29 Nov, How can two retired people be so busy? We stretched, oatmealed, hiked... Ron’s strategy of strength training and cardio on a,ternate days is paying benefits. Recycling followed workouts, then James Lea book, then recycling, etc. and the Christmas letter was written Cynthia and her adult children were joined by their dad for a lively, fun dinner to celebrate Julie’s birthday.
28 Nov, Also, Texas accidentally has a New England leaf peeping season. In early November we had a couple of hard freezes just when Texans are supposed to be enjoying 75 degree temperatures. Repeating November 18th: Thanks to the freezes we are enjoying Autumn dressed to the nines in her fall finery using every Crayola in the box. Breathtaking shades of red, crimson, burgundy, gold, bronze and greens are gorgeous to behold. Despite our crazy busy schedules we managed to hike twice today accumulating a total of eight miles. WOW! Are we proud. Ron completed a full round of routines at the Fitness Center, too. The large community of deer must be happy, too, because they are bouncing and bounding along the trail. for of aware we are not deer until we get too close.
Also, dear reader: do you wonder why you have to read about our trips to doctors and pharmacies? We keep this record for the IRS! And we do most of our medical trips annually while in Texas. Another boring day of a medical trip to Dr. Sims in the Woodlands.
27 Nov, was a very long day. We enjoyed a pleasant lunch in Chappell Hill with Carol S., and her sister visiting from Hawaii. Following lunch, Cynthia had an appointment in Brenham with the ophthalmologist. She has dry macular degeneration which is showing regressive changes. But such is life. Enjoy life as it comes.
26 Nov, Our rental car exchange created a most interesting vignette. We rent a car when home in Texas. This current rental, a Nissan SUV, produced interminable growling and complaining from one member of this duo (not naming any names) who says the vehicle is unworthy of a Premium price. Three weeks into the rental, the maintainance lights flashed for tires, oil and filter. “Gladly,” she declared, “I will bring the vehicle back, but I want a different car!” Imagine Ron waiting patiently in the rental Nissan MENDING his socks when her exuberant voice exclaims, “Its a luxury car.” Enterprise exchanged the manual operating Nissan for an Infinity with buttons. Two different world views. One of us mends socks; the unnamed one likes electric buttons, auto heat, GPS and comfort. Imagine that! We do have a mixed marriage: One prefers Old-Fashioned Oatmeal while the best oatmeal really is Quick Cooking Oatmeal.
25 Nov, Brunch with son Jon, Merry and Bill (Ron’s longtime friends from Florida) at the Yacht Club was delightful. Bill and Merry told us about their terrific trip taking Bill's mom and stepdad on the grand tour of Europe for three weeks. Bill's mom is 90 and his stepdad is a youthful 93. Later, Cynthia took a long winter’s nap before we walked. The visual effects of gorgeous fall colors are exciting to see. It is a rarity in Texas because a hard frost rarely comes when there are still leaves on the trees.
24 Nov, Montgomery, Texas - a stellar day! The weather is perfect; the recent hard freezes dressed autumn to rival New England using every Crayola in the box. The brilliant shades of crimson, orange, and gold dance and shimmer in the sunlight. By the time of our late afternoon walk, the light changes caused the colors to pop. Lots of deer frolicking along the trail increased the day's delight. We agreed it was a fun day. Grandson Steven arrived at our storage unit mid morning to move furniture Cynthia is gifting Steven's sister, the bride-to-be. The back of Steven's pickup was loaded! It was fun chatting over lunch at Magnolia Diner with Steven about potential plans to enter law school and the political fray.
23 Nov, Happy Stay at Home and Do Not Do Black Friday! Well. we almost stayed at home. We worked on our projects before going to dinner and Wally World. The James Lea book is back on the front burner; it is not likely to reach the publisher this winter but progress is being made. Our front bedroom is a sea of files, cardboard and plastic boxes going to recycling, a shredder, and to a fellow who will take about a hundred hanging files with file folders. Thirty years of financial, ministry building and other project records are being examined and sorted carefully by Ron the Recycling Man.
22 Nov, Happy Thanksgiving! We are deeply thankful for you, our family and friends. We are both thankful and doing marvelously well despite the multitude of setbacks that life deals to us always. (We just notice the unfairness more as we age.) We still walk industriously every day and do our morning exercises together and consequently our bodies feel very good in most respects most of the time. We still eat Pritikin, i.e. tons of veggies and no oil no butter, no fat, no cheese, no salt, so I'm feeling fine.
