Will Winter Ever End? Jan 17 - 31

FINALLY, the rains stopped and the sun came out on Saturday Jan 16! I opened some windows, a little too breezy and chilly (58 degrees) to open the door, but was sure is nice to get the place aired out some.

While defrosting my freezer, I found one piece of Iowa pork, a pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon and rosemary. (pork – the other white meat!) It went into the crock pot with some potatoes and carrots. It made the place smell so good!

At the fish market I picked up a pound of Dover sole, some fresh shrimp, oysters and crawfish. I'm set in fish/seafood now!

Sunday Li'l Bit and I stopped at the taco wagon to pick up breakfast. Holly is in her normal mode - sleeping on the back of the chair; Li’lBit is sound asleep in the recliner - just a great day to watch football! Like clockwork, they all wake up when the pizza comes out of the oven!

Tinga must be loosing her mind. She dumped all of her toys out of the little metal bucket and tipped it on its side. She walks into the bucket and talks to herself, obviously the echo is something that fascinates her. But it is really funny listening to her inside the bucket, "Can I come out" “Step up pretty girl.” Crazy bird!

Monday the 18th brought 61 degrees at wake-up and headed up into the 70s. Li'lBit and I spent a couple of hours outside. Gave me a chance to do some rearranging in the under compartment. I found a wet spot in the basement floor. A couple of days earlier we had wind and blowing rain and the compartment door popped open. Fortunately it wasn't soaked.

Monday’s crock pot specialty was a pot of sausage and lentil stew.

Ladies coffee Tuesday AM. The fog REALLY rolled in! Can barely see to the end of my street and I'm in the 3rd space! Dehumidifier has been running full speed.



Wine in a sock night Wednesday. I made some 'bar cheese' to take as a dip. Found a really ‘loud’ knee high sock while I was in WalMart – picked up a hair bow on a rubber band to match. It is a fancy sock for the wine bottle!

Wednesday was a scheduled lunch with some RVing friends I met here over the past years. The appointed spot was Jama’s, a sandwich joint with terrific cheesecakes – but, on arrival, they were closed for roof repairs. We caravanned down the road to the Apple Dumplin’. Really great Reuben sandwich. Didn’t have room left for one of their great apple dumplins – will have to make another trip back for that, I guess. It’s always good seeing Roberta, Dan, Jim and whoever else can make it to these little get-to-gethers!

Thursday, 9AM, beading class! Being a good student, I cut my strings and coated the string ends in glue so they would be stiffer to go thru the beads. We are making sun catchers. Guess who was the first to loose a string of 30 clear beads all over the table and floor! I felt like I was in a stroke rehab unit fumbling with those beads and that string!

I did find out that beading is probably NOT the craft for a person with fat numb fingers, no sight in one eye and no depth perception! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find the hole in a clear bead the size of a pea and then steady the string to push it through! It was like summer vacation day camp when the kids go to the park and do crafts. So funny! None of us had any idea what we were doing. I'm definitely going to work on it some here before next Thursday! This could make a person DRINK! I may need that wine in a sock!

Thursday night was the Friendship supper. I fixed 'dirty rice' - didn't spice it up too much, you know we are all old and have stomach problems! Someone brought meatloaf and I pigged out on meatloaf and mac and cheese! How's that for comfort food!

Friday 57 degrees and foggy, can barely see across the street -- at least it isn't cold and rainy (or icy or snowy!!!) and my propane usage has slowed some. Mary, from Shady Oaks, sent me some pictures she has taken of the campground this winter. Oh, how glad I am to be in chilly and foggy when I see those pictures.

Sunday the 24th the winds are strong enough to blow my fat butt away! Since setting outside wasn’t an option, setting inside working on my beading rehab therapy was the suitable alternative! This beading project is actually fun, just requires more hand/eye coordination than I have. Considering my new hobby of beading and all of the reading I’ve been doing, I’m surprise my eye isn't giving me trouble. I’m really testing it with this beading project.

