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Saturday, March 12, 2016

Day 16 Friday

Even though Katie has a bad cold, she is a trooper and still wanted to go to the Gym. So off we went and had a good workout. I really like the gym, there is lots of room, the machines are good, and they have two or three maintenance folks constantly cleaning the machines and the floor. I have never seen that at a gym I have been to....and the best part? the price is right! $30 for both of us for the month...unreal!

It was about 12:30 when we left the gym, so we decided to go to Rudy's for Lunch.


This is one of our favorite places, as the food is consistently good. We never have the beef, our favorite is the turkey sandwich, freshly barbecued.








As usual it was very good.

We then went to Time Warner to take back their rental modem, the one they charge $10/mth for. There was a lineup but they had six people dealing with customers so it went pretty fast. They will fix my account, but I wanted my $50 deposit back from 6 years ago. The girl tried to tell me that after the first year I would have got it back. I said that if that would have happened I would have known that it happened. She put in a trouble ticket for me to be credited with the $50.

We came back home as we were going to sell a few items on the park wide garage sale which occurs Saturday morning. They open the gates so those from outside can come in. Earlier in the morning I put out a couple of the tires and rims from the cart I sold, and sold them for $5 each. We decided we really didn't have that much, so putting anything out was really not worth it.

It is always fun to watch the process, those who live in the park start early Friday driving around to see what they can get or simply what people are selling. On Saturday morning when the gates open there is a fair amount of traffic as those outside come in looking for a bargain.

Katie and I watched "The Revenant" at night, pretty good, a little long though watching a guy crawling through the snow for long period of the movie.

I found I did something to my left knee at the gym, feels like a miniscus thing, so I will ice it tomorrow and hope it feels better.

and so ends another great day in the Valley...

more later...

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Day 15 Thursday

The rain finally let up today, sunny and warm most of the day, some ominous looking black clouds but nothing in terms of moisture.

After breakfast it was time to install the new modem I bought. Followed the instructions to a tee but nothing. Had to phone Time Warner which was ok because they have to initialize it anyway. I was supposed to be able to do it online without phoning them but that didn't work. Shortly after with good service we were up and running with the new one. Tomorrow I will take back theirs and they can credit me the $50 they have been holding onto.

Katie and I went to a new Walmart SuperCentre which is huge, and hardly anyone there. So easy shopping and cashing out.

When we came back we were going to hit golf balls but our friend Remi came over. Remi told us he was looking after a golf cart for a couple that were unable to come this year due to illness. Remi didn't want to use the golf cart, and as a result he talked to the woman who owns it, and she told him that we could use it until we go home. We met Remi at their trailer, and got everything set up, and we will get it ready to store at their place when we go home....or......it is quite a nice cart and has year old batteries. The woman said after we are done for Remi and Danna to sell it, but they are not prepared to do that. Hmmm say Katie and I...are we crazy? We sold ours to not have to look after batteries...but it is really nice, and much newer than ours was.

We will have to see how much she wants for it...too much forget it...just right...a dilemma.

We put our clubs on the cart and went to the range to hit balls. Katie was awesome again, while I struggled with pace.

After supper, time to watch the Jets game.

and so ends another great day in the Valley...

more later...


Day 14 Wednesday

Wow...two weeks gone already

Lots of rain today, there are many places north Texas that are getting it much worse though.

I wanted to buy my own modem for Time Warner as they have basically gone from no rental charge to $5, to $8, to $10 in a year. Once I get the new one hooked up and working properly after having it activated...I will take the old one back and get my $50 deposit back that they have had for a few years.

Our Sam's Club didn't have one so we had to go to a different one.

Katie and I did some looking around at various places for a few other items.

Stopped in at Al and Bonnie's to help him with a small problem with the Android Box I brought him. Had a nice rum and coke, and lots of laughs as usual.

Came home, had supper, and just relaxed the rest of the night, as it was raining constantly.

and so ends another great day in the Valley...

more later...

Day 13 Tuesday

We were going to go to the gym this morning but Katie developed a heat rash and we didn't want to make it any worse, so we decided not to go.

We did some puttering around the trailer for most of the day.

At 4:30 we went for happy hour at Larry and Shirley's. They have one almost every year, and serve this great chilli that Shirley makes. There were around 12 of our friends in the park, and as always there are lots of laughs and good conversation. We solve a lot of the world's problems when we sit around having a few bubbleys.

We came home around 8:45 and put the Jets game on. There were 5 minutes left in the second period.

Watched the game until the end...another option for a better draft choice.

and so ends another great day in the Valley...

more later...

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Day 12 Monday

We couldn't do too much today as we had to wait until the folks that bought the golf cart came to pick it up with a trailer.

They came around 2PM and got it loaded up no problem.

At 4:00 we went to the Rec Hall as there was a block party for our street. It was a Pot Luck, BYOB and BYOTS.

There were four tables of us, and the food was really good. Nicole and her husband Jerry, who are down her for Christmas had the idea of decorating our street for Christmas with little hanging Santa Clauses. They make them out of plywood and Nicole paints them really nicely. She was taking orders so we are going to get one even though we won't be here for Christmas. Our neighbor will put it up for us when the time comes.

Katie and I just took it easy for the rest of the night, watched some television and went to bed early as we were both really tired for some reason.

and so ends another great day in the Valley...

more later...

Monday, March 7, 2016

Day 11 Sunday

After breakfast, Katie and I sat down to make a list of things we would like to get done.

