Monday 4-29 Happy Monday

Having fun jumping

It was a hot and humid day. The temperature got into the low 80's and the wind was out of the south.

Larry woke up and found that the security camera on the front porch was offline. A couple of years ago a camera in this same location failed and was replaced under warranty. Larry had worked with the tech support person via the phone to diagnose it so when this one quit he knew what to look for. The camera is normally powered via the ethernet cable that goes to it but something inside the camera is stopping this from working. There is a separate plug you can use to power it and when Larry plugged power into it the camera came on. He has to make some changes to make this work, he needed to get a larger weather proof electrical box so off to The Home Depot we went. While there we picked up a metal pole so he could hang the box lower than it had been before. 

After lunch Larry worked on his camera project. He modified the electrical box a bit and cut a hole in the new cover. Next he primed the box and pole. After they dried he painted them to match the old setup. There are a few more things he must do before he can reinstall the camera. He could have just bought a new camera but he enjoys doing projects. 

While Larry did his project I worked out with Gold's Gym for a half hour and Just Dance for a half hour. I hadn't worked out using these programs in over a week so it was time to start using them again.

Just Dance

On the way to Sun City we swung by the UPS Store to pick up a couple of packages and our mail. One package was a Wyze Sense Starter Kit, this is a new product that works with one of our security cameras. We like Crispy Rice Rolls for snacks, you can only buy them at Dollar Tree. For the last month we having problems getting them, they have been out and haven't been able to get them back in stock. Larry found out you could buy them directly from Dollar Tree. He ordered a case of 30 packs, they came in today. The shelf life of the Crispy Rice Rolls are a long time so the next time we're in a Dollar Tree and they have them in stock we will buy more.

We now have Crispy Rice Rolls

During the Sundancers Plus class we had five squares and Brad introduced us to two more moves, they were Peel Off and Linear Cycle. I am getting the hang of dancing the man's position, one problem is remembering who's my partner and who's my corner. Whenever Brad says bow to your partner I bow to my corner. During the dance they had three squares. We had exactly enough A dancers to make a square. We had a wonderful evening dancing with the Sundancers and Brad.     

Sunday 4-28 Motorcycle Ride

We had a gorgeous day. It got up to 85 degrees with a lot of sun. 

When I got up this morning Larry wasn't at the desk where he usually is when I get up. Instead he was outside treating for bugs. He wanted to spray before the wind came up. He used his backpack sprayer. He really liked it, he didn't have to keep filling it up and he could easily adjust it, when he sprays around the foundation he uses a wide spray and it will easily reach the tall eves by changing the spray to more of a stream. The only problem is it's kind of a pain to put on and its a bit heavy to carry on your back. 

Backpack Sprayer

The wind was down and the sun was shining, a perfect day for a motorcycle ride. We drove down to Rogers Park. The parking lot was full. There were a lot of people fishing off the banks of Belton Lake. Afterwards we drove around Morgan Point to check out all the construction going on. We drove through a couple of home developments. The homes going up were beautiful and on big lots. Before returning to the house we drove by the boat ramp down the road from us. We were surprised that the parking lot had some parking left. The wind must of been stronger than it seemed because the lake was rough.

Motorcycle ride

 

In the evening we rented the movie The Green Book. It was a really good movie about an Italian-American bouncer that becomes a driver for an African-American classical pianist in the 60's. It stars Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. After the movie we finished watching the second season of The Tick. We had a wonderful day. 

Saturday 4-27 Trying Something New

Smile and be happy

This morning Larry took me to breakfast. The other day when we were driving by McDonald's Larry noticed their sign was advertising donut sticks. This morning he took me to McDonald's to try them out. He ordered an order of pancakes and an order of 6 donut sticks. The donut sticks were a little disappointing, I thought they were going to be more of a cake donut but they were thinner. The pancakes were fine.

McDonald's Donut Sticks

For years Larry has been using a blower and broom to remove cobwebs from the fascia and eves of the house. It is difficult to remove them and in the back there are places where the eves are probably 12 feet high. Larry read reviews on a cobweb removal brush that is sold at The Home Depot. After breakfast we went to The Home Depot and bought one. When we got home Larry put it on an extension pole and it worked great.

