Some leaving Kenwood for the North

Intended to touch on this yesterday.
Neighbors Bob & Bobi Raab flew to Minneapolis week ago last Sunday.
Neighbor Darlene Winslow left yesterday with Velda Smith, driving to Michigan.
Neighbors Ardel & Marion Finken are leaving Friday for Indiana with stops at some family members on the way.
Neighbors Harold and LaRhoda Neher are leaving Sunday with a son coming down to pick them up.
Bill & Pam Ellwanger are leaving for Minnesota this Friday.  They full-time in their 5th-wheel.
Neighbors Doug and Betty Salzwedle are flying to Minneapolis this Sunday.
Dale and Rita Bright left for Iowa on Monday.
We are leaving next Monday morning, with Carl Pingleton following us as far as Joplin, MO.

Later, Lynn

Hot, Hot, Hot in the Valley

9lº with not a cloud in site here in Kenwood RV in La Feria, TX at 5:35 pm Tuesday April 28, 2020
Local TV gave 97º as the high for today in Harlingen, which is just next door.  To be as hot tomorrow, they say.

Will start off here with some neat pictures of our great granddaughter, her mom & a fish she caught last Sunday.

This is in front of our house.

This is as cheap as I can recall gas being in recent history -  $1.229 - and I looked up and found that Texas collects $.384 out of that for taxes.  Means the gas itself cost $.845

These honey bees have been watering out of our birdbath for some time.  Am wondering, but haven't found where there nest is located. 

Made a run to our Veggie Man today and got lots of sweet 1015 onions, grapefruit, carrots, avocados, etc.  Much of them for neighbors to take back north, as we will soon.

This hibiscus was so pretty in Bobi Raab's yard so I picked it and put it in a glass of water for Phyllis.

Phyllis says the bloom only lasts a day; at least this is what it looked like the next day.
Guess they don't last more than one day.










Planning to leave our place here next Monday morning.  Have been covering windows with insulation and trying to sort what needs to go with us and what stays here for use next year.

 I just went back and clicked on the link for the Dr. Erickson COVID-19 Briefing
that I had put in the last blog post and found Facebook has removed it.  Too bad they can't stand any thoughts that are different.

Two hillbillies walk into a restaurant. While having a bite to eat, they talk about their moonshine operation.

Suddenly, a woman at a nearby table, who is eating a sandwich, begins to cough.

After a minute or so, it becomes apparent that she is in real distress. One of the hillbillies looks at her and says, Kin ya swallar?'

The woman shakes her head no. Then he asks, 'Kin ya breathe?'

The woman ...begins to turn blue, and shakes her head no.

The hillbilly walks over to the woman, lifts up her dress, yanks down her drawers, and quickly gives her right butt cheek a lick with his tongue.

The woman is so shocked that she has a violent spasm, and the obstruction flies out of her mouth.As she begins to breathe again, the Hillbilly walks slowly back to his table. His partner says, 'Ya know, I'd heerd of that there 'Hind Lick Maneuver' but I ain't niver seed nobody do it!'

Later, Lynn

Dr. Erickson COVID-19 Briefing

Click HERE     
to see a video by a doctor in California on whether the isolation of the entire public is the proper thing with this COVID-19 case.

Click HERE for follow-up of above

I TALKED TO A MAN TODAY . . .

(Copied and sharing)

   I TALKED TO A MAN TODAY . . .

     I talked with a man today, an 80+ year old man. I asked him if there was anything I can get him while this Corona virus scare was gripping America.

     He simply smiled, looked away and said:

"Let me tell you what I need! [pause] I need to believe, at some point, this country my generation fought for [pause] I need to believe this nation we handed safely to our children and their children [pause] . . . I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies . . . that they respect what they've been given . . . that they've earned what others sacrificed for."

     I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or if it was going anywhere at all. So, I sat there, quietly observing.

