Stormy weather and Cajun food

Saturday it stormed as predicted so Peter's game was cancelled. Evelyn, Stacy, and Olivia went to a breakfast for Daughters of the King. I suppose it was at their church. Tom picked up Peter, and I dumped e-mails and wrote three days worth of blogs. We spent most of the day inside and after lunch guess what. Right! When we came back in we began preparing crawfish etouffee. I can say we because I had the job of chopping two large onions, half a bell pepper, scallion tops, and parsley. Evelyn made the etoufee, and we used the crawfish we had brought from Louisiana. We had boudin on some melba toast as an appetizer. We have been trying to drink up the beer bought for Tom's group party consisting of mostly people of foreign origin. Stacy had tried to get beer that they might be familiar with and no one drank any! As a gesture of friendship and responsibility, I have been trying to help in the consumption of the unwanted excess. :-) After the gourmet dinner, we watched The Incredibles. It was very entertaining and had a scene involving an RV. The entire family hooted and hollered, making sport of our lifestyle. Even with all this activity, we get to bed quite early. Tomorrow is the time to thank God for the marvelously coushy lives we lead and the forgiveness He so freely bestows on us.

On the road again

We are off. We helped with breakfast and turn-over at Stonecroft and then readied ourselves for travel. The wonderful cooks gave us food for several days to take with us. After the guests leave, the staff is served lunch consisting of left overs from other meals. What is left over from that is thrown away. There is usually quite a bit so we took some with us. We have rosemary chicken breasts, roast beef, chuckwagon corn and potato salad. We didn't get away until 2:00 but made good time to Poplar Bluff where we stayed in a Wal-Mart that had not opened yet. It had been a beautiful travel day.
We left Poplar Bluff around 8:00 and drove to Sikeston where we learned that Lambert's had changed locations. We didn't get to the new one but with all the food we have, it is just as well. We went on across both the Mississippi River and then the Ohio. Both bridges are narrow and two lane. Jesus in His mercy kept us from having to pass more than two trucks on just one of the bridges. That is a tense time for me. Motor homes are wide, and I always worry about hitting the right side of the bridge, not the trucks. Shortly after lunch it began to rain, and we seemed to be right in the core because it rained the rest of the day. We drove to Calhoun GA where we spent the night in the rain.
Thursday the weather cleared and we arose at 9:00 their time (we had changed time zones) and had a clear day of driving. We arrived at our daughter Stacy's around 11:00, took a walk (it is quite hilly here) and had lunch. Stacy and Tom were flying back from Cleveland where they had attended a memorial service for one of Tom's mentors from his youth. While we waited, we took a nap. They arrived around 2:30, and we had a nice visit with them because the kids were still in school. Olivia came home, but Peter was at a birthday party and planned to spend the night. We came to see him in a baseball game, but the prediction was for rain tomorrow. We had a nice dinner of bratwurst and potato salad (even better than that we have from Stoncroft) and salad. They have many imported beers left from an international party they hosted for Bell South employees. We will try to finish them off in the next few days.

Work and play

Up early again. When I waken, I don't dare look to see what the time is or what happened will happen. It was 5:47 when I looked and sleep was over. We showered and went to work breakfast. The volunteers are short on women so some men had to fill in. It was my turn today. I had virtually nothing to do before breakfast which featured Belgian waffles with blueberry topping. Afterward I cleaned garbage from the tables, wiped chairs, ran a little non electric vacuum, and helped set the tables for tonight. We finished and took off for Branson because the group here had gone to shows and no lunch was served. Evelyn wanted to shop at "Dressin' Gaudy", a store where some of the costumes from the entertainment shows are sold among other clothing. The prices were good so she bought some things We went to the IMAX theater and saw "Nascar" and "Australia, Land Beyond Time". The first was very good but the second was a disappointment. Not that it was not good but that it was only about the outback. We wanted to see something about Sidney since we will be going there. We hurried back to help with pre dinner preparations. There was a cook out scheduled, but the cold, windy, rainy weather forced it inside. The chicken was still cooked out in the pavilion because it was to be grilled chicken. It was good as usual. After dinner and clean up, we went back and went to bed early. We have a long two day's drive ahead of us and, we will leave after lunch tomorrow.

Geezers on the run!

