Traipsing around the Valley and Mexico.

Monday found us in Mexico with John and Sue.  We all needed to have our teeth cleaned, and we wanted pedicures before driving north.  We had breakfast at the Olde Tyme Café.  We ate before the teeth cleaning.  The ladies went to Dr. Mustre while I went to a young man in the Arizona building.  John had given me a free teeth cleaning coupon because Sue wanted to have hers done elsewhere.  John did not use his coupon because he is still having a severe toothache especially in the evening.  He went to have his crown removed but has to wait until Saturday for an infection to subside.  We also bought some tequilla to take north.  Oddly enough, we didn’t eat lunch there since we had eaten breakfast.  We returned home and spent the afternoon.  The only thing we did was visit Judy who is getting better and thinks she might come home tomorrow.  We watched Dancing with the Stars during the evening.  I also worked on the order of service.

Evelyn and Judy Nickerson and Therese Schwinghammer went to lunch at Olive Garden.  I packed the car with the recyclable items and took them to the center.  I also went to Big Lots for some candy.  I think we will have to buy a new DVD player because the repair shop doesn’t have the proper parts.  I returned home while the house was empty but noticed that Evelyn had prepared some dessert for them.  I decided they didn’t need me, so I left with my computer and went to Joe’s office to consult Rey Peynado again as to how to resize pictures to send to Tom and LuAnn.  We worked over an hour but sent off several successfully.  They had been too large to be opened.  I returned home for a nap and then went to the Relay for Life dinner.  It is given by the local American Cancer Society chapter to honor cancer survivors.  Evelyn has survived 10 years since being diagnosed with breast cancer.  We praise God for His mercy.  We learned that Judy had come home during the afternoon, so we visited her to learn her condition.  She is much better but may go to Chicago to be seen by a specialist this week.

Evelyn went to exercise this morning while I cut the grass.  It also seems to grow much faster than I notice.  The ground, covered by grass, is spongy making it difficult to push the mower.  I tried to mow early before it got too hot but didn’t quite make it.  I was sweaty and took my daily shower after mowing.  Evelyn went to see the oncologist and found herself to be generally clean.  She has not had a mammogram since last summer and needs another.  She will have to take another in NC when we arrive.  We decided to invite John and Sue for gumbo.  We also tried to get our new door chime to stop ringing.  It would not stop, so we called Honeywell and tried to get help from a technician.  He couldn’t help and suggested we return it.  We went to Lenten worship at 3 and then went to Snow to Sun to dance a while before going to Roger and Mitzi Pederson's for supper.  We had a good chicken casserole and then played Sequence.  It was good to listen to more of their stories about their 2 children who died over the summer.  It seems they will not likely get adjusted to the loss for quite some time.

Visiting our sick neighbor

Thursday was the evening of the last concert of the season.  We visited Judy in the afternoon but she isn’t improving as she should.  We are all worried about her.  We did not have to take the 2 widows with us to the concert, so Bonny and Joe picked us up at 5 and drove us to El Pastor restaurant for dinner.  We had a good botana for 3 and still had some to carry out.  I knew we should have ordered for 2 because there would be plenty for 4.  The concert featured 2 excellent pianists, a man and woman probably from Russia.  They were quiet talented, but we couldn’t see much of what their fingers were doing because of where we sat.  When they played dual piano selections, we could see nothing.  When they played pieces for 2 pianos, we could see her hands.  Evelyn served a dessert to Joe and Bonny when we returned home.  We enjoy being with them.

Friday we played in the final performance of the year with the kitchen band.  We had to meet them there because we went to Llano Grande to look at a home for sale.  I would like to move from this park because I can’t make many friends here.  The house we inspected was very nice but a bit over priced.  Evelyn seems quite happy to stay here, so we will quite likely do that.  I want to be with her and make her happy.  I can live anywhere so we will stay.  I just stay out of the park activities because I have been misled by many people who seem as though they want to be friends with us.  We served at the hospital for the last time with our friend from Canada, Lionel Moore.  We still have 1 more Friday to work.  We visited Judy who is doing a bit better with her back pain.  I met the surgeon she might have to use, but the surgeon isn’t sure it is time to go that far with the treatment. We returned to the final kitchen band wind up party.  Our pianist from Canada hosted it and served hamburgers. Everyone else brought a dish to share.  This is the best part of any potluck party.

