June 5th...a day I shall long remember...we finally left the driveway at 2 Walberta. It's about time I guess. Was really tired of looking at the garage door and the neighbor's trash cans. So, I guess this is our first day of official "homelessness". Gypsy lifestyle. Freedom. We are parked at Riverside Park. We almost didn't get a full hookup...there must be some workers here that have kinda taken over the few full hookups available here...most spots are water and electric only. I noticed also that they park their trucks in open spots between their rigs so there is more room for their stuff. The campground hosts have their hands full I guess. We are actually in a spot that someone I guess switched their spot tag for and left two lawn chairs. They are only paid for one night, so the campground host let us take this spot...we will be here ten days and need the sewer hookup. Hope there are no problems.

The PODS arrive tomorrow and we are hoping to finish packing all in one day. Prolly a pipe dream but it would be nice! To finally end this lonnnnnggggg, drawn out divestiture!

So, we are once again "on the road" as fulltimers once more. Of course, since we started in 2006 we have the 2006 class t shirts but still had the house to get rid of....no biggie I guess.

Paul has goofed around with the satellite dish for about two hours and still can't get the sucker to work. Too many trees I think. Oh well, we didn't come to the campground to watch TV all the time. I am looking forward to the quiet. Sitting in the driveway and not in the house that sits back on the lot, you really hear a lot of Rt 29 traffic, especially the heavy trucks, you know the ones bringing in the breakfast buddies we all know and love! (hogs, piggies, whatever...breakfast buddies...bacon, sausage etc.) Plus I will NOT miss those two gargantuan loudmouths from next door or the revving up of grandma's Harley.

Well, not much else to report. It is nice and cool this evening, so we will sleep well I think.

Snickers is jumping from window to window taking in all the sites...dogs, squirrels, birds...her little mind must be plotting out how to escape and have some fun I guess.

Later....

dee

Ok, ok...I have been shamed by girlfriend #1 that I haven't posted for a week. Well, its been a very busy week yanno! The master bed and bath are now done. Paulie is at this very moment taking off my foam pad and heated mattress pad. We are donating these to our favorite charity...the Zack Ziaja Furnish My Apartment for Me Fund. We have about three grand donated already, whats a couple of hundred more?

We didn't do very well at the auction....my stuff went for a buck an item. The highest bid item was the freaking moneybox with the key I used for past garage sales, 6 bucks and the dancing NFL St Louis Ram went for 5. Jeez, no accounting for people's taste....!

The POD cubes from ABF are arriving on June 6th and we have til the 11th to get 'er done. Shouldn't be a problem. We depart from our beloved camping spot with the wonderful view of the garage door in the driveway. A tree to look at would be nice...the garbage can also gets old.

For those of you who I haven't spoken to in a while, Paul's dad called the other morning and announced he was in the hospital. He felt numbness in his leg and it was dragging it behind him so he had to use a cane to get around. Called the doc and she ordered him to the E room. He drove himself of course, probably after he walked the dog, did his bathroom thing and had breakfast. Apparently, he has suffered a mini-stroke. The trip to the ER and the meds they administered immediately prevented a potentially serious major stroke. Wow, lucky little guy. He spend two nights in the hospital getting tests and then he was released. When Paul called in the early evening last night, Grandpa said to hurry it up, he was going to the oyster bar with the "girls"....his golfing buddies.
I guess he's feeling ok!

The rain is here and will stick around for the rest of the weekend...it won't get outta town til like Tuesday. Crap. Means I will be such a sweet soul to live with and be around. Yeah right. Poor Paul. How is it possible for a person to sleep for 18 hours a day? I think I am turning feline...they sleep 23 hours a day. This combo of fibro-chronic fatigue-bilateral Meniere's is a real doozie...I am a medical mystery. Think I should donate my old geezer body to science when I die. The only hesitation is that Paul if he outlives me, will get paid for it. That would piss me off. Especially if they pay by the pound....

hugs

Dee

Thursday

Well, so much for spending the holiday weekend at Lake Sanchris...they are overflowing. People put small tents on sites to hold them...after paying of course. Hmmm, I suppose that's one way of reserving a spot over the holiday...paying for a full week for three or four days of camping. Not me. I am too cheap. Besides, it is supposed to rain all weekend so I would rather spend it in the driveway with my satellite TV and close to the Showplace 8 (so I can go see Johnny Depp) and near the grocery store in case I get a yearnin' for something. We would not be able to get satellite in all the trees, and I am not into watching raindrops. *sigh*. I did want to get away.

Well, we got rid of all but five tubs of stuff for the auction. Paul took the first seven or so of many bags of donation stuff to Hope Charities. I will begin working on my clothes sometime this weekend and just finish up all the little odds and ends. I am really tired of sorting and deciding...will be glad it will be over soon.

I had my last pt this morning and like a good little girl, I got my T shirt. All I could do today was heat...I am in the midst of a fibro flare and I could barely move much less get out of bed this morning. Gosh, this gets old... Before we went to PT, we dropped off the rig for the new tires...$2600 later we have all new wheelies.

Not much else going on...storms are rolling in with a cool front which is making my head throb. I just need to take it slow and easy this weekend...
Living in the driveway does have it's disadvantages...the Harley riding grandma next door and her two buxom grandaughters(read fat girls who wear clothes that are 4 sizes too small...) are out in the nice weather. They don't talk to each other, they frickin' scream. Gets OLD....last night I almost called the cops. They act as if there is no one else around and nobody hears their obnoxious screeches. Grrrr.

hugs

dee

Wednesday...

Sometimes I hate this damm blogger. Earlier today I wrote a nice informative post for everyone to read...then I kept getting scripting error pop ups. Nice. Blogger informs me that it now automatically saves what I am writing into drafts. They lie. I am not gonna repeat all the terrible names I called this blogger. Just makes me want my own web page again.

Anyways...I will give a quick synopsis of what I wrote earlier...

All tubs (like 25) made their way to the auction.
Paul sold more stuff to Minak (the gal who bought our house) including my bike and the tea cart.

(FYI...I am now getting a message every 60 seconds that my writing is being saved by blogger....pffft! I say!!)

I aggravated my fibro lifting boxes and packing yesterday and I am paying the price today.

It is freakin' HOT in this rig without air...we can't run even ONE AC due to the electric situation. Makes me think I will convince the polish prince to move us to Riverside park BEFORE the 12th...or even Sanchris Lake (that might be too expensive....who says state parks are economical?)

Well, I am also brain dead so I can't remember anything else I wrote earlier. I wanted to go to the Stitch and B*tch at Barnes and Noble tonight but I am on the fence. I do have a ton of books and mags on knitting to get rid of...maybe someone there will be interested. I am not working on anything at all, but I do have my trusty D*mm sweater in the bag next to my chair. Too hard to do that while talking but I want to look at it a lot and feel guilty. Now ask me how that is working, LOL!

Hugs to all...

dee

Monday Monday....

We had our first Cenois Rally at Yogi's Jellystone park in Goodwin. $35 per night on weekends. Outrageous. Last time for that place, at least for us poor Ziaja's.
We are retired, yanno and on limited camping funds. LOL. We had a nice visit with everyone, and met some new folks who may join our club.

Back to reality this morning. I listed about 55 items to be listed on Ebay by the service we found. The only thing they wouldn't take was Zack's old airgun. Toll Paulie they don't DO guns on Ebay, but of course, each and every statement, comment or bit of knowledge expressed by me is completely and totally ignored. I win...again. Just like on TV tonight I told him Dancing with the stars was the finale... tonight was the final three and of course he insisted there was one more week. I win again. I just don't know why he doesn't just keep his trap shut. He is wrong more often then right and I am always right!

