July 1, 2021. Talked with Jimmy & Karen again this morning before and during hooking up. We did not get out of TT until noon and drove down I-45 into Houston, getting on Beltway 8 east to bypass going through Houston.
After setting up, Jim took his trike off of the back and went for a ride. It’s been five or six months since he was able to ride his trike because so many of the parks we went to had horrible roads. While riding this evening he encountered a little girl so he stopped to talk with her, and then her mother came out and said she was trying to teach her daughter not to talk to strangers and Jim should not have stopped to talk to her daughter. Jim said, well if you are trying to teach her not to talk to strangers, then why is she out here by herself? They had words back and forth, but it still upset Jim that she would accuse him of something untoward. He is going to the office in the morning and let them know of the issue before this woman could go and file a complaint, which is what he is worried about.
One other thing that we will have to deal with is the awning lever, which did not want to lock in the down position when I put the awning out. I played with it and it finally clicked to stay down. I am hoping we will not have any trouble getting it back up when we leave on Tuesday.
I finally was able to get an appointment with the urologist, which is not until August. I was hoping to get one this month, but no luck there.
In the evening we went into the clubhouse so Jim could wash all of his C-Pap equipment, and then met a guy coming in to shoot pool. So I took his stuff back to the trailer, got his pool cue and took it back to him so he could shoot pool for a bit.
July 5, 2021. Jacklyn, Sean and Jayden arrived Friday morning. At first Josh had said he was going to cook his brisket on Saturday but then decided to do it on Friday, so Jim and I went over there for dinner Friday night. On Saturday we stayed home and they went to Galveston for the day. On Sunday they went to the neighbor pool and we ended up going there in the afternoon. Monday we went to do our shopping while they went to the park.
After they were done at the park, they all came over so Sean could change the on/off switch on the hot water heater. The old one was pretty corroded and no wonder it stopped working. So now we have a new switch and I can use the electric to heat the water.
We went over to Josh & Karen’s after that for a couple of hours; finally got a family picture which I have wanted to do for a long time. I am really happy to have it. They left about 5pm to go to the airport, with Karen driving them and we stayed for a little while talking with Josh. We did not stay long as they have a lot to do this evening to get ready for the week.
July 9, 2021. Tuesday we headed out of Houston on our way back to Tres Rios with a stop over at Brazos RV Park in Caldwell, Texas. We always stop at this park going to and from Houston to Glen Rose. It’s very convenient, an Escapees park, very well maintained and it’s always a good stop.
Got to Tres Rios on Wednesday and while trying to put the chocks in the tires, it would not go in the old tires, the Goodyear Endurance that are still on the street side of the trailer.
When we got here all of our friends were real happy to see us again. Rhonda came out of the clubhouse to wave and when we went in to say HI, got hugs from everyone.
While walking around the park I met a few new people and stopped and talked with them. I invited a couple of women to come play cards and mentioned the men play pool.
July 12, 2021. Enjoying our time at Tres Rios playing cards, pool, and Jim finally gets to ride his trike again. We have a nice spot (No. 80) with lots of grass and close to the clubhouse.
Today we drive to Granbury for our weekly shopping and will test the Excursion to see if the front shakes. If there is no shaking, then the vibration we felt on our way up from Houston is due to the two Goodyear Endurance tires on the trailer.
One evening while watching TV, Jim saw a recall on the Philips C-Pap machine he uses. I looked it up and yes, indeed his machine was recalled. The recall was due to the foam used to insulate deteriorating. One of the questions asked was, do you use an ozone cleaner to clean your machine. Since we do not, I wonder if the cleaners advertised on TV are the cause of the foam deterioration. I put in a notice to Philips on Jim’s machine, so who knows when we will hear from them for a replacement. In the meantime, he is continuing to use it.
July 14, 2021. Discovered an issue with our two remaining Goodyear Endurance tires when we got here to Tres Rios - the chocks would not fit between the tires. We called Goodyear and filed a claim and today took the two Goodyear off along with the spare and took them to a Goodyear store to have new ones put on. Trailer slipped a bit while on jacks, but it all turned out OK. One of the stabilizers got bent when the trailer shifted, and I think we may have to replace it as I am having a hard time getting it up and down. Doug put LPS on it and tried to straighten it out, but I don’t think that is going to work.
New friends came by to see what we were going and offered to take Lucy for a golf cart ride, and then offered to dog sit her while we took the tires up to the store. I heard she kept looking over at the trailer waiting for us to return. She was sure happy to see us when we got back.
The manager at Granbury Tire & Service who handles Goodyear tires and people with tire issues, confirmed that the three tires we brought him were indeed separating. He got us a 50% rebate from Goodyear on the three tires we bought, but Goodyear said no to the 4th tire as we did not have possession of it. Tomorrow the other two get done. Many thanks to Doug Keller for his help today!! Don't know how we would manage without him. He saved the day again like he did when he helped us with the trailer brakes.
When we got home and finished the work, Jim decided to call Goodyear and see if we could get a rebate on the 4th tire. He explained the situation and the woman he talked to said OK, she would authorize a 50% rebate on the 4th tire. So I made a pdf of the three receipts and emailed them to her so she could see what we did. Now we will take one of the Freestar and put it as a spare, but according to Goodyear, we will have to let Granbury Tire dispose of the extra tire. Oh well.
