RVing Fulltime with Tom and Ella

2018 March 08 Thursday in Liberty Hill Texas

42° and mist in the air in the morning. The sunrise in the eastern sky was unseen. However, looking to the south I was able to get a little color in this morning’s skyscape.

Being Thursday means it’s time to test my blood again. I was curious what it would look like because I’ve had broccoli twice this week. Broccoli has a lot of vitamin K which contains clotting factors. Since the object of my medication is to slow down the clotting time, vitamin K (if in excess) can defeat the purpose of the pill. And indeed it was at the far end of the normal range but still acceptable. Yay!

Pancakes with fresh strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast hit the spot this morning. Ella said, “Breakfast got a little fancy today. And it tasted great. A pleasant change from the usual.” I used an idea that I read on Rich “The Wandernan’s” blog. By adding some mayonnaise to the batter, the pancakes rise a little higher and are fluffier.

While I was breakfast, Ella was getting the laundry ready to go to the laundromat.

We took an apple walnut pie to the Over the Hill Gang* today. I did not make it. It came from H.E.B.* but I sliced it and warmed it in the convection oven prior to leaving home.

After lunch we went to the ENTs office to have Ella’s ears checked again – this is a follow up after tube was placed in right ear last week.

I sat behind the audio tech and could see the graph on the computer. It looked much different than last time she was in the booth. Where there had been a larger disparage between right and left, now they look like a matched set.

We had to drive through where they are doing road construction to go in and to exit the ENT’s.

Once we left there it was the the laundromat to clean our duds. I don’t really understand how two people can dirty that many clothes in so short of a time. The only thing that perplexes me more is how we can go through so many dishes when we eat at least one meal a day, most days, away from home.

Now that the clothes were clean, it was time for supper. Ella wanted Taco Bell. I didn’t. So we compromised. We went to Taco Bell and then to McDonald’s. We took our sack lunches to the ballpark where grandson Beket would soon be playing.

MUSINGS

TOO SOON OLD.

TOO LATE WISE.

As we look backward on our lives, we begin to see the rise and fall of our peacefulness and our pain. Like equal weights upon a balance scale.

I’m glad that God is just. However, I’m grateful and overjoyed that he is merciful.

I tremble at his justice.

But I sing of his mercy.

This is His great power to temper His justice with His love.

Psalms 90:12-16
Teach us to number each of our days so that we may grow in wisdom. Return, LORD! How long…? Change your plans about us, your servants. Satisfy us every morning with your mercy so that we may sing joyfully and rejoice all our days. Make us rejoice for as many days as you have made us suffer, for as many years as we have experienced evil. Let us, your servants, see what you can do. Let our children see your glorious power.

• *Over the Hill Gang Since its ambitious beginnings in 1998, seniors have flocked to the unpretentious brick building at 3307 RR 1869. While the organization has wrapped itself in a host of civic and social activities since its inception, its central rallying event has become the weekly 11:30 a.m. home cooked luncheons held every Thursday. By Dana Delgado LibertyHillLiving.com

• *H‑E‑B began with one store in 1905, nestled in Kerrville in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. We’ve always believed in the value of hard work and the importance of taking care of people. And we’ve always dreamed big. We hire great people, offer Customers the best service and sell only the freshest, safest products. Moreover, we always look for great products for today and tomorrow, and make sure to give Customers low prices with the best value.

2018 March 07 Wednesday in Liberty Hill Texas

37° at 3:00 a.m. so I turned the heater on. That way my bride wouldn’t freeze her toes (and other bits) when she rolled out of bed. Which she did around 6. I, on the other hand, didn’t reawaken until her alarm went off at 7. Even then I was reluctant to get up. Not at all like me to sleep in or for Ella to willing get up before 8. “Freaky Friday”came in Wednesday this week.

We arrived at Grandies* in time to help set things up for the meeting.

Snack table with fruit purchased yesterday.

One of the people (who is member of our church) who is running for reelection to the school board came to speak with us. We had another candidate (who also is a member of our congregation) come speak with us last week.

After Grandies* we were invited to go to Cherry Creek Catfish with friends. However, knowing that we would have a larger evening meal, and in an effort to conserve cash, we opted to go home and eat.

We had stew meat and ground beef that needed to be browned before dividing into portions and frozen. Part of the ground beef was made into loose meat sandwiches (also known as Maid-Rites, Taverns, or Sloppy Joes) for our lunch.

The left leg was aching to the point that, after the meat was browned, I retreated to my recliner and asked Ella to finish bagging and freezing the meat.

Monthly choir party

Once a month the choir (and family) gather to share a catered meal before practices. It’s a great way to pull the choir family together.

And then it was time for the drive home under the western sky.

