Hot day in Mexico; Lord blesses computer repair

We went to Mexico today.  We had hoped to have a man come to look at repairing our bathroom carpet, but we couldn’t make the connection before we left.  John and Sue went with us because 3 of 4 of us wanted to have our teeth cleaned and receive pedicures for the final time during this season.  Evelyn and I had our teeth cleaned first and then went for lunch at the Red Snapper.  Ironically, that is what we ate.  It was very good and inexpensive.  From there we went downstairs to have our pedicures.  We were attacked by the woman who ran the place.  She persuaded our ladies into having them done here.  I went along so that we would stay closer together.  Back we went to the Galleria to get some vanilla for Jo back in NC.  I had taken one of our suitcases on wheels to avoid having to carry the glass bottles for such a long way across the bridge.  It had become hot, so we hurried back home.  John had a couple of extra printers because they go to many garage sales and collect bargains.  He offered to replace my non-working model.  He did and it worked.  He took mine because it can “blow up” his Sudoku puzzles from the newspaper.  We stayed home during the evening, being tired from the day’s activities.

Surprises at worship

I was shocked to wake and find that my printer would not print from my laptop.  This caused me to take it and preach from it.  Things seemed to go well.  But an additional event prevented our having our planned Holy Communion.  On the way in the door our dear friends who look after the wine and bread dropped the wine bottle.  We decided to have the Communion next week.  We went to visit a while with John and Sue because Bonny and Joe were still in Austin.  She leads the choir, he is one of the basses.  We went to Popeye’s to get some chicken for lunch.  Evelyn loves chicken and we both like Popeye’s.  We did some light shopping and were home by exactly noon.  After eating, Evelyn went to bed to rest because she had not gone to sleep until after 2 AM last night.  I just tried to get the printer to work and watched some NCAA basketball.  I was surprised to be able to make copies of documents but not anything from the compute.  John said he had an extra computer and we will get it from him tomorrow morning when we go to Mexico to get pedicures and teeth cleaning.  It will likely be our final trip to Nuevo Progreso this season.  It was a pleasant day and we walked in the early evening.  Evelyn talked with both girls as she tries to do each weekend.  We really praise God for the joy we get from the conversations and especially the fact that we are still close to them.  She also talked a long time with Jo Wooten, a fellow Christian from Waynesville.  We will soon be headed back. 

Another week at a time.

Has it been another week already?  We have mailed our tax return for last year and await a refund to be deposited.  We have attended the Knapp Medical Center volunteer awards ceremony where we both received 750 hours of service awards.  Evelyn is about 50 ahead of me.  That was the day that Evelyn began to come down with her first cold of the season.  Wednesday she was down in bed all day.  She was too ill to attend Lenten service and choir practice with me.  Bonny was back and kept us for more than our usual hour because she will be gone next week.  This means we have only one more practice before Easter unless we have one before Maundy Thursday.  We will practice after the Palm Sunday service.  Thursday I learned some information from the local pharmacist.  She needed something for her throat and cough, so I went for some cough syrup and Coricidin.  I learned that was a combination of acetaminophen and Benadryl.  We had both so she started taking them and some Siltussin DM cough syrup.  We hoped she would have an instant cure that never happened, of course.  We had been invited for supper by one of our Canadian neighbor’s, but she was still feeling too bad.  Friday began the same way for her.  Since we were having guests Saturday afternoon, I hired one of the park workers, Bhudda, to wash our porch.  He discovered a problem with the coating on our Texas room roof.  He will come back and finish that job Monday morning.  I went to work at the hospital as usual but without Evelyn.  She remained home to rest and dress for dinner with Don and Janice.  It was Janice’s birthday and we had planned an dinner outing with them.  They came and we went to Arturo’s.  Evelyn and I shared a Pablano pepper meal that was the most delicious we have ever had.  We returned here to play Phase 10 and have key lime pie, one of Janice’s favorites instead of cake.  They left around 9:30 and Evelyn hustled off to bed.  She slept through the night with minimal coughing.  We praise God for that.  She slept late Saturday and I worked on making reservations for our way to NC after Easter.  She got up and we hosted a welcome party for the new neighbors to our east.  It was a rather dull gathering, in my opinion, but we did get to know each other better.  After a walk in the balmy evening, we retired early.