What a day for geezers! We were up at 5:45 A.M. so we could get to our stations by 7:00. Of course this was far too early to rise and we were early to work. There is always something to do so we helped a little. Then came the real work of serving breakfast and cleaning up. Evelyn always resets the tables and cleans floors. I have different assignments. This morning I was to put the dishes away as they passed through the dish sanitizer. Our breakfast featured western eggs--scrambled eggs and a topping of sausage, onion, bell pepper and spices. We finished our work at 9:30 and immediately returned to bed for an hour's nap. It was then up again and back to the kitchen. Lunch was pasta and meat balls. I was in the second position this time and had to rinse the dishes washed by the number 1 position. I then put them on trays and sent them through the sanitizer. I am slow at the first two positions, but we finished around 1:30, just in time for another nap. This stuff wears geezers out. Back for dinner where I carried food to the buffet line and helped clean tables and deliver dishes to the kitchen. When finished, I helped return the plates and bowls to the buffet line for tomorrow morning. As a bonus, we were assigned to work at the snack bar from 7:00 to about 9:30. We had to serve snacks and then clean up for tomorrow. Tomorrow will be an interesting day. More on that tomorrow. I had an opportunity to talk with the cook regarding a statement he had made the day before concerning altar calls. He implied that one could not know he was saved had he not gone forward to receive salvation. We got that straightened out and agreed that we were saved by Jesus when He died on the cross. We also agreed that one has to accept that forgiveness in his heart. I know we would not agree that one has to decide to be saved. Of course I believe that the salvation is truly a gift from God to us. He decided to save us, and we just accept the gift. Does this sound confusing? The cook and I also talked food, and he had never heard of boudin so we gave him a link to taste. Well, I have to go. Work begins at 7:30 A.M.

Worship in the theater

We didn't hear the alarm and slept until 8:30. It was really no problem because I had thought we might return to Branson for a gospel sing at the Grand Theater. It started at 10:00, and we made it right on time. The place was nowhere near full, but neither were any of the other shows we had attended. It was a very Spiritual service and had a pretty good message. I was somewhat surprised to learn that it was an actual church that presented it. The music was show quality. The highlight was the singing of "It is Well with my Soul". The reason is that we actually sang the third verse: "My sin. O, the joy of this glorious thought; my sin, not in part but the whole, was nailed to the cross and I bear it no more! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O, my soul." The astounding thing is that most people skip the third verse in any hymn, if they are going to skip one. This verse, however, is the Gospel verse, the one that should never be skipped. Just like verse 3 of "How Great Thou Art". We came home and finished our breakfast tacos from the Valley and the shrimp etouffee from last night. We needed to finish the spoilable food in the refrigerator because we will eat in the dining room until Wednesday. We were still somewhat tired, especially Evelyn who thinks she might be getting sick. We napped a bit and got up to go to work. We learned that there were more than enough this evening but a shortage for the rest of the week. We did our usual jobs and enjoyed rosemary chicken, potato chunks, mixed vegetables, Greek salad and chocolate cake. We were finished working by 8:00, but are scheduled to work breakfast and lunch, so we must be back here at 7:00 in the morning.

Shows galore

Saturday is our last sleep in day for a while. I went to the dining room for coffee and then we both showered. Evelyn had to color her hair, so I went to the computer room and dumped e-mail. We were thinking about which shows we wanted to see in the afternoon and evening. We had lunch, and then I went to the commons room to see if the Cubs were on TV. The game didn't begin until 2:20, and I didn't want to wait that long. I went back and got Evelyn to go to Branson and see the Magnificent 7. That show wasn't until 7:00 so we went to Dick's 5 and 10 for some stationary. We went back up 76 to the Starlight Theater where we saw Stuck in the Seventies, a musical review of guess what! It was a good show, but we had really wanted to see Lost in the 50s which plays at 8:00. The seventies show was over at 5:00, so we went back downtown and had blackberry cobbler and cinnamon ice cream for our dinner. Back we went to the White House Theater for what we thought would be the Magnificent 7. Instead the show was Jubilee or something like that. It starred a 17 year old beauty who sang great songs. The supporting class was also great, but we still don't know what the Magnificent 7 is all about. It plays Monday through Friday, so perhaps we can go back some evening early this week since we plan to leave sometime Wednesday. We came home in the dark and through the blessing and mercy of the Lord we found our way. We had never come that way before by ourselves and were just led right back to Stonecroft. Praise be to God! We set an alarm so we could arise in time to attend a church somewhere.

