30 Nov: Forecast in Kansas City is sunny with 40 degrees for the HIGH !! Ron will be in no hurry to get on the road despite his desire to see his bride. After visiting with Clarence, he will continue the ride southward...likely by two PM. And that was indeed how the day unfolded. The temperature had not yet exceeded 30 degrees when Ron started, and his hands were soon frozen numb. That was one very cold 30-mile ride. Clarence actually does not live on 13th street (although Ron could swear that is what he said). He actually lives on the street across from the Dollar General (which is also what Clarence said). We enjoyed shooting the breeze for a couple of hours before Ron mentioned the desire to get south and left. Cynthia froze in Texas, too. Jon, and Tina took her to visit new great granddaughter Blaire (as you can see below). Ron had hoped to get to Miami, but had to settle for getting to Pittsburg, when darkness fell with a unsettling thud. The Regency Inn looked least busy, so Ron chose that one and was well satisfied. The nearby Colton's Steak House sold him two baked potatoes with a piece of salmon that satisfied him, and the nearby Price Chopper sold him berries, bananas and pretzels. (He ate the entire bag of pretzels !! Did you notice that he had eaten nothing since breakfast at 8:30 am?) Route was I-35 south from Kearney to 12th Street then left across the Center Street Bridge following Center Ave until 13th Street. After seeing Clarence, Ron rode west to 18th Street, south to I-35 west to US 69 south to the Shawnee Mission Post Office (where one key of three worked). He then resumed west on Shawnee Mission Parkway to south on I-35 to US 69 south and continued on that for the rest of the day.
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| Jon, Tina and Blair |
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| Cynthia with Blair |
29 Nov, Sunday: Ron plans to begin his ride around 10am from Illinois to visit cousin Jerry in Columbia, Missouri, then on towards Kansas City, God willing. Thankfully, his beloved weefee alerted him that his phone was out of power before he started, so he was able to charge it - rather than discovering the power outage en route. Cynthia is preparing for his arrival; she stocked the cupboards and refrigerator with veggies for fat-free potato salad, plus lentil and bean unsalted soup. She called Ron at 5:30 to discover he is auditioning for the show, "Frozen." He arrived at Joan’s house in Excelsior Springs, Missouri after his motorcycle recorded a 37 degree temperature. That translates to negative thousand degrees with a sixty mph wind chill. The trip from Mt. Olive to St. Louis to Columbia went smooth as silk with sunshine, "warm" temperatures and no wind. The visit with cousin Jerry was very much fun. (He is another one who likes to fold, bend and mutilate the language.) Ron needs to remember to tell Carol about Jerry's box of pictures and meadow that he burns annually. The second 130 miles to Kansas City was cloudy, chilly and windy until the temperatures dove at sunset, when Ron still had 30 miles to ride. Fortunately the tall, wind-swept bridges were all in that first half of the day when there was no wind. The visit with Joan segued into a visit to Les and wife (since they live "next door"). It was so very lovely to see those friends from my distant past again. Cynthia lined up lodging for him at a Comfort Inn ten miles away in Kearney, MO. Ron made dinner of an apple, a banana, and a pound of pretzels from the nearby Price Chopper. The route was Panther Creek Road to old US 66 south to IL 138 west to I-55 south to I-270 west to I-70 west to old US 63 east of Columbia to the Cracker Barrel restaurant, I-70 west to MO 13 north through Higginsville to MO 10 west into Excelsior Springs (quite a challenge to navigate all those turns in the dark) to US 69 north to Italian Way R to R on Salem Road. Then backtrack to US 69 N to L on MO 92 W to the Comfort Inn in Kearney.
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| Thanksgiving photo with nephew & family. |
28 Nov: We awoke. Thank God !! The plan is for Ron to accompany Carol and Bill to nephew Eric's house for Thanksgiving dinner with his family. Oh, and Ron did remember to run a TimeMachine backup. And Cynthia is off for a day with Fyn. Zoe will be there for an hour before she must leave for college. Both girls are unique: Fyn is an accomplished artist at six years old, drawing with permanent ink using no pencil prep. She really impressed her grandmother with her fitness routine; the school’s coach is a former NFL football player. Zoe’s majors are English and history. A year from January she will be attending the U of Scotland in Edinburgh for one semester. Grandmother wants to visit!
