Volume 18 - Day 52/313, 2026 - Saturday

Richard and Paul and James did not walk this morning, and I did a very abbreviated walk, but I did walk a little bit. Richard and Paul are still not feeling well, so there will be no walking tomorrow. Maybe I will maybe I won't. Diane and Marian and I hit three estate sales, I bought about $35 of stuff (at half price) that I didn't know I needed, but now I am happy with the haul. I did not do anything in the garage, maybe I will do that tomorrow, maybe not. There is one of the estate sales I went to today that I may go back to tomorrow, depending on how things go at the blood bank. I have a 10:45 appointment, and I hope the heart beat skipping challenge will have resolved itself. We shall see. Paulina and Val came over tonight, and we headed to the Speakeasy in Georgetown to see Aidan Berg and his group, but the said we could not get in for the 6:30 show, so we went to Dahlia's in Liberty Hill instead. The next time Aidan plays, I will do my best to make reservations way in advance. The photo with this journal is all of us at Dahlia's: Clockwise from left is Paulina's mother Graznya, Paulina, Krisa, Oliver, Val and me. You can always tell where I am in a photo, I am usually the one with the carry-out box!

Volume 19 - Day 51/314, 2026 - Friday

As far as I can remember, I did not have anything on the schedule today. Richard was (is) still feeling a bit under the weather, so the walk was just me and Paul. I did a little bit of work in the garage, nothing serious, I am saving that for the weekend. About 10:30 this morning, I remembered that someone (I can't remember who) mentioned the other night that Golden Chick was offering their fried shrimp again, so of course I took off and had a six shrimp combo. Shrimp, macaroni and cheese, a lovely roll and a soda. I will be back several times while they are offering this, I cannot usually get enough fried shrimp. I did get in a couple short naps this afternoon, and I had the windows open most of the day, getting ome fresh air in the house. It is going to be cooler the next several days, but then back up in to the 80s by the middle of next week. Late this afternoon, I went to dinner with Linda and Jimmie, and that was nice. There are three estate sales tomorrow, and then I want to go to City Post (the old Post Office in Georgetown) to see Aidan Berg and his group play a set. 6:30. Anybody want to meet me there?

Volume 18 - Day 50/315, 2026 - Thursday

Richard is not feeling well, so Paul and Jimmie and I had a walk this morning, and after I got home, I was considering a nap, but that didn't happen. I picked Marian up at about 10 o'clock, and we headed in to Austin for platelets donation, with a quick stop at Upper Crust. We got to We Are Blood, and everything was okay, UNTIL...I was rejected because, when they took my pulse, I had 8 heart skips (?) and they are okay if you have 6 skips, but not eight. I was very sad about that, and I made another appointment for Sunday morning. I guess if I have too many skip beats again, I will give my doctor a call. I looked it up on Google, nothing really too scary unless I have chest pains, etc., which I am not experiencing. Whatever...while I was in the lobby, listening to my book, they were shooting a video at the blood bank...with Ringo, the mascot of the Texas Stars, an American Hockey League team. The mascots name is 'Ringo,' the mascot of the 'Stars." get it? Ringo Stars. Ugh. On the way home, I stopped and picked up a prescription, and then tried to take a nap again, and failed. Again. I had the left-over lasagna from last night for dinner. I don't have much on my schedule for tomorrow, but I am looking forward to doing one of my favorite things...straightening out the garage. I LOVE that!

