Back Home in The Rio Grand Valley

All good things must come to and end, darn it. Tuesday, Christmas Day, come and so did the time for me to catch a plane and head back to the rv. And kitty too. On a afternoon flight the plane was full. I arrived back about 5:05 pm and paid the long term parking of $5.00 per day ($25.00 total) and headed home.

Kitty was sleeping under the chair and came out after I got in and was putting my stuff up. His litter box was a mess but the area around the box was not covered in litter as I had expected. Instead he waited till the next day to push his litter onto the floor.

Home sweet home without my companion and friend. She will make a trip down here and then it will be time to go back north to Fort Worth and find a place to park. Probably start with the COE park at Benbrook Lake. At least that is the current plan. I will stop at my daughters on the way and see my three grandkids. I will stop at an rv park for Saturday and Sunday night before heading on to Fort Worth.

I got to play golf yesterday. The weather is not for golf with high gusting winds in the +30 range. Not my type of golf weather. When the time comes with lower wind and decent temps it will be golf time. And got the clothes washed. Today is a stay in the house day and probably play the runescape game. If you go there, find me (texasguy028) and say hello.

I'm Home For Christmas

I arrived at the apartment about 6:30 pm today. The flight was fast but the ride to the apartment was not. It was 45 minutes before I was picked up and then it was a trip around the airport to find more riders to Fort Worth. I ended up as the only rider after 30 minutes. I guess it could have been worse.

My Shirley was waiting for me to arrive so we could go eat. We went to Riscky's for bbq. We both ate to much and are stuffed. We are going to try the movies while I'm here. More on this later.

Kitty is on his own till I get back Tuesday afternoon. I do have my neighbors watching after him. They have keys just in case. He should be fine but probably lonely by Saturday. More on this later.

UPDATE:
Its a Monday evening which is a day before the flight home. We have a good time. We went to a movie today and saw National Treasure, Book of Secrets. This is the sequel to the first movie. And we parked at a meter with holiday schedule so it was at no cost. We had a nice time exchanging gifts on Sunday afternoon at her parents.

UPDATE:
We are now back at the rv in Mercedes, TX. Kitty did fine and the plane ride was good. Nice to be here but would rather be in Ftw. Golf tomorrow when it gets into the 60's. We had a good Christmas and I hope you did too.

I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas and if your traveling that you have a safe trip.

And More of The Lights At The Park

My Up Coming Trip Home

The office

I will be flying home to Fort Worth on 12/21/07 and returning to the RGV on 12/25/07. Kitty will be by his self while I'm gone but the neighbors will have a set of keys "in case". They can come check his water and food supply untill I get back. The weather here and there has yet to be finalized so I will pack a carry on bag with what I will need on 12/21/07.

There are more pics to come and I hope you are enjoying them too. Be safe as you travel.

And More Christmas Pictures

More Pictures

More Lights

Christmas Lights Here At The Park

One of the many individual homes.

Another street scene

The office.

The rest of the pics are street scenes.

Google Earth Location

Our Google Earth location. I wish to give credit for this to George and Miss Tioga. Look in our Links for his blog.

Thank you George for the information to do this. Here is the code for this.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=26.1288,-97.9428+%28RichardnShirley%29&output=kml

It Has Been a Nice Month

The weather has been good, nearly. I'm getting in all the golf and other activities I can handle. In fact I get to play so much that my body gets to sore by Friday. i do take off on Wednesday to rest and due chores.

I had a "guest" today. It seems that my DW flew down Friday and stayed till Sunday noon. She got o do all those things that we did last year when she was here. I got this pic of her getting ready to go back to the airport in McAllen. It will be my turn to go to Fort Worth 12/21 and come back 12/25. the ticket has been bought and we are counting the days.

We drove the golf cart around and got these pics of the early holiday decorations that have been put out. This cactus gets the tips done each year. And this yard has some very pretty flowers blooming.

Here is a close up of the flowers and then a long shot of the rest of the yard. There are some real nice looking homes here. The price is very right too.















It did get warm, like 90 on the weatherbug for us. And the wind blew. the low in Ill west of Chicago is drawing the air up from this area and it blew 15-25 with gusts to 30+. Not a good golf day. I have and will play in 10-20 with 25+ gusts but 30+ is a bit much.

Shirley has caught her 1:55 AA flight home and will land about this time. Shore was nice to see her after a month even if it was for a short stay. I will be up there soon for 4 days and kitty will be alone in the rv "bird hunting" thru the window.

Temp: 90 for the high, 73 for the low
Forecast: 70 for tomorrow, 42 tomorrow night with 50% chance of rain. Be nice to have some cooler weather for a day.
Mileage: Suv 122, Rv was none.
Gas: Rv was $197.10 and suv was $22.19. The rv has a full tank for the return trip.
Spent:$2343.27 with 4 months park rent (1774.32), 3 months golf ($270.00) and cart ($200.26 first month and $162.38 each added month), and new toilet ($321.65) and $42.00 for propane since last spring. I added the electric bill of $46.20 to close out the month.

Wes Chilson

I got this email from Jan today and wish to post it here for all to see:

Hello family and friends;

Just to update you - Wes has been having some health issues and yesterday underwent a heart catheretization. Some blockage was discovered, but none serious enough for ballooning or stints - or surgery. Thank goodness!! They can be easily controlled by medication and an improved diet. His activity is restricted for the next week and he cannot drive for a couple of days. After that he should be able to resume normal activity. Due to this delay, our winter travel plans have changed. We will be spending the months of January, February, and March in Aran

Hello family and friends;

Just to update you - Wes has been having some health issues and yesterday underwent a heart catheretization. Some blockage was discovered, but none serious enough for ballooning or stints - or surgery. Thank goodness!! They can be easily controlled by medication and an improved diet. His activity is restricted for the next week and he cannot drive for a couple of days. After that he should be able to resume normal activity. Due to this delay, our winter travel plans have changed. We will be spending the months of January, February, and March in Aransas Pass, TX fishing and taking it easy. We have cancelled our trip to AZ and Q, so will not be able to see a lot of you this winter. Please keep in touch. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

JanC

They are on our links page for the class of 05. Please go to their page and post your message or post it here.