Larry removing cobwebs

Removing cobwebs in the corner

The next stop was Harbor Freight to buy a couple of small things (acid brushes and hacksaw blades). The final stop was the UPS Store to pick up a couple of packages and our mail. One of the packages was for me, Larry bought me another western shirt. It's very pretty and fits good.

Another surprise western shirt from Larry

After leaving the UPS Store we went to our storage unit and took the Minnie for a drive. Every month when we are not using the motor home Larry likes to take it for a drive and run the generator. Everything started up and worked fine.

In the evening we watched two episode of Call the Midwife on PBS and three episodes of the second season of The Tick from Amazon. Last night I started to watch a new detective series called Wire in the Blood. The series is about a female detective working with a psychiatrist to solve murders.  

Friday 4-26 Just Another Day

Just another gorgeous day

The other day Larry was checking the irrigation system and found there was another sprinkler head on our neighbors lot so this morning he dug up the yard and relocated it. He  was careful to not cut the Invisible Fence wire. It worked out perfect. 

Afterwards he mowed the frontyard and weedeated around the edges. When he finished I blew off the front porch, sidewalk and driveway. Larry also got rid of a few wasp nests and treated for wasps. 

After lunch we relaxed with a book.

Reading is awesome

In the evening we streamed the first season of an Amazon series called My Uncle Silas. It's a old comedy series about an uncle and his great nephews relationship. We had a great day. 

Relaxing in front of the television

Thursday 4-25 No More Rain

Beautiful Spring Day

We woke up to no rain but the ground was wet.

What should we do today? I know, why don't we go grocery shopping, off to town we went. On the way to HEB we stopped by Mister Car Wash to give the car a bath. We were there before 9:00 so it wasn't busy. We got right in and out. It took Larry a bit to wipe down the driver's side of the car because there was some tar on it. It's amazing there wasn't any on the passenger side. The front of the car had a lot of bugs. After drying the car off we vacuumed it out. Now it's all clean.

Next stop was HEB to do our weekly shopping. Afterwards we went across the street to the UPS Store to pick up our mail and a package we had waiting for us. We weren't sure what the package was. Once we saw the size we figured it out, it was new square dancing hats. When we got the package home we opened it and found that they weren't smashed. They had been shipped with a piece of foam in the head part of the hats to help keep them in shape. All the hats were stacked on top of the foam. I didn't have to iron them. We got two white and four pink. These hats were all replacements for other hats. After wearing them to a lot of dances the hat bands begin to get stained up from sweating so we replace them. 

After picking up our mail we went to Walmart to buy some orange mints. HEB only has small bags and we prefer the larger bags. When we go square dancing we like to suck on mints and we found that we like the orange flavored ones the best.

New Square Dancing Hats

The foam the hats were shipped with

Louise had e-mailed Larry and told him that the ROKU in her bedroom was buffing when she was streaming. After lunch we went to Round Rock so Larry could figure out why. Larry installed a program on his phone and was able to figure out that Louise's wifi router was using the same channel as some of her neighbors, he found another channel that wasn't as busy so he moved her stuff over to that channel. While we were there it seemed to correct the problem but the problem was worse at night so only time will tell. Afterwards we visited with Louise and Alice. 

We left Louise's house about 4:30 because we had to be in Sun City for our Thursday night square dancing at 5:30. Our dancing wasn't in the same place as usual, it was at the Sun City Activities Building. We have danced in this room before so we knew what to expect. It's a small room with carpeting. The carpeting was very hard to dance on because your shoes would not slide, even dance socks didn't work. At least we had a place to dance. We had four couples and an extra person to dance C1 for an hour. Bob called a half hour of the session and the other half hour we danced to tape. For the A2 dancing we were short one person to have two squares. We had a great night of dancing with friends.   