This crazy winter weather has certainly kept the outside activities to a minimum. Li’lBit and I haven’t made it to the beach more than a couple times and then just quick trips. Woke up Sunday morning to 45 degrees. Kicked the furnace on for awhile. Poor propane guy, I haven't seen him in 2 or 3 trips. I guess it's a good thing I'm using some propane - he'll think I'm avoiding him! I even baked a cake yesterday.

By Tuesday the 26th, Li’lBit and I were spending some time outside with a bowl of grapes, ice tea and a good book. It really felt good to be out there.

TRIVIA ALERT -- JANUARY 27 Happy Crapper Day!
Though credited as the inventor of the flush toilet, he was not. As a shrewd business man, Thomas Crapper popularized the WC (water closet).
He held numerous patents that helped modernize indoor plumbing. His company, Thomas Crapper & Co. Ltd., is still creating reproductions of his original designs.

Along the same lines – let’s take the word CRAP…..
... one of a group of nouns applied to discarded cast offs, like "residue from renderings" (1490s) or ... probably extended from Middle English crappe "chaff, or grain that has been trodden underfoot in a barn" (c. 1440), deriving ultimately from Late Latin crappa, "chaff."

Yet another possible explanation is that Crapper's flush toilet advertising was so widespread that "crapper" became a synonym for "toilet" and people simply assumed he invented it. So Much for that little bit of trivia!

Broke my glasses. They are the old ones that I dug out when I could stop wearing the pair with the dark lens. I know I need a new prescription but I have just hated to sink money into new glasses when that infection causes my vision to change from day to day. I’m glad I have more than one pair to bounce back and forth with.

WalMart fixed them AGAIN – not sure how many more times they will do this! They put some kind of "liner" in them since the lens and frame really don't go together -- can't get frames for these lenses. AND, while I was there I asked about replacing the dark lens in the pair I had made with the sunglasses on the one side when the light was bothering the infected eye. Since I had that pair made at WalMart, she found the Rx for the lens. I ordered another pair (without the dark lens). It wasn't much more to have a new pair than just replace the one side! Go figure! Of course, I took advantage of a $9 frame sale! Then stopped to get my hair cut. Just one-stop shopping at WalMart!

By Thursday I wasn’t doing much but sucking up on oxygen and staying close to home. The chilly humidity is messing with the lungs. I feel like they are filling up with green mold. Must be a front comin'in. I feel like I have been rode hard and put away wet! Really BAD Air Day. Decided not to huff and puff up the hill for beading. Besides, I have plenty of ‘re-beading’ to do since Tinga decided to chew through some of the strings!

That was the start of nearly a week of going nowhere, doing nothing but sucking oxygen, sleeping, taking med, doing nebulizer treatments….Lordy, I hate times like that. A few warm and sunny days would really help bake some of this garbage out of me.

For the next couple of days I was eating a cheese tortellini, shrimp and spinach dish. Took me forever to find the roasted red pepper Italian with parmesan dressing. But it was really worth looking for. Yummy meal. But, as usual, most recipes are enough for me to eat for two or 3 days, 3 meals a day! I bet it would really be good with chicken, also.

I also put some chili in the crockpot. It's nice to have something to "warm up" on these down-and-out days.

I did find the energy to work on the clothes rod. It was fixed once, but broke loose again. I found some extra strong bonding sticky tape and some bigger screws, applied some gorilla glue to the screws before I put them in. Hopefully, the bonding tape will give extra support to the rod brackets and the screws won't be the only thing holding it up.

Will winter ever go away? January ended with the night temps down in the low 30s.

January 11 - 16

Monday started at 39 degrees -- no wind -- sun shining! YIPPEE!
Monday night was the baked potato/soup supper. Ruth made french onion soup!
YUMMY supper! Must have been 20 soups there and no two alike! Tomorrow at the ladies coffee some of them will bring their recipes. I want the potato/squash soup, the wild rice soup and Allison’s cold watermelon soup! That would be really great for a summer lunch get-together!

Made it to 52 degrees on Tuesday. The 60s were predicted but didn’t quite make it. I didn’t have to meet the propane guy today. He might think I don’t like him anymore! Ladies coffee is a regular event on Tuesday morning.

