10-24 Doing This and That

We had a good day

After a spectacular weekend of dancing we started the week out by doing a few errands. We were getting ready to go to town and Flo was pestering us about going with us, it wasn't hot and it was a cloudy day so we gave in to her, I loaded her into the car and off to town we went. First of all I had not been to the gym since last Monday so Larry took me to the gym. I worked out for a little over an hour. I did the treadmill for 35 minutes and the 30 minute circuit area. By the time I finished I was tired and sweaty. The next stop was the tax assessor to pay for the boat trailer tags. The parking lot looked busy. Larry went inside and I stayed in the car with Flo, while he was inside a gentleman asked the clerk why the Temple office was closed and what happened to the employees. She said it was being remodeled and the employees were now at the Belton location. Even though the parking lot was busy Larry was only gone about five minutes. The next stop was the tax appraisal district office to pay our property taxes. Once again it only took Larry five minutes. When we lived in Austin we would never dream of going to a government office to pay for anything, the drive would be over an hour and the lines would be terrible, we're so glad to be in a small town, everything is close, the people are friendly and there isn't a long wait. The next stop was at Belton Feed to pickup another bag of dog food for Flo. She was getting low on food and we were in the neighborhood. The last stop was at The UPS Store to get our mail. Larry knew there was a package waiting but he was surprised there was another one there. He had ordered more binding straps and didn't expect them for awhile  considering he ordered them from E-Bay and not Amazon. After getting our mail we went home. 

Working out at the gym

Doing Errands

When we got home it was time for lunch. I heated up the leftover Red Beans and Rice casserole I had made for our weekend. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon. Larry did one small project, which was replacing the straps on the binding he hadn't replaced yet. Now both bindings look the same. In the evening we met up with Belinda and went to Allemande Hall for A2 lessons. When we got home I worked on my book and played computer games until it was time to go to bed. We had a great day of doing this and that.

  

10-23 I Make a Decision

Let me see, what should we do? 

Larry woke up a little before 7 and took care of Flo. While Larry was taking Flo for a walk around the RV area I crawled out of bed and was getting dressed when they returned. For breakfast we had sausage patties and Sister Schubert's dinner rolls. Today's dancing was from 10 until 12. While we were eating breakfast Larry asked me if I wanted to wait and go dancing or if I would prefer to go gambling. Oh, now I have to make a decision! I hate making decisions but I do love to gamble, I chose gambling. I chose to use the excuse  that we danced a lot this weekend and our feet really needed a break. There was a Choctaw Casino in Grant, Oklahoma which was only 25 miles from Paris. After breakfast we got the Minnie ready to leave. Once we parked the Minnie Larry and I walked over to the casino, it was very nice, not huge but unfortunately it didn't have a non smoking area, since it was early on a Sunday it was not busy and smoke was not a problem. We walked around so I could get familiar with how the casino was set up, I found the penny slots that I was happy with. Larry doesn't normally gamble so he went back to the Minnie. We had decided that I would gamble until 10 or so, plenty of time to enjoy myself. Larry showed back up when I was almost finished. By the time we left the casino I have given them $5.00 dollars, pretty good for a hour and a half of entertainment. I had a great time. 

Homeward Bound

On the way home we stopped in a parking lot and had a sandwich for lunch. We got back to the house at 4:15. It was a long drive home but we had a fabulous time in Paris. When we finished unloading the Minnie I made dinner from some leftover pork ribs. In the evening we watched some YouTube videos and the second episode of The Durrells on PBS. Afterwards we streamed a few episodes of Hardy Sound Music Stories. They were about musicians in the Austin area (The Villettes, Jazz Mills and Wiretree). We also started a couple more but we didn't like them. I watched Doctor Blake Mysteries on KLRU. I also played computer games.          

10-22 Saturday A2 Dancing

Camping at the Red River Fair grounds RV Park

Wow, what a day!!! In the morning there was two and a half hours of dancing. The first tip was called by Bronc Wise, he introduced us to a couple C1 moves. It was a lot of fun but currently we don't need to move up to Challenge level of square dancing. The next two tips were workshops with Tim and Vic doing the calling, they went over A2 moves from positions that dancers don't usually dance in. We always enjoy workshops considering you have to listen real closely to what is being called and they make you think. The last tip was called by Ross and it was a dance tip but we were tired so we went back to the Minnie to rest. When we got to the Minnie I made salads for lunch. After lunch I took Flo out but she didn't feel like going too far, she did her thing and then laid down. I put her on the chain and then went inside. She likes to stay outside but she doesn't like being alone so she barked to come in shortly afterwards.

