Village day - Future forecast

What a beautiful day. Sunny and the high of 89 degrees. Perfect day for our Walk Through the Village day here at Retama - more on that later.

So earlier today I thought I'd check the weather for the rest of the week. The weather site had a "Public Information Statement", figure it was another high fire danger. Not!!

My first hint that this was not going to be good was

... Freezing temperatures expected later this week...

What the h@@@ is this. As I read more and more of this statement I was really not liking it.

Words like

rapidly plunge - frigid cold temperatures

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
81° F | 61° F	77° F | 36° F	49° F | 29° F	43° F | 29° F	52° F | 34° F

Now is this the type of weather Larry and I drive 1800 miles to be in. I don't think so. We are not happy with this forecast and are only hoping that the powers above take pity on all these old people in the valley that can't take this cold and keep the front back up north where it should be. I only have one word for this - well actually I have lots of wordsbut can't be used here

So back to the Walk Through the Village. Each year the developer opens the village up to the public to tour the facilities and the residents who would like too open their coach house, homes or casita's for people to see can join in. Of course you can't have this type of thing and not have free food which always brings the crowds. So here's a couple of pictures from today.


Here's a picture of Bonnie and Gails coach house


And here's Tom and Gayles Casita home


Did I mention that there were some special guests from a local establishment. Can you guess

where they are from.

So all in all it was a nice day even with looking at the weather forecast. Tonight we will enjoy sleeping with the windows open and pull out the heaters later on.

Till next time............................................

Basketball -- No voice -- Mexico

How can four days go by so fast when you don't really do anything. I'm sitting here trying to remember what we did the last few days and we either have been pretty lazy or I'm loosing it. Of the two I guess I'll op for the lazy part.

Days have been fairly decent, at least in the 60's and more sun than clouds. But come 4/4:30 it really cools off fast and gets down in the 40's at night. Better than what northerners are having but I so want my 80's back.

Sunday is a total blank. I'm sure we did something before happy hour at Jack/Danielle's but all I can see is basketball floating in my brain. Daa do you think that may be why the day is blank.

Monday we made a trip up to Walmart for a few things. I had purchased a ham the other day and figured it was a good day to put it in the roaster on low. In the afternoon I realized there was enough ham to last us a week so at the last minute invited Jack/Danielle & Donna/Grant over for dinner. Nice simple meal but was good.

That night I started getting a sore throat and pop a good shot of NyQuil. The next day I didn't have a sore throat but I also didn't have much of a voice, which some people in this household probably enjoyed. I could talk but it was more like a squeak.

Today the voice was mostly back and we decided to go to Mexico with Donna and Grant. It's the first time going there this year since we had to wait for our passport renewals. The papers here all say the count is down on people crossing over and we could see the streets weren't as busy. In the pass there would be about six blocks to shop along with vendors. This year people are staying within the first two blocks and there wasn't near as many winter Texans walking around.
In fact Larry/Grant walked down to this leather store that was a huge place. Larry wanted to get a new wallet, but the store was closed up. To bad as that store had every type of leather clothing you could want.

So guess that fills you in. Welcome: Escalon CA, New London MN, Bedfore TX, Clearwater FL and Scottsdale AZ. Till next time..................................

Mexican Dinner, Kitchen Ideas

Saturday started out with a whole lot of frost on the pumpkins or should I say the palm trees. The temperature kind of slipped lower than any of the weather people predicted so some of the pretty flowers around here may have been hit hard.

Larry's cold has really zapped him. He pretty much slept all day. He feels bad that he hasn't been able to get back over to Grants to help on the project but he wouldn't be much help this way. Hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow.
I decided it would be a good morning to take all the things I've been collecting on house ideas and get them organized and put in a binder. Pictures of window treatments, paint colors, flooring, sinks etc. Luckily Larry was sleeping while I was doing this as I'm sure there would have been some comments on the number of ideas I have. Especially those that will probably require his talents when it comes to the use of saws, hammers, nail guns, etc.

We got the sample of cork flooring that I ordered this week and I put it with the back splash and paint samples I'm thinking of using.

So for the ladies out there as I know the guys could care less here's a picture of my samples.

The cork flooring is Cherry, the kitchen cabinets are a maple with a light finish stain called Cider (sorry no picture), the glass tiles (back-splash) are a mixture of greens and cream and I've picked two colors for painting. The wainscoting in the eating area will be the darker color (left side of sample), the rest of the walls will be the lightest green (right side of sample) and the ceiling a cream color.

Remember the corner bench seat under the windows I talked about in a previous blog. Well I'm thinking of making the bench seat a deep choc brown and than have large pillows on the back.

And maybe spice it up with a splash of orange like this along with solid browns and creams.

