Monday 3-23 Smile and Be Happy

Smile and be happy

We woke up with fog. By mid morning the fog was gone but everything stayed damp all day.

The Corona Virus quarantine is now official here in Bell County, only essential businesses can be open. Liquor stores are deemed essential, wonder how they determined that.

Larry was hoping to start on installing the attic fan he got from the Seeds Program but the roof shingles were too damp. He doesn't really like getting on our roof anymore, he doesn't mind roofs with less slope but ours is a bit steep and he certainly wasn't getting on it with wet shingles. He decided to start reading a book on his Kindle. I got my annual book caught up for this year. I worked on my jigsaw puzzle. We watched some more YouTube videos.

I worked out using my Wii Fit for a half hour and Just Dance a half hour. The Just Dance program was the very first one I got. It's a little different than the others because it doesn't tell you how many calories you burn. It's divided in two parts, one is for you to dance to the songs and the other one is called sweat. In the sweat workout you can do the whole 45 minute long program or you can use other programs that are shorter. It's was a lot of fun. I decided to take it easy today because my shoulder muscles are a little sore from working out with Gold's Gym's boxing program yesterday.  

In the evening we finished watching the series Close to the Enemy, I would not recommend it. Then we watched a couple of episodes of Travels By Narrowboat. Then I watched a series in Acorn called What Do You Do When Someone Dies. Its about a happily married school teacher whose husband died in a car accident and she tries to find out what happened. It's had three parts and each one was about 45 minutes. I started to watch a detective series called Deep Water. I also did my daily challenges off of Microsoft Solitaire. I did 20,000 steps.

Relaxing in front of the television

 

Sunday 3-22 Drizzle and Overcast Day

Keep dry

What a nasty day. When Larry got up it was raining and it continued to drizzle on and off all day. We had cloud covering and the humidity was 90%. The temperature got into the low 60's. At 9:00 pm the fog rolled in.

In the morning I spent an hour and 48 minutes playing the Solitaire Event: World Tour of 30 games, it was a mixture of Klondike, Free Cell, Tri Peaks and Pyramid. I ended up coming in 20th. I also did my Daily Challenges. While I was doing this Larry read.

We spent the afternoon watching the GizWiz and some YouTube videos of people who live full time in RV's and how the coronavirus is affecting their way of life. I worked on my annual book. I worked out for an hour using my Gold's Gym program and Just Dance.

Gold's Gym program I worked out with for 30 minutes

 

The menu of choices

The six songs I worked out with on Just Dance 2015

In the evening we watched three episodes of Close To The Enemy. Then we watched an episode of Travels By Narrowboat. I finished watching the second season of Jack Irish. I did 20,000 steps.

Saturday 3-21 New Computer/Tablet

Overcast Day

It was overcast all day and rained early in the morning. The temperature stayed in the 50's and the rain came back around dinnertime. Along with the rain there was thunder.

I started the day out by having breakfast. Then I went back to bed for a couple of hours. When I woke up it was time for lunch. After lunch I spent 17 minutes and 44 minutes playing my Solitaire Event: Two Games Tango Mini, which was 6 games (3 Klondike and 3 Pyramid). I didn't do too good, I came in 73rd in my group. Afterwards I worked on my 2020 annual book. 

While I was doing this Larry did a project. Yesterday, we received another order from Amazon, it was a RCA Cambio Notebook/Tablet. Unlike our other tablets this one runs on Windows 10 instead of Android. It has a 10 inch screen and comes with a detachable keyboard that is held on via magnets. It is a very inexpensive machine and not very powerful but Larry plans to only use it for our security cameras. Our Android tablet has a problem where one or two of the cameras will stop displaying and we have to restart them. When we view these same cameras via a Windows based computer they seem to stay up ans so far they have been stable on this new tablet. The new tablet has a built in stand but Larry had another stand laying around from another tablet project that he decided to use. The new tablet looks great and works excellent. 

