Merry Christmas!!

Christmas, this year, was spent in Spicewood, Tx. , at my brother's house. The dogs (except for his "Cosmo" and my "Nikki") all got along and the boys finally got the 1964 Falcon, running. The weather was nice, 75 degrees, but windy! I got the boys all new "leatherman" kits ,
and GPSs. The girls I gave Coach purses and make-up kits. I got Jimmy a new iPhone 3G and he got me a new HP Touchscreen computer!!!! Really neato! I feel like those people on CSI that touch the computer screen and drag around different screens, cooool!

On the way to my brother's house, for Christmas....we stopped off at Jimmy's aunt and uncle's house for a visit....they have acquired 8 (count 'em 8) Feral cats along with their own 2 Devon Rexs. The first one in the picture is one of the inside cats..Lincoln. I call him the Halloween cat! All the others are a momma and her kittens and they stay outside.

Christmas dance!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

On November 29th, 2008....a really rare sight in the evening sky! The Moon, Jupiter and Venus appeared togther! A sight that won't reappear until the year 2052......I set up my camera on a tripod and had to take a time exposure....pretty cool, huh?

(thank you Maricruz...for your comment)

Then,

Thanksgiving week, I got to have my FIRST big meal, on my new table! Impressive, huh? We had a housefull....the boys (my brothers) and their wives, brought their dogs, and I have Shadow, Nikki, and my 2 cats and Buster (the bird). We had to have a schedule to let the dogs out in the yard! (unfortunately, they didn't all get along).
Then, on Friday, Ty and Sandie had to leave, so Jimmy and I took Gaylord and Gloria out to the lake to ride on the big boat.....all in all, a nice weekend.

This month was quite a blur. Jimmy and I got an early Christmas present "for us" and bought a new "SPA" . It's really neat, wonderful jets, color changing lights, waterfall, a fountain, stereo speakers, satellite radio, mp3 hookup,.........Jeez! A much needed relaxation tool, since we just hired eight (count 'em 8!) new drivers!

Then one of our friends from Oregon was in town for business, so we talked him into playing golf out at The Cliffs (the golf course at the lake), Jimmy hasn't hit a golf ball in years....so it was interesting, to say the least! BUT.....the scenery was beautiful!

Probably, one of the neatest things we did, this month....was this.
One of the Fedex dispatchers, Natalie, helps a particular shelter for Battered Women. (She WAS one about 12 years ago), so she asked some of the Fedex contractors to bring some things to help, so she filled her car up.
Friday night, Jimmy and I and Rick (another contractor, friend of ours) went to WalMart and Sam's and loaded up 4 shopping carts at WalMart and the back of Rick's pickup truck at Sam's (about 2 grand's worth of food and supplies), and met Natalie on Saturday morning.
We took all the stuff to the shelter, at an "undisclosed" location...no address, just directions (wild,huh?)
None of the women or children were allowed to come out, because there were men around, until after we all left and the doors were locked. Then I remembered all of our old cell phones...even though they are not on a service, they will still dial 911.
Anyway, it was a really cool experience, they director told us it was about 3 months worth of food.

My brothers and their wives will be here for Thanksgiving, so I'd better go and get ready!

During the month of November, we went to the lake, Mitch (Jimmy's 26 year old nephew, broke his ankle......skateboarding!)
Jimmy has been working a lot, on paperwork, with occasional driving, and we have hired eight new drivers! WHEW!
This economy, taking a dump, has really hurt a lot of people, but the driver pool has increased!
The world may be going to hell, but at least we can all afford to drive there, now! ha!ha! (gotta find SOME humor)

The last of October, brought the NASCAR race to Texas on Halloween weekend! There were a lot of crazy people dressed up, but my favorite was the hanging skeleton of Kyle Busch (driver of #18)....(everybody dislikes him....he's a very talented driver, but horribly arrogant and rude).
We met friends from Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi, New Mexico and even Louisiana., had a blast!
In the meantime, Jimmy was working, between races.

Well, this weekend, my brother came to town and there was a car show at Texas Motor Speedway. so Jimmy and I took the bus and headed up there. Unfortunately, we didn't get to make it until Sunday, and a lot of them had left....but my brother saw it on Saturday and said it was fabulous! I got a few pictures...my favorite was the green Cadillac!
Jimmy got called by a local RV dealership, to install a satellite dish on the roof of one of the motor homes that they had just sold. Evidently, they do not do that , nor do they even know how, so they wanted to call Jimmy in the future, for more of these. ( anything for money.....ha!ha!)

Well, Jimmy has a new endeavor.......the Titanic! We had seen an ad for a guy selling a 43 foot Wellcraft, Portofino, one weekend when we were at the lake, so we decided to go look at it.

When we drove up to it, in the boat, Jimmy noticed that it was sitting lower in the water, than it should have. When we stepped on board, in the cabin, the carpet went "SQUISH"... somehow, it was sinking. The engines, batteries, etc. were 2 feet under water! Needless to say, Jimmy called the guy and said "Do you know that your boat is sinking?" He freaked and called his worker to go to the dock and see what he could do. In the meantime, Jimmy had found a fuse and switched it into the bilge pump, so one of them worked....for a little while....and pumped about 6 inches out of the boat. The batteries had corroded so bad that the posts rotted off. All the wiring harnesses were ruined, the whole boat needs to be rewired. The inside was all mildewed and moldy..the walls, etc. were awful! (They had just put new carpet and upholstry in) The couches had leeched the stinky water and were ruined....it was so sad!

