Christmas missive or missal, your choice

This year I am once again going to send out a letter to our friends and relatives relating some of our adventures or mishaps as the case may be. It all started in January of 2008. Not too much really happened that month nor the next few months. Joan and I followed our usual routine which was every Monday from about 11:30 Am to about 4 PM we are volunteers in the gift shop of the Mission Medical Center. It is a very large gift shop with lots of gifts for sale (if it didn't have gifts it wouldn't be a gift shop, I know). It also has cookies, candy, soft drinks, flowers, ice cream bars, gum, coffee, popcorn and dill pickles. Big dill pickles. We sell a lot of them for 75 cents each. Oh, any of the cookies that are broken we get to eat, otherwise we can only have one cookie and a cup of coffee per shift. Rules are rules. Sometimes I have to bang the cookie case really hard to break a few.

Tuesday we generally try to get some things done around the house and go shopping. I do things like make stained glass angels, and carve wood spirits on hiking sticks or canes. Joan makes lunch, dusts and does housewife type things.

Wednesday we get up early and go to Diaz's restaurant in Mission to have breakfast with a group of Amateur Radio Operators from around the states. There are usually anywhere from 10 to 5 of us there. The owner knows we're coming every Wednesday morning at around 7:30 AM so she has a few tables in a row for us. After breakfast we go home, read the paper, sometimes nap and get ready for an early lunch. About 1:30 we go to the club house where the Wednesday afternoon Jam Session takes place from 2 PM to 4Pm. Joan and I help with serving the cookies and coffee at break time. When the Jam Session is over, we help Eddie (a lady) take her marimba back to her place. It is about six feet long, on wheels and we push it down the street to her studio (shed). Once in awhile, after the jam, some of us meet around the corner at the Lone Star BarBQ for more to eat.

Thursday Joan and I get up and stay in our PJ's until about 9:30 or so and then get dressed for our weekly trip to Nuevo Progreso in Mexico. Sometimes we buy medicine for people who ask us; sometimes we buy some "hard stuff" for friends and some for us. We have a favorite bakery/restaurant that we go to, "Rene's". We often get coffee and a big dinner roll (for me) and a big cookie for Joan. We sit there and listen to the mariachis, watch people and enjoy the ambiance. When we leave Mexico we head for home and once in awhile we stop at a farmer's market that is on the way for fruits or vegetables. That pretty much takes care of Thursday except sometimes we go out to play cards in the evening and have snacks.

Friday we don't really get going until around 10 AM. Then we go shopping or out to eat or both. I work in the shed and Joan cleans house.

Saturday I go to church which gives Joan a break from me and "what are you doing? Can I help? What do you want me to do?", kind of thing.

Sunday, Joan makes a big breakfast for us. I hope you noticed that she doesn't make breakfast any other morning unless it's 1/4 of a bagel or an English muffin. I usually make myself a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Anyhow, Joan makes either scrambled eggs or poached eggs or a three egg cheese omelet with toast and jam and coffee. Following that large breakfast I wash and dry the dishes. My Sunday morning house-hold chore.

We went on four motor home rallies this year. First of all we went to Minneapolis/St. Paul for a big rally, about 3,.000 motor homes. It was a pretty good rally except the evening entertainment each night had mistakenly thought that most of us were deaf and played so loud it almost hurt. Too bad. From there we went to Ashland, Wisconsin to visit an old friend and then on to Ludington, Michigan. We stayed there until blueberry picking seson was over, we picked about 10 quarts. Joan packed them into our little freezer so we could enjoy them all winter long. The campground we stayed in is pretty nice and it's right across the street from Wal-Mart. The campgound is also within walking distance of two buffets.

From Ludington we went to Branson, MO for another rally held by the Amateur Radio Club. We have been members for years, in fact, one year (1999-2000) I/we were president. We saw two good shows there, one was the Russian comic, Yakov Smirnoff, he was pretty good. The best show we ever saw in all of our travels (we've been in 49 states) was a show called, "Noah, the Musical." It is a traveling show and if you ever get the chance to see it, go. It was really great, you won't be sorry.

After Branson we went to North Little Rock, Arkansas. What a mess! The people in charge didn't expect that many coaches to arrive the first day. They had calculated that about 300 units would show up. Over 600 showed up. The electric company men were still laying electric lines as wer were herded to our parking space. We had electricity in a couple ofr hours but some didn't have electricity for a day or more. The parking rew wasn't prepared for the onslaught of motor homes. Motor homes were parked everywhere including the streets. The local police had to block off streets because motor homes were parked on the street with their slides out. We were lucky to be where we were. The evening shows were great. If the music got too loud one of the club officers would go up to them and explain that this was not the Hard of Hearing Group. We had a good time and then headed back home to Mission, Texas. Less than a month after we returned we had another motor home rally in Aransas Pass which is near Corpus Christi, East Texas. We had a tour of the aircraft carrier, Lexington which was very good. When you step out onto the flight deck, you are amazed by its sisze! It's huge. From there we walked to the Texas Aquarium which was another great event. You were up close to dophins doing tricks, large turtles, aquariums filled with all kinds of tropical fish and jelly fish. On another day we went to a pickle factory where they gave ua a tour and provided our group (about 26) with a nice buffet fo snacks. We also went to a Marine Museum where there was a lot of information about the start of the shipping business in that part of south Texas. Nothing to eat there.

While we were at that rally Joan bought me a good luck ring. I put it on, seeing as how it was the first good luck ring she had ever bought for me in our 56 years of marriage. The next day every gauage in the motor home failed. I had to drive the 190 miles home without knowing how fast I was going, how much gas I had left and no way to keep track of the mileage. The next day at home the flapper in the water closet failed and I had to go out and buy a new one. Then some unknown thing happened so I couldn't get on the internet. I fussed with that for two days and finally got that fixed. I'm considering having an exorcist work on that ring.

Joan and I are relatively healthy; but seem to be gaining some weight. Our three daughters are doing just fine, not one of them is in jail. Debbie is a manager of a Starbuck's in California, Roxane is in business for herself and doing very well, Cheryl is now in Van Couver, Washington and seems to be very happy. So there you are. I'm sure I left some important stuff out and If I remember it, I'll send it along later.

Take care, God bless, stay healthy and happy,

Jim and Joan