BACK TO UNNORMAL After a quick trip to central Arkansas, Donald returned to the Rio Grande Valley Monday evening. While he was away, Kay got a great lesson in being a minority as she shopped at the outlet mall. Weekends at stores in the RGV are somewhat like it was in rural areas of the South 50 years ago—everyone goes to town—including at least 4 generations. Many South Texans, virtually all Hispanic, come, and many Mexican families cross the border, all to shop at the Outlet Mall, Walmart, and other major stores in the RGV. Kay was unaware of this cultural aspect of the RGV, and many Winter Texans laughed when they found that she ventured out on the weekend. It’s safe enough, just really crowded. Kay asked one of the security guards at the mall if this was an unusual crowd, and he said “no”. She remarked to Donald, that it was like a crowd at Christmas back home. After the weekend, Kay had a busy Monday doing Excel homework, practicing for the choir, lunch, more Excel homework, pancake supper, and picking Donald up at the Harlingen airport. We received a great email from our neighbor, Charlie Duvall, in which he reminded us that life is much better when you realize there is no such thing as normal. That’s one of the best philosophical statements we’ve heard in many years, and it definitely applies to us. So, after a hectic week and a half, we’re back to unnormal, which to us is normal! Hehehe!

THE WEEK THAT WAS This week was supposed to be a tough one for Donald as he wraps up a major report; he purposefully didn’t schedule any activities this week as a result. Then, the information he needed only partially dribbled in, pretty much ruining his week, and forcing him to leave next week unscheduled as well—just part of being a part-time consultant. We definitely have to make other arrangements for future travel. After we realized Donald would not be working all week, we met some new acquaintances from Northwest Arkansas at Logan’s for dinner Tuesday evening. They, too, are wintering in the RGV. We met them at an RV.net gathering a couple of weeks ago. Wednesday was an off day, but we made up for it on Thursday with a brief shopping trip to the Outlet Mall, an “ice cream and cake” going-away party for some neighbors followed by choir practice, followed by a patio party at the Worthams. Larry is getting to be quite the ‘smoker’. Late Thursday afternoon Donald received some of the data he needed, so he worked most all night, and then Friday as well, finishing in time to spend a couple of hours at the hot tub and pool. Luby’s Restaurant features a 50% discount on their “LuAnn” meal on Friday and Saturday evenings the month of February, so we ate dinner there on Friday evening for $8.66; we are really learning to adapt to this senior lifestyle.

After returning to Pine to Palm Park for our evening walk, we discovered a music jam at the end of the street, so we grabbed our lawn chairs and listened to some pretty bad music for an hour or so.  Kay, however, brightened up the place with a rendition of “Tom Dooley”, even though the accompaniment left lots to be desired. Saturday, we celebrated Valentine’s Day by touring the RGV and having a late lunch at Macaroni Grill. The park had a “Peel ‘Em and Eat ‘Em” Shrimp Dinner Saturday afternoon, but we got “To Go” plates and spent a couple of hours at the pool. Sunday was cool for us, with temps near 70 degrees. It had been in the high 80s the last few days of the week. It was a pretty typical Sunday with church, lunch, and a quiet afternoon.

COCOON As you have read, we are spending considerable time at the pool and hot tub. Since this is a 55+ park, we’re all overweight, most of the men are gray and balding, and the women sag in the wrong places; that is to say, we all look alike. So, no one is too embarrassed to be seen at the pool, and it is packed day in, day out. One afternoon after watching so many “old” people sunning and swimming, we both began laughing and related as to how we were experiencing the “cocoon” phenomenon. And there might be something to it, if folks who winter down here live 5 to 10 years longer. Now, just about every time we go to the pool, we think about the movie, Cocoon. See my long blond hair!