2018 October 06 Saturday

2018 October 06 Saturday in Liberty Hill Texas

71° and mostly cloudy. We had some intermittent rain showers mid morning though mid afternoon. It reached a sweaty 86°

I was up at 5:30 and tried to post on my MUSINGS blog but I couldn't get a good enough connection. So, I went outside and sat in my truck, where I could get a better connection.

Yesterday I had gotten two of our small outside tables set up under the awning, but they badly needed cleaning. Early this morning I took care of that.

I sat outside and ate my breakfast while Ella got caught up on sleep.

The flies had almost as much of my breakfast as I did. I don't remember there being so many in years past. Maybe it had to do with all of the rain they received recently.

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I may have found the leak.

I patched it as best as I could with the roof tape. However I lack confidence in it because the wood beneath is rotted away. I will try making the slit bigger and sliding some plywood beneath the rubber membrane. Then secure the wood with screws. Next seal it with adhesive and then cover that with the roof repair tape. That's my thinking anyway.

Our RV slideout didn't slide again this year. And the floor and wall are separating similar to what happened to the Hitchhiker 5th wheel two years ago. Our home is coming apart. Being over 70 years old and on a fixed income really sucks at times like these.

It's been a long hot, and frustrating day. So I've showered and called it quits for today.

G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

2018 October 05 Friday

2018 October 05 Friday in Liberty Hill, Leander, and Cedar Park Texas

71° start with high fog. The fog dissipated and it reached 86°

We both saw the dermatologist this morning early. We were his first patients. We had spots frozen which have since turned to blisters. Ella got some cream to put on fire ant bites. She got those the other day when she was plugging in the shore line. And I got an antifungal for a toe nail. When he handed me the bottle I said, "Anti fun gal, I knew her." It turns out that the doctor loved puns. It's kind of a shame we only see him once a year. No, scratch that idea.

The next appointment was for 11:00 with Ella's Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. It was only 8:45 when we were done at the dermatologist.

We needed to kill some time. I plan to install a deck for the trailer. There was a Lowe's nearby. I thought I might check some prices for pieces that I'll needed. I don't like Lowe's. I've never gotten good service at any of them. It must be the corporate culture. When I need lumber my hierarchy goes: Home Depot, Menards, any place but Lowe's, then Lowe's. For hardware it goes: local independents like Winkley's in Liberty Hill, Ace, Shoppers Supply, then Home Depot, et cetra.

But I was not planning to buy, just kill time, constructively. My opinion of Lowe's customer service was substantiated today. I asked at the customer service counter for directions to the decking hardware. They have me direction to the far end of the store. Nope not there. All another employee who directed me to the lumber department. Nope again. The next employee discreet me to carpet and flooring (?). Fortunately, a customer overheard what I was looking for and gave me the proper direction. I managed to find prices for some of what I needed but there were some key parts that they didn't appear to have ... but I didn't want to ask another employee for help.

There was still time to kill so we went to the Leander Senior Center to say high and fill out paperwork so that we are eligible for lunches there. We didn't stay for lunch because it was now time for the appointment.

We arrived at the ENT with time to spare only to be told that the doctor and audiologist weren't there. But we had a text message confirming the appointment. We were told that it was for another location in a town forty miles away. We rescheduled for this location next week.

Now that the rest of our morning was free, we went grocery shopping.

A quick drive through at Chicken Express got us home before the milk could turn to cheese in the heat.

I took care of a few outdoor chores and the went in to sleep. Not nap. Sleep.

Last night as I lay in bed, I got to thinking about the sermon that pastor Saint (yes that's his name, John Saint) asked me to preach on December 30th. I got to thinking about all the stores having After Christmas Sales. I started writing a sermon about the churches After Christmas Sale. I didn't stop writing until after 3 this morning. And then I woke at 5:40 and tried to go back to sleep before the 6:30 alarm would he off. No such luck. So when my chores were done, I went to bed and slept for several hours.

And it is now quarter till 11 p.m. and I'm going to go to sleep.

G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

2018 October 04 Thursday

2018 October 04 Thursday in Liberty Hill, Cedar Park, and Leander Texas

69° and fog this morning.

Both Ella and I had appointments with the orthopedic doctor this morning. He examined Ella and looked at her MRI (which she brought with her from Iowa). He referred her to a surgery who specializes in reverse shoulder replacement.*

For me here recommend getting my weight down to 250# (and staying there) before having knee replacement surgery. For today I received cortisone shots in both knees.

We were done at the doctor's in time to go to the Over The Hill Gang for lunch and one round of Canasta.