We will be renting a trailer tomorrow and taking a ton of stuff down to the Auction house in Glenarm. Again, change of plans. I just cannot deal with another garage sale, and its the holiday weekend anyways so the turnout would be iffy. We need to have everything OUT by June 12th as that is when we start the summer tour. The rest of the stuff goes to our friend Hank's church thrift store in Lincoln. No matter where or who gets it...it will be gone! I need to find a cleaning service to clean the house before we leave. I am NOT wiping out cabinets and washing down the kitchen plus the fridge needs cleaning out. Ick. Not something I either relish OR can do well...bending and reaching up are out of the question.

22 days and counting to lift off. It seems so long ago that the Polish Prince and I decided to sell and go fulltime. It must have been 10 years now that we have dreamt of going on the road to see the country. We will continue to write our travel plans in pencil and can be erased and changed daily.

The island, the wing chair and the futon work beautifully in the rig. The only original furniture are the front seats and the bed. We do need to find a source for the stupid pantry slid out racks...the plastic anchors in the back keep breaking. Very irritating. The vibration going down the highway must crack the cheapie things. Can't find metal anywhere. The engineers at Damon must be idiots. Don't they think of these things in their designs? Grrrr.

Well, I will post some more after our experience at the auction. Hope this works out.

hugs,

dee

After months of having sign in problems with the blog, even losing the damm thing once, I have determined just what is happening at google. Its not google...it ME. Was there any doubt? Hardly ANY I'm sure. I had changed over from the old blog format and misspelled my sign in name. I have been typing rocketmom1985 for so many years...but for the change over I signed in as rocketOM1985. RockeTOM. My goodness, I am truly brain damaged at times. Well, at least I know how to fix it...just sign in as rocketom. It won't let me change it to my regular email addy as I already exist...Grrrr.

Paul is in Athens at a funeral this morning. One of his buddies from FedEX passed away unexpectedly at the age of 53. He did have Chron's disease, but the cause of death has yet to be determined. He had transferred from SPI to California and ended up in Maui as a courier. Paul says at least he died in paradise. I am not so sure of that.

I am getting ready to go thru all my clothes. I really seem to have packed what I most needed when we left in November. Although I plan to stay far far away from anyplace cold, I guess I do need some clothes to layer if the weather should turn cold unexpectedly. I do have a "little black" outfit that I will keep in the MH. You never know when I may need it in the future. Let's hope not for a long long time.

I have so many t shirts that are iffy. Not good enough to wear out in public but certainly too good to toss. I guess I will just put them in the charity box. Paulie and I decided to have one more garage sale(oh crap, why did I consent to this...I will regret it I just know this as sure as I am sittin' here...) The packing up of stuff to take to auction will be very little. A set of China, the tea cart, some crystal and wine/drink glasses. And the recliner from the MH. Maybe the table set and the large cedar chest we had put in for extra seating for grandpa and for storage from the MH also. I ordered an island with a breakfast bar that folds up and down. It has several drawers, a knife rack and cabinet storage. Hope this setup works. I had to almost BEG the polish prince to spend the $299. It should be delivered today by FedEx ground. We are leaving for our first Cenois MH club this weekend at a campground somewhere near Peoria I think. It will be good to get away for awhile and see what everyone is up to. This may be our only outing with them due to our schedule being written in jello. I still want to keep up with the Cenois, but it may be hard to mesh schedules, but we will surely try. We have made some wonderful friends over the years and don't want to lose them.

Well, that's about it for updates. Back to the mess in the house...we already have 30 tubs of stuff I can't live without. The Prince is NOT happy. Pfffft.

hugs

dee

OK, so I have not been good at updating the blog. I have been going thru some serious emotional ups and downs here. Paul wants to get rid of all MY stuff...how can he be so callous? OK, so I have two tubs of Halloween stuff...one tub of Easter decorations and 7 Christmas tubs of stuff. I got rid of at least 10 tubs of holiday stuff already! I have lots of pictues, which I SWEAR that I will go thru when we get back to Weslaco in October. I need TIME to decide what to save and what to get rid of...yanno its hard...Zack appears in 60 gazillions of them and all of them are good! I have three tubs of crafts, and I should remind Paulie...down from an entire ROOM of stuff. It kills me to give this stuff away. Everything I had was a project that I keep in my head and that just needed time to finish. Argh. What is the good of having a whole freaking garage in Weslaco if I can't fill it up with my stuff? I would rather set out Catherine's Hummels than look at a tacky lioness statue from Big lots....I am NOT making this up....I have some beautiful dishes and china pieces...I consented to get rid of all the crystal. Jeez, what is a gal to do! Paul says there must be 59 tubs to be moved. He needs to learn how to count for cripesakes. I have a lot of personal stuff...you should have seen his face when he saw that I had put my collection of angels on top of the lambrikin shade in the bedroom. WhataPutz. Oh well. There is a completely great shelf on top of that lambrikin and it was perfect for my angels. Heck, I need all the heavenly help I can get. Plus there will be a spot for St. Joseph up there when we dig him up after the closing.

We just got finished with the auction guy. Not encouraging...says that what we have just won't sell except maybe the teacart, my Lenox china and the chair we removed from the MH. Crap. Now what? We can haul it ourselves to the other auction place in Glenarm and see what they will take. The rest of the stuff we'll just haul to the Goodwill. I haven't even gone thru my clothes yet. I am very discouraged. Of course, my junk is NOBODY'S treasure.

The kitchen counters, stove and sink have been installed. Looks great. I am jealous. My kitchen in Weslaco needs countertops...next year. ...maybe next year....

Well, Paulie and I have another couple of days work here now that we know what we have is crap that nobody wants. I have a bunch of stuff for the ebay guy...but I have to list it all individually or in "lots" ....this will take me the rest of the day at least.

Well, we have pulled in the slides and are headed over to the lake to dump the holding tanks. No use tempting fate...the black tank says full...just what we need, an overflow of nasty black waste
like poopoos overflowing. That would be the freaking end.

I'll try to post more updates in a more timely manner...don't think of this as a promise...I seen to be breaking them right and left.

OH...Zack made the Dean's list again...he surely is is mother's son...bullsh*ting his way thru college. Well, he's gotta have some brains...just wish he'd get a grip on his sloppiness issues. I pity the poor girl he marries...that reflects on the mother yanno?

hugs

Dee

I offer my humblest apologies...since we have arrived back at the sticks and bricks house, I haven't posted anything to the blog. Not that I don't have a lot to talk about, but I just had more pressing issues to deal with.

A quick update. As soon as we got home, Paulie decided to have a garage sale. We have a new neighbor next door, a young man who is getting married soon in his home country of Greece. We are trying to fanagle an invite to that wedding!
He purchased the big screen tv and also Gene's bedroom set. We worked like dogs (well, Paulie did...) to get ready. It sucked. Nobody wanted to pay more than a dime for stuff. I am NOT selling my set of china for a frickin' DIME! We decided to just call an auctioneer to sell what is left which is a lot of stuff. We did have a serious buyer two days after the sign went up, however she backed out due to financing issues. A couple of days later, we had a contract on the house. A couple who works for the state have her mom living with them so this is a perfect fit. We held out for full asking price. No problem. So, we have been very busy. We did have painters in, ordered new counter tops, bought the new sink and hardware, paint for the cabinets and a new stove. We had no idea we would sell it without these improvements so we had already committed to those expenses. We were able to take the paint back and the hardware so we did save some $.