     "You know, I was a little boy during WWII. Those were scary days. We didn't know if we were going to be speaking English, German or Japanese at the end of the war. There was no certainty, no guarantees like Americans enjoy today.

     And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down every street, had someone in harm's way. Maybe their Daddy was a soldier, maybe their son was a sailor, maybe it was an uncle. Sometimes it was the whole damn family . . . fathers, sons, uncles . . .

     Having someone, you love, sent off to war . . . it wasn't less frightening than it is today. It was scary as Hell. If anything, it was more frightening. We didn't have battlefront news. We didn't have email or cellphones. You sent them away and you hoped...you prayed. You may not hear from them for months, if ever. Sometimes a mother was getting her son's letters the same day Dad was comforting her over their child's death.

     And we sacrificed. You couldn't buy things. Everything was rationed. You were only allowed so much milk per month, only so much bread, toilet paper. EVERYTHING was restricted for the war effort. And what you weren't using, what you didn't need, things you threw away, they were saved and sorted for the war effort. My generation was the original recycling movement in America.

     And we had viruses back then...serious viruses. Things like polio, measles, and such. It was nothing to walk to school and pass a house or two that was quarantined. We didn't shut down our schools. We didn't shut down our cities. We carried on, without masks, without hand sanitizer. And do you know what? We persevered. We overcame. We didn't attack our President, we came together. We rallied around the flag for the war. Thick or thin, we were in it to win. And we would lose more boys in an hour of combat than we lose in entire wars today."

     He slowly looked away again. Maybe I saw a small tear in the corner of his eye. Then he continued:

     "Today's kids don't know sacrifice. They think sacrifice is not having coverage on their phone while they freely drive across the country. Today's kids are selfish and spoiled. In my generation, we looked out for our elders. We helped out with single moms whose husbands were either at war or dead from war. Today's kids rush [to] the store, buying everything they can . . . no concern for anyone but themselves. It's shameful the way Americans behave these days. None of them deserve the sacrifices their granddads made.

     So, no I don't need anything. I appreciate your offer but, I know I've been through worse things than this virus. But maybe I should be asking you, what can I do to help you? Do you have enough pop to get through this, enough steak? Will you be able to survive with 113 channels on your TV?"

I smiled, fighting back a tear of my own . . . now humbled by a man in his 80's. All I could do was thank him for the history lesson, leave my number for emergency and leave with my ego firmly tucked in my rear.

     I talked to a man today. A real man. An American man from an era long gone and forgotten.

We will never understand the sacrifices. We will never fully earn their sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about them . . . learn from them . . . . . to respect them.

~ Courtesy of Craig Dew

Another week in the Compound

3:30 pm Wednesday afternoon - 92º with a "feel like" of 102º.  Winds in the 20 to 25 mph range.

Yesterday we moved the trailer, turning it around and parking it so the door of the trailer is right beside the patio.  Can take our time, over the next 10 to 14 days, to transfer stuff into the trailer while closing up the house.

Somewhat planning on heading north around the 4th or 5th of May.  Seemingly, things my loosen up a bit in regard the Covid-19 problem by then.
Will see what things look like then.

Hauled off another 10 or so crates of trimmings from the flowering bushes and the cactus plants in the back yard while keeping up with the 20 miles per day on the recumbent trike.  Usually do much of it after the sun goes down to beat the heat.  Fortunately has been a good breeze most days (so strong today I had to get one of the straw hats with a chin-string on it to keep the hat on my head right after lunch) and that helps with the cooling a little, and keeps the mosquitoes from flying.

 These two guys were here only a year and moved their park model today to a different park.  They were located right beside the shuffleboard and said it was just too noise.  They only moved a couple miles east to another park, maybe they will be happy there!

I took this photo with full telephoto mode -  cat was really relaxed on a hot afternoon on the steps of her 5th Wheel Trailer.

Three neighbors keeping their distance while visiting in the park.

This photo shows the trailer by the door to the house.