July 20, 2021. Monday morning when we hopped in the truck to head off to Granbury for our weekly shopping, the truck just did the awrh, awrh. Jim pounded on the battery but determined that it was indeed dead. Michael came over and jumped us, and we headed to Auto Zone for a new battery. When we arrived we discovered that we had a 3 year warranty on it, which expired on July 3. The manager in Auto Zone said to honor the warranty and we walked out with a new battery free of charge.
Tuesday I had a dentist appointment to get the tooth that cracked back in March sitting at Jim Urban’s place when I was eating a sub. I also had a cavity which I got filled with composite. Then we discussed the cracked tooth and I was advised to get a crown put on it. So I sat in the chair from around 10:15 to 1:30 getting everything fixed. Will have to go back in three weeks to have the permanent crown put on. I looked up on the Humana website for a dentist that takes Humana, and that is how I found Glen Rose Family Dental in Glen Rose. They are all very nice and they did a wonderful job. Humana will pick up the cost of the x-rays, and also paid for half of everything else.
July 26, 2021. Not much has happened this past week. Just the same old – up every morning, walking Lucy, playing cards every day, shopping, etc. Baked a Cranberry Mandarin Orange bread for Jim’s birthday and shared it with our friends. Discovered that another friend here at Tres Rios – Mike – has the same birthday as Jim.
Josh texted today and invited us down this coming weekend to visit and celebrate Jim’s birthday. We were going to go to Whitney and then drive down to Houston, but then I stared complaining about all the packing I would have to do and then leave the trailer for 4 days. So we decided to drive down to Houston for our week out.
July 29, 2021. Arrived at Jetstream and got settled in. Decided I did not want to cook dinner, so we went out to J Henry’s which is about 1.5 miles from the campground. They have really good food and we sat outside and enjoyed the evening. The patio was empty except for us but then a lone woman walked in and came to sit outside. She was actually waiting for her husband and a kid staying with them. Jim invited her over to our table to talk until her company got there. Turns out she is a chemical engineer as well as her husband. She did get the jab, and shook Jim’s hand (not mine).
After her company came we still conversed a bit; found out they voted for Biden and think he is doing a good job. I wish I would have given her one of my cards and asked a few more questions, but that did not happen.
July 30, 2021. Friday morning I went over there so we could go to HEB to pick up the cake stuff and brisket that Josh wanted to make. Then I brought Ellie & Jason over to the park in Josh’s truck so we could go swimming. Jim put on his trunks and played with the kids in the pool quite a bit and I enjoyed myself in the pool as well. Josh came in the afternoon and brought our truck back and we hung out in the clubhouse a while. After I took Lucy for a walk, a huge storm came gushing through. It flooded a whole bunch and I forgot to put Lucy’s bed up and other stuff away, so a lot got wet. Josh had to take my umbrella to get to the trailer and truck because Ellie & Jason had to go to Kuk Sool for practice. And in the meantime, the electric had gone out so we were without electric for a while.
That night Josh also wanted to take us out to dinner at J Henry’s so we went a second night. Had the same waiter as the first night and he remembered us and knows Josh & Karen as well because they frequent the restaurant once a month or so. Jim was not feeling really great but ate half of his dinner anyway.
August 1, 2021. Saturday we went over to their house in the mid-morning so I could bake a Tres Leches cake for Jim’s birthday (with Ellie’s help). Jim started feeling ill Saturday, and it seemed to happen after I made him drink his glop, but I don’t think the glop is what made him ill. He seemed to run a little fever and his stomach just did not feel good. He did not eat much dinner and did not have any cake that night.
August 2, 2021. They came over to the pool again Sunday afternoon for a bit of a swim and then we went back to their house for dinner. Monday they all went back to work and we did our normal shopping. Monday night we bought Chinese for dinner and went over there to eat. Back home early as it was a work night for all of them.
August 3, 2021. On our way out of Houston just after we got on 290 heading west, someone pulled next to us honking their horn and when I looked at him he pointed back toward our trailer, indicating something was wrong. So I immediately said to Jim that something was wrong and to get off right away. We got off at the next exist and pulled into an Emergency Clinic, which parking lot was virtually empty so I thought it was out of business. But it turned out that it was not out of business. Anyway, we got out of the truck to look around that discovered a tire on the trailer had shredded. Same tire and axle as the one in Jefferson City, MO.
I called Roadside Assistance and the only thing that guy could do was put our spare tire on. Luckily we had a good spare and not the 20 year old Carlisle that was on the trailer when we bought it. That got us back to Tres Rios and now we have to decided what to do with the tire. I posted pictures of it on the Award FB page and some of people determined that it was a road size hazard, that something punctured the tire which caused it to deflate and shred apart. It’s really crazy that this happened as this tire was only 2 weeks old.
August 4, 2021. So we got back to Tres Wednesday afternoon to another bizarre situation – they put everyone back in masks and closed the clubhouse and Texas Hall, all because some employees at Abita came down with Covid. They even put up a sign to wear a mask in the laundry room. What idiots.
August 6, 2021. Jim had his appointment this morning with the urologist. We ended up waiting for over an hour before the doctor got in to see us. Talked with him a bit and he did an exam on Jim (I stepped out). Said he saw blood in his urine, and his prostate was not too badly enlarged. Did not seem all that concerned, but then he does not know us, never seen him before and he was just nonchalant about it all. Said he will schedule a CT scan and then a biopsy date. The place that does the CT will call us and we set the biopsy for September 14.
