Two Rolling Stones En Route to Pritikin

Ron & Cynthia at the Oscars, a great restaurant

10 Mar:

9 Mar:

8 Mar:

7 Mar: Thunderstorms are forecast for today. 

6 Mar:  Ron awakened at 6 am, quietly did his exercises on the bed in the spare bedroom (still clean from Marvin & Carolyn's visit two weeks ago) and ate breakfast before 7:40 when he awakened Cynthia.  At 8 AM he was out the door and on the bike towards Woodlands BMW for the warranty replacement of the driveshaft.  And this will need to be done every 36,000 miles.  (Yes, we have that many miles on this bike already !!)  BMW was all done by 10:30, so Ron stopped at Jason's Deli for salad bar (and free ice cream cones) on his way home.  Now he has returned to preparations prior to leaving in four days, early next Tuesday, starting with entering receipts and routes into his spreadsheet.   Cynthia had the car washed and filled with fuel, went to the bank to reorder check blanks, picked up the comforter from the dry cleaners, and prescriptions from the pharmacy. Despite the morning activity, we managed two thirty minute walks today!  We thinks there is an afternoon nap in our futures. Naps are good medicine. 

5 Mar:  We drove the car to the storage locker and unloaded much of Cynthia's stuff and then to Oscar's to have dinner with Larry & Dawn.  Another mandatory stop at Walmart for walnuts and Vitamin A (for the eyes, as recommended by cousin Dorothy).  Oscar treated us well as usual, feeding us salmon, salads and rice.  Larry and Dawn evidently also really enjoyed their meals.

4 Mar:  MEDICAL, ENT at 10:30 AM.  This was Ron's opportunity to go through all his piles of paper looking to separate 1) things to go with 2) things to go to storage, 3) recycling, and 4) etc.  He had good success with a pile of papers to photograph, receipts to enter into his spreadsheet, and recycling.  Since the next four days are supposed to be cloudy and rainy, when will he find bright enough light to photograph documents?

3 Mar:  MEDICAL.  Cynthia has a doctor's appointment at nine-fifteen with an ENT and the wellness doctor at noon.  We will meet Samantha and her family at three-thirty.  Well, the doors were locked for my ENT appointment.  I called, and they said the appointment was in College Station.  I was very annoyed they failed to tell me that when I made the appointment.  Thankfully, a different ENT near Jon’s house worked me in tomorrow.  We had great fun with Samantha and Adam, and their two precious boys.  More fun, Cynthia’s nephew called tonight, and we enjoyed a great visit about their son interviewing colleges for next fall.  We hope to connect as we travel the next few months.

2 Mar:  MEDICAL  We rode the motorcycle to the medical center in the Woodlands for Cynthia to get trigger point epidural injections.  Next we dropped off recycling at Target and ate lunch at Jason’s Deli.  The TP injections felt great for six hours until the lidocaine wore off.

1 Mar, Sunday:  After worship, Oscar’s Restaurant prepared poached salmon and plates of vegetables.  We came home to nap, but we didn't fall asleep. 

February, nose to grindstone!

Dale, Ron (as Adonis), and Aldona

The photo to the left is from Dean & Janina's wedding. Cynthia agrees Ron was an Adonis, but he is even more so now! 

28 Feb: Bill and Merry are joining us for lunch tomorrow at the Magnolia Diner.  Ron received his second Shingles vaccination. 

27 Feb: The temperature is increasingly warmer. Ron studied Bruce Lee’s life history and shared it with Cynthia the entire length of the Point Trail.  It was an incredible day!  Cynthia had a haircut, mailed three Lea volumes to the Caswell County Library in Yancyville, picked up a proxy paper for Ron. Ron is about one hundred pages from the end of editing the index for Volume Four.  2.57 miles 

26 Feb: It is hard to catch up on the blog when we are so crazy busy we forget.  3.41 Miles 

25 Feb:  Cynthia wrote letters to grandchildren and packed. 1.06 Miles

24 Feb: (looking ahead) 10:00 appt with Dr. C., in the Woodlands followed by an appointment with ENT for new domes on Cynthia's hearing aids. After the drive to the recycling center, we will have lunch at Jason's Deli.  2.28 Miles 

23 Feb: We slept a lot. Cynthia's bronchitis is healing. Ron has the recycling ready to go to the recycling center. 2.54 Miles 

. 