Saturday we slept a bit later before we went to serve at the Onion Fest, an annual event in this wide onion growing area.  We didn’t have to be at the Knapp Medical Center booth until 9:30 and that was great.  We finished at noon just as the temperature began to rise.  We have a good time working there.  I especially like it because I like to joke with the people who come.  Again this year, we ran the device that measures body fat.  As you might guess, most people are far to full of fat.  We went to look at another home in Llano Grande before coming home.  It was time for me to begin serious review of the message for tomorrow which I did.  I just review all the things I have fleshed out during the week.

Sunday was glorious.  We had 18 worship with us.  They are very generous in their offerings and gave $69.  I guess they are blessed by the messages the Lord gives me.  We talked with our friends, the Merryfields, telling them that we learned the Rotel factory in Donna has closed.  They were surprised. (More on this on another entry.)  We came home for our dinner and an afternoon rest.  We got the idea to invite John and Sue for popcorn and a game of dominoes in the evening.  They came and we had a good time.  I always begin preparation for next week’s message in the afternoon and got a good start. We also visited Judy in the hospital again.  She seems to be improving but that could be due to the pain medication.

More fun

Monday was Evelyn’s tea for a woman who is moving away from the Valley so we came back home after exercise.  Since I was not needed after helping prepare for the tea, I went to play golf.  I went alone and rode a cart, allowing me to play the back 9.  I did quite well for me and shot a 49 without any penalty strokes.  I was still early, so I played the front 9.  I had to hit 2 balls in some instances but still shot an accurate but not legitimate 49.  All in all I felt very pleased with my play.  We watched the first session of Dancing with the Stars.  It was a very good group of dancers.  Our neighbor, Judy Kruse, went to McAllen to get a colonoscopy.  More on the following entries.

Tuesday was the final morning Bible study.  The Reddel’s showed their DVD of their trip to Israel.  Evelyn had bought some hummus (this is breakfast food in Israel) and some juice that was partially pomegranate juice.  We did say a few words about our trip but had to leave the room early.  We came home and were picked up by Paul and Donna Zopfi.  They drove us to the Bayou Grille where I had a coupon that we used for some Cajun food.  We agreed that their food was good but the Cajun portions were not very authentic.  Zopfis liked what they had.  They brought us home, agreeing to meet us at the Mustang Lounge at 3:30.  We went to sleep and didn’t make it on time.  When we arrived we learned that they had left.  We danced a few dances and went to their house to apologize.  They graciously accepted the apology.  They then accompanied us around part of their park, Llano Grande, to look at some of the units for sale.  We made an appointment to see one on Friday morning.  We came home for a light meal and then went to check on Judy.  She was in misery.  Evelyn and another neighbor went to Walgreens to get her some medicine.  They learned the doctor called it in to a different pharmacy.  They finally got the medicine but learned later that it was ineffective. 

Wednesday Judy was no better.  A friend came to be with her while we loaded our bikes onto the bike trailer and went to ride around South Padre Island.  On the way I was stopped by a sheriff for speeding.  We were looking for a speed sign when he hit the lights to stop me.  He was very friendly and gave me a warning.  We had a nice ride with the wind south but not so nice back north.  The leader was a man on oxygen who could not make it back and had to wait for the trailer to come to get him.  We had taken a single widower with us and went to lunch at a restaurant for which I had another coupon.  It was Calasea on the island.  We all enjoyed spending the required $50 (it had cost $25).  We went to the SAS factory outlet in Brownsville to look for black sandals for Evelyn.  She didn’t like the style and didn’t buy them.  We came home and checked on Judy.  Another friend took her to have a CT scan and brought her back.  I visited her and saw she was in misery.  I tried to comfort her but had to leave for church.  When we returned, the friend had taken her to the emergency room in McAllen.  We will try to see her a bit tomorrow.  Evelyn and I put together a big pot of gumbo and went to bed.  Glenn Combs agreed to pick me up tomorrow morning to play golf.  I tried to find another player but won’t know until tomorrow whether anyone will go.

Many wind up errands

Friday Evelyn went to exercise while I finished up some errands.  I dropped her off and went  back to finish our taxes.  Due to some lack of withholding, we owe $4100 in taxes this year.  That is the danger of having a big tax sheltered account.  We tried to give our probable tax bill away to charities but couldn’t know how much we would owe.  We will try to have more withheld next year.  I went back to get Evelyn and stopped at the WELS church where I returned some readings and got all that I will need for the remainder of the season.  We continued to the Verizon store to sign our 2 year agreement for our MYfi internet connector.  I thought I would get $25 for myself and $25 for friend Tom Jones who introduced us to the tool.  I have to keep it for a  month before that can happen.  We hurried home to dress for and go to the volunteer thank you luncheon at Knapp Medical Center.  It is always a lavish meal and was again.  We were finished by 3:30 and home for a nap.  We stayed home because Purdue played its first round game in the NCAA tournament.  They won but will have little chance in the second game because they must play Kansas.  More later.

