Saturday, May 26, 2012

Saturday, May 26

Up around 7:30, and did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises after breakfast. Once I was ready for the day, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, where she worked on her jigsaw puzzle. Spent the rest of the morning putting stuff away from the trip, doing laundry, getting birthday cards ready to mail, planning a menu for the week, catching up on writing blogs, etc.

After lunch, Hubbie and I went in search of a bird feeder, because Mother's was broken when a squirrel knocked it down. Before we came back home, we stopped by a fast food restaurant to get three frosty ice cream treats. It was a good day for these, and we enjoyed them.

Hubbie and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the 2001 movie, "Bandits," starring Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton. This PG-13, very funny comedy, is about two mismatched convict escapees, who are bank robbers that fall in love with the same woman (Cate Blanchett).

After supper, Mother stuck around to watch the 2009 movie, "The Perfect Game." This delightful PG film, set in 1957, is the true story of an underdog Little League team of impoverished, but determined kids from Mexico who overcome hardships and bigotry to go on to win the Little League World Series title. Very heartwarming movie.

Aferward, I accompanied Mother back to her house, and then Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening watching one-hour shows.

Tomorrow, we will go to a town about 45 minutes away to spend a few hours with Hubbie's daughter at her family's lake house.

Trip, Day Three, Friday, May 25

Hubbie and I woke up around 6:30. I immediately noticed I had a seed tick on the back of my knee. I tried to get it off, but couldn't. Since Hubbie was awake, he attempted to remove it, but it was so small, he had to get his eyeglasses and a pair of tweezers. Removing the critter required me to get into an awkward position that made me glad that Mother and Sis were still asleep.

Later, after a breakfast of muffins, breads, and fruits, we got ready to head home. We were on the road by around 9:30 for the five-hour trip that touches three states.

Before we left Tunica, we stopped at a gas station to fill the truck with diesel. This was easier said than done, since the first pump Hubbie tried was for 18-wheelers. He went inside to find out what pump to use, then started to maneuver into it, before discovering that the nozzle was on the opposite side from the truck tank. So he had to pull the camper all the way around the building and swing the opposite way to the pump. Finally accomplished the task and got back on the road.

Today was a day to be pulled over by the police, apparently, because a lot of folks were getting tickets. Memorial Day weekend made the police more vigilant, I think. We took special care not to attract attention.

We arrived back home mid-afternoon, and promptly began unloading the camper. The weather, which had been very pleasant these few days, suddenly turned hot and muggy this afternoon. It seemed to happen within minutes. I carried a load of clothes into the house, and by the time I went back out, the weather had changed.

Upon carrying a load into the kitchen, I happened to glance at the tote that contains my medications. My meds weren't there! Gads! I'd packed them for the trip after all! But where were they? I went out to the camper to tell Hubbie about my discovery.

We went through every closet, and then he unloaded the pantry. Lo and behold, way back in the back was the Ziplock bag of meds. So obviously Hubbie didn't always store the meds in the usual cabinet, as he had insisted. He stammered that he must have been distracted when he put the meds in the pantry. I didn't accept that excuse and demanded an apology, since I'd spent a lot of time apologizing when I thought I'd forgotten them.

Later, Nephew arrived, and around 5 p.m., we had a supper of leftover barbecue, soups, veggies, and cheese dip. Sis and Nephew prepared to leave soon after.

I accompanied Mother to her house, where I helped her take a shower, and then threw a load of laundry in the washer. At home, Hubbie and I showered, and then relaxed for the rest of the evening. When we went to bed, I think I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.



Trip, Day Two, Thursday, May 24

Up early, and had a breakfast of fresh fruits...grapes, strawberries, and oranges...with homemade blueberry muffins, banana bread, and molasses bread (made by Sis), with orange juice and coffee.

Around 8 a.m., we called the pharmacy, and I relayed the list of medications I needed. The pharmacy is on a network with the grocery store/pharmacy I use in my town, so the pharmacist was able to immediately re-fill my prescriptions, and we traveled the 30 miles to the store to pick them up.

Proving the theory of six degrees of separation, which refers to the idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person on Earth, we met the young pharmacist, who, upon learning what town we live in, commented that he used to live there, too. His father is a retired doctor, whose name we recognized, and he is acquainted with lots of folks we know.

On the way to and from the pharmacy, I noticed that much of the wooded areas are covered in invasive kudzu, making them look positively primeval.

Before we went back to the RV park, we stopped at an unusual visitor's center...an old, recycled building, with peeling paint, and a short set of railroad tracks out front. Inside, the gift shop offered everything delta, including Elvis memorabilia, and an arrangement of cotton stalks in a basket.

