Monday 22nd Did nothing.
Went nowhere. Sat, read, watched
TV and napped. Practiced being
retired.
Tuesday 23rd Drove into Cedar Park Iowa anymore.
We stopped
at four Goodwill stores. The first one
was a used bookstore only. We didn’t
bother going in there. We’re both avid
readers, however we don’t want or need the extra weight and storage problems
with collecting more books. It is online
reading or libraries for us. The other
three Goodwill stores were full of Halloween items. We didn’t purchase anything except a digital
scale.
Shortly
after we arrived at Arik and Jenny’s, it was time to pick up the kids from
school. Ella and I rode with Jenny to
get the kids. Then, before going to
their house, we stopped for pumpkins.
The United
Methodist Church
After
returning to the house, Sofia, Arik and I went food shopping at the local H. E.
B. store. Arik used the shopping
experience to teach Sofia
the importance of starting with the best quality ingredients. He showed her how to pick out steaks with the
right amount of marbling and explained why it was important.
While Arik
prepared the food, Jenny hung party lights on the fence, I watched Bekket ride
his bike in the alleyway, and Ella and Sofia did something together.
Bonnie,
Jenny’s mother, came over and it was now time to carve the pumpkins. Sofia
wasn’t sure at first what she wanted her pumpkin to look like. After deciding, she drew a face and, then
with Jenny’s help, used a little punch tool to make small holes. After that, Jenny cut the top open and it was
time to scoop out the insides. Sofia was excited about
this part because she knew that the plan was to save and roast the seeds. Bekket
did not want to touch the inside of the pumpkin. After I appealed to the ‘boy’ in him by
saying, “You need to reach in there and pull it’s ooey gooey guts out!”, he had
no problem with touching them. Grandma
Ella helped him with the scraping of the inside.
I helped Sofia with the actual
carving and Ella or Bonnie or Jenny helped Bekket.
My own
pumpkin was green and warty. I chose it
originally because I envisioned it as a frog face. However, upon examination, I saw that it
already had a tiny face on the bottom side of the pumpkin. All I did was remove a little of the skin to
help others see what I saw.
Soon the
food was ready and it was time to clean up after the carving. The food was fabulous, as you would expect
from an executive chef. The steak was
three times the size I would eat for one meal (although I finished it all).
After I
spent some time wrestling with the kids … and loosing, I was dragged away to
their ‘secret lair’ while the ‘grown ups’ cleared away the table. I enjoyed the time with these grandkids that
I’ve seen so seldom. Bed time came and
both kids were settled into Sofia ’s
room for the night because Ella and I were to sleep in Bekket’s room.
Jenny had
to leave or work early in the morning so she was off to bed as soon as the kids
were down. Arik visited with us for a
little while before it was time for all of us to go to sleep.
24th
Wednesday. I woke about 3:30 and was
done sleeping. I tried laying in bed but
only lasted a half an hour. So I was up
at four and went downstairs and started some coffee. Not all of the night’s dishes had fit in the
dishwasher. So, I hand washed those that
remained.
I truly
like to wash dishes. Really! I know it sounds strange but the fact is I
like the feel of the warm soapy water, I
like the progression from the soiled to the clean and I like the sense of
accomplishment when the job is done.
I was
reading another chapter of an online book when Raja (their fourteen year old
dog) awoke and came down stairs. She
seemed in need of petting. After a while
she also seemed to need to go outside.
So, we went outside for her to take care of her early morning
routine. Raja is one of the most loving
animals that I’ve ever seen. My daughter
has said the Raja is the perfect dog for cat lovers because she is so docile
and lazy. And by the way, Raja is a pit
bull. She is so far removed from the
stereo type pit bull as you could possible imagine. He tail starts wagging right behind her ears.
Jenny came
down the stairs next, had some coffee and was soon out the door. Arik had gotten up so that he could move his
car out of the way for her to leave. The
kids came down dressed and ready for breakfast.
Bekket asked for the puppy food cereal which turned out to be some oat
bran stuff that I thought only old folks would eat (folks older than me … I mean).
I was soon
time for Arik to take the kids to school so we went up stairs to wake Grandma
Ella.
After the
family was gone, Ella went back upstairs to dress and pack our stuff away. I fixed her some breakfast while she did
that. And then it was time for us to
leave.
Our first
stop on our schedule was Sam’s Club.
However, when I saw the Lowe’s next door, we stopped there first. I needed to purchase some pipe insulation to
go around the water hose on the Hitch Hiker and a bucket to place over the hydrant
for the water supply. I’m told that is
all I need to do to prepare for winter in Texas .
Now on to
Sam’s to pick up a few bulk items like paper cups and bowls. Since there was a WalMart just on the other
side of the freeway from Sam’s, we drove over there to shop. However, when Ella pointed out that we would
still need to stop at WalMart in Marble Falls, because that was where her
prescriptions were, we decided to move on to our next destination, IKEA.
