Thursday
Welcome, family and friends to our daily journal,from Liberty Hill, Texas
WeatherBug declares the morning air to be “partly cloudy”. Could be. I won’t know for sure until the fog lifts.
Fog has surrounded us. It wraps us in lace curtains that shields us from the sun’s prying eyes and burning glare.
“Faith is like radar that sees through the fog — the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see.”
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June 2013: I woke in the night with severe back pain. With a history of heart attack, I choose to take the pain seriously and go to the emergency room at the VA in Des Moines, Iowa. Mistake number one. There were ERs much closer AND, if you think you may be having a heart attack, don’t drive anywhere ~ call 911.
At the VA they did an MRI and x-ray. It was not a heart attack, just muscle spasms. I was given muscle relaxers. I was also told that the tests showed a spot on my lung as well as one on my kidney. I was told that a VA doctor would call in the morning about those items.
After nearly two weeks of ME calling THEM, I finally got and appointment. The doctor looked at his computer (never at me) and said, “The spot on your kidney is benign and we’ll just keep an eye on your lung.” This is why I no longer go to the VA when I’m in Iowa.
.Something that most people would never guess about me, most of my life I’ve been an introvert, sometimes bordering on asocial. I wear the persona of a gregarious person, but under that mask, is still the young boy who was in speech therapy for stuttering. On occasion, when stressed, he again controls my tongue.
As a youngster, I would memorize speeches, poems, and parts from plays. When alone, I would practice saying them out loud.
In a college speech class I learned to organize my thoughts for an oral presentation. A good speech is much like music. If music was all one note, played over and over at the same tempo, it would bye only boring noise. I was shown how to change pace, volume, and inflection for emphasis and to keep the audience’s attention.Little did I know how that would be out help to me later on in life, when I began to preach.
Watch Ella beat me at a game of Fast Track, and then say I cheat. We also explain the rules and show how to play..
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- 8 months 25 days since we returned to Texas.
- 3 months and 11 day being self isolated.
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After breakfast (?) lunch (?), I went out and recovered the west facing living room windows. You may recall that quiet awhile back I had covered them. At that time, I said it was am experiment to see how well some cheap white duct tape worked. Well the end of the experiment was that the west facing bedroom window that had insulation held in place with a thin aluminum/Mylar tape is still in place. The windows with the white tape came lose.
This morning I re-covered the other two and used the Mylar tape on them also. I didn’t think to photograph or video my working on this project. You will also notice that previously I had the white side of the insulation facing outward. That was done with an eye toward the Aesthetics. I thought that the white vinyl visually blended better with the outside of the trailer itself. However, for solar protection, I believe the foil-side out makes more sense. Telling that solar radiation, “You are not welcome here!”And, now that I was using the aluminum tape, it blended with the foil of the insulation as well.
I am still reading Adam Hamilton’s book 
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It was a nice sky this morning. Too bad I slept through the pre-dawn. I’ll bet it was spectacular reflecting from the cloud cover.
It seems that the temperature is in a hurry to reach the high for the day. In about two hours it raise five degrees. At this rate, it is going to be higher than ninety one by day’s end.
Poor Rudolf the Red Nosed Pickup, he is covered with bird poo. We are not allowed to use the RV Park’s water for washing our vehicles. That is understandable, since the water comes from the owner’s well. However, I have captured rainwater that I will use to do some cleaning.
For breakfast (in honor of Taco Tuesday) I filled two tortillas with cheese, eggs, bacon or sausage, more cheese and then topped with another tortilla. Then it was grilled for a minute our so. Salsa was optional.I had considered having tacos for lunch. However, I used all excerpt two of the tortillas for breakfast.
Other than our walk around the park and to check for mail, we stayed inside all day. It got hot early and stayed there.The only DIY project on which I worked was drawing schematics for a truck topper rebuild. As 
The two of us played four, five, maybe six games of Fast Track, I don’t know. All I know is that I won one and Ella came in next to last on the others. 😀
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Good (educated) guess by the weather forecasters. Ninety degrees was predicted and ninety degrees was the high.
