Volume 18 - Day 36/329, 2026 - Thursday

Richard and Paul and I had a nice walk this morning, and after the walk, I am not really sure what I did. I left the house about noon to go get Mike at the airport, and I had a couple errands to take care of along the way. I am just about finished with the book I am reading, Theo of Golden. I am really enjoying the book, but I fear there will be a twist at the end that I am not really prepared for. I have only an hour-and-a-half left, so I am pretty sure something will be happening before much longer. So far, I really recommend the book, it makes me feel good when it is not making me cry. After Mike and I got home, we both went down for naps, but I am not sure I got much of a nap, maybe five minutes or so...I had two girls in the chair with me and the Piglet was concerned that her dinner was going to be late. Paulina came over after work, and she and Mike and I went in to Georgetown to 600 Degrees for salad and pizza. Val is here having his dinner with pizza we brought back, and now Paulina is fixing the Pizookie that Gina brought me the other day. Everybody, except me, is wrapped up with the Olympics, and I will settle down in a few minutes with a little ice cream. I was awake at 4 o'clock this morning and could not go baack to sleep, so I will be calling it a night pretty soon.

Volume 18 - Day 35/330, 2026 - Wednesday

I expect y'all are tired of me talking about the weather, but it's my journal, deal with it. A little bit colder this morning, somewhere in the 30s I think, and then this afternoon, we hit close to 70 degrees. No predictions of freezes in the next ten days, and that means the plants can stay outside. I had two meetings in Austin this morning, and on the way in, I thought I was totally in control, and stopped for two errands. When I got to my first meeting, I realized it had started 45 minutes before I got there, and then I was twenty minutes late for the second meeting. I stopped for another errand on the way home, and got to my 1:40 meeting in Georgetown with four minutes to spare. On the way home from that meeting, I stopped at HEB for gas in the little white car, and picked up a few things from the grocery. On the way home from there, there was a pretty big traffic jam, so I decided to follow other drivers that seemed to know a short cut, and indeed they did. I have been eating left-overs for a couple days, not that there is anything wrong with that. I still have two of the jumbo chopped pork sandwiches I bought in preparation of the big freeze. I will finish those off in the next couple days. I finished the chicken fried steak I brought home for a recent dinner with Linda and Jimmie, and I have a couple more things that I need to consume in the near future. Is there a category of hoarders that deals with food-stuffs? There is a definite possibility that I could be the premier episode hoarder on that reality tv show: Hoarding-Swallowed Alive. I like it. These two calves showed up in my memories this morning, one of the fond remembrances of the Estate on the Edge of Nowhere. 

Volume 18 - Day 34/331, 2026 - Tuesday

It was warmer for our walk this morning, I wore shorts and a light jacket. It was very windy, however, and I questioned my choice of the light jacket. After the walk, I got ready and met Richard, Paul and Rick for the ROMEO breakfast. There is the possibility that I may try the avocado toast the next time, a lady close to us got that and it looked delicious! After breakfast, I had a couple errands to run, one was to buy a new hose reel at Home Depot. Not sure how it happened, but the hose reel I had destroyed itself during the freeze. I would not in a million years thought that the hose reel would have water in a place that would freeze and fracture. Even though I know it happened, I can't figure out how it happened. There was no pressure on the parts, but whatever. I now have a new hose reel, and I doubt I will be able to fit the old hose reel in the garbage can for pickup. Whatever. After all that, I headed in to Austin to donate some platelets. Just a single today, but I am pretty sure they were happy to get it. Tomorrow I have a couple meetings in Austin. and that will take care of most of the day. The chances of overnight freezes seem to be low for the next several days, and I am thankful for that, I am happy the plants are out, and I expect they are happy, too!