Parker's Corner Grocery is just actions the drive from the OTHG. That made it very handy to buy eggs, butter, and bread.

When we returned home, Ella took the groceries inside. I took the receiver hitch out if the bed of the truck, reinstalled the bed cover on the truck, put the awning out and staked down. I did get the deflappers installed but not the rafter supports.

Later I went out and installed the rafters.

In the evening, before sundown, we went to Winkley's for some small hardware parts

Before coming home we went to Elana's for supper

*Reverse shoulder replacement is a type of shoulder replacement in which the normal ball and socket relationship of glenohumeral joint is reversed, creating a more stable joint with a fixed fulcrum.^[1]This form of shoulder replacement is utilized in situations in which conventional shoulder replacement surgery would lead to poor outcomes and high failure ratio.

**

G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

2018 October 02 Tuesday

2018 October 02 Tuesday in Austin, Cedar Park, Leander, Liberty Hill Texas

72°and foggy overcast in the morning. 80° and humid at ten o'clock at night.

I woke at Arik and Jenny's a little before 5 this morning and began my devotion for the day ,(see link below) I began to hear the family up and moving. Jenny had to leave early in the morning. Then Beket left to catch his school bus. A short time later it was Sofia's turn to leave for school. Ella got up and around and we said goodbye to Arik (he was getting ready for work).

Our first stop was to gas up the truck 23.627 gallons of regular at $2.489/gal.

We drove through Leander to check the progress on building the new senior center/Head Start/Meals on Wheels. They've erected a sign. The bond issue past several years ago to build it ... Glad to see that they are moving right along. Groan.

Cross track church has a new pastor since we left for Iowa. We stopped to introduce ourselves. However, he was with somebody. So we decided to have breakfast and then come back later.

Hobo Junction is one of our favorite places to eat in Liberty Hill Texas. They serve good old country favorites done right.

After breakfast we went back over to the church and introduced ourselves to Pastor John Saint. We visited with him for about 20 to 30 minutes.

The Stocktank RV park was our next stop. We pulled into our site (without the fifth wheel) and unloaded the bed of Rudolf the red nose pick up. Most of it went into a storage shed on the site.

We then went over and backed up to the fifth wheel. it was sitting too low to hook up to the truck and the trailor's battery was dead so we couldn't raise it. That was my fault because in all the hubbub from last spring I forgot to unhook the battery. So now I did unhook the battery and took it into an auto repair place to have them charge it.

Before leaving the camper in storage, we did pick up some clothes to take with us back into Arik and Jenny's house.

Ella remembered that she had forgotten to pick up her medical folder. It was part of those items left in the storage shed at the campsite. So we went back and retrieve the folder before going to Walmart for some clothes shopping.

At Walmart the line was really long at the checkout so I went through the self-checkout, which I seldom do. The person who had used the machine just ahead of me had left a package sitting on the machine. I pointed it out to the attendant and she said, "I'll just hang on to it," Nothing perishable was in it. So I went ahead and checked out. We bought two pair of jeans and two shirts. Upon arriving back at the kids' house we discovered that we had the pants but we did not have the shirts. I called the store and they looked and sure enough they had our shirts they'd been turned into customer service.

In the evening we went back to Walmart and picked up the missing shirts. Then we drove on into Liberty Hill to Frank's Automotive Repair and retrieved our battery. From there we went to Sonic for supper.

And then back to the church for Tuesday prayer meeting.

G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

/And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams
Me

2018 October 01 Monday

2018 October 01 Monday leaving Perry, Oklahoma and ended in Austin Texas

68° and sunshine. To start. And reached 83° somewhere along the route.

Crossed over into Texas at 11:10 a.m.

We stopped in Waco to visit what Larraine. We visited, she feed us and sent us on our way we'll gifted with canned goods. We will restock our shelves and donate the rest, probably to Operation Liberty Hill.

Dairy Queen opened a store in Liberty Hill while we were away. So it was only polite to stop in and say howdy and sample their wares

Arriving at the Stocktank RV park around five, we found the ground where it RV is stored to be very wet. We also found the spot to which we will move it to be very wet. As a matter of fact I got stuck and couldn't get the truck out. Fortunately they are nice folks at the park who are willing to help. All it took was a one ton, four wheel drive truck and a lot chain to set us free.i desired against trying to move the trailer.

We checked in with Leigha and Adam. It was a sad day for them. Dude, their thirteen year old dog, had passed away

We called Jenny and asked if we could crash there for the night. She said yes and we are.