The building that the A2 and C1 dances were in

The building where the C3A dances were

The building where the C2 dances were

In the afternoon they had another two and a half hour dance session, this session was all dancing. We danced to Darryl and Bronc. The tips were a little more challenging so it was fun but we broke down more often. The morning session had four squares and a few more dancers, the afternoon started out with four squares but people were getting tired and hot so most of the time there were three squares.

Pam and Bruce dancing with friends while Vic calls

Vic Ceder calling 

Betsy, John and Diane dancing to Vic's calling

Bronc Wise getting ready to call his tip

At 7:30 we went back to the A2 hall and danced, there were five squares. The dancing was for three hours and then they were having a get together afterwards. We danced to Ross, Darryl, Bronc, Tim and Vic. We had a great day of dancing. 

10-21 Friday in Paris Texas

Paris Texas

Friday October 21, 2016

We started out the day by finishing up getting ready to go to Paris, Texas. The Texas Premier *Advance* and Challenge Convention (TEXPACC) begins tonight. We left the house at 9:00, stopped along the way at Carl's Junior for lunch and arrived in Paris at 2:45. This event is being held at the Red River Valley Fair Grounds, they have full hookups onsite for $25.00 per night. The RV sites are located across the street from the halls. After plugging the Minnie into power I took Flo for a walk. While we were relaxing our friends (Marty and Glenn) came by and told us the registration desk was open, the e-mail that Larry received said it didn’t start until 4:00 and it was only 3:15. We walked over to the hall and got our packet of information. The lady handing out the packets told us she put 80 packets together for pre-reigisterd couples. The packet supplied us with the schedule for the weekend and a list of names who had pre-registered. The convention started at 7:30 with a 20 minutes tip and then we broke out into different rooms depending on the level of square dancing. The opening tip had 11 squares and there were five callers (Bronc Wise, Tim Ploch, Darryl Lipscomb, Vic Cedar and Ross Howell). After the opening tip we walked over to the A2 hall. The first couple of tips had five squares but the rest of tips had four squares. They almost had five squares but they we shy one person. We danced in the A2 hall until 10:00. There was another hour left of dancing but we wanted to walk around to the other three halls and see what was going on. When we got back to Flo she was very excited to see us. After saying hi and changing clothes I took her for a walk. She didn’t want to come inside. I started out sitting with her outside but it was too cold for me. I put her on a chain and then went inside. It  didn’t take too long before she wanted to come inside. Larry and I did really well considering it’s the first time we ever danced A2 at a big event. Betsy was at the dance, we haven’t seen her since she got married and moved to Georgia. It was a pleasant surprise. Larry and I had a great time dancing.

Betsy during the dance

Our friends Pam, Billy and Bruce dancing with friends

Tim Ploch calling the A tip Larry and I sat out to

10-20 Getting Ready forParis

We're Excited

We're so excited, this weekend we are going to be in Paris, Texas. They're having a big square dancing event with four rooms of 4 levels full time (A2, C1, C2 and C3A). The sessions are all computer controlled. There will be five callers (Bronc Wise, Tim Ploch, Darryl Lipscomb, Vic Ceder and Ross Howell).

Once again I didn't go to the gym considering I had a lot to do around the house to get ready for this event. I spent the morning loading up the Minnie with clothing and food. After lunch I did some housework. Then at 3:45 we went to Sun City for our last class session with the Sundancers. Last month we weren't sure if we would be able to go to Paris considering we were still learning all the A2 moves. Larry asked Marty (the gentleman that was in charge of the Thursday lessons) if we would be finished in time. Marty and the other A dancers have been working hard to make sure we were introduced to all the moves. Last week Marty finished up the A2 moves. Today we worked on moves that might be called at the A2 dances and they're not on the list to teach. Now we're ready to go to Paris and get some practice on the moves.

Power Strip installed on Larry's workbench

Grinding the old rivets off the water ski binding

Assembling the new strap

What the bindings look like now

In the afternoon when I was doing housework Larry was working in his workroom. A couple of days ago we swung by the UPS Store to pickup our mail and a there was a package from the Home Depot Seeds program, it was a 6' Legrand Power Strip that Larry had requested. He installed the strip today and now he needs to do a review on it. The last time we water skied this year when we tightened the straps on our bindings, a couple of the straps broke, we have a backup set of bindings so we swapped them out and continued to ski. Larry ordered new straps for them, the straps have been here for a bit so even though we won't need them until next summer he decided today was a good time fix the bindings. He had purchased four straps so he replaced all three straps on one binding and the broken one in the other. The bindings were originally from a pair of inline skates, back in the late 90's Larry removed the wheels and converted them to water-ski bindings. The straps are riveted on so he had to grind the rivets off with his Dremel tool. He had to be careful that he didn't melt the binding considering it's plastic. Once the rivets were ground off he removed the old straps and replaced them with a new one. The bindings came out prefect so when he finished the project he decided to order some more straps. 