22 Feb:  lunch with Zoe and Jack, Fyn, Paul, and Cheryl. They served a Spinach salad with spaghetti squash made like lasagne without oil and served a delicious bean sauce on the spaghetti squash. Paul brought his home made sour dough bread. Yummy. 

It was delightful to see Zoe and Jack's new home. 

21 Feb: Ron's cousins enjoyed the visit.  We don't cook, but they enjoyed going with us to the Yacht Club for a delicious meal by candlelight. We don't use or keep sugar or cream, but they enjoyed coffee plain. 1, 74 Miles. 

20 Feb: Ron’s cousins arrive from Iowa. 1.81 Miles 

19 Feb.  We had a good night’s sleep, and the sore throat has improved.  Congestion and cough, not!  I am so thankful I went to urgent care. Ron is busy at his Mac, with his exercises to do.  It is noon, and Cynthia completed her therapy exercises. What can I eat? A protein and veggie smoothie might be good.  Walking will wait a couple days. 

18 Feb: Ron was off early to get the motorcycle serviced. Cynthia will finish cleaning, get the emissions checked on the car, pay the tax assessor, go to the bank, vote, stop at the storage unit, and pick up an RX.  Except! Her phone got a pop-up hoax, which is a little bit like a virus. Thanks to Chat GPT she deleted it. Of course, then everything had to be reset. Almost home, she realized she should have gone to Urgent Care when she was nearby and returned. She has bronchitis with two new prescriptions to take. We are tired.ZZzzzzzz

17 Feb: The grass is greening, pear trees are blossoming, and children are riding bikes on the sidewalks.  Spring is in our steps. We have completed walk #1. Ron spent the day organizing his things Cynthia is helping by staying out of the way. She finished answering Lauren’s twenty questions and gave her two of her children’s favorite recipes for a cookbook Lauren is compiling as a family gift. It is difficult to type so much!  Ron said reading and writing help prevent dementia. Whew.  2.70 Miles 

16 Feb: How beautiful is the morning! 70 degrees. We exercised, ate, and took walk #1. Ron is typing receipts into his spreadsheet with much house cleaning awaiting. Cynthia is experimenting with making her lunch in a blender. Today, she added two kiwi fruits with skins, Isopure protein powder, broccoli, spinach, and a cup of yogurt.  Not many people would like this, but it was a great way to ingest a lot of iron and Vitamin C.  After walk #2, we reached a total of 3.56 Miles. 

15 Feb: The sermon on the Transfiguration was marvelous. We had salmon at lunch at The Oscars followed by a great walk.  3.67 miles and almost 10,000 steps. Yay for us. 

14 Feb:  Happy Valentine’s Day!  Lovely roses, a Valentine's card, and we had a great walk together to the trail!  Cynthia is ecstatic that she walked for an entire 30 minutes without suffering during the walk or afterward.  2.58 miles 

13 Feb:  Walk # 1 is over, so is lunch.  Ron is cleaning, organizing, and recycling, and we completed walk #2.  2.77 miles.  

12  Feb Oh, boy!  We are going to have guests.  Ron started the recycling project by burying compost last night after his usual 4-mile walk.  This particular compost burial was to fill in a hole on the breakwater path where Cynthia has hurt her back after the grass grows high enough to obscure the hole.  We won't know if the hole is filed until the dirt settles next year.  Ron has been so busy reading through Volume 4 to create the index that he hasn't updated the blog much at all.  His first necessity is to list the favorite flavors at Blue Bell on the 10th.

