11-6 Western Dance

Killeen Kickers Western Dance

Larry and I attended the Killeen Kickers western dance tonight, if was terrific. There were four mainstream squares and three plus squares. The club served a lot of delicious food. Betsy Nyhan did a great job of calling and Christina Wiggins did a fantastic job of cuing for the round dancing and line dancing. There were a lot of dancers dressed up in western outfits and the hall was decorated in western decor. Everyone was having a great time socializing, eating and dancing. When we got home Flo was sound asleep on the couch, she didn't even know we were home. She was so quiet I went over to her to make sure she was still breathing, she woke up and crawled off the couch. After relaxing for awhile Larry went to bed and then Flo went back on the couch. We had a great day. 

Having fun line dancing with Christina

Round dancing

Doing the right and left grand

Betsy Nyhan

Everyone at the Western Dance dressed up

     

11-5 Change of Plans

Changing Plans

We woke up to a little drizzle so we hung around the house. In the morning I worked on my jig saw puzzle, Larry surfed the internet and Flo enjoyed the cool weather by laying on the front and back porch. Yesterday we did our weekly grocery shopping and we bought a spiral brown sugar ham to take to our club dance tonight. After lunch I took the ham off the bone and put in in containers and got other food ready to take to the dance. Tuesday I had baked a dessert for the clubs lessons and they were cancelled so I didn't have to bake a dessert for tonight. After I finished getting the stuff ready I took a nap and Flo laid by the door waiting for me. When I woke up I went back to working on the puzzle and Larry helped a little. We watched a couple of episodes of the GizWiz. For dinner we had ham pitas. When we finished eating Larry checked his e-mail and found out our dance was cancelled because of rain. We thought this was funny considering we had just watched the weather report on the news and the rain wasn't going to come until midnight. So I separated the ham in smaller containers and froze some of it. Then we streamed a movie and documentary on Amazon. The movie we watched was The Legend of Longwood, which was about a young girl moving from New York to a small village in Ireland with her family. It was a good movie. The documentary we watched was Winning Racing Life of Paul Newman, which was about the 35 years of Paul Newman's racing career. It was very informative. We had a very nice day.

Plan A square dancing

Plan B watching television

    

11-4 Why is Louise excited?

I'm so excited !!!!!!

Louise has been telling Larry that her computer had gotten terribly slow so last week we went to Round Rock to get her computer, we loaned her one of ours while Larry worked on hers. Larry worked on her computer for days, at times it was quite frustrating. He copied her files on a flash drive and then he loaded Windows10 and a couple of things would not work. He got on the internet to see if other people might have had the sames problems he was having, some did and he got suggestions on fixing the problem, he would try the fixes and it still wouldn't work. He finally reloaded Windows7 and got the computer to work but it still wasn't working correctly. Finally after working on it for days he concluded  there was simply a couple of things physically wrong with it that software was not going to correct. It was time to buy a new computer. On Monday he found a great deal on a HP laptop at Best Buy in Killeen. We bought it and yesterday loaded all the programs on it that Louise uses along with her old files, when he went to make recovery DVDs he found out you could do the recovery on a flash drive but we didn't have one large enough. So back on the internet Larry went and found a great deal on a flash drive at Best Buy in Temple. So off to Best Buy we went. When we got there the order wasn't pulled so the young man that helped us went to look for the flash driver. We had ordered a blue drive but all he could find was a black one so he cancelled the order and then rung up the black drive. Once back home Larry made the recovery backup on the drive. When he finished he called Louise and told her that she had bought a new computer, she was really excited. Her old computer still works but something is wrong with the sound (it has not worked in years) and the CD drive no longer works but, it will make an excellent backup machine to replace her really old and slow desktop machine. She was very happy to hear that. 

Louise's computers,  her old Toshiba computer is on the left

the difference in thickness

Larry showing Louise how her new computer works

Autumn sitting in her chair

Today we were going to Georgetown to dance with the Shirts 'n' Skirts so Larry and I went to Round Rock to deliver Louise's computers. As we were leaving I fed Flo her dinner and told her we would be back after the dance. We would have took her with us if we weren't square dancing. On the way we stopped by Church's Chicken and picked up dinner for the three of us. After dinner Larry setup both of the computer and showed Louise how her new computer worked. When he was setting up the printer on her old computer he came across a problem where the printer wouldn't work. He did a little research and found out other people had the same problem. He worked on it for a little while until we had to leave to go dancing. He told her that he would have to come back another day to fix the printer issue but her new computer prints fine. Louise's old Toshiba computer is heavier and a lot thicker then her new HP computer. We said our good-byes. We had a nice visit with Louise and Autumn.

