Volume 18 - Day 99/266, 2026 - Thursday

It's days like this that I wish I were more technologically competent. Or maybe I just need to invent a pocket-sized IT guy. Right now, I am at JFK waiting for our (me and Paulina) flight to Venice. I was up at 4:30 this morning, Arjun picked us up a little before 8AM, we made it to the airport with no issues, got through TSA with no issues, and had some breakfast. My friend Terry joined us and sat with us for a while, and then we headed for JFK. Even though my phone says I have WIFI on the plane, I cannot figure out how to make it work, which is why I am doing this journal entery now, instead of doing it 'somewhere over the Atlantic' which is what I had meant to do. I am also TOTALLY aware that these are first world problems, and I will suffer through, since air travel is so much more practical than taking a boat to Europe. True dat! SO...we will get on the plane at about 9 o'clock Eastern Time, and get to Venice about noon tomorrow. To be honest, I really have no idea, but I will be in a plane, and whenever the plane lands, that will be fine with me. On the way in, I THINK we flew past Manhattan and Central Park. If the photo with this entry IS NOT Manhattan and Central Park, feel free to keep it to yourself, just leave it be. Otherwise, life is good, Val and Evan and Albert and Amber are taking care of the girls, and I will go places in the next couple of weeks that I have never been before. I always wanted to go to Austria! 

Volume 18 - Day 98/267, 2026 - Wednesday

So...tax extension has been filed and check for 2025 and first quarter of 2026 are in the mail. I went to Target this morning and bought a pair of pants, and I have already taken them back and got a credit on my credit card. I had not really looked at them when I bought them, I was just paying attention to the color. When I got them home, they had some 'bleached lines' on them, that is the only way I know how to describe them. The lady at customer service said that was 'the style,' and I explained to her that it was not 'my style.' Then I bought some socks, and now I am just about ready for my trip. I have a load of clothes in the dryer, and I will get finished packing tomorrow morning. That will be the absolute last thing I do before I leave. It was a nice day today, in the lower 80s, and it is expected to get warmer and wetter as the week goes by. You never know about rain, so I will let the sprinkler run this evening, and turn the system off before I leave. I am expecting tomorrow to be a pretty long day of travel, but I also expect that I will survive the whole thing. I am looking forward to seeing things I have never seen, making new friends, and meeting up with friends from other adventures. It will be good! I got gas in the little white car today, I have no complaints about the price of things, there is no real reason to complain (which is really unlike me), but I just need to remind myself and everyone else, that I am a very lucky man!

Volume 18 - Day 97/268, 2026 - Tuesday

This is a pretty exciting day! It is not everyday that you have a crater named after you, the Carroll Crater on the dark side of the moon! I've been humming Pink Floyd for the last several days, too. Okay, not named after me, exactly, but my middle name is Carroll, so I'll take it. I also share that middle name with my friend Melody, so lots of cool people share that name! It is easy enough to see the exact Carroll that it was named after if you have access to the internet. Carroll Crater is a lunar impact crater located on the surface of the moon. It was officially named yesterday, April 6, 2026, by the crew of the Artemis II mission. Other than finding that out, today was a relatively normal day in the life. Breakfast with the ROMEOs, a stop at the UPS Store, an appointment with the CPA so I now know how much I owe the IRS, then home to take a nap with the girls. I am in the process of gathering stuff up to take with me on my trip with Paulina. We will meet Krisa in Berlin, and I will visit with Lisa and Hanna in Munich. In the meantime, it will be making new friends in Ireland and other points, and seeing how many family photos (ussies) I can photo bomb. It's what I do!

