Exhausted But Hitting the Road Again!

It has been a very busy, physical and mental few days.  We brought a lot home on Sunday afternoon after having thoroughly cleaned the MH and did two loads of laundry.  But while you clean a 40 foot RV you mess up a 2300 sq. ft. home.  I put away the things I brought home and tackled 3 months of mail.  I found our tax documents, license renewal for Jeep and MH, all our insurance renewals, Christmas cards that arrived after our departure, and several invitations and thank yous.  All the extraneous stuff was in one box and after a quick look see, most went into the recycle bin.  

We spent Sunday night at the MH so we would be there first thing in the morning.  We packed up all the pantry food that comes home, and the refrigerator and freezer stuff plus all toiletries and meds.  Because we had to have both the Jeep and MH inspected, we stopped to top off the fuel, then drove to Star Brakes to have both inspected and I knew I had to wait a day to have it show up on line.

Then we put the MH away in storage and I drove us both home.  I was pooped!  Tuesday I worked on our taxes but was stymied with Ted’s self employment.  I finally asked for a chat in Turbo Tax.  Seems there has been a reporting form change from 1099 Misc to 1099 NEC.  Ted was sent the wrong one so he called and was emailed a correct one immediately.  Now the box numbers and amounts made sense.  So I finished it all except for a K-1 that comes every year at the end of March.  Whew!  What a relief!

I went on line Tuesday and renewed the registrations for both vehicles.  Finished more laundry and cleaning and starting packing for our trip to Ohio.

We had an evening flight from Hobby so we had to deal with rush hour traffic, a late flight and a delay in having Hilton pick us up at the airport.  We were renting a car but they are not open past 6:00 so you couldn’t rent one.  Thus the need for a shuttle to the hotel and a return in the morning for the car.  We hit the hay pretty quickly.

Ted went for the car in the morning and we left for Celina, OH.  It is about a two hour drive and the weather was very pleasant.  We stopped to visit my brother who was home from his FL condo for the wedding, until it was check in time.  We were due at rehearsal at 5:45 but CST and EST caused a blip!  The TV clock had not been reset, nor my watch, and we were watching The Five that comes on at  4 in Houston but 5 in Ohio.  We arrived late after receiving a message “are you lost.”

Afterwards we gathered at a brewery hall for wings and pizza.  It was not your usual rehearsal dinner but there was an abundance of young folks, all wedding party participants and their plus ones.  I visited mostly with my sister in law, niece and her best friend.

The wedding was at 1:30 and everyone asked me if I had changed my watch.  Rachel was the most radiant bride!  

All went well, I gave out Communion walking sideways down empty pews to reach people in the filled pews.  Whew!  No tripping!

The wedding party was heading to another brewery until the reception hall opened but we went back to our hotel to rest and change clothes.  I felt my pink sparkly dress was a bit much for a 1:30 Mass so saved it for the evening.  Irene requested a photo of the dress so I did a “selfie.”  

There was a huge crowd at the reception and it was the first time we had been in such a situation for a year!  Most have either had covid or been vaccinated so fingers crossed we have dodged a bullet!

The hall was decorated beautifully and dinner was very good.  After visiting and being dragged onto the dance floor by nephew Brian and doing a two step with Ted, we called it a night.  It had been a tiring week!

But the celebrating was not over.  We were due at the complex clubhouse for a surprise birthday/retirement celebration for my brother, Dan, at 9 am Sunday morning!  This was a smaller group but our family is so big we filled the area easily and allowed more visiting in a more quiet environment.

We left there about 1:30 for our two hour drive back to Cincinnati.  Our plan was to take sister Karen and BIL Ronnie to dinner.  She is having dementia symptoms and he chose not to attempt the weekend away.  She has definitely slipped more in the 9 months since we saw her last.  It is heartbreaking.  But my BFF from kindergarten until present joined us since our availability was so tight and she remembered her.  Donna attended their wedding and was my plus one at their 60th wedding anniversary two years ago.  After dinner we went back to the hotel at the airport for a two night stay.

Monday was set aside to see Ted’s siblings and their spouses, all the folks we traveled with to Ireland  in 2019.  We had lunch at a new restaurant with the guys at one end of the long table, girls at the other.  There were 9 of us but I forgot to get a photo!

We eventually returned to CVG airport after a ride around the area we both grew up in.  We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather.  Ted chose to turn the car in and be shuttled back to the hotel so we did not have to do that in the morning.  

We left on the 6 am shuttle, left CVG on time at 7:30 and arrived in Houston right on schedule.  However, we flew into Hobby so we had a longer ride home than usual.  Bush is much closer than Hobby but we flew Southwest, using my cancelled Harlingen to Orlando ticket when the Andre Rieu concert was cancelled.

Sorry this is so long but time was slipping away.

Shout Outs to the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 We are home.  

We traveled under God’s protection and brought all three vehicles home safely, none in need of any repair!  Thank you, Lord.  Most of the trip is landscape nothingness but the harrowing hour through Houston makes up for the hours of tranquility.

Our camping spot was available for as long as we need it.  We have inspected the attic, ceilings, walls floors and see no indication of damage at home.  Hopefully our one cracked PVC pipe on the sprinkler backflow valve will be all the plumber finds.

Nancy had a dining room table covered with all our mail and packages.  It filled up the back seat!  I was able to get the packages and mail open and put into stacks of taxes, insurance renewals, car registrations, things to be filed and a stack of Christmas cards that arrived after our departure.  She has it all grouped together with notations on each envelope that I may have asked her to open.  Without her I am not sure we could do this.  I tried every service the USPS offers and every one fell short.  

