Sunday, April 13 – Saturday, April 19, 2008
Sunday, April 13
Barbara: Today was another “I don’t feel well day” for me. I did get up early (6 AM) so I could watch some of the church services I enjoy on TV since it was obvious we wouldn’t be going out today. After Jim awoke, he joined me for breakfast and another service before he headed outside to work around Jean’s place.
Since I was feeling cooped up, I decided to rearrange, clean some cabinets, and fix a crock pot noodle dish which we could later share with Edith.
We were invited over to Jean’s for a cook-out with the clan to baptize her new grill, but we decided that I might still be contagious; so Jim wandered over there alone. However, it wasn’t long until he was home with a plate of food for me. He said he had been given instructions to deliver this before they ate. Even though I had asked him to not make a special trip back to Big V, I was pleased that he did, especially when I saw all the good food.
Monday, April 14
There is no doubt in my mind that this is a day I’d like to erase! Jim has been having shoulder problems for quite a while and decided that he’d better get to the doctor for it. Therefore, he left around 9:00 to do that. When he returned, it was with the news that his blood pressure is way too high and the doctor wants to do some blood work as well as schedule an MRI for the shoulder since he thinks Jim’s rotator cuff might be torn. We have been blessed with such good health that this news just kind of hit me hard. Go figure.
Then, after starting laundry at Edith’s, we took the car to the car doctor for a simple oil, lube, and filter job. We planned to walk through downtown Artesia and do some shop looking and have lunch. The shop looking was a bust since the store we wanted to look in is closed on Monday. However, we chose to eat at the Garden Café which turned out to be a very wise decision since the sandwiches were great and the view of downtown from the “garden” was very pleasant. It’s definitely a place we’ll go to again.
Knowing that we had spent plenty of time for the car to be ready, we walked back over to Guy Chevrolet only to find that the car had not been moved. I really needed to go back and put in another load of clothes, but the manager assured us that the car would be ready in 20 minutes. So…we took off walking again. (At least it was a gorgeous day for a walk!) To make a long story short, I’ll just say that the car was not ready and it was another hour before we headed over to Edith’s.
But, this little fiasco was not over! About half way between Edith’s and Guy Chevrolet, the phone rang and it was the cashier at Guy’s. They had forgotten to add the labor to the bill, and wanted us to please come back! Jim said he’d be there in a minute (one of their minutes!) and took me on to Edith’s to work on the clothes while he drove back downtown.
We had had such a fun day that we were exhausted and even though it was almost 4:00, we came home for a quick nap. However, mine wasn’t so quick, so Jim went back for the clothes about 5:10 leaving me still asleep!
When I finally awoke (about 5:25) I walked over to Nancy and Jerry’s to feed Benji since we’re dog-sitting him for a couple of days. He was terribly lonely and wasn’t a bit interested in his food; so I took him for a walk. I told him we were going to Grandma’s (which is the clan name for Jean) and he led me right there! After visiting a little with Jean, Benji and I continued our walk. Just as we were heading for his (Nancy and Jerry’s) home, I spied Jim pulling up so we changed our course and met him to help take in the laundry. Then when we finished that, both of us took Benji home and dropped by Jean’s again.
Jim got engrossed in the Red Sox baseball game with Jean so I came on home to watch Deal or No Deal. The Sox pulled the game out of the jaws of defeat so Jim was a happy camper. Finally, a good end to this day!
Tuesday, April 15
HAPPY TAX DAY AMERICA!!! Thought for the day: Did you ever notice that when you say “The IRS,” it spells “Theirs?”
Happy birthday to Jim’s Aunt Glennis in Florida!
What exciting events do I have to tell about today? Not much…Jim got up early so he could be at Dr. Khan’s office at 8:00 to get his blood pressure checked and have blood drawn for some tests. When he came home, he took a couple of the magic pills that Dr. Khan gave him yesterday and went to bed to “rest his eyes.” About three hours later he finally stumbled out of the bedroom and restarted his day.
We went into town to see Edith and take her some food that we had left over from last night, and then did some “shop-looking” at the store we wanted to visit yesterday.
Jim has wanted to do some more Puerto Rican cooking, so we stopped at Fenn’s Supermarket and picked up a few items before we headed back out to the place. I went in to visit Jean while he took the groceries to Big V and started tonight’s meal.
