30 Jan, Fri: Smooch, the world traveler, returns home from Denton, TX this afternoon reassuring me he is becoming younger next year by doing TWO 45 minute cardio workouts a day. We have dinner plans with son Jon, my bishop and his lovely wife at the Yacht Club. Now, this blog returns to its rightful writer. The microphone paired with the streamer by Bluetooth to the hearing aids is quite remarkable.
29 Jan, Thurs: The new bread baking machine is working nicely, although more complicated than the old Panasonic, it WORKS! Dorothy savors the "homemade" bread Ron brings when he visits her. Ron is good to her; he is one of the most considerate people I know. Speaking of considerate -- see the meaning of it's opposite, inconsiderate. I would add arrogant and judgmental to the definition of being INconsiderate. Inconsiderate people do not deserve my consideration.
in·con·sid·er·ate
ˌinkənˈsid(ə)rət/
adjective
- thoughtlessly causing hurt or inconvenience to others.
synonyms: thoughtless, unthinking, insensitive, selfish, self-centered, unsympathetic, uncaring, heedless, unmindful, unkind, uncharitable, ungracious, impolite, discourteous, rude, disrespectful; More...
28 Jan, Wed: Great Blue Heron on our boat slip. she sat still for an hour...
 |
| How highs the water, mama? |
 |
| Dorothy and Ron |
27: Jan: Cynthia is enjoying beautiful Lake Conroe: Ron is in Denton with our 98 year old genealogy cousin, Dorothy. He tried to install an old/new computer for her because the new/new one works too fast and competes with the internet when she is trying to focus on writing. But the memory card is bad. TOO BAD! My new Bluetooth speaker for the hearing apparatus arrived today; it will improve my hearing in a group. This is a good thing. Ron can clip it on his nose so he can hear me in the kitchen. Hahahaha! I leaped (well, almost) out of bed at 5:45 AM, completed the usual stretches, did two sets of modified sit-ups and set the incline level to 15 on the treadmill for a short workout. Once I get past the first ten minutes, my feet stop hurting. The Foot and Ankle Dr. Gave me some exercises. No surgery needed. Both of us have good health reports from the cardiologist. Ron's blockages remain, but he appears to be gaining blood flow around the blockages (not IN the arteries, but around the arteries). My labs were awesome even. The evening sky is breathtakingly beautiful with shades of blue and rose blending into deep lavender. Aweeee! Thank you, Lord for the wonder of creation; thank you for the gift of family the past two weeks. JOY! Thank you, Lord!
 |
| Thank you Lord! |
25 Jan: GOOD GRIEF! Four days of blog abstentia. Yes, good grief! We ARE busy. Roxanne arrived early morning to make her momma happy by painting the front doors, but she could not go to brunch with us. Thank you, Roxanne! We re-listed the house with Keller Williams. The agent is highly experienced; but she expressed caution because the current market is soft. Our hearts were warmed listening to Her story: she told us she wants a relationship like ours. How nice! It is indeed a joy to be in a positive, healthy relationship. Ron's story is one of a perfect life; but leave it to God to improve upon perfection.
 |
| Ron, sunshine and Sudoku |
23 Jan: Rain! Once again, departure to Denton is postponed. Cynthia is cleaning while Ron is organizing ahead of that ferocious roaring beast vacuum cleaner.
22 Jan: Ron's plans to go to Denton got washed out by heavy rain. Cynthia had a girl day, then time with her daughter in the afternoon.
21 Jan: The Toasted Yolk fed us mighty good omelets before the morning drive to Spring for the Audiologist appointment. Somehow, I forgot what we did all afternoon that delayed our return home until dinner time. Or maybe it was nighttime????
20 Jan: The 9:00 AM appointment with the audiologist was disappointing; UPS had not delivered the new hearing aid. Oh, well. We are rescheduled for tomorrow in Spring, TX. Breakfast at the Toasted Yolk across the street was worth the drive. The ride home again afforded several little stops: scans on a John Lea research paper, the MAC stand in the storage unit, plus mailing Cynthia's class notes at UPS, and Walmart to have bent eyeglasses bent back in shape. Well! The stellar day is ending less spectacular! Cynthia has scanned hundreds of files, photos, documents, etc into PDFs and put on flash drives. Tonight, all of the flash drives were copied onto the Mac with a corresponding index when she accidentally hovered making All Files highlighted. Then she hit Copy and 250 plus files were copied onto her desktop. Fortunately, the new Time Machine is supposed to restore the desktop to yesterday. She hopes. Ron is puzzled.
