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! 

Volume 18 - Day 198/167, 2026 - Friday

Well, the rain is over, and in three days this week, we received 3.09" of rain at the Curious House. Some places in Texas received almost 20 inches of rain, and rivers west of us (the Llano River in particular) are still rising. There is no rain in the forecast for at least the next ten days, which will put us right back in to a normal Texas summer. Hopefully, we will not just dry up totally between now and the next rain, fingers crossed. I had an appointment in Austin this afternoon, and Oliver went in with me, and on the way home, we just kind of took a tour through Austin, showing him this and that that he may not have been aware of. We also made a stop at Upper Crust, and I have sweet things in the refrigerator that will last me a week or ten days. Tonight, VPO and I went to Dahlia's for dinner, starting off with onion rings, and I brought half of my turkey and avocado sandwich home with me. We had meant to take a photo while we were at dinner, but we are forgetting that detail more and more. On the ride home, the photo accompanying this entry popped up on my feed, so I thought I would share it. About three or four years ago, in Playa, my first or second scuba lesson. HOODATHUNKIT?

Volume 18 - Day 197/168, 2026 - Thursday

Since the rain started on Tuesday, we have recorded just a little over 3 inches of rain at the Curious House. I expect many of you have heard of the flooding to the west of us, and they are getting more rain as we speak. We are expecting a little bit more rain overnight, but, while we are happy with the rain, there has been a lot of property damage to our west, and I believe two people have lost teir lives. We will all start drying out tomorrow, and hopefully it won't be too long before we have more rain, but a little rain at a time is the best here. I was up very early (4AM) this morning and took my neighbor James to the airport for his 7:30 flight. The drive was not bad at all, and when I got home, I piled up in the big chair with the dogs and took a nap. Later in the morning, I put on some pants and went to HEB. I was in the '15 Items of Fewer' line, and the woman in front of me spent $324 on groceries, and I believe she was over the limit. I said nothing, but I'm telling you. That was about all I did today, and I can't think of anything I didn't do, so that is just fine. I may drive in to Austin tomorrow, it is still too early to make decisions like that, and I will know more tomorrow.

Volume 18 - Day 196/169, 2026 - Wednesday

I has not rained all day today, but it has rained off and on for a good part of the day. There was no walk this morning, and I will not walk tomorrow morning, either. I am taking my neighbor James to the airport tomorrow, his flight leaves at 7:30, which means we will be hitting the road at about 4:30. I will be awake anyway, probably, so it is not a big deal, happy to be able to help. I had a zoom meeting at 11 this morning, and then I had an appointment in Austin at 2, and that put me back home at about 4:15. All is good, the girls slept through my absence, and they had no strong opinions of my adventures. It was somewhat discomforting to be driving in the rain to Austin, but I made it there and back with no challenges, if you don't take the crazy drivers on each side of me, acting like it was sunny and dry on MoPac. More rain is expected overnight and tomorrow, but we should start drying out over the weekend. I hope we don't get too dry!

Volume 18 - Day 195/170, 2026 - Tuesday

We (the Curious House) finally had some rain, but not nearly as much as many other areas of central Texas. Since I emptied the rain gauge this morning, we have received another 1.06", making the total for this month, so far, just short of an inch-and-a-quarter. Not complaining, and I have fingers and toes crossed that we get more in the next couple days. If you know of anything else I need to cross, let me know. Today was also a day of small accomplishments, most of which have no impact on anything at all. I had an appointment in Austin at 11 o'clock this morning, and after that, I stopped along the way back to the Curious House for a variety of small tasks. Because of the temperature change, I stopped at Discount Tire and got the tire pressure corrected (in the rain), then I went to Galaxy Bakery, Little Caesar's Pizza and HEB to put gas in the little white car. The news continues to report about the dangers of some kind of stomach bug going around, but I am in little risk since I very seldom eat fresh vegetables of any kind. Fingers crossed for that, too. Once again, we are being teased that Daylight Saving Time might become permanent, and I am all for it. I recommend we all contact our elected officials and lobby for that change, I expect they will be happy to speak with you about that, and not all the other travesties going on. 

