December 25 to 31, 2008 ; La Feria
Christmas Day ; Merry Christmas / Joyeux Noel / Feliz Navidad to our families and friends who read my blog
Today was a sunny, hot, humid day that started out foggy this morning. We got up early and headed through the fog for the Amigos de los Niños de Mexico Fiesta de Navidad in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. Once across the border Joanne headed for Ford School, and I remained at the border to join the Amigos parade from the border to the school as a juggler. Ford School covers one square block of Nuevo Progreso, and the Fiesta de Navidad took place inside the school yard. Joanne worked inside the school yard as a Mother's Assistant, and I worked outside the school yard, performing magic for the 4 block long line up of children.
This is the first time we have been involved in a Christmas Day act of charity. It was ... well, there are many words to describe it. Personally rewarding. Chaotic. Fun. Tiring. The Amigos organization was prepared for 3000 children this year. There were more than that. We ran out of stuff before we ran out of children. Each child got ... a hot dog ( Mexican style, a cooked wiener wrapped in a tortilla ), a soft drink, a bag of peanuts, a bag of candy, a bag of potato chips, a pound of rice, a pound of beans, a couple of toys from Santa Claus, a box of animal crackers, an apple, a banana, an orange, a chocolate bar, a cupcake, a scribbler, a pencil, ... WHEW ! Each child got to visit Santa, albeit extremely briefly ! Just a handshake and a "Feliz Navidad" from Santa. Each child got to participate in a group smashing open piñatas filled with candies. It took about 3½ hours to get them all through. Which was just about right, based on the allocation of four seconds per child. SHEESH !
At one point Joanne was helping out a mother with many children by holding two year old Roberto’s hand as they progressed through the line. Joanne and Roberto “zigged” while the mother and the rest of the children “zagged”. All of a sudden Joanne found herself “lost” with this two year old Mexican niño. She had a moment of anxiety, but not Roberto. He was quite content to be “lost” with this foreign language speaking old gringo woman. HA HA HA ! If nothing else, today certainly served to expand Joanne's Spanish vocabulary.
After it was all over, we walked back to the border, crossed back into the U.S., and headed home. We stopped at a Burger King across the street from Kenwood RV Resort. We parked in their parking lot, and using their Wi-Fi signal, used our Wi-Fi phone to phone our sisters, and wish a Merry Christmas to our families. We had a very late lunch of leftover tourtiére. Joanne got the turkey ready and into the oven. She wrapped and cooked the bag of turkey innards that normally she would just discard. The neck, gizzards, organs, etc. were for the dumpster kittens. I took a nap, then took Bo for an obedience session. Well done, Bo. Time to open gifts !
Attending Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco was our Christmas gift to ourselves. My gift to myself was 24 new lug nuts for the trailer. HA HA HA ! And the fancy torque wrench to install them. Joanne's gift to herself was some Avon cosmetics. Teddy got his 12 volt heater "blankie", which he's already been using, and a box of Cat Sip lactose removed milk. Bo got a nylon tunnel for his agility course back home, and a wrapped Greenie. Teddy doesn't appreciate wrapped gifts, so his Cat Sip was in his stocking unwrapped. Bo LOOOOOVES unwrapping gifts, so his Greenie was in his stocking, wrapped. We gave it to him, he dashed into the bedroom, tore off one end of the wrapping, and began to eat it. We had a huge wrestling match trying to get the mostly wrapped Greenie out of his mouth to remove the rest of the wrapping. He was eager to eat the Greenie and wrapping. HA HA HA ! Ya gotta love his enthusiasm !
We sat outside, me wearing shorts and no shirt, reading, enjoying the fine weather. Dreaming of a white Christmas ? **** that ! ! ! HA HA HA ( SNORT ) HA HA ! At sunset we headed for the pool and hot tub, part of our "new" Christmas traditions. The turkey dinner was wonderful, just the two of us. We shared a bottle of Crushed Innocence, a peach ice wine from Forbidden Fruit, our favourite winery back home in the Similkameen Valley.
After supper while Joanne cleaned up, I fed Teddy and Bo each a bowl of turkey meat and gravy. They were very pleased ! I took a plate of turkey over to the dumpster to feed the kittens. The little black one was not there. The grey one wouldn't come closer than two feet from me to get turkey. And ... uhhhhh ... I overestimated how much turkey little kittens can eat. I guess they'll have some leftovers, just like us.
