5-30 What a beautiful day!!!

A beautiful day

We woke up to a little rain and the ground was wet. Larry went and got the paper while Flo did her morning routine. In the morning Larry read the paper while we watched GizWiz and streamed YouTube music videos. After lunch the ground was drying and the sun came out so we loaded Flo into the car and took the Minnie back to storage. Flo hadn't been swimming in awhile and she's been wanting to go. Larry was afraid that it was going to be busy at Nolan Creek considering it's Memorial Day and a lot of people were off to honor the military. It was busy but not too busy so we let Flo swim. We have been getting a lot of rain lately and the creek was flowing stronger than usual and the creek was higher. Flo had a great time swimming, exploring and watching people. It looked like a summer day at Nolan Creek. People were swimming, tubing down the creek, soaking up the sun, fishing and walking around just like we were. It was super to see the creek being used by the local residents. What a wonderful adventure.

Swimming in Nolan Creek

Advance Lessons

In the afternoon we watched some TED TV episodes. After dinner we met up with Louis and went to Allemande Hall for our weekly advance lessons. Wendell Moore did the lessons this week. We were shy one man to make a second square so Wendell had to use a wireless microphone to teach the new moves at the same time as he danced them. We were only introduced to two moves. It's getting frustrating only being introduced to two moves a week. But we're a third through the A1 moves and we don't want to throw in the towel. We had a good day.    

     

5-29 Louise and Autumn Visit

Barbecuing Baby Back Ribs

On Thursday the weather report for the weekend indicated overcast skies but no rain, we checked Louise's work schedule and found she was off Saturday and Sunday. Larry called and invited her to come out for lunch on Sunday.

This morning I vacuumed and mopped the floors. Louise arrived about 10:30 along with her dog, Autumn. We let Louise decide what type of meat she wanted, hamburgers or baby back ribs. She wouldn't decide so Larry made the decision. He decided on the baby back ribs. I barbecued the ribs on the gas grill, it took about 40 minutes. The other night when Larry and I drove with our friends to Gatesville we were talking about corn on the cob. Dee said that she microwaves her corn in the husk and it cooks perfect. Last week when we were grocery shopping we had picked up some corn on the cob, we removed the husk while we were in the store. Today I went to the internet to see how to microwave corn on the cob without the husks. It's very easy, you wrap the ears in a wet paper towel and cook for five minutes. While the ribs were cooking I put the corn in the microwave and they came out great. The only real advantage I can think of to this is you don't have to wait for water to boil and you don't need to get out a large pan. By using the microwave method you could do something else but it doesn't save much time. While we were waiting for lunch we snacked on a relish tray (cheddar cheese, olives, pickles, smoked turkey and crackers). We also had brownies that Louise made, they were delicious. Both Flo and Autumn liked that we had ribs because they had bones for a snack. We had a great visit with Louise and Autumn.

Barbecuing the baby back ribs

How the corn looked after it was microwaved

The ribs all cut up

Louise and Larry getting ready to eat

Flo and Autumn enjoying their bones

The snacks we had while waiting for lunch

In the evening we watched a couple episodes of PBS American Masters. The first episode was The Highwaymen: Friends Til the End, which was about the friendship between Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. The second episode was God's Fiddler: Jashca Keifetz, a Russian Immigrant, who came to America at the age of seventeen. He became a world famous violinist. Both were very good. After the shows Larry took me to Freddy's for dessert. The sundae we had tonight was the Signature Turtle. We hadn't bought ice cream at the store for a long time so after we had dessert we went to HEB and picked up a half gallon of Creamy Creations Caramel Pecan Turtle. We had a very relaxing evening.

