Need to Put My Nose to the Grindstone

Our time here has just flown by. There are three things I still need to do, one being the dentist.  But we are invited out this week again. Don and Trudy are coming next week and we will spend time with them. They had dr appts and could not come down for the winter. Simon and Garfunkel is Tuesday and a tour of the Gelman stained glass windows museum is coming up.  These are located at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan of the Valley in San Juan TX. The Basilica itself is worth a visit. We have attended Mass there.  A small museum is attached to the church and life size metal sculptures of the Stations of the Cross are spread throughout the gardens. I am looking forward to this trip. 

We were able to see our favorite comedy duo Spittin’ Image on Saturday night.  We tried to see them in Ohio last summer but couldn’t get the dates to work out!  Great musicians and singers as well as comedians.

Monday we went to the dentist and after cleaning and photos he suggested I get two very old (silver) fillings replaced in two upper molars. One filling looked like a bow, it had separated into several pieces. The other one was not as bad.  He was concerned about a back molar on the bottom but after a panorama X-ray he determined it was a wisdom tooth, was no worse than the other two but was doing absolutely nothing because it didn’t hit my upper teeth.  He said if it gives me trouble to have it pulled.  It would serve no purpose to try to save it with a root canal and crown.  I didn’t see that coming but I made an appt for next Tuesday to get the two upper fillings replaced.  Ted was fine.

Tuesday was Mardi Gras so when we left the clubhouse after playing mahjong, the golf carts were lining up for the parade and the Jambalaya was cooking in the kitchen.  

We were leaving at 6:15 to see The Simon & Garfunkel Story so we left the bead throwing and partying to the others.

 

The McAllen Performing Arts Center is gorgeous and the show was fantastic.  We were not in “peanut heaven” but Floor, Row 33, Center. Very good view of the two actors who looked very much like Art and Paul, but more importantly, sounded like them.  They started the story in their school day friendship telling their personal story and singing the songs about what was going on in their own lives and the world at large.  Certainly makes the words more meaningful when put in that context.   

 

Week 7

I finally got around to fixing a pot roast on Monday that I had lined up the whole weekend but different plans got in the way.  We planned to play card bingo at our park but we just finished eating at 6:45 and I was not walking out on all those dishes!  

Tuesday was mahjong and a beautiful card and 4-piece box of chocolates from Ted.  He knows not to buy me a big box of candy or flowers (nowhere to go with them) but he figured 4 pieces of candy would not get him in trouble.  

We had a bit of excitement on Wednesday.  First the electricity went out and all kinds of stories were circulating.  Eventually three poles were repaired but no one will say what hit them! At Margarita night later on at the park next door, Bill and Ornell were there holding a table and we were joined by their neighbors Wayne and Gail.  About 5:30, though we didn’t see or hear it due to the loud music, a meteor flew through the sky like a ball of fire (described by those who saw it) and caused a sonic boom.  They said it flew over Mission to west of here and landed but again no one seems to know where.  From a government that could track calves to a pen in Canada during mad cow, there seems to be a lot of “we don’t know, it was nothing or it won’t hurt you” going on all across our nation!  

Thursday was breakfast with the ladies and when I got home I made two key lime pies to take to Ornell’s spot next door.  They are our Cajun friends who live on the TX/LA border, also from TX Boomers, and she was making gumbo to serve to our other friends from home who are down here and a couple from Montreal.  They served them tamales earlier in the week but had to show them how to unwrap them to eat!

In the photos, Stella, from our Texas Boomers group, Ted and me.  Second one, Gail, Jay, Marlene and Mark.  Not shown, Wayne, Bill and Ornell.  It has been cool in the evenings and we ate outside, thus the jackets.

Ted, Ornell, Gail and I all went to card bingo and Gail won $32!  This weekend Spittin’ Image is performing and they are our favorite act to see. 

I have been busy working with the girls to book a 4 day weekend cruise on the Disney Wish to celebrate Kristin’s 50th birthday in May.  We have our plane tickets and cabin booked.  I am going down for a week arriving two days early and staying 2 days after.  

Then we will have a do over of our Covid interrupted Disney World trip of last August.  This one will be over Labor Day.  Kristin, Ted, CeCe (we have to kidnap her) and us will share a 2/2 family suite at the Grand Floridian for 4 days.  It sleeps 9 so we have all kinds of room including a full kitchen and LR.  We may do one day at Magic Kingdom but this will be more a resort vacation than park hopping.  Ted and I will fly down to be there a week spending the extra time at Kristin’s.

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And our Barcelona to Dubai cruise is still on starting in November.  Whew!  

I may need all of 2024 to rest!  

Welcome to T-Mobile

When Ted could no longer get Messages, he attempted to contact Verizon and he could not reach them.  When they tried returning his failed calls they couldn’t understand each other, so we threw in the towel.  After dinner with Dave and Karen on Friday we went to T-Mobile which was right there in that strip mall.  We were able to keep our phones and phone numbers, they paid off the $400 balance remaining on the two phones, cut our monthly bill in half, gave us Netflix for life, and Paramount+ and Apple TV for one year.  What a deal.  It is working so far.  Now we need to see what kind of coverage we will have at home and while traveling.  Fingers crossed.  There is no contract so we can get out of it if we need to.  

