Laundry done

I was up this morning at 4:30. I know!!! What is that all about? I just woke up and slipped out of bed as not to wake my bride. I went down to the kitchen and made the coffee and sat down here at the computer to bang out this entry.
I know all of you that have been retired for so long know how it is to be where you are. Sherri and I being new at this are just elated at how great it is to be free from schedules. Getting up and spending two or three hours trying to figure out what you want to do and when it comes time to do it you changed your mind and do something else. Until you have been in this happy place it is hard to conceive the feeling of complete freedom. We still have to be responsible for certain things but having to follow a schedule...well that is a thing of the past.
I have so many things I would like to do today but then doing nothing sometimes gets in the way of doing those things. I have to work hard when it comes to doing nothing in order to get nothing done. I look at it this way if I do nothing today and don't get anything done then I can do nothing tomorrow. Sometimes I label days as do nothing days in order to categorize how I get nothing done. There is a right and wrong way to do nothing that assures you that you are not wasting time doing nothing. At the end of the do nothing day you don't want to feel bad about doing nothing.
Now that we are retired for real we have yet to feel bad about doing nothing and we feel good about that. There was a time in our lives that if we did nothing we felt like the day was wasted and we would never get that time back. Now we have lost that feeling and have replaced it with the attitude that if we get nothing done we have really done what we set out to do.
I did finish the laundry yesterday which took a surprisingly long time! The washers were fairly quick in getting the clothes clean but when it came to drying I did not think the dryers would ever stop running. I had to check to be sure the clothes were not on fire from time to time. When they finally dried I could hardly handle the clothes they were so hot! I have never been to a laundry that had dryers that were that hot and ran that long. I'll have to say this if the clothes did not get all that clean in the washer the heat of the dryers killed any bacteria that was left alive!
When I got home from the laundry Sherri had dumplings made. WOW were they good! I had to have seconds they were so yummy. I know what your are thinking I am going the wrong way on losing weight and you are correct. I will just have to walk longer...

Somewhere in Time

To all my friends

Sherri and I woke up this morning at the same time and rolled out of bed. I headed straight for the coffee and got that started and then sat down here at the computer to see the news of the day. Sherri grabbed her phone and started catching up on Word Search or what ever it is called. Many of you out there play the game with her. For those of you that use to work with us it makes her feel closer to you. Many of our friends that we have not seen for a while play too. Dortha Hall and Dee Walters to name a few. Sherri really enjoys playing those games and keeping close to those special people.
I enjoy writing my journal and taking pictures of the places we go. Sherri says I share too much information. I feel like I am sitting around talking to my family and friends and letting them know what I have been up to. I have a group of folks I have met over the years that share many of the same thoughts and values that I have. I just enjoy being close to them  the only way I can and that is in cyber space. I am not much on phone calling. I like to add pictures to my conversation so that everyone can see what I am doing and where. Call me a nut but that is what friends are all about.
I want to show my fellow Acosta workers that I went to the grocery store the other day without the fear of having to load any boxes or set any shelves...

I want to say hello to Rick and Becky...Terri...Sylvia...Linda...Judy...Kathleen...Justin...Gary...and Renee. I think about all of you every time I make an entry here. I will see you in April when we swing back through that area of the country.
You know I spent so many years working and never did have friends like we have now. Our working friends and our RV friends. I have made more friends in the past 6 years than in all my life. WOW how cool is that. This is what this journal is all about. I want you all to know that I am still around and think about you all the time. Thanks for being my friend...

Somewhere in Time

Visit with my sister and BIL

I was up this morning around 4:00 am. I went into the kitchen to make coffee. When it was ready I poured me a cup and heard Sherri rustling around in the bedroom. I went ahead and poured her a cup and then I went and sat down at the computer to start my post. I sat there for the longest and realized that Sherri had never appeared in the kitchen to get her coffee. I went down to the bedroom and there she was cureled up in bed sound asleep! By this time her coffee was cold so I reheated it and drank it myself.
Sherri and I had planned to have the Jeep washed this morning but that plan fell through. I was going to get my hair cut ant that too fell through. If our plans keep falling through like this we will never do anything. We sat in the living room for some time and soon the phone rang. It was my sister. She was calling to let us know that she and Jim wanted to see us.