We had a conversation about whether or not we still want to sell the golf cart. The problem with it is when we are away we have to worry about finding some way to keep the batteries (6) charged. It is not good for them to drain completely, and simply means you have to buy new ones more often (over $700).

We decided we would try and sell it, and if we didn't I would try a different method this year.

I put an ad on Craig's List right after, and within 15 minutes we had a phone call. The lady said she would come right down. We met them outside the gate in the cart, they looked it over, took it for a ride, and said they wanted it. Turns out they come from Nova Scotia and bought a place in a park in Weslaco. They will pick it up when they can get a trailer to put it in today or tomorrow. Well that's decided!

We met Sister Maureen at her church in Progreso (US side). Four nuns reside there, Sr. Maureen being one of them. The parish is building them a new house, the old one was pretty old. The parish managed to get a grant from the Kennedy foundation for $35,000 which helped with construction costs. The new one is going to be very nice for them. In the meantime they are housed in McAllen, so a long drive for Sr. Maureen when she goes to Mexico three times a week.

Should be finished middle of April

Sr. Maureen needed to pick up some donations to take to Mexico, so we climbed in her truck and off we went. We had to drive a long way and take several different roads until we came to a property that a different order of nuns run. The property is in San Benito, and is for the purpose of looking after refugees that come from South America. They are all going through the legal process of attempting to stay in the United States and have lawyers helping them. One was a refugee himself and the other is doing pro bono work. 

There are both men and women houses in seperate quarters and they stay while they go through the legal process. They are not illegal as they are properly registered and going through the process. There are mothers with babies and many come from Cuba. We met Sister Teres who had previously spent 5 years in Mexico, but I detected an Irish accent and she confirmed that she is from Ireland. She showed us around the property and explained part of the history.













The three Musketeers, Katie, Sister Teres in the middle and Sister Maureen 

After we had tea with Sister Teres, we loaded up the back of Sr. Maureen's truck...a dining room table, bags of clothing, toys, food, all for the families in Nuevo Progreso. We then started the fairly long drive back to the bridge to Nuevo Progreso. There was already a long line of cars on the bridge waiting to get back to the US side, but it was already after 4 and we thought it would be far less when we did what we wanted to do and it was time for us to go back. Wrong! as I will explain later.

We first went to see Vicky the girl we sponsored first. Sister Maureen dropped us off there for awhile while she went to unload the truck. Vicky is 9 now and was 5 when we first started sponsoring her.




In this case we had to use the translator on my phone as the parents and kids speak very little English. We gave Vicky some gifts we brought for her, and each of us always get big hugs.

Then we made another stop at the casa of Ruby who is sponsored by Durga who works with Katie. Ruby is 13 and last year she asked for a picture of her Madrina (sponsor) in her traditional dress. So we made it happen.

This is Ruby and her nephew

This is Ruby's sister who at an early age has three children

Raising chickens and roosters

A house built for them by some Americans next to the shack they have been living in
In my opinion I think it's sad that many of the young girls who are raised in this environment end up having children at a very early age, which basically means their future is now predetermined. It would be so great if they could continue their education, so they could do or be whatever they wanted. Now it would be most difficult. We put together a few gifts for Ruby and gave her the picture of Durga. She was very happy with that.

Then we went to see "our family" Livario, Erica, Karelly, Livy, Eric, and the new dog. I was very happy when we drove up to see that Sherlyn and her mom were there! They are so nice, I really like them. We got big hugs from "everyone". They were worried that we weren't coming because it was getting late and they had been waiting. Sherlyn and her mom came especially because they knew Katie and I were coming.

We neglected to get a picture of them the last time so we made sure this time


We gave the money to try and get a United States Visa to Livario and Erika. They were grateful. Sr Maureen sat with little Eric while he was playing on one of the tablets we had given the girls. The girls wanted to have fun and take some pictures...









Sr. Maureen told us that Eric does not have a sponsor for next year so Katie and I have decided that we are going to sponsor him as well. That way we have the whole family. They have so little and we have so much.
















For those of you who don't know, our family was living in a shack when we first met them

This doesn't show the whole place but gives you an idea


One day the owner came along said he wanted it for his family and gave them a couple of days to get out. They had nowhere to go. We were still in Canada and worried for them. We found out that they were able to get permission to move into the place they are in now, which is really quite nice, but only for two months. Guess what, no one seems to care, and they are still there. The owner of what was supposed to be a upscale neighborhood, gave up on it and moved to the US because his daughters got killed.

The house had bullet holes in the windows from the cartel, and we learned that our family had been in it once before but one day a black truck with two guys came along and told them to get out. That's when they went to the blue house where they were paying rent.

Our family deserves to be living somewhere decent, the dad works and doesn't drink, mom is excellent and promotes education, the kids go to school everyday, and Karelly is first in the whole school n her studies.

We had more fun with the family and the kids, and then it was time to leave. It was just after 7PM by this time and when we got to the main street we saw there was a huge lineup of cars to get onto the bridge, all the way down the main street. Sr Maureen took a one block detour and we got into a different line on a side street which also leads onto the bridge. From the time we started until we got through customs it was an hour and a half.




I feel bad for Sherlyn and her mom, as they came today because they knew we were coming and Sherlyn would help to translate. They were still there when we left, but that line was not going to go down in a hurry.

After Sr. Maureen dropped us off a our car, we got home...time for some supper, some TV, and relaxation after a long day.

and so ends another great day in the Valley...

more later...