Friday November 29, 2013, Buda, TX.

Up early this morning hoping that some work might be done today.  We had our coffee and I walked down to the service department to see if anything was planned for today.  I spoke to Matt and found out the parts for the leveling system had not come in.  Matt called Power Gear, they were closed.  He told me he hoped to get a tech to check the Aqua Hot today.

We went to Sam's Club in San Marcos after dropping off a prescription for Gerri at a CVS in Kyle..  Gerri wanted to pickup some items that were on sale on black Friday.  I had a new Sam's Membership card made to replace the one stolen with my billfold in Spain.  I put gasoline in the Jeep once I got the new card.  Gerri dropped me off at Best Buy to make a return while she went to Dollar Tree to get some gift bags.  Black Friday has a reputation of being a hectic day to shop.  It wasn't bad in the places we went.  Although there were two bus loads of shoppers from Mexico being picked up in the parking lot.  They may have bought everything Ross, Dress for Less had.

The traffic going back to Kyle wasn't too bad.  Back at Curtis and Dana's we had turkey sandwiches for lunch.  After lunch I went geocaching.  I found four and DNFed three.  After caching I stopped by the Crestview office and found out no work had been done on the coach today.  We only have three more working days before heading to Las Vegas, I hope they get something done during those three days.

Dana and Curtis had put up outside lights, a Christmas tree and had presents wrapped under the tree.  Brandon and Vanessa both have trees in their rooms plus the one in the living room.  Christmas holds a special fascination for children.  Brandon and Vanessa are no different.  Although Dana and Curtis don't strictly observe any religious belief they observe both Curtis' Christian upbringing and Dana's Jewish heritage.




For dinner we went to the Kobe Steakhouse and had Teppan (Teppanyaki) style cuisine following sushi appetizers.  It was very interesting watching Vanessa and Brandon's interaction with the cook.  It was also interesting that they enjoyed the dinner and ate very well.  The fact that the food was very good and the cook put on a show probably helped.

We said our goodbyes at the restaurant and went directly to the RV Park.

Tomorrow I plan to go geocaching with Brandon.  I have made up a cache to hide near his house so he can keep track of how many people visit it.

Thursday November 28, 2013, Buda, TX

The sky wasn't as clear as it was yesterday.  There were a lot of puffy white clouds, but nothing that looked threatening.  It was still cold.  While having coffee we saw several other residents of the park walking by and they were all bundled up.  Yesterday and the day before there were a few empty sites near us but they filled up last afternoon and the park was full today.

Gerri started cooking her famous green bean dish as her contribution to this afternoon's dinner.  She had helped Dana with the pumpkin cream cheese pies last night. 

Since Curtis' scanner wasn't working I decided to give another shot at hooking up the one in the coach.  I hope to have better luck with the computer I am now using.  The attempt worked.  It was slow, about a minute per page.  But, I got the job done and my third quarter reimbursement claims into UMR.  UMR is the administrators of the health insurance plan we are in until next April when thy drop us retirees because of Obama Care.  The so called Affordable Health Care Act is any thing but.  First we were forced into medicare, which we have to pay exorbitant rates for because we never paid into Social Security or Medicare.  Our supplemental insurance had a huge increase in July and another is coming in January before we are dropped in April.  The department's promises of lifetime insurance are just like Obama's promises, LIES.  They have broken faith with those of us who have retired.  Rant off.

We went to the Kids house at 12:15.  It was finally warm enough to watch the kids play outside.  I didn't get to geocache today but worked on one to place so Brandon can keep track of it.  He was impressed with caching.  He said it was awesome.

Winner, winner, turkey dinner

We had turkey with all the trimmings for dinner, including Curtis' favorite pumpkin cream cheese pie.  Curtis and Dana's neighbors, Keith and Shawna and their three children joined us.

It was a great meal and great company.  We are so blessed as a family.  I could fill pages with our blessings and thank God for them every day.

After dinner it was still nice enough to spend time with the kids in the back yard.  Curtis and Brandon played a game of horseshoes.  I challenged the winner, Brandon.  I had forgotten just how bad I am at horseshoes, Brandon skunked me.

After dark we visited some more before the other family went home.  I played War with Brandon and Vanessa until they lost interest.  We went back to the coach at about 7 :30.  Some computer time and then to bed at about 10 PM

Game time

Tomorrow I plan on being ready in case the parts for the coach came in.  I am hoping the parts came in and they can do the installation so we can have time to test the system out before leaving Buda on the 5th.  We also plan to go to Sam's Club in San Marcos to order our Christmas cards.  I also need to get a new membership card since mine was stolen in Spain.

