January 16 - 31, 2010

We took a Saturday going to Livingston, Texas to meet up with Barbara (Rhonda’s sister) & her husband Nolan for lunch and pickup our mail at the Escapee’s Park. After a nice lunch we said our goodbyes and came back home to watch the Colts in their playoff game against Baltimore Ravens. We went to the clubhouse to watch the Colts play an almost perfect game winning 20-3. Their defense did a stellar job. Next up the New York Jets – GO COLTS!

Rhonda was up and ready for work on Monday, the 18th and I stayed home working on a campaign poster for the owner of the park. Guy is running for the Commissioner for Precinct 2 here in Tyler County. I’d never done anything like this, but Guy was happy with it, so that’s all that matters.

On Tuesday Rhonda just had the opportunity to be lazy like I have been recently, while I took the day getting a lot of things done. My list consisted of first, stopping at the County Annex to pay for the plates on our car; second, getting the yearly car inspection required by the state of Texas; third, dropping off the motor home payment and putting it into the trusty mailbox drop; fourth, stopping to get my haircut. My barber is an older gentleman named Cotton. A very nice man who recently lost his wife of 58 years; fifth, going to Wally-World to buy some ink for my printer to be able to print out the campaign poster I’d made for Guy; last but not least stopped by where Rhonda works and talked to her boss, Danny. Talked to him for about half-hour and then headed home. It was a productive day for me.

I was awakened four or five times during the night by our cats, who I believe were trying to dig their way to China through their litter box. Reluctantly my feet finally fell to the floor around 8:30 am on Wednesday morning. I was fixing my breakfast when I heard voices outside (no they weren’t in my head, they really were outside). It was Guy the owner of the park talking to a young man unhooking his dolly from his M/H. We had a new neighbor pulling in beside us. Come to find out he’s the new doctor in town, he will be working at the Woodville Hospital starting February 1st. Guy introduce me to him, his name is Kevin, I just can’t seemed to get away from them – my new son-in-law’s name is Kevin too. We talked a little, I found out he likes to golf and he is from Murray, KY. A place we had just stopped at on our way home at Christmastime. Just how small a world is it? According to him, he even took a few courses at Murray State, but doesn’t know Rhonda’s second cousin,
Ne(i)l. (That’s Neil with an “i”)

On Saturday Rhonda took a girl’s day to go to Beaumont, Texas with her friend Annette. I stayed home writing, reading and working on the newsletter and blog. I had the easy listening music on just relaxing and doing my guy thing here in the man-cave (at least that’s what I call it when Rhonda isn’t around). The girls called on their way home saying that Bobby (Annette’s husband) and I should take them out for dinner. Neither Bobby nor I could argue with that (not if we still wanted to speak with man-voices), they stopped by and picked us up. We went out for a nice evening and a good dinner.

On Sunday, I went down to clubhouse around noon and Rhonda came down right at game time to watch the Colts pull out a win in the second half against the New York Jets. Rhonda went back home after the Colts win, while I stayed to watch the second game pitting the New Orleans Saints against the Minnesota Vikings. It was a good one going into OT with the Saints winning 31-28. It’s the Colts vs. Saints in the Super-Bowl on February 7th.

To show you just how boring Monday mornings can be this is what I did on the last Monday of the month. I made a pot of coffee, had eight mini-chocolate donuts and a glass of milk for breakfast. Rhonda was up around 8:30 am getting ready for her one day at work this week. Bobby our neighbor down the way called asking if I could take him to pickup his truck at the auto/truck shop. We drove down around 11 am, and on the way back I stopped at Wally-World bought some chicken pieces with Bar-B-Q sauce on them and some flowers (tulips) to take to Rhonda. Later on in the late afternoon Bobby called asking us if we wanted to go out for dinner. We were game and went to the Mexican restaurant, Senor Toro’s just south of town. Again, it was a bad experience at this restaurant, the second time in a row. I will not go back to eat at this establishment. We came home and did our usual thing sitting around watching TV. Shoot it really wasn’t that boring if you consider that I ate eight mini-chocolate donuts.