Work and play in Branson

We arise planning to walk on the treadmills at Stonecroft. First, we wanted to go to say hello to our friends that we worked with last year. We ran across the head of housekeeping and told her we would be willing to help with turn around (stripping beds, cleaning rooms, etc.) if we were needed. We went virtually straight to work. We worked until staff lunch where the work crews eat the leftovers from previous meals. They are still very good. The afternoon was free for us and we did laundry, napped and did some repairs on the motor home. One of the towel racks had come loose again, and I made another attempt at repair. I was able to turn the ten minute job into almost an hour but did put a temporary fix on it. We also saw a young man who works maintenance here who might fit the clothes Tom Jones had given us. He came and took them to see if they fit him. The size is right but perhaps they are cut too short; he is a very tall young man. He will return them if not right. We learned in the morning that a large group of volunteer were going to a show, Country Tonight, around 8:00. We found two other couples camped with us, one of whom has a huge truck for his 5th wheel, so we went with them and another couple. Branson is a place that is confusing for me to navigate so I was glad for the ride. Tomorrow, however, will require our going it alone since there are no groups scheduled here until Sunday. At least it will be daylight and there is a map of the city available. We will also look for a church to attend Sunday. We also discovered that it is nearly 700 miles from here to Roswell. We will have two very hard days of driving on Thursday and Friday to be there for the festivities on Saturday morning. Having fun is hard, expensive work! Praise God for the strength and the resources (the modern word for money). I forgot to mention that the weather prediction is for 33 as a low tonight. We aren't used to real weather!

Dancing and driving

We walked around part of Lafayette and went to Edies Restaurant to meet Simon for lunch. I had crawfish pie and Evelyn had catfish. Roland wanted to go here instead of Dwyer's Cafe because he has the same esophogal sphincter problem that I have but can't control it as I can. He thinks it is something at Dwyer's. We had a nice visit and then Evelyn and I went off to the library to check e-mail, etc. We then went to The Best Stop meat market for the purchase of boudin and crawfish tails. We took six frozen links and one package of tails because of limited freezer space. We went back to Cankton to Earlys Cajun market and found the tails $.50 cheaper so we bought two more pounds and some boudin for me to eat along the way. We took the items home and rested for the big night at Randol's. We arrived just in time for the bad to begin and shared a crawfish platter of friend crawfish, etouffee, dirty rice, French fries and hush puppies. Evelyn thinks the etouffee was the best we have had, but I still go for the buffet at Big Daddy's in Iowa. Regardless, it is all superb stuff. We danced some, but there were four tour busses--one full of French people and one full of students from Shreveport. When the kids got on to the floor, there was little chance for dancing, although the true Cajuns tried anyway. The dancing was not much fun for us.
Evelyn decided she did not want to stay for the Wednesday evening opening of the festival in Lafayette, so we got up Wednesday, walked packed up, dumped the tanks and left Lafayette about 11:30. We stopped at the first rest area and ate more of the food I had bought from the Valley. We drove further, stopped again and napped. Driving wears us out, and we don't like to risk accidents more than usual. We drove on to El Dorado, LA (pronounced with a long "a") and stopped early at a Wal-Mart. We went to bed by 10:00 and rested soundly.
Thursday we walked the large Wal-Mart lot several times and left around ten on our final leg to Stonecroft. We stopped for more Popeye's chicken (the last) along the road and then drove straight on to Hollister. I did stop for fuel twice, paying $1.999 per gallon each time. How odd to be excited about gasoline for $2.00! We arrived and parked our unit where assigned and explored the area. Evelyn went swimming in the pool while I did computer work including this blog. She also talked with Emily who celebrated her 14th wedding anniversary yesterday. They are leaving for Mammoth next Wednesday for skiing. We wish them snow.