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| These two aspire to ride like Ron & Cynthia |
27 Nov: Thanks to Miranda Esmonde-White (click here), Carol and Ron are prepared for a day in the woods. Now we are just waiting for sunrise. Good grief, is it ever wet in the woods today! Ron waded to the fence line and cut & lopped to clear a dead fall left over by lumbering. Meanwhile in Texas, Cynthia is thinking ahead as shown above. Ron and Carol spent much of this day indoors where it was warm, working on genealogy, photos, and Eric's RPM coins web page (click here). Ron did emerge for a couple of hours hoeing the paths through the woods to smooth out lumps left by the timber harvest.
26 Nov: Thanksgiving, and I thank God for mee beloved weefee, SmoochSmooch. And the beloved wee-fee rejoices, ”Thank God! Thank God! Thank God!” The plan is to ride north to sistah Carol's early and arrive before noon for Thanksgiving turkey dinner at 2pm with Carol and Bill. Meanwhile in Texas, Cynthia has arisen, exercised and oatmealed before riding south to Roxanne’s for Thanksgiving dinner. Jon and Tina are coming, too. Happy Thanksgiving to you! And a fine time was had by all. (Ron is feeling fat, but tomorrow in the woods should help.)
25 Nov: And it rained last night complete with thunder. Neither of the Smooches slept particularly well. Ron realized that he had eaten fewer pretzels than needed for a good sleep. Ah Well, "All's well that ends well," and the rains are forecast to resume in the afternoon, so Ron is out the door early for his daily dam, chipmunk & bridge circuit. Oops, diverted to Trenton to walk with Don & Hank, but on our third lap, the heavens opened and drenched Don and Ron thoroughly. We sat indoors and waited about an hour before Ron decided that it had been dry long enough to risk the ride home - which worked out quite well. Now he is showered with clothes stomped clean and hanging to dry. The DNA project is going more slowly than hoped - oh well, it is going.
24 Nov: And here it is another tomorrow, Thanks be to God. Ron had just finished his pushups when Cynthia called to wish him a happy SMOOCH for the day. Now he is breakfasting, preparatory to DNA stuffs, then across the dam for the 3.5 miles. Later Don will call with a decision about walking here or there. We walked there in mid-afternoon which limited our after-walk conversations to end at 4:30 as the sun neared the horizon and the cold sunk in past Ron's coats.
23 Nov: And... another good morning! We both woke up, although 1000 miles apart. Ron walked the dam, Chipmunk Trail and General Dean suspension bridge again this morning, then walked partway across the Dam with Don in the early afternoon, followed by (solo) mid-afternoon dinner of baked potatoes and veggies at Los Amigos. Now he is working on DNA GEDCOM for GEDmatch again. And darkness is falling already at 4:37 pm. The temperatures today seem infinitely warmer than yesterday since there is next to no wind today. At 7:30 Ron traversed the dam a second time (another 3.5 miles in an hour and a half). Now he is sleepy and somehow it is already 10:52 pm.
22 Nov: Finally, Cynthia had a full nine hours of sleep. Yay! She is headed out to walk with (yesterday's) birthday girl Julie and Roxanne at eight AM. Ron has realized that he should recommend a good book to Cynthia, Do You Really Need Eyeglasses. (My God, he actually remembered the exact title!!) Now Ron has exercised (discovering an absence of aches and pains), breakfasted, DNAed, and is ready to walk the dam complete with Chipmunks and General Dean, talking to Don as he walks. Afterwards, more DNA, since Don opted out of walking in the freezing wind. Ron found a chess player and won their first game. (Miracles will never cease.) Great book reviews, you remembered the title. When the macula deteriorates, the field of vision becomes blurry. The only solution is sewing it together. Do you know someone who mends? I'm guessing that mending job needs a finer needle that I can see. Ron walked the dam again in the dark at 5:30. Dark at 5:30 !!