I have been under the weather since we have had several cold fronts accompanied by rain hit. I am doing better today however. We are still planning to go to Michigan June 18 and will return on July 18th or thereabouts. Zack is having some minor surgery on July 20 so we will be able to care for him when he gets home. He and Gregg are moving into their new apartment this weekend...I should tell you all that Gregg's dad and Zack's dad will be doing the actual moving. Figures, Zack has to work...don't know what Greg's excuse was...thinking it was RA duties getting all the kids outta the dorm.

The other thing we did was cancel our home phone which means I lost my dsl for internet. We decided to buy a Cingular aircard which I am now using. It is quite different than dsl and altho they call it broadband, basically the card is a cell phone that slips into the laptop and then connects like the phone does. It will take me a while to get used to this...

well, I will post more later. I am off to take a shower. Its raining again so I don't know what the slavemaster has planned for today.

hugs

dee

Tuesday continued….

We arrived at Auntie Avril’s around one p.m. Our GPS was having spasms of some sort and kept wanting us to get off on exit 127 and I know that it should be 129. We followed the voice on the GPS and made a nice big circle around Lebanon. Jeesh. We were right back on I44 and just a bit frustrated. We stayed on I44 and then exited at 129…there was Wal Mart and the Ice cream store like we remembered. Grrrrr.

She must have been waiting since 7 am. We had a nice visit while she cooked the pork loin Peggy had dropped off. We laughed and talked all afternoon. Finally, Peggy got there about 5 and we headed for the farm. Peggy and David have named it the “Economical Farmette” which is a standing joke…Peg had to go back to work to keep it running as she so aptly states…”it costs money to feed these ‘pets’. “They have goats and chickens and a few guinea hens to keep the tick population down. It is a lovely place and her house is very beautiful. She has a love of antiques and has many fine pieces around her home. I had never met David and it was fun to finally meet him. He took Paul and me to see brand newborn baby goats. They are so cute. Goats are very curious and were climbing all over the ATV’s and jumping in the feeding troughs. The twin babies were still “wet” meaning their Mama was still trying to get them cleaned up and standing in order to nurse. I guess that’s what she was doing. (She sure looked fine after popping out two babies…I remember what I looked like after Zack and I certainly didn’t look that good.) It was raining and freezing out so Paulie and I headed back to the house. David and Peg have several Great Pyrenees dogs as goat herders and protectors and one had developed a hot spot which required the vet to shave off her back end of hair. While they tended to her, Auntie, Paul and I sipped on some local wine while dinner was in the oven.

We hod wonderful pork loin roast marinaded in orange juice of all things; rosemary flavored sweet and white potatoes; steamed broccoli, and Auntie made wonderful brownies and lemon bars for dessert. It was delicious.

After dinner we just talked about folks and things and Paul and David talked trucks. We did get to see Lisa Gibbons get kicked off Dancing with the Stars…should have been Clyde the Glide…he’s just to damm tall and awkward to be any kind of dancer. Plus his partner is a real peanut….how stupid is this?

We said our goodbyes around ten, as Peggy has to get up around 5 a.m. to get ready to teach school. David gets up and works the “farmette”. It was quite dark when we drove home, but we made it. Paul and I headed to bed in the rig and hit the sack without even turning on the news or anything.

Wednesday….

We were up around nine and as Paul readied the rig for our last leg home, Auntie made us breakfast of bacon and eggs. After we ate we talked for a while and finally around 11 we pulled out. It is so hard to say goodbye to family that you love dearly. I miss her already! It was great to see all the Texas and Missouri relatives that we rarely have a chance to visit. There is something somehow wrong with not seeing a cousin or part of your family for 30 years. Yes, we do keep in touch with Christmas cards and such, but really getting to know family…well, life just gets in the way unless they are close at hand. Sad…but we like many folk have family all over the place and it’s just hard to make a trip when other things crop up. That’s why I am looking forward to RVing almost full time. I can look up old friends, relatives and new friends during our travels.

Well, after we left Lebanon, we headed northeast thru St. Louis and arrived in Edwardsville around 3. Zack has class til 4:15 and he will probably go home and change then drive to meet us. We parked in the Wal Mart lot near the campus. We noted no overnight parking signs, so I guess we will head home after our visit with junior.

We went to Lackawana something or other for dinner. Paul and I split prime rib and Jr. had a steak. It was a delicious dinner and we enjoyed visiting with Zack. I just don’t know how much I miss him until he’s sitting across the table from me! In another year or so he will be off on his own, teaching someplace. Well, our home on wheels will visit him often.

We had to co-sign some lease papers for this apartment for Zack and his friend/roommate Greg Eddings. Neither make over $1500 a month so the management company requires both kids to get parents to co-sign. I hope I don’t regret this…I am sure he will honor his promise and continue to work next year. Heck, if he works Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the country western bar, he will have plenty to make his rent…it is only $325 and then about $50 for electric and internet. The boys have already paid the deposits and have even purchased the washer and dryer the previous tenant’s parents had bought for the kids in the apartment. This way they can save a bit on laundry costs…$1.50 per load plus at least .75 cents for a dryer. Zack already took the pizza oven we had at home. He will be taking Grandpa’s leather loveseat and recliner, and his favorite recliner that Paulie had been using from his old room. It is tattered and unbelievably hideous but they both just love the damm thing. I will give him pots and pans left over from Grandpa’s place plus some extra dishes and silverware I have. We are set in the rig and also in the Valley.

We left Edwardsville around 8:30 and arrived at the Ziaja homestead around ten. The wind was terrible and Paulie had stiffened up in his shoulders trying to keep the rig on the road. We pulled into the drive and just parked the rig. We plugged into the garage and went to bed. We are home.

Hugs

Dee

Tuesday....lazin' in Cathage...

It's 9:45 and we are still camped at Ballard's campround. We slept late...9 am.
We prolly won't get to Aunt Avrils til noon. She'll be pacing around all worried like if I don't call her and let her know we've been pokies. Oh well...Peg is gonna make us dinner at the farm and she gets off work I would guess around 2 or three. We have plenty of time in my mind!

We both were asleep before Letterman's show even started! I guess we were tired. Well, I will make this one short...we have to store stuff so we can get the
Aslyum movin' on down the road.

Later...

dee

New posts since we left San Antonio...

Friday...the road to Borger in the Texas Panhandle...

We left the Traveler’s World Campground around nine. We have a long day of driving the length of Texas today. We are hoping to get about 200 miles from Borger before we stop. Then the ride Saturday will be an easy one.
We programmed the GPS and off we went. We followed the directions until we found ourselves heading towards Corpus Christi….wrong way in my mind. We thought, heck the GPS knows what it’s doing…who are we to question the great satellite in the sky? Well, finally we decided to pull over and get out the map. We were SOUTH of San Antonio, and we obviously wanted to go north…well, duh…

I whip out the map of Texas…now this sucker is bigger than the windshield. I can hardly handle the damm thing so I start folding it and folding it and folding it to get to the center where we are. Forget the atlas…there’s pages of different parts of Texas and the sequence of the pages is asinine. I start to map out a route that will take us northwest. No main highway from San Antonio to Amarillo the closest city to Borger. Hmmmm. So we hit the big I10 and head west. We will be able to catch a “red road” (which is usually a four lane type road but they go thru small towns) which will take us to San Angelo and then we can hit another going up to Amarillo finally catching I40 to go back east. Thinking that would add hours and miles to the trip, I plot out a new course that will take us thru Abilene. It appears to be a staight route but all state roads which means small towns. *Sigh*. If we were herding stupid cows it would be an easier way to to across the countryside. I keep thinking of Abilene as a cow town and am thinking we will stop and take a look at any neat historical stuff we can find. (noted later...Yeah, right...the road we were on went on the outter edge and all we saw were gas stations and cows.) After getting off I10 we now head due north. We are in Texas Hill country. I have heard a lot about how beautiful it is with the bluebonnets blooming. It really was a nice drive, not as scenic as I thought but better than what I know is ahead as we go towards the panhandle. The bluebonnets were lovely and they went on forever. We drove right thru Fredericksburg which is a well known German town with really cool shops and cafes. Paul didn’t want to stop. Putz. There are BAKERIES there you fool! Real baked goods…not supermarket crap like they pass off as bakery for heaven’s sake! The GPS was not helpful…we didn’t know where it was gonna take us so we stayed with the map. So far I am NOT impressed with Garmin.