I continue to work on the computer doing genealogy projects interminably. Cynthia tolerates my messes very well, poor dear. She is in constant e-communication with half of the universe, an interesting by-product of retirement for a introverted minister who does not hear well. (Cynthia approved this message.) Brother Dean and kids raced in a 5K despite cold and wind. No surprise that he won first place in his age group. Benjamin and Sarah ran together. Gobble Gobble!
21 Nov, Happy Birthday daughter Julie! We drove to the Woodlands for Cynthia’s Ob-gyn appointment and on to the Toasted Yolk for lunch, witnessing a nasty accident on the way home. Cynthia ordered a case of fat free-salt free pretzels from Walmart because the store is perpetually out of stock. No other stores carry them. The case is huge. Ron will have pretzels for three or four months!
20 Nov, Yes! Another day, more doctors. Ron rides shotgun as Cynthia’s extra pair of ears; her hearing aids aren’t enough listening to mumbling doctors. The mammogram results aren’t back yet, but the oncologist was joyful Cynthia has reached the milestone of being seven years cancer free. Yes, we are thankful. Next year she does not need to see the oncologist, just the PA. Eating at Jason's Deli in the Woodlands is our reward. After pigging out we saw Cherie , the PA in Dr. Sims office, for a treatment. Ron hauled lots of paper to our church recycling bin. Now back to work on various computer projects!
19 Nov: Another day, another trip to the Woodlands. It was time for Cynthia’s annual trip to MD Anderson for a mammogram. Afterwards we tried to stop at Staples only to be greatly surprised to discover Staples no longer exists within 29 miles of us. This means we will use the nearby UPS, not Staples, to shred paper that cannot go to recycling. The Toasted Yolk fed us nicely after our non-stop at Staples. And we walked! The rain spurted a bit, just long enough to make a mess on the trail, Ron, the hiker man got into trail maintenance mode. Large groups of curious deer cluster along the trail, very young fawns, does, young bucks, a large buck with six antlers delight us with their antics. But it is too late and my eyes won’t stay awake.
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| Ron and Cynthia seated for the wedding |
17 Nov, Fort Worth, Texas. We have had mornings below freezing in Texas already, and one morning I saw ephemeral snowflakes amidst raindrops. Oh, and ice on the windshield, frost on the rooftops, etc.
We have seen a host of doctors already and attended grandson Eric's wedding this afternoon, a lovely outdoor wedding in a pleasant climate, 72 degrees. More doctors until the 3rd of December at least. Cynthia wore her newest cute shoes with high heels (as recommended by a California sister) and suffered mightly. I had to hold her up while she muttered " I shoulda worn my hiking tennies."
The poor motorcycle hasn't moved in two weeks although it has been washed a time or two whenever it rained to provide rinse water.
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| Cynthia with sons and daughters |
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| Bride and groom flanked by Mom and Uncle Jon |
15 Nov: Our deepest sympathy to our niece-in-law, Denise, in the loss of her mother. On the road going to Brenham to see the audiologist, Ron noticed that there are fall colors creeping into the trees this fall in Texas. We cannot begin to explain how unusual this is. Cynthia’s appointment with the audiologist took an hour, followed by a stop at Home Depot to get a water ph test strip. From there we enjoyed lunch at the Toasted Yolk with our former landscape contractor and her mom, who coincidentally arrived at the same time. We shopped at Wally World, stopped at the storage unit, tried another Walmart for salt free, fat free pretzels, dropped off a rent check at the Management Company and managed a 5 mile walk. We deserved that great dinner tonight at the Yacht Club!
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| great grandson Hudson with part of Papa |
13 Nov: Snow in Houston brought a lot of big smiles this morning! The smile froze into a loud YUK: A colonoscopy and endoscopy! Yes, YUK! After the three hour ride round trip to NW Memorial Herman Hospital, a baked sweet potato at Jasons Deli was a just reward. The cell phone is still deader than dead.
12 Nov, August heat is gone for awhile! Brrrr! Bundled up, we walked a ways before receiving a phone call to go to Lakeside pharmacy to pick up the prep for tomorrow’s medical test. After the pharmacy stop, we shipped a bunch of 3.5 floppy discs to a business in California that will recycle them; Cynthia shipped the Brooks genealogy to the public library in Troy, Alabama for their loose paper files. Ron’s phone is dead!