The first three days of travel

We left the Valley just after 10 and picked up a folding picnic table at Borderland in Mercedes. We made good time to Odem where we always fuel up. This time gas was cheaper in the Valley. We cruised along until the construction traffic jam in Houston. After that we drove on to Baytown where we ate at a Red Lobster and stayed in a Wal-Mart. Gas was $2.01 in Orange. We never passed a church on the way where we could worship. We both missed worshipping but did listen to some Key Life messages as we drove. We also listened to a CD made by Pastor Edge featuring music our choir had planned to sing. The songs were taken from a Michael W. Smith album.
We slept late and drove on to Vanity Fair outlet in Iowa, LA. There was a restaurant with a great Cajun buffet that had been recommended by a manager at the Vanity Fair. It was as good as he said. We liked the crawfish etoufee and pork Jambalya. We pushed on to Acadia Park in Lafayette. We called Jimmy and Betty Trahan, asking them to come for strawberry shortcake. They did and we made plans to go to their house for gumbo on Monday. We stayed in for the evening.
We slept late again and walked for 40 minutes, spotting some early blackberries that we plan to get tomorrow morning. We dressed and went to Trahan's for some fantastic gumbo containing chicken, sausage, turkey neck and pork. Those Cajuns really know how to make Cajun food. We left and went to the city library to dump e-mails. After a late afternoon nap, we went to Mulate's in Breaux Bridge. Jake Delahomme was not there, but we like to dance and had a good time. There was a tour group from Britain and Australia that had hired a couple of Cajun dance instructors to teach them some Cajun moves. We wanted to have the couple dance with us, showing us some steps, but they had been hired to work with the tour. We left there early headed for Prejean's where we had hoped to dance more. They had no dance floor and were closed at 9:00 PM so we went home. We have tried them for the last time. Tomorrow evening we will try our favorite: Randol's.

Bidding adieu

Pack, pack, pack. We are really closing in on the finish line. We have really been to approach this in a leisurely manner. We worked awhile and then went off to look for a garage sale that was to be city wide. We looked all over Illinois Street where it was to be. We came home and talked to the bearer of the information who said it was tomorrow. Actually, we learned later, it was last Saturday. We didn't need anything anaway. We cleaned up and met Joe and Bonny for lunch at Fat Daddy's restaurant. We had a nice visit and met then because they wanted to leave for Austin to visit their daughter and new baby. She has spent a great deal of time up there. One would think this was her only grandchild instead of her 17th. They plan to come to visit us in NC this summer. We came home and went back at it. I did go to Popeye's Chicken to use our 2 for 1 coupons before we leave. We had four 3 piece dinners to take on the road. We did split one for dinner. We ate in the motor home, thinking we would sleep there tonight since we had changed the sheets inside. Even though it cooled off in the evening, Evelyn decided it was too hot to sleep there. Cest le gere. Earlier in the day she received a call from her brother saying her mom had wandered off and the staff thinks she needs constant supervision. He didn't like the looks of the alzheimer's unit, so he put her in the same wing that her dad and my mom spent some time there. It is a beautiful facility and she will wear an ankle monitor that will not allow her to exit the door. We are praying for both her and John, Evelyn's brother. We thank God for his faithfulness and perserverence. We were able to say good-bye to many of our winter friends. We plan to leave sometime in the morning. The big question is what will we forget. :-)

Work in the sun

We began by rushing to the Weight Watchers meeting so Evelyn could weigh in for the month. I left her at the RV park and went to the local recycle center to clean up our items. I returned to find her with a big grin because she is still below her target weight. We both decided to say good-bye to Lois and Lionel since we were in their park. They seemed in good spirits, and Lionel finally had his hearing aids. We returned home to resume packing. It is amazing how many things there are to pack. It may be worse this year because we are taking many things to NC. Much of it will be left there so next year may be better. There were many things like onions, etc. that we could not load into the Jeep because we had to drive to Mr. Gatti's, a big pizza/salad bar that features many arcade games for families. WE just worked on the coach itself. I did decide to mow the two lawns today because Bill was home and could clean his driveway. I also decided to take the aluminum ladder Tom Jones gave us to NC because I don't think we have one there. This is sort of funny because he is from NC and likely brought it from there when they moved to our park. I lashed it to the top rack of the motor home with rubber ropes and ball bunge cords. As with anything like that, I am concerned that it might blow off and cause an accident. I will check it when I can get into one of our compartments to find the rest of my rubber ropes. We took showers late and took a short nap before joining with our neighbors. We enjoyed the pizza and salad. This is quite a place in that we were given a private room because there were more than 20 of us from our park. The park goes once a month and get the room. We have never gone before, but the restaurant provides bingo equipment and even prizes of 2 for 1 buffets. We didn't win anything but were impressed with the situation. We came home and were happy to begin loading the Jeep with onions, garlic and other things. We still have much to do tomorrow. We will meet Joe and Bonny at Fat Daddy's restaurant for lunch so we can say good-bye for the season. They have said they plan to visit this summer when they go to Maryland to visit Robbie, their test pilot son. Off to bed.

