Thanksgiving Week

Monday

I checked Amazon and found out that the marinade I ordered for Thanksgiving was not going to be here in time, so I canceled it.  So a while later I headed to the Walmart Neighborhood Market and picked up what I needed.

Then I got a text and later a picture from my little sister.  She got a new Honda CR-V also.  I guess we inspired her.

That was really about all that we did all day.

Tuesday

A bit overcast again today.  So I caught up on TV for most of the morning and early afternoon.  Then mid afternoon we headed to the 5As Restaurant for some Greek Gyros.  Waiting on the sandwiches.

Worth the wait.

We like it here and the prices are really good.

We watched the Voice and some other TV tonight and that was it for the day.

Wednesday

Nice and sunny again today.  I checked on the Turkey and it seems to be thawing nicely.  Other than that and bringing in the trash tote we did not do much.  My daughter ordered some Amazon things and had them shipped here for Christmas so we waited for UPS to bring 4 deliveries today.  Three came at once and then one after dark.  The last one was kind of beat up.  She asked me to open it and check on it and it seems fine inside.

That was it for the day.

Thursday

I got up at 8 and took the turkey out of the refrigerator.  Had my breakfast and now its time to get started on preparing it.  Hope to get it on the smoker by noon.  This year I am trying a new method.  It is called Spatchcock, check it out at https://youtu.be/9PEAQ_YopGk .  So I have prepared, seasoned and injected the turkey.

Then I went out and prepared the smoker.  I will fire it up just before noon and get the cooking started.  This is at around the 3 hour point

Finally at 3:40 the Chef Alarm went off at 160º so I pulled the turkey off the grill, the legs literally fell off on to the tray.  Then into the house and I tented it for about 30 minutes.

Now I am not great at carving turkey and since my gloves hands were pretty greasy I did not get any pictures.  Bonnie lifted all the other dishes and Robby had brought some over also.  It was quite a spread.

It was not long before everyone was done and most moved to the living room.  Bonnie and I did most of the clean up and dishes and it really did not take long at all.  Then we sat down to watch The Wizzard of Oz.  But the girls wanted to go home and everyone left.  It was a busy day. But its always nice to be around family for the holidays.  Now we will watch the Wizzard of Oz.  We did watch most of the National Dog Show earlier today and caught just a little bit of the Thanksgiving Day Parade from NYC.  All Thanksgiving traditions.

Friday

Woke up this morning feeling like I had been in a bar fight.  I knew I was tired when I went to bed, but I must have been really tired.  I woke up in the same position I laid down in.  Usually I move around a bit at night.  Thus I think that accounts for why I was so stiff.  Plus it was 7:20am.  I am usually up at least once during the night and switch sides that I lay on.  So after a quick trip to the bathroom I laid down for a minute.  Well next thing I knew it was 9:50.  So I got up and started the coffee and my day a bit stiff and sore but well rested.

Bonnie took Gracie and her friend with her shopping today.  The mission was to buy gifts for the Christmas children that we signed up for at church.  They were gone most of the day but mission accomplished.  They also came home with peppermint milkshakes from Chick-fil-A.  Supper was turkey leftovers and they were good.

I did a little online shopping today, no crowded stores for me today.

Saturday

Really only one thing on my mind today.  The "Iron Bowl" its the annual game between Alabama and Auburn.

Bonnie got up and started the wash.  My son invited us over for the game but she wanted to get the wash done.  Fedex brought the Turkey Cannon I had ordered to cook the turkey with.  Thats why we Spatchcocked the turkey when I found out it would not be delivered in time.  Glad that happened the Turkey was delicious.  Then the post office brought the books for the Honda CRV.  The owners manual is 4X as thick as the one that came with the car.

So 2:30 rolled around and it was time for the kickoff.  We had a tough go in the first half but once again the Crimson Tide emerged from half time ready to play like we know they can.  Final score was 52-21.  We finished the regular season undefeated.  Now on to the post season, starting with the SEC Championship game against Georgia.

Christmas movie is on the agenda for tonight.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

Start Earlier

Monday

Note to Self: Start Earlier.  By that I mean when grilling out this time of year start earlier so that you do not have to finish up in the dark.  Live and Learn.

It rained most of the night and then it continued to rain this morning until after noon.  So needless to say we stayed in.  They even canceled the Veterans Day parade in downtown Huntsville.  I caught up on recorded TV and even watched one the Hallmark Christmas Movies.  I always enjoy them and they are ones you can watch with the whole family.

