Sunday, February 20
Today was NOT one of our regular Sundays. We knew that we would have to go to Big V this morning to try to find our title to the Vibe, all that was missing in completing our new car purchase. Breakfast at church was definitely out of the question and even Sunday school was on the iffy side.
We got Sophie to come in from 9:00 – 10:15 to help get Mother get ready to go to her church service. As soon as Sophie arrived and we settled on her schedule for the day, Barbara and I lit out for Holiday Villages and Our Little Lot to play detective.
Luckily, we had earlier straightened and organized all our stuff in Big V, but we still had to tear into all the little hiding places to look for the title. It wasn’t in any of the normal places that one would keep something like that, so we then turned our attention to every bin and storage place inside, but all to no avail.
Not only could we not find the title, we did find that we had no water pressure, no doubt resulting from the sub-freezing temperatures of the last few nights. A quick check of the outside faucet showed that water was coming through it, but it wasn’t getting to the motor home, leaving the hose and inlet filters as the natural suspects. But, it was way too cold and we were getting way too late for church, so I turned the faucet off just to play it safe and we headed off to the morning church service, happy to be back after missing last Sunday while we were on our Artesia trip.
After church we returned to the house in Mineola. It was too cold to even think about spending the day at Big V. We had lunch, took our Sunday afternoon naps, and then waited for Sophie to arrive at 4:30 so we could return to Yantis for choir practice and the regular evening service.
Monday, February 21
Today’s activity for Mother and me was a trip to Mother’s eye doctor in Tyler. It was just a follow-up visit following the laser treatment of a couple of weeks ago, and Dr. Wick and his able staff proclaimed Mother’s vision to be as fit as it was likely to be. Our wait was longer than we thought it would be, but it was worth it for the good news we received.
The morning was spent by the time we finished at Eye Associates. We returned to Mineola to find a wonderful meal that Barbara prepared in our absence. We ate, talked about the morning’s activities, and then retired to our rooms for a “little” siesta.
This evening Barbara and I made a Walmart run to replenish the larder that had gone mysteriously empty while we were in Artesia. After we returned to the house and put everything away, we made one more browse through all our files to look for the missing title to the Vibe; once again, we were greatly disappointed, but the more we thought about it, the more we began to think that maybe we’d never seen the title after all.
When we finally gave up on the great title search, we sat back and relaxed a bit and then went to bed for a good night’s sleep.
Tuesday, February 22
I got up at 5:45 this morning to get ready to go to the Tuesday morning prayer service at the church in Yantis. Meanwhile, Barbara stayed behind to help Mother when she got up and to get breakfast ready.
When the prayer service was over, I stopped at Big V on the way home and disassembled our water line to try to find out why we weren’t getting water to the motor home. It wasn’t long until I found that a recent hard freeze must have wrecked the water pressure regulator that was installed between the faucet and the main hose. Once the regulator was pulled out and everything else was connected, we had wonderful water pressure. Once again I put “build an insulated faucet cover” on my to-do list (let’s see…five winters and five lists…you’d think I’d finally get around to doing something that important, wouldn’t you?).
I returned to the house, had breakfast, and then we waited for the At-Home Healthcare nurse to arrive for her weekly visit to check Mother over and make sure she was good for another week.
This afternoon was matinee time as the three of us gathered in the living room to watch Grumpier Old Men, the sequel to Grumpy Old Men. We ate our lunch and laughed our way through the movie, enjoying a wonderful afternoon together.
When the movie was over, the dishes were done, and Mother was back in her room, we settled in for an evening of doing as little as possible.
Wednesday, February 23
This morning we hired Sophie to stay with Mother for a couple of hours so Barbara and I could drive to Longview to visit with the DMV folks about the title to the Vibe. We purchased the Vibe in Kansas, but had it registered and tagged in Lubbock as soon as we retired, so we didn’t think there would be any problem getting a duplicate title. Boy, were we ever wrong! It seems that even though we surrendered our Kansas Title to the Texas DMV, Kansas never relinquished the title to us, which explained why we couldn’t find the one we thought we had (but never really did have). The ladies at the DMV office were very nice and helpful, even going so far as to find the number of the Kansas office so we could call them.