As I fried some bacon for Ella’s breakfast, I also browned some for corn chowder in the Instapot slow-cooker.
As we did yesterday, we took our Fast Track game outside. It wasn’t until almost noon before we found the need to close up and turn the air conditioner on.
For lunch we had the afore mentioned corn chowder. Corn, potatoes, bacon, milk, vegetable stock are the bases for my chowder. Before serving, I blend in sour cream. And personally, chowder should not be eaten without crackers. And as shaky as my hands are now, without crackers, I would lose half the broth on the way to my mouth.
We accomplished a little yard work today, before it became uncomfortably warm. For as long as we have been on this site, there had been a tire buried in our yard. I’ve assumed it to be a flower bed, though no followers are in evidence. However, about eighteen inches away, irises have tried to grow. Every time the mowers come, they run over both the tire and the flowers.My thought was to raise the tire from it’s sunken position and place it around the irises, solving both problems. However, the reality was that it was easier to transplant the flowers than dig the tire out of the rocky ground.To stop the mowers from mowing over the flower bed, it is now outlined with rocks.Once again I also did a minor chore in the topper. Some time back I had stapled some nylon screening over the opening to assist in convincing various insects to “move along – you’re not wanted here.” However, with use, the screen has torn lose from the staples. Today I used duct tape to hold the screen on place and re-stapled through tape and screen. Hopefully that will work better than the first attempt.The remainder of our rest-day was used to read, write, watch, listen, and game. Oh, I suppose some time was allotted for thinking also.Thanks again for stopping by. Share this with your friends. See y’all again tomorrow. Stay safe. Remember, we love you.
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🎶 Oh what a beautiful morning 🎶 after yesterday’s heat, it was really nice early today.
It was so nice that, not only did I work inside the topper, but Ella and I sat out and played several games of Fast Track.For lunch I turned the George Foreman grill into a panini press and made pork and cheese sandwiches. Sorry, no photo, I guess we we’re too hungry.
I spent a long time filling my pill sorters. And then even a longer time trying to order refills. The VA now has a handy dandy reorder app … I guess … so far I haven’t gotten it to work. I’ve logged on … It knows that I’m me. But I haven’t discovered how to order my refills. I’m not done trying.
With the sky this clear, I’m hoping for a cooler night, without the A/C running. It we still 80° at midnight last night. Maybe we can open a bedroom window tonight.Thanks again for stopping by. Share this with your friends. See y’all again tomorrow. Stay safe. Remember, we love you.
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Just a mite warm this morning and headed toward danged uncomfortable.
I‘m quite pleased with this photograph of the rising sun. Generally, I like to crop it to a smaller section of the sky. However, today the broader view was better. The grander scale of the sun radiating from behind the clouds was more pleasing.
We have been plagued by tiny, flying, creatures flitting around us as we read or try to sleep. Ella had an appointment for a haircut this morning. Before we left home, I set off a bug bomb to be shed of the wee beasties.Once we returned home, we had to open the door, windows, and ceiling vents to allow and lingering poison to dissipate and then we needed to leave for a couple of hours. Yes, with a heat advisory in effect, we had to leave our home open.
Okay, I know that I’m just a guy, but does her hair really look that different? 
We drove to accomplish several things. Number one was to do something while the air in our home cleared out. Number two was to recharge the truck battery. Number three was to drive a road we hadn’t before. Number four was to keep moving and force air through the truck windows (we have no working a/c in the truck).
Nearly the same road, there and back again.
We gave this young man a bottle of water while we waited. They are widening the road several places along our traveled highways. I know that being a flagger isn’t exactly a skilled-labor job, but I hope they are well compensated for standing for long hours in the 100° weather..Oh yes, a follow up … no little flying bugs tonight.
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Tom and Ella Journal 