Saturday was less active.  We went to a square dance from 10-12 and then went to a small Mexican restaurant for lunch.  It was Martha’s and we will likely never return.  The service was not good and the meat was grisly.  We came home after learning the sad news that the Rotel factory in Donna has closed or at least moved farther away.  We will try to find the new location because we may still be able to buy cases of the product for a small price.  We came home and took a nap before calling John and Sue to come here.  She had made corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day and brought most of the meal.  We played Hand and Foot as our entertainment.  Sue’s cooking doesn’t have the same level of spicy as we like.  Regardless, we were blessed with some of the food they are trying to get rid of before they leave for Wisconsin on Palm Sunday.

We were up and off to Trail’s End for our worship.  I gave the 4th of my series on the Beatitudes.  There were 2 younger couples from Canada visiting who attended and asked for a copy of the message.  That is always quite flattering.  I made copies of several and will take them to their house tomorrow.  I would have given my copy but needed it at Llano Grande.  I went there and thought I gave a better presentation there and received more compliments.  Afterward we went to Denny’s with 3 other couples for brunch.  I had a coupon I had bought for half price and used it.  I love those coupons!  We came home for our nap and conversations with both girls.  We always love keeping up with their lives.  Andrew had a disappointment in that he was not accepted to a special college that features economics but has received a scholarship offer from the University of Kentucky.  He has yet to hear from any Ivy league schools.  During the evening we took a walk and watched the Purdue/Kansas basketball game.  Purdue made us proud because they should have lost big, but, after leading until the final 30 seconds, but lost by 3 points.  We loved to watch them give such an outstanding effort.

Reversed disappointment

We had planned to worship at Immanuel at noon today so we could go to the pot luck at the Horseman.  Evelyn had even made salads for both us and Hamels.  But in the morning we received an email saying they didn’t want to go because it would be too hot.  So we adjusted our morning.  I went to the AARP site at the library to have them prepare our tax return.  We were there for about 2 hours.  Evelyn wanted to learn about our taxes but got tired and left me.  I got most of the material completed but had to wait until I made a couple of phone calls.  The length of time to prepare ran through noon so we couldn’t go to worship as planned.  We came home for lunch and then went to the 3 PM service where we saw John and Sue.  They talked us into coming to their house with the salads for a fish dinner.  They are trying to eat down their larder because they plan to leave after our Palm Sunday service.  We went there despite Evelyn’s having a Bible study in the evening.  We played dominoes for a couple of hours before Evelyn left.  We weren’t finished with the entire game but continued after she left.  When finished, John heated some oil for frying the fish which he did when Evelyn returned at 7:30.  We enjoyed the fish and played another game: 9 square and left for home at 9 PM. 

Thursday was our day at the Stock show.  We tried to take someone with us because we had free tickets but could find no one.  There is a man in our park who had a severe stroke this past summer and we wanted to reach out to him and his wife.  He wasn’t strong enough to go with us.  We tried later in the evening to take them to Dairy Queen but they were eating.  He can’t swallow much because of the effect of the stroke on his esophagus.  We went to Jack in the Box for lunch and then came home to shower and rest.  When it cooled in the early evening, I cut the grass for us, our neighbor (who owns the mower) and his mother.  I let it get too long the last time I cut it and had a difficult time pushing the mower through the spongy Augustine grass.  We took a walk in the cool of the late evening before I began working on the message for Sunday.  I am preaching on the Beatitudes but won’t finish them.  I have only 3 Sundays before we leave. 

Goodbye to my replacement

We went to our weekly Bible study at 10 and then went to lunch at the Blue Onion.  We had invited Jim and Carman Moody so we could buy them a bowl of gumbo.   That is the soup of the day at the restaurant, and I have been wanting to try it almost all season.  They had some and liked it.  Evelyn won’t eat it but makes some that is even better than we had today.  Jim has been the retired pastor who replaced me when we went to South America and to Israel.  We talked a great deal about our trip before parting.  They will leave Thursday forever.  We returned home and rested until 2:45 when Frank Richards came to drive me to a round of golf at the par 3 course.  I had some good shots but too many penalties.  It was in the 80s but not too hot because there was a nice breeze.  We came home and had a beer before supper.  We finished off some fish that we had bought from Omaha Steaks a couple of weeks ago and some leftovers.  We took a bike ride after doing the dishes because it was a lovely evening.  The wind was a bit too much for Evelyn to ride into so we cut it short.  We came in and watched a couple of episodes of Mythbusters.  They are usually very creative and scientific.  We will be at the Stock Show for the next 2 mornings, but at least we don’t have to pay to enter.