Joanne asked me for a box of chocolates as a Christmas gift. I wrapped and hid boxes of chocolates for her to find throughout the day, from morning to night. So far ( 9:00 P.M. ) she has found six. HA HA HA ! She'll find the seventh at bedtime. And the eighth tomorrow morning. HA HA HA ( SNORT ) HA HA ! Merry Christmas, my love.
Friday ; Today was partially sunny, hot, and humid ... again. Bo was a bit ill during the night, obviously suffering from an upset stomach from having eaten a bit too much turkey and gravy. Sorry, Bo ... my fault. The problem was confirmed this morning when he went on his morning "bathroom" walk. YIKES !
We started today with a breakfast of Belgian waffles smothered in jam and ice cream, my family's traditional Christmas morning breakfast, delayed one day. Usually the ice cream would be vanilla, but today it was cajeta. HMMMMM ... interesting change ! By the way, only I ate my waffles this way. Joanne put maple syrup on hers. She ... and my sister's husband ... think jam and ice cream on waffles is just too weird. HA HA HA ! After finding her eighth box of chocolates this morning, Joanne is now a bit paranoid, expecting to find another box of chocolates around every corner. HA HA HA !
This morning I emptied the magic props that I used yesterday from my denim backpack and put them back into my magic tool box. Yesterday while performing magic at the Fiesta de Navidad I broke a couple of props. HMPH ... they're getting old, lots of wear and tear. Not unlike me ! HA HA HA ! I may be able to fix them, we'll see. I trimmed Bo's and Teddy's claws. Dana the Park Manager came by to tell us that we missed getting Teddy's and Bo's gifts from Santa at yesterday's Christmas luncheon. We can pick them up at the park office on Monday.
This afternoon I worked on replacing the lug nuts on the trailer, using my fancy new torque wrench. I replaced one side today, and will do the other side tomorrow. On the first lug nut that I replaced, my 13/16 socket fractured. HMPH ! Had to borrow another one from our New Brunswick neighbour. The broken socket is a Craftsman, Sears' brand. I think they're guaranteed for life. We took Bo for a walk, exchanged some books at the clubhouse library, picked up the local community newspaper, and checked on the dumpster kittens, to see if they ate all the turkey that I had left last night. Smart little kitten, that grey one. They "live" in the small space between the dumpster fence and the fence around the bank next door. I left the aluminum pie plate of turkey near the opening under the fence where the kittens squeeze through. Today the pie plate was pulled underneath into the space between the two fences. At sunset, we went to the pool and hot tub. No surprise there ! How quickly life becomes routine when staying in one place.
After supper I downloaded and processed yesterday's Christmas photos. We did some online research on travelling in Mexico by RV.
Saturday ; Today was sunny, hot, humid, and windy. This morning Gil and Maria hitched up and departed for who knows where, without so much as a "goodbye" to us. Their actions over the past few weeks have certainly been hurtful. Oh, well !
This afternoon John and Eve invited us to join them on a Kenwood RV Resort outing to Mango's Jungle, a tropical oasis / botanical garden / nursery near the town of Santa Rosa, a short distance north of here. An elderly couple originally from North Dakota have owned this property for 17 years, and have turned it into a tropical oasis / botanical garden / nursery. It's a few acres in size and has many exotic, tropical trees from Central America, Hawaii, and Asia. There are paths and palapas throughout the property. The old man took us on a guided walk around. Some of the ficus and palm trees still bear evidence of damage from the snowfall of Christmas Day 2004, the first snowfall in this area in 108 years ! It's amazing that these tropical trees can survive hurricane after hurricane, but a day of snow destroys them or scars them for life.
Back at Kenwood RV Resort we had a late afternoon "happy hour" at John's and Eve's. Mary and Mike came by with their Scarlet Macaw, Lucky, on Mike's bicycle handlebars. Joanne had brought home made cookies for "happy hour". I fed a raisin drop cookie ( my favourite ) to Lucky. He was very adept at eating cookie, and was particularly pleased whenever he found a raisin in the cookie. At sunset we headed for the pool and hot tub.
I had quite a few chores and errands that did not get done today. While Joanne prepared supper I downloaded and processed the photos I took today. I took some garbage to the dumpster, and while there, checked on my two little dumpster kitties. I was a bit concerned because I had not seen the black one in a couple of days. They were both there, and doing fine. Growing quickly ! Late in the evening we took Bo for a walk, and dropped off another plate of turkey for the kittens.