Freddy's Signature Turtle Sundae

   

      

5-28 Wedding Celebration

Installing the Air Springs on the Minnie

We woke up this morning and the rain was gone. It was nice and cool so Larry decided it would be a perfect morning to finish up installing the air springs on the Minnie. Larry spent the whole morning doing this project. The Load Lifter 5000TM Ultimate Kit came with everything you needed and a great instruction manual. Larry started on the passenger side, he had to jack it up and added a couple of jack stands for extra safety. He had assembled the air spring with its bracket the other day so he crawled under the Minnie and installed the air bag to the frame. He was very happy he didn't have to drill the frame for the assembly. When he finished this side he removed the jack stands and lowered the Minnie. Then he moved to the driver's side. Before he started this project he had read that this side would take longer. He jacked up the Minnie and put the jack stands in place. Now he was ready to begin the same procedure on this side. He was in luck it didn't take any longer than the other side.  Once the air springs were installed he installed the air line. This he had to drill two holes in the the battery box to mount the valves for the air. After drilling the holes he had to feed the line to each air spring. He wasn't sure if he would have enough line but he ended up have a little extra. When he finished this he installed a metal sheet over the exhaust pipe to protect the springs from getting too hot. While Larry was doing this project Flo and I kept him company and if he needed something I would get it for him. By the time he finished this project he was exhausted, it took about 4 hours and he had to crawl in and out from under the Minnie many times.

One of the air springs installed on the Minnie

The jack and one of the jack stands

Larry installing an air spring

The air spring assembled to its bracket

In the afternoon we attended a special event. Betsy Nyhan, the Killeen Kickers caller got married to Gary Chamberlain a month ago. Today they celebrated their marriage with friends from square dancing, work and church at the Harris Community Center in Belton, Texas. This was great for us, it was only a ten minute drive from the house. They invited Jon & Deborah Carroll-Jones to call the dance. Jon and Deborah are out of Arlington, Texas. There were a lot of people at this celebration and a lot of delicious food. Jon and Deborah did an outstanding job of calling. They did a tip where the non square dancers people got an opportunity to be introduced to some of the square dancing moves. Jon did one line dance for everyone that wanted could participate in the dance. We had a super time. Gary is a Contra call and lives in Georgia,  Betsy is moving there. We wish them luck and happiness. 

Betsy Nyhan (the bride) and Gary Chamberlain (the groom) 

Larry enjoying the Wedding Celebration with friends

Jon & Deborah Carroll-Jones calling the dance

Friends line dancing with Jon

Judy enjoying dancing with friends

Betsy square dancing with friends

We were going to go to Eddy and dance with the Denim and Lace Club but Larry was exhausted after installing the air springs on Minnie and going to the wedding celebration so we stayed at home. We had a fabulous afternoon of dancing and visiting with friends. While relaxing we watched three shows on KLRU. They were, Americana Music Festival, Father Brown and Endeavour. Americana Music Festival had artist of all types of music background. Father Brown is a mystery series. Endeavour is a detective series. We had a relaxing evening.

Watching television

5-27 More Rain

Another rainy day

It rained through the night and into the morning. The rain hung around until the afternoon. Flo surprised Larry this morning, she doesn't like getting her head wet unless it's her idea. When she was younger she would wait all day if she had to until the rain stopped to go outside to take care of business. Since she's got older she still looks at the rain and hesitates about going out. Then she does her thing and comes right back inside. Larry said the rain was coming down pretty hard and he thought she wouldn't go out. She looked at the rain for a bit and then she went out. Larry was going to take me to a movie in the morning but I was tired so I went back to bed for another hour. When I woke up I worked on my jig saw puzzle and Larry read. I'm slowly assembling the puzzle. In the afternoon Larry took me to Money Monster at the Cinemark Theater. We were disappointed with the movie, it starred George Clooney and Julia Roberts and had a pretty good plot but there were too many unbelievable things in the script.

Going to the movies with the husband

Watching television

We decided to take the night off from square dancing, instead we stayed home and streamed a movie off Amazon. It was called The Whistleblower starring Rachel Weisz. It was based on the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a police officer from Nebraska who accepted an offer to join the United Nation peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. Not a bad movie, better than Money Monster. After the movie I worked on my puzzle and Larry read, while streaming music via the Roku on Mini Concerts which is a National Public Radio channel. We had a relaxing evening.    