Bonnie asked me to grill chicken thighs for supper.  They were thawing in the refrigerator.  So to prepare them I put them in vacuum bags added some Chavetta's maranade from our hometown Buffalo NY.  Vaccum sealed the two bags and let it sit for a couple hours in the refrigerator.  Then on to the pellet grill after seasoning for about 50 minutes until it was up to 165º.

Bonnie made some boiled potatoes to go with it.  It was really good.  We even had some leftover to Vaccum seal and freeze for another meal.

Now we will settle in and watch the Voice.

Tuesday

Rain again most of the night.  Then it was cold and damp most of the day, never did see the sun.
Another TV day.  Bonnie went to her scrapbook and card making group.  While she was gone I changed another one of the Camera batteries they last about 6 weeks before they need changed.  Its easy to do.  After my knee replacement my son did it for me but now I'm easily able to do it.

I worked in the den for a while and did some scanning, filing, and made some phone calls.  Still monitoring some first time payments, like a new credit card and the property tax payment from the escrow account.

Bonnie was still gone so I watched another Hallmark Christmas Movie, call me sentimental.

Weatherman says more rain tomorrow afternoon.

Wednesday

It was one year ago today that we moved into this house and I guess that's when we became residents of Alabama.  Roll Tide.

Another dark and gloomy day.  A heavy mist was falling every time I went out.  So more TV and Christmas Movies.

We left after 5 for the House of Harvest.  Our church was serving a community Thanksgiving Dinner there tonight.  We got there around 5:30 to get ready for the 6pm dinner.  There were already some folks there.

Getting the serving line ready.

I did not get any picture during the first wave but I think there were maybe 70 people.  We had a really good turnout from the church and maybe our numbers matched the community.  Here is a shot of Bonnie helping one of the kids get a plate of food.

Everyone got there fill and were also invited to make a to go box and take it home.  We had a good time and many hands made it easy on everyone.  This is a charity Walter Jones supports and we got to meet him.  He played for the Seattle Seahawks for 12 years as #71 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.  He was an offensive tackle and is a pretty big guy.

It was still raining when we headed home.  I made a quick stop at the Walmart Neighborhood Market to pick up an item I had ordered on line, quick and easy.

Finally home, we may watch the CMAs.

Thursday

Below freezing a degree or so this morning.  When I brought in the trash tote it had ice on it.  I slept for 10 hours last night, guess I needed it.  I ate breakfast but then started to feel bad.  Dizzy and like I could easily throw up.  I felt sick all day and just a little better now.  I may try eating some toast a little later.  Bonnie was a bit under the weather also.  It never got above 34 today.  Not much else to say about today, I do hope to feel better tomorrow.

Friday

Finally the sun was shinning today.  We were down into the 20s overnight but it warmed up pretty quick this morning.  After noon we got up into the 50s.  I had a project to do on the Ridgeline so I headed out to the garage to get started on it.  I actually opened the garage doors as it was warmer outside.

So the problem is with the rear doors.  They do not open as much as they should.  Bonnie was the first to notice this when she tried to put groceries in the back.  A quick check sometime back in the Ridgeline owners forum and it seems a lot of people have the same complaint.  But there is a fix.  That is to replace the door catcher (door stop) with a longer one actually the same part as the front door uses.

As you can see its only about 1/2" longer but yields a much wider opening.  So I have been watching you tube and watched as people figured out the best way to perform the change.  Turns out that paid off.  So time to give it a try.  There are three bolts that hold on the catcher so I loosened them.

Then it was time to remove the door panel.  Another three screws to remove.  One under a panel in the arm rest.

Two behind another panel behind the door handle

Then pry up the panel in the corner down by the small pimple.

Then pull on the panel and it pops off.  Lift it off and support on a 5 gallon bucket.

Then I removed the speaker that will allow me to reach up and grab the catcher and insert the new longer one.

Easypeeze.  Now to reassemble.  I even replace the Blue thread locker on the bolt that already had some on it.  So before the mod the opening measured around 31"

After the mod a little over 36"

Easy to see the difference.  Bonnie loves it.

Got a picture from WNY one of the Grandkids made a snowman

Bonnie made Chicken and Rice using one of my sisters it was delicious.  Now to watch some you tube in prep for Thanksgiving cooking lots of good ideas.

Saturday

Nice and sunny this morning and the promise of a warm day.  Alabama plays early today.  Yesterday we rearranged a little in the garage and set up the small refrigerator that came with the house.

Bonnie has gone shopping and hopes to find a turkey that will throw in this refrigerator.  I had checked the mail early yesterday before it had been delivered so went out and checked it and had a package.  This shirt had come.

