Texas Weather is Schizophrenic!

February 3 - 8, 2014

First, update on Patty. Patty has fully recuperated from last weeks low BP issue at the pool.  All of the medical information was sent to her regular Dr in Indiana and she suggested that Patty see someone here in Texas.  Patty has found a Diabetes doctor here and has an appointment next week.  It now looks like Texas will be our winter hangout place so having a specialist here just makes sense. 

Now back to our regular scheduled program!

Just as we were told by the weather people, this past week was very cold for here.  In fact, this was the coldest January here in the past 10 years.  This past week has been just like being in a typical NJ winter sans snow.  I say typical because for the past few years it has been basically in the 30s and 40s for most of the winter and that is just what we had the past week.  

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the daytime high was just under 40 each day with a cold drizzle. Now, Saturday the 8th, the sun just came out the first time in 6 days at 4 pm and the temperature is 60.  Tomorrow and Monday we go back to the weather with sun and near 80.  The rest of the week it is supposed to rain! 

One of the things to do when it is cold and raining, wash clothes.

We made our way outside on Wednesday evening to Happy Hour which was held in the clubhouse.  It was too cold to have it outside where it usually is.  Some new friends, Steve and Julie, invited us to their Motor Home after Happy Hour for some dancing and just hanging out time.  They ended up with us and 2 other couples to make a fun party! 

Then on Thursday the 6th we went to Wally World to get same odds and ends and mostly, just to get outside!  I wanted to pick up some sweat pants but, to my surprise, they didn’t have any.  Patty got a few cold weather clothes and we picked up some pork chops, wine, and soda to mix with the wine since we now drink spritzers as a rule.  That was out outing for the week!  For us it’s still exciting just going to the grocery store.  That’s one of the reasons for us full time RVing.  The normal stuff of life just becomes more exciting when you move around to different places.   

Friday the 7th the temperature was a little warmer with a high of 50 but with a heavy drizzle most of the day.  We had decided to go out for a fish fry.  We searched the internet looking for a place within 30 minutes from our resort.  We found a couple of places, one was a local restaurant and one was a chain.  I thought the chain would be good as a backup in case the local place wasn’t what we were looking for.  We didn’t find either one of the places.  We followed the directions on my cell phone GPS after finding the restaurants on the phone.  Usually this works and we find what we are looking for, but not this time.  We gave up and just came back to the resort and made dinner.  We already had fresh pork chops out from WalMart so we baked them. It turned out to be a very good dinner and the pork chops were the best we have had in a very long time.  That’s the main reason we eat in so much is that we like to cook and we make very good food; much better than what we get out at a restaurant.  We mainly only eat at restaurants that serve what we won’t make at home, like fried fish!

Today, Saturday the 8th the temperatures were going up all day and started good at 42 this morning.  We didn’t get sun until just a few minutes ago (3:10pm) but who cares, it is now sunny! It is so weird here to be so cold 2 days ago and now 66 with 80 tomorrow.  We have been warned that hot weather comes very quickly here.  I can believe it!

We took an exercise walk this morning.   Actually the walk started when another new manufactured home came in for new friends Sue and Dave.  Everybody turns out to watch new houses being delivered and I was part of the audience this time.   After the excitement of watching the house get placed on their site we walked 1.5 miles together. Then Patty took off from walking to go play cards with friends in the clubhouse and I continued to walk another 1.5 miles by myself.  When we walk we use an app on the phone called Map My Ride.  The app uses GPS to record on a map the route you took and give distances and times for your walk.  It can be used for biking too.  When I walk by myself I challenge myself to beat my last mile time. This time I recorded a mile time at 16 minutes and 1 sec.  This was the fastest time I have put in walking. I was really sweating when I got done!

Roses are blooming now!

This is site 51.  They have made this, tongue-in-cheek, like area 51 in Roswell NM.  

Tonight we will play darts over by the pool.  Darts night has become one of our favorite nights so far here.  You don’t need to play well, you just need to have fun and we do that very well!  We have become well known for our marinated snacks. The fresh pineapple is marinated in coconut rum and the frozen sweet cherries are marinated in double chocolate vodka!  The marinated pineapple has been a hit both here and in Florida.  One of the reasons is that the pineapple is so FRESH and SWEET here and in Florida. But here a fresh pineapple is $1.50 at the grocery store!

Tonight we have some jalapeno brats to cook for dinner. This will be another food item we will use burrito shells in place of a hot dog roll.  The burrito shell is now a staple in our house as it is so versatile.  The burrito shells stay fresher longer and have fewer calories.  We even made a dessert snack last night using the shells with brown sugar and cinnamon.   It also doesn't hurt that they are also cheaper than hot dog rolls!

Patty has a friend of 48 years that has very recently been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and in honor of her Patty wears pink every day.

Patty's funky pink Converse sneakers! They matched her walking outfit.

I think I am done writing now.  

Stay tuned!