5-26 Rain and Dancing with the Coryell County Squares

Installing Air Springs on the Rear of the Minnie

Parts that came in the kit

Some more parts

A couple of days ago Larry ordered air springs for the back of the Minnie from Amazon and we received them yesterday. Larry checked the weather radar, there was no rain in the future so he decided to start installing them.  He got everything out and assembled the air springs and brackets. Then he jacked up the passenger side of the Minnie and put jack stands under it for extra safety. He crawled under the Minnie and started to work on where the air spring was going to go when it started to rain. He figured he was safe from the rain because he was under the Minnie. But it started to rain harder and the rain was running down the driveway and now he was getting wet so he called it a day. We put the tools away and then went inside. Once Larry got out of his wet clothes we loaded Flo into the car and headed to town to do our weekly grocery shopping. We were lucky that the rain stopped while we were shopping so we didn't get wet. By the time we got back it started to rain again. In the afternoon I worked on my jig saw puzzle and Larry finished reading the Jack Reacher novel. I also did a half hour of yoga.

Dancing with friends during Coryell County Squares Dance

Wendell Moore calling the Coryell County Squares Memorial Dance

Our friends dancing the last tip of the dance

Square dancing to Wendell's calling

While we were relaxing Louis called and asked if we were going to go to Gatesville to dance with the Coryell County Squares. Larry told him yes so we met up with him and a couple of ladies (Dee and Diana) at Walmart to drive with them. We had one square and a few extra dancers. The club provided a lot of food. Wendell Moore was their caller. We had a nice time.  

5-25 Another Humid Day

Another Cloudy Day

We woke up to another humid, cloudy day. We hung around the house all day. Larry read and I vacuumed the house and worked on my puzzle. We needed this type of day considering we square danced seven days in a row. In the evening we drove to Georgetown to The Shirts 'n' Skirts weekly dance. Tonight's dance was their Red White and Blue Dance. Jim Hayes was their caller and Lucy Pate cued the rounds. They had five squares and ten couples for rounds. I danced every square dancing tip so I don't get a chance to take pictures of the square dancing. But I did have a chance to take pictures of the round dancers. We had fun dancing with friends.

Lucy Pate cuing the round dancing

Jim Hayes getting ready to call a square dance tip

Friends round dancing to Lucy's cuing

Some more friends round dancing

Dan, Kathy, Chuck and Cheryl round dancing to Lucy

We had a relaxing day. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

  

A Busy Day Doing Odds and Ends

Doing Errands

In the morning we loaded Flo into the car and went to town. We needed to do a few errands. The first stop was The UPS Store to ship my Superwoman shirt back to Amazon. Next we took Flo swimming at Nolan Creek. She hasn't been swimming for awhile and the humidity has been high. When we got to Nolan Creek she was very excited, she could hardly wait for Larry to park the car. He parked by the restaurants but not the normal spot because it was taken by a fisherman and he didn't want to bother him. Once Flo was out of the car I put her leash on to walk her down a ramp to the creek. Flo was used to getting in the water at a certain spot so she didn't get in the water right away. We started walking along the shore line a little ways and then she couldn't resist not getting into the water. She walked through some gravel and her back paws sank in the gravel. It took her a little bit but she finally got her paws unstuck. She had a great time swimming and exploring. She is still recuperating from our trip to Fredericksburg so she didn't swim long. While we walked around and Flo swam Larry started reading a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. The next stop was The Home Depot to return a few sprinkler heads we didn't need and exchange the fertilizer. Once we did this we walked over to Best Buy. Larry wanted to play with a new device called Chromecast made by Google. It's like a ROKU device except you operate it via a tablet or smartphone. After buying the Chromecast we dropped off a book at the Temple Library. Then we went home.