11 Feb:  Cynthia and granddaughter Lauren started a conversation that could become a book.  Lauren opened the conversation by sending Cynthia 20 questions.  The first one took her days to answer because it opened the door to a difficult time in her life.  Lauren will respond and also answer the question.

10 Feb:  Ever since Dr. Beim told Cynthia that he wanted to see her again in three weeks, we have been looking forward to our last trip this year to Brenham because the Blue Bell Cremery tasting room is located conventiently near Dr. Beim's office.  After our medical appointment in Brenham with Dr. Beim we hustled posthaste over to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. Mmmmmm!  We were more relaxed and less frenic than during our earlier visits, so we only ate 11 scoops of ice cream.  Ron's favorites were the pistacho, peachy peach, butter pecan, mocha almond fudge, and happy tracks; Cynthia's were the butter pecan and cherry vanilla (although she complained that cherry vanilla is supposed to be white instead of pink).  Neither of us was impressed by the black cherry or the oatmeal creame pie.  Afterwards, Cynthia opined that the ice cream and tasting room were too cold and that she actually liked eating Kroger's Premium Selection Amaretto Cherry Cordial at home better.

9 Feb:  We are two tired puppies after riding the bike to a financial appointment, followed by Jason’s Deli and two walks.  Addictive behaviors die hard; Ron has been an ice-cream-aholic all his life and has had the habit locked down for 16 years, but ever since he splurged following his cataract surgery, his passion has been reignited.  He even enjoys the FREE soft serve cones at Jasons Deli and consumes four fairly large cones with his salads; he has even stopped ordering a baked potato to insure that he has room for all four cones.  3.59 miles.

8 Feb: We were delighted when a woman told us after worship how much she enjoyed watching our relationship. 2.85 miles

7 Feb:  The weather is marvelous. We worked on computer tasks all day, took a nap, and we took two walks.  Cynthia received many responses to the grandchildren's Valentine's Cards.  Charlotte's dancing was a delight. 

6 Feb:  Last night we both slept well for an uninterrupted 9 hours.  What a relief.  Cynthia's epidural has kicked in and she is now full of p___ and vinegar. (Who me!?  We walked twice today for a total of 2.96 miles. Woo! Hoo!)

5 Feb:  Cynthia had a Women’s Wellness Dr. Appt; afterward, we had oil and filters changed (the Lexus Wellness session), followed by a delicious salmon dinner at the Pizza Shack before picking up meds at the pharmacy.  Ron is helping Cynthia transfer data onto a spreadsheet in preparation for Monday’s meeting with a fiduciary.

4 Feb:  We drove into The Woodlands today in chilly, windy weather to Texas ENT Specialists for Cynthia to get new earpieces (ear molds) for her hearing aids.  It was a fun visit with an eccentric Mom.  On the way to the Woodlands, we noticed a new Jason's Deli that we had never noticed before, just next to the Target and Research Forest Drive on 2854 (Honea Egypt Road).  It was a good restaurant.

3 Feb:  Hi Barb,  Yes, we are neglecting the blog because Ron has nose to the grindstone trying to get Volume 4 ready to go to the publisher.  He is now working on the index, which means he has to read all 400 pages looking for oversights, omissions, errors, typos, and other less-than-perfect details.  Thanks for worrying about us.  See Vol. II above

2 Feb:  MEDICAL:  Cynthia had an epidural in her SI joint.  Ron had an echocardiogram that apparently indicates to the technicians that he is still alive.  Let's hope the doctor agrees.  The assessment on his MyMedical chart at UT Health agrees.  So far, so good.

1 Feb, Sunday:  We enjoyed worship at Grace Lutheran and lunch at The Oscars.  Oscar is so good; he ordered salmon especially for us.

2026 We Turn 18 Again Beginning in January!

Ron is in the treehouse before zi-lining  

31Jan: The chilliness in the condo warrants a heating pad on my lap. We are ready for our second walk of the day going a little further each day. Cynthia is planning a party next week and writing letters to great-grandchildren using one finger. Here is a photo of Vol. III.  Vol. II disappeared. 

