January 19, 2005

January 19, 2005

C.A.R.E. Centre & Livingston, Texas

DAY 215

 

Today was partially cloudy, and warmer. First thing this morning I headed into Livingston. I had a persistent slow leak on the street side inner rear tire. I took it to A TO Z Tire in Livingston 3 weeks ago. They couldn't find a leak, so they tightened the metal screw in valve stem in the hopes that that would solve the problem. It didn't. The tire continued to lose about 10 pounds of pressure per week. Today they actually did find the problem. The braided metal valve extender had a very slow leak. Gee ... a couple of months ago I changed from the $10 a piece rubber dually valve extenders to the $20 a piece braided metal dually valve extenders. The rubber ones were proving to be a problem and the braided metal ones were supposed to be superior. A TO Z Tire says all dually valve extenders are an imperfect concept. You can't live with them, but you also can't live without them on a dually. I discarded the leaking braided metal one, and replaced it with one of the rubber ones that I had kept as spares.

While I was waiting for the truck to be brought in for service, I walked a few blocks over from the tire shop to a barber shop to get a haircut. This particular barber shop had been recommended to us by another Escapee. Joanne had her hair cut there about a week ago. As I approached the door, at 11:00 A.M. the woman was just locking up and leaving until 1:30 to attend to some personal business. Welcome to the small town concept of small business. She referred me to another shop in town. I went there after the truck was finished. There are three places in Livingston to get a haircut, and they are all very old fashioned, small town barber shops. The one I went to was a small, old storefront operation on the main street, Hwy. 190. Two red vinyl barber chairs, red and white spiral barber pole out front, looked like something out of an old Western movie. It was run by an elderly man and his middle aged daughter. The old man was born in St. John, New Brunswick.

After getting a haircut, I checked out a local Tex-Mex restaurant to see if it was a good place to take Joanne for her birthday. Yesterday Rodney gave us a gift certificate to this restaurant, Texas Pepper, as a gift of appreciation for walking Ginger three times a day while we've been here. It was a very busy place around 1:30 P.M. with the lunch crowd. I looked at the menu, and it was appealing. Joanne has been wanting to go to a Mexican restaurant while we're here. I'm not sure that's where we'll go for her birthday, though. I think we should invite Rodney to go there with us for lunch one day. He's lonely, and doesn't get out much. He got approval from his doctor about a week ago to resume driving, so he has been out on his own a few times in the last week. He's a little worried that he might not be quite ready to resume walking Ginger by the time we leave in a week and a half. Tonight we're going to invite him to join us when we take Ginger out for an evening walk, as a prelude to walking Ginger by himself when we leave.

We just found out from Marsha Squires, one of the other WorkCampers / Volunteers that the Centre has cancelled our planned outing for tomorrow to Lake Livingston State Park. I went over to the Centre to see Opal, the Activities Director, to find out what's going on. She claims that "the nurse" cancelled the outing because tomorrow is forecast to be somewhat windy. Sunny and in the 70's, but a bit windy. Whatever ! ! !

We went into Livingston for supper. Joanne has been wanting to have a "junk food" outing, so we went to Cici's, a pizza restaurant with a buffet dinner. Good food ! Place was full of cops ; Sheriff's Officers, State Troopers. I guess Livingston needs a doughnut shop. HA HA HA HA HA HA !

Another Texas observation ; 100 % of automotive advertising on television is for American made trucks. Ford, Dodge, and Chevy, trucks only, no car advertising. And every ad is Texas specific. For example, the Dodge ad features Terri Clark, a country singer singing an ad jingle " it's bigger in Texas, better in a Dodge ".

Rodney declined our offer to come for a walk with Ginger. Said he's too busy balancing his cheque book. Must be a big job, with his amount of money. HA HA HA HA HA HA !

DSK