A clean house

We have been waking before the alarm. Probably trying to avoid forgetting to pack something. I began packing while she exercised. She returned and pitched right in. I had to add water to the marine batteries and that took some time and contorsions. I finally finished with the help of a neighbor. We came in for lunch and a nap. We were up at 2:45 to shower and proceed to Harlingen, intending to clean our unit at Sunshine Park. It was a blessing to find that the renters had done a great job of cleaning so we had little to do. By 4:30 we were shopping and by 5:30 we were killing time until 7:00 when we were to meet Don and Janice for dinner. At five after I called her to learn that she had been ill and had forgotten to call us. She did come to join us, but we would have been just as happy to have gone home much earlier. We are desperate to sell our Harlingen unit, so I gave all the information to Janice who is to pass it on to Ron Waters. Perhaps he can sell it for us while we are gone. When we returned home, Ray was calling to say that Genny was doing well and would be coming home tomorrow. We may be able to leave here on Saturday. Evelyn wants to leave Friday. I don't want to get to Houston on Friday, so I will stall around until at least Friday afternoon.

The push begins

The day began with Evelyn's taking me to Trail's End to begin work on the coach. I washed it all down, including the roof. I had to work around a man who had come to spray some fruit trees next to the coach, but things worked out fine. It took me more than two hours to get the work done (dumping, unhooking, etc.) I decided to come home for lunch. We enjoyed more of the left overs from the Remington. I had trouble prying up the fight rear jack so I was late getting to Texas Trader. When I got there I negotiated some repairs to complement the refund they gave when they messed up the warranty we had bought from Beaudry. The major repair was to get the refrigerator to run on propane. That was a simple problem actually. I also asked that the generator oil and filter be changed. That was simple. The next was disgusting. I needed a new blade valve on the black water pipe. I had dumped the tanks and even back flushed both tanks, but about a half gallon of feces water came out. I was embarrassed and the technician were not happy. I helped clean up as much as I could, but that didn't cut much ice. I got out of there around 4:30 and arrived home just in time for dinner. I had not showered so Evelyn made me clean up or I could not have any of the delicious spinach salad and bacon, cheese and spinach sandwich on some of the fabulous hazelnut bread she makes. I complied. She was off to the final Bible study for the season. We have begun to pack the motor home for our trip north. I worked some while she was gone and she joined me. We made good headway but have a long way to go.

Some good news and some bad

This morning Evelyn went with her partner to check out some locations for programs next year. I went to play golf with Truman Baker, a friend from Immanuel. We went to Llano Grande, and I had the same stellar game I usually play. We came back here and drank a beer. After he left, I ate lunch of boudin, knowing Evelyn had eaten out. She came home and napped for a short time and then we went to the bank and insurance office to pay our homeowners for 177. We then went to the retinal specialist to check Evelyn's eye for glaucoma. The eye seems to be doing well, but he still seems to be mildly pushing for the steroid injection. She will decide in November whether to undergo that or not. We had chicken salad for dinner and then went to the outback to play bingo. Evelyn had won last week and I won tonight. We were both tired and decided not to stay until the finish. We came home to relax for the big push that begins tomorrow. We learned of the death of two of our Indiana friends: Jerry Cassel, a dear Christian brother who sat at my table when we attended Cursillo in 1987; Gerry Miller, a lady I taught with for many years. They were both devoted to serving Christ, and I am confident they are both in the arms of our Savior. We will miss them both although we were not able to see either of them very often.

Some more bad news

We didn't hurry up this morning. I wanted to go to the Church of the Living Word but didn't know the time of the service. I called it last night, asking someone to call me with the church time but no one did. We just went to Immanuel because we knew that the Bible class began at 9:15 and church at 10:30. The Bible class was good and so was the worship. We said goodbye to a few and came home to enjoy our pork steak from last evening. It was good but not as good as it would have been then. We were somewhat surprised that no one offered to go to lunch with us, but some people have been acting strangely. I might add here that I am sorry to have been shunned so overtly by the pastor. I think he and I have enough in common that I could have really liked him. I guess the Lord has other things in mind. After lunch I watched some of the Masters tournament and Evelyn read and took a nap. I took a short one and also called Bill and Shirley Oefinger, our football friends. I called to tell them we had bought the season tickets to Purdue football, but she told me the Bill has melanoma on his chest. It has to be removed, of course. We will pray for him. Evelyn talked with Stacy for quite a while and then forgot to hang up the phone for 2 hours and 17 minutes. We left for Bauknecht's early because the gate closes at 7:00. We were so early that we had to walk around for 15 minutes so we didn't arrive too soon. We played hand and foot and Alice served tea with all kinds of baked goodies. We had eaten popcorn before we went, thinking, naively, that she would not serve anything. We didn't get home until 11:00, and we folded the white laundry and watched a program I had taped. Off to bed for tomorrow.