We went back to the parking lot and I called the Kansas office, only to be answered by a very surly woman who obviously wasn’t happy about being at work today. After I explained what I needed and she told me what I needed to do (a fairly simple procedure), I asked how long it might take, since I needed to get the title to the dealership in Artesia. The woman told me that it would take at least three weeks. When I expressed a little amazement that it would take that long, she informed me that Kansas had 50 counties and that things like this just took time. Choosing for once to keep my mouth shut, I didn’t bother to inform the woman that Texas has over 250 counties and was prepared to hand over a title in less than 15 minutes…figured that probably wouldn’t help get the title here sooner.
We got back to Mineola a little after noon, took over the reins from Sophie, had lunch, and then settled in for our afternoon routine. We had planned to watch another movie this afternoon, but none of us felt up to it. I did arrange to fax a form to the Kansas DMV office to get started on the title transfer…sure hope it doesn’t take the full three weeks. I also called the dealership in Artesia to tell them of the situation. I guess I took it a lot harder than they did, because it didn’t seem to be a big problem for them.
Barbara received photos today from Jan, Kelly’s mother, of Ava. Needless to say, they had to be shared in this week’s journal! Thank you, Jan!!
While Barbara took care of the cooking and helping Mother get up and dressed, I tackled the backyard…did some cutting and trimming of the shrubs, raked up a kazillion sweet gum balls, and cleared out Spike’s land mines.
When I finished in the yard and got cleaned up a bit, Barbara and I decided to go to the post office and run a couple of errands, but as we got to the end of the block, a huge thunderstorm hit. A couple of blocks later, the rain was blowing so hard we could hardly see a few feet ahead of us. We were almost to the post office when I realized that the mail box key was in the pants I had just taken off, so we turned around and went back home.
While it was still pouring, I grabbed the camera and got shots of the water rushing down the street past our house and gathering in what we have dubbed, Lake Edith, the lot just to the north of us.
When I got back to the house, I got Mother up and around and we all gathered in the living room to eat our lunch and watch the matinee special of the day, Mrs. Doubtfire, a movie we’ve all seen several times, but still enjoy.
Oh yes, the rain today totaled nearly an inch, with six-tenths of an inch falling in one 15-minute storm (thus the sudden filling of Lake Edith).
Friday, February 25
Happy Birthday to Cousin Don Sandley in Birmingham, Alabama!!!!
Today was just a plain day…took care of Mother, did some cooking and cleaning, paid bills, and ran errands…nothing exciting.
This evening we met Gene and Michelle at Parades Mexican Restaurant in Quitman for dinner and enjoyed a nice meal and conversation. It had been a bit since we’d seen our friends and we enjoyed this opportunity to get caught up.
When the meal was over, we all drove back to Mother’s house for game night. The game of choice tonight was Chickenfoot and Barbara even noted on the calendar at the end of the evening that, “Gene won a hand!”
Saturday, February 26
Happy Birthday to son John Colwell in San, Antonio, Texas!!!!
We spent the morning cleaning and straightening, particularly in the kitchen. Barbara overhauled the recipe drawers and got every recipe put in a notebook which should make more sense and be easier to find.
Mother got a letter today saying that the local zoning board was going to hold a public hearing on March 7 to discuss re-zoning the property north of Mother’s house. It is a large open field encompassing several square blocks and we really like it just the way it is, but evidently someone has some plans for it. We checked the computer for local zoning definitions, but weren’t very successful at interpreting the intent of the letter…guess we’ll just have to go to the hearing to find out what it’s all about.
It was a good afternoon for staying inside, so we broke out another movie, fixed a lunch that could be eaten in the living room, and had our dinner matinee, watching You’ve Got Mail. All of us swore that we had watched the movie before, but except for a few scenes, it was like watching it for the first time. Still, it was a fun movie and we enjoyed the time together.
Tonight we alternated between relaxing and getting things ready for church tomorrow morning.
“I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone." - Bjarne Stroustrup, Danish computer scientist
As a postscript, we add the following pictures of Ava that we received from Mike and Kelly.
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
