January 31, 2005

January 31, 2005

Livingston to Galveston, Texas

DAY 227

 

Today was cold and raining. That didn't dampen our enthusiasm for "hitting the road". We were at YMCA Of The Ozarks for 6 weeks, and Rainbow's End / C.A.R.E. Centre for 6 weeks, with 3 weeks of travel in between, so we've only been on the road for 3 out of the last 15 weeks.

This morning, I walked Ginger for the last time, and introduced Ginger and Rodney to Mary Lu, who is going to walk Ginger in the mornings. Then we headed off to Livingston, to run errands. We had to buy some groceries, drop off a souvenir Loonie for our waiter at the Mexican Restaurant, buy diesel, pick up our last piece of mail at the Post Office, and refill a propane tank.

Our original plan was to hook up the trailer and haul it around with us while running errands, then leave Livingston heading south on the main highway to Houston, Hwy. 59. However, after reviewing the map last night, we decided to head south on the secondary highway that the Rainbow's End / C.A.R.E. is located, Hwy. 146. This enabled us to go into Livingston to run errands without the trailer. When we got back to C.A.R.E., we hitched up and headed out, at noon, south on Hwy. 146. By taking Hwy. 146, we skirted the eastern edge of Houston, instead of having to drive all the way through Houston, if we had taken Hwy. 59.

After driving south for an hour or so, about halfway to Houston, we pulled into a small road side rest area to have lunch. I pulled the rig off the road onto the grass, and immediately sunk very deeply. It had been raining heavily all morning. I spun my wheels a bit, and just sunk in deeper. I shifted to 4 wheel drive, and gave it a try. That was a bit of an improvement, but I still wasn't able to get out. I shifted to 4 wheel drive "low", and managed to crawl out of the mud and back onto the asphalt, all six of Dee-Dee's tires spinning and throwing up mud. Woo-Hoo ... four wheelin' in Texas. I think when the local cowboys go four wheelin', they don't haul 11,000 pounds of trailer along with them. Once I got the rig back onto the asphalt, I looked in the mirrors, at the grass I had just been on. What had been a nicely manicured lawn area a few minutes before was now this very deeply rutted mud patch. Oops ! I pulled out of the rest area and continued down the road, stopping in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in the next town, to have lunch. When I got out of thetruck, I saw that the front of the trailer was covered in mud all the way to the roof line, as were the sides of the truck. Even the front hood of the truck had mud on it from the front tires spinning in the mud while turned slightly.

After lunch, we continued south on Hwy. 146 to Liberty, where Hwy. 146 merged with Hwy. 90, heading west for 6 miles to Dayton, before Hwy 146 split off and headed south again. After crossing Interstate 10, Hwy. 146 runs along "Refinery Row" on the eastern outskirts of Houston. Peeeuuuwww ! ! ! Through Baytown, along the shore line of Trinity Bay, then through Texas City, and along the shore line of Galveston Bay. Just before the Gulf Of Mexico coast line, Hwy. 146 ends at Interstate 45. Onto Interstate 45 for a couple of miles, then across the long causeway to Galveston Island, and the city of Galveston. Through the city of Galveston, then we turned west along the beach / seawall, following the beach for 11 miles to Galveston Island State Park.

We are camped tonight on the beach, on the Gulf Of Mexico, in Galveston Island State Park. That would be wonderful, except that it's cold, windy, and raining, as it has been all day. Oh, well ... win some, lose some. We're going to leave here tomorrow morning. The weather will continue to be poor for a few days, and there's no sense paying the high rates that this prime real estate commands, for the privilege of camping on the Gulf Of Mexico beach, while it's cold, windy, and raining. It sure would be nice to camp here in nice weather, though. We took Bo for a very brief walk along the beach shortly after we arrived. It was getting dark, it was cold, the rain got heavier, the signs on the beach say “beware of poisonous snakes in the grass”, so we didn’t stay out there long. Bo seems to know his way around a beach. He must have spent time on Gulf Shores in Alabama, a few miles south of where we adopted him.