Sunday ; Last night was a hot, sultry night, high temperature, high humidity, still air, steamy like a scene in a Tennessee Williams play. Overnight the temperature plummeted, the wind picked up, a few droplets of rain fell, and a cold front blew in. Once again, BRRRRR !
This morning I finished replacing the lug nuts on the trailer. Then I removed the sacrificial anode from the water heater and flushed out the inside of the water heater using a special tool, a job I do every six months. We use water from ... everywhere ... with a variety of types of minerals, so there is always quite a bit of mineral scale and iron rust that flushes out of the water heater. I repaired one of my broken magic props. Joanne did laundry.
This afternoon we took Bo for a "drivey", over to "downtown" La Feria to buy some milk at El Centro Foods and refill our five gallon drinking water jug. We went to the regular weekly Sunday evening ice cream social. A couple in the park were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today, and brought a huge cake for the ice cream social. So I had a big bowl of ice cream and two pieces of cake ... immediately before supper ! HA HA HA !
Monday ; Today was mostly sunny and warm. This morning we picked up Santa's gifts to Teddy and Bo from the park office. We spent the day running errands. We headed west on Expressway 83 to Mission and McAllen. First stop was an H-E-B in Mission to refill with diesel. The price of diesel continues to decline. Our first fuel purchase this season in the U.S. was in North Dakota in mid-October at $3.649 per gallon. Today's diesel price was $2.199 per gallon. Next was Camping World to buy some 12 volt fluorescent light tubes. Then Sears to get a replacement 13/16 socket. I was right. Craftsman tools are guaranteed for life. But if I had known that the socket was only worth $5.00 I might not have gone all the way out to Sears. I probably spent that much on fuel. We had lunch at Subway. I bought some hardware at Lowe's. Then ... of course ... ( sigh ) Wal-Martin'. Geeeeezzzzz ... the parking lot was full ! And half the vehicles had license plates from Mexico. We didn't realize that Mexicans cross into the United States to do their Christmas shopping right after Christmas, because the Mexican tradition is to exchange gifts on Dia de la Reyes, or Day of the Kings, early in the New Year. Something to do with the day the three wise men presented their offerings to the new born Christ child. On the way home we stopped in the parking lot of Super 8 Motel and I used the Wi-Fi phone to pay this month's MasterCard bills.
Once back at Kenwood we visited with John and Eve, then headed for the hot tub at sunset. After supper we took a plate of chicken over to the dumpster kitties. HEY ... Joanne's idea, not mine !
Tuesday ; Today was cloudy and warm. This morning I installed a new thermometer on the exterior of the trailer. I mounted it so it is visible through the kitchen window. I removed and discarded the two old window mounted thermometers that had lost their accuracy. This afternoon after reading ... napping ... visiting with neighbours ... HEY, I'm a busy guy ... HA HA HA ... Joanne and I did some planning of our trip around Mexico. We went to the exercise room and did a workout, then went to the pool and hot tub before going to Harlingen with John and Eve to have supper at Mr. Gatti's. We had never been to Mr. Gatti's before. It is a chain of Italian food buffet restaurants, very popular with the senior crowd in the South. We had been led to believe that Mr. Gatti's had a larger offering than Cici's, a chain of pizza buffet restaurants that we quite like. But Mr. Gatti's is virtually the same as Cici's. Which is fine !
New Year's Eve ; Today was cloudy, warm, and humid. The leaves on the trees have begun to change colour and fall. I guess fall has arrived at the southern tip of Texas ... on New Year's Eve. HA HA HA !
This morning the couple in the trailer behind us came out of their trailer and stepped into their truck to go somewhere, only the third time the woman has been out of their trailer in the month that they have been here ! ! ! And the blinds on their trailer are closed 24 hours per day ! HMMM ! ! ! Can you spell "agoraphobia" ? ! ? HMPH ... good thing I had “spell check” to help me with that. HA HA HA ! After I did some minor maintenance chores, and took Bo for an obedience session, we went shopping. Some days Bo certainly is good at obedience ! Well done, Bo.