21 Nov, Sat: Good morning at 2, at 3 and 3:54 AM. And it is the morning of the evening of today! After much tossing and turning Cynthia decided to do some work hoping she will get bored and fall asleep. Barely sleeping. It is time to start this day with a haircut and girlie treats. In contrast Ron awakened only three times in 8 hours of sleeping - thank God for pretzels. Upon awakening, he exercised, ate, and began packing, which included charging his cell phone and backing up his computer with TimeMachine. Maxine called at 10AM to say that cataract surgery had exhausted her too much for a visit, but at least we enjoyed entertaining each other with our wits. At 11AM Ron embarked upon the ride to Carlyle without a real route planned, so he "winged it" with the help of the GPS and a lot of luck, considering the farm roads he chose. The only rain was a very light drizzle (have you ever encountered drizzle at 60 mph - it really stings the eyes) just after he left Highland - only another 20 miles left. The Mariner's Village (click here) manager welcomed me again and gave me the same room (only cleaner). After a grocery trip, Ron commensed walking the dam but soon returned as drizzle dampened his enthusiasm. Fortunately Los Amigos is open, so he is now stuffed with the usual two baked potatoes. At 4:30 the color radar indicated a wide spot in the middle of showers centered on Carlyle, so he attempted another walk and made it half way across the dam before he chickened out at the first sprinkles. In the last week, the forecasters have changed their tune about temperatures at the end of the month by minus 8 degrees; it could be a cold ride to Kansas City..
20 Nov: And it is the evening of today! ?? Ron has discovered the joys of farm living; his body has discovered aches and pains. Thank goodness he has an out: he promised to rejoin Cynthia early in December. Today he finished smoothing the dirt pile, and we raked and burned leaves. Next plan for Farmer Smooch is to return to the fence line with lopping shears and chainsaw. Done, and Bill arrived for dinner with a plan to move the very heavy router table from shed to shed. We rolled it (it has wheels!!) from shed to plywood to second piece of plywood and kept leapfrogging the two sheets of plywood across the yard until we got the router into the other shed. Now Ron's clothing is in the washing machine and Carol is already in bed at 7 PM. Farmer Smooch must have gone to bed too, or the washing machine drowned out his beloved weefee's numerous cell phone rings-a-lings. Good night!
19 Nov: Tomorrow yet again. Cynthia must arise way too early for a Dr. appointment in the Galleria area. Ron also arose early enough to "enjoy" exercises with Carol and Miranda. The dirt pile location is becoming even more smoothly finished since Ron discovered the joys associated with a hoe - and his back also discovered "joys" of hoeing. Now we are preparing for a run into town to replenish supplies in anticipation of a pandemic shutdown panic purchasing epidemic. And we found flour and pretzels and celery without any problem. We spent the afternoon repairing fence, pulling bush honeysuckle, and clipping vines. Now Carol is preparing dinner for Bill and Ron - YUM - salmon with Pritikin berry sauce & HUGE baked sweet potatoes.
18 Nov: Tomorrow has relocated again and Ron again awoke early at his sister's house in Mt. Olive, Illinois. He was fortunate to awake too late to "enjoy" Miranda's "Morning Stretch" program, but he still does his own exercises before getting out of bed. Today he continued raking Carol's vanished dirt pile until his body complained and his pill alarm went off. After restoring a Reunion file from the Macintosh TimeMachine, Ron is reconstructing his Ager cousins GEDCOM. He also returned to the woods to pull bush honeysuckle and lop various vines out of the trees.
17 Nov: Oops, no, here is tomorrow. I am thoroughly confused. Is this today or tomorrow? In Texas, the condo is clean on this exercise day, before Cynthia runs errands. She purchased a new IPad with significantly longer battery life, plus many other features, scheduled to be delivered to Jon’s house today. First, she left a note for FedEx with signature on Jon's door, then she boogied back at three to pick it up and back home to charge the new IPad before she realized that Verizon had to put in the SIM card; all of this required way too much running, but the IPad is seamlessly transferred, and it is really nice. Tomorrow is another fun exercise day. Cynthia is re-reading Kristin Lavaransdatter by Sigrid Undset for the tenth time? Ron's MacBook has successfully awakened from sleep a couple of times now. Apparently the faulty GPU problem is fixed (for now). Ron, on the other hand, has been lacking energy all day, especially after shoveling and raking dirt in Carol's yard for hours and hours. He also took a long walk through the woods to see the 20 acres where the loggers logged. My God, there are treetops everywhere littering the hillsides! By the time he returned, Carol had awakened from a nap and Bill had arrived ready to eat some of Carol's wonderful salmon with Pritikin berry sauce plus baked potatoes and sweet potatoes. (Good God, Bill forgot to inquire about the pie - he must be sick.)