We played cards the last couple of days in the pavilion with fans to keep us cool. Did not work very well in 90+ heat, but we played anyway. Anita came tonight to invite us over tomorrow night for cards, so we will do that instead of in the pavilion.
And me, not accepting the shutdown, I decided to send a FB message to OCP protesting the closures. They sent back a long thing about wanting to protect their employees and guests. So I sent back another note saying that we did not need OCP taking care of us, that we were old enough to take care of ourselves, etc. etc. It being Friday, I don’t think I will hear back until Monday. They all think it’s Rene doing this, and we certainly do not need her playing dictator and treating us like children needing to be taken care of. Abbott declared no more shutdowns or mask mandates in Texas, but since someone at Abita comes down with it, they shut every park down. Nonsensical.
August 10, 2021. Many of us are quite pissed off and annoyed at OCP for shutting down the buildings because they “want to keep us safe.” I got some of the other people to send notes to them to complain, but I’m not sure they will pay any attention to us. Today we played cards in the pool area. There is a nice shaded place with a big table and chairs. We brought fans but by 4pm it was 99 outside. So Donna mentioned the laundry room. Why didn’t we think of that sooner?? It’s big, has a huge table and it’s air conditioned. So, that will be out new get together place for cards.
Talked to the office manager at the urology place and even though she could not tell me specifically whether Buchanan had been vaccinated, she did say that many of the people in the office had been. So, my contention is that Buchanan probably did and since Jim came in contact with him, that is why he felt sick the next day after his appointment. I’m not going to have to ask Barnes if he was vaccinated and if he was, we do a telehealth visit so we don’t have to see him face to face.
Went back to the dentist this morning to get my permanent crown put on the tooth that I chipped back in March. I’m glad I got that done, because now I have all my teeth back.
August 17, 2021. During my walk this morning I was able to get a great picture of the sunrise. I have not been able to get out at the right time but today was exceptional.
We have been playing cards here and there – even went to the local sports bar and played there a few afternoons. Playing in the Pavilion gets pretty hot and stuffy, so we don’t know what we will be doing today.
Today Doug, Dale and Wes came over and we changed the roll up mechanism inside the roller of the awning. The up/down lever stopped working so I bought a brand new spring. Doug had already done one, so he knew what to do. It took them about an hour to get it done and now we have a new end, and it works great. I gave the old one to Wes as his roller is not working at all. There is a U clip inside that hooks to the roller pin that looks like it broke on the ends. I don’t know if he will be able to fix it, but he can give it a try.
August 20, 2021. I called the Imaging Center yesterday to find out why they have not called to schedule Jim’s CT exam. So while doing laundry Thursday morning they called me back to tell me that they see the order in their computer but the doctor did not “push” it through so they could not act on it. They told me to call the doctor in the morning and let them know; so on Friday morning I finally was able to get through to the USMD to let them know. Hopefully they did something; I will call the imaging center back next week to find out.
August 22, 2021. We have been playing cards at the local restaurants because OCP still has our clubhouse closed. I have been sending them comments through FB messenger, but I don’t what good it will do. They are being totally unfair to their senior members shutting us out of a place where we can go to get out of the heat and not be stuck in our trailers all day. They have a September schedule that is geared toward young members – horseshoes and axe throwing. They are totally out of their minds.
On Friday we were at The Big Cup playing cards when Jacklyn & Sean called me to let us know that Sean finally proposed to Jacklyn and gave her the ring he had bought back in March. It’s a beautiful peacock/mountain sapphire – blue with two diamonds on each side. They have picked March 18, 2023 for the wedding. They want a year to plan and work on the house as well. They have not picked a venue yet either. So it looks like we will be heading to Florida in another year.
As for 2022, I think we will travel west and northwest. I will start planning that vacation after Christmas.
August 27, 2021. Headed out of Tres Rios on the 25th for our week out. We are at Sun Country in Whitney instead of the Thousand Trails. I picked this one so Jim could ride his trike, but it’s been so hot, he has not ridden it at all.
Today we went to Hillsborough for lunch and then went to the Roadside America Museum. It was pretty cool; we got a personal tour. He has a lot of statutes of characters from different restaurants and cartoons.
Finally was able to make Jim an appointment for his CT scan before his biopsy on his prostate. Sometimes one just cannot wait for the centers or doctors to call to set things up. Come to find out that Buchanan’s office never sent the order to Lake Granbury Imaging. Good thing I took the initiative to get things done. Also made Jim an appointment with Barnes and Bhatti. Both will be via telehealth due to the fact that they both got vaxxed, and with Jim reacting to vaxxed people, we chose that route.
September 2, 2021. The weather has been so hot these past few weeks that we really cannot do anything outside. Just going out for a little while during the day is crazy, with it being in the high 90s. We did not do any of the activities at Whitney, cards or pool.
But now we are back at Tres Rios and the clubhouse is still closed. OCP is being tyrannical not opening it up. So we have been meeting in Doug’s trailer to play Mexican Train and cards.
Been walking with Lucy early in the morning when it’s fairly cool; very nice mornings walking down by the river. In the evenings it’s a short walk around 5 and then another longer walk at 8 right before the sun goes down.