Wednesday was Wine in a Sock night. I woke up really plugged and congested. Probably due to that damn front coming through that was going to bring us 3-5 inches of RAIN! A few more inches and the gulf will be at my front door! Just when I thought we couldn’t get much more rain, the weatherman predicted 5 – 10 inches,then changed it to “near 12 inches in some areas.’ Wonder if he meant MY area!

Started a pot of vegetable soup and cut up the last of the brauts I brought from Iowa. I have one piece of pork loin left from summer in Iowa – then all of my Iowa beef and pork is gone. Will just have to suffer ‘til I get back there in May.

The heavier rains started on Thursday. When I went out to switch propane tanks, there was a clearing in the sky over the gulf, so decided to head over to do the laundry before the rains came. Never quite made it to the 60s, the air was chilly and damp. Have had the dehumidifier going for days. Just can’t seem to get over this congestion and, not wanting it to go to the lungs, I took a pass on Wine in a Sock night. Gotta get better to I can do lunch at Charlotte Plummers Friday. I will also pass on Friendship supper tonight. Been looking forward to fried oysters at Charlotte Plummers, can't miss that!

When the rains finally got here, they were pounding gully-washers. If there had been some winds, I would have looked for an out-of-season hurricane! In all of that pounding rain, not one tiny leak noted anywhere!

A pot of fish soup kept the tummy warm on Thursday. The rains just keep coming. I wonder if Allison will raise the lot rental since we will soon be waterfront property!!

Friday AM brought 15-20 mph winds gusting to 35-40mph. At least we weren’t freezing! AND - Still no leaks found! Finally made it to Charlotte Plummers for the long-awaited plate of fried oysters. Life is Good!

The Weekend In Review, Jan 8-10

Friday January 8, I woke up to 30 degrees, 21 mph wind speed, wind chill 18 and no electricity! I had to drag out my old percolator to make coffee. Been a long time since I've brewed coffee on the stove! I even had to drag out that old Acer laptop! It only has a 1 hr battery but at least I could check email! It’s really rough when you have to ‘rough it’ like that! Power came back on about 10AM.

Seems I have spent a lot of time waiting for the propane truck to come. Last Tuesday they didn't show up until 7:30PM! Guess they are doing a booming business with this cold snap – last Tuesday they didn’t show up until 7:30PM and were filling cylinders in the dark.

Saturday January 9 I woke up to a ‘hard freeze.’ 25 degrees with a wind chill of 15. I I need to remember to go to the office and check for notices more frequently. They shut the water off at the main line to keep the pipes from freezing. We were to have disconnected our hoses. Of course, I didn't see the message until I went out to go WalMart. There is a big 'sandwich board' in the drive with the daily activities and new. But, someone had disconnected my hose. I must have a guardian angel here in the park somewhere; I’m always taken care of!

The previous night I had let the faucet drip to keep the water lines open, however, that only works until they shut the water off at the main line! I guess, with the water problems they had last month, replacing pipes and meters, they probably didn't want any more damage from freezing weather!

I didn't have any frozen pipes IN the RV. The hose from the faucet to the RV did freeze. Had I known to disconnect from the faucet and drain it, it would have been OK. But the filter on the end of the hose kept it from draining when my guardian angel came by to unhook it. I survived with a full holding tank.

This furnace is really good and not noisy. The only problem is the draft from the slide. When I'm setting at the desk or table I really notice it.

Li'l Bit doesn't mind going out in the cold, but she doesn't like it when it is wet out, too. We don't stay out too long 'cuz I don't like being out in it either. I just keep an extra pee paper down for her! Li'lBit and Holly both sleep under the covers when it is cold. I'm not complaining - they keep my feet warm!