Swimming in Nolan Creek

Rachio Sprinkler System with Cover off

Rachio Sprinkler System with Cover on

Mowing the Yard

 In the afternoon we were busy. Larry installed the Chromecast and then worked on figuring out how to use it. We usually mow the yards on Thursday but last week we were going to be busy square dancing so we mowed the yards on Tuesday. This week there is a high chance of rain on Thursday so I mowed today. While I was mowing Larry weedeated, ran the blower and installed a new sprinkler controller made by Rachio. The Rachio system came via The Home Depot Seeds Program. This system is programmed via a tablet or smartphone and uses information from a internet weather station to decide when to water and how much to water. Larry programmed the system so that if the weather station is predicting more than 1/8" of rain on the scheduled watering day or the next day the system does not water, it also checks the weather station to see when it last rained and decides if it should water or not, really neat. You can also manually turn the system on via your tablet or via your computer. Now we will have to see how well it actually works. While Larry was finishing programming the sprinkler system I took a nap.   

Chromecast

In the evening we used the new Chromecast to stream Call the Midwife, then American Masters: The Women's List. The Women's List was about famous women in the country and their careers and struggles they had to find their own identities. Then we streamed an American Masters through the ROKU called The Boomer List, it was about people born between (1946 - 1964) and their experiences and how they changed the country. We had a relaxing evening.

5-23 A Relaxing Day

Relaxing day

It was overcast day. We really didn't have anything on our agenda so we relaxed. Larry wants to do a little work on the Minnie so he parked it on the side of the house until he gets the parts. When we have the car dolly at the house we store it in front of the car and it takes up a lot of room. Larry likes to use the door to his workroom but with the dolly at home it blocks the door so we took it to storage. We used the truck so we left Flo at home. While we were in town we stopped by Walmart and picked up a few things. When we got back Larry wanted to fertilize the yard but we had bought the wrong fertilizer so he couldn't do that today.

Larry had a surprise for me, he had ordered me a Superwoman T-shirt and it arrived today. The reviews said it ran small so he ordered two sizes larger than I normally wear but it was still too small. It was a nice surprise and a really nice shirt but it will be going back, fortunately Amazon has free returns on clothing. Actually you have to be careful because not all clothing and shoes have free returns, most do.

In the evening we went to Allemande Hall for our advance lessons. We met up with Louis and Belinda at Walmart so we could drive with them.We had two squares and Dale Smith introduced us to four new moves. It's going very slow. We hope that it picks up. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!

5-22 We Are Home

 

After two super days of dancing with Jerry Story and Johnny Preston in Fredericksburg we arrived home around 11:30 Sunday Morning. We unloaded the Minnie and put things away. We’re tired but it didn’t stop us from square dancing this afternoon. Brad Caldwell had a special square dancing event today. He called three different sessions: mainstream workshop was 1:00 to 3:00, plus workshop was 3:15 to 5:15 with a DBD plus tip afterwards and an advance workshop 5:45 to 7:45. The event took place at Sun City in the Atrium. We attended the plus workshop and the DBD tip. He had three squares for both the mainstream and plus workshops and two squares of advanced dancers, add it up for a total of eight squares, not bad for a Sunday afternoon. We visited with our Sundancer friends. We hadn’t seen them in a couple of weeks because our advance lessons are now on their dance night. Brad went over follow your neighbor, cross fire and fan the top from different positions. We have done quite a bit of DBD dancing and Brad still put us in positions we have never seen. The DBD tip had two squares and an extra couple who rotated in. We had a great time dancing with friends and to Brad’s calling.

We got home a little after 7 so we missed Call the Midwife episode but we can stream it later this week. We did watch the last episode of Wallander, I didn’t like how they ended the series. After watching the show we called it a night.          