——-

 

 

• *Grandies welcomes those 50+ every week with friendship, games and a ministry to connect to others. As a special part of their ministry, Grandies sign and send greeting cards with inspirational messages to those serving in the military, the sick or homebound and church members celebrating happy milestones like birthdays and graduation. Since this ministry started, more than 3,300 cards have been sent!

• In the summer, Grandies also work to make available snack packs through Operation Liberty Hill for children who may not otherwise have enough food without school in session. Additionally, they provide meals at Vacation Bible School and host bake sales twice a year to raise funds for their important works.

 

2018 March 06 Tuesday in Liberty Hill Texas

41° to start the day. I got a nice photo of sunrise this morning. You can first see the sun through a break in the trees (bottom left).

We didn’t do much around the RV before leaving for the Leander senior center***. Where we played Rummikub ™ with friends until lunch time. Lunch was a chicken Caesar salad.

Today’s kitchen staff.

Action Propane was our only stop on the way home today. I needed to have one of our 30# cylinders refilled. Our Excel takes two thirty pound cylinders but I have two spares for backup.

When got home I unloaded the LP and added some oil to the truck.

The next order of business was to fix the control panel in the RV. Several days ago I noticed the light in the panel no longer illuminates when the buttons are pushed. I never trusted the fullness indicators for the holding tanks. However the water heater, pump, and battery indicator lights are no longer working on the panel.Only two screwed hold the panel in place. I was surprised by the nest of wiring behind the panel.

I was also surprised that they appeared no way to replace the light without replacing the circuit board.

For the price of the circuit board, I’ll just deal with not knowing at a glance if the water heater or pump is on.

Tomorrow is our Grandies* meeting and we are supposed to bring grapes. Guess what we forgot to purchase?

Oh you are so smart. How did you know it was the grapes?

So we went into Leander and the H.E.B. for grapes

Then a stop for gas and a truck wash.

Plus this great shot of the sunset as we were on the way to prayer meeting.

2018 March 04 Sunday in Liberty Hill Texas

61° with a low flying cloud or maybe it was a lifting fog that drifted like smoke just above the juniper trees.

Before leaving for church I put potatoes and meatloaf in the InstaPot. Once it had finished the pressure cycle, I released the stream and left it on the keep warm setting until we returned from worship. At which point I cooked some buttered corn as a side

We just chilled until four o’clock when we headed to Tate’s flag football game. It was the final game of the season and it didn’t go well for his team. In this video he is carrying the ball when one of the other team attempted to push Tate off the field. Tate’s team was penalized for “trucking”, that it’s here didn’t try to avoid the other player.

After the game we all went to Hat Creek Burgers for supper.

And then it was forty minutes home and to bed.

Night y’all!

2018 March 03 Saturday in Liberty Hill Texas

While it started out looking like it was going to be sunny, around ten the sky became completely overcast and gray. It was 60° at five thirty and didn’t change much all afternoon either.

Saturday and nothing to do and all day to do it. Hey! It just dawned on me … I have a WEEKEND!

I’ve been retired for about a decade and am always surprised when someone says, “Have a good weekend.” or “What did you do this weekend?” I actually have forgotten how much I loved the weekends and counted the days until they arrived.

Being retired does not mean having nothing to do (if you’re doing it correctly) it only means that you have (usually) chosen the things that you have to do. As opposed to having someone else choose where you are, what time you are to be there, when you can leave, how long you have for lunch, and on and on.

Yessiree I have no one that I have to answer to but my God. Oh, and wife. Oh and grandkids. And great grandkids. Yes and the kids also. Okay now that I think about it I’m not as free as I thought.

Because we lazed around this morning, breakfast was later (and larger) than usual.

Which meant that lunch was mid afternoon and supper ended up being popcorn.

Which meant that lunch was mid afternoon and supper ended up being popcorn.
No sunset photos because the sun never broke through.

2018 March 11 Sunday in Liberty Hill Texas

70° to start the day. The sun is gaining on the moon as they do their slow race across the sky this morning. The moon only had a couple hours head start today. It must have slept in last night.

We drove to Buchanan Dam this morning to go to Highland Lakes UMC. When we first came to Texas, this was our home church. Then we moved to Liberty Hill and began attending there. Since we sing in the choir, it’s hard to get away on Sundays. Today, however, the choir did not sing. It was a perfect time to go to Highland Lakes because they have a potluck on the second Sunday every month. Plus, though we did

n’t know this in advance, this Sunday they recognized the “Winter Texans”.

The bell choir rang in the service. And their choir was in fine voice also.

To go there we drove a more or less direct route. More or less because ‘ain’t nothin’ straight when driving through the Texas Hill country. On the way home we took a less direct and more hilly and more curvy route. See map below.