Last Tuesday of the month I was up as usually and made a pot of coffee, while I waited for Ronda to get ready for work. She was asked to work today and it’s hard to turn down the extra money. Today I will take her into work because I need the car for Sadie’s appointment (our little dog) at the vet’s. She is getting medication for Thursday’s cleaning of her teeth and nails clipped. Also Dr. Moran is going to check out the lump on the front of her chest.

The vet checked out the lump and after consulting with me, I decided to forego the teeth cleaning at a later date and have the lump removed. She is going in next Tuesday, February 2, 2010 for this operation. The vet said it would run approximately $212 for the operation and another $90 for the biopsies. So all-in-all over $300, but the money isn’t the concern in my eyes; it’s her health and her age concerns me too. I just love Sadie so much; I’m praying everything will turn out for the best. After seeing Dr. Moran, we went to Rhonda’s work and spent the last hour and fifteen minutes waiting on her to close shop. Most of the people who came in to get a tan fell in love with Sadie as she did her Wal-Mart greeter impersonation for them as they walked in. At last, it was time to close shop and we headed for home and a relaxing night.


On the last Thursday of the month, Patty a friend we both met a few years back came over for a short visit. She and Rhonda went for a nice lunch and some girl talk. Patty was very instrumental in helping me with my piano lessons a few years back. Although I’m not, nor will I ever be as good a piano player as she is, she has helped me immensely in all aspects concerning the piano and I thank her for that.

And the last Saturday of the month found Rhonda and I going down to the big city of Beaumont, Texas for a movie, a little shopping and an early dinner. We went to see the movie, Edge of Darkness starring Mel Gibson. It was just okay. We both really like Mel Gibson and his movies, but this movie was short of being on his normal scale of good. After the movie we went shopping at JoAnn Fabrics were Rhonda bought some Monk’s cloth for her Swedish Weaving and then we went to Target to find a vacuum sweeper, a Dirt Devil (thanks to Mike & Kimmy for the Target gift card) and then for an early dinner at Chile’s restaurant (thanks to Kevin & Katie for the Chile’s gift card). I had a couple of beers at the dinner table, so therefore it was time for me to hand over the keys and be chauffeured home. It has been my belief that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

A friend of mine sent me an email that had a great story and pictures concerning early RV’s, in particular a 1937 Ford House Car. Since that is what we live in, not a 1937 Ford House Car but rather an RV. I found this really interesting. I hope you will check it out too.

www.gtamarketing.com/1937FordHousecar.html

January 1 - 15, 2010

January 1- 15, 2010

I climbed out of bed around 8:20 am. Watched a little HLN on the small screen and ate some donut holes with a glass of chocolate milk on this early January morning. Rhonda was up getting ready for work this first Monday of the New Year. We did a little RV repair, fixing the bedroom light before she took off. I watched a little more TV and made a pot of coffee. Earlier this morning I went out to fill our LP tank since the weather is getting colder here and the furnace was gulping it down just as I had the donut holes.

Joe and Debbie Gilbert pulled in around 1:15 pm to our little part of Paradise. They are friends we made while working at Adventureland in Iowa this past summer. They came in from the Dallas area to visit us. They setup six spots down from us. I invited them for coffee after they were settled in and then got busy making my second pot of coffee after I had made the invitation. In short time they came down to visit and then went back to their unit while we all waited for Rhonda to get home from work.

Rhonda and I decided to take them out to eat at the Texas Star Café in Colmesneil a little town about eight miles up the road. We all loaded up into our little car and started our drive toward Colmesneil. I didn’t get a mile down the road when a set of blue and red lights (the bubble kind) on the top of a car made a U-turn making headway toward us. I had just looked at my speedometer and I was only doing 65 mph. The speed limit was 70 mph during the daytime and at night it dropped down to 65 mph, I felt secure that I was within the speed limit. I just thought the bubble lights had received a radio call in town and was responding to the dispatch. So I pulled over as any good citizen is required to do and let the lights roll on down the road.

