Steve and Judy's Travels!

It’s still hot.  Hotter than average.  The thunderstorms are gone though.  No real hail damage for us while they were here, just some really loud rain.  Judy is getting new hearing aids tomorrow.  They’ve been a long time coming.  I’ve been raising my voice to her lately, but not in a bad way.  She rode the last pair of hearing aids out for five years.  That’s a long time in hearing aid years.  They were high tech then.  The new ones will be high tech now.  Counting down to the van delivery.  We don’t know how many days it will be, but each day passed is one less.  Learning things in the Ford Transit group online.  Buying a few goodies that will be helpful for our first trip.  Not buying much though.  We don’t want to start out on our first trip with the van overfull.  We can buy sunscreens/privacy shades for the inside of the windshield and the driver and passenger windows.  We know we’ll need them.  Instead of carrying an ice chest, we’ll carry a small 12 volt refrigerator.  It looks like an ice chest, but it plugs in.  It won’t have to be very big because we only need a few things cold and we don’t have to leave room for ice.  When my phone rings and Judy is right there in the room with me, I know it’s a bogus call.  I always check voicemail for messages, but for incoming calls my phone is mostly just a plaything for others.  I let them play by themselves.

Does the online wisdom below resonate with anybody out there?  (Or wives about their husbands?)

A common gallinule.

Previously known as moorhen.  It’s a constant process updating names.  Years ago, we were in Arizona at the Colorado River and I saw some common nighthawks circling in the evening light.  I commented on them and the local person with me said “Those are called Riverhawks.”  Same bird.  Two different names.  It’s a process.

Just being Henry.

The charming little guy likes to kick all the pillows off the couch.  In fact he swims from one end of the couch to the other to make it happen.

Sometimes he loses focus and falls asleep.

It’s a process.

But it always ends with Henry on the couch and the pillows on the floor.

Yesterday was a down day for Henry.  Last legs.  Today he’s bright and shiny again.

Here’s a picture of a hiking trail in a park in Austin.

May 29^th.  Henry is hanging in there.  Some days are better than others.  Our Ford Transit Van got built.  Now it’s in a holding pen waiting for a train ticket to Houston or San Antonio.  After the train ride, it will get a truck ride to our dealer.  Mid-June is still the target date for delivery to us.  Christie, Kyle and Cameron made a visit to Colorado.  Kyle ran in the first wave of the Bolder Boulder 10K and finished sub-forty minutes, achieving his goal.  He collected his special shirt then circled back to the start, found Cameron, Conner, and some of Conner’s friends who were starting much farther back, and ran it again with them.  Becky, Brian, and Christie started yet further back and walked it.  The Bolder Boulder is a big event, 47,000 participants.  They start in waves based on expected finish time to avoid absolute chaos.  When I ran it 44 years ago, there were so few people that we all started at once and Judy rode next to me on a bicycle, and we didn’t get in anybody’s way.  I went to Austin last week to check out a van conversion shop to see if we could get a sofa/bed and roof vent installed when it’s time.  I liked them.  We might be able to get just what we want.  It’s hot here.  Thunderstorms at night.  Got some very large marble size hail once.  Jesse still has a brown face.