3 angles of mounting iron and tow bar

These are pictures of our mounting iron and tow bar I would like to post on Craig’s list, but I can’t find out how to do it.  Can you help me?

Catching up with ourselves

Where do I begin?  I must be more faithful in keeping you informed.  Our neighbor, Judy, has come home and is taking speech therapy at the place where she had the stroke.  We have had our largest crowd in worship.  We have had to say goodbye for the season to some of our good friends.  We have volunteered to work at a very good dance and received a lot of help from many of the people attending the dance.  It makes my heart glad to see how God grants us His Grace.  We have gone San Antonio to look at Air Force Village II again.  The people are always quite gracious and express a desire to have us move there.  We also learned that, according to an actuarial evaluation of our finances, ages, etc. that we can expect to live for 16 more years and will not run out of money for 27 years.  We attended 2 parties while in SA.  The most inhibiting feature is my commitment to continue serving our Lord by leading worship at Trail’s End.  That is without providing a satisfactory replacement.  We also have 1 daughter for the move and 1 questioning it.  We think it would be a good place to enter into a life care facility if necessary.  It will cost a great deal of our assets but has a program that provides a 90% return of money to the heirs.  We will volunteer at the local Onionfest tomorrow during the morning.  Evelyn has been feeling well in terms of her recent sciatic pain.  We continue to praise God for His mercy.  We will be here until after Easter so we can attend a festival in Lafayette on the way to NC.  We have also scheduled a flight to visit the Beeli family in Utah.  We will go in early May and return in the middle.

Southern Comfort Kitchen Band

This picture was taken at the Valley Grande Rehab Center while our band played.  Evelyn is peaking from the side of the piano.  The woman wearing a white apron (standard apparel) is Judy Kruse who later in this day keeled over onto the man wearing the red striped apron.  She had a mild stroke, and we followed her to the Valley Baptist hospital in Harlingen.  She had ridden with us this day because she lives across the street from us.

Final kitchen band party.

Tuesday was busy and disappointing.  I went to borrow the neighbor’s electric lawn mower, but it was too wet.  I waited until later in the day to finish the job.  At 11, Ed and Nona came for lunch.  We served some soup and visited with them until 1.  Then I finished the mowing.  Nona is as deaf as the legendary rock and talks over everything.  People have to be patient with me, but she is impossible.  Ed is a quiet, withdrawn, intelligent man that deserves much pity.  He seems to love and respect her and doesn’t seem to be unhappy.  Evelyn rested while I was mowing and spraying some of the weeds in our yard.  We went to the wind up party of the kitchen band.  We spent most of the time visiting with each other.  I spent most of my time talking with a couple of older gentleman.  I enjoy talking with the elderly—like I am so far from that status.  One of the men has an alcoholic wife that stops and talks with me often.  He gave me enough information that may help me help her.  We had a delicious potluck meal until after 5.  There were 36 band member and their spouses there.  We went to Lenten services in Mercedes followed by a choir practice that was too long—especially since we will not sing next week because Bonny will go to Maryland after Sunday and won’t be back for a week.  We didn’t get home until almost 9.  The disappointing news is that I received an email from a friend I have known since 1969 who wants to discontinue our relationship.  We have communicated via email for years, but he is very liberal and is very bitter about anything conservative.  I told him so and said I would send him only Christian information and encouraged him to come closer to Christ to help him with his bitterness.  He said he didn’t need my help and thought faith was a private matter.  Unfortunately, like many Roman Catholics, he knows virtually nothing about Scripture even though he has a PhD in Literature.  I will continue praying for him.

More costumes from our Mardi Gras

Those who wished could parade around our hall to be judged in various categories.  We both entered as singles but those pictured here were in the couples group.

An exhausting weekend (you lost an hour of sleep)

Saturday was our first day working at the RGV Livestock Show.  It was a warm day for a change but also provided a nice breeze.  We decided to participate in the scavenger hunt to qualify for some prizes.  The idea is to get people to visit various sites on the grounds and prove it by getting a part of the schedule of events folder stamped by the various locations.  We both found all 8.  After our 4 hour shift, we tried to find Don and Janice to join us in watching some of the judging of their heifers.  They have 4 grandchildren who show the animals, and the youngest one finished 1st in her class.  After that was over we stopped at a Pizza Hut for a pizza and brought it to our house for supper.  We also played a long game of Phase 10 with Don and Janice.  I don’t normally like to have some plan for Saturday so I can practice for Sunday’s service.  They stayed until almost midnight.  This situation was exacerbated by the fact that the country goes onto Daylight Savings Time tomorrow, causing us to lose an hour of sleep.  We were very happy when we got to bed.