DSK

January 30, 2005

January 30, 2005

C.A.R.E Centre

Day 226

 

Today was cloudy and cool again. My normal morning routine has become ; get up about 7:30, when Teddy and Bo wake me, feed Teddy and Bo, walk Bo, shower, dress, and walk Ginger at 8:30. After walking Ginger this morning, I went into the Centre to have coffee with a bunch of the male participants ... "the boys". No staff around on the weekends, so no petty politics and power mongering. We sat around drinking coffee, talking "guy stuff". Guy talk at 86 years of age is surprisingly similar to guy talk at 16 years of age. Boys will be boys, I guess. I taught the group of them to say "Lard fookin' Jaysus, by" just like a Newfie ! Should be a barrel of laughs the next time any of them encounters a Canadian. HA HA HA !

I did a bit of touch up on the rubber roof of the trailer after sitting around having coffee. There were a few spots where the rubber roof top coating had flaked off. Yesterday I painted the spots with the correct rubber roof primer, and today I finished it up with the rubber roof top coating. After the roof painting, I went and dumped the sewage holding tanks of all the participants who need to have that done for them. It's a Monday task, but I wanted to get it done today. I don't want to have to do it tomorrow before we leave and I don't want to provide any opportunity for petty complaining that I left a job undone. We've already got so much to do tomorrow before we get back out on the road, we're probably going to end up hitting Houston right at afternoon rush hour. Oh, joy !

Just before lunch, we took Bo and walked with a load of laundry over to the laundry room, and from there, over to Phyllis Bridge's to check on how Rain is doing. Rain is now renamed Kitty Babe. Fine ... as long as she has a home, I don't care what she's called. She's doing alright, although Phyllis thinks it's a bit odd that Rain / Kitty Babe spends 99% of her time just lying around on Phyllis's bed. When Phyllis's toothless old Yorkshire Terrier Tooty approaches Kitty Babe, the cat hisses softly, and the old dog backs away. Unlike Bo who thought Rain's hissing was an invitation to bark in her face. It appears as if Kitty Babe has a new permanent home with Phyllis, Frank, and Tooty. YIPPEEE !

This afternoon, I did an obedience training session with Bo in the parking lot again. We're making some progress. Good dog. As we were returning to the trailer, we passed Joanne heading for the laundry room. When Bo and I got back to the trailer, I unhooked his leash as we entered the trailer door. SWOOSH ! He wheeled around, dashed through my legs, out the door, and was gone ! By the time I managed to turn around, get down the steps, around the trailer, and onto the road, Bo was 500 feet down the road and moving at warp speed. Man, he's fast. He was heading in the general direction of the laundry room, and I started off after him. The laundry room is about a ten minute walk from our trailer, maybe a half mile away, at Rainbow’s End . I jogged over there as quickly as I could ... I'm not that fast ... and there was Bo outside the laundry room, visiting with a man taking his garbage to the dumpster. Joanne was inside unaware that Bo was outside. BAD DOG ! ! !

Joanne and I did some more reprogramming of Arley's TV satellite channel selections. Then Joanne went over to Rodney's, and invited Rodney and Ginger over to meet and visit with Arley. WOW ... two birds with one stone ! She's arranged for Rodney and Ginger to visit Arley daily. Lonely, old Rodney and lonely, old Arley each have a new friend. Arley's trailer is two spaces over from Rodney's motorhome, so within Rodney's walking capabilities. Because of Rodney's heart condition, he's a bit lethargic, so walking over to Arley's on a daily basis with Ginger is good exercise for him. And due to his blindness, and perhaps some shyness, Arley keeps himself quite isolated from the social goings on in the Centre, so he can really use more social interaction. And he enjoys visits from dogs. Nice work, Joanne.

As I was walking back to our trailer from Arley's, Rudy came over and offered me a tennis ball for Bo to play with. It was a huge hit with Bo. Mind you, he's pretty easy to amuse. I suspect the tennis ball from Rudy was a bit of a peace offering for his fat, stupid dog Cody ripping Teddy’s tent.