The trooper's car pulled in behind us with spotlight glaring on the rear of our car. We all sat there just waiting for what seemed like forever. Joe was in the backseat desperately trying to put on his seatbelt. He was wrestling with it like he was a Sumo-wrestler, he was not to subtle in his attempt as the officer informed him later. Everyone else was buckled up properly. I thought maybe we were being pulled over because of a headlight being out. Since that seems to be a common cause for a pullover in Woodville. (Rhonda had this happen several years back and she just received a warning). The officer approached the driver’s side window which I already had down with the anticipation of a tantalizing conversation.

“Good evening officer. What seems to be the problem?” I asked in a earnest voice.

“I pulled you over for speeding.”

I couldn’t believe it; I’d just checked my speed and I know I was only doing 65 mph. I could feel my face start to have a rosy glow to it.

I replied, “I thought the speed limit was 65 officer?”

She said, “I clocked you at 70 mph. License and proof of insurance.”

I didn’t even get a please with that request for the information.

“I thought for sure I was only going 65 officer,” I said with an almost apologetic tone.

In a very matter-of-fact response, “License and proof of insurance.”

As I’m pulling out my driver’s license and Rhonda hands me our insurance card, the officer looks in the backseat where Joe and Debbie are sitting.

“Roll down this window,” she said sharply, as she taps on the back-window with her flashlight where Debbie was sitting. “Let me see some identification.”

Debbie not knowing the layout of the car was fumbling around trying to find the button to roll down the window. We could tell the officer was getting impatient with us. Thank goodness for front-window controls for the entire car. I quickly lowered her window, while she explained to Joe there is a law that passengers must have their seatbelts on in accordance to the manufacture’s specifications and that requires the shoulder strap be on too. Even though Joe did try to explain he had his lap belt on. She noted that, yes he did have his lap belt on, but she saw him trying to put it on after she was pulling us over.

She said very arrogantly “I didn’t say I was giving you a ticket for not wearing your seatbelt or a speeding ticket. I am giving you both a warning.” As if to say, if you say anymore I’ll just go ahead and give you both a ticket.
She took my license and insurance paperwork back to her vehicle and ran our plates and other information we gave her. Coming back to our car she handed me my information back and gave me one more item I didn’t have before – a warning ticket for speeding. Reaching through the back window she gave Joe his warning ticket for not wearing his seatbelt.

“Watch your speed Mr. Weaver, you folks have a good evening.”

Really now, did she mean that? Really!

“You too, officer – you too.” And I wasn’t sure whether or not I meant that.

So we were a little late getting to supper but our appetites were still in the 70 mph range or thereabouts. We had a nice dinner and fun evening considering the evening's events. On the way home I debated over whether I should let Rhonda drive home. They all convinced me to go ahead and drive home. But all their eyes watched the speedometer and they let me know if I was getting close to going over the speed limit. We dropped them off at their unit and went in to visit for a few minutes. Then we went back home just six sites away.

The next couple of days we decided to take it easy and just be lazy. We were going to Livingston on Wednesday with Joe and Debbie. They picked us up in their new truck and we took off for Texas Pepper restaurant to have lunch. This time with Joe driving we didn’t have a bit of trouble with the cops. We finished off a good lunch then went to the headquarters for the Escapee’s RV Club out on highway 146. We showed them around since it was their first time stopping there even though they are members. We showed them the clubhouse, where we pickup our mail and the Care Unit. We also just drove around a little to see some of the sites. Departing the Escapee Park we drove to highway 190 going east stopping at the Indian reservation so they could see the campgrounds that were offered. It has a nice setting, but was not kept up in appearance or maintenance. We came home after stopping at the Woodville Wal-Mart for some dessert for later in the evening. At 7 pm we were invited to Bobby and Annette’s for coffee and dessert. We wanted Annette and Debbie to meet each other since they both were in supervisory positions in their respective school systems. We had a nice visit the six of us and said our goodnights after an hour or so. It was a good day.