A change of plans

We got up and prepared to go to work in Harlingen, but it occurred to me that Saturday might mean that no one is in the office there. That wouldn't mean anything except that is where the renters left the keys. I called there and found I was correct. So off Evelyn went to exercise. I couldn't because I had already showered for the day. I cleaned up the e-mail and waited for her to return. I rode my bike to the hall and went through a mine field of palm frond scraps that had blown off. It really did feel strange riding through them. There is a big anniversary party to be held in the hall tonight. When the park is virtually empty, the hall is rented out for events such as this. It is lovely up there. We had tuna salad for lunch and an acorn squash that tasted very funny. It was probably the Splenda Evelyn used in it. Since we had to change plans, we began to organize the items we want to pack to take north next week. We are assembling them in the guest bedroom. There are many things we will still need to use but we are moving what we can. We took a short nap and then dressed for an evening out with the Garritys, a nice couple from the park. We will go to the Remington Steak House, one of our favorite places to eat in the Valley. I am still deciding where to worship tomorrow. I am not interested in going to Immanuel but might end up there. We had a wonderful appetizer and salmon entree and we brought our free dinner of pork steak home for tomorrow. Bob and Bette brought their jokers board to our house and we played two games. They are a lot of fun, and we hope to have many more meetings with them next season. We went to bed after the news.

Medicine and survivors

Friday is similar to other days. We have a routine that is pretty routine. Today, however, Janice called to say they couldn't come for dinner tonight. We had planned to go to Mexico after the Relay for Life, but Don is not feeling well. He is probably logging too many hours in his farming. We plan to meet Wednesday evening at Sauza in Harlingen. Since we weren't going to Mexico this evening, we decided to go this morning. We ate an early lunch and took off to get medicine and booze. We found most of our medicine at the Discount Farmacia which gives us free parking. We learned absolute frightening news: the Arimidex Evelyn needs for the cancer treatment costs $210 for 30 tablets. This will be quite an expense for us after September 1, Medicare day for Evelyn. Perhaps we will have to take a Medicare supplement that includes prescription coverage. After the drugs we bought to hold us over until we return in the fall. We then proceeded to look for Christmas gifts for Tom and Peter. We bought them matching blue barong tagalogs (guayabera shirts). I drank my obligatory Mexican beer as we looked. We then went to the discount liquor store for a liter of Crown Royal for Sam and a liter of Bailey's for Stacy and Tom. We came home and Evelyn went to the pool for an hour while I slept. We went to the Relay for Life and were blessed by the display of Christian faith and love. Say what you will about the Valley, there is a deep, solid Christian base to almost every organization here. The teams, etc. raised over $200,000 for the American Cancer society. We bought three luminaries: a memory one for my mom, and two honors for Evelyn and Pieder's mom, Ursula. After the survivor's lap (all survivors walk around the quarter mile track at a local high school), we went to Salazars for a southwestern burger. It cost $4.50 but was 1/2 pound of meat. We brought that and an order of French fries home. The burger was good but the fries were not. We would not return for another but were glad we had this experience. We will go to Harlingen tomorrow to clean our unit at 320.

Another slow day

Friday was a slow day. We walked/exercised, and I talked with Tom Crouch about a stained glass window picturing a rooster that Evelyn would like to have for North Carolina. Evelyn made several calls related to the Ladies Leisure for next year. I spent most of the morning trying to publish yesteday's and today's blog. Something is wrong and it keeps disappearing. We had lunch of delicious leftover etouffee. Evelyn called the oncologist again, hoping to get an official reading of the follow up mammogram. We waited all afternoon for the call which finally came with the good news at around 5:00. We made our first visit to the swimming pool this season. The heater is broken so the water was 82 degrees. It is usually 90 and the difference was noticable. It was cool sitting outside too because of the wind and low humidity even though the temperature was 92. We had instant dinners for our evening meal and then took a 4 mile bicycle ride. We got a call from the Bauknechts wanting us to come Sunday evening to play cards. They will leave next week as will we since the renters will leave on the 12th. We may be able to leave here earlier than we anticipated if things go right. We also called Emily so we could give her the official good news. We went to bed early because we missed our nap.

