Show & Tell

Hi all -- Dianne here.  We're still in the middle of finishing the inside of our little coach house.  The photo above shows the view from our front windows.  The empty lots across the street will someday be built with coach houses like ours.  For right now, our view is beyond to the finished casitas (RV port homes) in our neighborhood.


I hate to rub it in to my friends back in Indiana, but the weather here has been beautiful this winter; sunny skies and 70s for the most part.  We're still hanging out in shorts and t-shirts most days.

Last week the work on the coach house was mainly insulation, drywall, mud & tape.  The workers are very meticulous, and are doing a fantastic job.


The inside of our motor home is piled with boxes (sink, faucets, water softener, ceiling tiles, microwave-convection oven) and there is more stuff stashed under the motor home (another sink, air conditioner, etc.).  We'll be living in a mess until it can be installed or at least moved into the coach house.

Today they are installing and painting the woodwork.  Next they will be painting the inside, and then installing the floor tile.   By the end of this week it should be looking good. 


 We haven't met with Raul's cabinet maker yet; I'm sure that will take a while.  Our appliances will be delivered February 7.  No more laundromat for me (at least while we're in Texas).  Soon we should be able to have our furniture POD sent here from the storage facility in Indianapolis.  

Today we had another big delivery:  A rustic "Texas" bar set for our patio.  Roger found these on line (I'm including a photo of the logo so you can find the web site if you're interested).  

We had electrical outlets installed at counter height on the outside wall in back, and this bar will be really handy for fixing margaritas and serving snacks under the pergola.  The back of the bar has drawers and doors with shelves inside for storage. 

 The matching rustic cooler-on-legs has an Igloo cooler built in, ready to ice down our Texas Shiner beer!  The handle is in the shape of a longhorn steer head and the top is decorated with more stars.  


The set is made from old, weathered barn wood.  Both the bar and cooler have bottle openers attached.  We think these are pretty cool!  

We've attended a couple of neighborhood get-togethers, and Roger has become a "regular" at the Retama Friday morning men's breakfasts.  I did a sneak photo of Roger and some of his breakfast pals out in front of our motorhome the other morning. 

For those of you up north who are starved for greenery by now, these beautiful orange vines grow along the fence rows here.  We have one in our back yard along the fence.  I don't know what they are, but they're sure pretty. 


Another nice feature of Retama Village (and the adjacent Bentsen Palm Village RV park) is that they share an organic garden area. 

 Anyone can sign up for a free garden plot.  I plan to sign up for one next year when we arrive, so that I can get my gardening "fix" next winter. 

 This long walkway is on our way to the dog park, which is also shared with the adjacent RV park.  Along one side is the organic garden area, and along the other side is a row of young citrus trees of all varieties.  I'm assuming that when they are big enough to produce fruit, that it will be free for the picking by residents of both the RV park and Retama Village. 

Speaking of the dog park, it's a fun daily gathering place.  The palapa and chairs are in the middle.  

Here's a shot of Chaplin just entering the dog park, to give you an idea of just how LARGE it is.   You can just make out the palapa in the distance.  Plenty of room to run at full whippet speed, when he's in the mood.

Then, there's another large area on the OTHER side of the palapa; plenty of room to toss balls and frisbees to eager dogs.  And beyond that, in a separate fenced area, is a full set of agility equipment.  This is truly doggie heaven; it was one of the reasons we bought a lot at Retama.


Roger and I are still healing from the loss of our beloved Jasper, but it's getting better.   Chaplin seems to be doing all right; we don't think he's depressed, but it's hard to tell.  The dog park helps, because he has lots of opportunities to socialize with his pals there.

One of Roger's favorites at the dog park is Jagger, a standard poodle who is very friendly and loves to play.

The whippet picture of the day is a shot of Chaplin meeting and greeting a beautiful sheltie named Bandit.  There are dogs of all shapes and sizes, and they all get along and play well together. 

Jasper -- A Sad, Sad Day

Jasper 12-24-99 - 1-15-11

Roger here....   Ten years ago...  Our daughters grew up, graduated,  and moved out of the house.   We were happy, but there was a definite void in our lives.


Within the year, we drove to Bloomington IN.  In the parking lot at the Indiana University Football Stadium, we met Jasper for the first time.  He was nine months old and living with a grad student at Indiana University.  