Monday

I took Evelyn to exercise and went to Joe’s office to see if Juan could make my picture resizing project work.  He wasn’t there but Ray Peynado was and helped me, but there are too many steps for me to remember.  I would have tried to write them down but had to get Evelyn.  We came home to have lunch and take what is becoming our daily nap.  We did some cleaning and then went to see Heinz and Alice Bauknecht who have sold their unit and will be moving back to Winnipeg.  We will likely never see them again.  They have been good friends since I was working for Immanuel.  They taught us how to play Hand and Foot years ago and have played with us many times.  She loves to entertain and my still try to have us for a dinner sometime before they leave.  They are trying to give away much of their possessions away so they don’t have so much to transport.  We returned home before 9.

More welcome rain

We were up late Saturday morning but were on time to our work appointment at the Stock Show.  It was cold again but not nearly as windy.  We doubted there would be many in attendance and were right.  There was another woman assigned with us but just 1 of us was needed.  I took off to walk around at 10:30.  I found the volunteer break room and had some coffee.  I returned at 11 and let the ladies go.  Our shift was to be 10-1, so I was alone—for over an hour!  I thought they had become lost or something.  They finally returned after noon.  I left again and watched some of the cattle judging.  It seems that those kids work very hard to raise and groom those cattle.  The winners just happen to be blessed with cattle whose structures please the judge.  I can hardly tell the difference.  After our relief arrived (about 10 minutes late), we bought a stuffed baked potato to share for lunch.  I thought we could eat in the break room, but a group of kids were testing for something to do with 4-H.  Therefore we went upstairs where some garments were being judged.  We were blessed to find a table on which to eat.  We drove straight to the cleaner to get the vestments we had taken for cleaning.  They had been attacked by mold.  It seems to have come out of one of the garments but we left the other to be recleaned.  We came home and were delighted that we had no commitments for the evening.  We were able to relax and stay home.  I watched some of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” but Evelyn couldn’t.  In fact the small portion she did watched caused her to be up some of the night.  I was delighted that it was raining when I went to bed. 

dreaded cold, welcomed rain

We had 2 things to do on Thursday:  the bike club had its wind up lunch and we had tickets to go to Nuevo Progreso for the International square dance.  We went to the dance.  We had a good time and got a good workout.  We also wanted to get some Kahlua for a friend back in the states.  We were successful.  Evelyn’s legs were very tired, so we didn’t stay for lunch as we had planned.  We drove home and stopped at Nana’s for some lonches for lunch.  We have really learned to like them.  We rested during the afternoon and then watched the Purdue game in the Big Ten Tournament.  I continued planning for Sunday and checked on some of the materials I need for our tax preparation.  We went to bed early.  It is amazing to realize how even minor activity wears us out.  We seem to sleep a lot more than recently. 

Friday was a morning we had decided to have me make pancakes to help use some buttermilk we had bought for another purpose.  We can’t use it for many other purposes.  Then it was back to exercise.  The leader hugged me and welcomed me home as a prodigal son.  We had a good laugh about that.  We came home and dressed for the hospital.  I had a good time and served the Lord too.  We were short handed since 2 of the ladies who usually work weren’t there.  Evelyn worked in the Foundation again.  We came home for supper of tacos and then went to Joe and Bonny’s to show our pictures of Israel. We got to just over half finished and will return Sunday for lunch and more showing.  I haven’t mentioned how cold and rainy it was today.  The cold rain chills us to the bone, and we have to dress quite warmly.  We even had to turn on our small space heaters.  I had planned just 2 days ago to put them away for the winter.  I am glad I didn’t.  We are scheduled to work at the stock show tomorrow.  We work outside and will be cold tomorrow.  Rain is predicted so we will likely have little to do for the 3 hours scheduled. 

Tu

Tuesday is Bible study day, but I first needed to cut the grass.  It was quite high and getting higher.  This makes it hard to mow, and the spongy soil makes it even harder.  I finished, showered and made it to the study on time.  We are really blessed each week.  We came home for a light lunch and a nap before leaving for the concert.  Joe and Bonny came to get Evelyn Nelson, Jean Rothfuse and us to go to dinner at 5.  We went to a new restaurant called Bayou Grill that featured pretty good Cajun food.  Everyone really liked theirs but me.  Some of the 4 dishes I had didn’t taste authentic to me.  I have eaten a lot of Cajun food and know what it should taste like.  We all packed carry out boxes and drove off to the civic center.  The act was called MASS Ensemble and featured the strangest collection of instruments and sounds that we have ever heard.  In the 2 hour concert we heard 1 number we could identify.  The featured instrument was a huge harp like instrument that ran from the stage to the sound stage about 150 feet away.  2 performers played it like a harp.  Weird.  We were home before 10 and had some Bailey’s Irish Cream while Evelyn told Bonny about our trip to Israel.  We will show them our pictures later. 