Volume 18 - Day 194/171, 2026 - Monday

I took the Buzz in to the collision center this morning, and Oliver picked me up and gave me a ride home. Just before we turned in to the subdivision, we could hear the ambulance coming up behind us. We were in the turn lane, so there was nowhere for us to go, and the ambulance waited until it was right next to my door to blow its' horn for the oncoming traffic to yield. That horn is really loud, and it was really a surprise, and you will be happy to know that I am sporting a fresh pair of boxers as I compose this entry. I did not go anywhere else today, except to check the mail, and I have waited patiently all day for it to start raining. At some point, it started drizzling a little bit, probably around 5:30, and I did not even know it until I took the girls outside. I may regret that I am hoping we get a really good rain, because we are under a flash flood warning until Friday at 7PM. We shall see. The piglet got her face washed this afternoon, which is one of the things she cares for least of all. Honestly, it is not one of my favorite things, either, but she looks much cuter and I expect much more comfortable now than she did. I expect it will be a challenge getting them outside later this evening before we retire for the evening, again, we shall see.

Volume 18 - Day 193/172, 2026 - Sunday

Well, ARGH! Still no rain, and it had better rain soon because I did not water anything today. They (the prognosticators) are saying we (the Curious House) can expect about 2 inches of rain in the next few days, and they (the prognosticators) need to either shut up or put up. Or something like that. Otherwise, it has been a relatively okay day, I went and hung out at an open house with Maggie this afternoon, and it was fun to visit with her again. The neighborhood news is that Val broke one of his toes this morning, and I know what that is like, I have broken several toes in my lifetime. This too shall pass, but it is amazing how much pain can radiate from such a small appendage. A toe qualifies as an appendage, right? On the way home from the open house, I stopped at a roadside stand and bought some peaches. I have been craving peaches, and now I have some. On another note, and I think I mention this on this date every year, 58 years ago today, my dad died. Fifty-eight. I was 16. Interesting how quickly things can change in a life. I have  a few things going on this week, and it should be a good week, as weeks go.

Volume 18 - Day 192/173, 2026 - Saturday

NO RAIN! NO RAIN! Ugh. There were chances of rain today, and we actually did get a trace of rain at the Curious House. I missed it, the only way I knew it was because the back deck was a little bit wet, and it was not from me watering the plants. Because I did not water the plants in the back today, because it was supposed to RAIN! Even though there are still rain chances in the forecast, I will water some stuff in the back later this evening. There were six of us doing estate sales this morning, and we made it to five estate sales. There was a Buzz full of buzzing, and I had a blast, it is a good group doing this every Saturday. Someone else will need to drive next weekend, I am expecting the Buzz to still be in the body shop, and Marian and Judy will be out of town. I am sure we will figure something out. Cumulatively, at the five sales today, I spent $8 and change for the cast iron Elmer Fudd bank shown along with this journal entry. No markings, but I love this find, and it was 66% off. 66%? Whatever. Tomorrow, I am helping Maggie with an open house, and that will be fun.

Volume 18 - Day 191/174, 2026 - Friday

All Friday's are pretty good days, aren't they? Today was no exception, it was a pretty good day. After my walk, I took the previous estimate from the VW dealer in Georgetown, along with the estimate from the crappy insurance company (whose name shall not be spoken, but it rhymes with State Farm), to the VW dealer to have them compare estimates. The bottom line is, I will take the Buzz in on Monday for the repairs to begin. Hopefully, they will not have to order any parts, but I expect to be without the Buzz for ten days to two weeks. That's the part I don't like, and I especially don't like that this process is no longer 'all about me,' but that's the way it is. To be clear, the VW dealer is being great, and they are making the process easy for me. SO...I got home from that, and messed around the Curious House for a while, and then did nothing else for the rest of the day. I am getting pretty good at that! Watching the humming birds takes up a little bit of my time, and it is especially interesting when they fight for territory. There seems to be fewer of the Lesser Finches (less finches?), but I think it is WAY too early for them to be migrating. We shall see.

Volume 18 - Day 190/175, 2026 - Thursday

Hot, hot, hot. Don't get me started on the heat in central Texas, I have lived here for 41 years, and I know what the weather will bring from one season to the next. Not that we have four seasons here, we have summer, fake fall, fake winter, fake spring, and then we go back to summer. We have about three-and-a-half months to go before we get some cooler weather, and that will be lovely. It has been almost three weeks since we had any rain, and we had about 5.5" of rain in June, and about 65% of that was in one day. Even I am bored by this post so far. Paulina and Oliver and I went to Dairy Queen for lunch today, and I mentioned to one of the employees that one of their digital signs was grammatically incorrect. I don't think she was particularly motivated to correct it, and I doubt I will go back any time soon to check. I also made a quick trip to the post office to mail a couple checks; whenever I actually mail something, I like to go to the Post Office instead of putting them in the neighborhood cluster box. Just one of my things. I will likely go out later this evening and water some plants. I water in the morning, but with the heat, I check a few things in the evenings. We have better than average rain chances next week, and I will cross whatever needs to be crossed to make sure it really happens. The piglet needs to have her face washed, and we BOTH hate it when that happens!