RCA Cambio Notebook/Tablet

The tablet on the stand that came with it

The Cambio Tablet setup on our desk

In the afternoon Larry was teasing me about working out on my Wii Fit. I said "Maybe tomorrow." But tomorrow never comes I've been saying this for a long time. Well, I decided to workout on my Wii Fit. Wow, it's been 148 days since I've used it. I worked out for a half hour on the Wii Fit and another half hour with Just Dance. I used three different Just Dance programs. I'll probably be sore in the morning.

My Wii Fit telling me how long it's been since it's seen me

The disc I used for my Wii Fit workout

10 minutes using Just Dance 2019 disc

10 minutes using Just Dance 2018

10 minutes using Just Dance 2016

For dinner we had the rest of our baby back ribs. Then we watched the television. We started to watch a series on Amazon called Close to the Enemy, it's about a British intelligent officer working with a captured German scientist to help the British develop jet aircraft. It takes place in 1946 and is an eight part mini series. We watched two episodes then we watched a couple of episodes of the sixth season of Travels By Narrowboat. Then I finished watching the first season of Jack Irish and started the second season. I did 20,000 steps.
 

Relaxing in front of the television

Friday 3-20 Rainy Day

Rainy Day

It rained on and off all day. It wasn't hard. The temperature didn't get out of the 50's. We'll be cooped up in the house for awhile because of the coronavirus so what should we do?

I spent the morning doing my daily challenges and the Solitaire Event: Spider Adventure of 20 games. It took me 3 hours and 40 minutes, I got stuck on a couple of them. While I was doing this Larry changed the filters in our three HEPA air filters that are spread around the house, you would not believe how much dust they capture. He also changed the filter in the house A/C.

In the afternoon I did my housework and a few loads of laundry. I also worked on my puzzle. 

Doing chores

We love Amazon, it's great for ordering products, they are delivered to your door but at the same time it's bad because we buy more stuff. On one of the forums Larry follows someone wrote about purchasing a new Echo Show that was on sale, she was able to trade in an older model, they gave her $30 for the trade and an additional 25% discount. We have a couple of the original Echo Shows that we really like, Larry decided to purchase one of the new Echo Show 5's, he traded in a older Echo (not a Echo Dot), with that and the discounts it only cost $26. The Echo Show 5 is very small, which makes it easy to place. It also has a great clock, it is larger on the screen and it dims when you turn off the lights. We got it yesterday and after setting it up Larry put it in our bedroom. It looks great and makes an excellent alarm clock.

Original Echo Show on the left, new Echo Show 5 on the right

For dinner I barbecued some baby back ribs.

Baby Back Ribs

In the evening we finished watching the fourth season of Travels By Narrowboat. We also watched a two part movie titled, Restless, it was about a daughter who finds out her mother was a British spy during World War II. It was a very good movie. Then I watched a few episodes of Jack Irish. I did 20,000 steps.

Thursday 3-19 Happy Thursday

Have a great day

Just hanging around the house. We're trying to stay at home as much as possible. When we have to go to town it's for our mail or for necessities. We received an e-mail from the UPS Store that said we had another package from the Seeds Program. The package was a solar powered vent for our house. Once we got home Larry went into the attic to decide which vent he was going to replace with the new one. It's very big and needs power for the fan to work. The fan is designed to control the temperature in the attic. It runs on solar but like anything that runs by solar it doesn't always work so you need power backup. 

I finished reading the book I started a few days ago. The Siege Winter was a great book. I also worked on my puzzle for a little while. I did my daily challenges, there wasn't a Solitaire Event today.

In the evening we finished watching the Star Wars series. The sixth episode called The Return of the Jedi. I still enjoy watching the series and some of them are over 40 years old. It was fun seeing how the technology and acting has changed in all these years.

Then we watched an episode of Travels By Narrowboat. When Larry went to bed I watched the third movie of Jack Irish and started watching the first season of Jack Irish. While watching television I did my steps, which was 20,000 steps. LIFE IS GOOD !!!!     

Wednesday 3-18 Grocery Challenge

We had a wonderful day. 