We drove to Weslaco where we cashed $1000 of traveller's cheques at the bank inside the Wal-Mart. We were planning to buy pesos today. I have been monitoring the peso exchange rate online, and have been waiting for it to improve back to where it was when we bought pesos about a month ago at 13.42 pesos per U.S. dollar. Yesterday the exchange rate had improved to 13.40, so ... time to buy another $1000 of pesos. We shopped for produce and an RV part at DonWes Flea & Farmer's Market. Had lunch there. Drove to Progreso to buy pesos. Darn ... the exchange rate had declined to 13.20. We didn't buy pesos today. On the way back home we stopped at Family Dollar to buy some supplies, El Centro Foods to buy some groceries, and Checker’s Barbecue to buy a pound of barbecued beef brisket. It's great for making sandwiches for lunch.
Late in the afternoon we went to the exercise room for a workout, then to the pool and hot tub to cool down and relax, before heading to Kenwood RV Park's New Year's Eve party at the recreation hall. Well ... that was the most droll New Year's Eve party I've ever been to ! It was an evening of playing table games. We sat at a table of ten people and played dominoes. After an hour I snuck off, leaving my seat at the table for someone else. I read a book for awhile in the library. I watched TV for awhile in the library. I watched a cockroach wander around the library. I've never had a New Year's Eve where the highlight was watching cockroaches. HA HA HA ! At 10:00 P.M. the table games ended and everyone went home. Goodbye and Happy New Year, little cockroach ! The New Year's Eve party included a finger foods potluck. We ate a variety of foods. After returning to the trailer, Joanne began to feel ill, nausea increasing until finally at 11:30 P.M. she began vomiting. Poor baby ... food poisoning again. She spent the last half hour of the old year and the first few minutes of the new year in the bathroom being repeatedly, violently ill.
Boy, we've had some pretty crappy New Year's Eves in the past, but this one takes the cake ! Especially for Joanne ! At midnight the neighbourhood erupted in fireworks, and ... I'm fairly certain ... gunshots. Tough neighbourhood here along the Mexican border on New Year's Eve !
2008 was a great year for us, except for the horrendous losses we sustained in the stock market. Oh, well ... it's only money ! We're healthy ! Well ... except for the last half hour of the year.
Happy New Year / Bonne Heureuse Année / Prospero Año Nuevo
DSK
Christmas Day ; Merry Christmas / Joyeux Noel / Feliz Navidad to our families and friends who read my blog
Today was a sunny, hot, humid day that started out foggy this morning. We got up early and headed through the fog for the Amigos de los Niños de Mexico Fiesta de Navidad in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. Once across the border Joanne headed for Ford School, and I remained at the border to join the Amigos parade from the border to the school as a juggler. Ford School covers one square block of Nuevo Progreso, and the Fiesta de Navidad took place inside the school yard. Joanne worked inside the school yard as a Mother's Assistant, and I worked outside the school yard, performing magic for the 4 block long line up of children.
This is the first time we have been involved in a Christmas Day act of charity. It was ... well, there are many words to describe it. Personally rewarding. Chaotic. Fun. Tiring. The Amigos organization was prepared for 3000 children this year. There were more than that. We ran out of stuff before we ran out of children. Each child got ... a hot dog ( Mexican style, a cooked wiener wrapped in a tortilla ), a soft drink, a bag of peanuts, a bag of candy, a bag of potato chips, a pound of rice, a pound of beans, a couple of toys from Santa Claus, a box of animal crackers, an apple, a banana, an orange, a chocolate bar, a cupcake, a scribbler, a pencil, ... WHEW ! Each child got to visit Santa, albeit extremely briefly ! Just a handshake and a "Feliz Navidad" from Santa. Each child got to participate in a group smashing open piñatas filled with candies. It took about 3½ hours to get them all through. Which was just about right, based on the allocation of four seconds per child. SHEESH !
At one point Joanne was helping out a mother with many children by holding two year old Roberto’s hand as they progressed through the line. Joanne and Roberto “zigged” while the mother and the rest of the children “zagged”. All of a sudden Joanne found herself “lost” with this two year old Mexican niño. She had a moment of anxiety, but not Roberto. He was quite content to be “lost” with this foreign language speaking old gringo woman. HA HA HA ! If nothing else, today certainly served to expand Joanne's Spanish vocabulary.