16 Nov: Tomorrow was only a day away, and just like that, here it is. But, 4:00 AM was an earlier start than Cynthia wanted. Unfortunately, she was wide awake, so she is up and into another busy day. Ron woke up at 3:30 and was unable to get back to sleep, so finally arose at 5 AM for an hour packing, then laid back down for another hour's snooze. The hope is to depart around 10 AM to visit friends in Edwardsville en route to sistah Carol's in Mt. Olive. Not only has Carol found a new half-sister, but she has also now discovered a new half-uncle on Find-A-Grave. WoooHooo! Ron might have fixed his Mac! We shall know on the morrow! Meantime, Cynthia went to Lab Corps, and then on to see Dr. Stavinhoa. Good report, but her blurry eyes are a concern. She will call the retina specialist again.
15 Nov, Sunday: Tomorrow arrived for Ron in Carlyle, Illinois, but electricity did not. Perhaps 45 MPH winds and lightning created an electrical boo-boo. We don’t know if Ron’s Mac and Word will arise! At least the cell service delivered Smooch’s first I Love You of the day! He wins! Cynthia has gone crazy cleaning the condo; the laundry is done, fresh sheets, towels, and vacuuming is done. Juanita would be so proud. Ron, home in Illinois called Don, who thought it was too windy to walk, so Ron walked the dam alone, including Chipmunk Trail and General Dean bridge. He has felt tired today, so laid down at 5:30 and napped. He finally gave up waiting for the Macintosh to boot and applied the fixes he found on the internet. Lo and behold, it works again.
14 Nov: Ron awakened at 1:30 and was unable to get back to sleep, so he got up and worked on a GEDCOM (genealogy) until 6 AM. The forecast rain arrived with a thunderous overture. He is again working on that GEDCOM. Looks awfully wet outside. No walk anytime soon. And the rain continued with brief respites all day- no walking, but the GEDCOM is ready to upload to GEDmatch. OH, 8pm and the rain appears to be gone so I can walk across the dam & back, talking to Donna (since Ed was "unavailable"). A few impressive lightning bolts lit the distant horizon, but they were too far away to generate thunder. Tomorrow's forecast includes 45 mph wind gusts. Meanwhile in Texas, separation is not fun. Cynthia repeated yesterday’s early rising, walked with Roxanne, and had breakfast with Jon and Tina. Errands and reading ensued, then came the uncomfortable realization the condo is hot. A phone call to the manager, and help is forthcoming with a new battery for the thermostat.
13 Nov: OhMyGod, Friday the 13th and my beloved is far, far away. Ron slept well again and is a happy camper this morning, except that he cannot delete Fonts without logging in as "THE" administrator, whoever that is on this machine. Was he ever surprised to discover that restoring the system fonts has corrected the Word EXC_BAD_ACCESS failure. (Beloved Cynthia sent me the following directions without knowing that I have read the same thing a dozen times: ? With your Mac now in Recovery Mode, click on Utilities in the menu bar followed by Terminal. A new window will show up, waiting for you to enter a command. Type "resetpassword" as one word, without the quotes, and press Return. Close theTerminal window, where you will then find the Reset Password tool.) ... Meanwhile down in Houston Town, Cynthia arose at five A.M., exercised, oatmealed, and left for a one-and-a-half hour drive to the Galleria area at 7:40 (early because of thick, dense fog) for a doctor appointment. The uncertainty of driving in the fog, plus an unfamiliar route, created some anxiety, but it worked out well. She arrived at 9:30... only to discover her appointment was really 11:30. She twiddled her thumbs for two hours. Life is still good. The worst news is that her esthetician, Bambi, has sold her business, retired, and is only working two days for a limited time. ... Meanwhile#2 back in Illinois, Ron, Don and Hank enjoyed another day of walking and talking in the woods on soft, leaf-littered trails that Hank has groomed for people and horses. Don was again feeling much better than expected, so we were all happy. After a couple of hours of conversation Ron left ahead of colder nighttime temperatures, ate his usual two potatoes and grilled veggies at Los Amigos, and walked across the dam talking to friend Ed. (46 degrees morning ride, 47 degrees evening.)
