5-13 We Love The Rain

 

 

It’s been raining on and off all day so we hung around the house. I read and worked on my puzzle, Larry surfed the internet, read and helped work on the puzzle, Flo slept and occasionally went outside. In the evening the rain slowed down so Larry and I went square dancing in Georgetown with Shirts ‘n’ Skirts. There were seven squares and we had a great time. We danced to Jim Hayes calling and Lucy Pate cued the round dancing in between the square dancing tips.

 

 

Round Dancing to Lucy’s cueing

5-12 The Party’s Over

 

The Party’s Over

Ok, ok, it’s time to get up and get moving the party’s over. During our trip I worked out a few times but I should have exercised more. I lost a couple of pounds but I put it back on since I’ve been home. Now it’s time to get up and start working out again.  It has been 49 days since I used my Wii Fit. I slowly crawled off the couch and turned on my Wii. I started off with Just Dance for 45 minutes and then worked out to the Wii Fit for 30 minutes. Wow, I did it I worked out for an hour and 15 minutes.

In the evening we watched four more episodes of Call The Midwife, now we’re caught up until Sunday. Today I worked a little bit on my new puzzle and read a little. During our trip I did a lot of Sudoku and I was starting to get a little board so I started a novel written by Scott Turow called Ordinary Heroes. I’m half way through, it’s really a good book so I read some more of it today.   

5-11 Red, White and Blue Dance

Red, White and Blue Dance with the Sundancers

Yesterday, I finished putting the Pine Road Service puzzle together and I wanted another puzzle so off to Walmart we went. Walmart had a lot of puzzles but only a few with 2000 pieces. We found a couple of them and I decided on Cinque Terre, Italy because of all the different colors that will challenge me like the Pine Road Service did. While there we did some grocery shopping. When we got home I could hardly wait to get started on the puzzle but first I took the Pine Road Service puzzle apart and put it back into its box. Then I sorted out the frame pieces from the rest of the pieces and started to assemble the frame. The frame isn’t completely together because Larry and I decided to go square dancing with the Sundancers in Sun City Georgetown. Larry e-mailed Jeanne to see if they were having a dance and where it was going to be. Jeanne responded and said to wear red, white and/or blue to the dance and if we wanted to participate in the dinner before the dance to bring a side dish. I baked Oatmeal Scotties Cookies to take with us. There were 11 squares at the dance and they had a lot of food. They catered brisket and sausage and people brought pasta salads, potato salads, beans and desserts. We had a ball. After not dancing for seven weeks I started out a little rusty but quickly got it together. I could not believe the number of people who stopped by to welcome us back and to tell us how much they missed us while we were gone. Sure makes you feel good to be missed.

Pine Road Service finished

Cinque Terre Italy Puzzle

5-10 Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day. We have been home since Tuesday and been busy doing projects around the house and projects for Louise. In the evening we relaxed in front of the television watching concerts on concert windows and PBS series Call the Midwife. The concerts we watched were Joe Ely, Gracie and Rachel, Seth Glier and Grace Pettis. Joe Ely was born in Amarillo Texas, he is a songwriter, singer and guitarist. His music is a touch of honky-tonk, Texas country, Tex-Mex and rock and roll. We have some of his music, seen him perform on Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour and in concert. He is a great performer and performs with other performs such as Bruce Springsteen, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Guy Clark, Chieftains, James McMurtry and many more. Yesterday we watched the other concerts. Gracie and Rachel were the opening act for Seth Glier. They were folk singers, Grace played the keyboard, Rachel played the violin and they had a gentleman playing the drums. The concert was very nice. Seth Glier is a great entertainer. He performed better on stage then in his apartment, personal opinion. He is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist. He was great. The last concert we watched was Grace Pettis, she is a folk singer out of Austin Texas. She plays the guitar and is accompanied by a cello player John Williams. She was a very enthusiast performer.

Joe Ely

Gracie and Rachel

Seth Glier

Grace Pettis

This evening we watched the first three episodes of the fourth season of Call the Midwife.

5-9 Cleaning Gutters

What a nasty job?

