March almost here

 77º here at 11 am in Kenwood with predicted high of 82º and 27-30 mph gusty winds all day.  Had windows open for a few days following the cold weather last week, now with high humidity have the air conditioner going!

Had to change the air in my back tire yesterday.  Had made 8 trips to the garbage area with the chunks of frozen cactus that I cut down and probably picked up something then.

This is the way this cactus
looked last month.

This is the way it looked a couple
days ago after the freeze

After severe trimming

Drove west yesterday morning.  Got a case of liquid aloe from King Aloe Farm, went to Sam's Club and Costco in Pharr.  Talked at length with Cell Phone rep at Costco about new phones and probably changing to T-Mobile account they have a good Senior program.  Verizon, who we are with, has a senior program but only for residents of Florida!

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Doctor: “I’ve found a great new drug that can help you with your sleeping problem.”  Patient: “Great, how often do I have to take it?”  Doctor: “Every two hours.”

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Happy 90th to Don Ferguson

Wow -- week ago it was 48 degrees in the house and 27 degrees outside.  Right now, at 9:45 pm Tuesday it is 68 degrees outside and 76 degrees in the house - with most of the windows open!

 Got word today that my brother Roger's grandson welcomed a new daughter Mila Raye Miles to their family today over in Germany.  Dad, Steven, is in the Army there.

Here in the park, Don Ferguson, from Ansley, Nebraska (not too far from where I grew up in Custer County, Nebraska) celebrated his 90th birthday.

Lawrence's son Larry and his wife Gail passed out Blue Bell Ice Cream little packets and all had a nice visit.

Warm Sunday in Rio Grande Valley

 Cooled down to 74 degrees now at 5:15 pm on Sunday - was 79 degrees a couple hours ago with very strong winds -- Harlingen reported 41 mph gusts on TV weather news.  All windows in the house open for a good, warm airing.

Got our 2nd Covid-19 Vaccination this morning at Los Fresnos, TX at the Fire Station there located on the Rodeo Grounds.

We set in line with around 2,000 other vehicles from 6:30 am until got our shots about 10:25 am.

Saturday decided to go out to get a hamburger at noon.  Stopped at Burger King across the street -- closed.  Stopped at Whataberger across the interstate -- closed.  Stopped at Churches Chicken -- closed.  Finally sat in drive-up line 25 minutes at a McDonalds to pick up the sandwiches.  All the restaurants had to clean out all their perishable food items and clean up and re-stock.  On our way back from Los Fresnos we stopped at Walmart in Harlingen.  Got some things, but no milk and no milk at local El Centro -- they said hoped to get restocked Monday.

Did stop at Panda Express in Harlingen to pick up our favorite Chinese food to bring home for lunch.

Back to short pants this afternoon and got 5 miles on the recumbent trike.  With the hard wind blowing, think got more exercise than a normal 5 miles.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A sixth grade class is doing some spelling drills. The teacher asks Tommy if he can spell 'before.' He stands up and says, "Before, B-E-P-H-O-R."  The teacher says, "No, that's wrong. Can anyone else spell before?"  Another little boy stands up and says, "Before, B-E-F-O-O-R."  Again the teacher says, "No, that's wrong." The teacher asks, "Little Johnny, can you spell 'before'?"  Little Johnny stands up and says, "Before, B-E-F-O-R-E."  "Excellent Johnny, now can you use it in a sentence?"  Little Johnny says, "That's easy. Two plus two be fore."

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Church sign: “Jesus Saves!” Safeway sign across the street: “Safeway saves you more!”

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Hired a handy man and gave him a list. When I got home, only items #1, 3, & 5 were done  Turns out, he only does odd jobs.  

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Some warm weather and sunshine --- with electricity turned on

 41 degrees at 8:45 pm in La Feria.  Predicted low in the morning of 32 degrees.  What an invention electricity was!  Had great sunshine today, and was warm in if you were out of the wind.  

With a short time of expected freeze - 32 degrees - in the morning, once again we moved all the potted flowers from the front of the house and covered the couple in-the-ground plants.

After 4 days and (most of the nights) of running the generator for heat, a few hours of the refrigerator, and television, parked the generator for a while.

Later this afternoon I put it back in the pickup where it has been for several years.

With bright sunshine and temps in the mid-50's I spent some time doing major trimming of the two cactus plant - took 5 trips to the garbage area with my basket on the recumbent trike.  With my usual dumpster-diving, though, I did end up with some wood pieces and a nice metal sawhorse.

Will show a few photos of the breaker box being replaced last Tuesday.

With the nice weather had a pretty good turnout for the Veggie Man Joe.  With this terrible freeze this week, much of the grapefruit still on the trees were lost, he said the oranges left on the trees may be salvaged for juice only.  Of course, all the truck farming with cabbage, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, watermelons, peppers, avocados; in fact anything growing in the valley was essentially lost.  He said some supply would still be had, but probably imported from other areas of the country and much elevated prices.

We are to go to Los Fesnos Sunday for our second Covid-19 shot.  Expecting quite a wait, so will leave home at 5:00 am - 20 minute drive.  They start giving shots at 7:00 am, but several hundred expected.

Later, Lynn

75 hours without electricity and temperatures down to 24 degrees two nights

 42 degrees outside right now at 2:00 pm Friday.  Predicted 29 degrees overnight tonight so will have one more freeze.  We lost electricity at 7:45 am last Monday and just got it turned on again at 11 am this morning.  Found that one space heater won't quite heat the space we have in our mobile home.

In the late 1990's we went on a train trip with our kids to Salt Lake City from Iowa.  As we went west there was some flooding right behind us and we found out later we were the last passenger train that got out of Iowa.  About a week later we were coming back and because of the rail not being operable in western Iowa we were taken off the train, with a lot of others heading east, and put on busses to go to our stations.  We rode the bus from Omaha to Osceola, IA  and when we were getting off the bus at our station a young gal (teenager or early 20's) was on the phone telling her grandma "Its been a trip from hell" and I thought of that remark this last week here without heat or lights.  Not really that bad, but it has been an experience with no lights, heat or cooking facilities.  Several of our neighbors here have found motels to stay in this last week.  I took the generator out of  the pickup, that have carried around for years, and set up a cord through window into the Texas Room and again through kitchen window.  Laid bath towels above and below the electric cord and was able to close the windows enough to keep out cold.

This was temperatures, inside and outside last week, with the windows in the house open.

Ice in the bird waterer  --

and Ice cycles off the roof of our house. 

10:37 pm Monday evening

7:16 am Tuesday morning

3:36 am Tuesday morning

Spent a lot of time, driving to Santa Rosa and then east 6 miles to the interstate to get gas for the generator.  First morning no waiting, but 2nd and 3rd days waited almost an hour in lines at gas stations.  Many cars at smaller stations and as we came back one day we were on the interstate and drove by Sam's Club in Harlingen.  They had more than 50 cars lined up on every street waiting to get gas.  Much of Harlingen was without electricity as was La Feria and Mercedes.

Picture of me in the house after cold front came in and no electricity.   I was wearing t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, sweater, rain coat and winter coat.  This is in the house -- at night I took off the winter coat and the hat for sleeping in bed. After got a space heater (from my neighbor's place) set up I did take off the winter coat part of the time.  This is one of those times that a smaller house would be better (to heat), though I like the more space 99.99% of the time.

Weather man is just giving prediction of 29 degrees overnight, so another freeze here.  Hopefully won't loose electricity.  Will have faucets dripping to avoid pipe freezes --- lots of pipes did freeze and maintenance man repaired many the other afternoon.

Later, Lynn