Back at the camper, Hubbie, Sis, and I decided to tour the area, including a discount strip mall, where there were no stores we were interested in. So we drove by a river museum and a casino we were interested in visiting later.

Went back to the camper, had lunch, and the three of us returned to the museum, which is fashioned to resemble a wave, with the intention of touring it, but discovered that they charged $9 (senior price) for admittance, so we skipped it, and just roamed around the grounds snapping photos, instead. Hubbie, Mother, and I had toured the museum a few years ago, when it was first built, and admittance was free then, so we were disappointed today.

Hubbie stayed with Mother on the porch overlooking the river. The porch featured wooden rocking chairs, though Mother stayed in her wheelchair. Before long, one of the maintenance crew announced that they'd need to vacate the porch, because staff was going to spray for mosquitoes.

Funny: at the van, after I saw that Mother was safely seated for our trip to the museum and casino, I loaded her walker into the back. But before I completed the task, Hubbie lowered the hatch onto my head. I hollered, and he quickly raised it again. I marched to the rider's side window, flung my arms up, and yelled, "What the hell were you doing?"

When I got into the van, everybody was laughing uproariously. Sis said, "The wind blew your voice away, but we definitely knew what you were saying."

Went from the museum to Fitzgeralds Cssino. Hubbie parked the car, while Sis, Mother, and I waited in the lobby. Soon, Sis spotted Hubbie approaching the lobby. Except it wasn't Hubbie. It was an older African-American gentleman dressed in khakis and a dark shirt similar to Hubbie's. He was also wearing a wide-brimmed southern style straw hat. All that Sis saw, though, were the khakis and shirt.

Hubbie arrived moments later, and I pointed out the gentleman that Sis had mistaken for him. "I don't know how you made that mistake," he laughed. "I'm not wearing a hat."

In the lobby of this casino is a piece of the Blarney Stone from Ireland. While Sis and I pretended to kiss it, hoping it would bring us good luck, Hubbie snapped a picture. Hubbie did his usual touring of the casino, while Mother, Sis, and I headed straight for the penny slots. I wasn't sure he would know where we were, so I called him on the cell phone.

"I just wanted to let you know where we are," I said.

"Okay," he said."

"Where are you?" I asked, with the intention of giving him directions to where we were.

"Not far," he said.

I turned around and found him within inches of my back. I whacked him on the arm, and joined in the laughter. Somehow, Mother and Sis had managed to hold their laughter until then. Hubbie went off on another tour, while Sis, Mother, and I sat down to slot machines.

The first ones, though, demanded that players bet at least twenty-five cents a throw, rather than a penny. We'd already put our money in, but we promptly cashed it out and moved to another bank of slots. After a dollar, though, we saw that the machines weren't going to pay, so the four of us left the casino and went back to our favorite slot machines at Hollywood Casino.

We played until suppertime, and then headed back to the camper. Wow, was the wind strong this evening...hurricane strength, Sis contended. I contended that it turned our hair upside down. It was so strong that it was hard to open the camper door.

Supper tonight was barbecue sandwiches, with chips and/or fresh veggies with salsa and cheese dip. As we ate supper, we noticed two martin birds dueling on the pavement, probably for mating rights. There was a martin house a few feet away from our camper.

Mother chose to stay at the camper this evening, while Hubbie, Sis, and I, went back to the casino. Before we went to the casino, though, I snapped a few pictures of the well-manicured golf course and clubhouse, which borders the RV park. It was a lovely sight in the late afternoon light, just before sunset.

At the casino, we played for a couple of hours, until we ran out of the money we'd alloted ourselves for gambling. Minutes before we were ready to leave, Hubbie hit a jackpot of $125, enough to pay for the diesel in the truck and the gas in the van for the trip.

Back at the camper, we were ready to hit the sack.




Trip, Day One, Wednesday, May 23

Up at 6:30 to get ready to head to Tunica. No matter how much we do to get ready for a trip beforehand, it always takes us three hours to get ready on the morning we leave, so it was about 9:30 when we headed out.

On this trip, we took both the truck with camper, and the van, so that Mother could ride in comfort. I rode with Hubbie, and Sis drove the van.

We hadn't gotten a mile down the road when Sis called to say the steps on the camper were down. Also, Hubbie remembered that the camper key was still on the bedroom dresser. So we pulled over, and while I waited in the truck, Sis took Hubbie back to the house.