Its Finally Warmer Down Here

Its finally warmer than the 5oish we had. There was wind and rain and cold temps. But it is all gone and tomorrow should be 75 after an overnight of 50 tonight. I got propane from one of the three vendors here and it was not cheap. $3.50 a gallon and he put in 12 gallons. I should be good for the next cold snap or hopefully two of them.

Here is our cat waiting for the next bird to appear. He is in cat heaven, he just cant get them. He does slap at the window when a bird does appear. He is being entertained.



And this is what he is waiting on. The birds that come to the feeder are large vs the small ones. They are the size of the bluejay and have a tough time staying on the perch. The cat sits on the floor looking at the feeder waiting for a bird.

We had a repair to the rv. It seems the toilet stopped working and was in need of replacement. I called around and the Ron Hoover RV dealer had the only one to replace the existing. Out came a Sealand and in went a new Sealand.

I got all ready to move to their shop when the living room slide would not close. So, no go and for and extra $65.00 they came to me.

The service guy is in the final stages of installation of the new one. All went well with two exceptions. The gasket was damaged. It is glued to the tank and hence was not replaceable. One of the four studs was rusted away. He put the new toilet in place and added a lag screw here the stud was. He even cleaned the floor. What a guy.
Final bill was $521 and change.

















This is the lag screw vs a stud and nut.

Job done and we are back in the "flushing" business again.

Tomorrow is a golf day with 75 and getting better the next day.

Happy Thanksgiving To You

This is our, or kitty's, bird feeder. As you can see he likes it so much he has to get close to it. It has a single suction cup and is easily re-filled. The other feeder was not very well designed and was then not use able. The bottom kept falling off and dumping the seed on the ground. Good for the birds but bad for the kitty.

As you can see we are not playing golf today. The cold front has arrived, 2:25 am this morning, and brought with it colder temps, rain and lots of wind. I would guess the temp went from low 70's to low 50's. Burrrrr.

Its late morning and still darn chilly. But its dry now and the wind is down to a respectable speed.
Back to kitty, he sits on the floor and watches the feeder for his next "victim". He has had bird in the past and even brought a couple into the house in Burleson.


This will go on for the whole time we are here and he will be busy chasing after them.

Temp: 56 with 45 for tonight, chance of rain.
Forecast: 55 and 48 tomorrow night, 40%rain.

Wednesday Morning

Its been very nice here so far. Sunny skies with some clouds but no rain so far or cold weather. The wind did get up one day with 10-20 and gusts to 25. Still not bad.

I have been golfing more now that my eyes are about allergy free. No more itching and watery eyes. I even put in my contacts yesterday to play golf. First time since I drove down here that I could put them in.

Right now I'm washing clothes to keep up with the laundry. And I will dump tanks today with the gray water having two loads of wash. Black tank is burping already since last Saturday.

The palms here got trimmed last week and again this week. This is the lift used to get up to the leaf height. The guy uses a gas chain saw to do the work. He is nice and fast.

Other than that its get up, dress and eat breakfast, wash dishes, make bed, clean kitty box and take out trash. Then its golf time. Hit the course about 8:30 to 9: am and we are off.

I do play 18 holes each of the four days and I have a three month membership and trail fee. That cost $270 and $150 resp. The daily charge is $15 and $7. I'll let you see if its a good deal. The cart is $150 monthly with the additional $3 for a cart at the course. I use the cart for all my park running around and don't use the suv unless its a trip to the store. I went to Wal mart Sunday and the gas here was $2.93.9. I'm sure glad I filled the rv before I parked. Gas then was $2.79 I think. It was a $100 to fill up. Suv has 3/4 of a tank and will be some time before I gas it up.


Thats the lift. Its driven by the operator in the bucket, see him there. It is also driven from the ground if necessary. These things are usually driven from the bucket. It's not very fast, about 1 mile and hour.

The first pick shows the finished work. You can look back at prior pics to see the before shots.

I'll try to make the exercise center today and take a walk too. The clothes are being dried and there is time for me to take a walk.

So. I'll see what is happening here and get some pics for the next update. Ya'll have fun too.
I miss you honey and love you very much.

I' m going to add this update on the weather. its seems that tomorrow will be 70 for the high with 52 that hight. there are periods of rain forecast. We may be home bound tomorrow. I'll be glad to see some cooler weather even for a day. The normal high is about 82.

Temp:64 this morning, 72 now with a forecast high of 90 and sunny skies. May be an a/c day.

The Weekend is Here

Its Saturday and clean house time. And wash some clothes for next week. My arm felt much better on Friday and I did play 18 holes with no problems. Today its warm, 83 at 11:00 am and breezy. Its a 15-25 with gusts to 30 atleast the last hour. The wind blew Friday but not as strong.

I took this walk last Thursday while my arm rested and got up on the levy to take these pics. These same park models are for sale as they were last year. Maybe they will sell this year.



The first pic is of the back of the two. The 2nd and 3rd are of the front of the same. The last is a pic of the one closest to the drainage.

If you come down this way, stop by and say hi.