Sunday we were tired.  The worship service went well and many were blessed by it.  As a point of humor, our friends, John (one of the pianists who accompanies our hymns) and Sue, his wife, and Sylvia, an elderly woman they bring to worship some Sundays came after the service ended because they had forgotten to move their clocks ahead one hour.  After worship, we went with the 3 couples that acts as our “elders” in the church to the Remington Steak House for brunch.  I had 2 for 1 coupons for the brunch, but the bill for each couple was still over $30.  We were home by 2 and fell into a dozing afternoon session.  We were quite tired and sleepy.  We went to bed at the regular time but had spent much of the afternoon partly asleep. 

Monday we slept until nearly 10.  We had a late breakfast and then went off to Harlingen to see our neighbor, Judy.  She was the one who had the mild stroke while we were singing at a nursing home.  We praised God that she was  much better than when we last saw her.  Of course she had a pace maker installed last week.  She could speak much better and had much more energy.  She could think much better in choosing words to utter.  But she will have to remain in rehab there for at least 2 more weeks.  We were home in time to go to the happy hour across the street from us.  We had been invited a week ago.  They are from Killarney, Manitoba and most of the 24 other people were Canadians too.  I felt almost out of place.  We had a good visit with a couple of them regardless.  The Canadians stick together much of the time, but I happen to like them as well as any of the Americans we know here.  We came home about 5 after the drinks and appetizers at the party.  We watched some of “The Wiz” starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.  We will likely sleep late again tomorrow because we are still tired.  I must also record that it has rained over an inch here in the past day.  The farmers. including our friend Don need rain here.  I also hope that the reservoirs up the Rio Grande have been getting the rain also.

Our Mardi Gras costumes

This is Evelyn in her Mardi Gras costume.  She is supposed to be Princess Jasmine from the movie Aladdin.  She prizes herself in the glitter on her leg.

Our selfie in our own home.  I am playing Harpo Marx but have added some inflatable shoes for effect.

Our picture in the social hall where the Mardi Gras dinner and dance was held. 

Much going on in our lives.

We have been busy since the most recent postings.  While entertaining at Valley Grande Manor, our neighbor, Judy, suffered a mild stroke.  We followed the ambulance to Valley Baptist hospital where she got treatment and was admitted to the hospital.  She remained there at least a week.  Her son, Scott, and daughter, Stacy, drove down from Chicago and stayed over a week.  Eventually Judy had a pacemaker inserted and is still in the hospital.

We also went to a concert in McAllen featuring The Diamonds.  They were great, and the couples we went with enjoyed the dinner and performance.

We also had a Mardi Gras party in our hall.  I will post some of the pictures taken with some captions.  It has been very chilly for this area for the past week.  Of course this was not nearly as bad here as it has been in the northern states and Canada. 

We also have begun to think about when we become incapacitated.  We are considering moving into the Air Force Village II in San Antonio.  It will take a great deal of our money, and we are concerned we may run out of money.  We will have to do some serious calculations before making a decision.  We are planning another exploratory visit to talk with the people in charge. 

Our daughter, Emily, has also invited us to return to Utah for the 3rd yeas in succession.  We will probably go and be there on Mother’s Day.  Andrew, her son at UK may be there at the same time.  We don’t know whether to fly from here or from NC.  This makes a big dent in the time we can spend in our other home because we have scheduled a cruise through the Panama Canal in September.  We seem to be spending a great deal of money suddenly.

Tonight we saw some impersonators of Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons.  They were very good.  We also had our taxes prepared and will receive a refund of over $4,000.  This is poor planning because we had let the corrupt Federal Government use that money for a year without paying us any interest. 

We are coming to the belief that God wants to continue living here in in the Valley so I can continue preaching at the RV park.  I don’t like the atmosphere in this park but will continue to live here if the Lord wishes.  We do thank Him because we have very active and happy lives.