11 Nov, The cross generational worship at our church is delightful. How fun to see the children assume roles as readers, and participating with the pastor in Offering the benediction. The antics of a set of two year old twins during the children's sermon makes all of the adults smile. Son Jon, Granddaughter Lauren and her beau, Tyler, joined us for brunch at the Yacht Club. We miss Yassar, the Maitre D' at the club. The rains they came, soaking Ron and his cell phone. Will it work in the morning?
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| Zoe, the equestrian |
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| Zoe the princess (in middle) |
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| SmoochSmooch and Smooch behaving properly |
9 Nov: Progress is being made on several DNA projects, plus going through boxes in the storage unit. These are humungous boxes filled with years of records that go to recycling. Ron is preparing a zillion pierces of paper, tax records, some from forty years ago to go to the dump, the dump, the dump, dump, dump. Lunch was a great treat at the Toasted Yolk. A delightful customer said she enjoyed watching us. Ron told her the story how we became Smooch and Smooch Smooch. She was enthralled to know Ron hiked the Appalachian Trail, and also that Cynthia was vacationing in a Vietnam during some of that hike. She explained that she has never had a vacation because she is a caregiver for everybody in her family. Cynthia blessed her. She cried. Life is good, love shared is the joy of life.
8 Nov: Awake, exercises done, oatmealed and we were in the car for a long drive to the Galleria area and medical center by 7:30 AM, for appointments that took up the entire day! Ron made Cynthia’s hairdresser laugh until his belly shook and he had tears in in his eyes. It was fun to have fresh Atlantic salmon at Pappadeaux for lunch. Now that darkness falls upon the earth like a trapdoor by five thirty, it was too late to get in the day’s walk. Granddaughter Zoe called with joyful news of her acceptance to her number one college choice.
7 Nov, Cynthia is en route to College Station to visit daughter Julie, granddaughter Corrie and her two babies. Ron is hardly working. He is good at this job. Today we are thankful for family.
6 Nov, And thank God the mid-term election is over; no political ads tomorrow. Cynthia had a girl day at Bambi's and Ron went along to keep her company. Eating at Jason's Deli is a treat.
5 Nov, Thank God! Just Thank God. We woke up! We are healthy! We are incredibly happy! Thank God. This was another one of those days to run a million kazillion errands. Cynthia had a medical appointment in the Woodlands at one PM; afterwards, we treated ourselves to a monster-sized baked sweet potato at Jason's Deli. Cynthia eats a quarter of her potato, so Ron ate his baked potato and three quarters of Cynthia's sweet potato.
4 Nov, Sunday Offering from Cynthia:
I decided to post positive thoughts this month to combat the negativity and cruelty so highly visible in the media and on social networks. Each day I will thank God for something positive on our blog and Facebook.
I am thankful for my baptism into the mystical body of Christ on this, All Saints Day. I lit a candle in memory of my father who died on All Saints Day, 1977. As I lit the candle I reflected on a memory of that day as I grasped the deep meaning of the mystery of the Communion of Saints. In Christ Jesus we are connected to those who have gone before us. At the same time, we are connected to our community.
“The first service one owes to others in a community involves listening to them. Just as our love for God begins with listening to God’s Word, the beginning of love for others is learning to listen to them. God’s love for us is shown by the fact that God not only gives God’s Word but also lends us God’s ear. . . . We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer3 Nov, After running morning errands, we walked four miles, once home again, we settled into doing DNA projects on our Macs. Triangulation on GEDmatch.com is a terrific tool, but how to research 500 close matches?
2 Nov. Thank you, Lord, for this gorgeous day beside the lake. After a four mile walk, we inspected the disaster in the storage unit: Jon moved boxes and boxes of stuff from Cynthia’s former home into our storage unit. She had forgotten about the boxes. Now we have to figure out how to dispose of the stuff. We can’t start a bonfire. We hauled our personal items to the condo, like shirts. After wearing the same shirt for the past seven months, Ron wore through the back of this favorite shirt; but the front has lots of wear left in it. He located a favorite long sleeved shirt from the 60’s or 70’s that must have been a cast off from a Haight-Ashbury Hippie. But Cynthia loves the blue that matches his eyes. Tonight’s sunset was a show stopper, with many shades of blue, lavender, peach, and Rose to delight us on our evening walk to the fitness center. The deer are out and about, but the numbers seem smaller.
1 Nov. Lake Conroe, Texas. After seven months on wheels, we are back at the condo. Jon moved a bunch of Cynthia’s boxes that were in his storage unit into ours. It is packed full. We shopped for groceries and walked to the fitness center knocking out 12,000 steps. Good night