We drive thru the next 400 or so miles and all we see are a few cows, some stumpy tress and cactus. Then we didn’t even see that. No wonder General Santa Anna traded his life for this part of the Texas Republic…its pretty worthless looking to me too. (Now you know I am kidding right?)

We are noticing gas/diesel prices are jumping higher as we go farther north. We were looking at $3.09 for diesel. We paid $2.40 in Weslaco. Crap.
About 6, we pulled into a town called Childress. There is a brand new Super Wal Mart with a Murphy gas station. Diesel is $2.66 so with our discount it would be $2.63. Paulie pulls in and fills up. There are several trucks and a motorhome in the far side of the parking lot. I note a sign that states Truck and RV overnight parking HERE. Wow. Camp Wally World inviting us to spend the night. What a great sales tool for Wal Mart. They know RVer’s spend money so they invite them to spend the night.

Paul went into the store and picked up some tacitos for supper. We were both tired. We watched a bit of TV and were dismayed to hear that we were heading into 4 to 6 inches of freakin’ snow. Great. We went to bed hoping we didn’t wake up to a winter wonderland.

Saturday April 7

We were up early but decided to sleep a bit more. The anticipated snow had not arrived. We got up around 8 and got dressed and got back on the road. I had a taste for some eggs so we stopped in a little town café off route 287 and had some breakfast. I had called Aunt Karen earlier and told her where we were and it was about 100 miles from Borger. We arrived following her directions. By the way…the GPS broad was turned off…her voice is grating…but then I knew it would be.

We had a nice visit with Aunt Karen and then my cousin Kim and her son Cade stopped by. We had another nice visit, then Cade got a phone call that some friends wanted him to join them to watch a pay for view event of some type, so he and his mom left. We had a sandwich with Aunt Karen and then my cousin Sue, her husband Bobby, and their daughter Liz and her husband Darren arrived. We talked and laughed and visited for quite a while. We finally headed back to the Asylum to hit the sack. It was cold, and it had flurried a bit but no accumulation of snow thank goodness... We slept like rocks, nice and cozy in our rig with the heated mattress pad on full blast. Paul had dropped a line to Aunt Karen’s house so we had a bit of electric thereby avoiding running the generator all night. Aunt Karen made us biscuits and sausage for breakfast on Sunday. She had prepared ham, brisket and potato salad, along with a pecan pie to take to the Easter dinner. It would be at Kim’s brand new house, which we have heard was very beautiful. Kim and her husband Danny had only been moved in for three weeks. About noon, we all got gussied up and headed over to Kim’s. House was right out of Architectural Digest or House Beautiful. It was lovely and open, spacious and had very high ceilings. It had granite and marble, glass and crystal and some hardwood floors that were really beautiful. All the cabinetry was custom built and it had some really neat features. For example, they have two Chihuahuas and their own “room” has a heated floor. Then they have automated doggie doors where the dog stands in front of the door and the door automatically opens…the dog has an opener device in it’s collar. Too cool. They also had a lovely outdoor kitchen and a huge outdoor fireplace on the spacious patio. I told Danny when I decide to build my dream home; I would call him to design it. He and Kim picked out everything down to the light switch covers. Incredible.

Danny’s parents arrived from Amarillo and right at one we sat down to a delicious Easter dinner. Ham and brisket, mashed potatoes and potato salad, mac and cheese, rolls, baked beans and veggies. It was wonderful. We were so happy to be there to help share the holiday.

After dinner, we just sat around and talked, I showed a few pictures from the computer to Sue and Aunt Karen. I had put most of them on a disk, but there were still plenty for them to see.

After dessert (I passed…I was sooooooo good….) everyone began to pack up. We went back to Aunt Karen’s house, got jackets (it was freezing out) and then went out to the “ranch”. Uncle Wilbur had purchased 25 acres many years ago and had built a horse facility and roping corral there. Before he died, he and Aunt Karen had hosted roping competitions there. Bobby and Sue have taken it over and made a lot of improvements. They have done a lot of work and it shows. Bobby competes in Team Roping, and has won a national championship. They mainly use it for practice and there are several teams that practice there. I asked how they practiced….they rent Mexican bulls…I am NOT making this up…$30 a month per cow! After freezing our asses off, we headed over to Sue and Bobby’s place to visit for a while. Sue has just finished redecorating and the house is really pretty. They have a roping and cowboy theme which is really cute. We looked at pictures of both her girls and their husbands. Both girls are tall, dark haired and are beautiful. They have great jobs and lead exciting lives. Liz is a dental tech and her husband Darren is a lawyer. Julie and her husband Tommy both work for CareMark and travel a lot. They have just transferred to San Antonio and are having a house built. Tommy is already there and Julie was by herself, kinda bummed out being alone on the holiday, in Florida where their current house is for sale.

We left Sue’s around nine as Bobby has to start work at 5 a.m. (that’s just beastly) and we were all pretty tired. Talking nonstop can do that to a person I guess. Paul said he never know I could talk that much….hahahahaha….where has he been for the last twenty three years?

Monday, April 09, 2007

We were up and about at 7:30. We readied the rig for our trip leg to Aunt Avril’s house in Lebanon, MO. It will most likely be a 10 or 11 hour drive so we will see how it goes and what the weather has in store before we decide to drive it strait thru or not. Aunt Karen made us bacon sandwiches for breakfast and we talked for a while. I wish she was coming along with us, but it was too short a notice and there were some things she had planned or were in the works. Not many folks can just pickup and hit the road like we can. We said our goodbyes and were on the road by 9. The GPS broad is still giving bum directions so it’s back to the maps….gee that’s a toughie…take I40 to I44. It’s a no brainer….

Well, I have only a few minutes left on my battery so I will pick up later.

Hugs

Dee

Later Monday….evening in Carthage, MO

We decided to pull into a small RV park for the night. We need to dump the tanks and this way we can sleep in and shower before we get to Auntie Avril’s house. I called to let her know. We are like an hour and a half away, but I am not feeling too good, so it’s good that we can stop and have hook-ups.
We have some lunch meat we can make sandwiches with and just veg out.
We will have breakfast and then be off to Lebanon. I have free wifi for today…can you believe a $17 a night campground with FREE wifi? The KOA is $35 and you have to pay. There are no brats running around and the sites although small are adequate for an over night stop. Hmmmm.

Will catch up more with our visit to Aunt Avril’s and visit with Peggy and David out at the farm. We missed them on our Thanksgiving visit. Peg says she has three new baby goats. Can’t wait to see her menagerie.

I'll post more when I get wifi access again...maybe when we see Zack in Edwardsville later this week...

hugs

dee

Hope this link works to the rest of the pictures we took today...


http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rocketmom1985/album?.dir=/362ascd&.src=ph&.tok=phJdDjGBPuaGRWru

hugs...

dee

Paulie and me at the Japanese Gardens...

Thursday...an all day tour...

Right now I am exhausted....was up at 6:30 a.m. (OMG why do people get up with the birds....?). We got dressed and went to a little place across the street for breakfast. I ordered two pancakes. I just don't know why I continue to do stupid things like this...I can't eat two...I can barely eat one for heaven's sake. Paul ordered a breakfast taco of egg and sausage. With a coffee and his coke, the bill was $5. And I only ate one pancake.