For this trip, Hubbie thought it would be great to hook up the two-way radios, despite my protest that we didn't need them, since we have cell phones. We hadn't traveled far on our second attempt to start the trip, when Sis phoned to say the mic on our radio was open, and she and Mother could hear everything we said. Yikes! That wouldn't do...some of our conversations aren't meant for everyone's ears!

We abandoned the two-way radio idea.

Along the way, we noticed a woman pull over, open her driver's side door, and upchuck. Breakfast didn't set well? A stomach bug? An early start on Memorial Day boozing?

A police helicoptor flew overhead, patrolling traffic, we speculated. We saw these in both our state and Mississippi. It's going to be a busy weekend for law enforcement, we suspect.

A few hours later, we were ready to stop for lunch, and after a bit of difficulty finding just the right place to pull the camper off the road, we parked at a truck stop. By this time, we were all more than ready for a potty break.

From this point, once we'd crossed the bridge into Memphis, there was nothing but long stretches of road, as we traveled the flatland Mississippi delta between fields of rice, soybeans, wheat, and milo. Thrashers threw up dust as they worked their way through the wheat. In fallow fields, wind whipped dust into large and small dirt devils, which swirled crazily along the ground, like miniature tornadoes. In the Mississippi delta, wind seems to be the order of the day.

We arrived at the casino RV park around 2 p.m. to find the registration office closed, so Sis drove Hubbie to the casino lobby to register.

We'd reserved our campsite ahead of time, but found the one assigned to us was inadequate to our needs, since the hookups were located in such a way that there wasn't room for the slideout, and the pad was too small to accommodate the camper steps, plus an extra wooden step for Mother.

Sis noticed that the space right next to the one we'd been assigned had a nice wide pad, with hookups toward the back, and a parking space for the van. It also had a tree big enough to shade the spot, just about the only such tree in the entire park. So Hubbie went back to the casino to request this site, and we set up there.

Once the camper was ready, we got Mother settled on the couch for a nap, and Hubbie, Sis, and I freshened up and made our first excursion to the casino. We spent a couple of hours there, where Sis and I toured the casino's Hollywood museum and snapped pictures on our cell phones, while Hubbie toured the casino, observing the players at craps and poker tables.

We all played the penny slot machines for a little while, and then returned to the camper to have a supper of a choice of potato soup or 11-bean with ham and Rotel, and pimento cheese sandwiches. Afterward, Mother joined us in going to the casino. It was only a short distance from the campsite to the casino, so we were able to push Mother in her wheelchair to the back entrance, where we had a code for opening the door. The penny slot machines we preferred were along the wall just inside the door.

We toured Mother through the museum, and then we all played penny slots until around 9 p.m., before returning to the camper. After having a snack, I was ready to take my evening medications. Only problem was, we couldn't find them. They were not in the cabinet where Hubbie usually stores them, and where he swore he would have stored them, if I'd put them in the basket to be taken to the camper.

I really thought I'd packed the medications, but after scouring my brain, I decided I'd somehow forgotten them. Hubbie was very disappointed in me, and I apologized over and over again for my negligence. Now we had to figure out what to do about it. I would have to go without my meds tonight, but in the morning, we'd contact a grocery store pharmacy to see if I could get enough pills to carry me through until we got back home. Sis researched stores online, and found two that we would contact in the morning. If we couldn't get the meds, we'd be heading home tomorrow.


Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Tuesday, May 22

Up at 6:30, so we could have breakfast early, because Hubbie needed to take the truck to the shop to have freon added, since the air conditioner unit wasn't cooling correctly. While he was gone, I did a treadmill session and resistance exercises.

Once I was ready for the day, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, where we made a batch of potato soup. Hubbie did the honors of peeling and then slicing the potatoes in the food processor.

Stayed busy for the rest of the morning, and then for lunch, Hubbie and I sampled the potato soup, though Mother stuck with her usual Ramen Noodle. We sampled the pimento cheese with the soups.

After lunch, Hubbie and I ran errands...first to take a package of photos to my ESL student, since I was unable to send them via email, thanks to some glitch in my photo file. She was ecstatic to get them, so she can take them with her to Venezuela. From there, we went to a Mexican restaurant to pick up a container of white cheese dip; and to a cafe' to pick up a quart of chicken salad that I'd ordered and paid for last week.

This wasn't as easy as I anticipated, since the teen girl at the counter seemed unable to find the order slip. "Who took the order," she asked.

"I don't know," I said, a bit vexed. How on earth would I know who it was that took my order...just some other teen girl. I don't even know what she looked like. All teens look pretty much the same to me!

"Did you pay for the order?" she pursued.

