27 Feb: 77 Degrees - Feels like 80. We are packing for tomorrow's departure, but the heat caused Cynthia to unpack beach clothes. Tomorrow night we will be in Montgomery staying with Cynthia's son Jon - we really look forward to having Wi-Fi again. Once in Montgomery, Ron will install a new SS hard drive in the MacBook Pro plus double the memory. The next two months schedule is in focus: Friday or Sat we will tour the Texas Hill Country arriving Monday to meet Sistah Carol in San Antonio, TX for a week long Forensic Genealogy conference. We return to Montgomery Friday March 10th, depart on the 12th; Cynthia will preside at worship for a small Hempstead, TX congregation. After worship we head north to Denton, TX to visit cousin Dorothy for a day before heading to Miami.
26 Feb: The day was nice and sunny for our return ride to Crystal Beach. Well, the sunny part was perfect, but the wind wasn't. Gusts up to 40 MPH were a problem. First thing, we boogied to the beach for a 4 mile walk noting Mardi Gras revelers weren't as destructive as New Years. Dinner at Steves Landing with Wi-Fi enabled progress on the SCS FGS.
25 Feb: 58 degrees made for a chilly morning ride to Houston. We layered. The saddlebags and top case were filled with recycling. We checked into the Hilton Garden Inn Willowbrook which has shuttle service to take us to see granddaughter Zoe performing in Shakespeare's "As You Like It." Dinner at Pappadeaux left us too-much-over-full. Ron has room for one king size Smoothie. 16 year old Zoe turned in a stellar performance generating three rounds of impromptu applause; the rest of the cast were excellent. Ron dressed UP in a new shirt from Eddie and Beanie with "Yes, Dear," across the chest.
24 Feb: Another beautiful beach day with temps at 78 degrees, sunshine, cool breezes, big waves, and some great food. Mardi Gras is here. A big parade begins in the morning. The traffic on the beach picked up considerably by evening as we concluded 7.57 miles of walking today. The last 2016 Christmas letter was mailed. Good night!
23 Feb: Another Anniversary! Happy us: Nine years ago Ron proposed on his knees in Bonefish Grill - Columbus, GA - followed by forever promises on the dock at Lake Murray in front of God and all the duckies. Happy Ron - the three day Christmas letter writing project hit the mailbox. Happy Hikers: we beach trekked 6 miles enjoying a gorgeous sunset and brilliant evening star Venus. Happy Jon and Barb to get us to house sit for furniture delivery. We will be over the moon once we return to Wifi. Even Verizon signal is weak for our phones and IPad.
22 Feb: Another sunshiny day!! We hit the beach for two walks totaling 6 miles. Ron finished our Christmas letter and had it copied to mail. Some of it is the backside of the 2010 letter mixed with the 2015 and current letters. Merry Merry and Happy Happy. The CPA has almost all of our tax records. Another job finished. Two more days and Ron will have the bulk of his paper work finished and be ready to start more SCS projects. The sunset is spectacular.
21 Feb: Sunshine! 4 mile beach walk, 8 fishing boats to view. After lunch at Ocean Grille, we visited Barb and Jon nesting in their new beach house! They picked us up for dinner at Steves Landing. The clear sky is full of stars, especially Orion; it is quite amazing.
20 Feb: Rain again! A special weather bulletin flashed a serious storm warning for a hit in the next 45 minutes. Well, the wind and rain increased but nothing more happened. The heavy rain is forecast To last all day. The rain did diminish enough for Smooch to take a two hour beach walk. We rode the bike to Steves Landing for dinner at 4:30; it was wetter returning home. Cabin fever is the true test of a strong, healthy relationship. In the dark, The ships lined up for miles awaiting inspection at Port Bolivar looked like homes lit up on the distant shore, like little blocks of light in a chain. Totally frustrating Blogger won't locate Photos to publish on IPad.
19 Feb: The days are flying by. We walked to the Big Store - so named because it carries everything in small quantities. A vendor hawking tickets to win a fancy golf car captured Cynthia's attention. She bought 10 tickets and received one free. The drawing is in May. Amazing what can happen with a positive approach to life! On our return we passed by a tent on the beach with the window flap down. Nikkid bodies. Cynthia walked quickly. Ron thinks he should go for another walk. Steve's Landing grilled chicken dinner with baked sweet potato fries was muey bueno.
18 Feb: Lauren and Tyler, are beaching with us for the day. Oh, what fun!! Mardi Gras officially begins today on The islands with several more parades during the next 2 weeks. The Crystal Beach parade is next Saturday. We will go into hiding. Maybe we will go riding. Barb arrived in time to meet us for dinner at Ocean Grille. Without wi-fi we can't backup the photos to post on the blog.