12 Nov: Ron slept even longer last night except for one disturbing dream wherein Cynthia had deserted her room in a Los Angeles resort without telling me anything and I had to ride my old Harley the length of LA. She apologized during the 8 AM SmoochSmooch phone call. Exercises exercised, oatmeal mealed, and now computer stuffs until 10:30 departure towards Trenton to walk with Don and Hank. And a lovely walk it was through Hank's woods, although Don was much, much more tired from his walks of the last three days. He did well - i.e. we did not have to carry or drag him home. Ron went for an additional walk across the dam this evening after dinner at Los Amigos.
11 Nov: Ron slept long and well last night, exercised, ate breakfast and is beginning to get ready to ride over to visit Don in Trenton again. Don, Hank and Ron enjoyed a long walk in the Hank's woods, surprisingly long for Don in his current condition (recovering from a PMR heart ailment -polymyalgia rheumatica). After saying goodbye to Hank, we sat in Don's back yard talking until his house blocked the warmth of the sunshine which motivated Ron to motivate motel-wards. He spent the remainder of the day trying to get Microsoft Word to work - without success. It appears to be a faulty font. Now it is bedtime. Goodnight and sleep tight. Cynthia had a doctor appointment And Bambi.
10 Nov: Mariner's Village at Lake Carlyle in southern Illinois. Today Ron had lethargy despite adequate sleep, walked the dam while waiting or Don to call, and is about to ride over to Trenton to see Don for a short walk and a long talk. The decision is made to get more done on genealogy with DNA while close to sistah Carol (as resource) before shutting the computer down to see if that cures the Word EXC_BAD_ACCESS error. The noon and afternoon with Don was very good. We walked more than Don thought possible, talking all the way, and then spent a couple of hours on the back patio until the wind freshened, and Ron rode back to Carlyle to shop for a few more food items at Walmart. After putting those into the fridge, Ron ate potatoes at Los Amigos, changed socks and went for a walk despite the forecast and cloudy skies. He made it 1/4 of the way back after crossing the dam when the skies opened and the heavens dumped a torrent of rain on him accompanied by incredibly strong winds. It is really quite amazing how quickly one can go from dry to totally drenched.
9 Nov: Wonderful !! Ron awoke without achey muscles despite the overachieving activities of yesterday. We again suffered through Miranda on PBS and rushed off to meet Bill at Denny's. Mindy was waitressing today, so Ron enjoyed seeing her smiling face and the way she handled Bill's typical commentary. Once we returned to Carol's house Ron busied himself with packing to depart and was successful shortly before noon. The ride to Edwardsville was a bit chillier than comfortable, but Connie was home, and we enjoyed a long talk. The ride to Aviston was also too chilly, and there was no room at the Eagle Inn. While Ron rode towards Breeze and noted the signage indicating that Breeze was 9 miles away and Carlyle was only 8 additional miles away. Remembering that Raj had offered to meet price if that was the reason and comparing the comfort at Knotty Pine to the comfort at Mariner's Village, Ron quickly changed destination from Breeze to Lake Carlyle and then realized that Mariner's Village was also very close to Los Amigos (restaurant) and Walmart (provisions). Trifecta perfecto. Amazed that his computer again booted without much delay, Ron is suspicious that the infernal device knows that he is willing to perform risky maneuvers surgery if it fails to boot.
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| Cynthia with newest great grandbaby |
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| Cynthia with son Jon at Amores Restaurant |
Cynthia had an equally busy day, visiting Corrie in College Station. playing with great granddaughters Abigail and Eleanor and meeting newest great - Caleb, then picking up financial IRS materials and lunching with best friends in Hempstead. No wonder she was worn out also.
