Days 74 & 75 - Friday & Saturday, January 23 & 24 -Getting Ready for the Cold

We haven't done a lot the past couple of days. I made trips to Sam's and Walgreens to pick up prescriptions and Kathy went to Walmart to buy a few groceries. Other than that we have stayed home.

Friday I did try polishing the headlight lenses on our coach, using baking soda. I was pleasantly surprised at with the result. They appear to be a lot clearer to me. Very little effort was necessary to get this level of improvement. I don't know how long they will stay this way if I don't put some type of clear finish on them.

Before

After

Friday was warm, but windy. The high was 84. Because of the wind I put in 50 minutes on the campground treadmill rather than riding my bicycle in the wind.

Saturday I went to the morning conversational Spanish class. I still don't think my brain will get me to the point I can speak even passable Spanish, but the class is interesting. One interesting thing is that the lady who teaches it, who is an Anglo. She has lived in the Rio Grande Valley for years. She has two adult sons who grew up down here. They speak fluent Spanish. When she told them she was going to teach a conversational Spanish class they laughed at her, telling her she can't speak Spanish. 

Today wasn't quite as windy. The high was a cloudy 79. I managed a 45 minute bicycle ride around the campground. By the time I finished the bike ride it was quite cool for my shorts and tee shirt. The wind had picked up and the temperature was in the mid 50's. At 11 PM the temperature is down to 42 degrees, on its way to an overnight low of 36, and the wind is blowing at 20 mph, with gusts of 30 mph.

After the bike ride I set up incandescent light bulbs in the wet bay and in the basement where Kathy has some quart jars of tomato juice. The bulbs will come on if the temperature in the basement drops to freezing. I also dumped the wastewater tanks and left the grey water tank valve open. I had previously filled the freshwater tank. Our 35 gallon propane tank is at 50% and we have around 100 gallons of diesel to run the generator. Most of this was just in case Texas has another major power disruption during the winter storm, like they did back in 2021 when 4.5 million homes were without power. I don't expect this storm to cause and major power disruption but taking a few precautions was easy enough to do. The lowest temperatures being forecast for our area are 29 degrees Sunday night and 31 degrees Monday night, Up in Abilene, where there are hundreds of wind turbines, it is supposed to get down to 10 tonight and 8 tomorrow night. This time of year the average temperatures in Abilene area 58/37.

I know some of you folks up north are laughing at me calling these temperatures cold but folks down here in the Rio Grande Valley just aren't used to freezing temperatures. 

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.