Not much to say

There is not much to write today. We spent the entire morning doing our volunteer work at the hospital. We didn't get home until about 12:45 and immediately hit the bed. We slept for two hours! What decadence! We finished preparing the crawfish etouffee we wanted to serve the Merrifields. She plays the accordian and sometimes accompanys us at the worship at Trail's End. They are from Wisconsin and know a former friend of ours from Appleton. They came at six and we ate and then sat and talked about North Carolina and Nascar. We may go to one of the races at either Bristol or Charlotte this summer. Dan seemed to know some things about conditions there and told us that it is unlikely that we could get tickets for the Bristol race. We will have to check on Charlotte. We are having big trouble with the reception on our television antenna. I don't really know what to do. I have been on a ladder and turned the antenna, but things just got worse. Dan suggested getting a power booster similar to the one we have in our motor home. I will likely wait until next year since we will be leaving here in a few days and may be forced to get satellite TV service. I will just keep turning the antenna for now.

Excellent under baked bread and boudin

We were awakened by a blessing from Jesus. The radiologist's office called and said that the follow-up mammogram was negative. There was no identifiable mass in the right breast. We thank God. We did our morning routine, and Evelyn met with her co-chair to plan some events for next year's ladies leisure--a group of fat old women who like to go out to eat. They do have some programs too. We were both starving and had a late lunch of hot dog sandwiches. We took a nap and rode to the doctor's for the appointment we had yesterday. It too was a blessing in that the doppler kidney report was also good. We rode home, and I spent two hours playing free cell. We also took the bread out of the machine. Evelyn had started it right after lunch. Unfortunately, Evelyn had added too much extra water. It didn't get completely baked. It was too full of delicious hazelnuts, etc. so we tried baking some of it in the toaster oven. It worked somewhat and the bread is great. We had Joe Winston come over for sausage and boudin sandwiches since his wife Bonny is in Austin with their daughter and new grandson. We had a nice talk after Evelyn left for her Bible study. I told him that the letter from the elders regarding my call was full of errors. He mostly agreed, but Joe is such a fine Christian friend that he might agree with anything. We had a good time and he left for his office. He mentioned that perhaps the elders should re-evaluate the winter Texan program. I don't think there is much chance of that, especially with the current pastor. But, as I said before, we need to be accepting of God's will for our lives. We must get to bed because we are scheduled to volunteer at the hospital tomorrow morning.

Bikers in action

While Evelyn exercised, I rode my bike to the oncologist's office to get the order for a mammogram. I stopped on the way back to make an appointment with Dr. Mejia to review Evelyn's Doppler kidney exam. We scheduled it for 2:00. I came home and Evelyn and I rode back to the hospital for the mammogram at 11:00. I must confess that none of the offices is more than a mile from our home. She was taken in relatively quickly, and we were back here by noon. We had left over boiled dinner and were quite full. Evelyn laid down for a while and then we rode to the doctor's again. We waited until 2:30 and then the receptionist announced that the Doppler results had not bee faxed from the clinic across the street. We were somewhat distressed and rode across the street to see what had held the report up since Thursday last. A nice young man blamed the computer and said he would call us when he could send it. He called almost immediately upon our arrival and said he had faxed it. We had already made an appointment for tomorrow so we didn't return. Evelyn was tired again and took a nap. We had a nice salad of spinach from our garden and the left over mustard burger from Burger King that we had left from yesterday. After that we went to the hall to play bingo for the first time ever as a couple. I had gone twice with Andrew and Noah, but Evelyn had never gone. The charge is $.50 per card, and we bought two each. Evelyn bingoed and the payoff was $7.00. I came within one number once but did not get a cigar. We came home and worked on preparing crawfish etouffee for our dinner guests on Wednesday evening. I do the chopping of the vegetables, and Evelyn does the cooking. I had seen Bob Garrity, another friend who lives here permanently, and we made plans to go to the Remington Steak House on Saturday evening. I am still avoiding desserts but don't avoid much of anything else. We are eating our way down in the cupboard even though it doesn't sound much like it.

