Courter Reunion

The Courter Reunion has been a great time.

We started by flying to Denver and then going to Colorado Springs to visit Aliene's brother. It was the first time we had seen their new house. We drove into the mountains Wednesay, and then Thursday we went to the Air Force Academy and then to the Royal Gorge.

I had never been to the Royal Gorge before so it was interesting. It is really a wonder how they built the bridge back in 1929!

Friday we drove up to Boulder, Colorado for the Courter Reunion, where we did a lot of visiting (and eating) and really enjoyed ourselves.

Late Sunday afternoon, Aliene and I and Eleanor and Kim drove out on Canyon Road and ended up about at least a 9,000 foot elevation! We came back down and stopped at Nederland, Colorado which is a very interesting mountain city! We enjoyed our visit there.

Boulder is a fascinating city. The bike paths are wonderful (especially for a biker and walker!) and the city and residents obviously work at protecting the environment.

House

We put "earnest money" on a new house, although we're still working out all the final details about upgrades etc. "Upgrades" are to houses as "options" are to cars. You can add what seem are small, but nice, items and before you know it the price has increased substantially!

The apartments are actually ok. We hear some noise, but nothing really distracting. We do really miss our garage!

A friend came down last weekend and we went on a "lunch" Mississippi River cruise. It is a lot of fun and we never get tired of going on it when people visit! We actually go down to Tunica Mississippi and go on the "Tunica Queen" rather than the "Memphis Queen" (from Memphis obviously) since we like the "Tunica Queen" better.

Hot weather has hit here, after a week or so of rainy weather. I really enjoy the hot weather, and especially enjoy biking in the hot weather.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Reunion!

Blueberries

One of the advantages of Summer is that blueberries are plentiful and relatively inexpensive. I love blueberries on my morning oatmeal and really miss it when blueberries get too expensive to use on a regular basis.

I always start to feel slightly deprived when blueberries become so expensive that I can't justify buying them even for my morning oatmeal! It is a great way to start the day! (I like peanut butter for breakfast even better, but I finally had to reserve that for just special occasions when I realized that peanut butter doesn't do a lot to help me lose/maintain my weight, even with exercise.)

Summer is my favorite season anyway, and blueberries are a nice addition to a great season! Actually, I like Spring and Fall also, but I always can't wait for Winter to be over. When Fall comes, I know Winter isn't far behind and when Spring comes, there is still the reminders of Winter. That is one of the many things I like about this area. The climate changes, but not that much! I always know during Winter that Spring is not far behind!I always look forward to June 21 (start of Summer and the longest day of the year) and hate to see the days grow shorter because I know Winter is coming!

It surprised me when I first moved to Lakeland to discover that it gets dark almost an hour earlier than in Oklahoma City. Of course, it gets light an hour earlier, and since I am an early riser, that is fine! (This discussion on blueberries is not to be confused with the Blackberry, which is a wonderful E-mail device. I'm sure it does a lot more, but I probably will never figure it all out. The Blackberry is even more addictive than blueberries and is available all year regardless of the season! It is also a lot more expensive than blueberries.)

Digital photos

When our camera got stolen, we finally purchased a digital camera. Overall, we enjoy it. However, we made the mistake of waiting too long to sort through the digital photos (somewhat like all of the paper photographs I have scattered throughout my life!), and had a real problem in organizing and saving them.

This almost decided me to take an anger management class, but overall, it was a good learning experience. I did learn to stay away from SAMS photo processing and use Costco instead. Walgreens is also good, but a lot more expensive.

Overall, I'm pleased with the quality of photos, and I love the convenience.

Now, if I can just learn to print my pictures right after I take them....

Bicycle

I've been getting back to my bicycle, assuming the weather still stays dry. I haven't gotten to where I can ride in the rain yet.

I usually get up around 4:00 a.m., walk for the paper (about 2 miles), read the paper and drink coffee until 6:00 a.m. and then go out for a bike ride with Aliene.

If it is raining, I'll go over to a club and ride on the stationary bicycle. Otherwise, later in the day, I try to ride again, especially on weekends. On weekdays, it depends on whether I have a meeting that night etc.

Hopefully, this will all help me lose weight. For some reason, my weight has been especially stubborn this time. Even if I don't, I enjoy the exercise.

Routine 7 9 05

The new house is progessing. We went out yesterday and made final "option" pricing selections. Next week we will probably make (or at least start) selections of colors etc. Aliene will enjoy that! Soon we will commit to the lot etc. and hopefully the house will start.

I got tired of feeling like I was being taken to the cleaners (so to speak) by local home lenders and I submitted an application to E-Loan. We received approval of a loan about .8% of a interest rate less, which is a considerable amount on a house loan! We'll see what happens, but at least the E-loan rate is affordable. We will use local lenders if at all possible.

Apartment life is actually still ok. The Lakeland Champion Hills apartments are professionally run and relatively quiet, for apartments. Our air conditioning went out Thursday and it was quickly fixed.

Routine

We have lived in the apartment a month now. Not bad overall, we do miss our garage! I didn't realize how much I used the garage until I didn't have one. (Kind of like water, I guess.)

I'm trying to get back into bicycling again after a period of not bicycling due to bicycle problems. Apparenlty the problem was the rim, which I thought from the beginning.

We are now starting the process of buying our house. We have selected the plans and the lot. Now we need to finalize the house "options" and the financing and hopefully we will be moving into our new house within five months!

Memphis had a real haze/smog cover last weekend and the first several weekdays. I had to take Aliene to the Little Rock airport and the haze lasted all the way and really got bad in Little Rock. Reminded me of the movie "Soylent Green", which I saw in 1974.

Aliene was flying to Oklahoma City to take care of her house. It is just too expensive to fly from the Memphis Airport on short notice. Little Rock has Southwest Air (need I say more?). Northwest is great (usually it is non-stop) if you have time to buy your ticket well in advance.

We do have our tickets to Boulder for the Courter Reunion, and we also have reserved a Mustang convertible, so we are plan on enjoying a real vacation! We are stopping to see Aliene's brother in Colorado Springs before the Reunion. We will be at the Reunion hotel on Friday night.