Volume 18 - Day 220/145, 2026 - Saturday

Well, there was no need for me to chop and pull the morning glory vines out of the trees behind the rock wall today. Oliver, 19 year old monkey person that he is, climbed up the wall (no ladder needed) and cut the vines and pulled them out of the tree. This is an annual chore, and I appreciate Oliver doing it. He said he was helping, but he did it all, I did nothing but watch. There were five estate sales for me, Judy, Marian and Diane to visit this morning. I spent about $35 on stuff that I really needed, and I think Val and I will go to a couple tomorrow. Paulina and Oliver are in Las Cruces right now, so Val and I went to Taylor and had catfish for dinner at Lucky Duck's. I have been having a craving, and that is taken care of for a month or two now. The most recent lawn folks cut the grass today, and so far, so good. It is not easy to find good grass cutters these days; first world problems. I am getting itchy to get on a train, so I think, if all goes well with the knee injection next week, I may plan something. I am think a seven day trip, maybe. I will have to see what I can come up with.

Volume 18 - Day 219/146, 2026 - Friday

Well, that was disappointing. I made an appointment with a pain relief doctor, hoping to get a viscosupplementation injection in my knee, but NO! They have to submit it to my insurance companies (Medicare is one) to approve the fee. The office for this pain group is $) miles from the Curious House, one way. I feel like I have been driving for most of the day. I am not in constant pain, I just want to have the gel injection to SEE if it will lessen the bone-on-bone challenge I am experiencing. The steroid shots worked the first time, but after that, nothing. I was prescribed a pain drug, which I do not expect to use, I don't want to use, but I guess they know better than me. Whatever. The pills are in my medicine cabinet if you want them. Other than that...Oliver brought me a burrito (I think) that was really good, he is quite accomplished at burrito making! I did a few things around the Curious House, and there are five estate sales tomorrow, that will be fun! Me and the girls (real girls!). I also expect that I will go chop down some morning glory vines that are growing up in one of the trees on the other side of the rock wall. I do that every year, nothing terrible. I have no idea what the police, fire and ambulance was doing on 38th Street this afternoon, but that is not unusual, either. Always something going on that I can't figure out.

Volume 18 - Day 218/147, 2026 - Thursday

The photo accompanying this entry showed up on my phone the other day, and it reminds me of just another day at the farm. Every now and then, a snake, I think this is just a rat snake, would show up in the chicken coop, and I would need to relocate it. Relocation meant either taking it across the road or putting it in a drainage ditch across and down the road. Only one time did I kill a snake, because it ate one of the nest eggs. The fact that it had swallowed the nest egg meant it was going to die anyway, and I wanted my nest egg back. Enough of that. I took the girls to the beautiful parlor this morning, and they were ready to be picked up about three hours later. In the mean time, I did a few things around the Curious House, nothing of any real consequence. In late morning, Oliver asked me if I wanted to go to dinner with him, and so we did. We went to Gold's Burger in Georgetown, and I had liver and onions. As I recall, that is about the only place I go that offers liver and onions, so I was happy with that. My doctor appointment tomorrow is 40 miles away from the Curious House, so I am planning on it taking me at least an hour-and-fifteen-minutes to get there. The appointment is at 12:45, maybe 1, and the pre-appointment paperwork took me 30 minutes to complete this morning. Unbelievable. We shall see if I get a gel injection in my knee that will take the discomfort away. Fingers crossed. 

Volume 18 - Day 217/148, 2026 - Wednesday

The fact that the 'normal' traffic lanes are moving more quickly than the toll lanes is not an uncommon happening in central Texas. I took a photo of the stopped traffic in the toll lane this morning on my way in to Austin, and a guy in a black truck (I have a photo of his license if you want it) went through the barriers and into the regular lanes. I displayed my displeasure with him by blowing the horn on the Buzz, and he displayed his displeasure with my by showing me his teeth. Not really, but we played tag for a couple miles, and then he exited. Idiot. One of us, not completely sure which one. BUT, the reason for the back-up was this car (see photo) in the toll lane that apparently caught fire and burned. Not sure how that happened, but it did. I made it to my meeting with time to spare, then I picked up prescriptions and made a stop at Upper Crust. While I was out, I stopped at the VW collision place, where yesterday they told me the replacement of the VW badge (the one they broke when they repaired the earlier damage) would only take 15 minutes. They were correct, it only took them 12 minutes to break the replacement badge, and now the back end of the Buzz is 'badgeless,' and I guess they will let me know when they have another one that they can break. Whatever. Since I put the chandeliers throughout the Curious House, I have been unhappy with the can spots in the kitchen. They WERE daylight colored, and I wanted a warmer light, something to go with the warmer color of the chandelier lights. SO, this morning, before I left for Austin, I climbed up on the kitchen counter and removed one of the spots to take to Home Depot to see if I could find a warmer white bulb to replace them. What I found out is, the light I took with me has about five different color settings, and all I needed to do was change the toggle on the bulb, and they all match the warm color of the chandeliers. Several trips up and down the ladder to change the setting on the four spots, and now i am happy.  

