Nostromania 12/9

I haven’t posted on this blog recently because dealing with Microsoft Word and WiFi is making me crazy. Somehow when Don wrote his post Word saved his document as the blank document that opens when I go to write a new document. I’ve spent at least an hour trying to figure out how to undo that. So now I have to take an extra step in order  to get a blank document on which to write. So then I’m annoyed and don’t feel like writing. Or there is the other problem which has to do with the park wi-fi which is supposed to work but I can’t seem to make that happen. I spent an hour trying to get it to work from the camper and finally just went to the office where I can get a signal. Besides missing Edie, I think the thing that makes me the most homesick is not having good broadband service.

Speaking of homesick, the word of the day on dictionary.com a couple of weeks ago was nostomania, intense homesickness or an irresistible urge to go home. Sometimes I think I have that but am not sure where home is and I think of the weather and the disorder seems to be resolved. Home is currently here at Palmdale RV Resort, still temporarily on Site 42. It rained another inch or 2 this weekend and the site we reserved will not be dry enough for at least a couple of weeks. Water doesn’t soak in around here. It just has to eventually dry off which can take a long time. It doesn’t matter that much at this point.

Yesterday, I made another batch of granola but with store-bought maple syrup. It was a chilly rainy day and we decided to go to the potluck. I had some wild rice left over from our vacation up north last summer and I made a chicken-wild rice casserole. We finally figured out where to get information about planned activities around here so we can participate and maybe make some friends. Around here, people like us are known as Winter Texans. It’s easy to spot a Winter Texan by their pale skin and gray hair. We stand out among what mostly seems like young Mexican people.

We went to the Christmas parade at McAllen about 40 miles away on Saturday night. We sat among a large crowd of mostly Spanish speaking young men and women and their beautiful children.

I’ve always heard how important family is in the Mexican culture and it was evident in the families near us. Men, for whom the word machismo was coined, soothing fussy toddlers, and messing with my stereotypes.  The parade was amazing with huge inflatables of Santa and Shrek and others along with 7 or 8 marching bands and floats with celebrities. They claimed it was as big as the Macy’s parade and they might be right. It lasted about 2 hours and ended just before the rain came.

Then on Sunday we drove over to South Padre Island (The Island) and went to the farmers market where a boy about 10 years old gave me a white rose so we had to buy some radishes from him. All we had was a $50 and we waited while his mother used this teachable moment to show him how to count the change. We also bought a couple of grapefruit and a package of beautiful salad greens. Cool weather vegetables.  I heard today that my favorite grocery in Los Fresnos is closing in preparation for WalMart. L

Cribbage. Currently I’m not doing well. I’ve been skunked a couple of times in the last week. There is actually a cribbage game played in our “rec room” but it is at 7:30 AM. We’ll never get involved in that game. We don’t play cut throat yet. I told Don that as soon as he takes points I miss that will end our nice play. So far so good.

I found a class at The Yoga Studio in Brownsville called “Gentle Yoga”. It starts at 10:30 AM so it works very well into my schedule. The teacher’s name is Belinda and she gives instructions in both Spanish and English.

Today the weather is nice again and we are working on fixing some things around here.

Don thinks I should not start my blog whining about the trivial problems in my life. If you agree with him, Dear Reader, let me know with a text, email, phone call or come down and talk to me.