Neighbor Darlene gets the daily newspaper from neighbor Ardel, and after looking through it she brings it to me and I do the crossword puzzle daily.

Later, Lynn

CORONA VIRUS Common Sense

This is a FB message from a Square Dancer's friend, both are retired nurses.

Herman Meyer

 CORONA VIRUS Common Sense
Since they are calling on Respiratory therapist to help fight the Corona virus, and I am a retired one, too old to work in a hospital setting. I'm going to share some common sense wisdom with those that have the virus and trying to stay home. If my advice is followed as given you will improve your chances of not ending up in the hospital on a ventilator. This applies to the otherwise generally healthy population, so use discretion.

1. Only high temperatures kill a virus, so let your fever run high. Tylenol, Advil. Motrin, Ibuprofen etc. will bring your fever down allowing the virus to live longer. They are saying that ibuprofen, Advil, etc. will actually exacerbate the virus. Use common sense and don't let fever go over 103 or 104 if you got the guts. If it gets higher than that take your Tylenol, not ibuprofen or Advil to keep it regulated. It helps to keep house warm and cover up with blankets so body does not have to work so hard to generate the heat. It usually takes about 3 days of this to break the fever. 

2. The body is going to dehydrate with the elevated temperature so you must rehydrate yourself regulaly, whether you like it or not. Gatorade with real sugar, or Pedialyte with real sugar for kids, works well. Why the sugar? Sugar will give your body back the energy it is using up to create the fever. The electrolytes and fluid you are losing will also be

replenished by the Gatorade. If you don't do this and end up in the hospital, they will start an IV and give you D5W (sugar water) and Normal Saline to replenish electrolytes. Gatorade is much cheaper, pain free, and comes in an assortment of flavors 

3. You must keep your lungs moist. Best done by taking long steamy showers on a regular basis, if your wheezing or congested use a real minty toothpaste and brush your teeth while taking the steamy shower and deep breath through your mouth. This will provide some bronchial dilation and help loosen the phlegm. Force yourself to cough into a wet wash cloth pressed firmly over your mouth and nose, which will cause greater pressure in your lungs forcing them to expand more and break loose more of the congestion. 

4. Eat healthy and regularly. Got to keep your strength up. 

5. Once the fever breaks, start moving around to get the body back in shape and blood circulating. 

6. Deep breath on a regular basis, even when it hurts. If you don't it becomes easy to develop pneumonia. Pursed lip breathing really helps. That's breathing in deep and slow then exhaling through tight lips as if your blowing out a candle, blow until you have completely emptied your lungs and you will be able to breath in an even deeper breath. This helps keep lungs expanded as well as increase your oxygen level. 

7. Remember that every medication you take is merely relieving the symptoms, not making you well. 

8. If you’re still dying go to ER.

  I've been doing these things for myself and my family for over 40 years and kept them out of the hospital, all are healthy and still living today.
Thank you all for sharing. We got to help one another.

 

Another ohum couple days

80º with heavy overcast at 11:20 am on Friday April 17, 2020.  20% chance of rain today.

Did leave the park yesterday to pick up a med prescription for me at Walgreens in downtown Harlingen.  Then went to Sam's Club to get groceries, but found a line of people waiting outside the building that was about a block long, so went to our neighborhood store El Central here in La Feria.  Wearing face masks and latex gloves, we did shopping for us and a neighbor.  Store was not crowded, seemed as many employees stocking shelves as shoppers.  Wasn't able to find Kleenex, so stopped at CVS store which is only couple blocks away and Phyllis was able to get some for her and the neighbor.

One of the last loads of brush

Neighbors visiting this morning - while I was riding

Dave and Jan, resting on their walk this morning

One neighbor had her car cleaned and waxed.

Not a lot going on.  Rode trike 20 miles each day for 3 days, but yesterday only 13.5.  Pooped last evening so didn't go out after dark to finish it.  Had about 8 miles by 11 this morning and am working in Texas Room.

