I had a restless night waking off and on for unknown reasons. Then, when awake, I could not go back to sleep and lay there with my eyes closed but my brain was going a million miles a minute. I must have eventually dropped off as I awoke again at 7:30 am. I kept saying to myself that I should go back to sleep but myself did not listen and in the end, I got up. 

Once out of bed, I became all businesslike and took a shower after shaving and put on clean clothes and was ready to face the day…again. I hitched up the dogs and then tied them up outside while I worked on bringing out the bird feeders. I did not have to refill any of the feeders as they had enough seed to last today. Unless the flock of Grackles returns.  

I was watching the Grackles yesterday as they congregated around the feeders. Then I spotted a whole lot more perched in the trees and from time to time, those would swoop down and join the ones already feeding. Then something would frighten them and with a whoosh and a flurry of wings they would race for the nearest tall trees. Then the whole process would start again. Without exaggerating, I bet there were more than one hundred birds all gathered either on or in the feeder’s vicinity or in the closest trees. 

It was interesting to watch as when something spooked them, they would all fly off in unison in one big black cloud of birds. How they do not run into each other I’ll never know. Then again, I am not a Grackle. 

We went for a walk and even before we had gone a dozen steps, both dogs were going about their business, and I was carrying doggy poop bags to drop off in the dumpster. At least, the first dog walk was a success as we measure that by the number of times the dog’s poop not by the distance we cover. Incidentally, we covered our usual 7/10 of a mile for that first walk which, as I said, is more about “business” than distance. 

Back in the RV. I did some clean-up work giving the inside of the RV a good sweeping. It is equipped with a built-in vacuum cleaner, but I have yet to use it. It is much simpler to do this the old-fashioned way with a brush and dustpan. 

I made the dogs breakfast and so far, neither one has eaten any of it. I fixed pancakes for myself which were very tasty. Then I sat and wrote in the blog until I was all caught up. While I was sitting here, the Grackles returned and as I watched, the feeders were inundated with the squabbling black birds. This time, there were only a half dozen, so I do not know if they are the scouts for the main flock or the ones left behind playing catch up. We’ll see. 

We went out for another walk and took the outside road that leads to Hwy 290 which gave us 2 miles for the day. It was a nice day, but the air had a definite nip to it. When we got back, I tried sitting outside but, in the end, had to give up that idea as it was too cold even with a jacket and hat on. 

The rest of the evening was spent in the usual way. I even went to bed early at 9:30 pm. 

Written March 20. 2024, read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com          

Living in an RV Henly RV Park Wednesday 03/20/2024

I awoke and just lay there in the warmth snuggled under the blankets along with the dogs. I looked at the clock and it said 8:30 am which is really the time to get up. It was so warm and cuddly that I lay there another 30 minutes finally crawling out to get ready to face another day. The dogs did not mind the extra 30 minutes and lay there along with me. 

Once up, I was all action as I wandered through the RV raising all the blinds to let in the new day. This was before I had dressed so it was a good job that the girls were not around. Peggy, seeing me with no clothes on a while back except for a very small towel, when I answered the door, probably had nightmares for a week. As it happened, they both did visit bringing along some left-over turkey for the dogs but that was later in the morning and by then, I was fully dressed. 

I harnessed up the dogs and we went through the business of filling the bird feeders which had been emptied by yesterday’s large flock of Grackles. Then, we went on our usual walk around the campground and ran into Greg with his little dog, Olive in tow. We said our “Good Morning” from a safe distance not that Olive is a problem. Far from it as she is the friendliest little dog. The morning walk was short at 7/10 of a mile but was successful in as much as both dogs did their business. 

Back in the RV, I fixed the dogs breakfast and then made myself a sliced ham sandwich on toasted bread. It went down very well and was very tasty, especially the mustard I had heaped on.  

Incidentally, my latte coffee maker is not working. It will heat milk but will not make coffee. Luckily, I have a small coffee maker that works very well so what I do is make the coffee part and then heat a small amount of milk in the microwave, enough to put in the coffee. So, no more Latte’s. Just coffee with milk and sugar in it. I suppose that now I have come to that conclusion, I could take the Latte machine off the counter to make more room but then I would have to find somewhere else to put it. Decisions, decisions…Trash, maybe? 

With breakfast out of the way, I sat and wrote in the blog until I was all caught up. Good thing too as my memory as it is now pretty much nonexistent. I can lose a thought even as I am looking for whatever the thought was about. 

After breakfast and the bird seeder routine, I sat and worked on the blog for a while all the time thinking that I should really go into town and do some shopping, I made a list and it only had two items on it, neither really very pressing. 

So, I threw the list in the trash and jumped in the car and drove into Home Depot as I wanted to buy a hoe to tend the weeds in the garden. I could not find the sort of hoe I was looking for which was a push type and instead, settled for a pull type. Not quite the same but I can adjust. 

I did not need anything else or at least, so I thought. I made the mistake of exiting thru the greenhouse and stopped to view all of the wonderful plants that were on display. Two hundred dollars and a whole bunch of plants later, we walked back to the Jeep. 

I carefully loaded up the plants and we made the drive to HEB, and I wandered around the store. This time, my spending was a little more controlled although a case of beer found its way into my cart. I can plead that it was for Daniel on that one. 

I jumped in the Jeep for the drive home but had a real urge for coffee and made the stop at Starbucks. I settled for a small Latte which I drank on the drive back to the park. There, I unloaded everything and with the help of the dogs, between us, we put everything away. 

Then, it was time to take the dogs out walking. On the way, I spotted Melinda and Delores sitting outside of the commons along with Daniel, Jeff and Terri. I had brought a box of mini dog biscuits with me because my dogs would not eat them, to give to Remington. Malinda, as a test for my dogs, handed them each one of the biscuits and they both gobbled them down along with a bunch more. 

So, I took the biscuits back at Malinda’s suggestion and hope my dogs will eat them when they are in our house. 

We went out for a walk leaving the rest of the group sitting and talking as that was our original purpose anyway. On the way, we met Greg and Olive who made a fuss of Sandy. Mikey, not so much as he was being his stand-offish self. 

We continued walking and ended up at the mailbox where we had some mail. Then it was back to The Caboose to sit outside for a bit with a small can of wine. It was a little too cool and we adjourned back to the RV ready to call it a night on the outside world. 

Just re-reading that paragraph made me think that any wine aficionados who might read this would probably have a bird if they ever considered drinking wine out of a can. But I like cheap wine and who cares about the can. 

Incidentally, the huge flock of Grackles kept us amused as they literally besieged all of the seed hangers. There were Grackles everywhere and every now and then, something would spook them, and they would fly in a big arc and settle in the trees above the seed containers. One by one, they returned back to the seed to resume the squabbling. As I mentioned earlier, there are at least a hundred birds in this group, and it is amazing to watch them fly off in a perfect formation when they are frightened by whatever. 

The Grackles showed no sign of quitting for the night but as soon as it started to get dark, they left, and I was able to bring in what was left in the bird feeders and put them away. 

The rest of our evening was spent in the usual way. 

Written March 20. 2024, read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com