to Darryl's C-2 Concept Dance. We've been reviewing call definitions, but not enough, evidently. We were definitely struggling and needed lots of help. Hardy and Judy are supportive and assured us that we are doing well, but we're certainly not doing as well as we'd like. Read more!

Back in the Valley

We took our morning walk at Lake Corpus Christi State Park, bundled up from head to foot and complaining about the cold. The only good thing about walking in cold weather is that we walk faster. I guess the exercise helps to warm us up. We saw three small deer bounding across the road ahead of us. At first we both thought we were seeing dogs.

When we left the park, we drove to nearby Alice for fuel and food. Then we turned south on US 281. Our route south with low mesquite along the roadway has become familiar. This is our eighth trip south to the RGV, our winter home. We look forward to seeing McAllen's "Welcome Winter Texans" sign. Another clue that we are nearing the Rio Grande Valley is the first Border Patrol car we see. We are looking forward to seeing all our friends.

Tonight we attended the first show in the McAllen Community Concert 2014-15 season. Here's how the show is described:

Certified Gold & GRAMMY nominated Alex DePue and Miguel DeHoyos are leading the world as a renowned violinist/fiddler duo.  They lead us through an array of styles – Classical, Bluegrass, Rock – with blazing virtuosity and emotion.
Each is a successful solo artist and their duo credits include an appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra and as feature entertainers with the International Bluegrass Music Association.
Their concert is supercharged, highly accessible, and filled with genre-crossing repertoire.  As one concert-goer described the event: it was an   evening of high-flying fingerboard pyrotechnics!.

These two musicians are highly talented and entertaining. The audience really enjoyed the show.

We saw Hardy and Judy and Sue and Arnie and our seatmates, Bill and Bev. I'm sure many of our other friends were there also. It's good to be back, and tomorrow we'll be square dancing again. We've been reviewing definitions, and I hope we'll do okay--with a little help from our friends.

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Chilly Day

As you can see, we are not used to cold weather, so we've bundled up for our walks. This morning we walked to the Catfish Cove camping loop, where we spotted a trailhead.

Of course we decided to take the trail to see where it went. We did get a couple of views of the lake.

The Open Road in the site next to us belongs to a work-camping couple, the Wheelers. We found their DirecTV dish in a strange juxtaposition with their wagon wheel and cattle skull and horseshoe name sign. The Old West meets the 21st century!

We finally completed our comparison of the Medicare Plan D plans available to us and made a selection to go with Cigna-HealthSpring Rx Secure-Xtra. Signing up for the plan took a long phone call each and lots of legalese, but it's done, at least for this year. Yay! Read more!

Back at Lake Corpus Christi State Park

This morning we enjoyed the 70° weather for our walk around the park. Then we headed south to Lake Corpus Christi State Park. We were here, in the same site, #41, in November 2012. Today we were looking forward to enjoying some sunshine and blue skies hiking in the park, but the actual weather is not so inviting. We aren't complaining, mind you, because we realize that we could be somewhere with snow and wind chills of -20°.



We bundled up for our walk, but not enough. Next time I'm wearing my gloves!

Tonight we watched an episode of How We Got to Now: Cold. It was fascinating and entertaining. One idea was especially salient, the notion that ideas aren't independent entities but instead spring from a network of other ideas that all come together at some point to make a new invention possible, if not actually inevitable. Also, people who have new ideas generally have what Steven Johnson calls "slow hunches," ideas that develop over time.

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Heading South

We are heading south, and just in time. Freezing weather is coming. It won't be much warmer when we get to the Valley than it will be in Lufkin during the day, but while Lufkin will have freezing weather Thursday night, the Valley is forecast to have lows in the 40s. Still colder than we like.

We drove south on Hwy 59 today, right through Houston, where we ran into lots of traffic. We're going on tomorrow to Lake Corpus Christi State Park, where we've stayed twice before.

This park looks pretty nice, but we can tell we're in Texas. The manager had to put poison on several fire ant nests on our site, and when we went walking, we had to be careful to dodge the ant nests scattered in the grass. Still it was a nice day, and lots of friendly folks greeted and talked with us as we walked. Read more!