G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

/And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

2018 September 30 Sunday

2018 September 30 Sunday left Grimes Iowa drove through Missouri and Kansas and stopped in Oklahoma

47° and completely overcast with Heather sky. Very damp from overnight rain. We saw 83° in Kansas

We had a community breakfast at the clubhouse. We said our goodbyes and went back to the trailer. And loaded the last few items. Then I waited in the truck while Ella distributed dryer sheets everywhere. They are supposed to keep the mice away

Reset trip meter and headed for church.

At 100 miles we are just approaching the Iowa Welcome Center on this side of the Missouri border and I can now speed back up to 70 miles an hour. We had a long section of 55 mph in a construction zone.

1:45 we passed the Iowa-Missouri state line.

We hit 200 miles just about 10 minutes after 3 in the afternoon and about 20 miles out of Kansas City.

4:30 p.m. almost 80° and mostly cloudy in Kansas.

It is 5 and we are in Tecumseh Kansas. Stopped for fill up and potty break.

5:30 and 81°

It is 6:40 p.m. and we are in Matfield, Kansas we've stopped for supper. Having Hardee's.

After supper we stepped outside to this sky.

We've got about 350 miles behind us and we have approximately 600 to go. I do not plan to drive it straight through. We'll stop somewhere for a while.

At 9:20 p.m. we cross the kansas-oklahoma border.

We reached the half way point of our journey. 473 miles from both Grimes and Liberty Hill.

Perry Oklahoma is where we came to rest tonight we arrived at the Comfort Inn about 10:15 p.m.

G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

/And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

2018 September 29 Saturday

2018 September 29 Saturday in Grimes Iowa

45° and completely overcast. 52° at noon. 47° and rain at the o'clock. Today is Trick or Treat from 2:30-4:30 at Cutty's Des Moines Camping Resort. Kids in costume going RV to RV begging for candy. A lot of the campsites are really full of Halloween decorations. Some have really gone Day if the Deal this year.

Waking at 4:30, I discovered that the furnace want running. Suspecting the problem was an empty LP bottle, I tried lighting the stove. Sure enough, no fuel. I got dressed and went out and opened the auxiliary tank. After getting the furnace running and heating, I crawled back under the covers, clothes and all.

I lay there, working on writing my devotional for the day. You can follow this link.
https://musingsdevotions.wordpress.com
Once it warmed enough, I got up and started breakfast. The cafe was open at nine this morning and we stayed there until 10:30. Visiting with friends; Sandy and Francis, Stoney and Sue, Don and Caroline, Jim, and us.

Back at the RV we started loading the truck with items going down h to Texas. I'm always amazed at how much stuff it seems necessary to carry back and forth between homes. We have complete household at each end. It seems to me that foods stuffs is all we should needed to carry.

John called to say that if we'd bring the truck to their campsite, he'd install a better tailgate. We did. He did. Rudolph the red nose pick up is a charcoal gray GMC Ciara and the tailgate is a from a black Chevy Silverado. Just another piece of customisation. The good news is the handle works so I don't have to reach in a hole and pull on wires to open this tailgate like I did the old one.

While we were there, the Roff family arrived with the kids in costumes.

In the afternoon, while Ella continued packing things into shopping bags, I went to Cutty's store and got took the empty LP bottle to be refilled. I want to have plenty of gas on hands next spring. Chances are good that we'll needed to run the furnace when we get back to Iowa.

Audrey, Jason and Kailea came out to take most of the perishables from our refrigerator and freezer. Mostly what we will need to put in the ice chest is bacon and boiled eggs. That should leave plenty of room for tea and soft drinks.

I went to the local grocery store and purchased 20#s of ice for the ice chest. When u returned home, Ella was sitting outside in the cold and drizzle handing out candy.

After dark we to John's campsite. It was cold and drizzling but we all say around the campfire and visited. Rob and Linnea were there as well as one of John and Dawn's friends.

Shortly after eight the fireworks started

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G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

/And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

2018 September 28 Friday

2018 September 28 Friday in Grimes Iowa

41°, rainy and cloudy start to the day.

If I adjust the filters on the camera just a little, it looks like a much nicer day.

Because of the rain, Sue decided to not ride her electric scooter to the clubhouse to have coffee. Somewhat to our surprise, Francis and Sandy came. We thought she had a doctor's appointment this morning. As it turned out it is later in the day. Ron, president of the Cutty's board, stopped and had coffee while he waited for an appointment.

