Catching up

Last week on Tuesday, we were invited to Lizzie's house for our annual get together.
The nurses that I worked with before I retired were there along with Joann, who was our boss for a time. Charlie, who works for the radiologists was there also.
Sandy, Charlie, and I brought our spouses, so there was a nice crowd. It was a nice time.
Liz & Harry want to come see the new rig, but getting our schedules together is not an easy thing.
There have been some maintenance issues here at the park and I have been able to get in some hours. The issues aren't bad, easily repaired, but my presence keeps the owner from having to deal with these problems along with all of the maintenance at the other park.

Saturday, Stan from Camperland came by and gave a talk about plumbing and other subjects concerning RV's. He has a lot of years experience, and helped with some problems in the various rigs here in the park, including us. Very nice to have some help fixing problems with our coaches.

Monday, I had jury duty in Livingston. Since we don't actually live in Polk county, I tried to get released. I guess that I didn't plead my case very well as I was there for the whole day.
Polk county only picks one jury pool per week for the trials that week. If you are not picked for a panel in the morning you have to come back in the afternoon.
If you are picked for a panel in the morning, and aren't placed on the jury, then you have to return in the afternoon. I had about 4 hours between my visits to the court house, so I went to Rainbows End, the Escapees headquarters.
I had never been through the whole park and I was amazed at the size of the place. There are a lot of permanent homes here, with RV ports.
I was picked for a panel in the afternoon, but was released just before 5pm. I was not picked for the jury and they had to return on Wednesday for the trial. This is so different from Harris county, where 2 jury pools are pulled each day for trials that start that day.
Brenda didn't go up there with me. We are glad, she would have been bored to tears.

Brenda has been stuffing Rayford Crossing package bags for the Houston RV Show. She has stuffed 2900 bags so far. The owners want 4000 for this show and 4000 for the show that they are going to in Albuquerque, NM in March.
This is tedious work, but Brenda enjoys it. Normally she sits in the office all day and just answers the phone. This gives her something to do. She is really busy on the first of the month collecting the rents.

We are planning to go over to Brinda and Tommy's house on February 6th for dinner. Cyndi and her husband will join us. We haven't seen either of them since last year. We try to get together at least once while we are in town.

I have been doing some minor repairs on the coach. It seems no matter the age of the rig, there is always something to do, especially if you live in it.

Ta ta for now.

Getting warm again

It is supposed to be 68 degrees today and only 56 tonight. It sounds good . I plan to work on the basement of the MH today.
Since the cold snap we have gone through 4 20# bottles of propane. The heaters on RV's are not very efficient due to the need for exchange of oxygen in the unit, so a lot of the heat goes outside of the heater.

We had several site water pipes break during this cold spell. All were fixed fairly easily and the insulation was changed and repaired when the pipes were fixed. Otherwise we got through without mishaps.

We met Ted and Donna for dinner at Luby's on Thursday. Ted had had his yearly esophogoscopy and all was well. This is great news since his first encounter 2 years ago.
We really enjoyed our visit. We both have been busy, so we haven't seen each other for several weeks.

On Friday, Mike and Sally from Michigan came back to the park. We had them in for dinner and a night of Pegs and Jokers. We had a wonderful time visiting.
Sally is up to her old tricks. She and Brenda beat Mike and me 3 out of 5 games. We couldn't beat them at all last year. I just couldn't win. A little better this year.

We went over to my sister's house for dinner last night. We had an "Uncle Da" meal.
Tony is a very talented cook. His specialty is Italian and I have never had a bad meal.
He fixed Putanesca, which is one of my favorite Italian meals. His recipe is so good and he puts his magic touch on it.

We have just about 6 weeks left here, then onto Rockport for 2 weeks, then onto Mike's for about 3 months.
We plan to leave in late June and head for the Seattle area. We plan to work up there and still be close to the kids.
We haven't decided where we will 'winter' next year, but, we still have lots of time.
Finding a job in the Seattle area is first priority. We are looking.

Ta ta for now.

It is cold here, too

It was 12 degrees on our thermometer yesterday morning. It was cold enough for long enough to put a light freeze on the well pump.
The owners of the park have asked that we turn the water off to the park at night because of mother nature. So, when I went to turn the water back on yesterday morning there was no pressure in the tank. The pump finally thawed enough to give us pressure. The pressure didn't last long though, as a stand pipe, where the hose bib is at one of the sites froze then broke.
The temperature on Friday never got above freezing, and with the unusually low temp Sat. morning, things froze up pretty good.
As I said, this is unusual weather. We lived in this area for 26 years, before I retired, and I don't remember the temperature dipping this low. The weather guessers said this is the worst winter in 25 years.

