Life in South Texas

Thought I would give you an idea of how we spend our winters here in Hondo, TX.

We usually arrive here in October and stay until after the Holidays, some times longer, but if we have a volunteer gig we may leave sooner. This year we will be leaving Hondo just after the first of January and will sightsee our way to SE Georgia and the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to start volunteering on the first of February, 2011.For info:  www.fws.gov/okefenokee

The weather here in October, November, and even well into December is usually very mild, in the 70’s and 80’s during the day (shorts and t-shirts) and at night it may drop down to the low 40’s …. usually!!!! This year it has been unseasonably hot, and the  humidity….wow. Most nights it cools to a good sleeping temp, but some nights is has been hard to even find a breeze.

Now all this time we have been watching the bad, really bad, weather up in the Pacific Northwest and the upper Midwest, congratulating ourselves on our wise decision to head south for the winters. Until the day after Thanksgiving when that same weather front is moving into Texas….yikes!!!  Forecast to be in the 20’s tonight so extra blankets on the bed and drip the water to keep our motor home from freezing up!!!! But this is not normal and will pass then hopefully we will be back to the mild winter weather we expect here.

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OK enough about weather………now some of the other things we have been doing this winter.

Bill has rebuilt and painted a porch and steps for one of our friends here in the RV park and, when it was discovered that he was a plumber/estimator/project manager in his pre-retirement days, he was asked to design and install the new plumbing in the laundry room here. (That is still a work-in-progress.)

I seem to be involved in just about everything else from decorating the clubhouse for upcoming events, assisting in said events, helping in the office, conducting craft classes, painting projects, bulletin board installation, to clean-up after above mentioned events!! For some reason whenever there is a call-out for volunteers, my right arm automatically goes up!! Can’t seem to make it stop doing that!!!!

However we do make time for fun!!! On Thursday mornings a large group of park residents all head over to Bill and Rosa’s Saloon and Cantina for biscuits and gravy for breakfast……ummm good!! And we are always ready to go to dinner or shopping (especially craft stores) at any time. And there are visitors to the park, coming and going. so we always have a fresh audience for our stories. Three times a week we have Social Hour in the clubhouse and every Sunday is Ice Cream Social (Bills favorite)!!!

 The day before Thanksgiving we ran into a deal on a wireless printer we could not resist! Now I must point out that I am not a computer geek…….I have always compared computers to cars, if it is running well I can drive it anywhere with some expertise, but if not then I can not even find out how to get the hood open!!! So today I am going to our resident “expert” to help me install this new wireless wonder!! Now you are asking…….. why do you need a wireless printer??

Remember, we live in a 36’ motor home, so this laptop is normally found on the dining table in the “living room” section of the coach, and the printer, due to limited space, is in the bedroom on a shelf. So to print I must put everything in the print cue, then carry the laptop to the bedroom and plug in the printer there. When printing is completed with the laptop again back in the living room and a mistake is found in the document, the process begins all over again. So having a wireless printer would be so much easier…………………..if I can get it to work!!!!

Enough for now…..we are enjoying ourselves and as always find fun things to do no matter where we are. Just keep an open heart and  mind, there’s a big wonderful, interesting world out there just waiting for us to explore.

Just Us Kids…….keeping warm in Texas!