Photos then and now

February 2018

Kestrel on Padre

Kiskadee in Magnolia February 2018

 
Parrot on Peach Street 2018

February 2019- You should see what it looks like when he gets up in the morning. He would scare young children.

Being nosey

I am feeling much better. The high-powered antibiotics and an RX nasal spray have helped tremendously. I was also on prednisone until the side effects were too much so we let that one go. I can still tell that air flow through my left nostril is restricted. It probably has been for years but now that I know what it looks like in there I can feel it more. I guess what I am saying is that even though I feel much better, I can still see the need for the upcoming surgery. A few things must get cleared first but the procedure is scheduled for February 14th.
I am still a bit leery of testing it since every time I went outdoors it worsened. If I could get encouraged by a bit of sunshine I think I would give it a go. Maybe this afternoon.
Oh yes, I am practicing sneezing with my mouth open. It is one of the requirements post-op.

Park-Wide WiFi

Explanation of what happens to park-wide wifi in January and February each year. Butch and I have many WiFi/Internet-capable devices.
1 laptop
2 Chromebooks (tablets)
2 kindles
2 phones
1 Smart TV
_________
Total 8
And many of our friends are fond of Alexa, Google, Siri, etc. and they are all WiFi needed devices.
How often do you walk away from these devices and leave them running? Can there be any wonder why the WiFi cannot keep up?
Do your friends and neighbors a favor and disconnect the WiFi to any device that you are not currently using. Yes, I know it is inconvenient to reconnect each time you need to google a question or look up a website but you will make your friends and neighbors much less grumpy and that could be worth it.

Tuesday Trivia Results

Winners of Tuesday Trivia were Team BooBees in first place with 132 points and Team Newbies in second place with 122. Next week there will be a restriction of 8 people to a team. 5 teams were in attendance and we had a hoot of a time. Try it out next week. You might be in for a refreshing 2019 brainwashing!

The game is made up of 4 rounds of 5 questions each. The questions are general knowledge questions of various categories. The host will tell you the categories before each round of play.

When the host reads each question your team will be given 3 minutes to come up with the answer and decide on a point value of 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 points. Each point value can only be used once for each round. You cross it off on your worksheet as they are used. If you have great confidence in your answer you would assign a bigger number with the opposite also being true.

Please do not have your cell phones or other internet devices on your table. Do not shout out answers. Music will be played while teams are deciding on an answer to mask the talk from table to table.

The goal is to have fun!

Hosts Barb and Butch Brooker lot# 454

Health Issue

As most of you know I have been struggling with sinus issues pretty much ever since we arrived last fall. Even had a full-fledged cold thrown in the mix. As I thought about the issue it went way back to 2016 when I went into the clinic in Jefferson for allergy testing and it came up zip/nix/nada/ no allergies. I was very surprised! They diagnosed me at that time with Chronic Rhinitis. I have a problem with that word Chronic. To me, it means 'deal with it'. Things did clear up and I had a problem on occasion but not often. Until this year and in South Texas. There are LOTS of allergies here and in fact, we are considered the allergy capital of the nation so I naturally thought I was allergic to something here that was not a factor in Iowa and it could still be true I suppose.
There are lots of ads on TV for sinus clinics here and since my condition was not getting better but in fact worse I decided to contact one of them. I ended up with an appointment yesterday at the South Texas Sinus Institute. They are connected with the McAllen Medical complex.
(http://www.southtexassinusinstitute.com/testimonials/we-solve-sinus-problems/)
When I read a list of symptoms of sinus issues I was surprised to find a few I had been experiencing without realizing they were sinus related. Fatigue, irritability, concentration to name three. The reason I made the appointment was severe headaches and everything getting worse every time I went outdoors or smelled something strong and unusual. I was pretty much completely plugged on the left side.
So yesterday I found out through x-ray's and CT scan that I had a very serious sinus infection and a deviated septum and probably other things. Dr. Vincent F. Honrubia, F.A.C.S. said it was not going to get better on its own. May get temporarily relieved but it would return. That has been my experience.
So I am scheduled for Septoplasty, Turbinate reduction and Balloon sinuplasty as soon as I get clearance from my heart doctor. It is in the works I hope and will be checking it out to make sure. As it stands now it will take place on February 14th. It is not as serious as it may sound. My appointment is in the early morning and I will be home before noon. I am ready to have my life back. Walking, biking, photography and the rest of everything!

The other trivia

So Butch and I passed on the mixed doubles pool tournament and played the other form of trivia played in the main hall on Sunday afternoons. The winning team gets free ice cream. There are teams of six players each. The host has put together a list of 25 questions. The host reads the questions one at a time and the teams write down their answers. The answer sheets are passed to a different team where the answers are checked off as a win or lose. The team we were on had 15 1/2 correct answers but the winning team had 16 points. So we lost by a half point.
Next week we plan to play in the mixed doubles pool tournament. It always boils down to a choice of activities and there are so many to choose from!

This mornings sunrise.