At the Centre's dinner time, we went inside to say goodbye to the participants. From there we went over to Rainbow's End, to the Activity Centre, for the regular Sunday night ice cream social. We said our goodbyes there as well.

After the ice cream social, we returned to the trailer for a late supper. At 8:30 I walked Ginger for the last time, in the cold rain. That inspired me to bade a painful farewell to last night's Mexican restaurant dinner. I don't know how Mexicans with colitis can survive the cuisine.

DSK

January 29, 2005

January 29, 2005

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

DAY 225

 

Today was cloudy and cool.

I got up early this morning, and fulfilled Joanne's birthday request for a pancake breakfast this morning. What a good husband I am, n'est-ce pas ? After breakfast, I went to Arley's trailer to continue reprogramming numbers in his voice activated telephone. That took up the balance of the morning. I added some numbers, and had to review and identify all the numbers in the system, so that the mystery numbers, disconnected numbers, and numbers of dead people could be identified and deleted. Given that Arley is blind, and his record keeping is somewhat lacking, this was quite a task. Plus, he keeps the temperature inside his trailer set at 80° . Sheesh !

This afternoon, Bo and I did another obedience session, the second with the choker, and in the Centre's empty parking lot, without the distractions of people, dogs, rabbits, etc.. With the choker, and without distractions, we're finally making progress. Late last night, while out for his bed time walk, he took off after a little bunny. I just about sprained my thumb hitting the retractable leash brake. Gee, he's fast !

I spent the latter part of the afternoon working on the equipment inventory in the Centre, with Joanne assisting me. What a good wife she is, n'est-ce pas ? I finished everything inside the C.A.R.E. Centre main building, which is a logical place for me to leave this task. Hallelujah !

Tonight we went to Livingston for Joanne's birthday dinner, at Pueblo Viejo, which translates from Spanish as Old House. It was a very authentic Mexican restaurant, as opposed to Tex-Mex like Texas Pepper where we went with Rodney last week. The interior walls of Pueblo Viejo were fluorescent lime green stucco. Our waiter, Ringo Ramito Solis, came from Guadalajara, Mexico, two years ago. Joanne got drunk on one Raspberry Margarita. Admittedly, it was a very huge Margarita. Since Polk County, where we are located, is a dry county, one must be a "member" of the restaurant's "private members club" to order a drink. A "membership" normally costs $5.00, but when Ringo found out we were Canadian, he went off to talk to the restaurant management, then came back with a "free" membership, and our drinks. He asked us for a Canadian dollar as a souvenir. We didn't have one with us, but will be happy to bring him a Loonie on Monday as we are leaving Livingston. We had some difficulty understanding his Mexican accented English, and he had some difficulty understanding our Canadian accented English.

DSK

January 28, 2005

January 28, 2005

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

DAY 224

 

Happy Birthday, Joanne

 

Today started out cold and raining heavily. I got out of bed to go walk Ginger, then Bo, in the cold rain, then crawled back into bed soaking wet and cold. I fell asleep again and stayed in bed under the warm covers until 11:00 A.M..

I have been trying to avoid the Centre, and the petty politics within, during regular business hours. I've been fairly successful, but today I got nabbed by Carol while I was in the Centre for just a minute. She wanted to "discuss" what's going to happen to Rodney's dog Ginger after we leave here on Monday. I've been trying to avoid that discussion because we don't agree on the subject. She's determined to see Rodney get rid of Ginger, and I'm determined to see that Rodney gets to keep Ginger. For at least the short term foreseeable future, the score is me ; 1, and Carol ; zero ! We have arranged for another volunteer to walk Ginger every morning, and set up a tie out for Rodney to put Ginger outside the motorhome every evening for ten minutes or so.