We left behind in South Texas a crisis of a great magnitude.  I know the media is trying to downplay the situation but it is real.  Thousands, yes thousands, a day are just walking into our country,  our Border Patrol has to stand down and do no more than transport them to a processing center.  In the meantime the sex traffickers, drug dealers, gang members, felons are taking advantage of a pre-occupied Border Patrol.  

These folks are not emaciated.  They are not naked.  Most have cellphones.  Children are being sent unaccompanied and will serve as walking, talking “anchor babies” for their family’s plea to come in.  Coyotes charge thousands to get someone across the border but have no concern for their safety.  Young children are left to fend for themselves and young girls are raped.  The children end up in what amounts to temporary, portable orphanages and I have no idea what happens if they can’t find a family or friend to take them.  

The covid situation has made it worse.  About 10% are testing positive but are sent on their way, mostly by bus, so spreading in that contained space could increase that percentage.  

And for this we were asked to stay in for a full year, businesses closed, families were kept apart, etc. for our safety and then we are to accept this situation?  There is something terribly wrong here!  The borders were closed with a “wait in Mexico” program in place.  Legally the first country you come to when you ask for asylum is where you must stay, all of Central America came into Mexico.  But, interestingly enough, 94 countries,  last count, were represented so far.  I always wonder how they all manage to get to Mexico in the first place.  Especially the ones from Africa and the the Middle East. 

We were parked right by the Bentsen Palm state park that was granted a no wall sanctuary.  So we saw much more than those more inland.  Despite the sojourns through our gated neighborhood, we never felt in danger.  If they were “runners” it meant there was a reason they were not just turning themselves into Border Patrol.  We were advised to lock our vehicles and coach houses.  Do not interact with them, walk away and notify Border Patrol.  Response time was immediate, but not now.  

But there were a lot of good things we enjoyed too.  We did not live as if under siege.   People played pickle ball, rode their bikes, took their morning walks, golfed, swam in our pool, took yoga classes in our craft room, attended line dancing classes, had patio cookouts, wine tastings and upcoming, and we are missing, is the Tail Light Send off party where the permanent residents say goodbye to the Winter Texans.

Personally Ted and I did a lot of shooting and mahjong playing in our protected bubble of friends.   He shoots at a Sporting Clay  venue in Edinburg, skeet at Mission Skeet Club and just plain, old target practice with a clay bird thrower at our own gun range.  He is sort of in charge of the equipment, times, etc. and helps most of the shooters with their skill.

I played mahjong three times a week.  We were given permission to use two card rooms with 4 in each room at the clubhouse.  We washed the table covers, cleaned the mahjong tiles, and had hand sanitizer for after each round.  When the park next door sent people over for the night of the big freeze and they had no electric, we played at Sue’s house.  When a social group, one of whom tested positive had a meeting in the clubhouse, we played in my coach house.  We obeyed the 72 hour rule and were okay.  

We have many dear friends from all over the country now and do enjoy our time.  But we missed the activities that had to be cancelled and hope next season will be more normal.  I mentioned the big freeze.  We never lost power or water.  Ted did drop the hose and we used water from our tank that has a heat pad,  we never even had to use the generator.  We had a whooping electric bill though!

Second Last Week

Saturday was another church day and dinner out!  Sunday more of the same, shooting and mahjong.  It rained on Monday and we did nothing!  Tuesday dawned cloudy but not raining.  It never warmed up much but Ted shot in the morning, I played mahjong (and won!) in the afternoon.  Ted started consolidating all the stuff in the coach house that will go back in the cargo bays and then went to the grocery while I was gone.  We stayed in for dinner.  

Well it is now almost a week later and I probably can’t remember half of what went on.  I do remember going to breakfast with our ladies’ group on Thursday.

I stopped at HEB on the way home.  Ted and Steve were going to smoke ribs in Steve’s new pellet smoker.  Patty had fallen after tripping and hurt her sternum.  I said I would take care of the rest of the meal.  I made rebaked potatoes, BBQ beans, cucumbers, green beans and crustless pumpkin pie (Patty cannot eat gluten).  

Our Thursday mahjong got moved to Friday so the Bridge players can resume their play on their normal day so I had time to cook.  Dinner turned out great.  Ted has been wanting a pellet smoker so this was a good trial run for him.

Friday was mahjong followed by dinner for 7 of us at the fish restaurant.  We closed the place down.

Saturday was laundry, church, eating at Moon BBQ, and our last BOGOF sundae at Stars before going back home to watch TV.  

The sporting clay course opened Sunday for the guys to shoot since there was a skeet tournament at the Mission Skeet Club.  It is about 20 miles to Edinburgh so he was gone longer than usual.  I cleaned, worked on summer plans and went to mahjong just as Ted came home.  I won a "closed" hand, only my second time to do that!  We decided to save our defrosted chicken until Monday and went to BJs for dinner.

People have been asking about the present situation with the illegals, and believe me, they are coming by the thousands.  Even our church hall has been turned into a processing center.  The Border Patrol is so busy providing rides to be processed that the drug peddlers, sex traffickers, and coyotes know exactly how to avoid getting caught.  At the processing center they are given clean clothes, an asylum claim court date (now at 2+ years out) food and a bus or plane ticket to where they want to go anywhere in the US.  This is what Trump stopped with his "remain in Mexico until asylum date" that was done away with under Biden.  They are being tested for covid and are told to social distance, then turn them loose.  We have them being picked up by their "contact" here in our gated neighborhood.  Many have cameras and there is film after film of them running through our neighborhood and getting picked up so the gate code needs to be changed.  Ted said Abbott has called for the National Guard.  I will learn more about this week.