PEACE ON THE ROAD
Texinated
April 15, 2011
After spending twenty years in Kansas winters and over forty years in Colorado winters I got pretty familiar with the cold and snow. There were some winters that I never put on a coat. To be sure I always had a coat in my vehicles along with all the other necessary articles for warmth. I also spent some winters wearing every insulated item I owned and wished I had warmer clothes. The last few winters have been very different. Mostly I have been wearing shorts and tee shirts all winter, thus I have gained a reputation of not wearing enough clothes. But then I think of a friend of mine that spent a winter in Alaska at forty below and claimed that when it got to ten above he and his friends played football during the daylight in tee shirts. Here in Texas there have been many times that I have seen people wearing parkas when the temperature dropped to sixty degrees. They tell me I need to put on long pants and a coat. I tease them right back and tell them that they are just too “Texinated”.
We have had some cold weather, at least weather that is considered cold down here. The temperature has gotten down as low as 26 degrees and has been below freezing for ten hours or perhaps longer. There were a lot of water lines that froze and some that broke. The problems were not just in the park as the electric companies here did not have the facilities to handle the cold weather. There were some rolling blackouts and when an area that had been shut down for a few hours was turned back on the power surge was too much for many transformers, and then it took as much as two days to get power back on. We really did not have too much trouble with the cold. This motor home has its own water supply and we have a generator if there is a problem. One drawback it has is the necessity of having 12 volt batteries that are holding charge. In spite of running off 120 volts or propane the controls for everything are 12 volt. The furnace may be propane but the thermostat is 12 volt. When this Vectra was built the cable from the converter to the house batteries was terminated with an extremely thin battery connection. The first time I saw it I was afraid to move it at all because it might break off. It lasted six years before it failed which means that it was better than I thought. But it broke off just before the cold weather so we could not keep the charge up on the batteries. I put my very small charger (6 amp) on the battery and I borrowed a charger (12 amp) from the neighbor and was able to keep the battery charged, which allowed us to function normally. After the weather warmed a bit, up into the 60's I replaced the terminal with a quality clamp and we have had no problem with it since. All in all it was an eye opener to the dependence that we put on electricity of one sort or another.
I have not written much for Peace On The Road lately and I am tempted to use the excuse that I have been busy, but I also would have to say that while it is true it is still an excuse. If I had something unusual to write about I would find the time. We have stayed busy here in the park all of the time with activities and duties. So perhaps I should tell you something about our life here in the park.
Shortly after the last POTR was sent out I was approached by the Activity Director and asked if I would consider taking over the editing of the Bentsen Grove Mirror, the fortnightly newspaper of the park. Part of the reason that they asked me to do it was because of my skills with the computer. But I suspect that the rest of the reason is my apparent inability to tell someone that truly needs help, “No.” The editor at that time was seriously ill with cancer and was not expected to live much longer. He did die before the first issue of the Mirror that I edited could be distributed. It takes about four days from the time I finish with my part till the paper is distributed. In certain ways there was some humor in my accepting the position. I was considering accepting the position but I wanted to know what was involved in doing it. To find out I thought that I could ask the wife of the editor some questions, the editor himself being in a near coma state. She invited me in and offered me a chair to sit. I said, “I have been asked to take over as editor of the Mirror.” The editors wife said, “Oh, good! I was hoping that you would take it. You will do great! Here is all the information that you will need,” and she handed me a CD which did have all the necessary information on it. I did not expect to accept the job at that time, but how could I refuse the wife of a dying man when she was so enthusiastic about giving me the information. She also gave me a lot of resource material in addition to the CD which has been wonderful. To be honest I think I was still a bit stunned when I got home and told Erma, “I guess I am the editor of the Mirror.” The first issue of the Mirror that I did was anything but well done. Erma and I were up till 3:00 Sunday night (Monday morning) getting it completed and ready to turn into to the office early Monday morning. It should have been dated on every page 2011, but I think that 4 of the 6 pages were dated 2010 along with the wrong month. And there were other mistakes too. If the readers were being honest most people did not see the mistakes. Thanks for small favors. The Sunday of the weekend that I edit has continued to be a late session but in certain respects it is becoming easier. At the time of this POTR writing I am done with the Mirror for this season.
Erma has taken on more volunteer activities. She is teaching the beginning line dancers and has agreed to take over another line dance class for an instructor that is going to have a knee replaced. In the line dancing she has organized two All Line Dance Nights. As far as we know there has never been any dances of this type in the Valley. There are many dances during the season and the line dancers go to those but they are “in competition” for floor space with all the other type of dancers.. So ours have been very successful. So successful that not only are the line dancers asking for more dances but the activity director of the park has encouraged Erma to schedule more dances for next year. Right now I think there are five scheduled. While she does most of the arrangements for the dance I assist her in making custom CD's with the dance music on them, fliers, sound booth operation, etc.
On Monday I lead a session for the computer club and on Friday I help in a personal help session for people with computer problems. Nearly every day I have a couple requests from someone to help with their computers. I am not sure exactly how I acquired the reputation of being so good with computers but I would not claim that I am real knowledgeable. I know some people who meet the criteria and I do not measure up to that. What I have determined is, “If an individual knows a couple things the second person does not know then he is a 'computer guru' to the second person.” I have made so many mistakes that I have learned to get myself or someone else back on the right path.
I know that everyone has heard the stories about the size of things in Texas. “EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS!” I for one can prove that is not true. This is a tomato that was raised by my neighbor. While it had to survive the freeze and the cold period and that might have something to do with the size this is not big. I can remember my Mom growing tomatoes in Kansas which had stem attachments twice the size of this whole tomato. I will say that though it might have been small it still tasted mighty good.
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| A BIG TEXAS TOMATO GROWN IN THE PARK |
On January 11, 2011, Helen McConnaughey, Erma's Mother passed from this earth. She had been in care facilities for nearly two years just a few miles from where we spend our winters. There was an outpouring of care from the people that knew her here and from those that only knew Erma and myself. At one of the line dance sessions I was asked to bring my cameras to do some special photography. In retrospect I guess that I should have known that something was up. While the request in itself was not so unusual the dancing that I was asked to film was a bit different. Understand that at the time I did not think it was strange, it was only afterward that I realized I was being put on. What they really wanted to be sure of was that I showed up to class with Erma. At some unnoticed signal Erma and I were suddenly made the center of attention and a very special Memorial Bench in honor of Helen was presented to us. Helen had spent many hours sitting in the class room watching the dancers. She became a part of the class in spite of the fact that she never danced at all. So in through the door a sitting bench was brought and presented in her honor. It had a plaque on it which said, “The “Peace” Bench In Memory of Helen 2011 B.G. Line Dancers”. I doubt that they could have picked a more appropriate way to honor the memory of Helen if they had studied for months. Helen loved to sit and watch the dancers practice. She liked the music, she liked to observe how someone was getting better and how another person might have danced before because they picked up the steps so quickly. She would talk a lot with the dancers. She sort of became a part of the dance group. When we took pictures of the group there were many people that insisted that she be in picture too. When she was no able to walk much they wanted her to be there in her wheel chair and always treated her with the utmost respect and kindness.
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| HELEN'S MEMORIAL BENCH OUTSIDE THE LINE DANCE ROOM |
In the last week this park has gone from a normal rat race to being very quiet. I look down the street and very few people are left. We will not leave here till mid May or close to June. We are planning to go see our daughter, but what route we take will be decided when we leave. We will need to be back here by mid October at least. As the new editor of the BG Mirror I will have duties.
Till later this is Doug of
Peace On The Road