Wednesday is the day I begin to prepare for Sunday.  I did that while Evelyn went to exercise.  It was very windy but mild all morning.  Evelyn returned and we had an early lunch so we could go to the noon worship service at Immanuel.  Evelyn had planned to meet with Estella Gonzales and Bonny to talk.  Estella was a friend from when I worked for Immanuel.  I went to the Verizon store and signed up for their Intenet service.  I had to pay $127 for the instument but will get $50 in rebate.  I picked up Evelyn and met John and Sue to take them to the Horseman honkey tonk.  We danced a few times and then returned home by 6.  Armand and Rose will leave tomorrow morning but had to spend much of the day charging their auto battery while they finished packing.  We will miss them and look forward to being with them again next season. 

Catching up

Thursday was to be a bike ride day, but we learned that we had a kitchen band engagement. We rode our bikes to the John Knox to perform.  It was too windy to continue to so we just returned home.  Armand and I played golf at 12:30 in the wind.  We had a horrible round but saved Roger.  He had gone earlier but locked his keys in his van and hitched a ride home with us.  It was John Hamel’s birthday and they took us out to the Outback for dinner as a repayment for our allowing them to use our house for their relatives while we were in Israel.  From there we went to a concert featuring 2 men’s groups, 1 women’s group and a Valley wide band.  On the way home we barely missed an object that had fallen in a lane of the expressway.  We were blessed to have been able to swerve around it.  It was a busy day and we were very tired.

Friday morning we went to Hamel’s to help them display items for a patio sale to be held Saturday morning.  We were surprised about how little they had to sell as compared with the huge amounts they had last year.  We were able to make it to our exercise class before going home to eat and dress for our afternoon at the hospital.  We enjoyed our service and were surprised that we knew 3 people who were patients and they were all in the same corridor on the 2nd floor.  I was able to visit with each of them.  I brought home our catfish/shrimp dinner and enjoyed relaxing in the evening.

Saturday morning I led the driver safety class for people in our park.  I had been concerned that the new DVD player would not be connected for me to use during the class, but it was there.  The man in charge of that job is unreliable, but his wife pushed him into completing his job.  We had lunched and rested until 3:00 when we took our neighbor lady to Mercedes for a handbell concert.  It was 1 woman playing 37 handbells.  She was entertaining and played some hymns.  We were especially moved by her playing “Go to Dark Gethsemane” from her Holy Week CD.  I even bought one.  We returned and had Judy come for pizza.  She was the widow who had attended with us.  We are trying to do something nice for someone each day during Lent.  She was today’s recipient.  I worked on practicing for Sunday’s message in the early evening.

We had 39 in attendance with us in worship despite at least 4 regulars being ill.  One was in the hospital having his gall bladder removed.  We caught Rose and Armand at home and invited them to have lunch with us.  Evelyn had slow cooked a whole chicken and had cleaned much Swiss chard from our garden.  We enjoyed what will likely be our last gathering with them until next season.  They left and I watched Purdue get beat by IU.  They just couldn’t hit some easy shots but did play hard.  They will continue play in the Big 10 tournament.  We both took bike rides around the park because it was such a beautiful day. 

Monday was Armand and my final golf for the season.  It was a slightly windy day protecting us from too many mosquito bites.  We were both blessed with our best rounds of the season.  Evelyn went off to exercise and run errands while we played.  After lunch I took Evelyn to her eye appointment to check her retinal occlusion.  We thank God that the injury seems to be healing better.  We were sad, however, that no one thinks that she will ever see out of the eye again.  I ran 3 errands while she was being examined.  One errand was to see if one of Joe’s employees could show me how to reduce the size of pictures I send via email.  One of them did show me how, but I couldn’t do it when I came home.  Evelyn had spent some time today making tortilla soup of the left over chicken, and we enjoyed it for 2 meals. 

We are grieving for the victims of the tornadoes in Indiana and Kentucky.  We will be able to contribute some money when our church leaders organize workers to go and help with the clean up.  We even learned that part of the system went right over Roswell, GA where Stacy lives.  We thank God for their safety.