After it was all over, we walked back to the border, crossed back into the U.S., and headed home. We stopped at a Burger King across the street from Kenwood RV Resort. We parked in their parking lot, and using their Wi-Fi signal, used our Wi-Fi phone to phone our sisters, and wish a Merry Christmas to our families. We had a very late lunch of leftover tourtiére. Joanne got the turkey ready and into the oven. She wrapped and cooked the bag of turkey innards that normally she would just discard. The neck, gizzards, organs, etc. were for the dumpster kittens. I took a nap, then took Bo for an obedience session. Well done, Bo. Time to open gifts !
Attending Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco was our Christmas gift to ourselves. My gift to myself was 24 new lug nuts for the trailer. HA HA HA ! And the fancy torque wrench to install them. Joanne's gift to herself was some Avon cosmetics. Teddy got his 12 volt heater "blankie", which he's already been using, and a box of Cat Sip lactose removed milk. Bo got a nylon tunnel for his agility course back home, and a wrapped Greenie. Teddy doesn't appreciate wrapped gifts, so his Cat Sip was in his stocking unwrapped. Bo LOOOOOVES unwrapping gifts, so his Greenie was in his stocking, wrapped. We gave it to him, he dashed into the bedroom, tore off one end of the wrapping, and began to eat it. We had a huge wrestling match trying to get the mostly wrapped Greenie out of his mouth to remove the rest of the wrapping. He was eager to eat the Greenie and wrapping. HA HA HA ! Ya gotta love his enthusiasm !
We sat outside, me wearing shorts and no shirt, reading, enjoying the fine weather. Dreaming of a white Christmas ? **** that ! ! ! HA HA HA ( SNORT ) HA HA ! At sunset we headed for the pool and hot tub, part of our "new" Christmas traditions. The turkey dinner was wonderful, just the two of us. We shared a bottle of Crushed Innocence, a peach ice wine from Forbidden Fruit, our favourite winery back home in the Similkameen Valley.
After supper while Joanne cleaned up, I fed Teddy and Bo each a bowl of turkey meat and gravy. They were very pleased ! I took a plate of turkey over to the dumpster to feed the kittens. The little black one was not there. The grey one wouldn't come closer than two feet from me to get turkey. And ... uhhhhh ... I overestimated how much turkey little kittens can eat. I guess they'll have some leftovers, just like us.
Joanne asked me for a box of chocolates as a Christmas gift. I wrapped and hid boxes of chocolates for her to find throughout the day, from morning to night. So far ( 9:00 P.M. ) she has found six. HA HA HA ! She'll find the seventh at bedtime. And the eighth tomorrow morning. HA HA HA ( SNORT ) HA HA ! Merry Christmas, my love.
Friday ; Today was partially sunny, hot, and humid ... again. Bo was a bit ill during the night, obviously suffering from an upset stomach from having eaten a bit too much turkey and gravy. Sorry, Bo ... my fault. The problem was confirmed this morning when he went on his morning "bathroom" walk. YIKES !
We started today with a breakfast of Belgian waffles smothered in jam and ice cream, my family's traditional Christmas morning breakfast, delayed one day. Usually the ice cream would be vanilla, but today it was cajeta. HMMMMM ... interesting change ! By the way, only I ate my waffles this way. Joanne put maple syrup on hers. She ... and my sister's husband ... think jam and ice cream on waffles is just too weird. HA HA HA ! After finding her eighth box of chocolates this morning, Joanne is now a bit paranoid, expecting to find another box of chocolates around every corner. HA HA HA !
This morning I emptied the magic props that I used yesterday from my denim backpack and put them back into my magic tool box. Yesterday while performing magic at the Fiesta de Navidad I broke a couple of props. HMPH ... they're getting old, lots of wear and tear. Not unlike me ! HA HA HA ! I may be able to fix them, we'll see. I trimmed Bo's and Teddy's claws. Dana the Park Manager came by to tell us that we missed getting Teddy's and Bo's gifts from Santa at yesterday's Christmas luncheon. We can pick them up at the park office on Monday.