The park is supposed to be packed this weekend. We got in site 81 this time, which is down in the 2nd row. So far the 1st row is empty but I am sure it will fill up tomorrow.
We had a lot of people come into the park from Abita where they were put up in some cabins and some brought their RVs. Angelica put out an ad in the Somervelle online news and lots of people from the city brought food and stuff for the people. Funny thing, Shirley told me that they did not tell anyone in the park that the people were here and needed stuff. Shirley said they found out because they read the Somervelle news.
September 5, 2021. Since Tres Rios clubhouse is still locked tight I wanted to make another comment to OCP, only to find out that they blocked me from commenting to them, both on their FB messenger page, on the regular FB page, and on the website. When I looked at my FB page for OCP I only get a “share” but when I looked at Doug’s he still had a like, comment and share. OCP is getting tyrannical. They don’t want to hear anything negative. They just want us to be sheep and follow along with what they want.
So I went on my personal FB page and put a note there and highlighted OCP so maybe they will see it. Don’t know how that works, but now everyone knows what tyrants they are. I messaged our friends here at TR to copy my note and send it to OCP under their name, but I don’t know if any of them will. Probably not. They all like to complain, but don’t send that complaint to OCP.
September 10, 2021. Jim had his CT scans this morning at Baylor Imaging Center. The first one was for his prostate exam, only he said they were just checking his kidneys because he had blood in his urine when we went to the doctors. The Tech said his kidneys looked fine though. I guess we will learn the results on Tuesday when he goes for his biopsy. The second CT scan was for Dr. Bhatti, his pulmonologist. Bhatti wanted a scan during the summer, but we finally were able to get both done at the same time.
Jim thinks a lot of the staff in there are vaxxed – he had a lot of them doing all sorts of things, so I guess we will see if he gets sick in the next few days.
September 14, 2021. Jim had his biopsy this morning. I was able to sit in there with him; did not watch but was able to see a little bit. They must have put a long tube up his anus and then used a long, long needle (looked to be about 1 foot long) to stick up the tube to take the samples. Doctor did say that his prostate is enlarged, and ended up taking 14 samples. We have an appointment with the doctor a week from today to go over the results.
Today Jim has a sore butt, inside – a dull ache. He was bleeding a lot but that seems to have gone away. The local the doctor gave him must have worn off because now he is feeling miserable. Hope that does not last long.
September 16, 2021. Jim still has some blood in his urine every time he pees, but I imagine that will go away soon enough.
Did a letter to OCP regarding them opening up our buildings again. They have been closed over a month and we are getting really tired of it. I have been getting signatures on it but still have more to get.
September 19, 2021. Jacklyn called the other day to talk with Jim about 30amp hookups at their house. She then let us know that they changed the date of their wedding to December 18, 2022. Their reasoning for changing the date is that the weekend in March is not their weekend to have Jayden and they would have to ask her Mom for permission and they did not want to do that. So I guess they looked at different months that have the 18th on the weekend, and found December 2022. That puts a crimp in our travel plans because now we are going to have to book it out of Texas right after Thanksgiving to get to Florida a week before the wedding.
OCP decided to open up our buildings on September 17, 2021. Was told that they were getting a lot of complaints from all the parks, not just ours like they tried to tell us. We were happy to finally get back in our club house. On Sunday the 19th Laurie & Dave had a football party in the clubhouse; lots of food and people. We also played cards in the afternoon.
Started my exercising again. I decided to stop making my chocolate chip cookies – was eating too many of them and getting too much sugar in my diet. So I decided to stop eating sugary foods; that includes my Werther’s hard candies, though I found out they have soy in them, so I’m not eating them anymore.
September 22, 2021. Today we are celebrating 42 years being married even though Jim likes to say it’s 45 since he gave me a ring much earlier.
Had an appointment with Buchanan yesterday to get the results of his prostate biopsy. IT CAME BACK ALL NEGATIVE – NO CANCER! Also, one of his testicles is enlarged, which must be just an infection from the biopsy. They took 14 samples out of his prostate and some of them were pretty big; and the blood coming out of his urine is finally slowing down. Got him some antibiotics to take for a week.
We are also trying to get new tires for the trailer and have been dealing with Granbury Tire. Yesterday Cooper said they had gotten the tires in stock as a replacement for the Goodyear Endurance and we were ready to head to them to get the new tires. But this morning Jim called and talked to Cory who now said they do not have the tires in stock. So we are not going up there to get the new tires. Don’t know where the screw up is, but someone does not have the correct information.
Messages got screwed up because I called Granbury Tire and talked to Cooper, who said that YES they do have the tires. In fact, he was looking at them while we were talking. The story is that Cory was not up on the status of the tires as he did give the task to Cooper. So we drove up to Granbury Tire on our way out of Tres Rios for our week out. We now have four Carlisle tires on the trailer. As they were taking the Goodyear Endurance tires off of the trailer, we noticed bubbles on each of the tires.
September 28, 2021. Not much going on at Whitney so far. Jim has been taking it easy since the biopsy as he is still peeing blood. He does not want to strain himself and mess anything up. Today we had a Zoom conference with Nick and Sharon Guigard, an attorney who handles trusts, estates and wills. We went over our wills and other documents and found out that some of our documents need to be redone according to Texas law. So we commissioned her to do the documents and have an appointment next month to sign them.