I have this
to say about IKEA … I will never go into one again. I wasn’t halfway through the place and I told
Ella to go ahead and look for the laundry basket that she wanted. I was going back to the car. Even following the “short cut” to the exit
was taking me forever. Now I know what a
‘catalogue store’ is. It is laid out
exactly like pages in a catalogue … except you have trouble turning to the page
you actually want to look at. Sorry, to
all of you fans of IKEA but I’d rather be slowly dismembered with a teaspoon
than shop in an IKEA.
After a
while, Ella came to the truck and woke me from my nap. Now it was time to say good bye to Austin and Round Rock and head for Marble Falls Texas .
After
pickup some RV supplies and lots of groceries at WalMart, we went through the
self-check out lane. After scanning and
bagging everything it wouldn’t take my ATM card. … Oh yeah, a safety feature of our credit
union … we had spent too much in too many diverse locations … suspicious
activity. Fortunately, I could use the
same card in ‘credit mode’ and make the purchase.
 |
| Roof vent cover |
We got home, unloaded the truck and put stuff away. It was too hot (96 by my outdoor thermometer) for me to crawl around on the roof installing the three roof vent toppers. So, I took a nap. By six it had cooled down enough that I climbed to the roof and got two of the vent tops installed. Dusk was quickly approaching so I saved the third cover for another day.
- - -
25th
Thursday We drove into Austin to visit with Heather. Mike was at work so we didn’t get to spend
time with him. We had never been to
their apartment before. Heather was a
little concerned about how their dog, Lily, would react to us. Evidently Lily doesn’t like strangers and
especially men with deep voices (me). It
wasn’t a problem. No barking but a lot
of licking and jumping. She was so happy
to see us it was if she’d known us all her life and couldn’t believe we hadn’t
visited sooner. We got a tour of the
apartment. It was not very big, but very
nice. They have been talking about
trying to buy a house in the area, which is not very far from either of their
works.
We visited there for just a short time before it time to go to lunch at Bartlett ’s. Ella and I had only been there one other time. And that had been for a hot fudge sundie. Heather and Arik are both chef/managers there. Since Arik was working, he came over to say “Hi” and give us a hug. We had expected to see him there. However, we had not expect to see Jenny also. Some friends were taking her to lunch in honor of her birthday.
Heather told us about a gluten-free menu that she had developed for the restaurant and how well received it had been. She ordered her desert from the gluten free menu and we got to sample it. It was inspired by a chocolate pie. This, however, was served in a small bowl and had no crust. It was like a mousse with some chocolately liquor, topped with a huge dollop of whipped cream and candied orange peel. It was very good (and I’m not a fan of chocolate). Follow this link to Bartlett's home page and see that they are talking about my two kids who are chefs.
Ella and I
shared a warm brownie that was more assorted nuts than brownie. It was three or four inches square and was
crowned by a huge scoop (about a cup) of ice cream over which a coffee/caramel
syrup had been drizzled. It was almost
more than two of us could eat.
After lunch
we went back to the apartment just long enough to get Lily. From there we went to a park where we could
talk and Lily could run. She is a high
energy dog and the apartment is really too small of an environment for
her. Which is one of the reasons that
the kids want to purchase a house with a large, fenced yard. We stayed at the park until nearly four when
I told Heather that Ella and I would need to leave around five so that we could
get back to Shady Oaks before dark. (I’m
not comfortable with all the twists and turns and deer and cattle that roam the
road, to be driving it at night.
- . -
26th
Friday we both had Coffee, I with the guys at 7:30 and Ella with the gals at
9:30.
Shortly
after sun up I was going to go to the roof and install the third vent
cover. However, as I opened the vent in
preparation, it rained in my face. I
hadn’t realized that it was raining before.
What a surprise. It rained off
and on (sometimes quite hard) most of the day.
So no working on the roof.
Since we
were stuck inside on a cool and rainy day, I decided to bake some bread for the
potluck. We have potlucks twice a month
in the rec hall. I made a large loaf of
potato bread which I baked in a skillet in the oven. It turned our so well that we ate half of if
before the potluck. So, I baked another
loaf and made some candied oranges slices also.
Ella sliced a bunch of our tomatoes to take to the pot luck also.
27th
Saturday was still cool but not raining so I was able to install the third and
last roof vent cover. This last cover
was installed on a vent that had a fan in it.
Because of the fan, the screws that came with the kit would not work. So I went to the closest hardware store. I had driven past “Buchanan General Store”
many times and not really even noticed it.
Once inside, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was just what I
was looking for, a real neighborhood hardware store that had bin after bin of
hardware. I was able to buy the eight
screws that I needed without having to buy a bulk package. I’ll be back to this store, I’m sure.
On my way
out of Buchanan General Store’s drive, I saw the sign for another RV park. Being in no particular hurry to climb back up
on the roof, I decided to take a little drive and check out the park. Excuse me, this was not a park, it was a
resort. I guess the fact that it had a
swimming pool and hot tub made it a resort.
It was very nice and neat. The
prices were only slightly more than what we are paying at Shady Oaks. I was surprised that there were so few people
staying there. Makes me wonder why
people aren’t staying there. Oh well,
back to work on the roof. It had been
week since I had dumped the holding tanks, so I did that also.
28th
Sunday we returned to Cross and Spurs
Cowboy Church
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