KMA Radio at Shenandoah reported 8" of snow in Clarinda this morning.  There were a lot of pictures on Facebook from the Clarinda area of the snow.  These two were from our neighbors Carol & Bob Brown.




GROANER'S CORNER:(( Lost on a rainy night, a nun stumbles across a monastery and requests shelter there. Fortunately, she's just in time for dinner and was treated to the best fish and chips she's ever had. After dinner, she goes into the kitchen to thank the chefs. She is met by two brothers, "Hello, I'm Brother Michael, and this is Brother Charles." "I'm very pleased to meet you. I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful dinner. The fish and chips were the best I've ever tasted. Out of curiosity, who cooked what?" Brother Charles replied, "Well, I'm the fish friar." She turns the other brother and says, "Then you must be...?" "Yes, I'm the chip monk." ----------------------------  

What do you call a belt made out of hundred dollar bills? A waist of money. ----------------------------  
While driving in Pennsylvania, a family caught up to an Amish carriage.  The owner of the carriage obviously had a sense of humor because attached to the back of the carriage was a hand-painted sign that read, "Energy efficient vehicle. Runs on oats and grass. CAUTION: Do not step on exhaust."
Later - Lynn

Cool, cool, cool

63º here in Kenwood at 11:13 am on Wednesday with a really cool north wind blowing.  Cool front came in Sunday evening and got really seriously cool Monday.  We rode the trikes about 4 miles this morning and are in getting warmed up now.

Some time ago I ran the video while riding around the park, showing the units still here Click HERE 

Have worked up to 20 miles per day - at least have done it two days now.  Not all in one ride, think was 4 different times yesterday.

Have gotten a dozen grape sized tomatoes or so from plants

Have pretty much trimmed the very tall bougainvillea plant in the back yard.  We planted it some 8 or 9 years ago and this is the first time trimmed back.

Brought some of the flowers in for Phyllis and also took some to neighbors Neher's and Finken's.

 On Sunday evenings we try to catch Rory Feek and his daughter Indiana on RFD-TV at 8:00 pm Central.  His life story (or at least some of it) he and  his wife Joy had a music life and lots of TV performances.  Several years ago, their daughter was born with Downs Syndrome and at the same time Joy was diagnosed with cancer.  She died 2 years later.  You can catch many of their earlier programs on TV at times.  Check out his web page at HERE

Sunset one recent evening

Phyllis visiting with neighbor Bobi Raab.  The Raabs are flying home to Minneapolis tomorrow.

Phyllis had been in touch with her first cousin Anita Kuhlman Snook for some time about the fact that her brother, Les, had contracted the Covid-19 and was in a hospital in Sterling, Colorado where he lived.  He had been traveling abroad in early March.  Was in ICU for many days and finally passed April 11th.  We had visited him and his wife Jo several times as we went to Colorado to see Phyllis' sister.  These two photos are the last time we saw them, I think, in 2016.  She had had a stroke and was having mental acuity problems and had been confined to a nursing home.  Les would see her many times a day when he was home.  She, of course, was not allowed to see him in the hospital and is having a hard time understanding what has happened.

This photo was taken, I assume, sometime in the early 1960's.  Phyllis' Mom's Sister Mary Ruth is at the right side of photo.  She passed away in the mid 1960's from cancer.
We bought the house they are in front of from Les, Anita and Rhoda's dad Bill in 1971 and lived there for 38 years.

Rhoda passed away several years ago, as did their father Bill.



Nothing exciting going on here.  Waiting until the Covid-19 thing settles down before we head north.





GETTING OLDER IS NOT SO BAD ONCE YOU REALIZE WRINKLES DON'T HURT

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Duct tape is like 'The Force'...It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
-------------------------------------
- Arab cannibal's favourite flavour: Yemen-lime.

- At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

- Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use the large double door at the side entrance. 

Lynn