January 27, 2006

January 27, 2006

La Feria, Texas

YEAR 2 DAY 224

 

Today was partially cloudy and warm.

Like most mornings here, I took my time getting started this morning. After I did regular morning chores, and preventive maintenance, I culled the medicine drawer, reviewing and tossing out medications that aren't likely to be used again. I took Bo for an obedience training session. Once again, he did superbly. I'm so pleased. Every night, I read last year's journal entry from one year ago, out loud for Joanne and me. Last year at this time, we were WorkCamping at C.A.R.E. in Livingston, Texas, and I was beginning to train Bo. My journal entries from last year showed frustration with how difficult it was to get Bo focussed on obedience training. He's come a long, long way in a year. Good, good dog, Bo. I spent the rest of the morning working on backing up all computer files to CD's, a task I do monthly.

We had lunch, then I began to review the batch of incoming mail we picked up at the Post Office yesterday. Reviewing, and taking action on a month's worth of mail is always a fair amount of work. I spent about half the afternoon working on that, then we headed into Harlingen for some shopping. We went to Wal-Mart, of course. While Joanne started shopping, I went to Customer Service to get a refund, get some information on Wal-Mart money orders, and buy a roll of quarters for laundry. I bought Joanne a birthday card, and took it out and hid it in the truck, before joining Joanne. A propos the area we're in, I bought her a birthday card in Spanish.

We did our shopping, then while Joanne waited in the check out line, I went back to Customer Service to buy a gift card. That's how we pay for diesel at Wal-Mart gas bars. If one pays with a Wal-Mart gift card, there is a 3 cent per gallon discount. With the amount of diesel that we purchase, it makes sense to take advantage of that. I got stuck behind a "customer" who was attempting to fraudulently return a television for a refund. The serial number on the TV did not match the serial number on the box. Guess she didn't know that the box had the serial number of the TV contained within when she decided to pull a fast one on Wal-Mart. When I finally got served, I asked another question about money orders before buying my gift card. The clerk keyed information into the system, as if I was making the money order purchase. She said that was the onlyway for her to find the answer to my question. Then ... < fume > there was a lengthy delay while she waited for a Customer Service Manager to come over and clear the cancelled money order purchase from her system, before she could proceed to sell me the gift card. When Joanne walked by, having finished at the check out, I was so fed up with waiting for a CSM to come over to clear the terminal, I walked away in disgust.

We got into the truck, and pulled out of Wal-Mart. As we pulled away, and were discussing our plans for tomorrow, I looked at the fuel gauge, and realized I really did need to buy diesel today. DARN ! I returned to Wal-Mart, and Joanne ran in to buy a gift card while I waited in the truck in the parking lot. < FUME > She was tenth in line behind the lady with the TV, who obviously was not going to be deterred. It took Joanne about 20 minutes to get the gift card. She finally returned to the truck, and we filled up with diesel.

We drove back to La Feria. We stopped at a local RV dealer, who was advertising that they had 5 used one ton diesel dually fifth wheel haulers for sale. I took a look at a couple of them that were extremely appealing. < sigh > I really shouldn't waste our time browsing for a truck in the United States. I know it's too impractical to buy a U.S. vehicle and have it converted to Canadian standards. But in the United States there are real spiffy fifth wheel hauler conversions that just aren't available in Canada.

Once back at the trailer, I did today's accounting, and began to work on today's journal entry while Joanne prepared supper. After supper, I finished working on the batch of incoming mail. It was getting late, but we decided to go to the clubhouse, for me to get online, and for Joanne to do some laundry. While she did laundry, I got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, updated my blog, composed some e-mail responses, and sent e-mail again. When we returned to the trailer just before 11:00 P.M., we decided to take Bo for a "drivey". It was a warm evening, and I thought that late at night, we could just drive slowly around the area surrounding the RV park, with Bo hanging out the window as far as he can. It must be a dog thing ! We drove slowly around the block, and stopped at the carnival operating on the empty lot adjacent to the park. Joanne wanted a funnel cake, as an advance birthday treat. A funnel cake is somewhat like the Texas version of an "elephant ear" or "beaver tail". We shared a funnel cake, slowly wandering around the small carnival grounds, then drove back into the RV park.

DSK