Larry is feeling a bit better and wanted to get out of the house and go for a walk. Before doing that we drove to the storage center to put a charger on the Minnie to keep the battery fully charged. Next we stopped at The UPS Store to pick up our mail and some packages from the Seeds Program. The packages were vinyl plank flooring from Shaw. There were four packages and they were very heavy, the ladies that work at the UPS Store loaded the flooring in the truck, Larry offered to help but the ladies thanked him and said they would do it. Afterwards we went across the parking lot to Walmart and bought three bags of potting soil to use in my flower planter. We didn't go into the main store, simply walked in to the garden area, paid, and then loaded the bags from the parking lot.

Shaw Sydney Clove Vinyl Plank

On the way home Larry parked at the boat ramp on arrowhead point. Larry didn't want too walk too far or too strenuous. We usually walk from the house to Temple Lake Park and back but the road at the ramp is very steep so we started our walk at the parking lot. We walked from the parking lot to the gate of the park, which was a mile. Then we turned around and went back. By the time we got back to the truck we had walked 40 minutes. While walking we saw a couple of boats on the lake. It was a pleasant walk.

About 12:30 we got an e-mail that our grocery shopping order was ready. They also said that they had substituted a few items because they ran out of a size or brand. For example: we ordered a ten pack box of Quaker Brown Sugar oatmeal and they replaced it with a twenty pack box but only charged us for the ten pack box. They replaced our Land O Frost ham with Hillshire Farm for the same price. They cancelled the bread, cheese, potatoes and tostadas shells. Larry went inside to see what he could find. He found out that the bread aisle was bare, there was no cheese at all and no tostadas shells at all. Things are still a bit crazy, hopefully in the next week or so this will calm down.

I spent a couple of hours doing my Solitaire Event: Two Games Tango, 10 games of Free Cell and 10 games of Tri Peaks. I also did my daily challenges.

In the evening we watched the fifth episode of Star Wars, which was The Empire Strikes Back. Then we watched a couple of episodes of Travels By Narrowboat. I started a new series on Acorn called Jack Irish. It's about an ex-lawyer who became a private investigator after his wife was murdered. The series was introduced by three movies, I watched two of the movies. I did 18,000 steps.           

Tuesday 3-17 Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day

For all my Irish readers, Happy St. Patrick's Day.

We had another overcast day. It got to the high 70's but because of the cloud coverage it was comfortable. 

I spent the morning and afternoon reading. Larry did some reading on the internet. He's still trying to find a backup program. 

We were planning to do our weekly grocery shopping at HEB and because of the coronavirus we decided to use its Curbside service. After putting everything into the online shopping cart Larry went to check out and discovered the first available date was over a week away. He went on the Walmart website to see how long it would take to do their pick up service, it said we could pick up the groceries tomorrow afternoon. We like some HEB brands of food but we had to substitute some of our items with the brands that Walmart carries. Walmart has limited the quantities on almost every item to a maximum of two. We like biscuits and we were limited to two containers. Tomorrow we will go and pick up our groceries.

Grocery shopping online

The lots on both sides of us are owned by a gentleman named George. He had a couple of loads of dirt dumped on each set yesterday. Today he had a crew come out and spread the dirt and the crew also cleared off the back of the lots on the south of us. He does this occasionally because it makes them look better and he has them for sale.

It's suppose to rain tomorrow and Thursday and our yards needed to be mowed. Larry has been fighting allergies for the last week so I decided to mow the yards. While I mowed Larry put a face mask on and weedeated around the frontyard. He also blew out the garage and blew off the front porch and driveway. It took me an hour to mow. I still need to mow the far back of the backyard. 

Mowing the frontyard

Mowing the side of house

  

In the evening we watched the fourth episode of Star Wars called A New Hope, it was the very first Star Wars made in 1977. Then we watched an episode of Travels by Narrowboat. I finished watching Murdock Mysteries. I also did my daily challenges and The Solitaire Event: World Tour Mini of 8 games. I did 18,000 steps.