500 Saturdays: Nomad Diary

 Samuel, our youngest of 4 sons, asked if we could come help him with yardwork.  We didn't know what we got ourselves into, and my pictures only show after the work.  His backyard looked like a prairie with woody-stemmed weeds that were 2-3 feet tall.  It was everywhere.  He had pulled the weeds in the first few feet from his house, but it was tedious and time-consuming. Big weeds in Samuel's yard. The yard after pulling most of the weeds. Darrell is in the back working closer to the thorn bush.  We began at 9am and worked solid until 11:30.  The weeds pulled mostly easily with the roots coming up from the very moist gound.  We were done with much of the pulling and had a big thorn bush in the very back that needed attention as well as bagging up all our piles so far.  We left to take a break and ride out the hottest part of the day, and returned at 6pm and worked for another hour+ on the thorn bush and on bagging....

  Our oldest son, Eric and his wife Erin welcomed their child Owen Miles on Tuesday afternoon, September 14th.  Because of the covid restrictions, we didn't go to visit them at the hospital.  We chose to wait to see the baby a couple of days later at their house.   Our second son celebrated his 35th birthday also on September 14th.  Darrell told him he can easily remember Owen's birthday!  We met Wes at a local restaurant, Pain E Vino, downtown at Big Springs park for dinner on the patio.  Samuel, our youngest son also joined our celebration.  The weather was perfect for outdoor dining.  The food and the service were really good too. It was an amazing and joyful time to hold Owen at 2 days old, our 2nd grandson.  On Friday, I stopped by Eric's house to help with a couple of things and cook some chili to have for a convenient meal.  Erin's parents came from Birmingham a...

 Today was a luxury to sleep in until 6:30.  We had a couple of our windows open through the night to let in the cool, fresh air.  The nights are getting down just below 60 degrees and it feels nice.  From our duplex, we can walk around a neighborhood and back to our place in 30 minutes.  It is a nice shaded and quiet street.   We are in the waiting time for our grandbaby to be born any day in the next week.  Our daughter-in-law is on leave from work and able to rest and get more things ready for their new little one.  She was able to find a nice rocker-recliner that will be delivered next week.   I had an appointment at my work today and when I arrived, my room had been double booked.  I know my time is getting short to the ending of my work, but this conflict was disappointing and thankfully, not catastrophic! Darrell and I ate lunch out at an outdoor Mexican place near my work with our son Samuel.  He is our youngest an...

 Here is what I've discovered in this airbnb so far.  This is a new build duplex, low budget, but pretty nice.  Our 2 bedrooms and the end of our hallway share a wall with the nextdoor, 1 Bedroom duplex.  On the first night we were here, we chose to sleep in the bedroom with the bathroom attached.  I could hear our neighbor come in after we had just gone to bed.  He was quiet and I had no interruption going to sleep.  The room however had the noise of the airconditioner outside the window cycling during the night.  In the morning, I told Darrell that I'd like to move into the other bedroom and experience less noise and see how that room was for sleeping.  Our neighbor moved out, and we had no one next door until a couple of nights ago.   A couple arrived with two cars from different states.  The two nights that we have gone to bed gave us the experience of knowing 'paper thin walls'.  We could hear every bit of conversatio...