Betsy teaching lessons for Jim

Line dancing with friends

Students learning the mainstream moves during lessons

The Shirts 'n' Skirts had Betsy Nyhan call and teaching lessons because their caller Jim Hayes wife died yesterday. Some of the students stayed and danced the first square dancing tip so there were seven squares. During the rest of the dance there were six mainstream squares and three squares for the plus tip. Martha did line dancing between the tips. We had a fun time dancing to Betsy.       

11-3 Staying Home

Great Day!!!

We hung around the house most of the day. Larry worked on Louise's computer, I worked on a jig saw puzzle and Flo slept and laid on the back porch. We were going to go to our club lessons but our caller had a water leak under his house so the lessons were cancelled. Larry had ordered a memory key from Best Buy and we were going to go pick it us before the lessons but this worked out better. We loaded Flo into the car and off to Best Buy we went. In the evening we streamed a movie through Amazon called Erased, it was an action thriller starring Aaron Eckhart. We enjoyed watching the movie but it certainly would not be one of our favorites. Then we watched Alpha and Omega, it was a cartoon about two young wolves. It was cute. We had a very relaxing day. 

11-2 Getting Old

Flo sunning

I know that I'm getting old every morning when I crawl out of bed and I have a few aches and pains.  I also know that I'm getting older when I start doing something and then I forget what I'm doing. Flo is twelve years old now and she's going down hill. She spends most of the time sunning and sleeping. Her back legs are getting weak and they slide out from under her a lot. We have to help in and out of the car. We don't have any carpeting in the house and she was having trouble getting up off the floors so we put rugs all over the house to help her but many times she will lay where there are no rugs. She does a lot better getting up off the ceramic floors. She still gets excited when she wants to go with us in the car and when we come home after leaving her at home. This morning Larry asked me to take her for a little walk. So I picked up the leash and she went crazy, she really wanted to go for a walk. We walked around the neighborhood and she saw her friend Velcro, we walked for about a half hour, she wanted to walk farther but I convinced her to turn around before she got too tired. She did great on the walk. Now that we're back home she's limping a little, I feel guilty for walking her too far. A few years ago when she first started having trouble with her hips we started giving her glucosamine every day and that really helped, at the beginning of last year we had to double up on the amount of glucosamine, later in the year we had to also start giving her buffered aspirin. With this she does not normally limp but her rear hips are getting weak. She has been a wonderful dog and it is tough watching her age.

Dancers dancing the Advance tip to Brad's calling

Round dancing in between square dancing tips

In the evening Larry and I went to Sun City to square dance with the Sundancers. There were enough people for eight mainstream squares and six plus squares. It was a regular dance so Brad played one round dance song in between the square tips. After the dance Brad called an A tip because there were enough people for a square and two couples left over to rotate into the square. We stayed and watched the dancers dance. We had a super time at the dance.  

       

11-1 Fall Back Dance

Dale calling at the Fall Back Dance

It was raining this morning when we woke up. I made breakfast then I baked some Betty Crocker Reese's Peanut Butter Bars to take with us to the TIPS Fall Back Dance this afternoon. The TIPS Club decided to call the dance Fall Back because we had to push the time back an hour on our clocks. They are still having classes and the classes are held every week for two hours except when there's a dance when they're an hour before the dance. We arrived early enough to help the club with classes so there were three squares for it. The class members decided to stay for the dance so the dance had three squares. They had some barbecue and desserts left over from the picnic yesterday, desserts were available during the dance and after the dance we were all invited to stay to finish up the barbecue. We had a super time dancing and visiting with our friends. Flo was very excited to see us when we got home.

Dancing to Dale Smith calling

More dancing to Dale

In the evening Larry worked on Louise's computer, I worked on a jig saw puzzle called Cabin Fever and Flo slept and went outside once in awhile. We had a very relaxing evening.   

10-31 Annual Square Dancing Picnic

Picnic with Friends

Square dancing at the picnic

Playing dominos

Socializing with friends

A group of ladies singing

Food line

Pam sings with Dale, James and Wendell

Today Larry and I went to Dale Smith's annual picnic for the square dancers in the area. Three years ago Dale decided that he wanted to start having an annual picnic for square dancers like they use to years ago. The picnic is normally at his house but for last couple of weeks we have been having a lot of rain and his place is a mud pit so he moved it to Allemande Hall in Waco. This was a great move for us, we didn't have to drive as far. The meal was catered by Michna's Bar-B-Que, we had brisket, sausage, potato salad, Cole slaw, pickles, onions, beans and ice tea. The desserts were brought by dancers. There were about 70 people there. People played dominos, square danced, sang songs and socialized. We saw dancers we hadn't seen in a long time. We had a great time.

Happy Halloween

In the evening we gave out candy to the kids who came to the door for Halloween, only about five. We had plenty of candy left over. While we waited for the kids we streamed a documentary about the World War II pilots that volunteered to fly in Israel War for Independence in 1948. It was called Above and Beyond. It was a very good movie.