So ends the decorating segment. Keep in mind that I may totally change my mind on everything, except the cabinets as those are already purchased and sitting in the living room. One of the benefits of having six months to think about these things is you can second guess before purchasing.

OK so tonight I left Larry home (ya I know, leave the poor guy when he's sick but hey he was sleeping) and went up to the clubhouse for a Mexican Dinner. This was a donation dinner to collect $$ for some additional Christmas Decorations next year. The volunteers did a great job on preparing the food and setting things up. Last count on the sign up sheet listed 160 people. It was out on the patio and even tho it turned out to be a beautiful day it really cooled off quick (60 degrees) about the time it started. Everyone was bundled up in coats but they all seem to be having a good time.

While cleaning out a cupboard in the living room this morning (another task while waiting for it to warm up) I came across the anniversary card that some friends gave us. Donna and Grant found it on their travels last summer and it couldn't of been a more perfect card.

I guess that's it for tonight. Oh while sitting at Jack and Danielle Mayers this afternoon Jack asked why I quit welcoming new readers and where they are from. Guess there's no good reason so I'll pick it up again.

Welcome and thanks for stopping by: Shreveport LA, Burleson TX, Garland TX, Seminole FL, Mesa AZ and Easton PA.

Till next time...............................................

Not much happening

Guess I shouldn't have bragged about the warm temperatures in the last blog. Got bit in the butt on that one. This morning it's in the mid 30's and guess what - one of my heaters didn't work when I got up at 1 am to turn it on. It's the one I keep in the bathroom and has all the safety gadgets. The other one I never leave on during the night. So I turned both furnaces on and attempted to fall back to sleep, which didn't happen. So light on and read my book until Larry got up around 5:30.

Border Patrol was busy this morning. Helicopter was circling in the field across the road from us. Can't see much with the trailers there but they were after someone. If the illegals just crossed the river in these temperatures I bet they are freezing.

Larry and Grant are still working on Grants trailer. Hopefully they will be able to finish up soon. Larry got a little too close to Grant and caught his cold. So he took a shot of NyQuil that helped him sleep last night. But he has the cough that seems to come with this cold and it hangs on forever.

Went out for coffee with Marilynn and Linda the other day. Than a stop at Walmart and Target with closing the trip off with a hot pretzel. Not sure where you are but have you noticed the quality of items at Target has really gone down hill in the last couple of years. When we first started coming down here Target was "the" place to shop, but not anymore. About the only thing it has going for it is Starbucks.

Didn't do happy hour last night. Just to windy and temp was dropping. Did go up to my Tia Chi class at 5pm.

Had my annual poke and prods yesterday at the Dr's. When we were at Walmart the day before we all did the blood pressure test there. Their readings were all in the normal range for them, not sure who's arm that machine was testing but it sure wasn't mine. Showed I was 126/70, I have never had any where's near that high. So when the nurse did mine yesterday I was very interested in the numbers. Came back at 100/70 which is normal for me.

So guess that's it for now. The sun is up but it doesn't look very warm out there. Going to be a sweat shirt day. Till next time....................................

Warmer days, bike ride in the park

Our warm weather has returned which means people are out and about again. Five days without sun and cold temperature sure keeps people inside. The mornings have really been foggy the last few days.

Here's looking out our window down the street.

Larry finished the repair job on the slide. He said he has to do some adjustment as the slide isn't coming in exactly right but the padding and carpet is back and he put the black plastic up underneath the outside so this is good. FYI - I did help today even tho there were a few times the tension was a little high. I'm thinking and I'm pretty sure Larry will agree that in doing these types of jobs it's better to go back to our old way of a neighbor coming over to help and I go shopping.

Once he finished he went over to help Grant work on his project which is about the same as we had. Only Grants problem was in the wall instead of the floor. Hopefully they will be able to finish it in the next couple of days.

The Bentsen State Park officially re-opened last weekend so we took our first bike ride through the park with Gary and Marilynn. The main road was clear but the Boat & Kayaking Ramp still is closed.

These guys seem to like having their picture taken.
But this guy wasn't interested.

There's still a lot of work to be done inside the Park. The walking trails are all still closed and there's lots of brush/limbs along the bike path. While riding there was kind of a nasty smell, probably from everything being in standing water for so long.

Larry got his Drivers License Extension last Saturday so he's good until the end of June. Luckily when we go up and get his this spring I'll be able to get mine at the same time. Than we're good for 5 years.

We also got our Passport Cards today. We ordered the cards instead of the passports, much easier to keep in our wallets. There's a electronic strip type thing on them so we have to keep them inside this cover they sent. I guess these strips can be scanned while a person is standing by you unless their inside this cover. So hopefully soon we'll be able to make a trip to Mexico.

