Monday, December 9, 2013

We were off this morning to the Arley Coffee Shop for Breakfast again.  We can’t hardly not go with the price of the meal.  And today our bill came out to only $12.  I don’t know if the bother is worth it to make it ourselves.

We needed to stop at the Dollar General in town also to pick up some suction cups for our Christmas decorations.  Sharon was planning to put them up in the next few days and she was questioning how many we have for the lights.  I don’t think she had any luck since they were sold out.

We got back on the road and headed back to the campground  about 5 miles down the road.  After we got back, we decided to drive over to the clubhouse and check it out.  We had attended a Christmas Party there several years ago and I just wanted to see if anything had changed.  It looked pretty much the same as it did years ago and still in very good shape.  The game room contains a couple of pool tables, a ping pong table and a couple of foosball tables.  There is also a large Dining Room with a dance floor in the middle.  All of this is perched high on the shores of Lewis Smith Lake.  There are also quite a few large homes on the lake now that weren’t here years ago.

It started raining again when we left town and continued all day. off and on.  Later in the afternoon and in the evening we even had some serious lightning that lit up the sky for about a half hour.  It rained so hard at one point that our TV went out on one channel with rain fade.  The tape I was recording on a different channel wasn’t affected.  Go figure.

The weather was cooling off somewhat again today so the space heater wasn’t  really keeping up tonight and the furnace ran intermittently most of the night. We didn’t have much trouble watching our regular shows tonight until it was time to head for the padded room for the night.  Sharon gave up early and went to read a book on her Nook before I was done with the TV.  I folded about 11 and headed off for the warm area between the sheets.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

We both got up this morning with a bunch of jobs to do.  I started off by cooking Breakfast for the both of us.  We had French Toast and Bacon and it was made with the thick “Texas toast” type bread.  It was quite good if I do say so myself.

As soon as she was showered, Sharon took off with the laundry to get that caught up for the week.  While she was gone I cleaned up the kitchen and did the Breakfast dishes.  Our day was off and running.

The sun actually came out today and it warmed up to low 50's and was quite nice out all day today.  After the dishes I went out and dumped the holding tanks for the week.  I wanted to get a good dump because this was our first one since leaving home.  I got it cleaned out very well.  I also filled the water tank while I was at it.  We’re using water from the tank because I don’t want to leave the hose hooked up all the time.  It gets so close to freezing at night that at least this way we’ve always got water. I actually sat outside, in the sun, while the tank was filling it was so nice out.  The weather hasn’t been all that friendly since we got here.

After filling water and dumping the tanks I went back inside to change the water filter.  That took about two minutes and I was finished for the day.  It’s nice to get your work done early in the day.

After Sharon came back with the laundry she went into nap mode.  I read a book for most of the afternoon.  It was George Bush’s “Decision Points.”

When Sharon got up from her nap she made a Turkey ala King Torte for supper.  We still had some frozen dressing and gravy and we had that also.  It was quite good and really hit the spot.

After we finished up the dishes tonight we sat down in front of the tube for MY favorite entertainment.  Because we have the DVR from DirecTV we manage to find enough to watch for the whole night before we go to bed.

We stayed up and watched a little Jay Leno tonight before we finally caved.  He had Kirstie Alley on, and I wanted to see her in person.  I know she’s had trouble with her weight, but she looked good tonight.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

We had nowhere to go today including Breakfast so we got a pretty leisurely start for the day.

The sun came out almost immediately this morning and it looked like it was going to be a pretty nice day overall.  Sharon decided that today would be the day we would put out our Christmas decorations.  It took us about an hour or so to get everything up after Sharon dug them out from under the bed.  We ended up with a half a string of lights that didn’t work.  I hate it when that happens.

We sat around for most of the day reading our respective books.  She on her Nook and me with a hardcover edition of a different book.  It passed away the day quite quickly.  We settled for leftovers to eat all day.  We had a few in the fridge that we still needed to get rid of.

After Supper we settled in front of the tube for the night.  We had all original programming on tonight and the night passed quickly.  Sharon settled for popcorn for tonight and I had a few potato chips to finalize our eating for the day.

I think this was almost the first day since we’ve been here that there was no rain or the threat of it all day.  It is supposed to cool off somewhat tonight, however.  We’ll see what we get by tomorrow.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

We were off into town this morning on a Breakfast run and to do some shopping for the next couple of days.  Our Breakfast has gotten cheaper every time we go to the Coffee Shop and we can’t figure out why.  We don’t care because we’re not going to quit coming.  We thought the price on the first day was exceptionally cheap to say the least.

After Breakfast we headed next door to the Williams Grocery and picked up what we needed for our Shrimp Etoufeé that Sharon will be making for supper tomorrow night.

While Sharon was shopping I was planning to call Verizon today and remove our MiFi from our account.  Over the next 3 months we’ll be a campgrounds that have very good WiFi so we don’t need the extra service.  We forgot to take the phone with us and we have no phone signal back at the campground.After we got back I took the phone and drove and tried to get a signal but I could only get two bars and I couldn’t complete the call.  I guess I’ll have to get closer to either Cullman or Jasper.  So I didn’t get that accomplished today.