Well I enjoyed the Alabama game again today but they had me worried at half-time.  They were tied with The Citadel 10-10.  But the half-time talk and regroup did some good because we won 50-71.  Roll Tide.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

Started the week with a bang

Monday

We woke up early, the result of setting the clocks back I think.  It was overcast and we had the promise of bad weather later.

Bonnie started the wash and then just after 1 we headed over to the DMV to transfer the plates to the new car.  That ended up being quick and painless and not too expensive.  When you register here plates are cheap $25 or less for a year.  We got credit for what we had already paid and the transfer only cost us $4.  Then you pay an Ad Valorem Tax.  Its a personal property tax based on the cars value.  That was not too bad either.  All together with all the fees and taxes it was just over $90.

We spotted a Chinese Restaurant in the same strip mall so we stopped in there for a late lunch.  It was so so and we probably won't go back.

Back home Bonnie finished the wash. I did a bunch of scanning all the new car paperwork.  Then put the plates on the new car.  We still need to go through all the stuff that we took out of the old one and see what we can get rid of.  We don't need the GPS unit as both cars have Navigation and we have our phones as back ups.

We had tuned into the weather channel off and on all day and the weather out West of us kept getting worse and worse and closer.  What a huge storm.  As the evening went on they kept promising us bad weather and possible tornados.  I ended up staying up until about 1:30am.  There were a few tornados but none in our immediate area.  It got very windy here and there was some wind and rain.  We were still under a severe thunderstorm warning when I went to bed.  I had kept an eye on the radar and it looked like there worst weather was going North of us, I was really tired so went to bed.

Tuesday

Nice and sunny this morning and the storm is well East of us.  There was some wind damage in our area but our neighborhood looks ok.  For that we are Thankful.

Bonnie did a couple more loads of wash this morning.  Once that was done we headed out to vote.

 Lots of cars in the parking lot so I figured we would stand in line for a while.  But we hit it just right.

 There were a lot of people at the tables filling in their ballots.  We walked right up to the registration table.  We took out our drivers license and they were scanned and verified.  We were handed our ballots and sat at a table to fill them out.  Then over to the machines that we inserted our ballots into.  Quick and easy.  They we were handed our stickers and headed home.

Bonnie headed out to her scrapbook group and finished up some scanning.

Tonight we are watching the elections results and hoping for the best.

Wednesday

Sunny when I got up, in fact the bright sun is what woke me up at 7am.  An hour or so later it got overcast and cloudy and rained for an hour or so.

Happy birthday to my father-in-law in heaven.  He always enjoyed a good hard days work.

Well the election is over and hopefully congress will get together and get back to work.

We headed to church tonight.  We had a good time of fellowship.  Played some group games and Bonnie got a baby fix.

We drove the car tonight first time after dark.  Bonnie was happy to see that all the buttons on the steering wheel light up.  The headlights are good too and the hi beams are automatic.

Time to relax now here at home.

Thursday

My mornings have been starting earlier than usual since the time change.  Today was the same even though it was overcast and pretty dark out.  I spent the morning reviewing the election results and doing a little research.  I also topped off the battery in the garage camera.  I use it to swap out the other batteries.

Bonnie left for her haircut appointment.  We have been here almost a year and I knew our TV and internet deals were expiring.  So I called AT&T UVerse to see how much my bill would increase if we did nothing.  Looks like it would be 40 or 50 bucks a month.  But Natalie found a promotion that would give us twice the internet bandwidth we have now for only $10 more a month instead of 30.  Then they were able to get a supervisor to extend a $10 credit we have for a TV receiver.  And then the $10 credit for autopay was extended also.  So not too bad.  Next year we will go through this again.

Then I went out and got the stepladder and the battery from the garage and changed the battery in the front porch camera. Back to the garage to put the dead battery on charge.  As I was finishing the Big Brown Truck and the UPS man brought my new pillows for the bed.  So I opened them.  They were shipped flat so once opened they began to puff up.  I put them in the pillow cases and let them sit.  They are a combination fiber and gel, hope I like them.  Later Bonnie told me to throw away the old ones.

Ashley and the girls came over with Millie, just before Bonnie got home.  They all left and I fired up the grill to cook the Salmon that Bonnie brought home.  Then we got a FT from a Granddaughter, she had some Big News, but thats her story to tell, at least for now.

I covered up the grill and after a couple more phone calls and chats with family, we settled down for a little TV and relaxing time.

Friday

Awake at 7 again today so got up and had coffee and breakfast.  Had devotions and read email until Bonnie got up.  I also watched some videos on how to set up the features in the new CRV.