17 Feb: Rain Rain Rain produces naps. Zzzzzzzz. The rain continued throughout the day; the lights went out momentarily, the waves are whipped into whitecaps, the sun is peeking through a hole in the clouds creating a strange yellow light on the houses next door. A severe storm watch is in effect until 6:00 PM. It is now 5:57. Three more minutes to go. Good night.
16 Feb: The spectacular red sunrise was a marvelous sight to see before going back to sleep for 2 more hours. A nap followed breakfast by Ron. The beach beckoned with balmy 63 degree temperature. We walked to Ocean Grille accruing 4.36 miles upon our return. Ron walked to the store tonight while on hold waiting for Verizon to tell him how many minutes remain. He forgot the code.
15 Feb: Departure at 7:00 AM - 47 Degrees COLD!!! Return condo key, rental car and eat breakfast at the Toasted Yolk. Ron has a Dental Appt at 9:00'AM followed by a Recycling drop-off and lunch at Pappadeaux. The beach is 2 hours away on a very cold day.; we arrived about 4:30 -in time for a nap. The beach house does not have Wi-fi. Computer Communication will be limited to Verizon on Cynthia's IPad or to Ron's walk to Ocean Grille with the Mac for guest wi-fi. We love this beach. If only they had a restaurant that served egg white veggie omelets instead of biscuits and gravy.
14 Feb: Happy Valentines Day! We arose at 5:00 AM! Ron feigned a hammer blow to put Cynthia back to sleep so he could sneak out of bed; he had plans for sorting piles of stuff into more piles of stuff to pack into boxes to load into the car. It didn't work; she didn't go back to sleep. Fortunately, The rain was very light driving to breakfast; walloping winds whipping sheets of rain lasted about an hour hit after we were in the restaurant. Cynthia was surprised to awaken from a morning nap to find her Valentines cards to Ron recycled into a new and funnier Valentine with kisses and more kisses. Aweeeeee! After a late afternoon trip to the storage unit and dinner it is time to Pack the motorcycle bags. 30 cubic yards of recycling remain to be bagged, "to hang from the bike to be taken to the recycling center," announced the Rider unable to conceal his delight at image. Ron's congestion worsened; he might have a fever.
13 Feb: Pack! After two trips of stuff to the storage unit, the condo remains littered. We exercised; Ron walked to the Point talking to Dave E.; at 3:30 Ron and Cynthia walked to the Fitness Center where Ron hit the elliptical machine getting his heart rate to 92 a few times. Cynthia had her last session with Brenda, the fitness instructor, who noticed she has lost 7 pounds. Woo Hoo! The skinny jeans fit again. Weather tomorrow is disconcerting; heavy thunderstorms are forecast until mid-afternoon. Cynthia complained about being, "out of sorts." Ron offered to buy some sorts.
12 Feb: Sunday brunch with Roxanne, Julie, Eric, Haylee at the Yacht Club was a delight. Jon and Barb had to meet clients, and Kiira was too ill to attend. Eric loved the Norwegian trunk Cynthia had built and designed for his wedding gift. Ron hit the elliptical machine for 45 minutes; it was just enough to require a long nap upon his return.
11 Feb: Rested, but departure on Wednesday looms like a speeding bullet train. The Tasmanian Devil is cleaning everything but Ron's stacks of recycling and papers. Everything will be returned to the storage unit Monday except items we take to Bolivar Peninsula. We are meeting a Bankston/Rambo cousin and her daughter at one for a late lunch. The moon was incredible.
10 Feb: A Rambo descendant met us at Magnolia Diner; Cynthia left early to meet Bambi. Cynthia forgot she had fitness training until she was on the trail to meet a very, very tired Ron at the fitness center. We walked to the Yacht Club for dinner to discover Yassar doing three jobs because he was short staffed tonight. Ron got the Airport back up working again. Jon could not meet us for dinner but he dropped off computer parts for Ron's next project: Ron is rebuilding the late 2011 17" MACBook Pro with a new solid state hard drive and quadruple the Ram because Apple quit making the 17" model. Exhausted! We went to sleep at 7:30 PM.
9 Feb: Today was the dayto sleep in Hurrah !! Oops! We awoke at 5 AM unable to go back to sleep. We are so overtired we decided on a late morning nap. Deep into the doze the phone rang and we awoke to pest control people knocking on neighbors doors. Ron has preliminary packages ready for a couple of families. Cynthia is on a cleaning frenzy in preparation for the weekend Valentines/Birthday event. Late afternoon we managed a 4.0 mile walk.