Volume 18 - Day 96/269, 2026 - Monday

I didn't have a lot of chores on my list today, but I did get a few tings done. I trimmed back one of the peach trees in the back yard that was a victim of a late frost, and hopefully that will help the pieces of that tree that are still alive. I also got all the prep done for my appointment with the CPA tomorrow, so I am pretty confident with that. Today was a platelet day, and all the staff at the blood center were wondering where Paulina and Marian were, but they were happy to see me. It is kind of odd to donate solo, but Marian and Paulina will be back to donating soon. Before I got home, I stopped to see how long the wait was for a haircut, and decided I would need to go back, since I was meeting a service man at Val and Paulina's, to see about getting their garage door repaired. I met with that guy, and shortly after that, Val was home, and he took over talking with the repair man. I took off and made a visit to the bank, and then went to get my haircut. The lady that cut my hair was a talker, and I was not particularly in the mood to talk, but it all worked out. I stopped at Cane's on the way back to the Curious House, and I just finished a three finger combo meal. Excellent! Now, I am in for the evening, and I expect I will be in the big chair with a couple girl dogs before long.

Volume 18 - Day 95/270, 2026 - Easter Sunday

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter, it was a lovely day in central Texas, the temperature never got out of the middle 60s, and it was jacket weather this morning! The photo is of the beautiful sunrise this morning, and it was well worth documenting. I met Reuben and Alisha for brunch, and that was fun, I haven't seen them in a couple months, I think. I got home, did a few little things around the Curious House, and went down for naps with the girls. Oliver, Val and Paulina came over for a few minutes, Oliver is headed back to Galveston after being home for the weekend. Val went to Home Depot and got a post to keep my plum tree upright. I think it is a plum tree, I am not sure, but it is something with some small fruits on it. I've had to windows open, but closed in the bedroom, it is too chilly for napping in there with the windows open. Tomorrow will be a platelets day, and Tuesday I have an appointment with the CPA. I am in good shape for the CPA, but there will be a few pieces of information I still have to collect.

Volume 18 - Day 94/271, 2026 - Saturday

One of my favorite things about the Curious House are the windows in my bedroom. I spend a lot of time back there with the girls in the big chair, watching television. I open the blinds all the way up when I get out of bed in the morning, and lower them about two-thirds of the way about 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The windows are west-facing, so there is a lot of sun in the afternoon, which is why I bring the blinds down in the afternoon. I planned to NOT go to estate sales today, and then the rain caused me to coward out and not go to Holly's for Migas and Mimosas. We only got a little over a half-inch of rain, but it rained pretty hard for a while, and I understand it rained much heavier south of Georgetown. So...basically, I did nothing all day but watch tv. I went out a little while ago and did the best I could raking and sweeping and blowing the oak tassels (or catkins) off the front patio and driveway. They have dyed the concrete in many places, but I expect the summer will bleach the concrete back to white during the heat of the summer. The good news is, the sprinklers are off for the near-term, and the bad news is there is not more rain expected in the near term (or the long-tern as far as that goes).

Volume 18 - Day 93/272, 2026 - Friday

No more rain since my entry yesterday, but with any luck, there will be more over the weekend. My phone says we will have some light showers pretty soon, but it doesn't look like anything will fall from the sky any time soon. I took another virtual class today, and it was an elective. There are still two required classes I need to take, and I will hopefully be able to find them offered virtually in the near future. After the class, I went down for a nap with the girls, and Oliver came over for a few minutes. He is home for the Easter weekend, and yesterday when he arrived, it was the first time he had been home since Val and Paulina moved in. After a while Paulina, Oliver and I went in to Georgetown, we intended to go to the Georgetown Welcome Center to get Texas (or Georgetown) magnets to take with us next week. I am not sure if they will be open tomorrow, but they closed at 3PM today. After that, it was salad and pizza for dinner, and it was really good. We are all glad that we discovered the place on Leander Road. I am planning to go visit Holly, Gavin and Mace tomorrow for their spring time open house, hopefully with no rain. We shall see... Georgetown is officially recognized as the "Red Poppy Capital of Texas," designated that by the Texas Legislature in 1990. The recent rain was pretty heavy at times, and kind of beat these poppies down, but they are still pretty, especially en masse!