When Joanne went to work on supper preparations at 2:00 P.M., I headed into Livingston. I found the local pet supply store, and bought a training collar / choke chain for Bo. I've been trying to accomplish formal obedience training with Bo without using a choker, but it's so difficult to get his attention and keep him focussed, I've decided to give in and try using a choker. I wish they had never been called chokers or choke chains. The more appropriate name for them is training collars. They are so often misused, and calling them chokers just adds to the misperceptions of how they are to be used correctly. Anyways, we had a training session this afternoon using the "choker", and it went well. Bo is so small, I have to be very careful to give only very gentle corrections, but it was the same with Nikki. After the pet supply store I went to Wal-Mart and bought Joanne a birthday cake in their bakery. Here in the U.S., the Wal-Mart stores include full line grocery stores within. From Wal-Mart, on to the Post Office to see if the last piece of mail we're expecting here in Livingston had arrived yet. It still had not arrived. That means we're going to have to go into Livingston Monday morning, on our way out of here, towing the trailer. I'll have to park the rig in a shopping mall nearby and walk tothe Post Office. It's not possible to get into the Post Office's parking lot with the truck and trailer.

When I returned to the trailer, Lorri phoned to wish Joanne a Happy Birthday. I worked out a plan with Madeleine and Amelia to phone this evening, and while they sang Happy Birthday to Aunt Joanne, I rushed the hidden birthday cake out of its hiding spot and lit the candle on the cake. By the time the nieces were finished singing Happy Birthday, ( one after another ! ), the cake was ready for Aunt Joanne's wish, and the blowing out of the candle. I only had one candle, and that one was recycled. HA HA HA ... it was the candle I kept from my 50th birthday cake. I don't know why yet, but the phone call from the little nieces was made while they were inside The Bay, shopping. I can sort of imagine the scene inside the department store. " Mommy, Mommy ... it's 7:30 ... we have to phone Aunt Joanne now ! ! ! "

Just before dinner, I went into the Centre and worked for an hour on the equipment inventory. A little bit more this weekend, and I'll quit at some logical point. Let the next stooge pick it up from where I leave off. I loudly sang Happy Birthday to Joanne in the dining room just as she finished serving dinner to the participants, before serving herself and me. Many of the participants wished her a Happy Birthday, and one even had bought her a card. We like most of the participants, and most of them like us. If it weren't for the petty politics and power mongering going on here, this would be a really great place.

DSK

January 27, 2005

January 27, 2005

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

DAY 223

 

Today started cloudy and cool, and by evening it was raining. Of course, the "powers that be" would not permit our Lake Livingston State Park outing. It's either too cold, or too hot, or too windy, or too sunny, or too cloudy, or ... ! Maybe when hell freezes over !

I spent most of the morning at Arley's, working a little bit on reprogramming of his TV satellite channel selections, and mostly working on reprogramming his speaker phone with voice activated dialer. He needed some phone numbers deleted, some added, and some changed. What a piece of junk ! I guess voice recognition technology was quite poor just a few years ago.

After lunch I worked on draining and disinfecting our fresh water tank. I do this task every three months. Drain the tank, pour in a few cups of bleach, fill the tank, run the bleach solution through the cold water lines. Let it sit. Run hot water until the bleach solution fills the hot water tank. Let it sit. Tomorrow I'll drain the lines, the hot water tank, and the fresh water tank, then flush and refill.

After that task, we drove into Livingston for chores and shopping. On the way in, we stopped at a local flea market / garage sale / junk dealer, looking for a toaster and a small vaccuum. What a lot of worthless junk in that place ! We bought a toaster and a vaccuum at Wal-Mart later. After the junk dealer, we stopped at the local RV supply place for an interior light lens for the trailer. They didn't have what I needed. Zero for two ! On to the Post Office to see if the last piece of mail I'm expecting in Livingston had arrived. It had not. Zero for three. Out of town to the west, and down Hwy. 190 a few miles to check out a restaurant, to see whether it's an okay place for Joanne's birthday dinner on Saturday. Her birthday is tomorrow, but we can't go for dinner tomorrow. She's making dinner for the Centre tomorrow. It was fine. We'll go there Saturday evening and celebrate her birthday. A Mexican restaurant. An enchiladas and margaritas kind of place. The Eiffel Tower it ain't ! Finally, Wal-Mart. Toaster, little vaccuum, groceries, head for home.