The tour bus and our guide, Philip arrived right on time at 8:35 a.m. We headed downtown for our day long tour...we would visit the Japanese gardens, see a movie about the Alamo at the Imax Theater, take a boat ride on the River along Riverwalk, visit the Alamo, have lunch, and then visit The Mission of San Jose, and the Mission Conception, and then finally spend some time at Market Square.

I promise I will write more later, but I have to sit in my recliner for a while and recover. I haven't walked this far in quite a while...Paul is already asleep on the couch. I will download all the pictures we took but won't post them here except for a few...the rest will be uploaded to Yahoo photos...there are just too many for the blog.

more when I recover a bit....

dee

I was finally able to get on and upload our pictures from the Riverwalk from last night....

Here is one of the tour boats....

One of the many many restaurants to choose from...I think this was Joe's Crab Shack

A view from up on street level....

A good shot of the back of Paulies head...and the guys who charged us six bucks to sing happy birthday to us and then forgot the words....

I don't know why I think I look good with my hand on my chin...all it does is move my turkey neck to one side and make me look stupid...

A great shot of Paul...one of the bestest yet...grrr. The new camera just takes too long to take a photo with the flash and of course being the expert I am at taking photos, I never hold the button down long enough...

This one I couldn't resist...wish I had the camera on when the bird actually pooped on the table of women seated behind us. I would've barfed...all they did was scream...ick ick ick.

Happy Birthday to Paulie....Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Today is our birthday as if you all didn't know with all the hints I've been dropping, LOL!
What's the old song...another year older and deeper in debt....yep, that's us!

We left grandpa and Weslaco at 9 a.m. He finally admitted he was gonna miss us (well, maybe Paul, certainly not moi and my liberal rantings that occasionally erupt when Dubya shows up on the boob tube....OK I won't go there for the sake of my more conservative friends and loved ones...I need all the friends I can save yanno?) We have a new GPS so it was an interesting trip. Mapquest had told us to go EAST on 83 to 77 and then catch 37 to San Antonio. The GPS took us WEST on 83 then north thru Edinburg on 281...off 281 to T92 then to T16 and then back onto 281 which once you reach the city is called Roosevelt...which is where the RV park Traveler's World is. I think that's how we got here...we took Texas state roads(black not red on the map) and made great time....5 hours and we stopped for lunch for a half hour. That's my story and I am stickin' to it....

Once we got settled into our spot and got the Asylum set up, I had to take a nap while Paulie went and purchased some tickets for an all day tour tomorrow. We will get picked up about 8:30 by bus and visit the Missions, the Alamo, Riverwalk and see the movie at the IMax. Great price of only $42 with the campground discount...it includes all entrance fees and the boat ride on the River.

We both actually took a nap...I woke up late about 6 p.m. and Paulie was asleep on the futon. We both changed clothes and took off to see the Riverwalk and get some Birthday dinner. We parked and found our way quite easily. The campground advertises itself as the closest to the attractions and it really is a quick 10 minutes to the Riverwalk area. We walked a while and then crossed over and headed back to find a place to eat. The place was hopping...lots of folks dining along the river and tons of folks just walking the route. We decided on Michelinas Italian and sat right at the water's edge. Our waiter had a spiky hair cut and it was burgundy on the tips...and this guy was an older fella. We ordered the house margaritas for starters, a Caesar's salad and veal parmigiana with fettuccine. We also stuffed our faces with the homemade bread and the tasty olive oil dipping stuff with herbs in it. Oh. My. Goodness. Heavenly. For once we agreed on what to eat and split the dinner which is the best thing for us to do anyways. It was wonderfully delicious...more than enough for the both of us. Our waiter then surprised us with a huge piece of chocolate cake that we only ate a few bites of. We had a very nice time and the strolling mariachi guys serenaded with Happy Birthday in both Spanish and English. After dinner we strolled back to the entrance (good thing we both remembered where we came down from) and back to the car.

I will try to upload some pictures....not having any success with this pay per use wifi called Tangonet. It stinks, and I am paying for the darn thing...

I'll keep trying...I have 24 hours of useage.

later

Dee

Tuesday 10:45 p.m.

Darn blogger was down when I went to update last night. Paul is out hooking up the car to the rig so he won't have to do it in the morning...supposed to rain. Ick. Oh well, Paulie is a good driver in any kinda weather. We will try to get to San Antonio by late afternoon and have our birthday dinner on the Riverwalk. We picked up the rig this afternoon and it looks really sharp with the black tuff coat on the front. Almost looks like a rich man's rig, lol! At least it covered up the dings and nicks from our previous outings and looks brand spanking new.

I am going to blog on Word since I am not sure when I will be able to hook up again...hopefully tomorrow night we will be safely camped in the Traveler's World Campground and I believe they have wifi...hope it's free!!!

So, until I post again....see ya on the road! Will take pix along the way...I still haven't figured out how to get the damm videos up on youtube, but someday I will!

hugs

dee

PS...put on your thinking caps folks...I have decided to graduate to a full fledged web page and I need to think of a nifty name for our .com site...we can also do .net or .us....I love AluminumAsylum.com but Paul hates it....he also shot down TinCanAdventures.com as he says a tin can is an airstream....hmmmm
I don't thing our blog title is gonna cut it...I plan on doing some ads...and have some links to various RV sites and stuff about full timing...so let me know if you have any good monikers we could use that are catchy and reflects what we are gonna do...be on the road most of the time. Thanks!

Sunday...

Well, our trip to Padre Island with Barb and Arnie was cancelled. We were underway and almost to Harlingin when I got sick. Paul and grandpa had similar problems earlier in the morning with the stomach ickies, I guess mine was just a bit later. We stopped at a What-A-Burger, but the bathroom was kind gross. Paul just called Arnie and said we couldn't make it. They were also having some difficulties so I guess it was just fate. When we got home, I planted myself in the bathroom. I really was glad we had come home. I didn't want to feel this terrible while playing tourist.

Paul and grandpa decided to check out and play with the GPS and find the place that will be doing the Tuff coat on the rig tomorrow. I laid down for a while (that is between bouts in the bathroom). When they got back, Paul started up the motorhome and moved it closer to the house. We started staging things yesterday and started putting it in the rig today. Clothes, food stuff, my knitting, and some of the small appliances we had taken into the house. Tomorrow when Paul gets back from Brownsville with the rig all spiffied up, I will load the rest of my stuff. Can't do without toothbrush, meds, etc. So that is last minute stuff just as the computer is last minute. Gosh, I hope we don't forget something important. Like my keys or some such thing.

Hopefully departure will be Tuesday morning. I think we should prolly make San Antonio. I really would like to spend a couple of days there...I have never been to the famous Riverwalk or even the Alamo. I'll see what Paulie wants to do when we are actually on the road; I don't think it will matter to Aunt Karen when we get to Borger. Besides, Wednesday is our birthday and I think since we had such a bust for our anniversary, we could use a celebration. we have a lot to do, and I guess I am just anxious to get started and move on.

I'll post more tomorrow with an update.

hugs

dee

Saturday...

For the past three days we have been in the middle of a nasty front that cannot make up its bloody mind where it wants to go. So it's sat on top of the Valley. I have of course been whacked and have spent a lot of time in vertigo-land.