Ella wrote: “We stopped in Kingsland for groceries after services at Highland Lakes UMC.” We also stopped so that Ella could take a photo of the first Blue Bonnets we’d seen this year.

The only thing on the list that we really needed was bread. And we could have gone another day or so. However the H.E.B. was on the way. Plus we needed a “rest stop”.

We did little of note the rest of the day. But I did get an evening skyscape.

MUSINGS
When the Lord said “Whosoever” He included me!

• Isaiah 25:6-9
  On this mountain the LORD of Armies will prepare for all people a feast with the best foods, a banquet with aged wines, with the best foods and the finest wines.  On this mountain he will remove the veil of grief covering all people and the mask covering all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Almighty LORD will wipe away tears from every face, and he will remove the disgrace of his people from the whole earth. The LORD has spoken.   On that day his people will say, “This is our God; we have waited for him, and now he will save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him. Let us rejoice and be glad because he will save us.”

 

His people

All people

Every nation

That sounds pretty INCLUSIVE doesn’t it?

Why do we work so hard at being EXCLUSIVE?

Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself.

Okay, I can do that … almost.

Then he said love your enemy. Wait a minute. Really?

Really!

We are ALL God’s children and it is not His will the any should perish.

His promise is for everyone of His people.

2018 March 01 Thursday in Liberty Hill Texas

55° at six p.m. The sun came out today. It’s a nice change from the fog.

Thursdays are the mornings when I test my blood for clotting time and it was great this morning, neither too slow nor too fast. If it is too slow to clot there is a risk of life threatening bleeding as well as bruising more easily. If it clots too fast there is a risk of heart attack and stroke.

At the same time I check the INR (clotting factor) I also check my blood glucose level. This morning it was a little higher than usual. That may have something to do with the ice cream from last night.

My levels probably will not be lowered from the treats offered at today’s Over the Hill Gang*. I fixed a peach cobbler this morning that was our contribution to the dessert table.

Once a month chicken in brought in from Chicken Express and today was the day.

Random Facebook posts intrigue me. There are so many post that make claims to being factual that I nearly always either dismiss them or seek to verify them. Most of the time I’ve used snopes.com. however, recently there have been allegations that Snopes itself fabricates evidence.

The reason I bring this up is that this morning I saw a post about strange laws in Texas. One of the purported laws was that it is illegal to drink a beer standing up in the great state of Texas. Could that be right? Could all those old west movies, showing men standing at the bar drinking a beer, be wrong? Perish the thought that those “historical dramas” John Wayne. Randolph Scott, Clint Eastwood, Gary Cooper, and Jimmy Stewart could be somehow historically inaccurate.

Okay. Taking my tongue out of my cheek for a moment, I decided to determine the fact or fiction of the claim that it is illegal to stand while drinking a beer. Amazingly my internet brought up a lot of collaborating stories. As a matter of fact it became every more finely tuned by starting that you couldn’t drink more than three sips of beer while standing. I was almost persuaded until I ran across the blog by a lawyer, Jeffery Carr, who did his own search for the truth. Spoiler alert: it is a myth.

The day turned out to be very nice even if it was a bit windy.

Granddaughter Emery had a performance at her school tonight. It was an all Texas theme songfest. I goofed up trying to video the performance. However I did get this photo.

And i have this one of the two of us.

We stopped at Schlotzsky’s on the way home. Mostly because Ella had never ever been to one. Personally I had given up on them years ago. And, I have to say that tonight’s visit hadn’t changed my opinion.

*Over the Hill Gang ,”Since its ambitious beginnings in 1998, seniors have flocked to the unpretentious brick building at 3307 RR 1869. While the organization has wrapped itself in a host of civic and social activities since its inception, its central rallying event has become the weekly 11:30 a.m. home cooked luncheons held every Thursday.“
By Dana Delgado on LibertyHillLiving.com

2018 February 28 Wednesday in Liberty Hill Texas

65° and foggy again to start the day. Despite no sun it made it to 75° or better today. The forecast was for rain and possible storms so many people opted to not attend Grandies* today.

After the Grandies meeting six of us went to Elena’s Bar & Grill (but we don’t mention the Bar part) for a great Mexican lunch.
We didn’t do much in the afternoon other than rest until choir practice at six. The church and the sky look wonderful as we came out from choir practice a little after seven.

We stopped at Dollar General on the way home to purchase some birthday cards and ice cream.
Once we were home it was time for ice cream and TV.

*Grandies welcomes those 50+ every week with friendship, games and a ministry to connect to others. As a special part of their ministry, Grandies sign and send greeting cards with inspirational messages to those serving in the military, the sick or homebound and church members celebrating happy milestones like birthdays and graduation. Since this ministry started, more than 3,300 cards have been sent!

