Silver Dollar City

We finished August with a great trip to Silver Dollar City on a day that was upper 60s-lower 70s with a light breeze, from time to time, partly cloudy. Perfect. Small Crowd. Perfect. Surprised to find a few of the craft booths were already set up for the fall session... including the gemstone jewelry folks. Nancy got an early selection from their collection.

It was a very good day! ;-)

Long Walk - Redux

As expected, great weather for a walk this morning. Made the full circuit up the hill to the far west, to far south of the complex, down to the valley on the east side, back up the hill to return to the north end of the complex.

It was another very good day! ;-)

Long Walk

Today, it was still cool enough this morning to go for the first long walk since we've been here full-time this summer - ok, so dropping the ten pounds helped, as well.

Walked to the far south end of the complex, and back, up and down all the hills. First time in a few years. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll do the high hill, as well. Supposed to be a little cooler. Won't push too hard, but no reason I can't do it. Sure does feel good!

It was another very good day! ;-)

Birthday Dinner - a little late

We finally took Allison to the Red Lobster this afternoon, for her "birthday" dinner! It was really quiet in Branson this afternoon. After we ate, we drove the full length of Highway 76; just like January!
The Fiddle Festival started downtown and at Branson Landing today, so everyone was probably there...

Worked out great, for us!

It was a very good day! ;-)

Power Outage

Suffered through out first power outage in Hollister, but we know they are not unusual from the number of times our clocks have been flashing 12:00 on our return. It was out, tonight, from about 8:15 p.m. to about 9:15 p.m.

Good opportunity to be sure we had our emergency supplies in place. Forgot to get out the cell phote, sorry Allison, but otherwise in pretty good shape. We went for a drive. Most everything out west of US 65 and south of Lake Taneycomo... even police station, McDonalds, grocery store and two service stations, among others. East of US 65 in Hollister seemed to be ok.

Will be interesting to hear what it was!

Otherwise, it was another good day! ;-)

Haircut Day

A major transition when moving to a new location for retirement is "who does the haircut/styling?" in the new community - old, new, what do you look for? How do you know? Nancy went last time to the new Pure salon in Branson Hills; reasonably happy, she returned, today, and got a much tighter trim...

Bill got by with a cheap barber the first time, but was looking for something better, this time. Found K.K. at 10 Downing Street in Historic Downtown Hollister. Went well. Professional. Inexpensive. Hope and assume I'll be as happy in a few weeks as I am today.

It was another very good day! ;-)

Hummingbird Update in Hollister

I have now seen two at the same time, circling Rex's flowers. I think I may have seen a third, a real small one, at one of our flowers. I cannot confirm three, since I have not seen them all at once, however.

So, for now, I'm happy there are two - all is normal in this little corner of the world.

It was another very good day! ;-)

First Day of Kindergarten

Alex going to first day of kindergarten has to be the highlight, today; even though it is Annette's birthday. Happy Birthday!


Way to go, Alex!

It was a very good day! ;-)

Wii Video games today

Nancy is having fantastic success with Animal Crossing tonight, while Fireworks is on from 7-12... all kind of big beetles and special fish caught, while music and fireworks loud and lively...

We are working on belles for lighthouse or windmill... 1,000,000. Already have the 500,000 donated for fountain. Waiting for it to be installed.

Went to Springfield this afternoon to pick up copy of Official Strategy Guide for Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility - game coming in a few days. We left our other copy with Alex. Allison rode along - we had lunch at Boston Market! Yum!

It was a very good day! ;-)

125th day of Wii Fit

Still doing 30 minutes, 3-4 days a week. Tonight, actually got my best score on 3 of the 7 balance games I do (in addition to yoga, aerobics, and others) - sometimes don't even make top 10 - must have been feeling pretty good. Weight is back down a bit... could that be part of it?

It was a very good day! ;-)

Preseason NFL

Got to see the Dallas Cowboys vs. Tennessee Titans at the new $1.2 billion Cowboys stadium in High Def TV, at home, tonight.

versus
Dallas won, not that anyone really cares, in preseason....

Allison came over for pizza and we watched the first half, together. Fun evening.

It was a very good day! ;-)

Sunday Brunch

Last Sunday, in Austin, we all went to brunch at the Waterloo Ice House, a great place for the family - there is playground outside, to the right, for the kids, as rest of adults are finishing eating... Ben got play supervision duty, this time... we alternate.


Got this good photo of Alex and Arrion with SMILES! What fun!



Allison brought us fresh banana bread, today, Thursday!

It was a very good day! ;-)

Kids in Austin

I will share a couple of photos today from the weekend in Austin, before I get off on other things.

This is among the many activities Nancy had with the kids. They both like computer stuff!!


Arrion fixed Kaylee's hair in a pony-tail! Cute!


It was another very good day! ;-)

Made it home from Longview on Tuesday

Good trip back through the Ouachita National Forest.