I woke up to no heat - must have kicked off about 5 AM 'cuz when I got up at 6 it was still 55 degrees in here. I had the thermostat turned down to 60. I had just filled my empty propane cylinder yesterday when the guy came thru the park and couldn't understand why I didn't have heat. I had turned on both cylinders so it would auto-switch during the night if needed.....but the new tank showed no pressure. I figured I hadn't hooked it on right and it leaked, but when I went to take it out to take it into town to fill, it was heavy/full. I put it on the other side and tried it and it worked just fine. Maybe there is something wrong with the connection on that one side. That happened to me once before, thought that tank was empty and when I lifted it out, it was full. Not sure what the deal is with that connection. Will have to have it checked.

Dick, next door, came by and took it to town and had it filled. I was listening for his truck to come back so I could go out and unload it and hook it up. When I heard him, I went out and Rick from down the street had already hooked it up..so how spoiled do you think I'm getting!

How can I not love the folks here! I told them I could get really lazy and just set on my butt and let them take care of me and I was informed if I was just setting on my butt and expecting it, I probably wouldn't get much help! So, I'll try to look like I'm doing everything myself and fool 'em!!!

Warmed up to the 50s on Sunday the 10th. I finally hooked up my water; been living off the holding tank since the freeze a couple of nights ago. Didn't do a thing Sunday, all I wanted was a long hot shower! Had planned to clean out my closet and fix the clothes rod but just turned into a vegetable, fixed a pot of soup and watched some football. Ruth came by for a visit, her husband was watching the Patriots and they weren’t doing so well.

Looking forward to some warmer weather - it must be out there somewhere!

I'm So Honored.....

...to be in Rockport Texas for their coldest nite in 20 years! Now just how lucky can one person get??? I realize for you bundling up in the north country, this isn't much to get excited about -- but we are in for 18 hours below freezing tonite - and then another bout tomorrow night. I'm just So Honored to be experiencing all of this!

So, how's this global warming working for ya!

Woke up to 30 degrees, 21 mph winds, wind chill 18 and no electricity! It's that No Electricity that makes me glad I'm in the RV with battery and propane power! Sure glad I'm not in Iowa!

2010 - Happy New Year!

January 2010 started as December 2009 ended, with miserable weather (compared to my sister in Iowa, it's pretty damn good down here!) But for this locale, it has been chilly, damp and windy. Not why I come to the Texas Gulf Coast!

My furnace has been getting a work out! The one in this RV is a lot quieter than the old one. My propane cylinders are 30 pound and I'm going thru one about every week to 10 days. A cylinder is $21 so I'm not complaining at $3/day (or less) for heating, water heater and cooking!

Thinking it would be a good day to get laundry done, I headed to the laundry room. Was I ever wrong. Maybe it is an RV thing to start the new year with clean clothes! The laundry room was packed on New Years Day.

But, I had my share of black eyed peas for good luck and plenty of football games to start the New Year.

The Dell PC is working out so well for me, I picked up a flat screen monitor so I could get the big ol’ clunky one off of my desk. After all, space is limited in the RV!

When I get the laptop back, it will be for on-the road stuff since I will have to pack away the desk top model for travel. I really like using the desk top model much better. Guess I'm just an old fart that can't learn new tricks!

Not getting much warmer, just less rain and more sun. It warmed up enough for me to set outside and brush Li'lBit. She immediately jumps up on the picnic table to be brushed. She would stay on that picnic table and watch the world go by all day, I believe.

Decided it was chili weather. I thought I had some hamburger in the freeze but I didn't. I did have some left over shredded BBQ pork so I thawed that out and put it in the chili. Not bad!

Saturday January 2nd, my phone rang about 6:30PM. It was Sarah. I first met Sarah and Bill in Gatesville. They are from Midland TX and were staying in the same RV park where I stay every spring and fall. Last year, they stopped here in Rockport for awhile. They love music jamborees and they have quite a few musical get-to-gethers at the RV parks here. They will be here for at least a month. They are just up the street two spaces. It will be nice to have her for visits.

Ruth stopped by to see if I needed anything. I think the word has gotten around I'm "suffering"! Heavens! It's just a cold and some congestion but you'd think I was dying! My neighbor even picked up my mail and brought it to me so I wouldn’t have to go out in this chilly mess. How can you not love and feel welcome in a place like this!