 

30 Jan: Great-granddaughter Charlotte successfully competed and won the yellow belt in Taekwondo.   We successfully slept, oatmealed, exercised, and walked.  Ron walked twice.  And here is a photo of Vol I of the four volumes.

29  Jan: Here we are just bouncing to the end of January achieving goals. We exercised and walked twice. Cynthia had a pedi/mani and returned items at UPS.  Ron has moved on to Hico, the last Watershed before editing and creating the index for Volume Four. Yay. It certainly will be a treat for this to be off to the publisher when we leave for Pritikin and we can focus on eating and exercise. 3.15 Miles! HOORAY 

28 Jan: Buy four AA batteries Cynthia;  she did! She also bought a small adult blood pressure cuff, but it had to be a child's size, so it was returned.  We walked twice and did upper-body workouts at the fitness center. And on this day we continued our great progress with being eighteen again. We exercise a lot, we eat a lot, and we laugh a lot! 2.56 Miles 

27 Jan: We had a fabulous day, or was that yesterday? Cynthia is elated to feel so great. We did our morning stretches, she did the physical therapist's workout, and we did an upper-body workout at the fitness center, followed by a 15-minute walk on the trail. How exciting is this? The best part of workouts and walking is the exhilaration.  Ron is making great progress with Volume Four. Cynthia worked with DNA correspondence. Lauren sent Grandmother a list of questions with answers that might make another book. It is a joy to have so many grandchildren. Ron is walking the trail earlier tonight. 2.31 Miles 

26 Jan: The day was quiet doing the usual with the grandchildren correspondence, exercises, and seeing the gastroenterologist. Does Broccoli give indigestion? 

25 Jan: Thankful. That's the word for our awakening to electrical power and to no snow.  We ate, exercised, and walked twice. Cynthia is deeply thankful for walking without pain. Ron is almost finished with North Hico. 2.0 Miles. TWO MILES T.W.O. 2 MILES.

24 Jan: Ok, historic storm: we are ready as we can be. The car is filled with fuel, Cynthia has containers filled with water in the bathtub, but it is futile to fill the tub or sinks because they won’t stay filled. Extra food is in the refrigerator and cabinets.  We did laundry. Cynthia is very proud that Ron has started recycling; this takes weeks to do before we leave for Miami on 10 March. Thank God for heat and power, but, Cynthia would have preferred to go to a lovely hotel with a backup generator.

23 Jan: Cynthia was bound and determined to be prepared for the worst possible hurricane, tornado, blizzard, and the Great Flood by shopping and shopping again. We mailed the Lea books to the NGSQ for a critique/review.  Ron finished South Hico Watershed in Volume Four; the remaining are North Hico, Hico, and the Index. The book size was trimmed back to 500 pages. 

22 Jan: We must have been busy.  Maybe we will remember what we did on this day  

21 Jan: Dr C’s consultation in the Woodlands for the epidural in the SI joint, is now scheduled for 2 Feb along with Ron’s echocardiogramat two PM. 

20 Jan: Oh!Oh! We saw the ophthalmologist in Brenham.  There is a Blue Bell Creamery right there.  Then we drove to Hempstead to talk to the CPA about taxes.  

19 Jan: Cynthia awoke at 7 to discover Ron sitting at his computer at five AM still working on Volume Four. The sun is shining and bright, high temp of 63.  Cynthia is always chilly so she ate oatmeal for lunch, too.

1/18 Sunday Worship followed by salmon lunch at Oscar’s, pick up packages at Jon’s, and stop at the storage unit to pick up sweatshirts and knitted caps.

1/17 Cynthia housecleaned, did laundry, finished recording receipts to go to the CPA, and she did her therapy exercises. Ron is working on James Lea, Volume Four, with three more watersheds for inclusion.  Next, he wants to create a website for the Leas. We walked for eleven minutes  Cynthia called the Inn at Long Trail for summer reservations.  It is so cold in Texas that we went to bed to get warm. 

