Home in Clarinda, IA

Clarinda, IA 48º, rainy
     Been a while since I posted.  Last Monday morning while we were still at our home in La Feria, TX, we went to Nuevo Progreso in Tamaulipas, MX  and I had final dental work done, getting bridge of 4 teeth installed and then the two new implants and other new bridge of 3 teeth checked out.  Other than not chewing things like nuts with the new implants for a month or so till it "settles in" things are good.

 On the way back to La Feria, we came up Bass Road and stopped at Granny Clare's Citrus and got 3 bags of grapefruit to take back north for ourselves and friends.  When we got home Phyllis washed them in Clorox water and laid them out to dry.

We finished packing up the trailer and put a lot of stuff in the car.  We then covered all the windows of the house.  Some were with one-inch insulation with the silver on the outside placed between the storm windows and the inside windows.  Some I put aluminum foil on directly, or on cardboard that was then placed inside the windows.  When we got done it was dark as dark inside.  In fact, the next morning we overslept, partly because we were exhausted by the packing, picking up, etc., and partly because there was no sunshine!.

We headed north on 77 and the day was nice, warm and sunny with a breeze out of the south.



We listened on the radio as we were driving north and east within a couple hundred miles of Dallas, to all the tornado warnings and reports of damage around the Dallas-Forth Worth area.  We did not have any rain on us.  We arrived at Phyllis' cousin Russ & Krista Heuer's place around 5:30 pm.  Clouds were building there at Elkhart, TX some 60

or so miles south and east of Dallas.  We all piled into their car and went to an Italian restaurant Giavani's in Palestine, TX and the hard rain and wind hit while we were eating.  No tornadoes, though.  We returned to their place and visited.

After too short a visit, we left the next morning as the kids were heading off for school and Krista and Russ were heading for work.

 We had seen several patches of Texas Blue Bonnets along the road on Tuesday, but had not had a chance to stop.  On Wednesday morning I spotted some and stopped, then backed the car and trailer about 150 yards so Phyllis could pick some right beside the car.  Don't know whether this is legal or not,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but she got some and

 then pressed them in her books so can make up some arrangements later.

 We made the run up the two tollways in Oklahoma and were in Gravette, AR that afternoon at Don & Bessie Runyan -- another cousin of Phyllis.  We went out to pizza and then visited with them that evening.  I had left a leather vest at their place, inadvertently, last October when we were driving south, so picked it up when we returned to the road the next morning.

We had seen gasoline as high as $4.049, but were able to fill up for $3.689 once and $3.749 once.  Terrible when we thought that was cheaper than could have paid.  Still better than the $4.119 we saw for diesel one place.  Glad we weren't driving the diesel on this trip.

As we were heading down the road I could visit with "Hummie" (the plastic hummingbird hanging from the clothes rack - just above the trailer that was "tailgating" me) whenever Phyllis was sawing logs.  (I'm going to catch the devil for putting this picture of her in here)

 

We stopped in Maryville, MO at the Social Security Office to talk to them, but it was 3:30 pm and they had a sign up they were closed at 3:30 pm and no sign of our government at work.  So, we stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken and ate an early supper and were in our driveway at 5:05 pm and was able to unload the car and trailer before dark.

On Friday it was work all day on the yard.  Seems like a waste of time and money, but I put about a hundred dollars worth of fertilizer/crab grass-preventer down after mowing the yard.

 Phyllis cleaned up a lot of leaves, photo on top is behind our house, looking towards the west and the neighbors where she is cleaning out flower bed.  Below is leaves that blew in and around the bushes right behind the garage.





Today we went over to Shenandoah and took some things to Patty that she couldn't get on the plane when she was with us in February, as well as a few grapefruit.  Then we stopped at Harold Book's and gave him and Jackie some grapefruit and visited a bit with them.  On way back home we stopped at Roberta and Maury Rarick's to visit with them a bit.  This afternoon Phyllis went over to Leland and Bonnie Brown's while I was working on this blog.  So, have seen a few people that we haven't for over 5 months.  Thought might help with the choir in the morning, but found they aren't going to be singing, will be the cherub choir instead.

Rain has quit outside and is 63 degrees, more dreary than the 84 degrees I just saw is now in La Feria.
Till later, Lynn