I unloaded and put away the groceries and supplies, while Joanne went to visit Arley before supper. She needed to help him prepare a mail order for some clothing. I napped with Bo.

After supper, we watched part of this week's episode of Apprentice. Then I walked Ginger in the cold rain. Neither of us liked it much. I spent a long evening working on 2004 investments analysis.

DSK

January 26, 2005

January 26, 2005

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

DAY 222

 

Today was another beautiful day. When we drove through town early this afternoon, the temperature display on the bank read 78° .

Today was one of the more satisfying days of our time here at C.A.R.E.. We spent the day doing things for participants that actually had some impact on their well being and welfare. Of course, every thing we did today was behind of the backs of the Centre's administrators. I started with my dog nail clipping clinic. I was going to conduct this clinic at a preset time, in the parking lot, but that proved impractical, so I just went from rig to rig of the people who expressed a desire / need to have their dog's nails clipped. I started with Rudy's dog Cody ( fat stupid dog ! ). No problem, Cody flips over on his back to have his ample belly rubbed whenever I approach him. OK ... rub, rub, clip ... rub, rub, clip. Next it was over Warren and his fat lab, Sheila. These old folks must be feeding their dogs a bit too much ! Sheila was jumping all over me until Warren put a hand gently on her head, and she calmed right down and sat still while I clipped her nails. Another one, no problem.

I diverted over to Arley's, because Joanne was going over to see him about something, and she had asked me to come over and attempt to reprogram Arley's TV satellite channel selections for him. Well ... OK ... an hour and a half later, I managed to finish deleting the 2 channels he wanted deleted. A manual would have helped. They sure don't make electronics very intuitive to work with these days.

By then it was noon, and time to head into town with Rodney, for lunch at Texas Pepper. Rodney had presented us with a gift certificate to this restaurant a week or so ago, in appreciation for walking Ginger 3 times a day for him. We had an excellent lunch in this Tex-Mex restaurant. Over lunch, we discussed how best to have Ginger's needs attended to after Joanne and I are gone. We don't want to involve the Centre in these discussions, because they will just "strong arm" Rodney into parking Ginger at a kennel, as they did before Christmas. At Rodney's urging, starting about a week ago, we changed from walking Ginger three times a day, down to twice a day. Rodney thought that if Ginger could be conditioned to needing to go out only twice a day, it would make things easier all around. With only one "accident", the very first day, Ginger has adapted. So ... we are going to ask one of the semi-permanent volunteers, who has three dogs of her own, if she will undertake to walk Ginger every morning. Rodney has difficulty with the coolness of the mornings. For Ginger's evening outing, I proposed Rodney put her out, outside the rig, on a tie-out, and just leave her outside for 5 or 10 minutes. He thought that was probably workable, so as soon as we returned, I set up a tie out outside his motorhome for Ginger. I gave him a nylon tie-out that we had, which is obviously of no use to us with Bo. He's already chewed through a nylon tie-out ... twice ! We bought a chain tie-out for Bo. I checked Ginger's nails, but they didn't need clipping. The groomer we took him to a few weeks ago must have done it when she gave him a haircut.

Mary Lu, who has three dogs, and had expressed a desire to have their nails clipped, changed her mind, so it was on to Jan, and her Dachshund, Jazzy. Gee ... Jazzy's nails must have been an inch long ! Jan said she hasn't been able to cut Jazzy's nails without the help of her husband. I think he died about three years ago ! I wonder if it's possible Jazzy's nails haven't been clipped in all that time ? Anyways, Jazzy was another no problem clipping. When I finished with the dog, Jan asked me if I could try to solve a car problem she was having. She had recently had an oil change, and since then, she has had a dashboard "problem light" showing. I checked the light, and it was some sort of strange symbol that if I used a lot of imagination, might resemble a radiator with low fluid. Why don't they just print "check coolant" or something other than these hieroglyphic symbols ? I topped up her coolant level, and her dash light problem was gone. She thinks I'm a hero ! Magic performer, travelogue slide show presenter, dog nail clipper, and car repairman !