Wednesday November 27, 2013, Buda, TX

This morning when we got up the sky was clear.  It was what our friend Alan would call severe clear. The wind was still with us and it was very cold.  I may have figured out the heating system, at least the part that works.  Last night I ran the Aqua hot on electricity with the bedroom thermostat set at 55 and the two space heaters in the front on 65.  Those settings kept us comfortable.

No one came from the shop to take the coach in.  At 9:30 we took the kids for breakfast at McDonald in the nearby Walmart.  The kids had pancakes and ate everything in sight.  Gerri had a breakfast sandwich and I had a breakfast burrito.  Gerri picked up some items while the kids finished eating.

After that we went to the house so that Dana could take Vanessa to a doctor appointment.  Curtis was working on a rain barrel project.  He plans to catch rain water to water the plants around the house.

Brandon finds a geocache.

Brandon and I went out and found some nearby caches.  We found four.  It appears that the next one had washed away when the San Marcos river flooded at the end of October.  The last cache we looked for, we didn't find.

I dropped Brandon at the house and returned to the coach to clean up and pick up some things I needed to scan and copy.  Curtis' scanner wasn't working.  I plan on giving another try at hooking up the printer/scanner in the coach in the morning.

Gerri, Vanessa and Dana prepared the pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving supper.  

 I wrapped the Christmas present we bought for Curtis and Dana. 

Dana fixed chili for supper.  We all ate at different times.  First the kids and then Gerri and I.  Curtis and Dana ate after the corn bread was finished.  Gerri and I sat with them and had some corn bread.  The pies presented a little problem for not being able to bake the cornbread in a timely matter.  The chili and cornbread was very good. 

Today was the first day of Hanukkah and the kids opened presents.

We returned to the coach at 8:30.  Some TV and computer time rounded out the evening.

Tuesday November 26, 2013, Buda, TX

This morning it was still cold and windy but the sky was not the even grey it has been for the last several days.  There were bands of lighter grey, white and an occasional glimpse of blue sky.  It hadn't rained any more since late yesterday afternoon.

New from the Wal

Last night I set the heat pump in the rear of the coach on 60 and the two space heaters on in the front.  We spent a comfortable night.

I went to the service desk and had Matt add the Aqua Hot to the repair list.  The front zone only puts out cool air, the rear zone seems to work fine.  I always thought the Aqua Hot furnaces didn't work when set on electric.  I had always checked the front outlets.  Today I checked the rear and warm air does come out in the rear zone.  This tells me that something was wrong with the front zone from day one; it never worked on electric and now doesn't work on diesel either.

Dana had been shopping in Austin and stopped by the coach.  After visiting for awhile, Dana, Gerri and Vanessa went to the house.  Brandon and I went geocaching.  It was the first time out for Brandon.  His words were," geocaching is awesome."  On the second cache Brandon spotted the cache before I did.  We had fun, Brandon especially enjoyed two of the caches where the containers were fired shotgun shells.  I logged the caches and Brandon returned them to their hiding spots.  That saved me a lot of time out in the cold wind.

At dark we went to the house for dinner.  Dana cooked a pasta dish with mushrooms, chicken and peas.  After dinner the kids went with us back to the coach for the evening.  Curt and Dana have a date night, no kids and no one has to work in the morning.

Brandon and the iPod

Vanessa and the Clumsy Ninja

Back at the coach we played three games of LRC.  I won one and Vanessa and Brandon won one each.  We also played two games of War.  Vanessa and I each won one.  After those games Vanessa played Clumsy Ninja on the iPad and Brandon played a Penguin Race game on my iPod  Gerri and I caught up on computer time.

The kids went to bed at 10 PM in our bed.  The plan is to move Brandon to the couch later, so Gerri and I have room to sleep with Vanessa in the king size bed.

It was a great afternoon and evening with Brandon and Vanessa.  We enjoyed having them at the coach for the evening.

Tomorrow morning we plan to go to McDonalds and then take Vanessa home so she can go to a doctors appointment.  We may also have to vacate the coach if the service department can schedule the work on the Aqua Hot.

Monday November 25, 2013

Every time I was awake during the night I could hear the rain falling on the roof.  When I got up and fixed the coffee, it was raining and the sky was grey.  The front of the coach was 47 and the bedroom 55 degrees.  I turned on the Aqua Hot furnace, the small electric heater was on all night.

