8-20 Too Hot to Touch Dance

What a glorious surprise!!!

 Rain finally arrived this afternoon, it didn't rain hard but it was steady. No complaints from me, we really need the rain. We had a very busy day.

resting after my swim

swimming in Belton Lake

A crane flying overhead at the lake

 When we woke up this morning it was overcast and breezy so we decided not to go boating instead we took Flo for a swim. Yesterday while Louise and Autumn was here Flo decided she wanted to go to the lake, she actually started to walk down to the boat ramp by herself. Louise tried to get her to come back but she was stubborn and continued down the street. Then I tried to get her to turn around and go home but she was determined to go to the lake. Larry showed up with Louise's car and then Flo got in the car. She didn't make it to the lake but she was tired when we got her home. She slept the rest of the day. This morning we took her to Temple Lake Park for the swim she was determined to go for yesterday. Larry read the paper and Flo and I walked along the shores of Belton Lake. Flo did a little swimming and exploring, halfway through the walk Flo got tired so she sat down and rested. When we got back to Larry I dried her off and loaded her in the car. After leaving the lake we went to town to do a couple of errands and Flo slept in the car. We had a wonderful morning.

Yep, it's Yellow

We gave Louise a tablet for her birthday and Larry has been spending a lot of time getting it setup for her. I think he now has everything installed but he is using it to better understand how some of the programs work. He installed two GPS Navigation packages so whenever we drive someplace he takes it along to see how they work. Which one will Louise like, well we don't know, she might not like either and might just install a totally different one. She will also be able to read eBooks on it. Pretty cool.

After lunch I went with Larry when he went to the chiropractor. Then a little while later we took Flo to see the vet. She has a couple of growths, one on her right foot and one on her leg, we were worried about them. Her regular vet was out but the covering vet looked at it, she was a little concerned and suggested we got them removed. Larry told her that we were getting ready to go on a trip for a couple of months. So she gave us a salve to put on it and asked us to keep an eye on them. If they got any bigger we should take her in to get them removed. She also told us not to wait too long on the one on her toe. If it got any bigger it would be harder to remove it. The covering vet was very nice and spent a lot of time with us. We have actually been watching the growths for the past couple of weeks and they don't appear to be getting any bigger.
   

Sammons Community Center

In the evening Larry and I attended a square dance with our club the Central Texas Lone Stars. We had our dance at the Sammons Community Center in Temple. It's a very nice facility and the room was very spacious. The theme for the dance was Too Hot to Touch, where when the people danced they couldn't touch. Square dancing is a very touchy feely type of dancing so we ended up doing one and a half tip with no hands. Dale (our caller) thought people were getting frustrated so he decided to only do the theme when it was requested. There were enough people there for three mainstream squares and two plus squares. We had a fabulous time.   

Line Dancing with Dorothy

Square Dancing to Dale

Larry sitting a tip out and Dale Smith calling

 

8-19 Birthdays

I know a lot of people dread getting a year older but it really is something that needs to be celebrated. Well, it's that time for my sister in-law. I won't tell you how old Louise is but I will tell you that she is aging very nicely. For a number of years Larry and I have spent September and October on the road and our birthdays happen to come while we are gone so we celebrate them at the same time as we do Louise's. We invited Louise and Autumn to come out today to celebrate all of our birthdays. They arrived early and Louise was nice enough to bring breakfast, breakfast tacos from Taco Cabana. They were very good. After breakfast we went to the lake, the wind was blowing lightly and we found really nice skiing water right by the boat launch at Rogers Park. While at the lake we water skied, wake boarded and floated in the lake. We had a spectacular day on the lake.

water skiing

Larry wake boarding

Louise getting ready to wake board

All of our gifts

Autumn and I opening gifts

Louise opening her gifts

Larry opening his gifts

Flo and Autumn chilling out during the Birthdays celebration

When we got back to the house we were greeted by two excited dogs, it's always great to get this type of greeting. I decided to cook something different for Louise's birthday, our lunch was taco pizza rolls. Yesterday I made a butter pecan cake with German chocolate frosting, we had this and German chocolate cake ice cream for dessert. After lunch we opened our gifts. We got a lot of great gifts and some of them we'll take on our trip.

In the evening Larry and I watched a documentary called Mad As Hell, it was about The Young Turks (TYT). TYT is one of the most popular online news show in the world. It was very interesting seeing how it became so popular and it was presented very well. After watching the documentary we watched another episode of News Room.      

8-18 New Record - No Rain

It's Hot and Dry

 Set a new record today for the longest period of time with no rain, the old record had been set in 1917, almost 100 years ago. We have now gone 48 days without a drop of rain. We need rain desperately.