I had another stare down with the electronic eye, telling me it was 6:45 am. I stayed in bed another 15 minutes because I knew it was going to be cold. The temperature went down to 21 degrees last night. It’s still early in January; in fact it’s still the first week of January. I let our faucet dribble a little water all night in the front sink and bathroom so it wouldn’t freeze. It worked and we had water today. I plan on doing it again because the forecast for tonight is a low 16 degrees. Joe and Debbie were supposed to leave Friday morning around 9 or so, but they had a flat tire on their unit. So they had to call the Good Sam’s Club (an RV club with roadside service) to have them come out and change their tire and put on the spare. The service truck came all the way from Cleveland, Texas; yes we have a Cleveland in Texas too. They came down to our unit to stay warm since their unit was cold because of disconnecting the electricity and putting in their slides. Good Sam’s didn’t make it to Paradise until 1 or 2 pm, so they made the decision to stay another night. They finally were able to leave on Saturday, we all ready miss them.

Sunday morning I woke-up at 6:30 am stayed in bed until 6:50 am. Temperature went down to 15 degrees last night. The furnace in the back of the RV worked overtime, by 8:30 or 9 am the small tank of LP gas had run out. I just filled it up earlier in the week.

Monday morning woke-up at a few minutes before 7 am and laid there in bed watching the clock; tick-tick-tick until it glared at me yelling it was 7:18 am. Okay-okay, I’m getting up. It was really cold in the front room the temperature reading was at 47 degrees inside and 22 degrees outside. I sat in the loveseat with a snuggie and afghan on just like a little old man should, watching HLN until Sadie our little dog had to go outside. Boy it was cold getting out from under the covers. As soon as she was back inside we both snuggled back under them. Rhonda was up around 8:30 am and she started getting ready for her work.

Tuesday Rhonda was called into work. I just stayed around the motor home watching TV and being lazy. I’m really getting good at that job. Guy the owner of the RV Park stopped by to give us our voter registration cards to fill out. After Rhonda finished work we were invited to Bobby & Annette’s for dinner. We had chicken, cornbread and dumplings and then watched American Idol’s first night. We had a nice evening and then came home calling it a night.

This pretty much completed the first part of the month of January 2010. Not real exciting, but not boring either. It’s a living, face it somebody has to do it, what not us?

December 24th through Decembr 31st, 2009

On Christmas Eve Day, I was up a couple of times before getting ready for the trip over to Iowa to see my kids for Christmas. Finally leaving at 7:40, the trip was uneventful with the exception of rain all but one hour and fifteen minutes, plus one hour of fog traveling over. It took me exactly nine hours going over. Not bad for the time of year and weather conditions. I arrived at 3:40 pm. There is an hour difference from Indiana to Iowa. It was great to see the family and especially the grandkids. I watched them open up one present which is customary in our family to let the kids open a present on Christmas Eve. I truly love Christmas, it’s like days’ past, and the good old days. At least once a year, it's a very special time for me.

Christmas Day, Oh what a day! I woke up around 5:30 am, Luke, my number three grandson heard me and he too tried to get up. I told him to go back to bed. He tried two more times and on his last attempt I let him stay up with me. He sat on the couch playing with some electronic gadget, I had no idea what it was and he also tried playing private detective peeking at the presents thinking I didn’t see him. Shortly the rest of the gang one-by-one filtered into the living room being patience waiting on their Uncle Ted and Aunt Connie to arrive with their three boys. Kimmy was up making a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, crumbled bacon bits, and her all famous cinnamon rolls. Everyone fended for themselves after it was cooked up. The presents were distributed into piles according to names and then Mike said a prayer before we opened presents. It starts with the youngest to the oldest. Baby Jack, Ted and Connie’s newest addition was first being only four months old. The morning flew by with tons or at least what felt like tons of presents, being opened. All the kids had a great time opening and playing with their new found treasurers. I received two gifts that meant a lot to me. First Kevin and Katie gave me a SD-card holding over 1,500 pictures of their wedding and family pictures. I love all the pictures on it and looked at them the same day. Another wonderful present was something Kimmy came up with that she saw in a magazine. They all gave Kim and me separate jars with a little note (365 notes) that they wrote for us to pull one out each day until next Christmas. What a wonderful idea. I will start my day pulling one out before each day’s writing. The morning was a time of excitement for all, especially for the kids. Time was taken up playing with the kids new toys while Kimmy, Kim, and Connie prepared a feast for us all. Let me just say this about our eating habits at Thanksgiving and Christmas days, we all eat like kings and queens. The ladies put on a magnificent spread. Everyone did their own thing until later in the evening when the annual Weaver-Stuart-Miller poker tournament which has taken place since 2003 was hosted by Ted and Connie. What a fun evening we all had. Kevin was eventually crowned the champion of our family poker tournament. It depends on who wins it on how it’s referred to. Next year I’m sure it will be the Miller, Stuart, Weaver poker tournament because of the finishing places. We all had a blessed Christmas Day, it was wonderful.

