Volume 18 - Day 205/160, 2026 - Friday

Today turned out to be a busy day. After walking this morning, I filled the bird feeders with seed, watched hummers play, and got a few things done around the Curious House. I had a nice phone call with potential clients, and we are making plans to meet next week. Since the Buzz is still in the shop, Oliver drove me, Paulina and Marian to the blood bank; the three of us (the usuals) donated platelets, and Oliver donated whole blood. The more people that donate platelets of whole blood, the better I like it. I am coordinating a blood drive in the subdivision tomorrow, and so far we have 17 people signed up to donate, and the four of us today count for tomorrow, so we are at 21 donors. Not sure if I can get nine more volunteers for tomorrow, may yes, maybe no, but my goal is 30 donors, the blood bank goal is 20, so we have already surpassed that. I will be totally stressing until tomorrow afternoon at 1 o'clock, just to see how many donors I can get. We stopped at Sandy's for milk shakes on the way home, and we did not get back home until around 6 o'clock. I think we (the four of us) are all tired, but now there is nothing to do but chill out for a while. I forgot to mention that we stopped at Upper Crust on the way to the blood bank, and I got two slices of cranberry nut bread. I think I am the only one that bought anything. Too bad for them!

Volume 18 - Day 204/161, 2026 - Thursday

It was not as hot today as it has been the last couple of days. I think the high temperature today was only 98 degrees, which is just about average. When I got up this morning and let the girls out, it was 81 degrees, way too hot for 5:30 in the morning. Paulina came over this morning and had coffee, and later in the day, Oliver and I went to the Post Office and then to my doctors office so I could tweak my appointment in January. I guess I will know if that worked out in about six months from now. I had two calls scheduled for today, one at 1PM and the other at 2PM. The one o'clock call went very nicely, and there will be a follow-up tomorrow. The two o'clock call was postponed until next week, and the notice of that was received at 1:46PM. There is nothing good I can say about that, stuff happens, but if the call was being postponed, I am pretty sure it was apparent before 1:46PM. Whatever. I have been (kind of) trying to consume real food for the last couple of days, because tomorrow is a platelet day. Ronny and Marian were heading for Cancun on their way back to Austin, last I heard. Marian, Paulina and I will all be donating platelets tomorrow, and we will have a blood drive in the neighborhood on Saturday. Once I publish this entry, I will check estate sales for the weekend. The next couple days will be interesting, for sure!

Volume 18 - Day 203/162, 2026 - Wednesday

Late this morning, there was a Past President's luncheon at the Austin Board of REALTORS®. I am not certain if the photo accompanying this entry was the year I was President (2014) or not, but it is within a year one way or the other. It was fun seeing old friends and new friends, and I made a short visit of it. I had a doctors appointment later this afternoon, and everything went fine, I am apparently a healthy old person, and my next appointment is in six months. I do have another appointment with a surgeon, just trying to determine if I do or do not need a knee replacement. I am not advocating for the replacement, but if that is the determination, I guess that will be in my near future. I have always thought of myself as a lucky man, and I guess that trend will continue for a while. I am only walking about half as much in the mornings, and I would like to get back to the 2.5 mile morning walk. That will be my goal and the determination about what to do with the knee. Tomorrow I have two calls to place and so it should be a pretty easy day. With any luck, I will get the Buzz back tomorrow afternoon, and then Friday will be a platelet day. It was 103 degrees at the Curious House yesterday, and today was forecast to be the same, but I have not paid attention to where we ended up. Bertha in the Gulf is about finished, and she has dropped a lot of rain in Louisiana and is expected to come ashore in Galveston in a day or two, weakened greatly. 

Volume 18 - Day 202/163, 2026 - Tuesday

Paul and I had a ROMEO breakfast this morning, and I ate about 2/3's of the largest pancake I have ever seen. One pancake, two eggs over easy, a side of bacon and a side of spinach, please. I get the spinach just to fool my platelets and iron levels that I am eating healthier than usual. I'm pretty sure it is working!After breakfast, I got ready for my 1 o'clock zoom meeting, and then that was it for the day. For dinner, I had the second half of the turkey & avocado sandwich I brought home from Dahlia's the other night. Maybe, just maybe, it was a little gamey, but so far I am still breathing. I have a luncheon meeting tomorrow, and then after that, I will come home, change clothes and go to my doctors appointment. That should be interesting. Even though I have not been a particularly vocal proponent for the traffic signal at the Parkway and the highway, I think it will be a good thing once it is finished. It is getting closer (I think), and I expect the lights should start flashing just any minute now. Even though I continued to make left turns onto the highway, the traffic signal will make that much easier, and it should tone down the volume of concern from other neighbors. Fingers crossed!