8 Nov, Sunday: Tomorrow? No, today at Lake Conroe, Texas, Cynthia boogied off to a fast walk with daughters who both walk too fast for her. Julie wears nice wrist weights to enhance her power walk, and that might make a good investment for Cynthia. After exercise, they enjoyed a nice breakfast at Watch for Breakfast. Paul called off the afternoon visit because he is not feeling well. Cynthia should take a nap. Ron, in contrast awoke to Miranda again, exercised and ate before nephew Eric showed up in pickup truck loaded with firewood of split, towing a large trailer with his full-sized Massey-Ferguson tractor. The tractor performed well to Eric's delight, Carol's satisfaction, and Ron's amazement, moving a dirt pile eyesore and replacing the eyesore with a lawn ornament: huge logs dragged out of the woods in preparation for wood splitting. While Eric was busy with the tractor, Ron and Carol split all of the wood that he brought - heavy stuff and a lot of work. In the evening Ron continued with the clippers trimming waste material from the logs and piling kindling. To bed early.
7 Nov: Cynthia awoke at Lake Conroe, Texas way too early! It is still early AM, but she arose to fast walk with daughters before it gets too warm. This time of year the weather is almost perfect at Lake Conroe, and it will be in the mid-seventies to eighty without rain for the remainder of the month. Julie walks faster than Ron! Ron and Carol were up much earlier in Illinois in order to enjoy sadomasochism with Miranda. Then Bill arrived for coffee, conversation, and to install lighting in Carol's tool shed. Ron finished a new sudoku and clipped vines and brush piles until his arms, back and brain gave up. Then he created a database of the Ager cousins Carol found using her DNA analysis and all the testing companies.
6 Nov: Again Ron awoke at his sister's house in Mt. Olive in time for Miranda and Classical Stretch. We survived again despite her sadism. Ron is exceedingly happy to report no itch. Yup, no poison ivy. Whew. Now we are awaiting Bill's arrival for his morning coffee before going over to nephew Eric's to see his newly constructed palatial deer stand. The deer stand was indeed well constructed and obviously brand, spanking new. The deer should be quite impressed. After that Carol and Ron stopped at the SWICSIU credit union, the ACE Hardware store in Staunton, ? in Gillespie, and Randy's in Benld. It’s scary for Cynthia to modify the blog without knowing if Ron is modifying "Where is Ron" in Illinois. (No worries Sweetie, Ron returns to square one after every update.) It was a scary day in Texas altogether; she accidentally called Ron three times. (He even answered the third time.) Cynthia's retina specialist said her macular degeneration is stable, so the vision changes must mean she needs reading glasses. She forgot that driving was a challenge after the eye testing, but survived, well... until she almost backed into a red truck pulling out of a parking spot. She survived shopping at Walmart and the pharmacy. Whew! She made it home, only to discover that the passport and photos which need to be renewed were nowhere to be found. After "tearing the house apart," she searched the dumpster ... and found ... nothing, it had been emptied. The passport is still missing. She should go walking, but it was too dark to go far. Still, she was quieted by hearing Ron's calming voice.
5 Nov: Lucky me. Ron awoke in time for Miranda Esmonde-White (click here) and her Classical Stretch (click here). Turns out that there are several muscles complaining about their treatment in the last three days. So, of course we headed back into the woods to run the chainsaw and create a new, bigger, better, improved brush pile to burn. Besides that fun, we pulled several more bush honeysuckle and clipped a few more hanging vines. This afternoon we haven't been exciting company as we try to recover from too much fun in the morning. Carol is cooking salmon w/ berry sauce again, thanks to the recipe Cynthia suggested. Ron has decided to tell nephew Eric that he cannot work on his shopping cart that he needs for his RPM coin sales. The real reason is security of the names, addresses and credit information that will be needed and will need to persist. So, instead, Ron is free to work on DNA. Whoopie, and we succeeded in printing a wall chart of James Ager descendants for Sistah Carol (12 pages).
4 Nov. The election results are a Cliff-hanger. On a funny note: Just in, Biden was called for Ukraine. Please tell sister Carol that if you put the “I Voted” sticker under your pillow, the election fairy leaves a Xanax. Ron and Carol were up early suffering through "Classical Stretch" and realized soon after that it was calm outside meaning that we could torch the burn pile, and it produced intense heat and flames high enough to be slightly alarming. Good thing that we had raked leaves from a circle surrounding the inferno. Once that had settled into a hot, hot, hot bed of coals, we again abused our bodies in pursuit of bush honeysuckle (click here). We were happy to take a break in the afternoon (and a nap for Carol) and to eat dinner at Denny's. (Ruby Tuesday was closed to indoor dining despite the Litchfield mayor's refusal to shut down his city for the governor.) In Texas, Cynthia spent two hours with her fiduciary, followed by her gynecologist, and next our new dentist. And while Cynthia was writing that, Ron was working on HTML and learning CSS and PHP (click here) to try to install a shopping cart for nephew Eric's RPM coins website. Now time for bed.