This afternoon I worked on replacing the lug nuts on the trailer, using my fancy new torque wrench. I replaced one side today, and will do the other side tomorrow. On the first lug nut that I replaced, my 13/16 socket fractured. HMPH ! Had to borrow another one from our New Brunswick neighbour. The broken socket is a Craftsman, Sears' brand. I think they're guaranteed for life. We took Bo for a walk, exchanged some books at the clubhouse library, picked up the local community newspaper, and checked on the dumpster kittens, to see if they ate all the turkey that I had left last night. Smart little kitten, that grey one. They "live" in the small space between the dumpster fence and the fence around the bank next door. I left the aluminum pie plate of turkey near the opening under the fence where the kittens squeeze through. Today the pie plate was pulled underneath into the space between the two fences. At sunset, we went to the pool and hot tub. No surprise there ! How quickly life becomes routine when staying in one place.
After supper I downloaded and processed yesterday's Christmas photos. We did some online research on travelling in Mexico by RV.
Saturday ; Today was sunny, hot, humid, and windy. This morning Gil and Maria hitched up and departed for who knows where, without so much as a "goodbye" to us. Their actions over the past few weeks have certainly been hurtful. Oh, well !
This afternoon John and Eve invited us to join them on a Kenwood RV Resort outing to Mango's Jungle, a tropical oasis / botanical garden / nursery near the town of Santa Rosa, a short distance north of here. An elderly couple originally from North Dakota have owned this property for 17 years, and have turned it into a tropical oasis / botanical garden / nursery. It's a few acres in size and has many exotic, tropical trees from Central America, Hawaii, and Asia. There are paths and palapas throughout the property. The old man took us on a guided walk around. Some of the ficus and palm trees still bear evidence of damage from the snowfall of Christmas Day 2004, the first snowfall in this area in 108 years ! It's amazing that these tropical trees can survive hurricane after hurricane, but a day of snow destroys them or scars them for life.
Back at Kenwood RV Resort we had a late afternoon "happy hour" at John's and Eve's. Mary and Mike came by with their Scarlet Macaw, Lucky, on Mike's bicycle handlebars. Joanne had brought home made cookies for "happy hour". I fed a raisin drop cookie ( my favourite ) to Lucky. He was very adept at eating cookie, and was particularly pleased whenever he found a raisin in the cookie. At sunset we headed for the pool and hot tub.
I had quite a few chores and errands that did not get done today. While Joanne prepared supper I downloaded and processed the photos I took today. I took some garbage to the dumpster, and while there, checked on my two little dumpster kitties. I was a bit concerned because I had not seen the black one in a couple of days. They were both there, and doing fine. Growing quickly ! Late in the evening we took Bo for a walk, and dropped off another plate of turkey for the kittens.
Sunday ; Last night was a hot, sultry night, high temperature, high humidity, still air, steamy like a scene in a Tennessee Williams play. Overnight the temperature plummeted, the wind picked up, a few droplets of rain fell, and a cold front blew in. Once again, BRRRRR !
This morning I finished replacing the lug nuts on the trailer. Then I removed the sacrificial anode from the water heater and flushed out the inside of the water heater using a special tool, a job I do every six months. We use water from ... everywhere ... with a variety of types of minerals, so there is always quite a bit of mineral scale and iron rust that flushes out of the water heater. I repaired one of my broken magic props. Joanne did laundry.
This afternoon we took Bo for a "drivey", over to "downtown" La Feria to buy some milk at El Centro Foods and refill our five gallon drinking water jug. We went to the regular weekly Sunday evening ice cream social. A couple in the park were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today, and brought a huge cake for the ice cream social. So I had a big bowl of ice cream and two pieces of cake ... immediately before supper ! HA HA HA !
Monday ; Today was mostly sunny and warm. This morning we picked up Santa's gifts to Teddy and Bo from the park office. We spent the day running errands. We headed west on Expressway 83 to Mission and McAllen. First stop was an H-E-B in Mission to refill with diesel. The price of diesel continues to decline. Our first fuel purchase this season in the U.S. was in North Dakota in mid-October at $3.649 per gallon. Today's diesel price was $2.199 per gallon. Next was Camping World to buy some 12 volt fluorescent light tubes. Then Sears to get a replacement 13/16 socket. I was right. Craftsman tools are guaranteed for life. But if I had known that the socket was only worth $5.00 I might not have gone all the way out to Sears. I probably spent that much on fuel. We had lunch at Subway. I bought some hardware at Lowe's. Then ... of course ... ( sigh ) Wal-Martin'. Geeeeezzzzz ... the parking lot was full ! And half the vehicles had license plates from Mexico. We didn't realize that Mexicans cross into the United States to do their Christmas shopping right after Christmas, because the Mexican tradition is to exchange gifts on Dia de la Reyes, or Day of the Kings, early in the New Year. Something to do with the day the three wise men presented their offerings to the new born Christ child. On the way home we stopped in the parking lot of Super 8 Motel and I used the Wi-Fi phone to pay this month's MasterCard bills.