Saturday we attended Mass and had dinner with Bill and Ornell.  We continued on our own to Mission West to see a live performance by Ron Mosier.  He put on a fantastic show.  Ted shot at Mission Skeet on Sunday while I played mahjong and we went to Pizzaria with Sue and Niles afterwards where I had great lasagna!

We had to return to T Mobile on Monday to tell them how we wanted our phone payoff credited.  The authorization had not come through yet so that was a waste of time.  I played mahjong Tuesday and won the first two games in record time.  Barb and I left early because Lark Drive was having a block party and I met up with Ted to attend.  There has been so much turnover that we as renters have been here longer than most everyone else.  We are in the second photo, on the left.  Ted is in a green shirt and I am on his right in pink.

Wednesday we met up with Paul and Ruth, Haulin’ Hitchhiker protégés, back to the early 2000s, when we both owned HitchHiker 5th wheels.  They now have a Newmar too so we all attended the Newmar owners monthly luncheon at the Golden Corral.  It was good to catch up with them.  They told us the old HitchHiker gang is having a rally in Shipshewana in October.  If we still have the motorhome we may just meet up with them all on our way back to Texas.  

Sue and I had a girls’ day out to Mexico on Thursday to get her dog his medicine and to pick up a few things I still needed.  We were unable to find Ted’s eye drops!  I think we have enough for the rest of the year but I will have to put them on Ted’s med list in the Medicare D questionnaire next year to be sure we get the best plan for him.  Good Rx lists it at $259 but I have no idea what it will be with our own insurance.  We stopped at a Tea Room in Hidalgo for lunch.  It was a cute place and the food was good.  We learned of three fun tours in the area to look at as day trips for the ladies.

Friday was back to mahjong and a bit of laundry.  Saturday was a big day.  The village garage sale was going on but we forgot all about it until we noticed the increased traffic.  Kathy’s children had cleared out the coach house across the street and probably some things from inside the motorhome.  I hope they got rid of some things.  They have been here 10 years so a lot has accumulated.  In another 4-6 weeks they will take Kathy back to Minnesota and get her settled in assisted living.  Smokin’ on the Rio BBQ cook off was held in Mercedes.  We have judged the food for several years but they changed the times and beans and chicken were up at 10 and 12.  That meant we couldn’t do ribs or brisket until 2 at the earliest.  With church at 4 it became a problem so we passed.  

It has been nice attending Mass with Bill and Ornell and then going to dinner.  We took them to Southern Fried and they loved it.  We are running out of our haunts!  They returned to the campground next door while we went to Fiesta Village to see a 50s singer.  He was a fun entertainer.  Lots of singing along, jeopardy type questions and funny answers from the audience.  

There was a Super Bowl party at the clubhouse but we chose to stay home in our recliners with our own pizza.  We have attended them in the past and most people are more interested in talking, drinking and eating than the game.  Once we sat in the front row of hard chairs and at half time we turned around and we were the only two people still there!

Great game and to our delighted surprise, Kansas City won.   

Chiefs WIN it!

Chiefs WIN it!

OMG The CHIEFS WIN IT!!!

Can You Say Cold?

The Brownsville couple came and really liked our motorhome.  They stayed almost two hours.  They too asked if bringing an inspector was ok and we said yes.  However, neither has done so yet.  I did get an email saying the second couple had requested an appraisal based on our build list and they would share that with us.  And they are having trouble finding an available inspector, they are booked to May.  I said fine, we will be here through mid March and then back to the Houston area until mid July.  

Today we went to Space X in Boca Chica.  It was so cold, windy and drizzly that we didn’t stay off the bus long at our stops.  We left here at 6:30 and returned about 2:30 and it didn’t warm up at all!  First photo is Airstream Park for employee living arrangements.  The second is a plot of land owned by someone who bought a “lot” years ago and has held it and now wants to sell it.  The two tall buildings are for assembling the rockets. The black and white rocket is supposed to go up this month.  Amazing to see this huge complex with no government involvement.  I am in the front row with beige arms standing in front of Ted.  There were 48 of us but not everyone wanted to get off the warm bus!  

Thursday morning was our ladies breakfast and I learned the lady with the new hip that I stayed with after her hip replacement fell and damaged her new hip.  She is having surgery today I think to repair the damage.  I believe she will go to a rehab facility when discharged.  Her husband is just not capable of caring for her.  

It was card bingo night and our Texas Boomer friend that we ran into at church has been attending with us.  We find a partner for her because Bill is not interested.  I won a dime game and Ted won a quarter game for a total haul of $25 in nickels and dimes.  Now Ted won’t have to go searching for change each week.  

Earlier in the day we had a cleaning machine demonstrated from our “winning” a free rug cleaning at the Expo.  We were really looking for someone to come clean our 4 x 35 strip on the big slide.  I explained this but they insisted on coming, so I said ok.  They cleaned the carpet but what they did for the white grout in our tile floor was amazing.  They use steam from water pressure only.  There was a stain from under our breadbox on the solid surface sink area and it cleaned it perfectly.  If it didn’t cost $2600 I would have bought it!  I also suggested they change their target customers to smaller cleaning companies where a few machines shared doing nothing but grout cleaning would be a huge success.  He said they can also do ovens but I didn’t have one to clean.  Ted gave the young man $25 for his tremendous efforts.  

Today is mahjong and then dinner at BJ’s with Karen and Dave.  And another week here is coming to a close.