Bonnie decided to visit her Thrift Shops today.  I sorted through somethings in the garage while she was gone.  Actually throwing stuff away that I know I will never use.

Once Bonnie got home I set up some things on the CRV.  Then I started to update the Garmin Navigation system in it.  An interesting process.  First put a USB drive in the correct port in the car.  Use the car menu to update device.  It copies some into to the drive.  Then into the computer and use Garmin Express to update the device with the latest maps and programs.  Finally back to the car and insert the drive again and continue the update.

About 20-30 minutes later the update completed.  All looks well.

Well the update was going on I programed the second garage door button in the car and got that working.  I also sorted through more stuff in the garage.  Put my hats in the washer, they came out pretty good.  I found several gift cards when we cleaned out the car.  I check their web sites and found that we have 30 some dollars on one of themSo I got a lot done during the update.  I pulled the cars back in and called it an afternoon.  Time for a little Netflix before the news comes on.

Saturday

Sunny and low 30s when I got up this morning.  Thankfully the sun was nice and bright.  Of course it woke me up at 7 again.  So we hung around the house all day today, don't think we got any mail so did not even check on it.  Had a sandwich for lunch and that prepared me for the afternoon.

I tuned in the Alabama - Mississippi State Game.  Alabama won 24-0 Roll Tide.  A couple of our players are a bit beat up so I hope they can recover in time for the SEC Championship and even before that the Iron Bowl, when we play Auburn.

Bonnie picked up a set of Double 12 Dominos yesterday.  She asked me to sort it out and see if any were missing.  I started last night but was too tired and barely got started.  I started again this afternoon.  I started with the blank and 1's.  It was looking good until I go to the next to last domino.  The 11-12 was missing and so we have 90 of the 91 dominos.  Guess we can use it as a smaller set like a double 9.

Well time for the Auburn game and I am out of things to say.  Oh supposed to be below freezing tonight.  Cold but no snow.  Our WNY family had a good dose of Lake Effect snow today with up to a foot of snow.  Nope we do not miss it.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

Medical Monday

Monday

First a bit about Sunday.  We of course went to church, then home for a couple hours.  Then we headed for downtown Huntsville.  Some time back I bought tickets to see the Newsboys band, a pop Christian band.  They are the band from the Gods Not Dead Movie.  Also the lead singer Michael Tate is Bonnie's Granny Crush.  Some how I bought Premium Tickets, I was just looking for "good" seats.

So that got us in an hour early.  During that hour there was a 30 minute question and answer time with the band.  That itself was really good.  It gave a lot of insight into each of them as individuals, I enjoyed it and would do it again.

We were about 12 rows back so had a good view.  After the Q&A the people in the very front got to go back stage and meet the band and get a picture taken.  So right on time Adam Agee came out and opened up with a couple songs.  Then he acted as the Master of Ceremonies the rest of the evening.

Then the band Zealand came out for several songs.  They are lead by Phil Joel one of the former members of the Newsboys.

Phil is also part of this Newsboys United band.  The sixth member is Peter Furler the founder of the band and former lead singer.  The band played 29 songs.  Michael Tate and Peter Furler each sang lead on about half the songs.  Duncan Philips the drummer is a show himself.  He puts his all into every beat.  His drum kit also elevates and spins, then flips 90º and spins.  Search him on Google its quite the feat.  So needless to say we enjoyed the concert and traffic was not too bad it being a Sunday night.

Now Medical Monday
We were up this morning and headed to Athen for our Dr appointments.  The office was busy and we had to drive around the block and wait for someone to leave to get a parking spot.  Finally we made it into the exam room.  Yes we now go in together.

Dr. A came in a short time later and we went over the lab results and chatted about our concerns and hers.  We never real rushed with her and we both like her.  Then she gave us a RX for the new two shot shingles vaccine, we made an appointment for 4 months and headed out.  We dropped the RX off at CVS.  The vaccine is backordered around the country and they told us to expect it sometime in January.

Once home we got the mail and the County Tax bill had come, the amount was as expected.  Bonnie asked the Dr for a referral for our eye exam.  So I called the Dr and got us both appointments in November.

So I was a little sore from yesterday but not too bad at all.  Now for the Voice.

Tuesday

Happy Birthday to my Favorite Daughter can't wait to see you.

I got up and had my breakfast before the Apple Event from New York started.  They announced a bit update to the MacBook Air, and MacMini today.  Then the updated iPad Pro, which was really impressive.

After that we had our semi annual meeting with our financial advisor.  Since he is in NY we did it using FaceTime.  This is the second time we did it this way and it worked well.  Now we just need the markets to turn around.