1/16 Cynthia is celebrating her graduation from Physical Therapy. Everyone is pleased that she is finally starting to strive to be an achiever. She needs more degrees! She is happy not have pain.

1/15  A day of Rest  nite nite

14 Jan: Cynthia is doing taxes; Ron is writing correspondence. 

13 Jan: Allergy Medical Appt @ 10:00 AM, followed by appointment with podiatrist at 1:45.

12 Jan: Physical Therapy and home again, home again.  

11 Jan: Turn the Page. An important part of the Forde Family has passed from this place to life beyond.  Now we turn the page.  Cynthia has PT at eleven. 

10 Jan: Happy Birthday Paul!  We arose at six AM to ride with Jon to the Klein Funeral Home in Houston for the Memorial Service for Stan F.. Scott’s service was held there in 1998.  Following Stan’s service, too, we traveled to the graveside service at Scott’s Grove, our family cemetery.  We had a lovely lunch catered by Waller County Catering. Friends were in attendance from forty years ago.  Most of our great-grandkids were there. 

9 Jan:  The plan for January and February is two-fold: Cynthia wants to finally spend time with the grandchildren and we will get the taxes done in addition to physical therapy twice a week. YES, we are thankful for our marvelous life together.

8 Jan: We enjoyed a lovely, late sleep followed by Cynthia's housecleaning, doing laundry, washing dishes, and floors. Ron decided it would be good to do the first of three ten- minute walks so we escaped the kitchen for ten minutes.  Cynthia is worn out, Ron went for a walk after working on Volume Four. The already published James Lea volumes 1-3 were ordered for Barb, libraries, and archives today. 

7 Jan: Today was another “Rise and Shine” day for Ron’s electrophysiologist appointment six blocks away. This guarantees a mile of walking.  He has everyone laughing hard at his stories. Cynthia had a physical therapist appointment, we picked up a RX and returned a pair of shoes to Amazon, returning to the condo by 4:30 PM. Cynthia walked 2.82 Miles 

6 Jan:  Cynthia’s hair appointment with Sasha was at eleven AM.  Sasha has been her hairstylist for 45 years and he really enjoys Ron!  We ate lunch at Jason’s Deli; Ron slept all afternoon  We walked to Salata before he returned to work on Volume Four.  Now he is getting in the four-mile walk around Rice University.  Cynthia’s lab results are good. Cynthia walked 2.65 miles 

5 Jan: Our cardiologist appointments were at 7:45 AM.  Cynthia was delighted to be able to walk the six-block distance from our hotel to the doctor’s office.  We wished him a Happy New Year after our great appointment and he said, “Let’s plan on another twenty years.”   We napped, looked at the news, and walked to Salata for dinner.  Cynthia walked 2.51 Miles! 

4 Jan Charlotte turned four years old awakening to find 100 balloons in her room. After worship, we ate at Oscar’s and rode to the TX Medical Center for three days. Our cardiologist might put us in the bad patient jail because we have eaten contraband. Cynthia walked 1.53 Miles 

3 Jan: Today:  We listened to the President's report about capturing Maduro.  At three PM we will do an upper body workout at the Fitness Center.  We exercised and we ate! 

2 Jan 222… 6.!  TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-SIX!  Now what???  Aha! We rode the motorcycle to UPS to return a package.  Cynthia also mailed a package to Cousins Quint and Sharon.  We ate a late lunch at Oscar’s and we increased our walking to twelve minutes.  Ron is working on Volume Four.  Cynthia is organizing tax info. DNA will be set aside for taxes this month.

1 Jan 2026: We celebrated New Year’s (Christmas) with the Forde family at granddaughter Corrie’s; her backyard is filled with tree houses, playhouses, zip liners, rope swings, live chickens and goats, and thrilled all ten great grandchildren. The BBQ lunch was delicious. Except we ate contraband fat and sugar.