Tuesday, January 6, 2009

This and That

We woke to a steady rain and chilly temps again, although not nearly as cold as yesterday. The forecast called for some rain early in the day, then clearing skies. We're ready!

Karon and I went to the Weight Watchers meeting in Temple this morning. It's about a 50 minute drive, but it was worth it. I met one of my "mini-goals" today and reached a loss of over 25 pounds. Karon also had a good loss, and we had a fun time at the meeting. Afterwards we ran a few errands before getting back to the park. While we were in the meeting, the promised clear skies appeared and the day got warmer.

I took this picture of Karon and KD last night when she and Dan brought over our wonderful travel-day dinner, thanks again, guys!

We got out for a short walk this afternoon to enjoy the warm temperature and blue sky. This is a view of Granger Lake:


Our camp site:


Jim was going to go to Walmart while we were gone, but he realized he had no idea how to get there, so he waited until I got back. We ended up with a plan to go into Taylor with Karon and Dan and their friends, Britt and Jo, for an early dinner, so we decided to wait until after that to stop at the Walmart. We went to a seafood restaurant and had a pretty decent meal. Then we stopped at Walmart on the way back and got a few things.

A couple of people posted comments on yesterday's entry, expressing concern at spending $1,000 or more for routine maintenance. We had the oil changed, the transmission serviced, oil, transmission, and fuel filters replaced, and everything that needed grease, greased. Yes, that is a lot of money!! But, it's not like we do that every few months like we would with a car. We will likely only need to have the oil changed once a year, and the transmission service again at about 40,000 miles, probably around 3 years from now. We set back a little each month for that type of expense, so it doesn't shock the budget so much. We also try to put back a little bit to have on hand for unanticipated, "emergency" repairs, since pretty soon, The Castle will be out of warranty. Yikes! I hope that helps soften the news, but those kinds of expenses are just part of life on the road, sort of like fence repair, landscaping, furnace service, and so forth are part of home ownership. It just sort of goes with the territory.

We're looking forward to another nice day here tomorrow before we move on down the road!

3 comments:

Mark and Dortha said...

Congratulations on the weight loss. Wow, you are doing great. Keep up the good work.

Sounds like you guys had a full day. I can't imagine Jim not knowing how to get to Walmart. LOL

Stay safe and enjoy the warm weather. Believe it or not it was really nice here today.

Hugs,
Dortha

Speedy said...

I would not know if it was nice today...I was inside all day at my desk looking at numbers and reading your journal. By the time I get off the sun is going down the traffic is heavy I am tired and I have to fix dinner for myself. Oh well it could be worse I could have 5 years to go!!!

Joe and Sherri

Speedy said...

Good to see you guys got there safe. Tell Karon and Dan we said hello.

Joe and Sherri