After setting up, Jim took his trike off of the back and went for a ride. It’s been five or six months since he was able to ride his trike because so many of the parks we went to had horrible roads. While riding this evening he encountered a little girl so he stopped to talk with her, and then her mother came out and said she was trying to teach her daughter not to talk to strangers and Jim should not have stopped to talk to her daughter. Jim said, well if you are trying to teach her not to talk to strangers, then why is she out here by herself? They had words back and forth, but it still upset Jim that she would accuse him of something untoward. He is going to the office in the morning and let them know of the issue before this woman could go and file a complaint, which is what he is worried about.
One other thing that we will have to deal with is the awning lever, which did not want to lock in the down position when I put the awning out. I played with it and it finally clicked to stay down. I am hoping we will not have any trouble getting it back up when we leave on Tuesday.
I finally was able to get an appointment with the urologist, which is not until August. I was hoping to get one this month, but no luck there.
In the evening we went into the clubhouse so Jim could wash all of his C-Pap equipment, and then met a guy coming in to shoot pool. So I took his stuff back to the trailer, got his pool cue and took it back to him so he could shoot pool for a bit.
July 5, 2021. Jacklyn, Sean and Jayden arrived Friday morning. At first Josh had said he was going to cook his brisket on Saturday but then decided to do it on Friday, so Jim and I went over there for dinner Friday night. On Saturday we stayed home and they went to Galveston for the day. On Sunday they went to the neighbor pool and we ended up going there in the afternoon. Monday we went to do our shopping while they went to the park.
After they were done at the park, they all came over so Sean could change the on/off switch on the hot water heater. The old one was pretty corroded and no wonder it stopped working. So now we have a new switch and I can use the electric to heat the water.
We went over to Josh & Karen’s after that for a couple of hours; finally got a family picture which I have wanted to do for a long time. I am really happy to have it. They left about 5pm to go to the airport, with Karen driving them and we stayed for a little while talking with Josh. We did not stay long as they have a lot to do this evening to get ready for the week.
July 9, 2021. Tuesday we headed out of Houston on our way back to Tres Rios with a stop over at Brazos RV Park in Caldwell, Texas. We always stop at this park going to and from Houston to Glen Rose. It’s very convenient, an Escapees park, very well maintained and it’s always a good stop.
Got to Tres Rios on Wednesday and while trying to put the chocks in the tires, it would not go in the old tires, the Goodyear Endurance that are still on the street side of the trailer.
When we got here all of our friends were real happy to see us again. Rhonda came out of the clubhouse to wave and when we went in to say HI, got hugs from everyone.
While walking around the park I met a few new people and stopped and talked with them. I invited a couple of women to come play cards and mentioned the men play pool.
July 12, 2021. Enjoying our time at Tres Rios playing cards, pool, and Jim finally gets to ride his trike again. We have a nice spot (No. 80) with lots of grass and close to the clubhouse.
Today we drive to Granbury for our weekly shopping and will test the Excursion to see if the front shakes. If there is no shaking, then the vibration we felt on our way up from Houston is due to the two Goodyear Endurance tires on the trailer.
One evening while watching TV, Jim saw a recall on the Philips C-Pap machine he uses. I looked it up and yes, indeed his machine was recalled. The recall was due to the foam used to insulate deteriorating. One of the questions asked was, do you use an ozone cleaner to clean your machine. Since we do not, I wonder if the cleaners advertised on TV are the cause of the foam deterioration. I put in a notice to Philips on Jim’s machine, so who knows when we will hear from them for a replacement. In the meantime, he is continuing to use it.
July 14, 2021. Discovered an issue with our two remaining Goodyear Endurance tires when we got here to Tres Rios - the chocks would not fit between the tires. We called Goodyear and filed a claim and today took the two Goodyear off along with the spare and took them to a Goodyear store to have new ones put on. Trailer slipped a bit while on jacks, but it all turned out OK. One of the stabilizers got bent when the trailer shifted, and I think we may have to replace it as I am having a hard time getting it up and down. Doug put LPS on it and tried to straighten it out, but I don’t think that is going to work.
New friends came by to see what we were going and offered to take Lucy for a golf cart ride, and then offered to dog sit her while we took the tires up to the store. I heard she kept looking over at the trailer waiting for us to return. She was sure happy to see us when we got back.
The manager at Granbury Tire & Service who handles Goodyear tires and people with tire issues, confirmed that the three tires we brought him were indeed separating. He got us a 50% rebate from Goodyear on the three tires we bought, but Goodyear said no to the 4th tire as we did not have possession of it. Tomorrow the other two get done. Many thanks to Doug Keller for his help today!! Don't know how we would manage without him. He saved the day again like he did when he helped us with the trailer brakes.
When we got home and finished the work, Jim decided to call Goodyear and see if we could get a rebate on the 4th tire. He explained the situation and the woman he talked to said OK, she would authorize a 50% rebate on the 4th tire. So I made a pdf of the three receipts and emailed them to her so she could see what we did. Now we will take one of the Freestar and put it as a spare, but according to Goodyear, we will have to let Granbury Tire dispose of the extra tire. Oh well.