Anyway, the guy who owns it says the insurance company will pay for everything and he and Jimmy have yet to work out the final deal, but we spent the last weekend in the boat slip, working on the boat. It has not regained any water, and no one can find where the water came from. Jimmy drained the motors to check for water in the oil, but they seem okay. Saturday, he got one engine started, and it actually sounded nice and smooth. The starter is shot on the other one, so he "Jimmy rigged" everything and basically "hotwired" the second motor. Once they were running, we took the boat out on the lake (as you can see from the picture) and it ran fine. It seems to be a sound boat, but needs to be rewired, water pump, bilge pumps, one of the a/c pumps replaced and the interior re-done. But, if the price is right, Jimmy has a new project!

Since we are not ready to build our house at the lake, yet, this would suffice, for awhile.

My $470.00 Iced Latte! (the tow bill was 470)

Well, I have to tell you about my $470.00 Iced Latte from Sonic..... We were on our way to the lake, for the weekend before headed to Bristol for the NASCAR race when (1/2 mile from our house) I announced that I would like a Sonic drink....... there is a wide place in front of it, where you can pull off and park. It had rained, so there was a mud puddle... Jimmy saw tire tracks going through it so he pulled in....the front tire went through it, no problem....but when the back tires got there. the soft ground gave way and KAPLUNK! we were buried up to the bumper! the bus was leaning over so much, I thought it would roll.....luckily, Jimmy had our semi-wrecker guys on speed dial, so here came the calvary!
Unfortunately, there is nothing really to hook onto but our bumper ball, so with the steady pulling backwards, and Jimmy driving, he put it in reverse, and they slowly pulled it out!

Jimmy had to have his new lake toy! It has a hole in the middle, so you can hang your feet in the water. Even the dogs love it. We tie it behind the boat, throw out the anchor and float in the shade and sip our sodas. We spend as many weekends as we can at the lake.....we're headed to Bristol in a week or so!

I got a new car!! Isn't it pretty? Its a Cadillac STS, and the color is Desert Blue. When the sun hits it, it sort of changes color to a champagne gold....lots of metallic!

Anyway, are you sitting dowm? Jimmy decided to get rid of the Hummer, so we now have a Jeep Grand Cherokee...it's pretty cool, too...4 wheel drive, diesel and is quite a bit lighter to tow behind the bus. (better fuel mileage). We'll probably get another Hummer H1 someday......

After we left Reno, we decided to drive through the backhills of Arizona, Where it was much cooler, on the way home. It was really pretty and we stopped at the Petrified forest store, so I could buy a piece of it to take home! Then we stopped in El Paso, to see Jimmy's former orthopedic surgeon (who only consults now) to look at my foot, that I have had problems with for years. He wanted to get an MRI. The upshot is that I have torn/sprained tendons in my foot and that its actually my ankle that is inflamed and messed up. He doesn't see where surgery could fix it, so he suggested a cortisone shot in my ankle and possibly wearing a foot brace for awhile(Jeez!, I hate getting old!)
I'll be doing that probabaly next week.

Then we came home for awhile, earlier this week. (July 21st) and Jimmy's friend Rodney and his girlfriend Georgeanna have decided to put in new flooring at their lakehouse, sooooo Jimmy decided that WE (our mechanics,& Jimmy) could do it! So that's how we spent Yesterday.

About the third week of June, We headed out to Reno, Nv. For our Marathon "bus Rally". We arrived on a Saturday... and happened to see our friends Bob and Nadine from Oregon, going to Las Vegas for the Truck Show, on the same road going East! We met with them and had dinner. Then we settled in Sunday and started activites on Monday, after everyone else arrived. Monday was the Reno Rodeo, complete with barrel races, bronco bustin', bull riding and calf roping! Lots of fun. Then dinner and music at the "Bucket of Blood Saloon" with the 'Comstock Cowboys".

Tuesday was "Great Gatsby" day!

Jimmy and I rented roaring 20s outfits.... complete with a feather in my sequined headband, fringed dress and Jimmy in a Zoot suit with bright yellow hat with a pheasant feather! We were the hit of the day! We were treated to a fabulous collection of very rare cars (about 300 of them) owned by a Mr. Lee. Lots of security, we weren't even allowed to take pictures!


Wednesday

Was a "free" day, or for the people who play golf.....a."golfing" day. We spent a lot of the day with me doing payroll on the internet and Jimmy on top of the bus...messing with the dish!

Thursday

Today, we went on a paddlewheel boat ride on Lake Tahoe! Nice weather, cool, except in the sunshine....pretty warm! The only drawback was that the fires in California were sooooo bad that the smoke had settled over in Nevada. It had even invaded the campground where we were parked. Really smoky....the news was talking about resipiratory problems. After the boat ride we went to our hosts home....a quaint little shack on the banks of the Lake, 23,000 square feet, three stories, three elevators, wine room, gold gilded ceilings in the poweder room, theater room, etc.!!!! Jeez! White Lamborghini and Black Masarati in the garage.....Chuck and Cindy Bluth...he used to own the Cal/Neva Casino.....Holy Cow what a place! It seems that he wanted to build a boat dock for his boat, and the army corps of engineers said no. SO>>> he bought a small Marina (already existing) kicked everyone out, tore it down and built his house on the shore. Pretty cool!

Friday

Most of the busses lined up and caravanned through downtown Reno... on the way out of town and the Bluths had arranged for a photographer to snap a picture of each bus, as we drove under the arch! I will post that picture, as soon as they send it to us!
A very nice ending to a nice week!

This was just a cool picture, so I thought I'd post it!!!