Guess that's it for tonight. Getting reports from Michigan family that they had freezing rain last night and below zero temp's coming at them. Brother Bob was kind enough to mention sending me a picture of a snow blower, ah no thanks some things you never forget. Till next time....

It's Back

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

SUNNY

LIGHT BREEZE

TEMPERATURE 71 DEGREES

HEAT INDEX 76 DEGREE

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LIFE IS GOOD AGAIN

Trip to the mall - cold bug - kitchen ideas

Friday: I know cabin/trailer fever is getting to Larry when he agrees to go to the mall. He did have a motive, needed to find some new shoes but he couldn't find the ones he wanted in his size so we just had a good walk around. Lunch was at the food court which is like every mall food court in the country. Over priced and just ok food. But it was nice getting outside the park for a few hours and by the looks of all the white hair sitting at tables in the court a lot of other people had the same idea.

Happy hour that night was at Dave and Sue McCarron who have a nice stick and bricks home here. I think everyone was ready to get out and see people as it kind of extended pass our hour time frame. The group hasn't been together since Monday so there was lots to talk about.

Saturday: The start of a cold hit me last night so took a good shot of NyQuil and slept really good. Felt better this morning but decided I'd better stay away from the breakfast at the clubhouse this morning, especially working around food. Other than tired and ache all over I don't feel that bad. Hopefully one more shot of NyQuil tonight will knock it out of me.

So the day was spent sitting on the sofa. Did some ancestry stuff and spent a lot of time searching for idea's for the new house. Our kitchen is small with a small eating area at the end with corner windows. So I've been thinking about putting a corner bench instead of the usual table and chairs.

This is a picture of the eating area in our kitchen.

As you can see it's rather small so trying to put a table and 4 chairs there would just make it look smaller.

So I was thinking of something like this, only not quite so big.

The bench seat would go in the corner under the windows and that would leave enough room for a chair on the other side. Since we are wains-coating the wall in that area Larry could make the bench with the wains-coating along the front. Than all I have to do is con my sister in law Diane who is a wonderful seamstress to make me the bench pad and pillows.

The room/table/chair will be painted in greens, just haven't decided the exact shades yet. And of course a new floor, which we're thinking of putting a cork floor down - that's a different blog.

And maybe white plantation shutters for the windows.

So that's the plan, at least for today. I've found in the last two houses we built I pretty much stayed with the first idea I had but we shall see. Still have a long time before the construction of the bench would begin. Larry seems to think he has other things that need to be taken care of before we think about doing this. Course the "other" things are generated from my idea of changing the locations of the sink and stove in the kitchen. But I at least left the refrigerator in the same spot. Could be worse, I haven't put a whole lot of thought into the bathroom - yet!!!!

Another cloudy, rainy day but at least warmed up to 60. They say one more day before the sun returns, sure hope so, enough of this winter weather.

Till next time...........................................

We had a Field Trip

OK, enough already. Wind chill all day in the 30's. Everyone's pretty much staying inside and when they do venture outside they look like they are wearing every piece of clothing they own.

Wednesday was a pretty busy day. The monthly ladies luncheon started at noon with the meal consisting of salads. Now at the last luncheon having a all salad meal sounded really good. Of course it was in the high 80's that day. Lets just say it would have been a better soup day, but everything was good.

Here's a couple of pictures.

We had a little entertainment from a group of folks that practice Dulcemer Jam here every Wednesday afternoon. They really were good and we even had a couple of sing a long's while they played. I tried to download the video so you could hear our lovely voices but couldn't get it to work. You'll just have to take my word for it.


That afternoon we boarded a bus for a trip over to South Padre Island to watch the Vipers Basketball Team.

Here's some of the folks waiting for the bus.

Notice all the red t-shirts

It was really nice being picked up at our park and enjoying Happy Hour heading down the highway.

Also included was dinner at Port Isabel at the Pirates Landing. Larry and I both had the chicken strips and they were really good. The whole restaurant was pretty much full of Winter Texans from all along the RGV and all in bright red t-shirts. This is where I realized my batteries were dead, so no more pictures

Soon it was time to leave and drive over the causeway to the Convention Center where our driver gave us front door drop off.

Causeway crossing from Port Isabel to South Padre
(again from online)
Causeway is 2.5 miles long

Here is a picture of the mascot (found on line) and some of the people from our park. If the picture would of been one more inch to the left we would of been in it.

Sure is funny how fast a game can be over when you don't have any commercials. And how small the courts look in real person. But the game was good and our team won.

It was pretty quiet on the drive back to the park. All these old people can't party like we use to. There were a few soft voices and every now and than you could hear a snore. Gee what do you expect, it was after midnight when we got back to the park. The streets here are pretty much rolled up by 8PM. I'm sure the people who were in bed really liked us getting back so late. Even the dogs in the park aren't use to any noise after dark so with over 50 people unloading and talking that really set them off.