Monday a trip to the office to pay my $2 for the baked potato/soup supper (that covers the cost of the baked potato and all of the trimmings and the beverage), signed up to bring crackers. Looks like there will be enough soup there to float a battle ship, but didn’t see anyone bring crackers. You certainly can't have soup without crackers! This could be a really cheap meal for me. Also time to pay the $59 electric bill. I can't complain. The first few days here, I was using the space heater all of the time. I hadn't traveled with two full cylinders and was running really low on propane. AND, that crock pot goes nearly 24 hours a day!

The case for my sewing machine came. Now I don't have to look at it in that torn plastic bag setting under the table! Such little things bring such happiness!

Sid called to help me figure out why I’m not getting any AM radio stations on my AM/FM/DVD unit. I did find out that there is no antenna plugged into the antenna ports. So now, where to find a replacement AM Antenna. Can’t seem to find anything about the company or the unit on the internet. A trip to Radio Shack is in order.

January 4th it was 39 degrees when I crawled out of bed. Fortunately no wind and the sun is out! I wish all you folks up north would just keep those cold fronts up your way! I don't come south to see 39 degrees on my Weatherbug when I turn on the computer.

By January 5th I was feeling some better, still plugged but mostly sinuses. The nebulizer treatments seem to be working so I’m not too worried. But, damn it's cold! It made it all the way up to 45 degrees! I felt like going up to the ladies coffee. I signed up for Thursday morning crafts. They are beading! I’m sure my numb, trembling fingers will be good at beading! Oh, well, will give me something to do! Looks like it is going to be way too cold to do much outside with Li’lBit.

Nearly ran out of propane. Didn't realize I was getting low but I was using more than I thought with the cold snap and we have another cold front coming through for the weekend. I waited until nearly 5PM for the propane truck, they come like clockwork every Tuesday and Friday. I left the tank out front with a check attached (how small town is THAT!) when I left to go meet Deryl and Elke. We had dinner at Pepitos. I had a quesadilla filled with beef fajita meat, mushrooms, onions, green peppers and cheese filling -- YUMMY! Ate tooo much!

I drove home prepared to spend a chilly night without any heat except my small electric space heater. I pulled in about 7:30, there was the propane truck filling my tank! They had two trucks working the park. I guess everyone is filling up and getting ready for the next few days. I thought I'd just leave the full cylinder set by the RV and set it up in the morning when it was light but when I came in and turned on the furnace I noticed that 'propane' smell and soon there was no heat. So I was outside in the dark putting the cylinder in, hooking it up and switching over! When they come back on Friday, I'll fill the other cylinder and be ready to go. One of these days we have to get some warm weather.

So goes the first week of 2010. Life is Good; I am Blessed!!

2009 Comes To An End

About 9AM Monday, the 28th, Sid and Rain pulled out, headed to Del Rio. Sid got a lot of things done around here for me and told me the guarantee lasted until I saw his tail lights turning onto the highway! Now I look out my window and my heart aches! It's empty over there!

Tuesday the 29th started out at 44 degrees, dreary and damp. It wouldn’t get much warmer as the cold front came barreling thru with a couple days of rain! As the front came through it brought more than cold damp weather. I plugged up, stuffed up and had a sore throat.

No Tuesday morning ladies coffee for me. I just stay inside, feel sorry for myself, take my medicine and stay warm! My fear, when the congestion starts, is that it will drop into the lungs and my poor lungs just can’t handle pneumonia. The remainder of December and New Year’s Eve were spent huddled up with blankets, hot tea and my nebulizer!

Rain emailed saying they made it. It’s always good to hear friends arrived at their destination safe and sound. We all tend to worry some for each other as we hit the road.

I did make Johnnie Wiliams’ black-eyed pea salad for New Years Day. Tinga decdided to help and landed on the side of the bowl, grabbed a pea and said, "uuummmm." Crazy bird.

And, I couldn’t pass up an invite to Deryl & Elke's for shrimp. He used a Cajun seasoning - that sure cleared out the sinuses!