They had been at Canton First Monday all weekend. That is where "Trade Days" is held. Jim sells Customized Road Signs. We had already planned to go to the Texas Flight Museum so we told them that we would call them as soon as we left the museum and ate some lunch.

Sherri showing June her new IPad

Kris loves his Uncle Jim

We had not seen them in some time. We got over there around 2:00 and had a real nice visit. We all decided to go out to eat at Kelley's and have some shrimp. Jim ended up paying for our dinner. OK Jim we owe you and June a dinner. Thanks so much it was really good grub.
We were really getting tired after the meal and visiting so we all parted ways for the day. We said our  goodbyes and planned on meeting again....

Somewhere in Time

What day is this?

I think Sherri is starting to fall into the "I am retired" mode. She now has lost the ability to keep up with the days. She use to fuss at me about not knowing what day it was. Accused me of becoming senile but I think now she sees that when you have no schedule time seems to melt away.
Last night we found ourselves turning in about 9:30. WOW that is never heard of. You have to understand that was after a hard day topped off by playing Wheel of Fortune on the Wii. Now that can really run you down. Actually we went walking 3 times yesterday and I think not having done that in a while took all our energy.

We use to walk 2 to 3 miles a day before Sherri went back to work. Then when I went to work with her walking became a thing of the past. I gained weight and started feeling tired all the time. We are back into walking which is a good thing. My goal over the next 3 months is to loose 20 lbs. I have to loose a total of 50 by next September. Wish me luck
The day warmed up but the wind never did calm down. It blew all night and was still blowing at 2:00 when I stepped out on the patio to finish doing nothing. Sherri joined me after she got her chores done inside and we had a chance to visit and catch up on our menu for the week. It is sad when that is all you have left to plan for aside from the site seeing trips.
While sitting outside we did meet our new neighbors from Michigan. They were in the first stages of heading back north. With them were some folks from Colorado and another couple from Wisconsin. All were heading back to the north in anticipation of the weather starting to warm up there. I think they will be here a while from what the weather report is saying about that area of the country.
Tomorrow will be Jeep washing day and time taken out to get hair cuts. I really need to get the oil changed but that means I need to find a dealership so I can use up the last of my oil changing contract. I prepaid for oil changes last year and saved $15.00 per change. Only problem with that is when you are on the road you have to find a dealership. Oh well I am sure there is one here...

Somewhere in Time

Doing nothing takes time

Sherri and I got up this morning to the sound of excited seagulls just outside our window. It was about 5:30 so I got out of bed and made a pot of coffee.
We poured a cup of coffee and settled down in the living room. Soon we had the computers up and running surfing through the net. I had a feeling that this was going to be a do nothing day.
When the sun came up we could tell that it was cloudy and the wind was really blowing. I looked at  the outside temperature and it had fallen since yesterday. This confirmed that this would be a do nothing day.
The only thing we had trouble doing all day was figuring out what we wanted to eat.

 Sherri spent a lot of time on the phone visiting with different ones of her friends. I worked on cleaning all the dust out of the fireplace and straightened out some of my storage cabinets above the drivers seat.

Later on in the day the sun did come through and I ventured outside to play RC cars with Kris. Man it is tough having to be a kid again...but then I began to like it.
I really do have to get some things done but then if I did that I would have nothing to look forward to. You see my dilemma here.

After wearing the batteries down on the RC cars I came inside to print our discount tickets for NASA Space Center. Then I looked up the Texas State Air Museum and the Railroad Museum. I now have the next 3 weeks planned out. Never a dull moment here...

