Valley Time!

We've had a good winter here in the Rio Grande Valley. The weather has been far better than the last two years. Those years we couldn't string together five days of decent weather. Now our "cold fronts" that come through bring mid-70's temps, so we are good to go. We have had some hot days and one that rumored to hit the 100 degree mark. I saw 95* myself.

We try to walk every day. We do it early in the morning before it gets too hot. We walk about 2.2 miles. Then we try to ride bikes every afternoon, but it has been really windy for several days rights now, so we haven't ridden much. Every day we walk past Tigger's house. Tigger is this huge cat that loves people. If he is in the back of the lot and I call him, he meows and comes running. I always pet him if he's out. Many other walkers do the same. Some feed him treats, but Tigger doesn't need anymore, so I just pet him. He is pretty cool for a cat.

We have been going to some shows down here. They have "Wintertainers." There has only been one we went to that was pretty lousy. The singer wasn't bad, but the people playing with her were out of tune and terrible, so we left during the break of that one. One we really enjoyed was Adam Pope. He is "rockabilly" and really good. His material is all original and he talks a bit about his music. We saw him twice, at our park and a neighboring park.

Our friends, Danny and Sandy, returned this winter and Danny has been playing at some of the jams in the area. Rock and  roll jams that is. He is really good and has a rock band back in Illinois. We may go see his band this summer.

There is also another couple who arrived last month across the street from us and we have enjoyed visiting with them. They are all coming back next year as well. We are going to be having quite a few new people in the park next year. After several years of properties for sale and not selling, we have enjoyed a period of increased sales. It will be good to have some new people in the park.

Butterscotch, our white Scottish Terrier, has had a rough year. She has bladder issues, but we finally found a vet down here who is interested in finding her problems and getting to the bottom of it. We believe he has found what's ailing her, but there isn't a great prognosis. She develops bladder stones, so we changed her diet. She has a malformation in her genital tract which makes it difficult and slow emptying her bladder. That by itself can cause infection to develop, so she will probably have to remain on antibiotics for the rest of her life. The good news is there wasn't any evidence of cancer, so we are thankful for that. She just doesn't have any energy though and doesn't want to walk, etc. She sleeps a lot. She goes back Friday for another cystoscopy to see if there are any visible changes. Wish us luck. We love her and her sister so much.

Till next time. . .

Dale

What a difference. . .

Yesterday the temps actually got up to 70 which was way nicer than it has been. It has been cold and rainy down here in the Rio Grande Valley, but still not as bad as last year. We have been running through a lot of propane and electricity, though, that's for sure. We keep heat in the Texas Room all the time because we spend a lot of time over there. And we keep the motorhome heated as well, mostly with propane because the heat pumps are so noisy under the canopy.

With the warmer weather yesterday, there were so many people out walking and riding their bikes, there were traffic jams in the streets. On my! I got the dogs out more yesterday because they really like being outside. Today is another cold day and it has started out wet, so that is going to be the rule today and tomorrow and then warmer temps return. It will be more in the "normal" range from then on. . . at least for the 10 days I can see on the weather site. Still better than what we would have if we were back in Indiana. And it is easier trying to keep warm when it is 40 than if it were -10; I try not to complain.

I have started working on our taxes for last year. I have a computer I use just for that and when I booted it up the other day it gave me lots of errors. . . same as before which is why I stopped using it, but it never locked up on me. Now it was locking up every 15-20 minutes and would require pulling the battery and unplugging it, then putting it back together and restarting, only to do it all over 20 minutes later. Not going to be able to get my tax stuff done if that keeps happening. I can't just use my other machine, because it is a Mac and my one bank does not communicate Quicken files to a Mac. Get with the times, Interra! So I have to have this one running in order to download the data and work it up.

So. . . I finally got smarter and rebooted in safe mode. I went in and uninstalled multiple programs I knew I didn't need. . . mostly games. And I no longer use McAfee, opting for a free antivirus since I only fire this computer up once a year, so I got rid of it. I rebooted and it has been running well ever since.  Good for me. I worked all day yesterday and got some stuff printed out and some other work done on the apartments. It isn't hard work and the computer makes it easy, but I have some sorting through records, etc., and it just takes time. I want to be ready to send it all off when I get my tax documents from everywhere. Having sold two houses this year will certainly cause some stress, but we already know about how much and part of it has been paid, so we are ready for that. We took the sales documents to our tax person this fall, so she already has that part worked up. It will be a lot easier when we finished selling off the apartments and no longer have that paperwork to do.

Mom and Dad's car has been in for service and hopefully will be done this week, so when it is, we will take them to go get it. I see eating out in our future! We don't go out often as it's hard for Terry's low sodium diet, but we do sometimes splurge!