A day with the Lord

Even though we lost an hour of sleep, we were able to sleep in on the first Sunday this season. That was because we decided to attend worship at Faith Lutheran which began at 9:30. It was not an uplifting event. The church would probably seat 250 but there were only around 20. The sermon was about prayer and featured many quotations from Scripture. The pastor worked hard but not many were there. I don't know how many winter Texans had gone, but I bet there weren't many of those either. After Communion, we went to Bible class with Lois and Lionel who have begun to attend that church. They are mad because of some comments Pastor Edge made about Bill Clinton in a Bible class. They are Minnesota liberals and took great offense. The remarks should have been made outside of Bible class. They tried the Baptist church but were offended by two videos showed about President Bush. I thought Lionel would complain about politics again, but instead he made a very salient comment: "I asked myself, 'what did George Bush ever do on the cross for me?'" I couldn't answer that either. Well that led them to Faith Lutheran. We went to Burger King for lunch with them because Evelyn had to get to Bonny's for an LWML trip to Port Isabel for a zone meeting at 3:00. I had made plans to play golf with Tom Newcomer at Mid Valley at 1:00. We walked and played nine. It was depressing. When we returned home, we had a beer and a visit. It is difficult to visit much while playing because often the players are on opposite sides of the fairway. We did get together on the greens and when looking for my lost ball in tall grass. :-) At 7:00 Don and Donna Reddel came to tell us about their trip to the Holy Land. They had just returned the morning before and didn't have all of their pictures and videos. They had enough to share the Spiritual thrills they experienced while walking where our Savior walked. We are thinking about going about this time next year. We will see what the Lord has in mind.

Accomplishing many things.

We began preparing for the zillion things scheduled for today. Evelyn exercised, and I cut our grass and the neighbor's who are in Florida for a wedding. We have an agreement: I try to cut the grass during the winter, using his mower, and he does it during the summer. When we are both gone, a man named Juan does ours and many other lawns in the park. I am sure he works other parks also. We also had to figure out how much medicine we need to buy in Mexico to hold us over until the end of November when we return. We then finished cleaning the house that we began last night. Tom and Diesta Crouch came for a boiled dinner. It was delicious, very spicy, although Evelyn was embarrassed to have guests for a boiled dinner. I am so gauche that I don't know what is wrong with the choice. It was great in that Tom has bad teeth and really enjoys soft food. We visited a while and then they left. Evelyn cleaned up the kitchen, and then I dried the dishes. I thought she was getting ready to go to the Onion Fest but was in pajamas, getting into bed for a nap. I went anyway. It was very different from the other times I went. There were many barbecue stations giving away samples of chicken, pork and even beans. There were also many dinners for sale, but I had just eaten. I walked around until I found a booth selling 1015 onions. I bought a 50# bag for $10. It may be too early to buy onions to take north, but I did it anyway. I also went to the grocery to get some multi grain flour for making the superb hazelnut bread that Evelyn makes. She put it together, and we will have delicious bread tomorrow. We took a bike ride and stopped to visit the couple who bought Tom and LuAnn's place. They invited us in, and we had a nice visit. He was raised LCMS but went to an ELCA seminary where he became ordained and worked eleven years before retiring. I also stopped in to invite Tom Newcomer, who has been alone for at least two weeks, to play golf tomorrow afternoon while Evelyn is gone to Port Isabel. We tried to invite some people over to play cards tonight, but the ones we called didn't want to come. We will get together with them next Wednesday.

The folly of fantasies

We didn't have much time this morning. I went to the hall for coffee because the man I wanted to see was there. Tom Crouch and I talked and decided that they will come to lunch Saturday. He hesitated because he is having problems with his teeth and can't eat chewy food. Our menu is mostly soft so they will come. We went off to Harlingen to take our nice renters from Regina to lunch at Sauza's buffet. It was all Mexican food and very good. We took a sweeper with attachments, hoping they would clean the unit before they leave next week. We then went shopping, ending up at Hobby Lobby where Evelyn continued to pursue her fantasy of making a sitting area in the back yard. She bought an arch trellis that is more than six feet tall. She is going to plant climbing vines to hide the view of electrical wiring. I would have thought she would have learned the folly of this from my fantasy of making a grape arbor over our walk way in the back yard in Indiana. That failed for several reasons. I think this one will fail because it will rarely be used. Oh well, she probably wastes less money than I because, for one thing, she never plays golf. :-) We came home, took a nap and a walk to see if our friends, who took a trip to Israel, have returned as yet. We want to hear their experiences. We spent the evening computing and ironing. We had only popcorn since we had eaten a large lunch. The weather was very pleasant today and is supposed to continue throughout the weekend. We are closing in on time to begin packing to leave around April 20.