Volume 18 - Day 201/164, 2026 - Monday

I have found recently that, when trying to peel oranges, I can hardly do it. I assume that is one of the consequences of old age, generally I have no issues with things (opening bottles and tying my shoes), but peeling an orange has become a challenge. To add insult to injury, the orange was not even good. That was another first for me. My walk with Paul this morning was my activity for the day. The rest of the day was spent doing little of anything, but I do have a couple things on the calendar for the rest of the week. Tomorrow will be the ROMEO breakfast and a zoom meeting tomorrow afternoon. I am working to make our neighborhood blood drive a success on Saturday, so I am trying to make sure all the neighbors know about that. So far, we only have six sign-ups, but folks generally wait til the last couple days before signing up. The goal for the drive is either 20 or 30; 20 if you are with the blood bank, 30 if you are me. This will be the fourth drive for the neighborhood, and we have always made the goals. I have a doctors appointment on Wednesday, the first official appointment with my new GP. I expect nothing extraordinary will come of it, but I have lots of questions for him, and lots of things to clear up about protocol. Of course I do. We are expecting high temperatures to be 100 degrees or more this week, and we have been pretty lucky so far this year. There is the possibility that a storm could develop in the Gulf this week (Bertha), and if so, I hope it will bring us some more rain. No damage, just rain. Fingers crossed.

Volume 18 - Day 200/165, 2026 - Sunday

I bought the table on the right (in this photo) yesterday at one of the estate sales. What I didn't realize was, I had another of the exact same tables at the Curious House, that I bought at a DIFFERENT estate sale, at least a couple years ago. Whatever, now I have a pair of them, and I like the little drawers in each of them, perfect places to hide little things. Sunday was a day of doing not very much of anything. This morning, I went with Paulina and Oliver to the storage building, and I just went along for the ride. I did not take anything to storage, and I did not bring anything back from storage to the Curious House. I just went for the ride. We had a new man cut and trim grass today, since the previous guy fired us for being too picky. We are being picky with this guy as well, and we are searching, once again, for another lawn guy. First world problems! Paulina called later in the afternoon, and I went over there and had some goulash for dinner. Very good! She had my plate piled high, and I could not eat all she had on my plate, but Val took care of that. The coming week should be relatively calm, nothing tomorrow, breakfast and a virtual meeting on Tuesday, a luncheon and a doctor appointment on Wednesday, a virtual meeting on Thursday, and donating platelets on Friday. That is about as far in the future as I can remember. Tomorrow morning, I expect I will water trees before walking, since the rain forecasts show nothing for the next ten days. 

Volume 18 - Day 199/166, 2026 - Saturday

The rains have stopped and we are back in summertime. Lake Travis is full, and it is the first time Lake Travis has been full since 2019. Nothing beats a drought like a flood, and it has been a mess for the people that have really been affected. Lots of property damage, a couple lives lost, and some of the rivers, particularly the Llano, are still rising. There were two estate sales today, and it was just me and Paulina, Paulina drove because the Buzz is still in the shop. I spent a total of (about) $32, and everything was half-price. Since the man that has been cutting our grass fired us last week, we have a new man starting tomorrow. It is more, but hopefully the new man will be paying better attention to details, and we will not have to continually point out things that the crew did not seem to care about. Maybe. I think the man is a Texas Tech student or graduate, because his company has the work 'Raider' in it, which is kind of a dead give-away. I think there is going to be a trip to the storage place tomorrow, for me to take some stuff there, and for VPO to get some stuff and bring it to the house. I am getting in to the habit of cleaning and filling the hummingbird feeders two at a time. The hummers are much more in evidence this year than I have seen them in the past, and I truly enjoy watching them. They are VERY busy!