Volume 18 - Day 33/332, 2026 - Monday

As usual, we started the day with a nice walk. Warmer than yesterday at about 36 degrees when I woke up. It is expected to be even warmer tomorrow, forecast to be about 57 degrees overnight. Perfect! I have been thinking about this post today since about 11 o'clock this morning. After the walk, feeding the girls, and watching a bit of television, I put plants out in the front and in the back. Since everything was cleared out, I even did a little bit of vacuuming. Okay, here is the weird part, I felt really great after doing those menial things. It was like a rebirth, well, probably not, but I really can't describe how I was feeling, and I have felt great for the rest of the day. I did nothing really special, but I did a lot of small things today, and those small mundane tasks really were done with a smile in my head! I also started reading a new book, Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. A friend of mine shared that they did not care for this book very much, but I am totally into it. I am on chapter nine, and I still have nine hours to go, but I like it very much. Theo is doing something that I can imagine myself doing. Tomorrow will be our ROMEO breakfast, and then I will head in to Austin to give some platelets and plasma. That will make me feel great about things, too! 

Volume 18 - Day 32/333 - Sunday

Well hell. It is February already, and I hardly got started on January. The temperature was in the teens this morning, so we didn't walk. I was relatively domestic today, and I have almost 7,000 steps in, which is my goal. My goal used to be 10K steps, but rumor has it that, anything over 7K steps is just a waste of steps. I frequently still exceed 10K steps, but it is just because I walk a lot. Getting a lot of steps in is also pretty easy if I go to HEB, since the dairy section is the farthest part of the store...pretty close to Waco, really! After I didn't walk this morning, I took a nap with the girls, then got up, fed the girls, and made a really good egg loaf that we all shared. Eggs, cheese and HEB cornbread mixed up in it. Very good, and there were no complaints from the girls. I watched Sunday Morning, and then went to the estate sale that was in the neighborhood, but what I went back for was sold yesterday, that's okay. I did buy a little piece of art that was half price, so it was not a total failure. I did two loads of clothes and dried four loads of clothes, so everything is clean now. If everything goes right, I will put the plants out tomorrow and they will get some good sunshine. I have two or three chores to get done tomorrow, and I have a zoom meeting at 2 o'clock. The photo accompanying this entry was taken three years ago on this date, apparently we were in the middle of an ice storm. 

Volume 18 - Day 31/334, 2026 - Saturday

We did a half walk this morning, and nobody complained about that. After walking, Marian, Diane and Judy showed up and we went to five estate sales. I bought a few things, full price, and there are two sales that I will go back to tomorrow. Conveniently, one is just about four blocks from the Curious House. At our last sale this morning, all these cops were just hanging out, outside the estate sale house. They said there was nothing going on, but I don't know why they were all gathered on that Cul-de-Sac. They were nice, I was nice (I swear), and we did this pic with a couple of my purchases in hand. I never had one of those monkeys when I was a kid, but I have one now! After the estate sales, the girls and I spent most of the afternoon in the big chair, taking naps. It was a really pretty day, but it never got too warm, and it is supposed to be really cold in the morning, down into the low 20s. The same forecast into Monday morning, then a warming trend for the next ten days. I am very happy that I will be able to put the plants out on Monday, and I expect they are very happy about that, too. Val, Paulina and Oliver came over tonight, and we had Italian food for dinner in Georgetown. I had my usual, Eggplant Parmesan. I think once the plants are outside, I might be motivated to do some vacuuming and (maybe) do some laundry. Maybe.

Volume 18 - Day 30/335, 2026 - Friday

We got our walk in this morning, and to be honest, I am a little undecided about walking in the morning. The forecasts I have looked at are contradicting themselves, but if it is at least in the 30s, I think we will walk. I am still hoping to put the plants all back outside on Monday, time will tell. I had a lunchtime meeting in Austin today, and I had two or three errands to take care of on the way to the meeting, and two to take take care of on the way home. I kind of took my time going in to Austin, and I did a couple drive-bys of places I used to haunt. Traffic was not terrible, so that was good, and on the way home, I got stopped by a train. I was close to the front of the line, and I was only held up for about five minutes, and I did not mind it at all. I cannot remember the last time I was stopped at a train crossing, but I thought it was an interesting thing to ponder. I like taking trains, and I like looking at trains. Apparently, I am easily amused. This evening, Gina brought me a Pizookie. I have never heard of a Pizookie, and for sure I have never eaten one. Do you know what a 'portmanteau' is? Look it up, but right now I am discussing Pizookies. A pizookie is a dessert that is like a pizza/cookie, get it? I am pretty sure it will be good, and there is enough of it for several occasions. Gooey, underbaked cookie that you top with ice cream. If I put that all together, does that count as cooking?