New red, white and blue hats for square dancing

As we were leaving for Sun City I fed Flo her dinner. On the way home we stopped and had dinner at Taco Bell. Then we went to Walmart to pickup a couple things I forgot when we went shopping the other day. When we got home Flo was one happy dog. While I was saying hi to her Larry went to the front porch and got the package that was at the front door. It was a couple of red, white and blue hats he had ordered. The hats were a bit crushed so I ironed them to remove the creases, they look better. Now we are ready to go to Paris. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!       

10-19 Last Day of Boating Season

Last Day for the Season

Larry has been wanting to winterize the boat for a couple of weeks but the wind has been blowing or we just put it off, well, this morning Larry decided it was time to get this done. Last week Larry added fuel stabilizer and we needed to take the boat for a spin to mix the additive in the fuel and get it into the engine so today we took the boat to the lake, we weren't there long. We drove around for about 20 minutes. There were a few boats on the lake and the wind was blowing. Today I didn't have any problem putting the boat on the trailer. Once we pulled the boat up the ramp we wiped it down. When we got back to the house Larry winterized it. It didn't take him long. He drained the water out of the engine by pulling the plugs, opening the valves on the manifolds and took the hoses off. Now the boat is put to bed for the winter and the motor won't freeze. We keep the boat stored in the garage and it doesn't freeze often here in Central Texas but Larry doesn't want to take a chance. 

One of the marinas on Lake Belton

Wiping down the boat after a ride around the lake

Getting the boat ready to be winterized

Draining water from the manifolds

After winterizing the boat we went inside and had lunch. When we finished lunch we went outside and did some yardwork. I mowed and Larry weedeated, blew out the garage and driveway. When I finished mowing Larry treated the yards for bugs. It only took me a half hour to mow considering I only mowed the frontyard. While Larry treated for bugs I blew off the front porch and finished the driveway. While we did the boat project and yard projects Flo kept us company.

The pork ribs we had for dinner

When we were finished doing our projects I did four loads of laundry and some housework. About 3:00 I worked out on my Wii Fit, which I hadn't used in ten days. The reason I know this is because it told me. I worked out for a half hour. When it was time for dinner I barbecued pork ribs. They came out perfect. In the evening we watched YouTube videos. We streamed two episodes of POV on the ROKU PBS Channel. One was Kingdom of Shadows, it was about the war on drugs. The other one was Getting Back to Abnormal, which was about New Orleans. They both were good documentaries. We had a busy day just doing little projects.  

10-18 Wildlife

We enjoy wildlife

During the past 10 years we have camped in all 48 of the lower United States, a large part of this experience has been all the wildlife we have seen. Some in the campgrounds, down the road, on hiking trails and across creeks and rivers, no matter how many times we see wildlife we get excited. One of the state parks in Texas called South Llano River Park is known for the wild turkeys roosting and deer, we have stayed there multiple times. The turkeys and deer graze along side each other, we have spent hours sitting in our chairs watching them. Along our travels we have seen bears, bison, elk, moose, coyotes, deer, fox, big horn sheep, mountain goats and other wildlife. 

Deer bedded down for a nap

Two does and a fawn grazing in the backyard

A fawn walking a long side of the house

A woodpecker enjoying one of our oak trees

Many times we don't have to go far to see wildlife, we just have to look out our back windows. The only fence we have is an Invisible Fence to keep Flo in but it allows other animals and dogs to visit us. We have deer visit us almost every day. They don't appear to be too scared of us, they graze right next to the back porch, when they hear us they just look up and look at us. When they figure out we're not a threat they continue their grazing. The other day a couple deer bedded down for a nap. We've had fawns running around playing. We have seen foxes hanging around the yard. When I use to walk Flo we saw a couple of foxes and we have seen a fox when we work outside. After Larry installed the security camera on the back porch and it started recording we have seen other critters. We have been wondering why our frontyard and backyard were being rutted up so badly. The camera recorded a couple of raccoons walking around the yard where it was rutted up. The camera also recorded another critter a couple of times, we're not sure what it is but we think it is either a opossum or an armadillo. The camera recorded a couple of domestic cats climbing the tree and walking across the yard. People have asked us if we ever getting tired of watching the deer. We always tell them no. I have a little wildlife park in our backyard.