Volume 18 - Day 216/149, 2026 - Tuesday

After the walk this morning, I chilled out for a little while before I got cleaned up and made it to our ROMEO breakfast. On the way, I stopped and picked up Bob, who we all hope will join us regularly. So, it was me, Paul, Rick and Bob. A good group, but I ordered way too big of a breakfast, so I brought biscuits home with me. After we left breakfast, we stopped at Galaxy Bakery and I brought two scones home with me, so I am covered for the next couple of breakfasts. Once we were getting ready to turn on to the Parkway, we saw that the traffic signal was flashing, so we are getting closer to having a signal to make left turns much easier. They are scheduled to be operating as signals a week from today. That is progress for sure, and the whole neighborhood is buzzing about it. That was about all I did for the day, until this evening; it was book club night, and we all had a great time. This months book was The Other Bennett Sister, and I think everyone enjoyed the book. It was an 18 hour listen, so it was a lengthy book. Next months book is Beyond the Wild River, a historical novel set in the 1890's. I just had to look that information up, because I had no idea what the book was about. It sounds interesting! Tomorrow, I will go in to Austin, and I have two things to get done while I am there, and I will make a stop at the VW place on the way home, they called today and they have received the VW replacement badge for the one they broke while it was in their shop. It is supposed to be only a 15 minute deal, so I will report that tomorrow. In the photo of the book club peeps, Marian is holding Richard and Marge, who joined remotely! Much fun!

Volume 18 - Day 215/150, 2026 - Monday

After the walk this morning, the only times I left the Curious House was to take the girls outside and to check the mail. I walked to the mail boxes at 4:20, and the mail had not yet been delivered. I will go back to check again tonight after 8 o'clock. Ugh. Since I am feeling pretty accomplished about the back-up battery, let me tell you about that task. To remove the old battery, I had to unscrew one screw and remove one little panel. The old battery came right out, so not a big deal. To REPLACE a new battery, I had to unscrew four more screws and take the entire face thing off the opener, and by doing that, I could put the new battery in. It was not the actual unscrewing that I am so proud of, but the fact that I found a different way of skinning that garage door opener cat. Good for the old guy! Tomorrow will be the ROMEO breakfast, and Wednesday I will be going in to Austin. Marian helped me figure out how to order quilts made out of all the t-shirts I have, so I will be going through t-shirts and cutting them apart for (probably) the next week or so. After that, I should have lots of room in the closets for NEW t-shirts. I will be sending 92 t-shirts to be made into two quilts, so that should fre up a little bit of space!

Volume 18 - Day 214/151, 2026 - Sunday

Today was a most excellent day, even though I did very little of anything productive or anything that will be remembered five or six days from now. James and Oliver walked with me and Paul this morning, and that was nice. After the walk, I fed the girls and washed my face and hair and went off to brunch with Alisha and Reuben. Very nice, fun, great to see them, and our brunching on Sundays has seemingly gone by the wayside. Sad. After brunch, I went to two more places to try and find a back-up battery for the garage door opener. No luck. I studied the situation and found a way to make the batteries I had work, and I will share more of that in my post tomorrow. Here is something interesting or unsettling, depending on your personal ideas. For me, it is a really happy note. I took a nap this afternoon, and the nap lasted less than an hour. In the dream, one of the dogs I had when I was a kid, ran away, and I was searching for Brandy. Brandy never came back, but I found another dog with really big ears, and named him (or her) Bullwinkle. Jody was also in the dream, and he and I both welcomed Bullwinkle into the family. It has been a while since I dreamed about Jody, and this was a good dream. It is not really that often that I remember dreams as clearly as this, but I thought I would share it with you. After I rousted myself up from the nap, I took off to Domino's Pizza, since today was the last day of their 50% off sale. When I got in the car, Dvorak's New World Symphony was playing, and I cranked it up pretty loudly. I have always liked this symphony, and I can remember very clearly playing this symphony when I was in High School Band. My High School did not have an orchestra (no strings) but we did have a band, and I played trombone. The trombones were an important part of this symphony, and I can remember very clearly where I sat in the band room, and really enjoying playing that music. OMG, I think this was a most excellent day, I hope I don't mess it up, there are still several hours to go.