In the summer, Grandies also work to make available snack packs through Operation Liberty Hill for children who may not otherwise have enough food without school in session. Additionally, they provide meals at Vacation Bible School and host bake sales twice a year to raise funds for their important works.

2018 February 27 Tuesday in Liberty Hill Texas

It was 61 degrees when we got up this morning and very foggy.

We had a surprise. No electricity (other than house battery) and no water. That means that the power was out at our Campground. The campground’s water comes from a well. No electricity means no pump which in turn means no water to the campers.

So we decided to go in to IHOP and have free pancakes today it’s Pancake Day.

Oh did I mention the fog? There’s a lot of fog this morning too. It was actually sprinkling a little as we left home and it slowly went down to a mist. However, we were driving in some heavy fog on the way into Cedar See Park.

After we were done at IHOP we went across the street to Costco. However they were not open at 9:30. We went back after lunch.

We arrived at the senior center at about quarter to ten and the usual gang were already there.

They were playing Rummikub again. Once again, we were shut out of their game because it is a four player only game. Ella and I opened the second Rummikub game and started playing. After we finished the first game, Ted joined us. They were already serving us lunch (Italian sausage in a tomatoes sauce with cheese and a side of squash) as we finished playing.

After lunch we returned to Costco for some health and beauty items. I also renewed our membership while we were there.

It was 68° by 1:30 but was still a hazy, misty, fog. Sometimes the fog can make for beautiful photographs. Not today though it just left the sky the color of dry concrete.

When we arrived home the electricity had been restored and we once again had running water. That’s a good thing.

Do you ever just stop, look around, and thank God for your life? That’s the mode I’m in right now. I’m sitting in my recliner holding hands with the woman I love. Our eternal life is secure, we get to spend time with friends nearly every day.. And as I’m fond of saying, “For all that’s wrong with us, we’re in good shape.” We don’t have a lot but we have enough.

So, imagine my surprise when i learned that we are homeless. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) use the following: A homeless individual is defined in section 330(h)(5)(A individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground;

One of the other parts of the HHS definition includes living in an RV.

I accept that we are “houseless” but we are certainly not homeless in our own minds.

How about you other full-time RVers? Do you see yourself as homeless?

We did have some beautiful sunset photos tonight.

2018 February 26 Monday in Liberty Hill Texas44° at 5:30 this morning. Maybe I should have closed the windows.

Ella and I fasted this morning for lab work at the doctor’s office. I was supposed to have done my labs a week ago when I had my wellness exam. However I had eaten breakfast. So today when Ella had her fasting wellness exam, I completed mine also.

Something that nobody told me about growing old was how much time you spend at doctors. And how many doctors you’ll see. Primary doctor(s): 3 because we move between Texas and Iowa yearly we have one at each place plus my primary VA doctor. Specialists: cardiologists 2 main (again Texas & Iowa) plus 1 for CPAP machine, plus the Cumin clinic. I didn’t count the three or four cardiac surgeons who have worked on me nor the paramedics and emergency room doctors. Orthopedic, Chiropractor, Physical Therapist, ENT, Allergists. Optometrist & Ophthalmologist, Dentist, Oral Surgeon, & Dental Technician. And probably more than I haven’t thought of. Do I get any exercise? Yes. Just going to doctors! Okay, to quote Forrest Gump, “And that’s all I have to say about that.”

Our wellness exam went alright. Ella, as usual, have up her blood easily. , as usual, did not. It took three sticks before they struck blood and then the last vial took a long time to fill. It’s a good thing I’m on blood thinners or they might have to carve the blood out with a knife.

By the time we were done at the doctor’s it was definitely time for breakfast. Our choice for today was Hobo Junction®. I love their chicken fried steak with gravy. Add biscuit, eggs, and grits … well that’s just shirt off heaven. The restaurant is a former depot so it sits right along the tracks Liberty Hill. And it retains that rustic look of days gone by.

We made it to Leander Senior center about ten thirty. The usual hang were playing Rummikub® so we got out the second Rummikub game and started playing. Before long, Claudette came in and joined us. Ella won the game just as they were bringing out lunches to us.

Lunch was on the menu as taco, re fried beans and salad. It was taco meat, tomatoes and lettuce dumped on corn tortillas chips. Since we had a larger breakfast just two hours earlier, neither of us could eat it all.

We stayed at the center until around one. Then we made our way to Dr. Borick’s office for the fourth injection in my knee. Someone had ask me if this was the biologic or a synthetic rooster comb. I had no idea. So I asked the doctor. It is not synthetic nor is it made from cock’s comb. It is grown in a lab from the DNA of the rooster comb. Ain’t science grand?

On the way home we stopped at Mom’s (our lovely friend, Florence) house to give her some pink roses.

We got a nice skyscape this evening.