We took ice cream bars to the senior center today. Usually, when people at the center have a birthday, they bring ice cream treats for everyone. Both of our birthdays are in the winter while we are in Texas. Because of this we brought treats to share on this, our last day at the center until spring. We did our goodbyes and got a few hugs on the way out after lunch.

Evening came and some of us gathered at Cutty's Adult Center for the last Card Jackpot games until next camping season.

Sunday came shining through the clouds tonight.

G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

/And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

2018 September 27 Thursday

2018 September 27 Thursday in Grimes Iowa

54° to 73° though the sun never made it through the clouds today.

We did gather at the clubhouse for coffee and conversation until Stoney came rushing in asking for help catching his runaway dog, Sam. When we get outside, the dog was waiting for us.

Since we had broken up the coffee clutch, we went ahead over to the Grimes Senior center. And played a couple rounds of Fast Track before lunch.

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After lunch Stoney have a short talk about the various jobs he had head in his 78 years.

While we were out, I took a photo of Ella standing next to a fire hydrant. I did this for our southern friends. I wanted them to see the depth marker over Ella's head. It is there so that the fire department can find the hydrant in the snow.

I took a picture of these two speed zone signs which are about 40 feet apart.

G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

/And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

26 September 2018 Wednesday

26 September 2018 Wednesday in Grimes and Johnston Iowa.

49° and completely cloudless at day's beginning. At noon it was 60° and still clear.

I was lazy today. I didn't even get outside to capture the sunrise. Later I just took this sun photo through the blinds and the screen. Kinda artsy ain't it? Grin.

Stoney and Sue, and Ella and I were the only ones at coffee in the clubhouse today

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At last count there were 44 for lunch at the Grimes Senior Center for lunch

It was the bingo that brought them out today.

Speaking of lunch, it was tacos which had onions* minced into it. That means I chose to not eat any. After lunch and after bingo we meet with friends and family at Village Inn. I had my lunch there ... along with the free pie.

Kara and Karla, two of my nieces were there to say goodbye to us before we head south.

Can you shoot the difference?

Ella fits nicely in front of us.

Howard, Audrey, Sue and Ella played Mexican train dominoes in the evening at the adult center.

Ella and I went back to Village Inn after dominoes. We were joined by Lyn who came down to see us before we took off for Texas.

* See September 16 post about me and onions

G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

/And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

2018 September 25 Thursday

2018 September 25 Thursday in Grimes and Urbandale Iowa

63° cloudy with a rain shower around five this morning. Not enough to truly test my new roof patch though.

Before breakfast we drove around Cutty's Campground looking for a spot for this evening's Hobo Dinner.* Having found a suitable site, I went to the office to register. (Normally this done at the fee booth. However we are "after the season" hours and the fee booth doesn't open until 11:00) The office manager was alone in the office and didn't know how to check me into a site. So, I got in her computer and registered it and left the payment. Then Ella and I went back to the site and set up a shelter and attached the site card to it. So it is legally occupied.

We drove through McDonald's and ordered breakfast.

Then it was to the laundromat in Grimes. Normally we use the laundry at Cutty's house. But today we needed larger washers for the bedding

After eating our breakfast and getting the laundry started, I went to Ace Hardware for some s hooks to attach the spring to the fifth wheel receiver.*

From the laundromat to the Grimes senior center was just a few blocks. We arrived about 10:45 which gave Joyce, Angie, Ella and I time to play a game and three quarters of Fast Track before lunch was served.

At the end of lunch, while some were still eating, I gave a little talk about how Ella and I use our smart phones. We use it for, phone, calculate, calendar (shared), lists such as groceries and medications, emails, texting, video chats, document scanning, Bible and books, TV and movies, alarm clock, stop watch, checking pulse rate, navigation, altimeter, latitude and longitude, health records, bookkeeping, document writing, and a little about some apps that I've found useful. And then I showed them how voice commands work by asking it to navigate to the nearest Pizza Hut. And how to ask where the bathroom is in Chinese.
I answered a few questions and showed a few people how to deal up some things on their phones.

Returning home, we took the remainder of the laundry to the clubhouse washers and dryers.

While Ella minded the washing, I loaded firewood into the truck and took some chairs up to the campsite for the Hobo Dinner.

People started arriving about 5:15. Fortunately I had already started the campfire.

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It was a beautiful night (though a little chilly).

And the sunset was worth waiting for

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G’nite y’all!

Visit my daily devotions blog https://musingsdevotions.wordpres mys.com/

/And my sermons blog http://thomasewilliams.blogspot.com/?m=1l
All content (except quotations) © 2018 Thomas E. Williams

*See September 24th post