Tuesday 7-14 Two Virtual Plus Dances

It is hot!!!!

This was the fifth day in a row that it got up to 100 or higher. Today it officially got to 104 degrees in Belton/Temple area. It was windy.

We started the day out by going to the storage center to take the Minnie for its monthly drive. Larry tries to do this once a month when we're not using it to keep the Minnie running correctly. While taking the Minnie for a drive we run the generator.

Taking the Minnie for a ride

We attended two virtual plus dances today. The first dance was at 11:00 with Dayle Hodge. Dayle had 33 participants on Zoom. Some of the participants were single people but the majority were couples so there were more than 33 people dancing. Dayle is a pleasure to dance to because he cues the whole time. He sights calls so he knows when the dancers are having problems. When dancers have problems he will walk us through the move. He explains the move first and then he has the dancers dance the move while he cues it. It's always nice to be able to just dance without stress. We had an outstanding time.

The second plus dance was at 6:30 to 8:00 with Dick Otis and Bill Harrison. We had 44 participants. This was the first time that Dick Otis had done a Zoom dance so there were a few mistakes but that was ok, he still did a great job. Dick and Bill did three tips a piece. We had a super time dancing to Dick and Bill. 

In between the dances I did my daily challenges and The Event: Tri Peaks Mini of 10 games. It took me 36 minutes and 20 seconds, which put me in 28th place in my group. We watched YouTube videos and I worked on my puzzle.

 

After the second dance we watched an episode of Midsomer Murders. I watched a couple of movies on Amazon, Cover with Chocolate and Footloose. Cover with Chocolate was a murder detective movie and was good. It has been years since I watched Footloose and it was still a good movie. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in first place in my group.

Relaxing in front of the television

Monday 7-13 Boat Day

Boat Day

We had another hot day. We spent most of the day indoors.

The first thing we did today was go to the lake. We were on the lake by 9:30, we wanted to beat the heat. By the time we got to the lake a little breeze came up. Larry has been nursing a toe nail for over a year to get rid of a fungus that was growing under the nail. When he was putting his foot into the binding of the wake board the nail broke half way down his big toe. The nail hurt and he didn't want to take a chance of an infection so he got back in the boat. I did a wake board set and then we called it a day. After pulling the boat out of the a water we wiped it down. We had a nice time on the lake.

After lunch I worked on my daily challenges and The Event: Two Game Tango Mini, which was 3 games of Spider and 3 games of Pyramid. It took me 18 minutes and 31 seconds, which put me in 23rd place in my group.

Larry called our doctor and the soonest they could get him in was Friday so he went to urgent care. The doctor didn't know what to do, he said they didn't have any tools to trim off the broken nail, he said he could deaden the toe and remove the entire nail but it would hurt and the entire nail did not really need to come off.  He asked Larry what he wanted to do. So the doctor didn't do a thing. When Larry got home he soaked his foot for a half hour to soften the nail. Then he trimmed the nail down as far as he could. There is still quite a bit of the broken nail still attached, not sure what he is going to do. He did get a prescription for an antibiotic.

I worked out on my Wii Fit for a half hour and I took a nap. After my nap we watched YouTube videos.

In the evening we attended Ett's weekly C1 Virtual Workshop/Dance at 6:30. We had 73 participants on the Zoom. This week we did a lot better, I think that was because a couple of folks told her they simply didn't understand what she wanted and she finally walked through those moves.

Later we watched an episode of Midsomer Murders. Then I finished watching Line of Duty, I liked the series a lot. The series was about internal investigators, who investigate bad cops. It went on for four seasons and each season had one bad guy. It had a lot of twist and turns throughout the season. Then I watched an Amazon movie called My Spy, which was about a spy, who had to go undercover to protect a mother and her daughter. It was cute and funny. It's a lot better than the previews. I did 26,000 steps, which put me in second place in my group.      

 

Sunday 7-12 Lawn Mower and Dancing

Laugh and have fun

We had another 100 degree day, it actually got up to 104 at the house. I'm very grateful that we have air condition to keep us cool.

Yesterday, Larry ordered oil for the lawn mower from Walmart. While I was sleeping Larry went to Walmart, the oil was in the automated kiosk. Then he stopped and got gas for the lawn mower. On the way home he stopped at Jack 'n' Jill Donuts to buy breakfast.

By the time he got home I was getting up. After breakfast we went outside and finished putting the mower back together, then Larry filled it with gas and oil. After starting it he had to do the final blead. Then he mowed part of the front yard to make sure the mower worked correctly. When Larry put the mower in gear it took off much quicker than it normally does. Another project well done by Larry.