July 20, 2021. Monday morning when we hopped in the truck to head off to Granbury for our weekly shopping, the truck just did the awrh, awrh. Jim pounded on the battery but determined that it was indeed dead. Michael came over and jumped us, and we headed to Auto Zone for a new battery. When we arrived we discovered that we had a 3 year warranty on it, which expired on July 3. The manager in Auto Zone said to honor the warranty and we walked out with a new battery free of charge.
Tuesday I had a dentist appointment to get the tooth that cracked back in March sitting at Jim Urban’s place when I was eating a sub. I also had a cavity which I got filled with composite. Then we discussed the cracked tooth and I was advised to get a crown put on it. So I sat in the chair from around 10:15 to 1:30 getting everything fixed. Will have to go back in three weeks to have the permanent crown put on. I looked up on the Humana website for a dentist that takes Humana, and that is how I found Glen Rose Family Dental in Glen Rose. They are all very nice and they did a wonderful job. Humana will pick up the cost of the x-rays, and also paid for half of everything else.
July 26, 2021. Not much has happened this past week. Just the same old – up every morning, walking Lucy, playing cards every day, shopping, etc. Baked a Cranberry Mandarin Orange bread for Jim’s birthday and shared it with our friends. Discovered that another friend here at Tres Rios – Mike – has the same birthday as Jim.
Josh texted today and invited us down this coming weekend to visit and celebrate Jim’s birthday. We were going to go to Whitney and then drive down to Houston, but then I stared complaining about all the packing I would have to do and then leave the trailer for 4 days. So we decided to drive down to Houston for our week out.
July 29, 2021. Arrived at Jetstream and got settled in. Decided I did not want to cook dinner, so we went out to J Henry’s which is about 1.5 miles from the campground. They have really good food and we sat outside and enjoyed the evening. The patio was empty except for us but then a lone woman walked in and came to sit outside. She was actually waiting for her husband and a kid staying with them. Jim invited her over to our table to talk until her company got there. Turns out she is a chemical engineer as well as her husband. She did get the jab, and shook Jim’s hand (not mine).
After her company came we still conversed a bit; found out they voted for Biden and think he is doing a good job. I wish I would have given her one of my cards and asked a few more questions, but that did not happen.
July 30, 2021. Friday morning I went over there so we could go to HEB to pick up the cake stuff and brisket that Josh wanted to make. Then I brought Ellie & Jason over to the park in Josh’s truck so we could go swimming. Jim put on his trunks and played with the kids in the pool quite a bit and I enjoyed myself in the pool as well. Josh came in the afternoon and brought our truck back and we hung out in the clubhouse a while. After I took Lucy for a walk, a huge storm came gushing through. It flooded a whole bunch and I forgot to put Lucy’s bed up and other stuff away, so a lot got wet. Josh had to take my umbrella to get to the trailer and truck because Ellie & Jason had to go to Kuk Sool for practice. And in the meantime, the electric had gone out so we were without electric for a while.
That night Josh also wanted to take us out to dinner at J Henry’s so we went a second night. Had the same waiter as the first night and he remembered us and knows Josh & Karen as well because they frequent the restaurant once a month or so. Jim was not feeling really great but ate half of his dinner anyway.
August 1, 2021. Saturday we went over to their house in the mid-morning so I could bake a Tres Leches cake for Jim’s birthday (with Ellie’s help). Jim started feeling ill Saturday, and it seemed to happen after I made him drink his glop, but I don’t think the glop is what made him ill. He seemed to run a little fever and his stomach just did not feel good. He did not eat much dinner and did not have any cake that night.
August 2, 2021. They came over to the pool again Sunday afternoon for a bit of a swim and then we went back to their house for dinner. Monday they all went back to work and we did our normal shopping. Monday night we bought Chinese for dinner and went over there to eat. Back home early as it was a work night for all of them.
August 3, 2021. On our way out of Houston just after we got on 290 heading west, someone pulled next to us honking their horn and when I looked at him he pointed back toward our trailer, indicating something was wrong. So I immediately said to Jim that something was wrong and to get off right away. We got off at the next exist and pulled into an Emergency Clinic, which parking lot was virtually empty so I thought it was out of business. But it turned out that it was not out of business. Anyway, we got out of the truck to look around that discovered a tire on the trailer had shredded. Same tire and axle as the one in Jefferson City, MO.
I called Roadside Assistance and the only thing that guy could do was put our spare tire on. Luckily we had a good spare and not the 20 year old Carlisle that was on the trailer when we bought it. That got us back to Tres Rios and now we have to decided what to do with the tire. I posted pictures of it on the Award FB page and some of people determined that it was a road size hazard, that something punctured the tire which caused it to deflate and shred apart. It’s really crazy that this happened as this tire was only 2 weeks old.
August 4, 2021. So we got back to Tres Wednesday afternoon to another bizarre situation – they put everyone back in masks and closed the clubhouse and Texas Hall, all because some employees at Abita came down with Covid. They even put up a sign to wear a mask in the laundry room. What idiots.
August 6, 2021. Jim had his appointment this morning with the urologist. We ended up waiting for over an hour before the doctor got in to see us. Talked with him a bit and he did an exam on Jim (I stepped out). Said he saw blood in his urine, and his prostate was not too badly enlarged. Did not seem all that concerned, but then he does not know us, never seen him before and he was just nonchalant about it all. Said he will schedule a CT scan and then a biopsy date. The place that does the CT will call us and we set the biopsy for September 14.