Wednesday 4-24 Rainy Day

Rainy Day

It rained all day. Sometimes the rain came down hard. We have a dry creek at the back of our lot that runs down to the lake.  It only runs when it rains a lot and today it was running. At the very back it drops off a cliff and when it is running fast it sounds like a roaring waterfall. It is not often that we hear it but we did today.

The creek at the back of our yard

We stayed around the house all day. I finished working on my annual books so Larry started editing it. While he was doing this I started reading an e-book. I haven't read a book since we have been in the Valley.

I also did a couple loads of laundry. Larry's repair of the dryer worked great.

In the evening we watched the second Fantastic Beast movie: The Crimes of Grindelwald. It was a good movie. Afterwards we watched a few episodes of the second season of The Tick. When Larry went to bed I watched a few episodes of House. We had a very relaxing day. 

Tuesday 4-23 Visiting Louise

Smile and have fun

We started the day off by going to Round Rock to visit with Louise.

Lately when Louise has been streaming her favorite programs she has experienced a lot of buffering. She has not had much luck in getting Spectrum to correct the problem so she decided to switch to AT&T. AT&T sent her a box and a technician showed up yesterday and set it up. This morning we went to Round Rock so Larry could connect her router and get everything up and running. Switching over to the new provider fixed her problem, the buffering has gone away. Louise is happy. 

Louise's security camera at her front door

Security Camera Displaying on Tablet

AT&T router

No more buffering

For lunch Louise bought a pepperoni pizza from Papa Murphy and she had kettle fried potato chips. We stayed awhile visiting with her and I played with Alice. We had a super visit.

On the way home we stopped by the UPS Store to pick up a few packages and our mail. One of the packages was a new red hat. When we got home we took the hat out of the bag. It was  smashed and had a lot of creases so out came the iron. I ironed the creases the best I could but it still had a few in it. I put it in our dryer on the steam cycle, it came out wet so I put it on a foam hat holder. It's looking better but still needs a little work.

  

New hat

In the evening we watched Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them from our collection of DVD's. We had a very relaxing evening.    

Monday 4-22 Spring Cleaning

Having fun doing this and that

We had a fun day of doing this and that.

Larry started the day out by blowing the leaves off of the rocks around the house. There was a lot of leaves, afterwards he mowed the yard to help mulch the leaves. When he was blowing the leaves I decided to clean the back porch railing. It was filthy because of the oak tree pollen and dirt. It took me an hour and a half. We try to clean the railing a couple times a year.

Blowing leaves off the rocks

All the leaves on the grass before they were mowed

The porch railing cleaned

On Saturday Larry tore the dryer apart to find out what was wrong with it. He found that a plastic pulley had broke which caused the dryer to stop. He ordered a new pulley, spring and belt. The parts arrived today. After lunch he replaced the parts and reassembled the dryer. Before he put the door on the dryer he manually rotated the drum around to make sure it worked, it was making a noise. The new belt was a little smaller than the old one and this caused the pulley to rub. He removed the new belt and put the old one back on and the noise went away. He finished putting the dryer back together and then we moved it back into the utility room. I'm back in business, the dryer works.

The dryer in pieces

The broken pulley

Larry reassembling the dryer

The dryer once it was put back together

In the evening we went to Sun City to dance with the Sundancers. The plus class starts at 5:00. We had six squares. Brad went through another move, which was Load the Boat. We had three squares for the dance. We had five couples for the A tip. We had a super time dancing to Brad and with friends.

Sunday 4-21 Happy Easter

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, I hope everyone had a great day. We had a super day.

A beautiful Easter day

Louise came to the house for Easter. For lunch we had Empandas and Southwest corn. For dessert we had Edwards frozen pies, Louise had turtle, I had chocolate creme and Larry had Mrs. Smith apple pie. Louise's computer has been having a charging problem so Larry updated some system files and changed a setting, might fix it, might not. The Easter Bunny delivered a basket for Louise. In the basket there were chocolate mini eggs, jelly beans, peanut butter eggs, a chocolate bunny and a white chocolate peanut butter egg. She was surprised. Alice was scared of it. We had a very nice visit.

