Friday, January 5, 2010

Wow! The sun is actually shining, cool but fine. We drove to Port Aransas this morning--17 miles from here to the ferry across the bay to Port A. We had a wonderful time driving along the beach & stopping several places to walk on the beach. It has rained so much that much of the beach road has huge pools of water so we didn't try to drive the entire 22 miles. We want to go back on hopefully a warmer day and stay even longer. We stopped for lunch on the way back at Virginia's on the bay and we are probably going to turn into shrimp before we get back home as we both had Shrimp Louis salads & Bob added a cup of New England clam chowder, his favorite. He has gone to the Civic Center in A. Pass to set up his table for the wood carving show which begins at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

Thursday February 4, 2010

It has finally stopped raining!!! Hope I'm not saying that too quickly as it is still overcast and feels like it could start again but the weatherman says sun by tomorrow.

We had a scare the other night when our phone rang with a call from our Security system in Amarillo to tell us that the motion sensor in our den had set off the alarm and that the police had been dispatched. We had some pretty anxious moments while we waited to hear back from them. The police found no evidence of broken windows or anything else indicating anyone had attempted to get in--thank goodness! Understanding that we are about 14 hours away from home & not wanting to have to rush back to a robbery! Our housekeeper went over to check and found our younger cat, Maggie, up on top of the upper kitchen cabinet (above the refrigerator) and the older one downstairs in Bob's "man cave", both terrified. We are guessing that Maggie is the culprit--the week before we left I walked into the living room to find her sitting on the fireplace mantle next to the clock like a little statue. And we suspect that she was up on the den fireplace mantle which is in line with the motion censor which is directed to the den door that goes into the garage. We are hoping that the alarm scared her enough that she won't try that again!

I walked up to the library in my trusty raincoat this morning and agreed with everyone I saw that it was time to be able to get out of our RV's as we are definitely getting cabin fever~ So we went out for lunch at Alice Faye's on the Bay on Fulton Beach Rd. We had a table right by the windows on the bay and could watch the pelicans, seagulls & ducks thru the rain. Bob had a shrimp po boy with onion rings (no fat, of course) and I ended with a chef salad. Wanted shrimp salad until I learned it was made with mayo & changed my mind. Most of you reading this---at least those I know are reading it like our kids--are too young to remember Phil Harris & Alice Faye. We barely remember them but that is how the name happened and they have their photos hanging, mostly of Alice.

And it was time to grocery shop again. Guess my "find" of the day was mini whole grain cinnamon bagels! Wow--can't wait for breakfast. Can't remember the last time I had a bagel & it will go great with some yogurt.

Bob is getting ready for the carving show on Sat. We know the vendors and the judge from the shows in Amarillo so that will be nice. He has quite a few different categories he wants to enter so cross your fingers for him that he will earn some ribbons. He said it looked like some really good carvers when he visited the club on Tues so he will have real competition. Hope we can get some good photos of the carvings.

Bob's turn to blog

Most of the daily journal has been written by Sandi, but today she told me to have at it. It's Groundhog Day. The big rodent saw his shadow, and the local weatherman just announced that tomorrow will be rainy and cold - the worst winter day here so far. How thrilling.

It is also number two son, Mark's 42nd birthday. However, Mark announced he was doing the Jack Benny thing, and remaining at age 39. But he confessed he had no idea who that famous comedian was. Wow, am I old!

I drove to nearby Aransas Pass to the Portobello Village RV Resort to take part in a meeting of the Coastal Bend Woodcarvers. About one fourth of their members are permanent residents of the area and the rest are "snow birds". There were fifty present for the gathering, and it appeared each was engaged in a different carving or woodburning endeavor.

I carved on a stylized deer which was a project our Golden Spread Woodcarver club is working on this month. The fellow sitting to my left at this club was from Bemidji, Minnesota and was carving a quaint house scene in a thick piece of cottonwood bark. The gentleman seated across from me was from Michigan, and carving from basswood a large canoe with a hunter, his gear, and a large set of moose antlers. It was a fun gathering as I visited with folks from all over the mid-section of America, sharing this common interest in art.

Towards the end of the meeting, we had an incident when one of the carvers seemed to be experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath. Three or four of the group acted quickly, one calling 911 while another secured aspirin for him to chew and continued to attend him until the EMS arrived, checked him, and transported him from the meeting hall for further treatment.

A sobering end to a good morning. I checked my pocket for my nitroglycerin and headed back to our motor home in a grateful mood.

We attended choir practice later this afternoon. We rehearsed our special music for this Sunday and then got to pick hymns we would like to sing. And my sweet hubby asked for us to sing --you guessed it!--"In the Garden" for me. The lady at the piano said it is one everyone over 60 loves and this choir sounded almost as good as STARS singing it! Oh, the empty spot in the back row is where Bob was standing.

I went to Bible study this afternoon, sat with James & Gypsy. The tables filled up before we started the lesson on Chapter 8 of Hebrews. Karen, the pastor's wife is a good teacher and took us between the old testament verses on the building of the tabernacle to Hebrew's telling us that
our temple is the Holy Spirit in our heart.

Right across the hall from where Bob was carving is one of the Lagoons' laundry rooms. Clean & nice as you can see --and ya'all know that someone has to do the wash! That's my book on the chair and I was finished in just an hour just as Bob came to "fetch" me. Looks like this will be a good time to do this task each week.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Woke up to rain which has continued most of the day! Thank goodness for our Gortex rain jackets. There was a woodcarving group at 10 am, just 4 of them, but Bob enjoyed an hrs carving. The man in the photo will also be in the show next week.

Today would have been my mother's 100th birthday & I have thought about her a great deal today. It will be 5 years tomorrow since she died and I still miss her very much. I am so glad we had those last years with her in Amarillo, even tho she had Altzheimers we were able to spend many good hours together. I have precious memories of having Savina & Adriana visiting with both of our mothers but particularly with mine as they really enjoyed visiting with Mother. I'm sure she is in Heaven & that I will see her again one day.