8 Feb: 90 Degrees. NINETY! 90 degrees HOT (or so the car said while driving on I-45 this afternoon). Global Warming has come home to roost. We started our day with breakfast at the Toasted Yolk and afterwards dropped off recycling that had occupied Ron yesterday (rinsing). It was perfect timing to boogie to our appointment with Eric K., fiduciary, on Beltway 8 (thankfully no surprises there). As we returned to the Woodlands the police stopped us for an expired inspection sticker on the rental car. After checking Cynthia's drivers license and verifying that Enterprise had indeed purchased the inspection sticker, he let us go. We go-ed ASAP! Our next stop was the EZ Tag Store (well hidden in a strip mall) to get an updated tollway tag for the new bike. We proceeded first to Pappadeaux for salmon, then to the orthodontist to pick up the new retainer for Cynthia (with a spare and a mold in case the new retainer wanders into hiding as the previous ones have). Next stop was Enterprise to have the faulty sticker replaced, then Smoothie King to overindulge Ron. Whew! We stopped at "home" to change into workout clothes and hustled to see Brenda, who is personally training Cynthia for the next Olympics. Ron's legs are tired from getting "Younger Next Year" at such a fast pace, so he only lasted for ten minutes on the elliptical machine today, AND the dumbell had to use heavier dumbells. It is suddenly shocking to realize that we have Thursday & Friday & Saturday before seeing Cynthia's daughters at Sunday brunch, then Monday, Tuesday and departure Wednesday !! Don't be surprised if Ron is too busy to update the blog until the following weekend.
7 Feb: It is tomorrow in three minutes. Waaay past bedtime. Smooch! After breakfast at the Toasted Yolk, we stopped at the ENT for Cynthia's hearing aid but we will have to return this afternoon because it won't arrive until three-thirty PM. The car is rented again until February 15. And now it is a sunny, bright and beautiful day with the temperature at 78 degrees as we commence our walk. Well! Ron walked and racked up 45 minutes on the elliptical machine while Cynthia drove back to the ENT to get the hearing aid. The sunset is spectacular. Blogger won't let me post photos!!!
6 Feb: Early morning rise and shine. After breakfast at the Toasted Yolk, Cynthia has a medical appointment with Dr. Eads and then we go around the block to the Neurologist. We have to renew the car rental, too. Medical appointments are on the agenda every day this week but Thursday. Now nearly tomorrow, Ron is again burning midnight oil doing genealogy. Isn't it wonderful to have a nice safe addiction like genealogy? We enjoyed warm, humid weather again today. The walk to & from the fitness center was pleasant in shorts and tee shirt. Ron survived 25 minutes on the elliptical machine again. He is working his way up to 45 minutes in order to be "Younger Next Year." Problem is that he indulges in the munchies (pretzels) until the bag is empty, so his weight isn't dropping satisfactorily. Fooey. Now it is time to retire ... and get the points for first "I love you" of tomorrow.
5 Feb, Sunday: A fun time was had by all of the survivors. Church was deeply inspiring, the choir incredible, and the elderly woman Ron helped out of the pew to communion was most appreciative. We were late for brunch because the children's sermon ran overtime. The omelet chef bought a new supersize pan just for Ron, and Ron devoured the supersized omelet with gusto. He emailed the Friend package of 700 pages to now be placed on a CD for the buyer and then completed an outline for a SCS newsletter article prior to a similar SCS luncheon speech on May 18th in Philadelphia. We ate a late lunch/ early dinner at Magnolia Diner before Ron rode the elliptical machine at the fitness center for half an hour and walked home. We might be the only folks not watching the Super Bowl; Cynthia just checks the score. Congratulations to Tom Brady and the Patriots.
4 Feb: Its a happy day in Smoochville. Work is progressing on DNA, Family Group Sheets, and eating.
3 Feb: Smooch returned!! Ron had a 5 hour ride from Denton, TX where the overnight low was 29 degrees. At 10:00 AM he was partially packed waiting for Dorothy to arise - and he departed by 11:00. He was indeed cold. Dorothy said, "Cynthia gets you all year, and I only have you for five days." Laughter is back in the Beatty home again. Jon and Barb bought a beach house on our favorite beach; their closing is today bringing them great excitement to move in.
2 Feb: Ron had a good night sleep. The electrical power is off in Dorothy's house. In the meantime, waiting for power, Ron is outside raking her leaves. Finally, he was able to reach the utility company to discover power was turned off for non-payment. The bill had been paid but the check hadn't reached them so their policy is to shut off the power after 30 days. Ron vented frustration at the customer service for turning off power for elderly during cold weather. Dorothy is over 100 years old. Cynthia had a fun day with two year old Fyn. She was very disappointed having to leave that precious child; the parents would eventually notice if Grandmother sneaked her out of the house??? All children are cute, but this one is above and beyond adorable flashing her dimples.
1 Feb: This month begins with the end in mind; Feb. 15th we return to walk our favorite beach for the remainder of the month. Ron had a good nights sleep - Cynthia wakes up hearing noises and cannot go back to sleep. Sometimes it is her stomach growling.
