I slept very well and even got up at a respectable hour. It was overcast and had rained through the night making work on the deck, a no-go. The wood needs to be dry to paint it and it might take a couple of days for that to happen. 

I was searching for Delores number when there was a knock on the gate, and she was standing right there. I opened the door, and we all went outside where she made a fuss of the dogs. She said she had tried to call but my phone was off, which was strange as I had not turned it off deliberately. Maybe because it was in charge mode? 

We chatted for a bit, and I told her it might take a couple of days to dry out and would let her know when to come over. 

She went on her way, and we went out walking. As we passed the “girls” RV they both came out and we chatted for a bit. I took their trash bag as I was walking towards the dumpster anyway with BJ’s parting words of, “You don’t need an invite to visit” ringing in my ears. 

I hobbled around for a bit with the hip still sore from yesterday’s excursions and then we came back to the RV for breakfast, following which, I caught up on posting the blogs and then writing about today. 

Incidentally, the sun is out, and the wind is blowing, and maybe the deck will dry off pretty quickly. Now all I need is for the hip to heal. 
 
Looking around for something else to get up to, I let the dogs out on the deck where they could watch while I fiddled around with the bird feeders. First, I refilled them including the humming bird feeders. For them, I cheated a bit and bought a four pack of canned, clear sugar water especially for Hummingbirds. I used one to fill both of the Hummers feeders.  
 
With both the seeds and sugar water taken care of, I turned my attention to anchoring the feeders so that the deer would not tip and empty them for the seed. I had tried to do this several times before and so far, the deer have come out as the winners. They are either very strong or very ingenious as they have managed to clean out all of the seeds to date. I will just have to wait to see how the latest effort goes on my part. 

I turned my attention to the step boards that I had on the outdoor table. I had purposely removed them so that I could paint both sides as the lower ones would have been too low to the ground to paint under them in place. I turned them over and realized I had not painted the other side and went about doing just that. While I was at it, there were a couple of other places that would be hard to reach under the steps once they were put back on and as I still had the paint brush and opened can of paint in front of me, went ahead and covered that area too. 

That was it for painting for the day as I carefully used the hose to wash the paintbrush clean and went about the task of putting away things that were not being used. The, new to me, storage bin that I had bought from Malinda was doing a great job for these outside things. I even keep the bird supplies in there. 

We were sitting on the deck and listening to the same Audiobook which was coming to an end when my phone chirped. It was BJ, my neighbor telling me to come on over for a beer. I harnessed up the dogs and we wandered the 100 yard over to their campsite. I had barely sat down when I had a beer thrust into my hands. 

I got a call from Delores saying she had a bottle of wine to drink, and I told her where I was. Five minutes later, she arrived, wine bottle in hand ready to empty it. In the meantime, Gary had joined us, and it turned into another fun evening of stories, jokes and lots of booze. Some of the stories were pretty wild, others funny and sometimes sad. I think we all learned a bit more about each other. 

It was getting late, and the dogs were restless, and I bid my farewells falling over when I got out of my chair which brought howls of amusement from the rest. They helped me up and Gary walked me back to The Caboose. Another fun evening although, I just got to stop accepting the offer to taste all this wine. Incidentally, my taster is not a sip rolled around on the tongue but a mouthful or two, swallowed until the bottle is gone. 

I had not eaten although Peggy had given me a covered dish of Spaghetti to bring home with me. I found something quick and simple to eat but I did refrain from drinking any more wine and then watched television until 2:00 am in the morning. I realized that I had fallen asleep in my chair and made my way to bed to sleep the sleep of the innocent. Yeah right…More like the sleep of the drunkard. 

Written 05/20/2023. Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com  

The Adventures of an Old Man and an RV. Henly RV Park, Henly, TX. Sunday 05/21/2023

Camper Decorations…

I got up at a reasonable hour feeling no effects from last evenings drinking sessions. My new found friends are all a bad influence on me with the drinking and wine “tasting”. I could say no but where is the fun in that? Besides, I only have less than 100 yards to stagger back to my RV and there isn’t any traffic to watch out for. 

We went out for a walk to a dull and wet day with intermittent showers and the general air of dampness all around. Delores was out tending to her plants and bemoaning that the deer are eating everything. We chatted for a bit commiserating in the fact that “damned deer are eating my plants too”. before we went on our way again. We met another camper doing chores around his rig and Sandy would not leave until she had gone up to him and made friends. Funny things, dogs. 

We finished our walk and returned to The Caboose. I decided to throw in a load of laundry as it was a miserable day outside and we had no plans to do anything. As far as I could tell, yesterday’s deer proofing efforts had paid off as everything was still intact, but I have no way of knowing that the deer even visited last night. My famous “watch dogs” are more interested in sleeping rather than doing their jobs. Maybe they have an agreement with the deer or something.  

Incidentally, laundry takes around an hour and a half to wash and the same to dry not counting any time in between when I am not paying attention. 

I wrote for a while and as I had nothing else that was really pressing, decided to watch as Brighton played their next to last game for this season. Even though they got hammered last time out by a team a couple of spots above them in the standings, they are currently in sixth place which will qualify them for European Competition if they can hold onto it. This will be the very first time as a club that they will have done that, no mean achievement. 

BTW, the way the English Premier League works is on a promotion/relegations system from the four different leagues below them with the Premier League the very top division. The problem is, at least as I see it, the disparity in the size of the different clubs. Many have been around for nearly a hundred years and needless to say, those are the ones with the biggest Stadiums which produce more revenue and a larger bank roll. This enables the “Richer” clubs to buy the better players and pay higher salaries to them. So, even before a ball is kicked, those wealthy teams have an advantage in the quality of the players although not all of them live up to their billing. 

Many of the games are a “David versus Goliath” sort of affair and if the lesser team happens to win, it makes headlines. Many, many years ago, players’ salaries were controlled, and no club could pay any other player more than the next one which meant that Super stars of which there are many, were not getting paid their worth. The Football Associations answer was to do away with the top end on the salaries and now some players are paid hundreds of thousands of pound (dollars) per week. That was not the original intent but business being what it is, the most highly skilled players can command huge salaries. 

The game was very exciting although, Brighton’s style of play was very frustrating. It works for them, which is the most important thing, and they won by a score of 3-1 against Southampton. This was almost a local derby as the teams are based only sixty odd miles apart on the South East Coast in England. Incidentally, Southampton have been relegated to the lower division because of their win/loss record. 

When I was finishing up the blog, Daniel and Malinda re-appeared after camping out since Friday with their RV. Can’t wait to hear how it went. 

With the game over, I folded the laundry and put it away before harnessing up for that last walk. We wandered around the park and although my hip was hurting managed to cover a little over a mile for the day. I’ll take it… 

I caught up on the blog, again and the rest of the evening was spent in the usual way.  

Written 05/21/2023. Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com