Texas 2014-2015 Blog

Sunday, December 14, 2014

This is Dan & Candy's home during the day.

Their place again, at night. Christmas lights didn't turn out as spectacular as they really are because I had to get so close to pick up the light.

Beautiful morning, calm, clear, temp: 66, high: 77
After breakfast, went for a 3 mile bike ride around the park.
While I biked, Jim & Diane went to the barber. They now look human. (But they won't let me take their picture.)

Some of you should remember this fountain.

After lunch, Jim & Dan went off to a polka jam. Suffice it to say, I did not join them.
And later Diane & Candy went off to run errands.
Sure is quiet around here. While sitting at the Hall patio, Lois Mitchell brought me her iPad because mail wouldn't download. After 15 minutes or so, I was unable to fix it & suggested she take it over to the Geek Squad at Best Buy.
This evening while the girls went off to play Bingo, Jim & I went up to Pharr South for an entertaining evening of bluegrass & Christmas music by Lindley Creek made up of 4 members of the Greer family. Most enjoyable.

Nice morning, high clouds, calm, temp: 64, high:76
Candy is the coordinator for the medical team that does blood testing here at the park. So Candy & Diane set up the Hall while Dan, Jim & I ran up to H-E-B to get 3 dozen donuts for those being tested.
Then we went to the men's breakfast at Taco Fiesta with perhaps 20 other guys.
On a trip to Walmart to pick me up some medical supplements, we stopped at Jason's Deli for lunch. Delicous.
Napped
Since I know everyone likes pictures, this will help you remember where we're at. I'll try to include a couple of interesting shots each day.

An absolutely beautiful evening at 8:00 PM. Calm. Clear. Temp: 70.
Women went to Paradise Park in McAllen to play Bingo while the men went out for a leisurely supper.
I found an interesting picture for tomorrow. Till then.

nice morning, high thin clouds, warm, temp: 62, high: 78
Jim headed out early, I think, to a polka jam. Usually he asks me if I want to go along. But he's learned that me & polkas don't mix. So now he doesn't even ask me.
Jam this afternoon was much worse than last week, so both Jim & I came home
I went for a 2 mile bike ride
J&D went over to Dan & Candy's to play cards. 'Twas a fairly quiet day.

cool, breezy morning. temp: 60. High: 70. But no fog this morning. And no rain forecast.
first off this morning, I have to report that Jim was the Grand Champion at cards last evening at the Hall. He says he never wins but last night he was the big winner. Congrats, Jim.
the Minnesota Breakfast was held at the nearby golf course club house with about 20 attending. had a good time
then upon returning, Jim, Dan, & I went over to the Zone Action Park to play mini-golf. After completing 36 holes, Jim beat me by 2 strokes on the front 18 and by 1 stroke on the back 18.

after that strenuous exercise, we returned for a nap
then after that rest, I biked 2 1/2 miles around our park.
finally, we picked up Jim's prescription at Sam's Club & washed the car at H-E-B.
my son, Dan, called early evening, brought me up to date on news in his world. Thanks, Dan, for the call.
in the evening J&D played Bingo at the Hall while I watched TV at home.

Cool morning, temp: 61, high only 65. In fact, no 80s for the next week. And it rained a little again last night
Good breakfast with Canadian friends at Colo's in Pharr
On a cool, cloudy afternoon, I went for my first bike ride since the 10 mile ride last week. While my legs tired, I wasn't sore or seem to have any after-effects from the longer ride of last week.
Jim, Dan & I went to Sam's Club for Jim to renew a prescription followed by a stop at Lowes to size a water heater.
At 3:30 I helped Candy get her Christmas letter writing organized. She also wanted to use Microsoft Word to compose it.
After a delicious supper prepared by Diane, everyone left for a variety of evening activities.
Diane took a load of girls over to McAllen Paradise Park to play Bingo.
Jim went to the Hall to play cards.
And I stayed home for a quiet evening of TV.

Not too cold this morning at 63, but it's suppose to be a cool day, high only 70. In fact, it looks like we're in a cool period for the next several days with high temps only about 70 each day. And several of those days include rain. (But you never have to shovel rain.) ;-)
now, do we have a surprise for you. For us it was a once in a lifetime experience. But let me start at the beginning.

We heard that some Budweiser Clydesdales were at the fairgrounds at Merced (30 miles east of here) and could be viewed by the public. So late morning, we headed for Merced.
Sure enough, we found the horses, but they were all loaded into 3 semi trucks about to head down the road.
In fact they were headed for Mission, TX, where they were to show the horses complete with the wagon & dog. So we followed them for about 40 miles to this residential street where they parked the 3 semis.
We ended up talking to the boss of the group who told us they were making a presentation to a local person who have won a raffel.
But as luck would have it, heavy fog blanketed the area and prevented the horses from being off loaded as each horses harnes costs $100,000 and take 2 weeks to dry out when they get wet.
However, they did offload 2 horses & walked them to the front lawn of the house of the raffle winners.
One of the really important conversations with the Budweiser employees was about that story of discontinuing the Clydesdale operation. They said it was not true, that it was press errors. And they told us of their schedules into late summer.
I took lots of pictures below.

Tonight we're going to the ice cream social at the Hall, followed by hamburger or hot dog supper, followed by the movie, Philomena. Should be a fun evening.