Jim: I decided today that I wanted to cook a chicken dish and some rice, so we stopped at the supermarket when we were in town and got some chicken breasts. When we got home, I chopped some onion and garlic and cut a potato into very thin slices; then, while I fried them in olive oil, I cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and seasoned them with the Adobo seasoning. When the onions, garlic, and potatoes were done, I mixed in the chicken pieces and fried them until the outsides were cooked. When I thought everything was ready, I mixed in a package of Goya seasoning with Culantro and Achiote. When everything was heated and stirred, I added in a couple of cups of water, boiled the mixture for a few minutes, and then let it sit and simmer while I fixed the rest of the meal. With that going, I started the rice. We are still so grateful that Margarita and Maria taught us about grano mediano when we were in Puerto Rico, because it cooks up exactly the way we like it. I've never been able to cook rice this well, but now, thanks to them, it comes out perfect every time! While the rice and the meat mixture were cooking, I started on the tostones. The plantains we bought a couple of weeks ago were just right (well, one of them had turned black, so I didn't try to use it, but the other two were ripe). We found that the last time we did the plantains, we had the fire turned up too high on our burners; so, this time after I got the oil heated, I turned the burner to "low," and it was just the right amount of flame and heat. Also, I paid a lot more attention to what I was doing this time so the pieces didn't burn. Barbara bought a loaf of French bread today and sliced it up to cook in the griddle for flat bread. While I was fixing the tostones, she did the bread. As luck would have it (it had to be luck, because I don't think we could plan it this well), everything was ready at the same time. (We were going to use some sofrito we bought at the supermarket, but when I went to open it, I found that it had already been opened and probably wasn't good anymore, so I just threw it away. I think that soon I will gather everything I need for sofrito and make it myself.) We called Jean to see if she was ready to eat. She said to give her a few more minutes, and by the time we got all the pots, pans, and other containers into her house, she had the table set and we were all ready to eat. We also took some salad to eat, so we had that, the chicken dish, rice, fresh cooked plantains, and hot flat bread...Yum-Yum!!! Jean said she enjoyed it very much, and we were proud of ourselves for the way it turned out...Again, we were so grateful for the cooking lessons and tips we got from Margarita and Maria. With two or three trips back to Puerto Rico, we could almost be experts!
After we finished eating, Barbara went over to Jerry and Nancy’s house to feed Benji and take him for a walk. They came by the house so Benji could see “Grandma” for a few minutes before going back home for the night.
I gathered up some of the pots and pans and took them back to Big V, where Barbara and I did the dishes and then sat down to rest for a bit. Later, we went back over to visit Jean for a few minutes and then came home to watch a little TV before ending our day.
Mike called us this afternoon to chat a bit and let us know that he and Kelly have set a wedding date. They will be married on Sunday, October 19 in the Richmond area. Of course, there will be more information on this big event as we receive it.
Wednesday, April 16
Edith and Jim had an appointment with the banker concerning house issues related to moving to Mineola. Therefore, I chose to stay home to begin packing up all the house knick-knacks since we have to go to Carlsbad tomorrow.
Eventually, we wound up spending the whole day running around (in the car). We enjoyed visits with Edith and then later with Billee and Ernie. We also had to clean out the refrigerator and take all our perishable items over to Edith’s since the ice maker will have to be checked out tomorrow.
Later Jim went over and watched basketball and baseball a little while with Jean.
Thursday, April 17
Edith had an appointment this morning at the hospital to have some standard blood tests done in preparation for her doctor appointment next week. This took only 30 minutes which gave Jim and me plenty of time to finish closing Big V before going to Carlsbad. We had decided that Jim would drive the motor home and I’d follow in the car so we wouldn’t be stranded at the repair shop.
After leaving Big V, we decided to conjure up some old memories by going to Furr’s Cafeteria to enjoy a leisurely meal. Back in the old days, Furr’s was a name to be reckoned with in the grocery and restaurant market around West Texas and New Mexico. The food was good, but we both agreed it wasn’t the quality that it used to be.
After doing some shop-browsing, the phone finally rang letting us know that Big V was ready to go…without an ice maker…they have to order it and then we’ll have to come back…go figure! To me, it just seems logical that since they have known for 2 weeks that we were coming, they would have had a new one to put in. But…guess that’s just too logical.
Since we were only inside the store for probably 25 minutes, we were shocked when we walked out to go get Big V to find that the weather had deteriorated immensely…the wind and dirt were in cahoots and they were causing all kinds of havoc! Therefore, it did us no good to get Big V because we couldn’t travel with her! After spending about 30 minutes rocking back and forth in a vacant lot next to the repair shop, we finally decided to check into an RV Park just a few yards down the road so we could get the levelers down and quit being “seasick.”
So…here we are…cozy as two bugs in a rug while the wind (gusts up to 45-50 mph) swirls around us!
The only excitement we had this night was when we got a call from Joyce announcing that Ginger and Michael are now the proud parents of another son, Max. They were in Maryland for Michael’s sister’s wedding, but they wasted no time heading to El Paso to bring home their new son!
Friday, April 18
We spent a lazy morning with no great rush to get on the road back home. The weather is supposed to be nice today; so we decided that slow and easy was our mantra today.
We had an uneventful trip back home and then squandered the day away.
Saturday, April 19
While I did chores inside, Jim took advantage of the beautiful morning by working outside. Then we headed over to Edith’s to begin the process of packing up her belongings for her eventual move. After 3 hours of that, we decided it was time to quit for the day. Edith suggested that we go to Ruth’s and get lunch for the 3 of us (even though by then it was 2) and by K-Mart to get her prescriptions…so we did.
Then it was home to take a much needed nap! We senior citizens can really get used to that being a part of our daily activities!
Once again Jim worked outside while I worked inside. Once I went out to empty the trash though, I didn’t want to stay inside. Jim suggested I go get some bubble gum to throw down the ground squirrel holes! Doesn’t that sound like a cool assignment? Anyway, I did it gleefully!
We finished up the week by doing nothing to write home about.
“If you don’t get everything you want, think of the things you don’t get that you don’t want” – Church Signs (a gift Heather and Andy gave Jim for Christmas...thanks, guys, we both enjoy and use it!)
Just hanging around in Artesia,
Jim & Barbara
