I did some stretches to sort out my back ache and then practiced my putting right after my morning java (Cinnamon Hazelnut from H.E.B.; it's nice to be back where you know your favorite brands.) I'm determined to improve my putting, and thus my golf scores, in 2005. Who would have thought I would have an early New Year's Resolution? I called the jewelers and my ring I took in for repairs will be ready tomorrow. Then I returned my friend Marilynn's call. We agreed to wait until after the holiday mess to get together. And finally I called my friend Liz. She was surprised and excited to hear we were really back in town. She asked if it felt weird to be back in Elgin. I told her about my Twilight Zone feelings that erupt every now and then. We hope to get together for a cookie bake on Thursday. And here I've been in mourning all year thinking my cookie days were behind me. It's a good thing she asked me to join her since I finally read some of my 43 email messages I downloaded at Glenda's on Sunday and found pictures from my sister of her holiday cookie bake with her friend. That would have been too much for me to bear:-)
Bob and I went outside after breakfast (in the 60's already at 10:30!) and filled the 40-gallon freshwater holding tank just in case the hard freeze really does last awhile. We won't have to be without water if the hose has to be disconnected for any length of time to avoid freezing and splitting our hose.
Then we piled in The Beast and headed to Austin. We went south on I-35 to stop in the Cingular store and check out new phones. We've only been gone nine months but the Cingular store I signed up at is gone; replaced by some weird business I never hear of. So we made a quick stop at the doctor's office and then we did a bat turn, stopping for a Houston Chronicle and then on to Gateway Mall to check out a new merged AT&T/Cingular location. We've had our phone for three years I think. They looked at it like it was a tin can with string. And I tried to discuss getting my email through the phone while on the road. But all of the ways I heard other RVers talk about on the on-line chat rooms are apparently passé. I couldn't even hold a conversation with the guy. He finally wanted to know why I wanted to use my phone for email when I could just stick a card in my laptop and be on the Cingular network.
We took a bunch of literature home and decided to read up and see what would work best for us. The bottom line is if we move to a new phone we lose analog coverage in roaming areas. This year we were in a roaming area about 85% of the time. So we would have no phone in most of the places we have camped. Yes, our battery would last longer, but who cares if your battery lasts forever if you can't use the phone at all. Until the coverage areas encompass most of the states I guess we'll stick with our relic phone. The RVers say Verizon has the most coverage area (that was before the ATT/Cingular merger) but there is no Verizon coverage in most of California. Decisions, decisions. We're still thinking about the card for the laptop to have wireless internet access anywhere inside the Cingular network.
With our brains fried we forged ahead in Austin's nightmare noontime traffic to Golfsmith to look at clubs and use the driving range. Bob found two woods (metals they call them now). So we went out to the driving range and hit a huge bucket of balls. It was so warm out there I really worked up a sweat. The high today made it to 76 degrees. I had to hit most of the bucket because Bob had a back twinge. But he liked his new clubs. I really like the 5-wood. One may be in my future.
By this time we're looking for food. We headed north on I-35 to Round Rock's Frontera Plaza and the Mongolian BBQ place we love. We were astounded by the huge highway interchange for 45 and the I-35 By-pass. Tall flyovers go every which way and you can hardly find the old roads like F.M. 1325. It's hard to believe things could change that much in less than a year. Fortunately the Mongolian BBQ hadn't changed at all. We build our do-it-yourself plates of veges, meats and seafoods and watched as the chef grilled them on the world's biggest wok. I concocted a Green Thai Curry sauce that was very tangy. Bob made up his own favorite spicy hot sauce.
We sat in a huge traffic jam on the outer road of I-35 through about five lights but finally made it down I-35 to Parmer Lane and buzzed home to Elgin. We just kept thinking "Thank God we don't do this anymore!" You forget how stressful it is. I guess you just get numb to it.
Back home we read the paper and relaxed. Bob plugged in our holiday lights just before dark. It's the little things in life that perk up your day! Now I'm trying to catch up on eleven days of journal pages.
It's 7:53 p.m. and 58.3 degrees.