Easter Lunch

Our dessert

Louise receiving her Easter basket

Louise and Alice had fun during their visit

The other day I mentioned that Amazon was having a special on movies. Larry rented three of them (you have 30 days to watch a rental) and he bought the new Fantastic Beasts movie. Last night we watched Christopher Robin, it is a Disney movie about when Christopher Robin grows up and then finds himself. It was cute and I liked it. Tonight we watched the new A Star Is Born starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. It was also very good and the acting was very well done. We had a relaxing evening.    

Saturday 4-20 Easter Egg Hunt

Just having fun

We had a outstanding day of sunshine and no wind. 

This morning we went to town so Larry could get the new Smart Door Lock re-keyed to match the rest of our doors. I waited in the car and I was surprised to see how busy the drive through was at the Mexican restaurant next door. There was a steady flow of cars.

Every third Saturday of the month Belton has Belton Market Days, vendors put up booths and sell their wares and food. While we were in town we decided to walk through Belton Market Days. There were a lot more vendors than normal and a lot of people walking around. 

Belton Market Days

Having fun at Belton Market Days

This morning the City of Belton had an Easter Egg Hunt for the children. The hunt had a great turn out. After the hunt there were a couple of people dressed up as an Easter Bunny and mothers were getting their childrens pictures taken with them. Some of the little girls were dressed up for Easter. The Easter Egg Hunt was probably why it was so busy. It was great to see everyone having fun.

Children getting their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny

The other Easter Bunny and its helper

The new Smart Door Lock has a solar panel to keep the batteries charged so it needs to get some sun. In the afternoon Larry moved the push button door lock from the front door to the garage door. Then he installed the Smart Door Lock on the front door. After installing it he had to watch a short video on how to program the lock. You can lock and unlock it three different ways, via your smart phone, via Alexa or by the keypad. The keypad has a cover with the solar panel mounted on it. the cover is a bit difficult to slide up but it has to be kept closed for the solar panel to charge the battery. The lock looks very nice and works great. 

Installing Smart Door Lock

Installing the Smart Door Lock

Smart Door Lock installed

Lock with keypad cover open

While Larry was doing this I did a little laundry. Well, I attempted to do laundry. I washed two loads and dried one. I started the second load in the dryer when the dryer stopped with a bang. The dryer just stopped turning. Larry got the owners manual out and started to trouble shoot the problem. When he couldn't figure the problem out he went to YouTube and watched a couple of videos. He ended up disassembling the dryer and found a pulley had failed, apparently this is a common problem with this dryer. He found the parts on Amazon, they should be here Monday. So I'll be back in business in a few days. 

  

Friday 4-19 Gorgeous Day

Gorgeous Day

Today was a gorgeous day. We had sunshine and it got to the mid 70's. We had a strong wind out of the north.

Yesterday Larry surprised me with a gift, it was new dance shoes. A lady in The Valley had a pair and she really liked them. They are made just for dancing, they are very flexible and have good arch support. All the reviews say that the run small so Larry ordered them a couple sizes larger than my normal size, they are still a bit small but I think they will loosen up. I like them so I hope they work out.

Bloch Dance Shoes

 

Yesterday we received e-mails from the UPS Store telling us we had packages to pickup. We hadn't checked our mail in a week so off to town we went. The packages were from the Home Depot Seeds Program. 

When we got home Larry started working on reviewing three of the products, a shower head, a Smart Water Leak Detector and a Smart Door Lock. While Larry was playing with these I mowed the frontyard. 

Leak Detector

Shower head

Smart Door Lock components

Last year we installed a small water heater under the kitchen sink, in case it ever leaks we have placed it in a pan but there would be no way for us to know it was leaking. The leak detector from the Seeds Program will chirp if water gets into the pan and it will send us an email. One of those things you hope you never need.

Leak Detector in Catch Pan

Mowing the yard

After doing the mowing I worked out for an hour using Just Dance and Gold's Gym.

Working Out

Amazon was having a special today where you can rent some new release movies for $2.99, we rented Mary Poppins Returns. I liked it but I liked the original Mary Poppins better. After watching the movie I finished watching the 7th season of House.