The young man who owned Jasper wisely realized that he was too busy to care for a dog that was so full of life.  Jasper became an integral part of our lives from that moment.

On the way home, we stopped at a pet store to buy the essentials for taking care of a dog.  Dianne went into the store while I walked Jasper around the parking lot.  I will never forget how he looked at me during that first walk with those big brown eyes.  We bonded instantly.

When we opened the doors of our house to him, he immediately bounded up the two flights of stairs, rarely touching the steps.  We watched in amazement as he leaped OVER (not on) the bed.  Our boney, skinny-looking dog with the hind legs you could see through on a sunny day was an athlete.


When we went to bed that night, he did not hesitate to hop up and burrow his way under the covers where he warmed our feet -- a nightly ritual for the next ten years.

Jasper loved me, but he adored Dianne.  He quickly became her shadow, and remained so.  One day, I took him off his leash while hiking in the woods a couple miles from our house.  He gave me one of those brown-eyed looks and went into a 35 mph sprint.  No way for me to catch him.  He made his way straight home to Dianne.  

He loved to run - to chase squirrels, to leap over flower beds, to chase tennis balls (when he was in the mood).  Unlike most whippets, he also loved to swim.  

He was not a good swimmer, but any time there was activity near the water he joyfully leaped in as if he were a labrador.  He never met a person he did not like, running up to strangers while wagging his tail and begging for attention.  (He was not a good guard dog.) 

 He was so very, very gentle with our granddaughter, Kaia, during her toddler years.  I have vivid memories of her leading him around the house on his leash, while he remained so calm and patient and walked so-o-o slowly beside her.

We loved Jasper so much, that we found Chaplin a couple years later.  Chaplin is a sweet, gentle, fun dog who has been a good companion for all of us (including Jasper).  However, from the outset, it was evident that Jasper would be the alpha male -- a role that Chaplin readily acceded to.  Jasper's role at the dog park became one of intervening with the other dogs if (in Jasper's mind) they became too rough with his dog, Chaplin. 

Jasper always considered himself to be a person.  (Dianne and I did, too.)  

Jasper was not without his faults :-).  He was an expert at stealing Chaplin's treats (and ours).  If we forgot to put the cat food away, as soon as we closed the door, he would immediately leap onto the console of the motor home, where he licked the bowl clean.  He often knocked over the trash can, but he would always wait until we left the room. 

 He did not bark often, but if a large dog or a raccoon (and in one case an armadillo) got too close to the campsite he did not hesitate to run them off. 


 He was an expert counter surfer. One evening, after work, when Dianne and I were enjoying a walk around the yard, the two chicken breasts that were thawing at the back of the counter disappeared.  There was no evidence that they had ever been on the counter other than a very clean, empty plate.  We soon found Jasper in the corner of the family room, head lowered, tail between his legs, looking at us with doleful brown eyes.  It was hard to be angry with him.


Two weeks ago Dianne noticed blood in his urine.  Since he was acting perfectly normal, we were not that concerned - the internet led us to believe that it was probably a bladder infection. We took him to the vet, that day.  We were devastated to learn that he had a large tumor on one of his kidneys.  An x-ray revealed that the cancer had spread to his lungs.  We knew that there was no hope.   The vet was surprised that he was doing so well.  He was not in any kind of visible distress, so we brought him home, where he received more table food and coddling than he has ever had in his life.  (Actually, he has always received a lot of coddling).


We were blessed with two weeks of the Jasper that we have always known.  Perky ears, curiosity, those intelligent eyes, prancing along during his walks -- always insisting on taking the lead.  We also had the mischievious Jasper  -- stolen cat food from the console, stolen treats from Chaplin, trash can surfing.


Two days ago at the dog park he chased Chaplin doing a full-blown 35 mph run.  So glorious, yet so sad.  It was a great day.  It was his last good day.


We knew yesterday morning that he had gone into a rapid decline.  By the middle of the day, he could hardly walk.  On the way to the vet's office, he licked my hand.  His last view before passing was of Dianne's face.


Writing this is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I am writing this because it is too difficult for Dianne to do so.  Selfishly, it is also therapeutic for me.  We have lost pets before and are familiar with the pain, but this is different; Jasper was much more to us than a pet.