19 Jan: Blue skies, nothing but blue skies do I see. Ron attempted to repair the broken paper shredder, ran errands to give the touring machine some exercise, and he is close to wrapping up Vol. 6. Cynthia drove to Brenham for an appointment with her ophthalmologist followed by lunch with two best girlfriends while Ron enjoyed the lake views. We dined "in." We are indeed enjoying the book, "Younger Next Year!" Likely we have already gained five years.
 |
| East Patio |
 |
| Life is Good! |
18 Jan, Sun: The sunrise was so spectacular. Ron called Cynthia out of the shower to see the magnificent view. Even so, we arrived at church ten minutes too early. That is a record because we usually walk in during announcements. The interim pastor had a terrific sermon about being chosen to follow Jesus, "Do you remember sixth grade recess? " That was the long recess when sports were played and teams were chosen the smallest and shortest being chosen last. One recess, when he had a brand new baseball, one team captain called him - right at the beginning of choosing sides! How good it feels to be chosen when we are too small, too short, or undeserving; how awesome it is to be chosen. Cynthia told the pastor she really appreciated the message; he gave her a hug and said, "So you were too small and too short, too!" Oh what fun. Merry and Bill joined us for Sunday brunch at the Yacht Club after worship. Now I need a nap! Ron walked for a couple of hours talking to Ed K, Donna G. and sistah Carol.
17 Jan. Sat: Another super stay at home day to work on computers. Cynthia copied her sister's idea to create a medical file to hand out to doctors at each visit so she does no have to fill out endless, repetitive forms. It will always be on her computer complete with end of life instructions. Ron bought the book "Younger Next Year," an excellent read. Cynthia ordered the same tittle but for women as a download on her Ipad. The AX Year End Summary is ready for the accountant. Receipts are ready, too. Very, very sad to learn that one of our favorite folks from the Norway tour has passed away. Natalie S, one of the super Scrabble players had a stroke 23 Dec. Deepest sympathy.
16 Jan, Fri. HOME and NO PLACE TO GO! What fun is this! We slept until we were done. One day Ernie asked Bert, "Today, let's do nothing." Bert replied, "OK. Good. But how will we know when we are done?" HMM. Instead of doing nothing we pecked away at the keyboards with the new Mac "Airport" running in the study backing up every thing on the Mac. It - Will - Take - Days -- at the rate of 3-5 GB per hour. The new bread bakery arrived; Cynthia's 17 or 18 year old bakery machine is breathing its last. 23 deer were spotted cavorting around on a perfect cloudy day.
 |
| Deer in Walden |
14Jan: Mac instruction for organizing and editing photos. Endocrinologist appt was fruitful. Dinner at the Caddy Shack. Good night
13 Jan: we are indeed still alive but cold!!! Cynthia had an appointment with the ENT followed by the Foot and Ankle specialist. She may have found a Bluetooth device that works with her hearing aid to assist with her hearing loss. Dinner at Pappadeaux was awesome.
11 Jan: Oh what fun! Most everyone came to the a Yacht Club for Lovely Brunch. One granddaughter objected to her photos so the group picture is not here. The girls looked very cute and the guys handsome!!!
 |
| Steven, Sam, Karen with Grandmother |
 |
| Jon, Lauren, Grandmother Cynthia |
10 Jan: Our days are filled with doctors, computer work and now preparing for a big family late Christmas, New Years, Epiphany, early Valentines Day and save the Dophins Week... Tomorrow!
9 Jan: Dr. Gould said it, so we will believe it; we are still alive. It's always good to have a professional opinion. And the good doctor did not need to chastise Ron because he had gained weight. The nurse slid the weight bar to read 173. It was a miracle. The good news kept coming: no more Niaspan, no more Plavix, just double the Statins, and we get to eat when we are backpacking and hiking the AT in the spring. The idea of eating trail mix is overwhelming. All other reports being good, we walked to the Rotary House out the back door of the professional building accidentally touring Rice University before we figured out we were sorta lost. Fasting for early AM blood work, we worked up an appetite. Cynthia stopped for a hair cut, bought new hiking boots, Lowa Renegade GTX, at REI, and we drove an hour and a half to the BMW shop for oil they don't carry. Another hour of driving to Cynthia's daughter's Roxanne's home; she gave us a tour so she could see how she redecorated before joining us for a lovely dinner. The hour drive from Houston to our lake house was interrupted a shopping spree at Kroger's.
