Patty in Buffalo, NY and me holding down the fort!

March 23- 28, 2014 

I am holding down the RV in south Texas while Patty is up north with family. Patty was on her way to be with family as her Aunt Carol was close to death and was in hospice in Buffalo NY.

I took Patty to the airport in McAllen on Thursday the 27th for a flight at 5:15am.  Yeah, it was very early and it would be a very long day for Patty.  She flew to Philadelphia and was picked up by her brother Tom and his girlfriend Kat.  They all rode together from there up to Buffalo NY a 6 hour drive.   While Patty was in the air her Aunt Carol passed away. Wow, what timing!

It now looks like the service will be on Monday the 31st. Patty had reservations on a flight back for April 7th. With the service on Monday the 31st, we were able to get her on a flight back here on Tuesday the 1st of April.  This has been the longest we have been apart since I was working and traveling, 3 years now! 

I plan to do a lot of work around here so we can do more fun things when she is back.

So Sunday and Monday were basically veg days.  The weather was a little cool, in the low 70s, so we just did our normal routines.  

Monday night was the last dance of the season for the winter Texans as we are called here.  It was an all country band that played. We are not big fans of country music but they were pretty good.  We didn't dance at all.  Most of the dancing was the line or 2-step variety which we have not learned to do. We will probably attempt to learn next year. 

Anyway, I will be the one attempting and Patty will have it learned in the first lesson.  We took a Ball room dance lesson when we were first married and I couldn't even get the basic steps down. After about an hour with me the instructor had me sit down and Patty took the rest of the lesson without me.  

I think the dance issue for me has to do with me being taught right handed living (writing, bowling, and golf) but am left handed.  I have to consciously think about where left and right are. I instinctively reverse left and right.  I know the difference but I need to spend a split second finding left to know where right is. I am not looking forward to frustrating the instructor next year :(

On Tuesday the 25th Patty had a morning Dr. appointment in Edinburg for the cyst on her hand.  This is the cyst she had tried to have removed before.  After the last attempt the cyst has gotten smaller but now she has pain from it.  The Dr. wants her to have an MRI of her hand to see if there is an aneurism.  Looks like that will be sometime next week. 

So, since we are out early we went out to Denny’s for breakfast.  We really like Denny’s for breakfast; however, it is a little expensive.  Anyway, it is a treat for us.  

We then went to a HEB (the only decent grocery here) to get a few important things like salsa.  We have been out for a couple of days now!  I believe salsa is the most common food item we have with meals and as a snack.  It’s been so bad without!

Wednesday the 26th Patty had another Dr. appointment with her ENT.  We like to combine things when we go outside the resort so we left early and Patty got her hair cut.  She actually won the haircut as a door prize the other night at the dance.

This where Patty got her haircut. She got it for free but the regular cost is $8!
 A cut and color is just $34.

Patty has had 2 sleep studies done now and the outcome is she needs to use a CPAP machine for the next 90 days and see how things go.  

Patty believes that having her uvula removed will be as good and without the burden of the “face sucker” attached at night.  So she is going to have the CPAP before we leave here at the end of April.  She will actually have the device for longer than the 90 days because we won’t be back here until the end of December.  This is a work in progress, we shall see.

Since this was a late appointment we decided to go to a restaurant we have wanted to try, Pappaduex in McAllen. Pappaduex is a New Orleans inspired seafood restaurant.  It is a chain in the south primarily; however there is one in Chicago.  We both liked the food.  It was a little expensive, but still, we liked the food so we would go back.

Patty had the very delicious bacon wrapped stuffed shrimp.  
The stuffing was jack cheese with a jalapeno pepper slice.

My dinner was the crispy salmon with crab on top.  Damn was it good!

We got back a little early around 7pm so we decided to see what was happening in the clubhouse.  Happy hour should have been over but seems it was a good night so it was just breaking up.  We got invited to a neighbor’s place and had a few drinks, and we were back to our place by 9pm.  We were going to be getting up at 3:15am to take Patty to the airport so we needed to get some sleep.

Thursday the 27th we were up at 3:15am!  This is the earliest I have been up in who knows how long.  Even when I was working I didn’t get up until 4:15am.  

Patty’s flight was at 5:15am at the McAllen airport about 40 minutes away.  We left at 3:50 and arrived by about 4:25. We even had a little mix up with road construction and still made it faster than what we had planned.   It seems for some reason there is nobody on the roads at this this time in the morning!

I got back to the RV by a little after 5am.  I should go back to bed but no, I had another cup of coffee and did a little of my usual internet stuff.  Then at around 7:30 I tried to sleep.  I did manage to sleep a little and toss a lot for the next 3 hours.  

I got up and went back on the internet to see where Patty was.  We both use Google software on our phones so we can see where each other is by using the Google location service.  It is really cool, you see a map and everywhere Patty has been is on the map. This might freak some people out but we really don’t care who knows where we are at any time.  Anyway, Patty was in Philadelphia and it looked like she was stationary at or near her brother's house in South Philly.  I know she has made it, or at least her cell phone has made it.  

I also got an e-mail message from the manufacturer of our RV about one of our recliners.  We have 2 recliners and mine has basically fallen apart in the past 18 months.  I had a fix done a few months ago in Buffalo but that has now failed.  I was afraid that the recliner would completely fail before we got to Colorado where we are having the last of the warranty work done.   I sent a message and pictures to Prime Time Manufacturing a few days ago and they responded today saying they would drop ship me a new recliner here at the resort.  Way cool! 

This is the recliner that is being replaced.  Note that the arms are falling off of the chair.
Also note the position of the seat cushion.  I am now sitting on the wood frame of the chair.

For contrast, this is the other recliner that is fine.

I was back in bed reading by 9 that night.  Patty must be exhausted!

Friday the 28th I got up at 6:30am full of pep and I was going to get a lot done, which I did.  I started the day after my usual internet stuff with a fast walk.  At 8am I went for a 3 mile walk at a fast pace of 15 minutes per mile.  Sometimes I do a slow 16 minute per mile followed by a fast 14 minute and then back slower to recover.  

I had a pick of 2 things I wanted to get accomplished today; wash the truck or reorganize the basement of the RV.  I checked the weather and there was no rain in the forecast for the next 7 days.  Also, the sky was cloudy and the temp was still at 72.  So I decided to wash the truck.  After washing the truck I decided to hand wax it too.  I haven’t waxed it in over 2 years.  I use a wash and wax soap that really works.  Water always beads up on the surface of the truck so I just have not spent the time waxing it.  Today I decided to actually hand wax the truck.  Washing and then waxing took me just over 3 hours and it looks great!  Just as I was finishing the wax removal the sun came out and wow! The temperature climbed up to 99 this afternoon!  It was really hot!  It was still above 90 at 8pm.

Our clock and weather station in the RV. The outdoor temp is on the right.

Tomorrow I plan to get the basement a little more organized. Probably play some water volleyball and darts too.  

We are now starting our last month here.  We leave the 28th of April.

Stay Tuned!