Texas 2014-2015 Blog: Riverside Club

Friday, February 20, 2015

Breezy, clear & warm, temp: 61, high: 80.
Today was not a very good day. Everything that could go wrong, did.
Jim had committed me to chauffeur a neighbor, Norma, someplace tonight. Knocked on her door at 9 AM, no answer. Knocked again at 1 PM, no answer. Finally at 3:30 after I talked to her sister, Mary, Norma came by to tell me that the event is next Friday. Ugh.
Jim drove to PT at 9:30.
Candy had asked me to sharpen 50 pencils for the Minnesota Picnic tomorrow and that there was a pencil sharpener in the library.
At about 9, I went to the library, located the sharpener, but it was an El Cheapo that would have taken hours to sharpen 50 wooden pencils. So I went to the office to borrow their electric sharpener. It burnt out after sharpening about 6.
During all of this, I should have been helping to set up chairs for this evening's auction. Instead I was wasting time on poor pencil sharpeners.
After Jim got home from PT, I drove up to Staples to purchase an electric pencil sharpener.
Around noon, Jim & Diane drove down to Riverside Club for lunch & the associated polka jam. I declined their kind invitation.
After unpacking my new sharpener, I sharpened the 50 pencils in about 20 minutes.
The wind is blowing in excess of 30 MPH today, so I walked to Burger King for lunch.
After lunch I took the new sharpener to the office to replace the one I had wrecked.
About 3, Dave called to brief me on his appointment at the VA for his back. He was fairly upset as they did some very painful procedures. Thanks Dave, for keeping me up to speed on your health.
This evening I'm attending the spaghetti dinner & auction at the Hall. Jim's on the dish washing crew. See picture below.
The spaghetti was great. The auction is still progressing and will probably continue for at least a couple more hours.
Jim & Diane left afterward to go to Bingo at Paradise Park in McAllen.
Finally, the wind was just to high (over 40 mph) all day to ride bike. Ugh.
The pictures below were taken at the Spaghetti Dinner & Auction at the Hall (& kitchen) this evening.

Everyone eating spaghetti in The Hall

Look who's doing dishes in the kitchen

Several up front examining the contributions to be auctioned later.

More contributions to be auctioned later

He looks like he's experienced at this job

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Cool, calm, clear, temp: 48, high 73. Should be a nice day.
Very busy day with lots of pictures. Yippee!
First off, Thursday, we always join about 25 other guys from Paradise Park and drive to Taco Fiesta for breakfast.
Late morning Jim & I loaded our bikes on Phil's bike rack and drove to Mission Nature Trail head, South of Mission near the Rio Grande.
Biked on a trail through Retama Village with some very interesting Mexican style homes, complete with shelters for 40 foot motor-homes.
From there, we bike about 5 miles to the World Birding Center Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley state park.
After water, a snack, & local sightseeing, we headed back toward our destination, but rode on a waterway levee most of the way back.
So all-in-all, we biked about 10 miles.
After reloading our bikes on Phil's bike rack, we drove along a stretch of the Rio Grande river levee near Chimney park, ending up at the Riverside Club.
The club served food and had 2 large halls for old time dancing. In one of the halls, Phil saw a friend from Iowa, Barefoot Becky who played the accordion and was the band master of ceremonies.
Had a short nap after driving home.
Went over to Phil's last evening to watch the movie, Jersey Boys. I had seen it before, but it's still a fun movie to watch.
And sorry I'm so late in getting this published, but I was pooped after that big day.