Tasks…

Tuesday - Regenerated the water softener today before moving it into the basement storage. Freezing temperatures are possible so I need to set things up for that and, unfortunately, that means no water softener. I need to figure out a good way to have the softener in the basement storage and still have it connected. 

The filter and pressure regulator have been relocated from the pedestal into the wet bay. And the heated water hose is in place. 

The pedestal has a drop light with an incandescent bulb plugged into a thermostatic outlet. The blue hose is the extra heated hose which will add some additional heat into this area. The whole pedestal is wrapped with fiberglass insulation and covered with a large plastic trash can. 

The NWS has issued a freeze warning for this country but I doubt it’ll reach those temperatures tonight. But, I was needing to do this anyway. 

Wednesday - New Years Eve. Bridget had a follow-up appointment in San Antonio. Afterwards, we went to Costco and Jason’s Deli. I love their salad bar. It’s one of the few around.

There was a New Years Eve party at the clubhouse with appetizers, games, and a lot of visiting. One person brought parisa, a local Medina county specialty. It is freshly ground, very lean beef mixed with cheese, jalapeno peppers, onion, garlic, and lemon juice. Kind of like steak tartare but “Texi-fied”. 

Between Christmas and New Years - SKP

Saturday - We had a quiet Christmas here at the SKP park with a potluck dinner in the afternoon. I believe there were around 60 participants with way too much food and desserts. The park provided the ham and the residents provided the sides. I made roasted cauliflower with a three-cheese sauce. Very cheesy and, if you liked cauliflower, delicious. 

On Christmas Eve, there was a campfire for roasting marshmallows and hotdogs. The fire ring had been unused due to a misunderstanding of the fire ban. What was banned were large burns such as farm fields or bonfires. Campfires are permitted with a call to the sheriffs office. I don’t think that’ll be the last campfire this winter. 

Most of the leaves are off the tree and I’ve moved most of it towards the street. The guy we hired for lot maintenance said that he will take care of the leaves. That’s music to my ears. I finally finished the last step of winterization of the class C. Running rv antifreeze into the water pump. 

Sunday - I rode the Ural into Uvalde this morning and it was nice to be on the road. It was a 75mile round trip and the Ural ran great. It sort of bogs if you try full throttle at 55mph. It’ll slowly work its way up to 63mph if you don’t use full throttle. 

Our gingerbread house won 1st place. The team was GaryC, RexB, and myself. It was a fundraiser and they didn’t raise that much so this may be the last time. It was a close contest with the difference between 1st and 2nd was under $2. And 2nd and 3rd was a bit over $3. 

I was gifted a used Hughes Autoformer that was left on a site. This device is installed between the power pedestal and the RV. It compensates for low voltage at the pedestal. I’ve been looking for one of these devices for over a year as the voltage within the park occasionally drops low enough for the electric management system in the RV to disconnect. Hopefully, this fixes the issue. 

Almost Christmas at the SKP Park

Sunday - The leaves on our tree are quickly changing and are starting to fall. It has been a long week since the Riverwalk last Tuesday. Bridget should be released from the hospital soon, maybe tomorrow. It’s a pretty long drive between the RV and the hospital. Somewhere around 60 miles. 

A resident of the park made a shrimp dinner last night. I think there was around 60 people. Not shown is the garlic bread. I’m not usually a fan of coleslaw but this version was very tasty. 

The food at the hospital cafe was sort of so-so. A deep fried dinner. Fries, chicken nuggets, and fried small shrimp. I was hoping the salad bar was open but it wasn’t. Sunday must be a minimal kitchen staff. 

San Antonio

Saturday - The local radio club holiday potluck dinner was today with the club providing the barbecue brisket. 

Monday - Wednesday headed into San Antonio this morning. Bridget had a few appointments prior to her hospital visit tomorrow morning. And, to pick up a few items at Costco. We decided to stay overnight as her check-in time is 5am tomorrow. We are going to the San Antonio Riverwalk this evening to take a boat ride looking at the Christmas decorations. 

We wandered around until after sunset for the boat ride. The senior rate was $12.50, a pretty fair price as the driver/narrator did a good job. The lights were worth seeing. 

The ride was about half an hour or so. Afterwards, we had dinner at an Irish pub along the Riverwalk before heading back to our hotel. We saw much more of the Riverwalk than from our previous visits. 

Tuesday - Bridget’s hospital visit is getting messed up by insurance issues. But it may be all straightened out now (mid morning). We’ll see. 

At 6:30pm, I’m still in the waiting room and, from what I can tell, the only one left. The Dr came by and said no problems or issues. I’m just waiting for the nurse to let me know what room.

At 8pm, she made it to her room…

Sea World - San Antonio

Thursday - We went to Sea World - San Antonio with friends Gary and Lynne from the park. The rides are almost all roller coasters so no rides. We mostly went to shows and sampled the food. We signed up for a food plan that allowed us to try food all over the park. Basically an entree, side or dessert, and a non-alcoholic drink every 90 minutes from opening to closing. 

The first show was sea lions. The second was a glow-in-the-dark puppet show. Both decent with live performers not animatronics. We also saw a stage show with some really phenomenal singers. 

Barbecue for dinner and we brought back some sweet chipotle wings. Too much food with the food plan. We basically stayed through closing walking around looking at the Christmas lights. 

Friday - We headed into Uvalde to do some shopping this afternoon. Tomorrow is the local radio club holiday dinner and I offered to bring mac & cheese to go along with the provided brisket. I needed to pick up some cheddar and parmesan for my favorite mac & cheese recipe. On the way, we stopped at Nora’s Tacos in Sanibal for lunch and ordered the “special”. It turned out to be their anniversary and the special was free. It was a very tasty braised beef dish served with rice, beans, and tortillas. 

Misc. Activities

Friday - Today was a very quiet day for me. I set up some Christmas decorations around our lot. Just several strings of lights around the porch and a couple of inflatable things in the yard. Nothing to win any prizes, but I am trying to tie it in with HomeAssistant to turn them on/off based on sunset and time-of-day. The hassle is that the Raspberry Pis don't have a real-time clock.

I manually set the date and time and set the shed lights to turn on 30 minutes before sunset. 

Later - For some reason, HomeAssistant was ten minutes late. I can't figure out why. But at least the automation works.

I played FT8 again today, but on 15m instead of 10m and 20m. I picked up twenty contacts very quickly, with several from South America, Canada, and the Caribbean. These locations were along what is referred to as the "grey line," which marks sunset.

Monday - Saturday was spent setting up holiday decorations around the park. Lots of extension cords are needed for the lights around the tree trunks. Plus playing around with FT8. I'm over a hundred contacts so far, with the furthest in Western Australia. It really depends. 

Next Monday - Last Saturday, several of us formed a team for the park gingerbread house contest. Everything needed to be edible but they allowed us to use hot glue as the provided icing wasn’t took a long time to harden. I made a batch of royal icing which hardened pretty quickly. We used this for most of the decorations. 

It’s been a while since I last posted.