We had gutters installed a year ago on the back of the house and on one side now it’s time to clean them. This is the reason why Larry never had gutters on the other two homes we had built. The foundation in the back of this house is over 6 feet tall and he hates climbing on roofs. Larry started to clean the gutters by using a extension ladder and cleaned part of them as far as he could. Larry had read about gutter cleaning wands so he went to the computer and did a little more research on them. He decided on the Orbit Telescoping Wand with Gutter Cleaner. So off to Lowe’s we went to pick it up and a couple shutoff connectors for the hose. When we got home he tried the wand out and decided he could not see what it was doing from the ground. Larry told me that he has been wanting a ladder stabilizer for years but never had a reason for it now that he needs to go on the roof he thought he should get one. So off to The Home Depot we went. When we got back Larry was back in business, he tried out the stabilizer and he said he should have done this a long time ago. There was so much stuff in the gutters he was surprised that they even worked. One of the downspouts took longer because it was clogged and he could not see how far the hose was in the gutter. Once the clog got passed the joints it was free to go in the grass. It was released with a little bang. Larry was happy to have them done for the year. Great job, honey!!!!

Spraying the leaves out of the gutters

Trying out the wand

The ladder stabilizer

Starting to climb off the roof

5-8 Brother Do’s

Larry and I always like to come home to a clean house after being on a trip even if the trip is only for the weekend so I spend the day before we leave cleaning house. Even though the house is clean the yard can be out of control with weeds, leaves and oak tree growth after six to eight weeks of neglect. On our last two long trips we had a lawn crew come in and take care of the yard, both times they did an excellent job. But this time we were surprised to see our back porch full of stuff from the oak and cedar trees so today Larry and I cleaned the back porch. While doing this we looked at the porch rail which had been in for a year now and it was filthy, we cleaned it and now it looks like new. I like barbecuing on Larry’s grill but I never clean it so the grill was also filthy. Larry decided while we were cleaning up the porch area he might as well clean the grill. Now, what is next for us to do? I know Larry will come up with something else he always does.

Larry cleaning the railing

Larry spraying the soap off

Larry cleaning the grill

Flo keeping us company while we do our project

In the afternoon we drove back to Round Rock to work on Louise’s garage door opener. While we were gone her door opener stopped working. When we got there Larry played with it and made adjustments to the tension and it still overdrove its limits and wouldn’t go in reverse. Larry adjusted the chain and spring multiple times and finally got it to work. One brother do down. What’s next? Oh, ya her garage light!!! Louise’s light is a florescent light with two bulbs and it was taking forever to turn on. Larry told her it could be two things the light bulbs or the ballast in the fixture. She swore it wasn’t the light bulbs but Larry was pretty sure it was so off to Lowe’s we went. Larry was excited about going to Lowe’s because he got to drive Louise’s new car. How cool is that!!! Larry installed the new light bulbs and guess what? The light works perfect. While we were there Larry showed Louise his new Kindle, she was impressed. He told her that this model didn’t have the light in it so you can't read in the dark. Louise is thinking about buying a Kindle because where she works sometimes she has some downtime and would like to read but it’s in the dark so she would have to pay a little more money and get the one with a light.

Making adjustments to Louise’s opener

Look how well the light works after replacing the bulbs

5-7 Doing Laundry

After spending six weeks on the road I spent today doing laundry. It seemed like I was never going to be done but after six loads I was finished. A few days before we got home Larry ordered a new toy from Amazon, a Kindle. Larry enjoys reading books when we’re on the road and once in awhile I’ll read one, he takes a lot of books with us in a box so he thought it would be nice to have a Kindle. A couple of weeks before we left on our trip he had a chance to buy one for $59 and by the time he convinced himself to buy one the sale was over. Somehow he set an alert that if the price came back down he would get an email so even though we were on the road he was able to get the email and place an order. When we got back in town the Kindle was waiting for him. Today he got the opportunity to play with it. He was like a little boy in the candy store he was so excited. He was surprised that it already knew who he was and how many free e-books are available for the Kindle.

Larry’s New Toy