We'll get back to our regular, hopefully upbeat, posts in a few days.


By the way, our blog name will not change, because Jasper's spirit will always be traveling with us.

Coach House Progress

Hi all -- Dianne here.  

No travelog this time...the above photo pretty well sums up our life right now.


Our workers have made great progress on finishing the inside of our coach house, so I thought I'd get us up to date.   Our time has been spent on trips back and forth to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Sears, and also researching and ordering things on line.  It's all coming together, so here's the latest:

The framing, wiring, and plumbing is done now, except for the main circuit box.  They've installed the water heater (in the attic!), the bathroom vent fan/light/heater and the plumbing is roughed in for the washing machine, ice maker in the fridge, sinks, water softener, and shower.  

We originally thought we'd get an "on demand" water heater, but since Raul can put one up in the attic out of the way, we decided to save our money.  No worries about frozen pipes down here, either!

We're excited about the tray ceiling Raul has constructed, with its rounded corners.  The border will be bright white with recessed can lights.  The middle will have thermoplastic panels that look like a copper tin ceiling, with a ceiling fan/light in the middle.  I had a fake copper tin ceiling in my Indiana kitchen remodel and liked it a lot.  That was a LOT more work, though, because it was Armstrong ceiling tiles and I had to paint them to look like old copper.  Now you can buy panels already finished and ready to just glue up, and they aren't as fragile as the ceiling tiles were.  

Here's a photo of the brochure, showing what they will look like.  These are used in a backsplash, but ours will be in the tray ceiling.

We already have the fan and soon the lights will be installed.

Our bathroom faucet came today (the UPS man is my new best friend).  I can't wait to see it installed, with our Talavera Mexican vessel sink, which is also on its way.  I picked the hummingbird pattern.  Here's a photo from the web site that I printed out of what the sink will look like:

The most exciting thing so far is that the framing is in the wall to install our stained glass panel that we've been lugging around the country in our motorhome.  In Indiana it just hung in a window; in Texas it will be installed in the wall between the kitchen/living area and the bathroom, so that we can leave a bathroom light on to illuminate it. 

 The "bird" theme is perfect here, because we are right next to the World Birding Center in Mission, TX.  I saved all my wooden bird houses to decorate the bathroom with.  Can't wait!

The expenses just go on and on, though...two of our much-used items decided to die as soon as we arrived here in Texas:  Roger's electric shaver and my vacuum cleaner.  So we each got new toys.  Roger loved his old shaver, so we replaced it with an updated version of the same thing. 

 He especially likes the way it looks at night when it's charging (the whole "Star Wars" thing guys have).

We've picked out the floor tile that we want, and the paint color.   Roger has already designed a nifty threshold design using the stone border and smaller tiles, then the rest will be 6" x 6" diagonal tile.


 Tomorrow the guys are coming to install insulation and drywall.  Raul said he'd be ready for paint by the end of next week.  I kept my Ellen Kennon paint samples from our kitchen remodel, so we were able to narrow colors down to match the furniture before we left Indiana, then match the tile we picked out here.  It's "full-spectrum" paint, which should really show its full potential down here with all the sunshine.  


We've picked out appliances at Sears, and will go next week to finalize our order for that.  (They are on sale next week until the 19th).


This is happening so fast that we really haven't done much of anything else.  The only non-remodel activity I had this week was to walk over to the RV park next door to visit the "Veggie Man" who comes once a week.  I published a photo last year of all the items I was able to buy for a few dollars.  Here's a photo of my trip this week:  

I spent a grand total of $8.50!  


Roger went to his first "breakfast with the guys" this morning.  He said more than twenty guys showed up, and they all went to breakfast to a local Mexican place called "Chuy's" and had a delicious authentic Mexican breakfast.  He's still talking about the fresh, warm tortillas.  Guys + Food = A good time was had, of course!  


Tomorrow night we plan to venture out to the Retama clubhouse to attend the wine and cheese get-together.  We each bring cheese and a bottle of wine to share.  We have some bottles of wine left from Paso Robles, so we're all set.  Should be fun!