After that Bonnie headed to her scrapbook group.  I worked some more on sorting my stuff, and took some of it back to the garage and put it away in the cabinet.  Then I vacuum marinated a couple thick pork chops for supper.

Once Bonnie got home we headed to Reagan's soccer game.

This was the first playoff game, sadly we lost.  The girls have improved so much this fall and I really have enjoyed watching them improve.

It was dark when we got home so I lit the grill and then took out the trash tote for tomorrows pick up.  Then a little seasoning on the pork chops and on to the grill.  I seared them and got some nice grill marks.

Once they got up to an internal temp of 145 I pulled them off the grill and took them in.  Bonnie fixed some mixed veggies and we had ourselves a good meal.

Apple also released some updates to iOS and MacOS today.  So I downloaded them and updated our iPhones and iPad.  Plus I did my MacBook.  The updates went smoothly and seem to be working well.

A pretty full day and so now to watch a little TV and relax.

Wednesday

Happy Halloween.

It was 3 years ago that we left our NY house behind and lived full time in our motorhome, it was a grand 2 years.

Not much for today.  We headed South to Decatur to look at Hondas.  Bonnie is still searching for her new car.  No decision yet.

Tonight we will have our first Trick or Treaters.  One of the first ones.

So we have had lots of kids in the first hour, a steady stream.  Bonnie moved a chair and is sitting by the door.  They are bringing kids by the car load to our street and neighborhood.  We had a steady stream of kids from before 6 until after 7:30.  There was a lull so Bonnie turned off the light and it was all over.  She figures well over 100.  Down on the main road thru the neighborhood people reported a whole lot more.  One person ran out after handing out 20lbs of candy.

Time for bed.  Forecast is for bad weather tomorrow.

Thursday

The weather did not get too bad here just lots of rain, heavy in the early morning and then light the rest of the day.  Once Bonnie got up the rain was very light so we decided to go look at the Subaru Forester again.  We spent a couple hours there, and Richard the salesman came in on his day off.  In the end Bonnie said she could not make up her mind and we headed to Decatur.  We wanted to look at the Honda CR-V again.  Still no decision.

My vote is for the Honda.  But the Forester is a good car also.  It has a lot of technology not sure Bonnie will use much of.  I am partial to Honda and familiar with those systems.  So I am trying to not influence her decision.  One big complaint about the Subaru is the passenger seat is pretty uncomfortable to me.  My complaint about the Honda is the crappy sound proofing they put in the spare tire well.  It's like ground up cotton material with some type of binder to keep it in the shape to fit the wheel well.  It's hard to explain.

We had a Mexican supper in Decatur and then headed home in the rain, nice to be home.

Friday

Kind of dark when I got up this morning, it was pretty overcast all day.  Bonnie headed out to do some shopping after she had breakfast.  I worked on a few things in the den and scanned a bunch of stuff.  Also got a delivery from the post office.  Then Carey showed up and cut the grass.  I also contacted our insurance agent and got a couple quotes for insurance on different cars.  Bonnie came home with many bags of groceries and put them away.  She also told me that she had made up a decision on the car.  The winner is.

Yep she choose the Honda CR-V.  I am a fan of the Honda automobiles and we have enjoyed the ones we have owned, hoping this one is the same.

Then I fired up the grill and we had hamburgers for supper along with a nice fresh salad.  After we watched the news, we went out and cleaned out the car.  I found the title and of course the check book.  Tomorrow we are to pick up the car and sign lots of papers.

Saturday

Looks like it will be a nice cool day today, but also nice and sunny.

We were up pretty early and finally got ready and headed down to Honda of Decatur.  We had told Kalib that we would be there around noon to pick up the car.  As we pulled in there it sat.

Kalib was also outside and he helped us find a place to park as the dealership was very busy today.

After parking we went inside and filled out a little bit of paperwork.  Kalib gave Bonnie a Honda Hat.

Bonnies name is first on this car so she had the majority of the paperwork to sign.  Then we went out and went over some things in the car as Chris the Sales manager was busy closing another deal and we wanted to work with him.  We worked with him when I bought the Ridgeline and like the way he does business.  So Kalib helped us pair our phones and showed Bonnie a few things and answered her questions.

Then it was back in to see Chris, sign more papers and finally write the check.  It was quick and easy. Back out to the car.  It looks sharp in the sunshine.

One last picture with Kalib on the left and Chris on the right, good guys to work with.

We said our good byes and headed home.  Now to watch the Alabama-LSU game.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"