The day after Christmas is a day of relaxing, at least I thought so. We all went out sledding at a complex not two miles from Mike and Kimmy’s. All the kids had a fun filled midday rollick in the snow and climbing up a very long hill. I stood out in the middle of the hill while all the riders came crashing down the hillside. I did get a few good pictures, but only one video with anything to look at. Again it was a fun time not only for the kids but for us older kids as well. Everyone went home to warm up and change into dry clothes.

Sunday morning I was up early getting ready to take off for Indy. I fed Dodger the family dog and gave him water before I got my things organized to leave. Putting my stuff upstairs by the front door, I made myself two turkey sandwiches for the road. I went outside getting the car ready, warming it up and scrapping of snow and ice off, something I haven’t done in a long, long time. Loading my stuff in the car I left there at 6:55 am. Traveling 10 ½ hours with terrible road conditions all the way over to Indy. I saw dozens upon dozens of cars in the median and one SUV off the right side turned upside down. The trip back to Indy was one of the hardest and scariest ones I have done in many years. I do not want to go through that again. I did make it home safe and sound with Rhonda there waiting for me, which was a good thing but it was a travel day I would really like to forget about.

We started for home on Monday, December 28th traveling 580 miles pulling into West Memphis, Arkansas staying the night at a Super 8 Motel. Trying to get a good night’s sleep in a strange bed isn’t always easy. We were up early enough to get started for home with a little frost on our windshield; again I warmed the car up before we headed out. Driving all day taking shifts of 2 hour increments we pulled into our parking spot at 3:20 pm. It was good to be home.

The old year of 2009 was coming to an end and a new beginning was happening, it soon will be 2010. The last night of the year we didn’t yell, scream, hit pots & pans, set off fireworks or any of the normal things that happen as you let go of the old year and welcome in the new year. We were tired and I guess it’s showing my age, but we just went to bed and fell fast asleep. Welcome -2010

December 16th through 23rd, 2009

before we traveled up north for Christmas we spent some time with our friends going out to dinner and watching Christmas lights that were synchronized to radio music. We took time traveling down to Beaumont, Texas to watch a movie and have a nice lunch just by ourselves. On Monday the 21st we were busy getting things ready for our trip to the cold lands of Indiana and Iowa. Leaving early on the morning of the 22nd we traveled over 600 miles reaching Murray, KY around 5:30 pm. Arriving at Rhonda’s second cousins, Neil (with an i) and his wife Joan. It was dark and we were weary travelers finding a wonderful resting place. I have to say Neil and Joan were absolutely wonderful hosts. They have the most wonderful home too. The reason is because you can feel their warmth as soon as you walk through the threshold of their front door. We had a wonderful visit being treated as if we were VIP’s. We not only received a warm welcome and hot meal when we arrived our accommodations for the night were truly first rate. Holiday Inn, Ramada or the Hilton could take some major lessons from this couple. Rising early in the morning we were delighted with a delicious breakfast to order. We hated saying our goodbyes because their hospitality was so warm. Getting in our little car we backed out of their driveway waving goodbye, wishing we were waving hello again. It was 9 or 10 years since we last saw them; we made a commitment, that won’t happen again.
Taking off at 8:15 am we head northward toward Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We arrived at 4:45 pm after making pretty good time up I-65 and I-69. We traded driving duties every two hours which makes the trip much easier. Jane (Rhonda’s mom) was in the kitchen and saw us pull in. She opened the garage door and almost immediately started tearing up because we had arrived. We went out for dinner meeting Barbara (Rhonda’s sister) at the fish place we enjoy. The dinner was really good, we order two pounds of fish and it was all gone by the time we left. Going back to Jane’s home we settled in for a nice comfortable evening.