Thursday was another quiet day. I had a hair cut appointment this morning than had to run to the Dollar Store. Later in the afternoon David/Linda stopped over and pretty soon Gary/Marilynn knocked on the door. At least with six bodies inside it warmed the house up a little more.

Till next time..............................................

Short and simple

currently 42 degrees
wind chill 38 degrees
cloudy
rainy
long range forecast for this week - Yuck!!!!!!

Enough said

Trailer Repair

They say you have the same kind of homeowners repairs whether it's a stick and bricks home or a home on wheels. Well Larry started on a project yesterday that I can truthfully say I've never seen done on a house. But lets back up a couple of days to fill you in on why he started this adventure. Mark Bruss was over the other day and while he was sitting in the rocking chair Larry noticed each time he rocked back the floor would go down. This is not a good thing when your sitting on the slide of the trailer. But than I guess it wouldn't be a good thing to see know matter where this happened.

Later Larry took the trim strip off on the outside and found what he was afraid he would find. Dry rot. Not good. The next day he pulled the carpet up and found the flooring in the back corner was pretty much rotted. Luckily we don't put anything heavy in the corner. The rocking chair is there but it's very seldom used. After trying to figure out the best way to remove the floor we ended up with this.

Possibly a new type of air conditioner

Or maybe a new fire exit in the trailer

Thanks to our great neighbor Grant I didn't have to get to involved in this project. After a trip to Lowes early this morning and Grant and Larry working all day we now have a safe floor. I'm just glad they got the floor back in. There's suppose to be a big change in weather tonight and highs for the next three days around 50 degrees. After being in the 80's almost every day we are not looking forward to this. Sorry, got off the subject.

As I said Grant and Larry worked almost all day on this thing, even during happy hour. Since HH (happy hour) was at our place everyone got to see the hole before they put the new floor in. They did finish up and sat with the group for the last half of the HH. Larry said that just the way things were covered up the water damage was done some time ago and a patch work was done to hide it. OK, so now he wants to let it set a couple of days before putting the rug back on.

Tomorrow he will go back over to Grants and they will get back to his project. They too had a water leak last year and took it into a RV Repair place in Elkhart IN. Seems the repair place either didn't know what they were doing or didn't care but Grants project is in the side wall of their slide. They had to take out part of the wall and had to wait while it dried out before doing what ever they have to do.

We (or I should say I'm) so lucky that Larry is able to fix these problems. I can't imagine what the cost would be if we had to take it in to a repair shop and than maybe not get done what you think your getting. Not to mention we would of had to find some place to stay while it was being fixed.

So that's it for today. Hopefully the guys can get Grants project done in the next couple of days.
Till next time.......................................

Life has slowed down

Saturday: Our 1st full day of 2011 was a quiet relaxing day. We went up to the Clubhouse to the breakfast at 10am. It was later than normal, I think they figured people would sleep in. Anyway it was a nice serving of Western Omelet, potatoes and coffee cake for $3. We were having dinner with Gary/Marilynn & David/Linda that night so I fixed a cheese potato casserole. It was a simple dinner with each of us bringing our own steaks a dish and some really good wine.

Sunday: The excitement of the day was going over to McAllen Airport and picking Bill & Kathy up. They spent the holidays back in Canada with family and even tho they had a great time they were glad to get back to these temperatures. Along with a lot of other people here Larry spent time in front of the TV watching all the MSU games. And also like a lot of other people he was pretty disappointed on these games. This is not my observation, this is from listing to the guys talk about it on street corners and happy hour.

That afternoon while we were sitting behind the trailer we saw a flat bed trailer go down the road with a Class C on the back. The first sign of something wrong was we could see straight through the trailer. I guess while the people who owned it were at the State Park it caught on fire. They were from Canada and of course everything they have was in the Class C. We rode our bikes over to the parking lot and found the large black area that told us where the vehicle was parked. Can't imagine walking back to where you parked and find it basically gone when your so far away from home.

Monday: Quiet day with doing laundry. It was our night to have happy hour and our group is starting to get rather big. There were two other couples that arrived over the weekend so that brought our happy hour group up to 18.

Tuesday: Went to a class today that I've never done. One of the woman here is a Certified teacher of Tai Chi Chih which is a series of 19 movements with one pose. It was an interesting and different way of doing exercise in a slow and easy movement.

With the holidays over things have slowed down to a nice quiet pace. Construction here in the complex is moving right along and with that it means new people. There are so many that I don't know but hopefully will meet them soon. If your interested in seeing and reading about the development click on Bentsen Palm and check it out.

Guess that's it for now. Till next time..........................................