Somewhere in Time

Sherri found the kite

Yesterday while flying the new kite I let Kris take control of the spool. Need I say anything more.We all said by to the kite as it crossed over the RV park and then over the bayou. The spool caught in some bushes just the other side of the bayou and stopped. There was no way for me to cross the bayou  to retrieve the spool...therefore the kite just road out the wind until it died down and the kite sail slowly to earth.
I had assumed that the kite fell into the traffic on the highway and was killed by some passing car. We drove over to the highway and looked up and down the bar ditches to see if we could find the kite. As I had expected there was no sign of the kite so we returned home. Kris was very sad about losing his kite but this was a lesson learned. You don't let go of the string while flying a kite.
We had school this morning. Kris is learning to add two digit numbers under the total sum of 99. He has not learned how to carry tens yet so everything is under 99. English is going real well. Writing is not his long suit so we have a little trouble with that.
After school Sherri Kris and I packed up the Jeep and headed to town to do some shopping. We are all learning how to shop cheap and stretch a dollar out. One of the places we spend a lot of time in is the Dollar Store. We have now starting buying more grocery items there. We found out they have the bread we buy and some of the other items we buy at the more expensive grocery stores. I even bought me a watch there. I always ask...how much is that...a dollar! I headed back to the back of the store and found dish washing liquid for....yes a dollar! I have died and gone to heaven.

We did have to go to Kroger's to buy our meat but everything else we found at the Dollar Store. This may turn out to be fun.

We finished up all our shopping and then headed home. I wanted to see if I could find the beach access road so I could take the Jeep down on the beach. I drove past he entrance to the park and down the road a ways and found the entrance to that road.
On the way back Sherri hollered out that she had spotted the kite! We made a U turn and sure nuff found  the kite wrapped around a stop sign in the turn around on the highway. We had not gone down far enough the other day so we had missed it.

Things are going our way here...

Somewhere in Time

Windy and cool

Yesterday was windy to say the least. The temps here have been warm compared to Lake Tawakoni where our lake lot is located. I can't complain...watching the weather I see where up north the snow is still falling right along with the temps. Our son lives in Kansas and they have had 18 in of snow there.
Many of our friends are just north of us but we are not able to connect up with them. It is almost two hours across Houston from here and two hours back. Well we might as well be two states apart! I can't believe that people drive this everyday and love living here! More power to them. I am trying to find an easier way out of here when we head back to the east.
Today I will be headed back to the beach. I am taking the new telescope so I can check out all the ships on the horizon. I saw them coming and going yesterday and wanted to see if I could get a better look at what type of ships they were.
Kris wants to fly a kite today along with building roads in the sand. He is having a ball on the beach and hates when it is time to leave. I am sure that he will get his fill of all that when this month is up.
Speaking of the sand...I have to get the Jeep washed sometime. My goodness we have a least two months of grim on it from all the bad weather we have been through. Now I am starting to collect some sand in the carpet. The vacuum will be coming out today along with finding a good car wash. The MH on the other hand really needs to be rinsed off but that is not allowed in this park so I guess it will have to wait. I will be cleaning the windows tomorrow when the temps are suppose to get into the 70's.
I can't believe the Gulf is as calm as it is. I have seen larger waves on the lake than there are here. Sherri is a little disappointed that she cannot hear the waves. She loves the sound of the surf at night. Maybe when the wind turns out of the south we will see a change...