We played cards the last couple of days in the pavilion with fans to keep us cool. Did not work very well in 90+ heat, but we played anyway. Anita came tonight to invite us over tomorrow night for cards, so we will do that instead of in the pavilion.
And me, not accepting the shutdown, I decided to send a FB message to OCP protesting the closures. They sent back a long thing about wanting to protect their employees and guests. So I sent back another note saying that we did not need OCP taking care of us, that we were old enough to take care of ourselves, etc. etc. It being Friday, I don’t think I will hear back until Monday. They all think it’s Rene doing this, and we certainly do not need her playing dictator and treating us like children needing to be taken care of. Abbott declared no more shutdowns or mask mandates in Texas, but since someone at Abita comes down with it, they shut every park down. Nonsensical.
August 10, 2021. Many of us are quite pissed off and annoyed at OCP for shutting down the buildings because they “want to keep us safe.” I got some of the other people to send notes to them to complain, but I’m not sure they will pay any attention to us. Today we played cards in the pool area. There is a nice shaded place with a big table and chairs. We brought fans but by 4pm it was 99 outside. So Donna mentioned the laundry room. Why didn’t we think of that sooner?? It’s big, has a huge table and it’s air conditioned. So, that will be out new get together place for cards.
Talked to the office manager at the urology place and even though she could not tell me specifically whether Buchanan had been vaccinated, she did say that many of the people in the office had been. So, my contention is that Buchanan probably did and since Jim came in contact with him, that is why he felt sick the next day after his appointment. I’m not going to have to ask Barnes if he was vaccinated and if he was, we do a telehealth visit so we don’t have to see him face to face.
Went back to the dentist this morning to get my permanent crown put on the tooth that I chipped back in March. I’m glad I got that done, because now I have all my teeth back.
August 17, 2021. During my walk this morning I was able to get a great picture of the sunrise. I have not been able to get out at the right time but today was exceptional.
We have been playing cards here and there – even went to the local sports bar and played there a few afternoons. Playing in the Pavilion gets pretty hot and stuffy, so we don’t know what we will be doing today.
Today Doug, Dale and Wes came over and we changed the roll up mechanism inside the roller of the awning. The up/down lever stopped working so I bought a brand new spring. Doug had already done one, so he knew what to do. It took them about an hour to get it done and now we have a new end, and it works great. I gave the old one to Wes as his roller is not working at all. There is a U clip inside that hooks to the roller pin that looks like it broke on the ends. I don’t know if he will be able to fix it, but he can give it a try.
August 20, 2021. I called the Imaging Center yesterday to find out why they have not called to schedule Jim’s CT exam. So while doing laundry Thursday morning they called me back to tell me that they see the order in their computer but the doctor did not “push” it through so they could not act on it. They told me to call the doctor in the morning and let them know; so on Friday morning I finally was able to get through to the USMD to let them know. Hopefully they did something; I will call the imaging center back next week to find out.
August 22, 2021. We have been playing cards at the local restaurants because OCP still has our clubhouse closed. I have been sending them comments through FB messenger, but I don’t what good it will do. They are being totally unfair to their senior members shutting us out of a place where we can go to get out of the heat and not be stuck in our trailers all day. They have a September schedule that is geared toward young members – horseshoes and axe throwing. They are totally out of their minds.
On Friday we were at The Big Cup playing cards when Jacklyn & Sean called me to let us know that Sean finally proposed to Jacklyn and gave her the ring he had bought back in March. It’s a beautiful peacock/mountain sapphire – blue with two diamonds on each side. They have picked March 18, 2023 for the wedding. They want a year to plan and work on the house as well. They have not picked a venue yet either. So it looks like we will be heading to Florida in another year.
As for 2022, I think we will travel west and northwest. I will start planning that vacation after Christmas.
August 27, 2021. Headed out of Tres Rios on the 25th for our week out. We are at Sun Country in Whitney instead of the Thousand Trails. I picked this one so Jim could ride his trike, but it’s been so hot, he has not ridden it at all.
Today we went to Hillsborough for lunch and then went to the Roadside America Museum. It was pretty cool; we got a personal tour. He has a lot of statutes of characters from different restaurants and cartoons.
Finally was able to make Jim an appointment for his CT scan before his biopsy on his prostate. Sometimes one just cannot wait for the centers or doctors to call to set things up. Come to find out that Buchanan’s office never sent the order to Lake Granbury Imaging. Good thing I took the initiative to get things done. Also made Jim an appointment with Barnes and Bhatti. Both will be via telehealth due to the fact that they both got vaxxed, and with Jim reacting to vaxxed people, we chose that route.
September 2, 2021. The weather has been so hot these past few weeks that we really cannot do anything outside. Just going out for a little while during the day is crazy, with it being in the high 90s. We did not do any of the activities at Whitney, cards or pool.
But now we are back at Tres Rios and the clubhouse is still closed. OCP is being tyrannical not opening it up. So we have been meeting in Doug’s trailer to play Mexican Train and cards.
Been walking with Lucy early in the morning when it’s fairly cool; very nice mornings walking down by the river. In the evenings it’s a short walk around 5 and then another longer walk at 8 right before the sun goes down.