Paul has decided to have the front of the rig sprayed with Tuff coat...the stuff they use to spay on bed liners in pickup trucks. It should reduce the rock chips and be easier for him to clean off the bugs we kill each time we drive it. Geez, anything to make Paulie's work easier...I say go for it! Maybe this will end his continuous bitching about bugs...you think that they only committed suicide on our rig...no one else has this problem, eh? We have to take the rig to Brownsville on Monday, which was our day to hit the road. Now we will leave on Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Hopefully. I guess now that I have convinced myself that we have to go home, I wanna get there and get going on this house fixing/staging/selling crap.

Both the boys are playing poker. One last game I guess. We are going to Padre Island tomorrow to meet Barb and Arnie one last time. Perhaps we will go to Metamoros also which is right across the river from Brownsville. We want to have dinner again at Dirty Al's for the shrimp.

We have a ton of stuff already staged in the kitchen and the bedroom so all we gotta do is truck it out to the rig. We should have lots of space as we have one less set of clothes, 40 pair of shoes, 5 coats, 20 lbs of dog food, a doggie bed, and the replica of the geezer section at Walgreens...yanno...suppositories, 12 kinds of pain killer, a gallon of scope, denture holders/cleaners/brushes, 5 kinds of bottles of whatever prescriptions, the list goes on and on. Oh forgot all the hats. How many hats does this man own? Oh well, I guess I can stop bitching now. We have decided to take Snickers the stuckup kitty home with us. I just don't think grandpa is too into what she needs. And she is a needy bitch. Plus, I can just imagine her sneaking into his closet and he closes the door and doesn't hear her for several days. I really wanted to leave her here so we don't have to worry about her taking a smelly dump right before we show the house, but I think we will be staying in the motorhome and that's where she'll be kept.

Well, that's about all that's happening around these parts. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will have sunshine tomorrow. The last time we were at Padre it was cold, windy and rainy. I'd like to see what the beaches look like in the sun and perhaps walk along the beach?

later....

dee

damm thing didn't load...I'll try again...

Wed hump day....4 days to departure...*sigh*


Well, we are finishing up the details before we leave grandpa and head home. Gosh, how sad. I have come to think of this place as home, not Rochester. Amazing what sunshine and beautiful weather can do for ya. Plus the load is off our minds that grandpa is happy and contented...we won't have to drag him out with us, he now has other geezers to go trippin' with. We are now writing down how to use the dishwasher, washer/dryer, etc. I think he finally realized that his tiddy whiteys would not miraculously appear on his bed and he must wash his own sheets. He told us today he won't let Pepe sleep with him any more cause the sheets stink? Duh, waddaya know...like I haven't told him this at least 1K times. The dog is a stinker...personality wise and stink wise. Oscar never smelled as bad as that little shit of a dog and he weighed over 120 lbs. He snorts like a pig and he smells worser...

Just wanted to post this picture....the local HEB grocery store had a child photo promotion and Paul talked his dad into this picture. We named it the offical 90th birthday portrait...it was a hit at the party over the weekend...

hope you enjoy...

will try to post more later.

Tuesday

It is a perfect perfect day today. Sunshine, warm and breezy. We had a fleeting thought of going to South Padre, but neither grandpa or I really felt up to it. It's a good thing, we both had stomach problems later in the day. We did spend time at the pool and did a lot of other residents. The water seemed nice and cool rather than the heated temps the pool has previously had. I like warm water but not bathtub warm. The folks here, at least the snowbirds are now heading north in droves. I think by next Monday when we hit the road, most of the seasonals will be gone. I think the ones who live here are glad that things are calming down a bit. When the park is full like it has been, there is a lot to do and I think they are already looking forward to the time when things quiet down a bit. They also will have all the facilities to themselves which I think they all enjoy. The pool is adequate but crowded on sunny warm days.

Grandpa spent most of the rest of the day on the couch...he had stomach woes. Me too, but we didn't eat anything similar today. I was lounging in the pool with my noodle when I cramped up...almost didn't make it to the ladies room for heaven's sake! I don't think I've walked that fast since my hip surgery or knee surgeries! Some lady walked in and I could hear her sharp intake of breath...bet she didn't know what to think! She did her bizness in record time and was out the door lickety split!

I talked to Aunt Karen last night and let her know we would be heading up towards Amarillo next week. She is looking forward to seeing us...I missed seeing her when she visited Aunt Jane in the Chicago area last summer due to my additional hip surgery. I am looking forward to seeing her too...I haven't been to Borger for years and years. We will also stop in Lebannon to see Aunt Avril...told her not to expect Thanksgiving dinner this trip, but we would love to take her out to her favorite restaurant when we get there.

I guess we will fire up the rig and pull back into the driveway on Friday. We only have clothes, food and meds to pack. We are leaving grandpa and all his stuff here. He is just a BIT anxious for us to take off. I told him he'll miss us...he disagrees. I am not looking forward to all the work we have facing us. We need to defumigate and paint Zack's room, and paint the office/bedroom. We will be selling most of the furniture and will be doing that while we do our fixups. I think we will have to replace the counters in the kitchen and do some painting in there also. I have an idea to add some moulding to the flat cabinet doors, repaint and then put on new hardware. If we can do so, we will try to keep costs down. Also the more stuff we get rid of the bigger the place looks. Anyone want to by a 52" HDTV? We'll sell it cheap, promise! Zack I think has his eye on this but hmmmm...he has already claimed grandpa's leather sofa and chair and the dinette(thank goodness I hate it). We have even thought about living in the motorhome in one of the local campgrounds and not having to clean house each time we show it...it would be easier to DUST the sink than clean it after using it all the time right? This would really be good as we will see what we really will use in the rig while out on the road. Its been almost 6 months and there is nothing at home that I have found I can live without in the rig. The house in Weslaco is a different story...thinking here Christmas decorations and grandma's silverware, videos and photos and personal items and mementos. Those things will be stored or displayed in the Texas house. We may need to rent a storage unit for a while but I guess it will be helpful to store the things we will be taking in the fall. I sure hope we can sell quickly.Everyone keep your fingers and toes crossed OK?

later

dee

More pictures....

....

The day after….

Well, the 125 people who showed up for the party said it was a success….grandpa thinks it was a success and I guess I agree! We had a great time. Everyone loved the posters with the old photos on them, especially the ones where Gene is young…one photo was a real hit…during the war, grandpa boxed and for a special bout, he shaved his head but left a stripe down the middle of his hair…a Mohawk.

Freddy played for over two hours, and the crowd sang along, danced and even did some line dancing. Folks brought their own coolers with their preferred beverages. We provided the cake and coffee. I know pictures speak louder than words so here are some pictures.

Thursday....

Well, I didn't get to post after we got home from Mexico. Darn wifi is so irritating sometimes. I suppose we are getting what we pay for...the wifi is free. We had a nice time in Progresso. They blocked off the main street and it was filled with craft (?) vendors and food vendors and all kinds of entertainment. There were tons of kids entertaining from singing folk songs and dancers to Tejano rappers and Menudo wannabes. There were a lot of beautiful senoritas representing various Mexican beer companies. Paulies eyes were bugging out as was his tongue. There were tons of bikers there with some really neat looking hogs and goldwings. The streets were jammed. We did take some pix on a disposable camera but they won't be ready until later in the week. I promise to scan and post them after the birthday party. We stopped at a bar and had a drink then tried to get to the Rose Garden. It was wall to wall people so we just continued on. We really didn't even stop to look at anything...it was pretty much the same old same old the vendors sell. Sunglasses, hand woven blankets and hammocks. There were a lot of fresh fruit vendors and the stuff looked so great. The smell of tacos was incredible. I just couldn't see me eating something from a street vendor...call me what you will but I get sick looking at blood and gore on TV, can't imagine what my stomach would do with foreign food from a street vendor. We decided we were hungry so we did head over to the Arizona Resturant which we know is good. They were packed also...maybe its the two for one margaritas? Anyways, Paulie had chaulupas (absolutely no relation to the Taco Bell chaulupas....) I had the white fish with garlic butter lunch special.....OMG so freakin' good...and grandpa had tamales again. You know with real tamales, you actually EAT the corn husks. Not moi of course, but Paulie and gramps did. Just the thought turns me off...it may be one of those things I will have to have a few more margaritas before I can try 'em.