8 Jan, Cynthia drove us to the medical center for our cardiologist appointments at the crack of light tomorrow. Because the med center is heavily trafficked we spend the night at the Rotary House and walk to the Hermann Professional Building. The restaurants in the Rotary House have exceptionally good food. The salmon was awesome. Two boat sized potatoes arrived by accident. Cynthia doesn't eat potatoes and Ron never leavs food. Those potatoes will show up on the scale already a few pounds heavy.
7 Jan: Dentist and Ob-Gyn; nice dinner at Pappadeaux. REI in the Woodlands is NOT the sporting goods store, but an insurance company.
6 Jan: Frustrating that photos from the IPad cannot be directly accessed by this blog. Our fun day was accomplished by seeing check lists after projects that needed to be done. 4 months of mail, a box of receipts sent to accountant, Rons gift returned. Well. One of the many gifts returned. One to be exchanged. And maybe we keep the JetBoil Flash. We did enjoy a three mile walk after Lunch at the Caddy Shack. The AT looms large as we search ideas for gear from recent hikers. Cynthia ordered wool balaclavas. Go lite has gone out of business (bankrupt). Bummer. They had a tent we liked. The packing list has to have weight lists. Rons pack can be no more than 20 pounds and Cynthia can carry 10 pounds. No cute shoes. She ordered new Vasque Breeze and plans to try the Lowa Renegade. Two shirts, one pair of hiking pants, one pair tights. Our meds and vitamins weigh a lot! Friday we ask the cardiologist what we can carry to eat on this ten grams of fat a day heart reversal program. Cynthia cannot eat sugar. We will find a plan.
5 Jan: Monday. Ohhh boy. 29 degrees at 8 AM. And the Gerbings heated gear has a malfunction. The oncologist is 45 minutes away so we braved the cold bundled up in the wind blocking rain gear on top of the heated gear that doesn't work. The good news from the doctor was heart warming. All is well at 3.5 years. The next mammogram will be 3-D no longer needing the ultrasound. We celebrated with a great breakfast at the Toasted Yolk. And Then we picked up the CAR!
4 Jan: Sunday was a stellar day with bright sunshine for the last leg of the trip home to Texas. We ate a lot of breakfast so we didn't need to stop other than the necessary stops and arrived home about 4 PM. By that time the thermostat was turned down to COLD. Son Jon had the house decorated for Christmas with poinsettias throughout and the tree beautifully trimmed
3 Jan: Sat: Posted by a friend on FB: "Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.” ~ Paul Hawken
May this new year be filled with moments of wonder, of tenderness, of presence. Blessings and love.
Ron drove during the rain respite to mail post cards he wrote last September about the time he mailed this year's Christmas cards. Washing the bike seemed like a perfect idea until the rain poured again. Cynthia accomplished a lot of DNA organization in a new spreadsheet. Now we pack. Tomorrow we drive four hours with the sun shining on us. G'nite!!
Ron drove during the rain respite to mail post cards he wrote last September about the time he mailed this year's Christmas cards. Washing the bike seemed like a perfect idea until the rain poured again. Cynthia accomplished a lot of DNA organization in a new spreadsheet. Now we pack. Tomorrow we drive four hours with the sun shining on us. G'nite!!
1 January: Happy New Year! Ron, today is January 2nd! What happened to blogging on January 1st? Is this a foretaste of the year to come? Well, this is the excuse for tardiness: rain is forecast all the way to Lake Conroe leaving us no choice but depart now, as in yesterday. We did. Packed and fed, we left Point Clear at 11:45 AM - hugging Roxanne good-bye as she left for the airport. Our four hour ride was dry and uneventful to the Hilton Garden Inn at Lafayette, LA. Dinner at Don's Seafood was quite nice; we appreciate when the chef agrees to prepare our favorite sweet potato french fries BAKED! Don Landry had the first Landry's Seafood Restaurant.
 |
| LEFSE! |
 |
| POINT CLEAR, LOUISIANA |