A number of people left the park just after the first of the year, so, with the sites empty, it gave me an opportunity to clean up some of the sites. They do look better and I found some electrical problems that will have to be dealt with by the owners.
I am very happy as this gives me some things to do here and get a few hours.
The first of the month is always busy for Brenda, collecting the rent and keeping the books straight.
While the kids were here we went to the Battleship Texas. We all had a great time Lindsay really seemed to enjoy the ship.Becky said that, just out of the blue, Lindsay said that she really had a good time in Texas.
She is such a special kid. There is no prejudice, just fact.
I was in the Navy in the 60's, and I thought that life on the ship was difficult, but, after looking at this ship, we had it made. We had dormitory type compartments with bunks stacked up to four high, but these guys were in the passageway. Our bunks had a curtain to give us some semblance of privacy, these guys were just out there.
We had a chow hall, these guys set up a table in the bunk area, went and got their food and ate in the passageway.
The ship is under constant maintenance, so there are workers all over the ship.
The day we were aboard, they were practicing safely removing an injured worker from the superstructure.
They had put him on a back board, then placed him in a Stokes stretcher, which is a wire basket molded in the shape of a reclining person. He was secured with straps and lowered to the deck.
The Stokes stretcher has been a mainstay of the Navy for many years. I used them when I was in the Navy.

It is cold again this morning, 18.5, so we will turn the water back on after we come back from church. Hopefully there won't be any surprises this morning.

Speaking of church, I must stop and get ready to leave, so.......

Ta ta for now.

Holidays with the kids

Alas the kids are back in Monroe. We had a wonderful 11 days with them and thoroughly enjoyed their visit.
They had not been here for Christmas for 10 years and we have not been with them for Christmas since 2003 for Lindsay's first Christmas, when we went up there.
They rented a cabin at Rayford and we were in our rig in site #1 just across from them, how convenient.

We spent Christmas at my sister's home. We had decided that gift giving would be just for the children and they had a ball. Val and Tony's 2 granddaughters who live here, Chris and Linda's 2 children who live here, and Lindsay were the recipients of many and varied gifts.
Becky had to ship Lindsay's gifts home because there were too many to pack for the flight.

Several years ago, we broke with tradition concerning Christmas dinner. Instead of turkey and/or ham, we now bring steaks to cook on the grill and all of the condiments. We still have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner so we decided that this would be different and something special for our family.

Val got sick with nausea and vomiting Saturday, so we spent some time together alone.
Tony was supposed to fix an 'Uncle Da' meal on Monday night, but Val still was not feeling well so that was postponed until New Years Eve.

On Monday, Becky, Fred, Lindsay Brenda and I drove up to Brenham for a tour of the Blue Bell Creamery. The tour was nice and the tasting room was very well stocked with most of their flavors.
Before we went on the tour, Becky asked us to come outside to take a video of our adventure to the creamery. As we went outside Becky was filming our exit from the door, when to both Brenda's and my surprise Heather walked up. She was not supposed to be able to get off for any part of the holidays, so this was a great surprise. Brenda was so exited and I was thrilled to see her. Becky and Heather had cooked this up in October and only Fred was aware of their plans.
Heather stayed for 3 days and we got spend some good time with her.

Tuesday we all went to see the Battleship Texas. The whole experience was so enjoyable. Lindsay really seemed to enjoy the self guided tour, as we all did. The only down was that it began to rain a cold rain with a brisk wind. When we were on the deck or superstructure it became pretty miserable,

We spent New Years at Val and Tony's home again. This was prearranged with Becky and Tony, so we were unable to go to the New Year bash at Rayford. We also needed a babysitter for Lindsay.

We moved the MH back to Timber Ridge and Fred got to ride in it. He never rode in the Southwind, so this was a treat for him.
He was also very helpful in helping me back this beast into a spot. The wheel base is longer than on the Southwind, and I haven't mastered backing this in without some guidance.
I cannot see the left rear wheels, so I have a difficult time determining exactly where the wheels are.

Brenda and I want to wish a happy and prosperous New Year to all of those who follow our blog.

Ta ta for now