It was a good day! ;-)

Hello - Longview, Texas

Spending the night in Longview,Texas, enroute back home from Austin. Left mid-afternoon, up US 79... good route, but more traffic today than on Saturday, going down. Here, we are on US 259, ready to head north through eastern OK to Fort Smith, to try out that road. "Arkansas Scenic Byway" in western AR from Fort Smith to Texarkana took an hour more than it should have, for the distance.

It was a very good day! ;-)

Farther to Austin

It definitely is farther to Austin from Hollister than from Emporia. On Saturday, I took the more rural route - a long day. Now believe I can cut of an hour using an alternate route. We would like to avoid both Dallas and Fort Worth. US 79 through East Texas directly into Austin is very good. Getting from Ft. Smith, AR, to US 79 is the next step. Perhaps we'll try the other way, using US 259 through eastern OK coming back. Think we will leave on Tuesday, perhaps stay overnight in Fort Smith. Do some sight-seeing along the way.

It was a very good day! ;-)

Family Photo on Aug 8

This is almost an action photo, but Kaylee did stop wiggling for a second and Alex is pretty good. This particular view is cropped from one Jolene took (THANKS!), of all of us, after a long day.

As always, you can click on the photo to see the larger image. Feel free to copy, if you wish, and desire your own copy.

It was a very good day! ;-)

On the Back Deck

This first photo of Kaylee, my 21-month old grand-daughter, inspired this writing on the deck. What can you say? Just a neat shot!


It also gives a nice view of Rex's new addition to his deck, next door, and on down the line. So, I've added this one of Arrion grilling, to see the line of decks going south, as well, to get the full view. This was a couple of days ago... just downloaded the photos.


I'll be off to Austin on Saturday. Nancy went with Arrion, Alex and Kaylee on Thursday.

It was a very good day! ;-)

More from Anniversary Celebration

The two photos today (both happen to come from Arrion's camera, thank you!) highlight some of the benefits of having the celebration that we had.

The first is the members of the wedding party that were present (Carolyn, Barry, Al, Joel and Bob, plus Nancy and Bill, of course):


The second has the six Bolger siblings who were all here (Janice, Al, and Carolyn from Iowa; Bob from Louisiana; and Joel from Alaska). Neat!


It was another very good day! ;-)

GeoCaching - Dewey Bald

Arrion, Alex and I went GeoCaching today, to check out the geocache at Dewey Bald, that I put out in 2002 and still gets visited by someone, from around the world, multiple times a week. In the photo, Alex and I are checking where we are on the trail...


The cache was in good shape. Alex found it nicely, with Arrion helping out on the GPS. We cleaned it out a bit; the book was still in great shape and had space left. Great walk. We also hiked the upper end of the Henning Glade trail.

Nancy goes back to Austin with Arrion and Alex and Kaylee on Thursday; I'll go down on Saturday.

It was another very good day! ;-)

Saturday Celebration Photo

Just one of many, many great photos to help us remember a really great weekend with family from across the country. We really appreciate all the efforts folks made to be with us to celebrate this very special time.


This is of us with the cake, of course - Arrion did a fantastic job coordinating the event at the club house, aided by Annette and Allison. I believe this is one of Arrion's photos, as well. Thanks for everything!

It was another really great day! ;-)

This is our 50th Wedding Anniversary Day!

We spend Friday, the day of our 50th Wedding Anniversary surrounded by family from several states. Visits at the cabin, all day, and 18-20 at McFarlin's Restaurant at the IMAX complex for evening meal and fellowship.

It was another very good day! ;-)

The Celebration Begins...

A number of family members arrived this afternoon and this evening.

Some of us had supper at the Lone Star, next door to the Comfort Inn.

It was a very good day! ;-)

Less than 48 hours....

Our 50th Wedding Anniversary isn't until Friday, and the "celebration" is Saturday afternoon and evening... but, we heard today that a number of folks will be arriving on Thursday afternoon. We need to get Larry from the Springfield airport late Thursday afternoon, and we thought that was the beginning, but no...

So, tomorrow will speed up the house-cleaning and preparation for arrival of family. Really looking forward to all being here, but it sure changes our routine! Good for us, I'm sure...

Travel safely!

It was another very good day! ;-)

Nancy's Birthday

Today, August 3, of course, is actually Nancy's birthday. She got to do whatever she wanted to, all day. She sent me for a birthday cake. Got lucky, there was a real good one available.


And, it tasted really good!

It was another very good day! ;-)

Breakfast Brunch for Nancy

Nancy's birthday is Monday, but we started celebrating this morning with one of her favorites, Sunday Brunch at the Grand Country Buffet. You can arrive about 11 a.m. and have excellent breakfast off the buffet, and then move on to the regular dinner buffet, if you wish. Great salad bar - fresh pineapple and strawberries, today - plus a dependable assortment of delicious offerings.


As one server was snapping this photo, another, over her shoulder said: "Smile!" We all did. Came out pretty good. I suspect we would recommend this for next Sunday for our anniversary celebration, for all those interested and available to join us!


Near the middle of Sunday final day at the Buick Open, with Tiger Woods leading, as I write this.

Looks like another very good day! ;-)