A Shady Affair

 

It’s probably been close to three months since a cord broke on one of the shades in our bedroom. I managed to tie a knot in the broken cord, so the shade would still go up and down most of the way. We decided to try to restring it ourselves, and I even ordered some cord from FixMyBlinds.com. We have been busy working and doing other things since then, the shade was still functioning, and we were basically burying our heads in the sand trying to avoid actually doing the job. Or like Sophie, burying our heads in a drink holder.

The other day Jim noticed that the knot I tied was enlarging the hole in the blind, so we decided it was time to get to work. One reason we attempted to tackle the job ourselves is that another Lazy Daze owner, Ted, was kind enough to post excellent instructions on his blog, complete with photos. All Lazy Daze come with pleated night shades, not the day-night shades that seem to be common in most RVs.

We decided to see if we could remove the shade without removing the valance. So far so good. Taking the shade apart was fairly easy. And thanks to wxToad’s excellent instructions, the restringing part was not as hard as we thought it would be. We misread the last step a bit so we ended up with it being a little too loose, but after almost three hours of work we decided to adjust it another day.

We had the most trouble trying to remount the shade. Jim decided we did need to take down the valance after all. 5 screws later and the valance was just as secure on the wall as it was before removing the screws. We were unable to locate any other screws or brackets, so we gave up and finally got the holes lined up to remount the shade with the valance in place. That was actually the most difficult part of the job.

Now it was time to indulge ourselves in a beer and a nice glass of box wine. I drank the wine, Elvis got the box.

California Dreaming and Please Don’t Be Anonymous

 

As the end of March will soon be approaching, we decided we should start planning where to go when we leave Texas. Since we’ve yet to visit Yosemite National Park, that is where we’re setting our sights.

Unfortunately I had no luck in getting reservations at the campgrounds in the park, so we are looking for suggestions on somewhere else nearby, preferably Forest Service campgrounds or boondocking spots. We really wanted to stay in the Valley, even though we know the campgrounds will be crowded, just to be able to easily walk or take the shuttle to the trails, and we intend to keep checking for cancellations. But if anyone has other ideas, please let us know. We hope to be there sometime in mid-May when the waterfalls are at their peak and before school is out for the summer.

We also plan to do the 395 drive, and visit Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Park. We have lots of research to do!

The other day we hiked a trail in Bentsen State Park and discovered that palo verde trees get pretty yellow flowers on them.

We also spent a long time watching this beautiful Altamira oriole eating grapefruit.

We probably get at least a half dozen anonymous spam comments on the blog every day, and although it is just a matter of marking them as spam and deleting them, we have gotten tired of it. So as of today, all anonymous comments will be blocked. Sorry if this causes anyone inconvenience.

On another note, Elvis had no problems with his neutering. In fact it didn’t slow him down even a little bit.

Sometimes they just fall asleep wherever they stop. Kittens are so cute!

It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity!

 

It’s been unseasonably hot in the Rio Grande Valley lately. Not that we’re complaining. At least I’m not. Jim is the one who complains about everything. Heat is not really a problem for us as long as we can run the air to get some relief from it. But we have been having trouble with low voltage which causes our Progressive EMS to shut off the power. After a week or so of moderate temperatures, we stupidly forgot about the problem.

Last week we went out for a pleasant long lunch with Paul and Marsha from Where’s Weaver, then did some shopping. It was in the low 90s. When we got home 5 hours later our power had been off and it was almost 96 in the rig. The kittens were prostrate on the kitchen floor, but seemed fine once we cranked up the generator and got the air running again. There was no vacancy in the park, but a couple days later two sites came open, so after checking the voltage to make sure it was an improvement, we moved on down to the next circle. So far the voltage dropped low only once and shut down the air for a short time during the afternoon heat of another 90 degree day.

Since I haven’t been blogging much this winter, I know many of you are dying to know what we’ve been up to. Working in Activities is still keeping us very busy. Take this week for example. Last night was a dance with The Country Roland Band.  I almost hate to admit this, but we have learned to like at least some country music over the past few months. I am even taking line dance classes! We are off today, but tomorrow is Margarita night, Thursday we have a Valentine’s dance. Friday we have 2 shows by Wade Landry, a Cajun fiddler. We are planning to attend one of the shows since we saw him at the Showcase and he was very good, but we rotate working at them and this is our off week. Saturday we have a pancake breakfast and bingo, Sunday a beer tasting, pizza party and movie, and a wine tasting on Monday. It will be a busy weekend.

Those activities are just a small number of the things that go on here at Bentsen Palm Village, but we don’t have to work at the others. There are line dance classes, daily exercise classes, horseshoes, poker, crafts, sewing and quilting, woodworking, computer and photography workshops, golf, Spanish lessons, kayaking, bicycle rides, target shooting, pool, nightly cards and games, bird watching trips, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something. If you like to stay busy and enjoy hanging out with other people, this is the place to be.

Chuck and Carla, our Iowa Lazy Daze friends who spent a month with us in Colorado last summer, arrived last weekend with their friend Regina. It’s been a little too warm for them here, but it beats the single digits and snow they left behind in Iowa.

Chuck said he would boycott our blog if we posted this picture. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

Another Lazy Daze friend, Pam, from Traveling With Pam, has been here almost a month now. She’s the one who told us about this place, and this is her third time here.

The kitties are growing up, almost 5 pounds now. Elvis gets a treat on Valentine’s Day, when we take him to get neutered. The Harlingen Spay/Neuter Clinic is running a special during February. Only $10 for cat neutering. Since they are only 4 months old, Sophie will have to wait a few more weeks before getting spayed. Once we get that out of the way, we shouldn’t have to make any more vet visits for awhile.

This is when I love them the most. When they are awake the constant motion makes it hard to get good pictures.

In other animal news, our friend Debbie broke down and adopted another dog from Cinderella Pet Rescue. She saw him last week when we went to take care of the cats, and it was love at first sight. Elliot needed a playmate, so now he has Rupert. What a sweetie!

They cut his hair when they found him since he was full of burrs, but he will probably look a lot like Elliot when it grows out.

Saturday was the annual Pet Parade at the park. All proceeds benefit Cinderella. There were several winners, and I think Houdi got the most votes. He was a Cinderella dog adopted last spring by a Canadian couple. He is a very nice dog that was a stray and very frightened by people when he was found. He’s come a long way.

Some of the other contestants.

 

Volunteers brought a bunch of dogs from Cinderella.

Besides Rupert, Moose also found a home at the parade.

It was a big success, and we will find out tomorrow at Margarita hour how much money was raised for the shelter.

Today we plan to check out the Pulga, a local flea market. In case I don’t write about it, you can read the Weaver’s experience here. Thanks for telling us about it.