Back to our own trailer, where it was time to give Bo a bath. He was stinking like ... well ... a dog ! This was our first bath for Bo. He behaved very well, although the trailer bathroom is a bit cramped for bathing a dog. Much to our surprise, when he's soaking wet, and all his hair is slicked back and off his face, we realize he looks very much like a Miniature Dachshund. Especially his face and head. We now think he is likely a Yorkshire Terrier crossed with a Miniature Dachshund, maybe even the Long Haired Miniature Dachshund. As soon as I was finished rinsing him, and he shook once, he looked like a slightly thick Yorkshire Terrier once again. It has been a long time since I've had the joy of watching a dog do the after bath "dry off happy dance". It makes me laugh ! Just like Nikki our Bichon Frisé who died a couple of years ago, Bo prefers to do his drying off dance on the duvet on our bed.

DSK

January 25, 2005

January 25, 2005

C.A.R.E. Centre

DAY 221

 

Today was sunny and warm. Those of you who are following my blog must be getting tired of reading that. Too bad ! Go eat some snow ! NYAH NYAH NYAH !

Now ... the ongoing saga of Lorri's birthday gift for Joanne. I phoned the Escapees Mail Forwarding Service first thing this morning to speak to the lady who signed for the package on Friday, and who wasn't in yesterday. They used their online access to the UPS tracking system to verify that they had indeed returned the package to UPS yesterday morning. It showed as being scanned into the UPS facility in Conroe, Texas yesterday at 6:07 P.M.. I phoned the local UPS Manager. She tracked the parcel further. By 10:00 A.M. she had tracked it from Conroe, Texas to Houston, Texas, to Mesquite, Texas, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on its way back to Amazon.com / Toys R Us. Fine ! Let it go back. Lorri can give Joanne a birthday present next summer ! At least now we all know not to have anything shipped by a private courier to a General Delivery Post Office address.

I forgot to mention on Sunday that we all learned, much to everyone's dismay, that Teddy is long enough to be able to reach a front paw over the front edge of the stove, when he stands against the front of the oven, and stretches. He stuck a paw over the front of the stove "reaching" for a pot cooking on the stove that smelled appealing to him. He burned a paw. We didn't realize his body and legs were long enough to enable him to stretch and reach that high. Singed cat hair sure stinks ! Stupid cat ! Have you noticed that my life seems to revolve around a stupid cat and a bad dog ? As I type this at 10:30 A.M. they are lying cuddled together in a sunbeam, slowly licking one another. Very sweet !

I took Bo for a lengthy obedience training session this afternoon. We're making progress ... maybe ... I think ... I hope. His attention span is so short, and he's so easily distracted. Keeping him focussed is difficult.

I spent a couple more hours this afternoon and evening working on the equipment inventory. Joanne helped me for an hour after she was finished her afternoon shift of preparing, serving, and cleaning up after supper. We've both exceeded our agreed upon "work hours" obligations. The WorkCamping deal is a fully serviced RV parking site for 16 hours per person per week, for the four and a half week period that we're here. Our obligations were for each of us to work 72 hours for the month of January. So far I've worked 74.5 hours and Joanne has worked 83.5 hours, on assigned work. I've also worked 25 hours and Joanne has worked 33.5 hours on "unassigned work" that the Centre's administration doesn't even know about. They have received "good value" from us, so I feel very little motivation to put much more effort into this equipment inventory nonsense. I don't want any more WorkCamping jobs, at least not for the foreseeable future. We've already committed to 4 months at West Hawk Lake next summer, and beyond that, I don't want to do any more of this "volunteer" work.

DSK