Beautiful Warm Weather

The weather here in southwest Texas has warmed up very nicely with the temps reaching into the high 70's.  Mary Ellen and Tm Miner invited us to attend the Methodist church with them on Sunday.  We found many of our Winter Texan friends in the congregation and really enjoyed the service.  A potluck dinner followed and we enjoyed a delicious meal and more fellowship.

John and I took advantage of the beautiful afternoon and played 9 nines with the Miners.  I finally felt comfortable enough about my back to tee off and managed to play the nine holes with no problem.  It sure felt good to be back on the golf course.

John and Tim teeing off

 

This is the fifth fairway where they playing

Today being Monday, John headed off to wood carvers this morning.  Since the weather was so nice, he rode over using the golf cart.  While he was gone, I did some cleaning and organizing--I think everything is finally put away and we are completely settled in. We decided to have another Super Bowl party this year, so this afternoon we took a golf cart ride over to Unit 37 to deliver a few invitations.  On our first stop we visited with Chuck, Lois, Everett, and Darlene Endris. This was our first time seeing them since we've been back.  After visiting with them for an hour or so, we headed down the street and saw the Sandwicks and Ralph sitting outside enjoying the nice weather.  John and I then stopped there for a little visit before heading over to the RV park to deliver more invites to the party.  We spent a pretty quiet evening watching "Gold Rush" and "The Big Bang Theory".    

 

Unpacking, Potluck, Visiting, and Golf

The title of this blog entry just about tells it all.  We arrived here at Fort Clark a little after noon on Monday and quickly got the car unloaded.  Since we had rented our house for the last eight months, we had many things stored out in the shed, so John got busy bringing in the many crates and boxes.  While he kept busy hauling things in, I dealt with AT&T and managed to get our internet back up and running.  Since we had no food in the house, we ran into town and picked up a couple of items to hold us over until our big restocking trip.  On the way, we stopped and visited with the Sandwicks and Ralph R.

Tuesday morning we were up bright and early and headed into Del Rio to restock the kitchen.  The grocery bill just about broke the bank.  Paul E. had called John yesterday about playing golf this afternoon, so after getting the bags of food unloaded, John headed off to the club house where he met up with Paul, John B. and Tim M. for a round of 18 holes.  Tuesday night was potluck at the RV park, so I spent some time making a casserole for the meal.  We also play "31" after eating and I came away a winner.

We are getting back into a routine and slowly, but surely, getting the house in order.  It has taken most of the week to get everything back in place.  John and I went to the Del Rio Winter Texan event on Thursday morning and did a little more shopping afterwards.  I have managed to play a little golf--just chipping and putting--trying to work my way back into the game.  I am being very cautious regarding my back.

This morning we went over to the RV park for the Saturday morning breakfast and then John left for the day to hike in the White Shaman Preserve with about 15 other folks from the fort.  I had done this hike before and thought it would be too strenuous for my back since my procedure was only a week ago.  

 

Heading South

John and I will be leaving for Texas bright and early tomorrow morning.  My procedure went well--Dr. says I will still have pain for three or four weeks as the nerves remember pain and then things should improve.  They will check with me in six weeks.

After John and I left the Pain Management center, we stopped at Applebee's for a very late lunch.  Due to having a light sedation, I hadn't eaten anything since last night.  From there we headed home and finished packing last minute items and then headed up to Clearbrook to watch Sam play basketball.  The Bears won an exciting game.  We'll miss seeing the kids play ball, but both of us need to get out of this cold.  Next blog entry will hopefully be from Texas.

Better Today

Haven't been posting everyday since nothing much is hapening around here.  Our main focus right now (along with half the country) is trying to keep warm, keep our vehicles running, and to make sure the water pipes don't freeze up.  

John and I have kept busy packing for our trip south and we are all ready to go.  Just need to get through Friday and hopefully will get the "all clear" to head out on Saturday morning.  The temps have actually improved with the highs for today expected to reach 15 degrees above zero.  Suppose to reach the mid 30's by Sunday.

I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon to check my eyes out again.  Have been having trouble with redness and itching.  Not sure if it's allergies, or what.  From there we will head out of town to watch Hanna play basketball.  Will sure feel good to get out of the house.  We're all suffering from "cabin fever".

Suffering Through The Cold

Not much new around here.  Just trying to survive the extreme cold.  Just about everything in Minnesota was shut down today--no school, no activities, and many meetings canceled.  John and I stayed hunkered down in the house with John only venturing outside to put wood in the stove.  We even had ice form along the bottom edges of our windows--that's never happened since we built the house 16 years ago.  Tomorrow is suppose to be a little better with the temps reaching 28 degrees above zero by Friday. That will be a 60 degree swing upward in the temps.  

Still Frigid

Well, as you can see from the title, we are still in the deep freeze here.  In fact, the weather for this weekend and the first part of next week is suppose to reach 30 below zero with highs at 20 below. When you add wind to those temps, you just have to stay inside and keep safe. The governor has closed all schools on Monday due to the cold and all sports and other school activities were canceled on Friday.

John and I did managed to get out to watch Hanna and Sam play basketball on Thursday evening.  The girls varsity won while the boys lost.  We had planned to go back on Friday night to watch another game, but freezing rain came into our area and all the schools closed early and activities were canceled.

As I had mentioned in an earlier posting, guys from SD were suppose to get here mid-afternoon on Thursday to start removing the dust collection system.  They called around 2 p.m. and told John they were just leaving Fargo.  That's an hour a half away, so he told them to just come Friday morning to do the job as it would be getting dark by the time they got here.  Elias and his helpers arrived around 10 a.m., got the system loaded, and were on their way back to SD a little before 1 p.m.  Matt and John had worked most of the day Thursday taking the piping down and getting the unit ready to move, so they were able to get everything loaded fairly fast.

Since it's not advisable to be outside for any reason, we have spent most of today sorting and packing for the trip south.  I went through all the kitchen cabinets and picked out what we want to take in the way of food items, so now that's ready to go.  Since the NFL playoffs started today, we have also been watching those games.  With such dangerous temps, I think John and I will be staying put until Tuesday when the weather is suppose to warm up a little.

Happy New Year!!

John and I have spent a pretty quiet week and New Year's so far.  With the brutally cold weather, neither one of us has ventured too far from the house.  John goes outside a couple of times a day to put wood on the stove and that's about it.  We have kept busy watching movies and all the bowl games.  However, we are now ten days from my back procedure, and since we hope to leave right afterward, we have to get busy sorting and packing to head south.  I went though all the files in the office and got them cleaned out and have what needs to go with us.  Tomorrow I'll probably start on clothing.  Also, the folks from SD should be here around 2 p.m. to start dismantling the dust collection system.  That will be a cold job as it's not suppose to get above zero tomorrow.  They think it will take two days and will be spending the night in Fosston and then return here to finish up on Friday.  This is going to be fun to watch.