Volume 18 - Day 189/176, 2026 - Wednesday

Well, that's done. Maybe it will be less of a deal next year, we shall see. There are lots of pieces of paper with this return, and that has been the norm for thelast several years. I am hoping that my working to simplify things will carry over to my tax filings going forward. Today was a relatively quiet day, not much accomplished (if you don't count the tax return). It is really just too hot to do much of anything. I did get in the car to buy lottery tickets, and make a visit to the bank. No rain lately, but there is a chance over the weekend and especially next week. I had ribs, leftover from the Fourth, for dinner tonight, and I must admit they were really good. My skills at heating stuff up is getting better and better, and I am proud of that! Ugh!

Volume 18 - Day 188/177, 2026 - Tuesday

I met Paul and Rick at Monument Cafe for our regular ROMEO Breakfast, and it was nice to be doing that again. For one reason or another, it feels like we had been absent for a month, but it was probably a couple weeks. When I left, I decided to go to Galaxy Bakery to get some scones, but I changed my mind. I still have cranberry muffins from Costco that I bought a few weeks ago, and cinnamon rolls from Upper Crust that I bought yesterday, so I am fixed for baked stuff for a while. I was up really early this morning, 4:45AM, because I heard the piglet get off the bed, which meant she was heading for the closet...but I got her outside instead, and I was not about to get back to sleep. I did get a few things done in the office that had been hanging out for a while, so that was good. It was a good feeling of accomplishment. I went to dinner tonight with Jimmie and Linda, and they are leaving for England tomorrow. They will fly to New York and meet friends and get on the Queen Mary. Sounds really fun! The rest of this week is pretty open, so maybe I will do laundry one of these days, maybe not.

Volume 18 - Day 187/178, 2026 - Monday

Callie is feeling better, I really am at a loss about what could have caused her the discomfort. She puked one more time after my post yesterday, and not since then. She is perkier and playing with Oliver, so I think she has gotten over whatever it was. I tried to blame it on the cottage cheese, not really sure that could have been it, but I will lay off that for a while. Paulina made some rice this afternoon, so I put some of that on their food tonight, and so far, so good. I picked Marian up about 11:30 this morning, and we drove in to Austin, with a stop at Upper Crust. I have cinnamon rolls for a couple days, and carrot cake for about a week. Life is good. Then we headed off to the blood bank, and donated platelets. Paulina joined us, but she was declined, not sure why. I know for a fact, Paulina eats a lot better than I do, so I am not sure why she was declined. It is terrible, to me anyway, when you are declined, because you are trying to do something good. I have been declined once since I started donating, and it was because my iron level was too low. I found out today that red wine will help your iron level, so... Whatever. I have nothing planned for tomorrow except the ROMEO breakfast. I will argue more with the insurance company whose name shall not be said, but it rhymes with State Farm. They sent me an estimate for the damage to my Buzz (caused by a gentleman rear-ending me), that is $1K less that the estimate I got from the VW dealer. I am not through with that! UGH! 

Volume 18 - Day 186/179, 2026 - Sunday

Well, I hope you had a pretty good day today, the day after the fourth! Warning: the next sentence may contain graphic verbiage that you may find offensive, so this is your last chance to log-off and go on about your business. I have spent the good part of the day cleaning up dog vomit. Callie have vomited seven times so far, and it is still daylight outside. I usually blame stuff like this on Lexie, but nope, this time it is Callie. It has not affected her appetite, not at breakfast (after the first three times) or at dinner (after and before the last four times). Whatever. Of course, as many times as I have taken her outside, she is not at all interested in doing anything but sitting or laying down in the grass. So, I can now qualify as having a PhD in dog vomit, and not voluntarily. When I was not cleaning up after Callie, the rest of the day was relatively uneventful, and I guess I am fortunate for that. I read the papers, both the Statesman and the NYTimes, printed a couple things and made some notes about stuff I need to do later in the week, and I had salmon for dinner, which should be helpful for my platelet donation tomorrow. I will pick Marian up at about 11:30 and, most likely there will be a stop at Upper Crust for cinnamon rolls and carrot cake. Life is good, and hopefully Callie will improve over the next day or two. I found three or four sets of morning glories that have bloomed three at a time, and they are really pretty. They are doing really well so far this year, and they are very low maintenance. Lucky for them!