Before lunch I worked on my daily challenges and The Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 13 seconds, which put me in 11th place in my group.

After lunch we attended Ett's weekly Virtual C Dance at 1:00. This week Ett invited Joachim Ruehenbeck from Germany to call for her. Joachim is a good caller but very difficult. We only danced to three tips because we kept breaking down. We weren't having fun so we logged off. The dance had 87 participants in the Zoom.

After the dance I worked on my puzzle and Larry read a bit. I worked out using my Wii Fit and Gold's Gym for an hour. We watched YouTube videos.

Working Out

In the evening we attended a weekly A2/C1 Virtual Dance with Loren Smith. We had 33 people for the A2 and 30 for the C1 tip. We had a great time. We broke down now and then but Loren cued the whole dance. He called two A2 two couple tips and one A2 full square. The full square was very hard because it was easy to loose the six phantoms. We also did the C1 tip. We had fun dancing to Loren and with the other dancers.

After the dance we watched an episode of Midsomer Murders. Then I started to watch the fourth season of Line of Duty. I ended up doing 22,500 steps, which put me in third place on my group. We had a good day.  

Saturday 7-11 Lawn Mower Repair

It's hot!!!!

We had another 100 degree day. It got up to 104 degrees at our house.

We started the day out by working on the lawn mower. We have a Honda lawn mower that was given to us by a friend. We don't know exactly how old it is but it is probably about 20 years old, we have had it for about 13 years. It has been terrific. Lately every once in awhile the transmission does not go into gear correctly and it has been getting more frequent. Honda claims the transmission fluid never needs service but in doing some reading Larry found a number of people who had similar problems to ours and changing the fluid corrected the problem. However, since Honda feels it does not need service they did not design it to be serviced. To change the fluid you have to remove the transmission. We worked on this all morning and still are not done.

Larry had to take the back of the lawn mower completely apart. He started by draining the engine oil and gas. Then we lifted the mower onto our work table and turned it upside down. Larry removed the rear wheels and the height adjusters. Before removing the adjustment pieces Larry took pictures of each wheel to make sure he could put them back together. He had to be careful because the piece are designed to fit the left side or the right side. Then he disconnect the drive shaft. He drained the fluid into a bucket, refilled the transmission and then blead and refilled it again. Now it's ready to be put back together. He also discovered the rear wheel bearing are worn out so he will have to order those. It was getting hot outside so we called it a day.

Lawn Mower

The drive assembly

The lawn mower without the rear wheels

Removing the drive shaft

After lunch I did my daily challenges and The Event: Easy Street Mini of 10 games. It took me 37 minutes and 40 seconds, which put me in 28th place in my group. While I did my computer games Larry read.

We attended a Virtual A2/C1 Square Dance, that was hosted by the Gay Callers Association (GCA). The event schedule was 1:00 to 2:30 Mainstream/Plus and 2:30 to 4:00 A2/C1 Dance. We attended the A2/C1 Dance. The dance alternated A2 and C1 with a different caller each tip. We danced to Kris Jensen, Ett McAtee and Michael Levy. While we were dancing to Michael we started having internet problems, our internet connections would go up and down. We fought the internet for about a half hour before giving up.

For dinner I barbecued pork ribs and they came out good. We streamed our YouTube videos via our Mobley hotspot because our internet was still giving us problems. We danced for an hour to a Johnny Preston two couple A2 tape, we did very well. Then we watched Hildalgo, which was one of our dvds. Then I finished watching the third season of Line of Duty. I did 26,000 steps.       

Friday 7-10 100 Degree Day

 

We hit 100 degrees today.

Trying to keep cool

Last night Larry did our weekly grocery shopping online at Walmart. The order was ready this morning around 7:00 am. I was still sleeping but Larry was awake, he gets up around 6:00. Larry picked up our groceries. This week there were a few substitutes and a couple that they couldn't substitute. It's good business for Walmart when they substitute items because it keeps customers happy. For us when they substitute items it's ok. When you submit your order you can indicate you don't want any substitutions or if you don't like the substitution they will take the item off when you pickup the order.

On the way home Larry stopped at Jack 'n' Jill Donuts. When he got home I was awake so I put the groceries away. Walmart gave us a thank you gift for using online grocery shopping. The gift was a Walmart recycle bag with some goodies: small bag of gummy vitamins, a couple of bottles of flavored water, Hidden Valley Ranch Dip mix and a small container of laundry detergent. This was very nice of Walmart. 

Thank You gift from Walmart

After putting the grocery away I did my daily challenges and The Event: Free Cell Mini with 5 Free Cell games. I completed the games in 6 minutes and 59 seconds, which put me in 10th place in my group. Today our points were doubled when we played a Free Cell game. This was a special bonus. Then I worked on my puzzle.