Till next time. . .

Dale

We are ready!

We are ready for warmer weather, that's for sure. Shades of 2014 are clouding the horizon. That ol' North Wind just keeps blowing and when it does. . . we are in for cold, cold weather. Of course, it's not as bad as up north, back in Indiana or anywhere else north of I-10! So we try not to complain, but it is colder than we have come to expect down here. At least it's dried out for a few days here, but that is supposed to change as well, dipping into the 40's for the high Thursday and rain on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Yuck!

Mom's laptop bit the dust. When she tried to turn it on earlier this fall, it would not power up. I'm at a loss with laptops, but Terry's not afraid to try anything. He has torn his various machines apart and even my old Gateway and managed to fix most problems. So he decided to take on the project. He ended up replacing the ram, motherboard, CPU and the battery. It could be just the battery, but it was UNDER the motherboard so he didn't want to tear it all down and replace the battery, then find out something else was bad. He got all the parts off E-bay for less than $40 total and he fixed it! It's up and running again. We still need to update the browser, but she is back to playing cards again! Because of the browser issues, we can't easily get to her email, so a phone is still best if you want to talk to her.

Terry and I had to run Mom and Dad's car to the Ford dealer in Edinburg this morning for service, so it was a good excuse to eat out for breakfast! We ate at the 107 Cafe and it was pretty good. It's a nice little restaurant and everyone was very friendly.

We came on home so we wouldn't miss the propane guy. We need to fill up again in the motorhome. We use more gas because running our heat pumps is extremely noisy under the canopy, but we have been running the back one just to save a bit on propane.


While we have been home, our neighbors across from us were getting their roof re-coated. The guy running up and down the ladder did not have a belt on and when Terry looked out, he got almost a FULL MOON!!!!! Haha.  Didn't seem to bother him, but it only got worse as the morning rolled on. I don't see how he kept from falling as his pants were down so far, but he left in one piece. Ho ho.

Yesterday we went over to Enchanted Valley, a neighboring park in our system. They had the Gold Wing Express playing. This bluegrass group is comprised of a Dad and three sons. The boys' mother was a full blooded Creek Indian who died 15 years ago and they pay tribute to her and their Indian Heritage in their routine as well as all veterans. They play bass, lead guitar, mandolin, dobro and banjo. Steve, the banjo/dobro player said he first started picking the banjo at age 10, 33 years ago. They are all exceptional talents. It was a very good performance and I would encourage all who enjoy bluegrass to see them if they are in your area. They are in the RGV till mid February, but they also play in Branson. You won't be disappointed.

Last night we were treated to a much nicer "moon" shot. There were clouds, but the moon shown through and it was quite beautiful.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Life in the Slooooooow Lane. . . .

We have not been on the receiving end of very good weather down here in the Rio Grande Valley. It has been downright cold and wet. Still not as cold as our friends and relatives up north, though, so we try not to complain. But it is not comfortable for either one of us. We still get out several times a day to walk the girls, but after that, we stay inside. This week has finally warmed up and is getting much nicer outside. It was 56 out this morning and we walked, but came back early because it seemed to be too cold for Terry. He cannot handle cold weather at all.

We are doing well and I have started the work on our taxes. I like to get it out of the way early so I can enjoy the rest of the nice weather. It will probably take me about a week to get it all done. It wouldn't take near as long if I worked on it occasionally during the year. LOL

The Texas Room is really nice. It gives us some extra space and is very comfortable. We did get a storm door hung there. It is a security door and has glass all the way to the floor, so the dogs can lay on the floor and look out. We can also swap out the glass for a screen, but for the present, we are leaving the glass in. It had a regular knob and also a deadbolt, so if I am over there by myself working at night, I can be nice and secure and still be able to look outside.

The girls seem to be adjusting to retirement. They sleep a lot, but now that the weather is nice, we let them sit outside under the canopy. They have shade when it is hot and can move back in to the air conditioning if they like. They certainly have made a lot of friends. They let everyone pet them, but they still don't care for other dogs. I have talked with a couple dog owners and we are going to start walking them all together. That should help with that socialization. They love going in the golf cart. We usually have it parked out front during the day and they will go sit in it. LOL Always ready for a ride.

Our daughter and her family recently traveled to Florida to visit relatives. They stopped by Brandon and Megan's and took some pictures of our family. Megan took the first picture, so the second one includes her!

 Aenea, Tom, Ronan, Jocelyn, Brandon and Brynlee

Brandon, Megan, Brynlee

As the weather gets nicer, we will get out more and I may have more to report.

Till next time. . .

Dale