Once back at Kenwood we visited with John and Eve, then headed for the hot tub at sunset. After supper we took a plate of chicken over to the dumpster kitties. HEY ... Joanne's idea, not mine !
Tuesday ; Today was cloudy and warm. This morning I installed a new thermometer on the exterior of the trailer. I mounted it so it is visible through the kitchen window. I removed and discarded the two old window mounted thermometers that had lost their accuracy. This afternoon after reading ... napping ... visiting with neighbours ... HEY, I'm a busy guy ... HA HA HA ... Joanne and I did some planning of our trip around Mexico. We went to the exercise room and did a workout, then went to the pool and hot tub before going to Harlingen with John and Eve to have supper at Mr. Gatti's. We had never been to Mr. Gatti's before. It is a chain of Italian food buffet restaurants, very popular with the senior crowd in the South. We had been led to believe that Mr. Gatti's had a larger offering than Cici's, a chain of pizza buffet restaurants that we quite like. But Mr. Gatti's is virtually the same as Cici's. Which is fine !
New Year's Eve ; Today was cloudy, warm, and humid. The leaves on the trees have begun to change colour and fall. I guess fall has arrived at the southern tip of Texas ... on New Year's Eve. HA HA HA !
This morning the couple in the trailer behind us came out of their trailer and stepped into their truck to go somewhere, only the third time the woman has been out of their trailer in the month that they have been here ! ! ! And the blinds on their trailer are closed 24 hours per day ! HMMM ! ! ! Can you spell "agoraphobia" ? ! ? HMPH ... good thing I had “spell check” to help me with that. HA HA HA ! After I did some minor maintenance chores, and took Bo for an obedience session, we went shopping. Some days Bo certainly is good at obedience ! Well done, Bo.
We drove to Weslaco where we cashed $1000 of traveller's cheques at the bank inside the Wal-Mart. We were planning to buy pesos today. I have been monitoring the peso exchange rate online, and have been waiting for it to improve back to where it was when we bought pesos about a month ago at 13.42 pesos per U.S. dollar. Yesterday the exchange rate had improved to 13.40, so ... time to buy another $1000 of pesos. We shopped for produce and an RV part at DonWes Flea & Farmer's Market. Had lunch there. Drove to Progreso to buy pesos. Darn ... the exchange rate had declined to 13.20. We didn't buy pesos today. On the way back home we stopped at Family Dollar to buy some supplies, El Centro Foods to buy some groceries, and Checker’s Barbecue to buy a pound of barbecued beef brisket. It's great for making sandwiches for lunch.
Late in the afternoon we went to the exercise room for a workout, then to the pool and hot tub to cool down and relax, before heading to Kenwood RV Park's New Year's Eve party at the recreation hall. Well ... that was the most droll New Year's Eve party I've ever been to ! It was an evening of playing table games. We sat at a table of ten people and played dominoes. After an hour I snuck off, leaving my seat at the table for someone else. I read a book for awhile in the library. I watched TV for awhile in the library. I watched a cockroach wander around the library. I've never had a New Year's Eve where the highlight was watching cockroaches. HA HA HA ! At 10:00 P.M. the table games ended and everyone went home. Goodbye and Happy New Year, little cockroach ! The New Year's Eve party included a finger foods potluck. We ate a variety of foods. After returning to the trailer, Joanne began to feel ill, nausea increasing until finally at 11:30 P.M. she began vomiting. Poor baby ... food poisoning again. She spent the last half hour of the old year and the first few minutes of the new year in the bathroom being repeatedly, violently ill.
Boy, we've had some pretty crappy New Year's Eves in the past, but this one takes the cake ! Especially for Joanne ! At midnight the neighbourhood erupted in fireworks, and ... I'm fairly certain ... gunshots. Tough neighbourhood here along the Mexican border on New Year's Eve !
2008 was a great year for us, except for the horrendous losses we sustained in the stock market. Oh, well ... it's only money ! We're healthy ! Well ... except for the last half hour of the year.
Happy New Year / Bonne Heureuse Année / Prospero Año Nuevo
DSK
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