The park is supposed to be packed this weekend. We got in site 81 this time, which is down in the 2nd row. So far the 1st row is empty but I am sure it will fill up tomorrow.
We had a lot of people come into the park from Abita where they were put up in some cabins and some brought their RVs. Angelica put out an ad in the Somervelle online news and lots of people from the city brought food and stuff for the people. Funny thing, Shirley told me that they did not tell anyone in the park that the people were here and needed stuff. Shirley said they found out because they read the Somervelle news.
September 5, 2021. Since Tres Rios clubhouse is still locked tight I wanted to make another comment to OCP, only to find out that they blocked me from commenting to them, both on their FB messenger page, on the regular FB page, and on the website. When I looked at my FB page for OCP I only get a “share” but when I looked at Doug’s he still had a like, comment and share. OCP is getting tyrannical. They don’t want to hear anything negative. They just want us to be sheep and follow along with what they want.
So I went on my personal FB page and put a note there and highlighted OCP so maybe they will see it. Don’t know how that works, but now everyone knows what tyrants they are. I messaged our friends here at TR to copy my note and send it to OCP under their name, but I don’t know if any of them will. Probably not. They all like to complain, but don’t send that complaint to OCP.
September 10, 2021. Jim had his CT scans this morning at Baylor Imaging Center. The first one was for his prostate exam, only he said they were just checking his kidneys because he had blood in his urine when we went to the doctors. The Tech said his kidneys looked fine though. I guess we will learn the results on Tuesday when he goes for his biopsy. The second CT scan was for Dr. Bhatti, his pulmonologist. Bhatti wanted a scan during the summer, but we finally were able to get both done at the same time.
Jim thinks a lot of the staff in there are vaxxed – he had a lot of them doing all sorts of things, so I guess we will see if he gets sick in the next few days.
September 14, 2021. Jim had his biopsy this morning. I was able to sit in there with him; did not watch but was able to see a little bit. They must have put a long tube up his anus and then used a long, long needle (looked to be about 1 foot long) to stick up the tube to take the samples. Doctor did say that his prostate is enlarged, and ended up taking 14 samples. We have an appointment with the doctor a week from today to go over the results.
Today Jim has a sore butt, inside – a dull ache. He was bleeding a lot but that seems to have gone away. The local the doctor gave him must have worn off because now he is feeling miserable. Hope that does not last long.
September 16, 2021. Jim still has some blood in his urine every time he pees, but I imagine that will go away soon enough.
Did a letter to OCP regarding them opening up our buildings again. They have been closed over a month and we are getting really tired of it. I have been getting signatures on it but still have more to get.
September 19, 2021. Jacklyn called the other day to talk with Jim about 30amp hookups at their house. She then let us know that they changed the date of their wedding to December 18, 2022. Their reasoning for changing the date is that the weekend in March is not their weekend to have Jayden and they would have to ask her Mom for permission and they did not want to do that. So I guess they looked at different months that have the 18th on the weekend, and found December 2022. That puts a crimp in our travel plans because now we are going to have to book it out of Texas right after Thanksgiving to get to Florida a week before the wedding.
OCP decided to open up our buildings on September 17, 2021. Was told that they were getting a lot of complaints from all the parks, not just ours like they tried to tell us. We were happy to finally get back in our club house. On Sunday the 19th Laurie & Dave had a football party in the clubhouse; lots of food and people. We also played cards in the afternoon.
Started my exercising again. I decided to stop making my chocolate chip cookies – was eating too many of them and getting too much sugar in my diet. So I decided to stop eating sugary foods; that includes my Werther’s hard candies, though I found out they have soy in them, so I’m not eating them anymore.
September 22, 2021. Today we are celebrating 42 years being married even though Jim likes to say it’s 45 since he gave me a ring much earlier.
Had an appointment with Buchanan yesterday to get the results of his prostate biopsy. IT CAME BACK ALL NEGATIVE – NO CANCER! Also, one of his testicles is enlarged, which must be just an infection from the biopsy. They took 14 samples out of his prostate and some of them were pretty big; and the blood coming out of his urine is finally slowing down. Got him some antibiotics to take for a week.
We are also trying to get new tires for the trailer and have been dealing with Granbury Tire. Yesterday Cooper said they had gotten the tires in stock as a replacement for the Goodyear Endurance and we were ready to head to them to get the new tires. But this morning Jim called and talked to Cory who now said they do not have the tires in stock. So we are not going up there to get the new tires. Don’t know where the screw up is, but someone does not have the correct information.
Messages got screwed up because I called Granbury Tire and talked to Cooper, who said that YES they do have the tires. In fact, he was looking at them while we were talking. The story is that Cory was not up on the status of the tires as he did give the task to Cooper. So we drove up to Granbury Tire on our way out of Tres Rios for our week out. We now have four Carlisle tires on the trailer. As they were taking the Goodyear Endurance tires off of the trailer, we noticed bubbles on each of the tires.
September 28, 2021. Not much going on at Whitney so far. Jim has been taking it easy since the biopsy as he is still peeing blood. He does not want to strain himself and mess anything up. Today we had a Zoom conference with Nick and Sharon Guigard, an attorney who handles trusts, estates and wills. We went over our wills and other documents and found out that some of our documents need to be redone according to Texas law. So we commissioned her to do the documents and have an appointment next month to sign them.