After yesterday I declared today to be a day of rest. I’m still waiting on Roger to come ’round to pick up our sofa so the recliner is languishing 
in the corner, awaiting assembly — and with T-storms in the forecast for this afternoon I doubt that he’ll be able to drag the old sofa away until perhaps Monday.
So, with rain coming and a slightly cooler forecast I’m cooling my jets. I’ve been reading a book about the city of Venice and I might finish it today. Our friends the Ruffs went to Nuevo Progresso yesterday — maybe we’ll hear about their experience in Mexico and plan our own trip over the next few days/weeks. I’m not in any super hurry — don’t really need any chachkies and we’re getting enough Mexican food on this side of the border. 🙂 But seriously we’ll make a trip down there sometimes in the next few weeks. Just so I don’t forget our passports!
I never got around to looking up the racial balance of this area until 2 days ago and what I found is kind of obvious. This is a hugely hispanic area! Duh. It feels good to be back in an area where there is more diversity, even when it’s so largely a single non-white component. There is a small Asian component here too but the percentage is so small that it doesn’t really show on the graphic. I know it’s goofy but there are so many different kinds of people that I just feel better when I see that diversity around me. I don’t like being put into a mold and formed and fashioned — I think it’s a only right that diversity be tangible.
On the property scale, homes are quite a bit cheaper here than in Milwaukee — not that we have any intention of buying sticks & bricks again. But this is one of the most economical areas of the country in which to live. Having said that — I do have to say that after living in Oregon with ZERO sales tax that Texas’ 6.25% + 2.% county tax is a bit of a bummer. C’est la vie.
Fuel is cheaper — We’ve been paying between $2.15 & $2.30 / gal for gas. Diesel is around $3.15. / gal. (last I checked– seeing as we aren’t buying diesel right now the prices have kind of slipped below my radar).
Other things depend largely on where you purchase. The nationwide chains price their products at nationwide rates. The local dealers and retailers are often more reasonable and there are a lot of actual sales — as opposed to retailers who say something is on sale and if you compare their price from week to week you might find that the sale prices is actually higher than it had been the week before when it wasn’t ‘on sale.’ 
Over the years I’ve caught a number of retailers doing that.
We are still meeting more and more new people Both of us are having a hard time keeping up with the list of new names. One neighbor pulled in yesterday after a 2 week trip from Iowa that should have taken 4 days. It seems they broke down several times on the way here and by the time they arrived they were both pretty hyper! Another neighbor has been here 2 weeks — got all their Christmas decorations up — and left. They were going back to Kansas City MO for the holidays and then back down here. Another Canadian neighbor has been here about a month — has spent much of the last 2 weeks power sawing all day long — installing a floating wood floor in someone else’s RV before he takes off for Mexico for a month or more. There’s always something going on; and all you need do is sit in your lawn chair facing the street and voila, someone will sidle up and start a conversation. Turning AWAY from the street helps if you aren’t feeling talkative but it’s no guarantee. 🙂
We didn’t get out to go birding this week — but we’re waiting on Roger. Once he picks up the sofa we’ll be free to flit around the countryside as much as we choose. Or don’t choose. No one has said anything about feeding birds, but I have noticed that NO ONE here is feeding birds, not regular feed, nor for hummingbirds. In our limited experience RV’ing that’s almost unheard of. It seems wherever we go there’s always someone feeding the birds. Curious.
I have no sense of impending Christmas. There are lots of RV Christmas decorations around (in the RV park and elsewhere) but the sense of holiday just hasn’t sunk in. Christmas presents have been handled by UPS so that removes them even one additional step further. Peggy is usually the Christmas freak in our family — decorating all over the place — but even she is being quite subtle and controlled. I’m not sure who kidnapped my real wife!
There you have it. A quiet Friday in S. Texas. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll talk with you tomorrow.
From the Far Side of '70 
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