The whippet picture of the day shows Chaplin laying in soft grass heaven.  Our new sod has no deadly spurs or fire ants.  After four months in a desert climate, he's a happy camper now.

Our Winter Home - Retama Village, Mission Texas

Roger here....  Back to South Texas!  Now that we have returned, we remember why we liked it so much last winter.  

The climate is great during the winter months.  Since we have been here, the lowest high temperature has been 68 and the highest high temperature has been 88.  It does not get cold at night -- great to feel the breeze through open windows and listen to the coyotes.

The landscaping around our RV lot and brand new coach house looks great.  More than half of the plantings are required to be indigenous to the area, so we have plants that attract butterflies and birds.  We also have roses (because the developer's wife loves them).

We have lots of space, all of it either concrete or maintained (drip-irrigated) lawn.  The 17 x 12 patio behind the coach house seems huge.  We plan to cover it with a pergola, add a solar fountain and maybe even an above-ground fire pit.  We also intend to put in outdoor lighting, a counter with a tub for icing drinks/warming food, and a stainless steel grill.  With pots full of flowers we hope to have a shady outdoor oasis for eating, reading, and enjoying the very private view.  

Our camping furniture looks okay right now, but we will be replacing it with the garden furniture from our Indiana house that has been in storage.  Dianne's lemon tree in the foreground below has finally found a permanent home - no more lugging it in and out of the motor home shower.  Hallelujah!  (Lemon tree should like it here in the  Rio Grande Valley, because this is where they grow Texas grapefruit.  -- D.)

I don't have photos of the people here, but we both agree that they are the friendliest, most accommodating people we have ever encountered in our travels.  The Winter Texans (like us) are far more laid back than the snowbirds we have previously encountered in other warm areas.  Our new neighbors at Retama Village have made us feel very, very welcome.  AND we have fallen in love with the local Hispanic population -- so friendly (always smiling), so warm, so hard-working, so competent, so genuinely happy to meet you.  I did not know that a general population could be this nice:  from the bank personnel at our new bank, to the servers at the restaurants, to the check-out people at the H.E.B. (the nicest grocery we have ever encountered - another story), to the contractor who is finishing the inside of our coach house, even the public servants at the water company, despite long lines of folks waiting patiently (which we also found amazing).

Retama is such a relaxing place with soooo many things to do.  Our first social event was the New Year's Eve party in the club house that eventually moved to the pool area.  Unfortunately, since then, we have already missed a few of the activities that we hope to be a part of -- including a men's breakfast (finally something just for the men :-),  a weekly hors d'oeuvres evening social, ping pong (for me), bicycling, bird watching, hot tubbing, lap swimming, etc., etc., etc.

We missed all this because we were busy getting our new coach house ready to be finished on the inside.  We have been anticipating this for almost a year.  I could not believe how quickly things came together.  We spent a couple of days at Home Depot and Lowe's measuring the appliances that we wanted to include.  We then taped off the inside of the coach house with four colors of tape: blue for walls, green for cabinets and appliances, red for anything electrical, and regular old dull masking tape for the furniture we have in storage.  (Anal- retentive me reigns supreme).  After two days of taping, I left a cell phone message for Raul, our contractor, and was amazed when he showed up, smiling,  at our doorstep ten minutes later.  After a preliminary review, he gave us a price for the work (amazingly reasonable, in fact our friends from the midwest would be astonished).  He took us to a site that he recently finished to see if we approved of the work.  (We already knew we did from the open houses we viewed last spring).  He then told us he could start the next day (today) and sent us on our way to buy recessed lighting, a ceiling fan, and bathroom vent fan.  Wow.  I expected hassles.  I am sure that there will be some, but the start was more positive than I could possibly have dreamed. 

 We have just scratched the surface of all the joys we intend to experience here.  More to come as we become true Winter Texans.  (Not as athletic fans, of course, Purdue basketball, the HS swim team that I coached decades ago,  and the Colts are still at the top of my loyalties.)


The Whippet Picture of the Day shows our ever laid-back dogs enjoying some deck time in their new relaxation area.  (Chaplin is very happy because he has soft, green grass to lay in.  He absolutely LOVES the dog park and has reacquainted with some of his dog friends from last winter.  --D.)  We are soon hoping to include a video of whippets running at the dog park to prove that they can also be active.