Somewhere in Time

First day on the coast

View out our dinning room window

Sherri is having a real hard time getting use to not rushing to get up and get started. She said she feels like she should be getting ready to go. I guess it will take some time to relax and realize that we do have time to get all our things done and if we don't we have tomorrow. You know what I always say about getting nothing done. I always save some so I will have nothing to do tomorrow.
Kris is so excited about all that sand out there to play in. He was so upset because we told him that he could not immediately head to he beach as soon as the jacks were down. We did let him go down to the beach for a while after we hooked up. He found some good spots to build some roads and some dunes to climb on. I found a good spot for my lawn chair where I will finish reading my book.
Sherri has her day planned out. She said she is going to give the MH the once over and get it cleaned. She said she has not had the time to do a good cleaning since we got it. Remember dear you don't have to do it all in one day.
We stayed on the beach for some time and then we decided to go for a ride. While we were running around town we went by the docks to see if the cruise ships were in. Sure nuff there we turned the corner and there it was. It is a lot bigger than I ever imagined. It is bigger than some hotels! I still would not get on one. I'll stick to seeing the sites out my MH window.
We drove around for a little while longer. Went by Walmart to with the intention of picking up some things but when we pulled into the parking lot I could see that it was not the day to do this. This is Spring Break in Galveston and everyone was at Walmart today. We decided to wait until the week days to do any getting out.
Back home from there. We settled in for the evening with Kris playing games Sherri playing games and me trying to set up my desk top computer. My Belkin is old and not working real well. I sometimes pick up the Wifi and sometimes I don't. What is going on is beyond me. I think I might need a newer model? I know things get smaller and better and I need to look around to see if they have a new one out there that picks up Wifi connections faster.
I would say that our first day of retirement went rather well and I think we are going to like it. We look forward to tomorrow...

Somewhere in Time

We landed here in Galveston

I was up yesterday morning at 4:45. The coffee was ready. Sherri was still sleeping so I let her sleep. After all this is her first day of retirement and she deserved this time.
I sat down at the computer to see what every one was up to. I read several journals and then commented on Facebook.
Soon it was time for me to get started loading all our stuff in the MH and unhook the electrical and the water.  Sherri was up by the time I got back inside. I helped her get some of the inside things done.
We got everything ready by 8:30 and soon we were heading toward the inspection center to get the MH inspected. On the way there I noticed it wasn't the inspection sticker that was out it was the license plates. I was really glad I noticed it before I got to the inspection place. I could see me asking them for an inspection and them wondering why I was doing it 6 months early. How embarrassing would that be.
We had not hooked up the Jeep so I called Sherri, who was following me and told her about the mistake I had made. We pulled over at the first truck stop we came to and hooked up the Jeep. I noticed that one of the keeper pins were missing so I had to run in the truck center and buy me one

Got all that done and we were on the road at about 9:30. Everything was going good until we hit construction on Hwy 19. Got past all that and then when we hit Interstate 45 more construction. The roads were so ruff that one of my jacks dropped down just enough to set off the alarm. We found a large parking lot and pulled in to fix the jack.
I was really hoping about this time that all was OK and we could finish out the last 28 miles without construction or MH problems.


Yeah! We made it without any further problems and pulled into the park about 4:30. Got our spot and now we are settled in.

We have a nice site with a good view...not great but good.















Tomorrow I will set up the rest of our stuff for the month long stay and then start planning some of Kris's birthday adventures...here...

Somewhere in Time

Leaving out this morning

Today is the day....we are heading south...

Somewhere in Time

Just can't express it in words

I would really like to start my journal off this morning to talk about the money wasted on having the First Celebraties at the Oscars...but then I know that everyone would tag me as a Right Wing nut job. We have no budget and we have our First Celebs presenting Oscars. Maybe someone else would like to comment on that.
No I will stick to telling everyone how excited I am about getting to pull out of this barn and head south.  This is like the first time I stepped out of an airplane. Just a little excited and a whole lot scared.
Did we cross our T's and dot our I's? Will we be able to survive now that our income is cut down? Yes there is anticipation in my writing!  I really need everyone to comfort me as I head off into the...I have never been here before place. We have made the plan now we have to work the plan!
I packed and straightened out the bays for the umpteenth time. We will only be gone a little over two months and I am thinking like we will be gone all year!
I have always been this way...even when we took vacation I worried about going until I got on the road and then I settled down. I need to get somewhere that I can climb into my recliner and relax for a bit. I know it is just around the corner...

Somewhere in Timel