3 Nov: Cynthia awoke at 3:45 and did not go back to sleep. What to do? Vote !! The sun rises at 6:39, and the polls open at seven. She is ready. Following the big vote, she is off to see Sasha for a hair cut in the Galleria. Ron and Carol drove to the city of Benld (click here) to vote, then to Randy's and then Walmart in Litchfield for groceries, and back to the house to begin getting ready for a big dinner date with Bill this evening. After Carol had all the possible preparations ready to go, we sashayed out to the splitter shed and split a lot of firewood lickity split. Then we got over-confident and went back into the woods to pull bush honeysuckle again. All went famously until one steep, steep ravine where Ron was able to get one particular tough plant despite every footstep sliding on the leaves underfoot coupled with the insistent pull of gravity. Then he espied another couple of bushes in the bottom of the ravine and struggled with one of those until Carol brought the lopping shears and said, "Watch out, there is poison ivy everywhere around here." And then Ron noticed that he was knee deep in leaf-less poison ivy plants. When we returned to the house, Ron immediately used Tecnu (click here) on his hands, showered his whole body with Fels Naptha (click here), and laundered his clothes. We will know in a day or three if that worked or if he has the dreaded ultimate itch. Oh no! Oh, NO! Does he have the magic cream? After Cynthia read the tragic tale of Ron in poison ivy, she won’t sleep. (Yes dear, he does have the magic cream but no beloved SmoochSmooch to apply it.)
2 Nov: Thanks to dear Jon and Tina for picking Cynthia up at the airport last night. First order of business for little lonely SmoochSmooch is to pick up car rental and the doctor appointments begin with the ENT... in Conroe, followed by Dr. Sims in the Woodlands. Jon’s house remodeling looks great Meanwhile, back in Illinois... Ron and sister Carol pulled out trillions of bush honeysuckle plants, an invasive plant that Carol is trying to eradicate from her tree farm property. (Imagine trying to pull all the dandelions from your yard by hand.)
1 Nov, Sunday: Two-year-old great grandson Hudson asked his parents, “Where Ron?” That makes an appropriate title for our November blog this year. (Yes, Ron and Hudson hit it off thanks to Hudson's interest in bread and Ron's willingness to open the package and remove a piece for Hudson.) Today is Reformation Sunday, and All Saints Sunday; they usher in change. How much change we won’t know for a week until the election results are returned. Cynthia’s flight to Houston is at 4:14 PM. Ron follows along via motorcycle the first week of December. That is a very, very, very long time for the Smooches to be apart. We awoke early at Mariner's Village in Carlyle, packed luggage and went for one final walk over the dam and ate lunch at Los Amigos before we mounted the motorcycle and rode off into the windy, frigid atmosphere - but our departure was 45 minutes late. (Ron admits his fault.) The wind constantly tried its best to push us south as we rode east to west and especially when we crossed the new Mississippi River bridge connecting I-64 to I-70 north. (Stan Musial Veterans' Memorial Bridge click here.) Once Ron bid farewell to his beloved at the airport, the wind was no longer such a problem except that Cynthia's helmet refused to stay centered behind Ron and constantly blew to the south to block his view in the right hand mirror. He stopped three times to try to reposition the helmet so that it would behave before he arrived in Edwardsville to visit Connie. Fortunately she was home, and after a pleasant hour of conversation, Ron discovered his third mistake of the day when the light began to fade. Oh yes, fall back means that darkness descends much earlier than the previous day, so Ron hustled on the interstate up to Mt. Olive and precariously along th lumps and bumps of Panther Creek Road to Carol's gravel driveway with new loose rock over its bridge to arrive "just before dark." (Ron's definition of dark is pitch black.) Carol had prepared salmon and potatoes and veggies for her brother which were gratefully consumed ASAP.