Cleaning the house

I had a very busy day. First of all we went grocery shopping, this time we took Flo with us. Next up was lunch, after lunch I cleaned house, made taco pizza rolls, a cake and wrapped gifts. While I was doing this Larry and Flo kept out of my way. In the evening we watched the movie, A Most Wanted Man and started watching a series on Amazon from HBO, News Room. A Most Wanted Man is a 2014 British thriller movie based off the book by John le Carre starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Daniel Bruhl and Nina Hoss. It was a good movie until the end. News Room stars Jeff Daniels and is a series about a news room and the obstacles they have to deal with at work and in their personnel lives. It is very good and at times it makes you laugh. Had a great day!!!       

8-17 What a great day!!!!!

We had a great day, started it off by going to the lake. While there we water skied, wake surfed and floated. The lake wasn't perfectly flat but it was pretty darn nice so out came the water ski. Larry and I skied and then rested. After our rest we did a little surfing. The last time we surfed I tried a 360 so today I continued trying. The first try I leaned too far forward and the board popped out. The second time I did the same. The third time I sunk the board so down I went into the water. The fourth time I let go of the rope. The fifth time was the charm, I was successful. Accomplishing something new is very cool, makes you feel great. After that we simply floated and swam in the lake before calling it a day.

Boating on Belton Lake

  After lunch I let Flo out in the front and she started to bark. What is that crazy dog barking at? I went outside to check. I discovered they were delivering a new shed to out neighbor and she was barking at the delivery truck. We went on our back porch and watched the shed being delivered. We were curious because the neighbor had a fence around the entire back yard. First of all the guy had to remove a section of the fence. Then he got a stand up machine that looked like a small fork truck, he tilted the bed of the truck and lowered the shed to the edge of the truck. The shed was lowered down by a cable. Once the shed was at the edge he put the forks under the shed and then drug it off the truck. The forks weren't long enough to lift the shed so he had to drag the shed on skids. It was going very well until the shed got stuck, he had to remove another section of the fence. When he finished getting the shed in the backyard he put the fence back together. The young guy was by himself and did a super job.

Flo relaxing during the delivery of our neighbor's new shed.

Taking the shed off the delivery truck

Oops, I'm stuck.

Removed another section of the fence.

After Larry did his stretches then we went to his chiropractor for his therapy. While we were in town we did a few errands. In the evening we square danced with the Sundancers. There were enough people for seven mainstream squares and six plus squares. We got there early so we could do the workshop. Today the workshop was on circulating in your square and all the different ways to circulate. We had a great time dancing with the Sundancers.

Square Dancing to Brad's calling.

Round Dancing during the dance

 

 

8-16 Gold Mine Dance

Gold Mine Dance

The TIPS Club has a dance the first and third Sunday of each month and they have a theme for each dance. Today their theme was Gold Mine. Larry and I met up with Dorothy and Louis and went to the dance at Allemande Hall in Waco. We had enough people for three squares and a few people sitting out. Dale Smith was the caller and the workshop was on Relay the Ducey. We had a great time at the dance.

In the evening we watched a documentary called To Make A Farm. It was a Canadian film on five young people and their experiences on being small farmers. It was a good documentary. We also watched a movie called Take Me Home, which was a romantic comedy about two people traveling across country to get away from their problems. It was a cute movie.   

8-15 Dance, Laugh, Eat and Be Merry!

Car Show

In the morning Larry and I went to a car show in Temple. It was too hot for Flo so she stayed home while we went to the show. When we got to the show there were only a few cars but we still walked around and looked at them. On the way home we drove around Morgan Point Resort just to see what was going on.

Doing Load-the-Boat

Doing a Grand Swing Thru with friends

Last night the Heart of Texas Square and Round Dance Association stated a two day dance called the Cornhuskers. They put this on every year. The first night the local callers and cuers host the dance. Last night we were told that there were five squares which is a great turnout. Today there were two dances, a plus dance this afternoon and the closing dance this evening. They were called and cued by Dave and Michelle Vieira who are from Lavon, Texas. We attended the plus dance. There were only two squares but we had a fun time.

We had a relaxing evening watching the 2014 movie Transformers on Amazon. It was a 2 hour 48 minute action movie. It was entertaining but they should have made the action scenes shorter. After the movie we watched a few episodes of TED.

8-14 Be Happy!!!!

Be Happy!!!!

Today, instead of going boating Larry and I took Flo to Temple Lake Park so she could go swimming. When we got to the area where we usually let Flo swim it was being occupied by high school students running so we went to the point. Flo and I walked on the shore of Belton Lake where Flo explored and swam. While we were doing this Larry read the paper.

Larry reading the paper

Swimming at Temple Lake Park

Running Event at the park

For the rest of the day we hung around the house. I read, Larry did his stretches and Flo slept. In the evening we watched an episode of TED, an episode of POV by Grace Lee and a movie on Amazon called My Old Lady. Grace Lee's documentary was The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs. Grace Lee Boggs is an activist philosopher in Detroit. It was very interesting and entertaining. My Old Lady is a romantic comedy drama starring Kevin Klein, Kristin Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith. It was a very funny movie and we enjoyed it a lot. We had a very nice day.