We stopped and bought some more tequila...these have WORMS in them...the smaller bottles don't have 'em....well, I think they don't remember having seen them...cripes, I coulda swallowed the sucker and not known it! Ick. Ick. Ick.

Well, the weather is still holding perfect. The breeze keeps the dust blowing around, but that's typical I am told. I don't mind the wind unless it takes off my hat or visor. Yesterday I got a lot of grit in my eyes so it's Visene time

I have to find someone to run the video camera for the party. I have found a site like youtube to upload some of the better shots. We had to order a second cake as there are over a hundred in the park expected. We will go early to the friendship hall and set it up. We have balloons and streamers and a couple of signs, plus the 5 or 6 picture boards I have been working on. I was thinking of doing a full board devoted to pictures of Gene and Catherine with the wives...you know, Paulie's ex's and me...I would title it...the Ziaja Wives Club...whatcha think?

hugs,

dee

Good Grief….

It’s been a while since I have posted. Hmmm. Getting lazy in my old age I guess. A quick update…we are in the get ready for the birthday party mode. Today Paul and grandpa planted a grapefruit tree and a Chinese fan palm tree. They worked in the garage and Paulie pressured washed one part of the house. It was a cloudy and overcast day, and of course with rain expected my head was moving in different directions.

Monday, we ordered the cake, bought party supplies and did some errands. I think we will have to order more cake. We are expecting about 100 people. Crazy. We have decided to move the party to the meeting hall with that many folks…they won’t all fit in our driveway! This way we have use of the kitchen and I can be sure we won’t be blowing any fuses at the house with Freddie’s equipment and the two coffee pots. Plus, it’s supposed to be in the upper 80’s so having air and ceiling fans will be cool. Now I don’t have to worry about the wind getting dirt all over the cake. I have been advised that I should get more cake. The full sheet cake only feeds about 75 people so I don’t want to get caught short. Now I can have the second cake say Happy Birthday Old Fart! LOL!

Monday evening we went to the park dance with grandpa. Bev’s son and daughter-in-law were there also and we had a nice evening getting to know them.

We are heading to Mexico tomorrow. It is Winter Texan appreciation day in Progresso. There will be free food, entertainment and local crafts people.
We will have to leave early like 8 am (geesh!) in order to get a parking space in the adjoining lots outside the border. I have been advised not to bring my scooter so I will have to take along some pain killers. I sure hope that doesn’t ruin my day. Hey, if somebody doesn’t get outta my way when I am on that thing, then that’s their problem right?

The weather has been really almost perfect. Sunshine everyday and in the 80’s. Nice cool breezes keep the heat in check. The fruit trees are all in bloom, the lilies are up and so are the spring flowers. Lots of folks have tomato plants that have fruit on them already. Paul bought three plants but we haven’t put them in yet. One is coming home with us in a container.
Well, I will try to post about our day in Mexico tomorrow.

Later

dee

OK just a little added note for Friday....


click on this link

http://www.myspace.com/marchingbackward

and you can hear Zack and Greg's latest composition...

They have renamed the band to Marching Backward....

Greg does the guitar and vocals, Zack is on the drum....Zack writes the lyrics and they both work on the music parts.

Just being a proud mom

hugs

dee

Friday...March 16th


I have very mixed up emotions today....

Today is our anniversary. 22 years and counting. If you can believe this, I have been married to Paulie for three times the number of years as both his previous, numbers one and two. I win. Gosh, where has all the time gone? Zack is 21 and just about on his own. (Pffft! to those of you who are counting backwards on your fingers....!) We are going back to Illinois to sell the house and have already reconciled ourselves to the fact we may come out with little or no profits. College costs and the early retirement scenario with the in laws has depleted the equity we would have recovered at sale time. Neither Paul or I have any regrets. The cost of nursing care for Catherine would have been over $110K if we had not put the addition on the house. And, after being in the nursing home for various times during her last months convinced me the care she received from her family, at home, in her own bed, was far superior to any she would have gotten in a nursing home. We made the decision to spend the money on the addition, fully aware that we would not get it out of the house. If there is one thing I would say "if I could do over...." it would have been to have stayed put and not moved around from house to house as many times as we did. I am not regretting it, we did what we did at those times because it was the best decision we could have made then, at that particular point in time. The old saying, hindsight is 20-20 is true. But if we had not made the changes we did when we did, we might not be going in the direction we are headed....wintering in the warm Rio Grand Valley with Gene, and planning to travel for the rest of the year. I am happy we will be able to do what we have dreamed of doing...roaming around the continent(!) in our Aluminum Asylum.

I am also grieving today. Paul and I lost a wonderful friend. Gay Leezer from our FMCA group, the Cenois Prairielanders, lost her battle with cancer. A lovely woman with a brave spirit and loving heart, she will be missed by all. Gay always had a smiling face and a twinkle in her eye. She had class and warmth, a quick wit and a practical candor about life that was typically Midwestern farm country. IF I had to chose someone to serve as a substitute mother if mine wasn't around to seek advice, Gay would be one I'd turn to. She was a wonderful cook and I think the entire club would have followed her to the ends of the earth for a sample of her cobblers...or anything that came out of her kitchen. She could produce miracles in that motorhome kitchen. My heart hurts for her husband Bud...they were married many many years. Rest peacefully dear Gay, we will miss you terribly. I will miss sitting with you around the campfire or at the Red Hat tea table and talking about anything that crossed our minds and there was never a time that I didn't learn something from you during these conversations. I shall cherish my memories.


**************************************************************

Wifi has reportedly been fixed. Baloney. It is spotty at best. Sorry I haven't written earlier but it is very frustrating to get a whole page written and then lose the connection. Whamo...there goes the time I spent wording my blog just right or coming up with something humorous about toenails. I should go back writing daily on my 'puter's Word, but I tend to get lazy...all I have to do is cut and paste. But, I hate the spell check on Word...why should that damm program worry about me making up my own words or if my sentence is a fragment or not grammatically correct. The only one I know reading this (and I am sure he doesn't) that is almost qualified to judge my grammar is Zack the English BA in the making. I recall in the Dilbert comic strip, the janitor is complaining to Dilbert that janitors were being fired and engineers were getting raises...Dilbert's response was "who told you that you'd find a job with a BA in English?". For some reason that cartoon made me laugh my butt off. At the time I thought of someone who had a BA in Political Science...it was funny then and still funny now, to me at least.

Well, the dish guy is here to switch out the cable to satellite and I have to get ready to go to McAllen to get a hair cut. The boys are playing shuffle board(I KNOW, I KNOW ....Geezer games) and should be back by 11. I hope Paulie will drive me...not to sure if I can do that by myself today. I am doing the two step when I walk which is not a good thing.

hugs

dee

Tuesday....

The park is having problems with their wifi...was supposedly fixed, is now worse than ever....

I will continue to try and post when I can

hugs

dee

Monday….the day after….