After five years I have never been sold on the idea of the Aqua Hot water heating system.  The last few days we have used the furnace feature of the Aqua Hot and I must say I am unimpressed with it's ability to keep the coach warm.  The system is supposed to heat both the air and water using electricity.  It has never heated the coach when only powered by electricity, the vents blow out cool air.  On electricity the water is hot enough for me to shower, but not for Gerri or the washing machine.  Last night I turned off the diesel burner before going to bed.  This morning I turned it on and after an hour cool air was still coming from the registers.  I turned on the heat pump in the rear of the coach and got warm air after a few minutes.  I am going to try leaving the Aqua Hot on and just set the thermostat at a lower temperature.  I have been shutting the entire system down when we didn't need heat.  It seems to me that the air ought to get warm quicker than I have been experiencing.  

We stayed in the coach most of the day.  It rained most of the time and was cold.  I checked the Aqua Hot and saw that it was low on boiler fluid.  I bought some at the Crestview RV store and filled the tank to the tank "Cold" line.  In playing around with the controls I found that the rear zone was putting out warm air but not the front zone.

I went to Walmart and found an electric heater to replace the old one that no longer oscillates. 

We got to Curtis' house at about the same time he got home from work.  He has to work again tomorrow but then is off for the rest of the week.  Dana fixed tacos for dinner, very good.

After dinner we played LRC.  We played five games, I won three and Curtis won two.  Before we finished playing, Dana went and picked up frozen yogurt for dessert.

We left the house at 8:30 and returned to the coach.  Tonight I plan to run the space heaters in the front of the coach and the heat pump in the rear.   We will see how that works out.  It is supposed to get down to freezing tonight.

Tomorrow I will check with the service writer and see if they have someone qualified to work on the Aqua Hot and add it to the list for repairs.

Sunday November 24, 2013 Buda, TX

We woke up to another cold, cloudy day.  Actually, I had been awakened by the wind and rain several  times.  Although it was grey sky all over, it looked a little different this morning.  There was a band of lighter grey along the horizon with a darker band above it.  Vanessa, who had spent the night with us,  said that meant it was going to rain.  I'm sure her prognostication and the fact that about a half hour later was purely coincidental.  This time it rained for about 40 minutes and then it was back to the universally grey sky.

We like to sleep in a cool bedroom.  We ran the furnace in the front of the coach all night.  When it was time for showers, I turned on the heat pump in the rear.  I don't remember using it before but the temperature reached 65 very quickly.

We met Curtis and Brandon at Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast.  After breakfast Gerri, and I came back to the coach, Curtis took Brandon and Vanessa home for a nap.  Shortly after that we returned to the house.  Gerri, Dana and Brandon went shopping.  Brandon went with them.  Vanessa stayed and played with two of her friends from across the street.

For dinner we had chicken parmigiana served with spaghetti.  Brandon ate very well and Vanessa didn't finish her food.  After dinner, Dana needed somethings from Walmart, Gerri decided to go with her.  I decided to come back to the coach since the Walmart is by our motor home and Dana could just drop Gerri back off at the coach after their shopping.

Back st the coach I tuned into the worship service net cast from Oakey Blvd. Randy delivered a great message on using our time in this life wisely.

Some computer and TV wound up the evening.

Saturday November 23, 2013, Buda, TX

Brandon stayed the night with me in the motor home.  When we got to the coach it was 40 degrees.  I turned on the inside furnaces and the electric heater.  It was 2:30 before it warmed up enough to turn down the heat.

Brandon got up about 30 minutes before me.  I fixed coffee and started drinking it.  The sky was solid grey, the wind was still blowing and it was raining off and on.  Brandon and I played a few hands of poker and then went to McDonald's and had Egg McMuffins.

Brandon, Curtis and Vanessa

Later Curtis called and suggested we go to Cabella's and look around.  Curtis, Vanessa and, Gerri came to the coach later and we went for lunch at Dan's first.  Dana had been called in to work.  Dan's is a hamburger restaurant nearby, I don't know if it is a chain or not.  The burgers remind me of what Whataburgers were in the 50's.  Dan's also serve other types of food including breakfast.  After eating we went to Cabella's and looked around.  We went to the aquarium.  They have some of the largest catfish I have ever seen.  Curt and the kids spent some time in the shooting gallery.

Curtis and Brandon went home.  Gerri, Vanessa and I had some quite time at the coach.  On the way to the house we stopped and picked up Papa Murphy's pizza.  After the pizza was cooked we had dinner.  After diner we played three games of Left , Right and Center.  Gerri won all three games.  Gerri later played Candy Land with Brandon and Vanessa, Gerri won again.

At eight PM Gerri, Vanessa and I went back to the coach.  Vanessa went to bed at 9.  Gerri and I stayed up and watched some TV and caught up on e-mail and Facebook, before calling it a night.

This cold rainy weather is getting old.  I'm also longing for the desert and mountains, we haven't seen mountains since we left Maderia on our cruise.  This is a flat, green area and kind of dismal looking in the rain and cloudy river.  However, "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24
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