Sharon and I both read for most of the day.  I have a couple of books that should have been read a couple of years ago but I just haven’t had the inclination to take them up.  But I’m determined to do it this year.

After a solid afternoon of reading we settled at the table for Tacos tonight.  Tacos are one of those meals that just feel good every once in a while.  We don’t have them often but they are good when we do.

We watched TV for most of the night.  But Sharon always has the Nook on her lap so I don’t know if she is watching or not.  I know we had to use the DVR tonight to find enough to watch until the bewitching hour.  I’m not hard to please but some nights just plain stink.  We did stay up til 11 though and caught a couple of minutes of Jay Leno before we retired.

Friday, December 13, 2013(FRIDAY THE 13TH)

We really didn’t have much to do today before Sharon remembered that she hadn’t sent out Christmas cards yet.  So she spent most of the morning addressing and signing cards to send out this year.  She got done with her task around lunchtime so we sat down and gobbled our lunch before we went into town.

We had to go to town because we didn’t have enough stamps to take care of the cards we were going to send out, to stop at the Dollar General to pick up some light bulbs.  We arrived at the PO during lunchtime so they were closed for the time being.  We decided to take care of the Dollar General while we waited for the Post Office to open.

While Sharon was in the store I called Verizon to have our Broadband disconnected.  For the next three months we’ll be at campgrounds that have good Wi-Fi so we felt there was no point in paying the extra 50 bucks to have it connected.

By the time Sharon got done in the Dollar store the Post Office was open so we went back over there.  She got her stamps and checked on General Delivery availability for the CD’s that were having mailed to us.  I forgot the installation CD’s for the computer at home and our daughter is mailing them out to me.

On the way back to the campground we decided to take a side trip down one of the forks in the road to see if we could actually get down to the Lewis Smith Lake.  Our campground is right on the lake but about 150 feet above it.  We went down one fork for about 3-4 miles and finally came to a bunch of houses that were just above the lake, maybe 50 feet.

Sharon and I read for most of the afternoon until Dinner.  We had the Shrimp Etoufee’ that we shopped for yesterday.  We also had Egg Rolls that we usually have along with it. It was very good indeed.

We settled in for the Telly for the rest of the night but both of us gave up early around 10 or so. 

Saturday, December 14, 2013

We had a plan for the day today when we got up.  We had talked about going to the Cullman Flea Market.  It was open today and we decided to go.  The weather was in the upper 50's and no rain today.  We had quite a gusher last night, however.  It rained so hard I expected us to be on a different site this morning.

We ate Breakfast and left for the market shortly after that.  It’s about 35 miles to Cullman from the campground, on two-lane highway, so it was about a half hour for us to get there.

The store aisles were too narrow for my scooter so I walked in the first building.  It was called the Tool Shed but I only got halfway through it.  My back and leg were hurting so bad I just went to the car and waited.  I didn’t think the prices were that great anyway.  Sharon wanted to stop at a couple of other places so I just waited in the car.  I didn’t mind and I’ve gotten used to doing that anyway.  We were at the Flea Market for about 90 minutes or so but I would like to go again on our way back through in the Spring.

By now it was time for lunch and we drove through a shopping area of Cullman and settled on Cici’s Pizza.  We had been to a Cici’s before and really enjoyed the pizza so we expected the same today.  And we weren’t disappointed today even though the place was loaded with kids.  We had several different kinds of pizza, including dessert, cinnamon rolls and even garlic rolls.  Our drink was included and we only spent $10 and change.  A very good deal indeed.  We stopped at the Aldi grocery store on the way home..  Sharon wanted to pick up a few things before the trip back.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading.  At least we didn’t have to worry about supper since we ate lunch later today.

Our usual entertainment was going to be on deck tonight.  We actually watched a 4-hour taped copy of Bonnie and Clyde tonight.  I thought Hollywood had messed with the original story, as usual.  We finished up the night watching Lockup on MSNBC.  It’s become one of our favorite shows

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Sharon was off to church 22 miles down the road this morning and I was into watching my Sunday political shows.  She was back by 10:30 and I was over having Breakfast.  This morning I thought I’d try out her Instant Oatmeal.  It was pretty good since I hadn’t had oatmeal for some time.

I also finished up my book, George W. Bush’s “Decision Points” today.  It was a long read (481 pages) and it took me a couple of weeks, but it was very interesting. Most of the information I knew before I read it, having listened to “talk radio” for the last 10 years.  I find that trying to get the truth from newspapers or TV is almost impossible.

We had a Packer game on today but we’d have to wait for the late game to see it.  They were playing the Cowboys and we really didn’t expect much, since the Cowboys are still in contention, and our quarterback is still missing from action.  The first half was about what we expected and the Pack was losing by double digits.  But miraculously in the second half they started coming back and the referees got worried and took away a Packer interception and refused to call holding and interference when it happened.  But the Pack, not to be deterred, came back right at the end of the game and won by one point.  “In your face”, Dallas.

TV for the rest of the night was a very pleasant experience, even though there wasn’t much on.  We watched a movie for two of those hours up until 9, and then tried to watch Lockup, but it was the same one that was on last night.  We did manage to find something that kept us up until 10:30.