"Yes," I repeated, having told her this earlier.

Seeing that I was getting more and more peeved, she whisked off to check the bulletin board. After riffling through a bunch of orders, she located mine. She rushed it to the owner of the cafe', who promptly filled it. The owner apologized profusely for the confusion. "It's been a crazy day," she said.

Back home, we relaxed for a while, and then I prepared a supper of bagel pizzas, with a choice of chips or fresh veggies and cheese dip, and canned pears topped with cottage cheese for dessert.

Sis and Nephew arrived in time for supper. Sis will spend several days with us, and Nephew will return to pick her up Friday.

After Sis and Mother went to Mother's house, Hubbie and I watched TV, including an episode of "Sherlock Holmes," called "The Reichenbach Fall," from the public channel. We also watched the season finale of "Dancing With the Stars." Complete surprise to me the one who won. That's what the popular vote can do on this show, even if I don't agree.





Monday, May 21, 2012

Monday, May 21

Up around 7:30, and did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother over to our house around 9 a.m., and while I got ready for the day, she chopped veggies for making potato soup tomorrow, as well as cutting veggies into strips to use with cheese dip.

Hubbie ran lots of errands today, and I ironed clothes and did other things for the upcoming week. After lunch, I prepared for a tutoring class with my student, but at the college, I waited ten minutes past the appointed hour, and when she didn't show up or call me, I called her. In the frenzy of getting ready for a trip to Venezuela Wednesday, she had forgotten to call and cancel her class today.

She did say, however, that after her face swelled up, she had been forced to have that abcessed tooth extracted. She feels a lot better now, thank goodness. She'll be gone on her trip for three weeks, so I relayed this information to both the college librarian, and the Literacy Council director.

Back home, I grabbed my camera and went outside to snap pictures of road workers parked in the ditch of our yard, where they worked at the corner of our yard, as well as the corner of the street across the road. A large truck with trailer for hauling heavy equipment, pickups, as well as a backhoe, and portable cement mixer, graced both sides of the road and part of our yard. All this equipment made for a noisy day, as several men worked digging holes. Hubbie speculated that they are creating culverts to widen the roads for large trucks, horse trailers, and the like, of which there is a goodly number in the neighborhood.

Spent the rest of the afternoon doing things related to the upcoming week, including visiting the farmers market to pick up grape tomatoes, new potatoes, and cucumbers.

Put leftovers in the oven for supper. After supper, I accompanied Mother to her house, and then Hubbie and I went to the WDCS for the weeks's groceries.

Back home, we watched TV, including the made-for-TV movie, "Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt," and tonight's episode of "Dancing With the Stars." These are the final two nights of the show for this season, so tomorrow we'll learn who takes home the mirror ball trophy.







Sunday, May 20, 2012

Sunday, May 20

Up around 8 a.m. Skipped my exercises, as I usually do on Sundays. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9 a.m., and once I was ready for the day, she sliced onions and bell peppers, which I added to seasoned and browned round steak and a can of beef broth.

While the steak simmered, Mother and I made a couple of loaves of banana bread. This is a favorite recipe that uses both mashed overripe bananas and crushed pineapple.

Later, Hubbie peeled potatoes, which I boiled and mashed, and at noon, we sat down to a yummy smothered steak dinner, with a side of green beans.

Afterward, Mother made a batch of pimento cheese, and then worked on her jigsaw puzzle. Hubbie worked in the yard, and I ironed clothes, read the Sunday newspaper, played on my laptop, etc.

Later, Daughter-in-Law called to let me know they have acquired a new camper. She wanted to know if we are planning to make a trip down their way around Memorial Day, as we have done for the past several years. Unfortunately, we aren't making the trip this year.

She also wanted to let me know that Granddaughter and Grandson are seeing a cardiologist and being tested for supraventricular tacycardia, which causes very rapid heartbeat. It's non-fatal, and can be treated in a number of ways, including beta blocker medication. Symptoms include palpitations, lightheadedness or dizziness. It's not clear what causes the problem.

For supper tonight, I fixed a hot dog and macaroni and cheese for Mother and Hubbie, and a leftover fajita and mac and cheese for myself. We watched TV for awhile afterward, and then I accompanied Mother to her house, and helped her take a shower. Threw a load of laundry in the washer before coming back home.

Tonight, we watched a feature from a DVD of four Hallmark movies...the 2005 "Thicker Than Water," starring Melissa Gilbert and Linsay Wagner. A female attorney discovers that her father was once married to a rodeo queen, before he married her mother, so she travels to California horse country to unearth the truth, and finds family she never knew existed.