Volume 18 - Day 185/180, 2026 - Saturday, The Fourth of July

Happy Birthday U.S.A.! I enjoyed this calm and peaceful Fourth of July. There was a nice walk this morning, and the plants, front and back, are needing watering on almost a daily basis. We have not had any rain for a couple weeks. And I don't think there is any in the next ten days, either. I hope I am wrong. I took off to pick up three racks of ribs and some cobblers this morning, and this afternoon I had dinner with VPO. The girls have a few rib bones to enjoy at some point, and I am pretty sure they will enjoy those. The rest of the day was spent napping and watching some television with the girls. I do not have any challenges sitting with the girls, and I think they are happy to have me around. I expect there will be some fireworks to watch from the back deck this evening, there have been every year that I have been in the Curious House. There is not a lot on the calendar for next week, Paulina, Marian and I are scheduled to donate platelets on Monday, and I really like doing that. The flags in the photo are from the farm, Jody gave me the flag pole as an anniversary gift years ago, and I still have a fondness for flags.

Volume 18 - Day 184/181, 2026 - Friday

After walking with Paul and James this morning, I sat on the front patio for a while and read the newspaper and had a cup of coffee. P&O (no V) came and visited for a little while, and then they took off for breakfast. And yes, I still get a physical newspaper. I came very close to getting my haircut later this morning, and on the way there, I looked in the mirror and decided I really did not need a haircut. As long as I was in the car, I decided to make a stop at Target, and while I was at Target, I decided that if I bought a few more pairs of boxers, I could delay doing laundry for a while longer. I call that thinking outside the washer and dryer. VP (no O) and I headed off to Belton at 4PM, with the purpose of going to the Belton Rodeo. We stopped at Schoepf's BBQ for dinner, and then headed to the Cadence Bank Center, where the rodeo was held. We stood in line in the sun for about 30 minutes, I guess they did not open the doors until 6PM. The rodeo started at 7, and there was a lot of patriotic chat by the emcee, and then they got down to business. It has taken me this long to attend my first (and last) rodeo. I felt sorry for all the animals; the sheep, the calves, the horses, and even the cowboys themselves. But, being the snob that I am, I am really not one to judge, and I will leave it at I simply will not be quick to attend another rodeo. One of the better parts, was a 'skit' with a bad man and a heroine named Cow Patty. By the photo accompanying this journal entry, you can get the general drift of the action.

Volume 18 - Day 183/182, 2026 - Thursday

If you are wondering about mail delivery tomorrow, don't ask the Googles. In the same search, the Googles say NO mail tomorrow, and scroll down and the Googles say YES, there will be normal mail delivery tomorrow. I am pretty sure I will know the true answer by this time tomorrow. Gina and I made a pilgrimage to Trader Joe's this morning, we go about every three or four weeks. I spend a LOT less money when we go to Trader Joe's, mainly because they don't sell dog food. At least, I don't recall seeing any dog food there. When I go to HEB, I easily spend about $60 on dog food, while covers about two weeks, maybe a little bit longer. SO, I do have some treasures from Trader Joe's; grapes, blue corn chips, water melon and cantaloupe slices. That will likely hold me over the weekend. I expect I will visit Target tomorrow, because Target is where I get the dog treats for my morning walks. That is about it for today. I had no photos from today, so I looked back a year ago, and it was raining. Really raining. The rain a year ago caused a lot of damage, serious injuries and some loss of life. Just looking at the photo makes me feel a little bit cooler. No rain in our forecast, just more hot. I cannot even walk to the mail box without glistening. Don't forget, tomorrow is Rodeo night!

Volume 18 - Day 182/183, 2025 - Wednesday

I did a solo walk this morning, and I took a different (and shorter) route than usual. I thought it would be about the same walking distance, but nope. After the walk, I did a few things around the Curious House, and then I headed in to Austin. It was kind of like the old days...all lanes, north and south bound on the Interstate were stopped. I never did see what the problem was, which is typical, but I got to my meeting on time. On the way, I picked up a prescription, too. I got home about noon:30, and I had an appointment with ADT between 1 and 5. The guy got here, fixed the doorbell camera, and installed two more cameras. I am pretty well covered now. My new hoses were delivered, and the old hoses are in the rubbish can, just in time for tomorrows pickup. I did manage to break the hose reel, which is something I do every time I get new hoses. I will get a new hose reel tomorrow. I am spending more time in the big chair in the bedroom with the girls, and I like looking out all the windows. The hummers have been pretty entertaining, and every now and then, they have a mini-war over the feeders, proving that not everything I watch is on television.