In the afternoon I worked out for an hour using my Wii Fit and Gold's Gym.

After dinner we attended Ett's Friday A2 Dance at 6:00. She had 51 people Zoomed in, She called 5 tips. We did a lot better this week. We made fewer mistakes and didn't get frustrated.

Larry's sister Louise use to play card games at the senior center but it appears it might be a long while before it reopens. The other day Larry found out you could play card games online versus friends you invite or other people who are online, you can even play against the computer. He called Louise to see if he could help her set this up so she could play with her friends. It didn't take too long to figure it out and it worked really well. Not only could Larry and Louise play against each other they could see and talk to each other. Now this is real social distancing, your friends can be anywhere in the world. Very cool. Hopefully Louise can get some of her friends to join in.

While he helped her I worked out for a half hour using Just Dance. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in front of the television. We started watching the 20th season of Midsomer Murders. I continued watching the third season of Line of Duty. I ended up doing 24,000 steps, which put me in second place in my group.    

Thursday 7-9 Working Out and Dancing

Awesome Day

Summer is really here. We got up to 100 degrees. It was too hot to do anything outside so we stayed inside and kept busy.

In the morning I worked on my daily challenges and The Event: World Tour Mini of 7 games. It took me 19 minutes and 8 second, which put me in 30th place in my group. While I did my computer games Larry read.

Today we attended three Virtual Square Dances. The first one was at 11:00 am, it was a C1 dance to Dayle Hodge. This was Dayle's first C1 Virtual Dance so in between each tip dancers gave him points on how the dance could be better. He was gracious for the suggestions. His format was the same as for his plus and A2 dances, two tips of dancing, one tip of workshop on moves dancers asked to work on and the last tip was dancing. Even though we made some mistakes the dance was excellent. After the dance he asked if anyone wanted to stay over to go over a modification of Tea Cup Chain, which is a plus move to work with two couples. We stayed after to help see if the call worked. We went over it a few times. I was confused until the last time and I figured out what I was doing wrong. It works great.

What am I doing wrong?

       

The second dance was Jeremy Butler's weekly A2/C1 Virtual Dance at 6:00 pm. Jeremy invited Jack Pladdys to help call the dance. Jack called two of the A2 tips and Jeremy called an A2 tip and the C1 tip. Jeremy had 51 participants in the A2 session and 48 in the C1 tip. We had a great time.

The third dance was Loren Smith's weekly Plus Virtual Dance at 8:00 pm. Tonight Loren called three 2 couple Plus tips and a four couple tip. Loren had 33 participants. We danced the whole dance, even the 4 couples tip. This week Loren cued a lot more on the 4 couples tip so people could get through the tip. We had a super time.

In between the three dances I decided to workout with my Wii Fit. I hadn't done this in 88 days I did the Wii Fit for 30 minutes and Just Dance for 30 minutes. It was a great workout.

Working Out

   

After the last dance I finished watching the second season of Line of Duty and started the third season. I did 26,000 steps, which put me in second place in my group.

Wednesday 7-8 Getting Hotter

Partly Cloudy Day

The temperature got up to 97 degrees and the humidity was 40%.

In the morning I did my daily challenges and The Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 5 games of Klondike and 5 games of Spider. Today Microsoft Solitaire had bonus points on doing The Event. It took me 1 hour, 13 minutes and 38 seconds, which put me in 19 place in my group. While I playing computer games Larry read.

At 11:00 we attended Dayle Hodge's A2 Virtual Dance. He did another outstanding job of calling. He cued the whole dance and walked us through moves we were having problems with. The format was excellent; Dayle called four tips with the third being a workshop on moves dancers wanted to look at. During the dance and at the break times dancers were enjoying talking and laughing with each other. We had an awesome time dancing with friends and new friends.

After the dance we had lunch. Then at 1:00 we attended Ett's C1 Workshop/Dance. After two tips we gave up, we were getting confused and not having fun.

Square Dancing Virtually

We decided to mow the yards. Today the temperature is in the 90's but beginning tomorrow it is suppose to be in the 100's. I mowed the frontyard and the far backyard, it took me about an hour. Then Larry took over with mowing the rest of the backyard. While I was mowing Larry removed the cobwebs, weedeated and blew off the driveway.

Then we went inside and cooled off under the air conditioner.

In the evening we danced A2 with Johnny Preston on tape for an hour and a half. Then we finished the last episode of the 19th season of Midsomer Murders. Then I continued watching the second season of Line of Duty. I ended up doing 25,500 steps, this put me in fourth place in my group.

Relaxing in front of the television