Our first dinner party last night was a success. The shrimp feast definitely is something we will do again. We had the garlic (Dennise’s version of) shrimp dejohne, fried and boiled shrimp, the colonel’s coleslaw (why waste the time when his is way better?) French fries, corn on the cob, French bread and of course, any beverage your little heart desired. We had cheese and crackers plus some chips for appetizers and sat around and shot the breeze for about 45 minutes before Paulie and I got to cooking. We had everything prepared ahead of time, and the two deep fryers preheated and ready to go. It did get a bit hot in the kitchen with both fryers, and the oven baking the shrimp, but it wasn’t too bad. When we get back in the fall we will have a ceiling fan installed in the kitchen. It really helps keep the heat down. Everyone (except me and the chef) had seconds and even thirds. So I guess everyone liked our cuisine. After some quick clean up, chef Paulie and I joined our guests on the patio and talked. Soon, Marion and Aloha who sold us the house stopped by to chat. Slowly as the hour grew late, everyone went home. It was a great first party. I’m glad everything went so well.

Of course, after helping clean house, food prep, cooking and serving yesterday, my day today was spent in the damm bed. Every bone in my body was screaming. There was a terrible rain storm that hit the valley, and some places east of here and South Padre Island had 8.5” of rain. Poor spring breakers…they must have gotten washed out to sea…its Texas universities week this week. Poor Texans!

As the days continue to march towards spring, more of our neighbors, Winter Texans as we are called, are heading home. Most of the Iowa folks have been putting off going home, along with the Minnesota and Wisconsin folks. Why go home to snow when the weather is absolutely perfect here? The Canadians are also leaving in dribs and drabs…they have a longer trip and most of them make lots of side trips so it takes them 4 to 6 weeks to get home. Paul and I will probably leave the first week of April. We figure we will take our time…may a week or so. The weather back in central Illinois has been getting better.

Zack has moved into his new room at Cougar Village apartments. For those unaware, Zack resigned his RA position. Apparently he had a misunderstanding about the time he was to give a presentation to the RA staff. He said he double checked with his boss to confirm the time and his boss goofed. (Being a former boss myself, bosses generally do not admit mistakes. It must have been the underling’s misinterpretation of the facts or instructions, right?) So rather than risk one more screw up after this major one, he decided to resign rather than make another small booboo (like missing a deadline on paperwork or some such minute thing) and get fired. He would not get a referral or be able to use his almost two years as an RA on his resume if he got fired. So to cut his losses (a typical Zack reaction) he resigned. Of course, leaving with only two months left irked the crap outta me (who can’t make it two months?) and his father. But, it is his decision and he was determined NOT to lose what he feels is a very good referral and part of his leadership skills on his resume, he took the road he felt most comfortable with. Now, the downside to his is he (I should say Paul and I) need to come up with $700 to pay for the balance of the board. The school will NOT allow him to live off campus; he was required to stay in University housing. Crap. To his credit, he went out and got not one job, but two jobs. He is a bouncer at a country western bar (good $) and he is also working at a putt putt miniature golf place inside Union Station in St. Louis. Kind of a far drive, but he is learning management skills as he will open the place and the owner is willing to work around his school schedule. He will be attending summer classes and already has an apartment lined up. This will be the place Greg will share with him for their senior year. It will cost about $400 per kid for rent and utilities…wait until they can’t access Cougarnet for free….that will be another amount they will have to come up with for high speed internet and of course, food. I will admit that both Greg and Zack can cook and have done plenty of experimentation in my kitchen. They both better learn not to be slobs and clean up after themselves according to my recollection. Plus they like steak…hmmm, wonder how many times they will be eating steak as poor college students. Hey nothing like real life to prepare one to grow up right? When I was 18 and living on my own, NOT going to school I had many a dinner of peanut butter and crackers. Paul remembers eating tomato soup made with water and oyster crackers and Kraft mac and cheese for 14 cents a box from an Aldi type store. Makes one appreciate things more I guess.

This week is doctor week for grandpa. Blood work as his new beautiful senorita doc thinks he may be borderline something. Then he goes to the urologist for a check and an appointment for this next PSA test/shot.

We are planning grandpa’s 90th birthday party for March 24th. We posted a RSVP so we know how much cake to buy. We will have a very popular valley singer here for entertainment. We will only buy the cake, everyone is bringing their own beverages and chairs. I hope we get lots of people…grandpa says that he has never had a birthday party. Right. He’s probably had so many, he can’t remember them all…he’s like the odometer on an old car…once it reaches 100,000 miles it turns back to zero! Like the guy on the cruise ship said…grandpa’s first job was busboy at the Last Supper. Tooooo funny.

Well, I am going to join Paulie out on the patio…the rain has cooled things down and its really beautiful outside.

Later,

Dee

Friday….weekend oncoming

I wasn’t able to post after our return from Mexico yesterday. We had a great time. I bought an embroidered dress in an awesome yet obnoxious bright blue…truly a Mexican inspiration of sorts. I also purchased a puka shell necklace which I have wanted for such a long time. We also saw some adorable Chihuahuas for sale for $200. Grandpa fell in love and wanted to buy all three of ‘em. I told him that Pepe didn’t take kindly to other dogs and the size of the puppy would make Snickers to think it was a mouse and eat it. Plus, there are rules at the park…one pet per household. We are stretching it by keeping Snickers.

After doing some more browsing, I bought those colorful dollar shopping bags. We were also going to get liquor but on the way out so we didn’t have to lug it everywhere. I did want to look at some of the colorful pottery, but I guess that will wait until we come back in November.

Guess what…soon we found ourselves at the Rose Garden! The alley turned cocktail “lounge”. We couldn’t resist. Paulie and I got strawberry margaritas and grandpa a Sol beer. Second round, we got the Sol’s and grandpa had a regular margarita. Such a fun place full of winter Texans enjoying Mexican beer and really cheap strong margaritas.

We continued on after the stop for drinks and kept heading on towards the boarder shops to get our list of booze. We ran into some neighbors who invited us to join them for drinks at the Alamo. We found the place; it was on the fourth floor of the place we buy our $3 tequila. After two for one margaritas we decide to get something to eat. I have the Alamo’s special lunch whitefish grilled in garlic butter….and corn soup…ever had that? Ick. Looked like the stuff from the exorcist…I KNOW corn is yellow NOT green.
Grandpa and Paulie spilt a plate of tamales. Not the tamales we have at home these were great looking beef stuffed things in corn husks. After our late lunch we parted with the neighbors we were off to cross back with our purchases. Grandpa had poured his last margarita in a foam cup and as we walked towards the crossing he was dancing behind us. I was on my scooter thank goodness. All I do when I have a few drinks is go faster…

The line to cross back into the US was going slowly so we had a lot of fun talking with others and watching grandpa polka with his cup of margarita.

Finally across Paul takes grandpa to the car and then he and I go across the street to check out the two for one banana splits. Not much ice cream but at least the bananas were good!

On our way home, we decided to stop at the Llano Grande Golf club to see if Uncle Ben and Bev were there. Nope. So off we head for home. Paulie and I sat outside having a beer. Uncle Ben walked over and joined us. Grandpa had gone into the house to see Pepe. I found him walking on all fours to the bathroom. He eventually joined us outside, but decline to have more to drink thank God.

About seven the wind picked up and it got chilly. Paul took Ben home in the golf cart and grandpa went to watch TV. I read for a while and then finally fell asleep around 11. I never did hear Paulie come to bed.

Today has been quiet. Overcast and spitting a bit of rain. Of course, this brings out the absolute best in me….headache, ears, nausea and all the other Meniere’s goodies. Leftovers for dinner again. Sigh.

Going to the Mexican market for fruit and veggies tomorrow. We are having a shrimp fest at our place on Sunday. Ben, Bev, Dorothy and the three of us and perhaps Leon and his wife from across the street. We will make fried shrimp, boiled shrimp and shrimp dejohne….coleslaw and baked beans. Trying to think what to make for dessert. Something light but good. I was thinking Milnot cake…or pound cake. Hmmmm….

Hugs

dee