5-20 & 5-21 Hill Country Happenin’

 

Jerry Story and Johnny Preston calling the opening dance

For two days Larry and I were at The Hill Country Happenin’ in Fredericksburg. The event was square dancing and round dancing. They invited Jerry Story and Johnny Preston to call the square dances and workshops. Lucy and Jerry Pate were invited to cue the round dances and workshops.

Friday May 21, 2016

This morning we finished getting the Minnie ready to go. While I was doing this Flo kept me company in the Minnie. After I finished loading the cold stuff into the refrigerator Larry emptied the tanks. Larry backed the car into the garage and then put the car dolly on the Minnie. Then he loaded the car onto the dolly and strapped the car securely to the dolly. Once the car was loaded we were ready to go. We left the house about 9:30. We had 141 miles to go. The opening dance wasn’t until 8:00, pre-rounds started at 7:30 so we had plenty of time. This was the first time Larry has towed the car on a trip so he was excited to see how well the car towed. We stopped a couple of times to make sure the straps were tight. We arrived at The Hill Country RV Park around 1:00 and checked in. While Larry was checking in I walked Flo around the place. When he finished he drove the Minnie to our spot and I walked Flo to it. Once Larry was in the spot he unloaded the car off the dolly. He said unloading the car was easier than loading it. The car towed excellently and the straps stayed tight. When the car was unloaded I made lunch.

After lunch we went to Walmart, I forgot to bring Flo’s Bufferin aspirins. Afterwards we drove around town and found where the dance hall was. It was easy to find. When we got back Larry and I took a nap. Larry woke up before I did so he took Flo for a walk. When they got back I was visiting with the neighbors. The neighbors have a dog and he wanted to say hi to Flo. Larry and Flo came over to say hi. When it was time for dinner I made tacos. After dinner I took Flo for another walk and then we sat outside for a little while.

Lucy Pate cuing the round dancing

Friends round dancing

Yasuko and Jerry round dancing

Jerry Story and Johnny Preston calling the square dancing tips

Our friends doing the Star Tip

In the evening Larry and I went to the square dance. There were 15 squares and a lot of round dancers. We had a blast. We danced every tip except for the Star tip at the end. We would have danced the Star Tip but we were too tired. This was the first time we had danced to Johnny Preston and he was great. Jerry also did a super job. It was nice how they called the dance. Jerry and Johnny did two tips a piece and called two tips together. Some of the dancers had been at The High Level DBD event we had just finished. We also danced with dancers we hadn’t seen in awhile and there were a few dancers that we did not know. It was nice to see our round dancing friends. Lucy did an excellent job of cuing the rounds. Jerry danced every round while Lucy cued. We had a fantastic time.    

Saturday May 21, 2016

This morning Larry and Flo woke up at 6:30. Larry crawled out of bed I decided to sleep a little longer. Larry fed Flo breakfast and then he got dressed and took her for her morning walk. When they got back I got up and got dressed, then I made breakfast, really easy, I through a few dinner rolls in the oven. Our workshop wasn’t until 10:30 so we had some time to relax. On the schedule today there are two workshops, each one was an hour and a half. In between each workshop there was an hour and a half for lunch. The morning workshop we had 10 squares. Jerry and Johnny worked on a few moves people were having trouble with. The afternoon workshop had six squares, some folks had decided to rest this afternoon so they could dance tonight. Jerry and Johnny worked on Relay The Deucey, Explode The Wave and Cast Off 3/4. In between the workshops we came home and took care of Flo and had lunch. We were happy that we had four and a half hours before the dance tonight so we could rest. We had a great time doing the workshops. 

Our friends dancing during the afternoon workshop

In the evening we went to the closing dance. There were once again 15 squares of dancers and a lot of round dancers. We sat out one tip but we did the Star Tip. We had a super night of dancing with friends. We had two outstanding days of dancing in Fredericksburg.   

Round dancing to Lucy and Jerry Pate cuing

Square dancing to Jerry Story and Johnny Preston