Shopping and Visiting, and What's "Linner"

As we were eating breakfast yesterday morning, I glanced out the window and saw a flash of yellow in the pine tree by our door. I'd seen a yellow bird in the tree a day or two ago, but it didn't stay around long enough to identify it or get a picture. This time, Jim grabbed the camera and got a couple of pictures. Then I took a couple too. I got a good look and guessed it might be a Tananger. I looked it up and I think it's a male Western Tananger. It's not a great picture, but it's the best we got through the screen. What a beautiful bird!

A little later, Jim decided to go shopping for a different air compressor. While he was gone I was walking the dogs over by the creek and caught a climpse of what I believe was the female Western Tananger, hopping around in the trees. Of course, I didn't have the camera with me at the time. Maybe I'll see her again when I do.

When Jim came back with his new air compressor we headed out to Kohls. I'd decided it was time to switch out some of my clothes. You know the rule -- if something new comes in, something else has to go. I found 5 new shirts and Jim found a few for himself. When we got home, we went through our closets. I ended up sending 14 old shirts to charity. I'm not sure how many Jim sent, but I think it evened out pretty well.

We were meeting Ginger and Jesse at Red Lobster in Pueblo at 4:00, so it was time to get cleaned up and ready to go. We left in plenty of time and were there a little before 4. We all had shrimp of one kind or another and had a great dinner. We followed them to their house afterwareds and spent the evening visiting and playing partners canasta. I was just sure my partner, Ginger, and I would beat the guys, but it the card gods were not looking at us favorably, so the guys won both games. Ginger made a delicious pineapple-cherry dump cake which we enjoyed along with her homemakde cookies. Yum! I couldn't believe it was nearly 10 when we finally said time to get going. The evening flew by! We had a wonderful time visiting with our new friends and can't wait to see them again in Branson at the RV-Dreams Rally! They have one week left to work, then they are on the road. Safe travels, guys!

This morning, we went back over to storage with a rental truck to deliver various items that were going to charity. That all filled one load. Lots of stuff. I'm sure people will get a lot of good out of the items we donated, at least I hope so. Some of the things we donated were items we thought we'd want if and when we came off the road, so I had a couple of twinges about letting some of it go. Tomorrow, the very last boxes will be moved to the kids' places to be stored. These are the boxes of family things that we truly can't let go.

Once we had that done, we headed home for some organizing time. Jim also bought a new toolbox so he could consolidate the two or three small boxes he's been carrying around. I went outside to find a spot out of the wind where I could sit and enjoy the sunshine, oh yes, and endure the wind.

When did it get so windy here??? We've talked about how the weather seems different this year, but maybe we just forget from one year to the next.

Yesterday, I had a question from a friend about my use of the word "Linner" - that is our mid-day meal and is a combination of Lunch and Dinner. When we have breakfast late, we typically only have 2 meals for that day. Sometimes we call it Linner, or it might be Lupper or Dinch.

This evening, Ann & Bob are coming over for pizza and cards, so I probably will miss another night in the RV-Dreams chat room.

Still a great life!