Volume 18 - Day 49/316, 2026 - Wednesday

Volume 18 - Day 48/317, 2026 - Tuesday

Happy Mardis Gras, y'all. Throw me somethin', Mister! I didn't walk this morning. I was out of the bed at 5:15, and when I let the girls out and fed them, Mike was already in the shower. We left a little bit after 6 o'clock to take him to the airport for his 8:40 flight to Ft. Lauderdale. He had a five hour layover somewhere, and he texted me just a few minutes ago, about 6:45, that he was home. After I got home from the airport, I did a few little things towards the goal of getting things unpacked, and then I headed off to Georgetown for the ROMEO breakfast. Rick, me and Richard, we had good conversation, good food and good laughs. One of the servers (Andrew) hung out with us for a little while, just talking about nothing much. After breakfast, I stopped at Tony & Luigi's to confirm our reservation for the neighbors dinner tomorrow. Then it was off to Costco, then I went to vote. Today was the first day of early voting, and the place was packed. I have a couple opinions on why it was packed. 1. There is a lot of interest in the mid-term elections, so people are coming out to have their voice heard. 2. Texas has gone to paper ballots, and you must fill in the little bubbles with an ink pen. My ballot had forty measures to be decided. Forty little bubbles to be filled in. It took a while, so maybe (just maybe) the place was packed because it was taking three or four times more time to vote, than in the past. I'm not sure. After voting, I stopped to pick up a bracelet that I was having repaired, and then I made a stop at HEB. Then home for a nap, then a few more errands after that, and I am about to settle in the the night, but first, I need to eat the ribs that Mike had for dinner last night but couldn't finish.

Volume 18 - Day 47/318, 2026 - Monday

Good news: Today is NOT tomorrow. If you read the post from yesterday, you may understand what I am talking about. So...today was the disembarkation day from the cruise. Why do we disembark from a ship? Why DON'T we disembark from an airplane or a car? If we deplane for a plane, it would make sense that we would de-ship from a ship, and de-car from a car. We could de-bus from a bus..okay, never mind. I did not get much sleep last night because we had another time change, and my watch and phone did not make the change, so I was constantly looking at my watch and phone, and comparing that to the 'ship time.' SO, Mike and I were up and in the restaurant for breakfast at 6AM, and we met Marian and Ronny and Richard and Marge. We were self-assisting, which means we carry our own bags off the ship. It was simple and we made it to the Buzz with no problems. Richard and Marge met us a little while later, and we were off to central Texas. On the way, there were a couple of pee stops and one charging stop. I learned a lot about remote charging of the buzz, so today it was not nearly as frustrating. We stopped in Columbus, Texas and charged at a Rivian charge stations. I used to charge the Teslas at Columbus, but they have come a long way since then. There were seven Rivian high speed chargers, and in about a half hour, we were back on our way. We were getting six miles of charge per minute, and that is great. I am glad I figured out a few things with the Buzz, and now, even though my 'range anxiety' was already low, I am back to having no 'range anxiety' at all. We got home about three o'clock, and Mike and I joined Linda and Jimmie for dinner in Georgetown this evening. Always fun, and I am a really lucky person to have such good friends and to live in the neighborhood that I do, where there are 'real' neighborly neighbors!

Volume 18 - Day 46/319, 2026 - Sunday

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Oh, wait, that is a different journal. No matter what the heading of this journal entry says, today is yesterday. It is my journal, and if I say today is yesterday, so be it. However, this should be interesting because I cannot usually remember what happened yesterday, but I will give it a shot. Chas and Richard and I had a good walk in the morning, and after that, we all met for breakfast in the Windjammer. After that, some of us went to an art auction (me and Shelley), and honestly, I cannot believe some of the things that they consider 'art' and the prices they are paying for them. The other day, Marian and I attended one of the art auctions, and there were works selling in the multiple tens of thousands of dollars. I have bought at least two (I think) pieces of art at estate sales, and they were from Park West, which is the gallery that sells art works on the cruise ships. I got those pieces, as best I can remember, for under $100. So, that is my experience. After that, we had lunch, Mike went to Johnny Rockets for a milk shake and I had soft serve ice cream. Then I went to a jewelry auction, and Marge was there, and (again) I bought nothing. I was interested in a small bracelet, and I asked the sales person if it was priced in Pesos. Nope, $33K USD. I quickly gave it back to them and left. Then we went to a comedy show and then, on to dinner. I got back to the cabin and attempted to do my journal, but nothing was working, that is why today is yesterday for all intents and purposes. More news tomorrow!