Karl’s Korner

Three ears of sweet corn later…

Good evening, family, friends and fans,

Paul and Glenda invited us over for shrimp with sweet corn, the first home-cooked meal we have had in ages – man, was it good! I ate three ears of sweet corn, one of my favorites, and lots of shrimp. Carol did her own style of damage to her corn. I eat mine by going straight across, eating about four rows of kernels at a time. Carol just has at it, biting in wherever she finds her teeth hitting corn.

I remember when we were stationed at Scott AFB in Illinois. As we came home from work, we would pass this unmanned vegetable stand along the country highway. Corn, tomatoes, and whatever else the farmer had to sell was stacked or sacked, lying on the table, along with an old cigar box. There was a hand-made sign stating the cost of each item – 12 ears of sweet corn for $1.00, tomatoes were ten cents apiece, etc. You picked up what you wanted, put the correct amount of money in the cigar box, (or made change if you had to), and went on your way. No one ever cheated the farmer, and no one ever stole the cigar box or as far as I know, any of the money. Those were the good old days.

Today, if you attempted to do this, first BO would send his vegeatable Czar your way, telling you that you had to hire five or six people at a wage above the minimum to man your booth, but only after you filled in all the government forms asking permission to establish such a business. Then, if you didn’t pay taxes on every ear of corn, they would fine you and confiscate your crop and fields.

If, somehow, you were able to have the stand still unmanned in this day and age, someone wouild come along, steal all the vegetables to re-sell at a local flea market, steal the money in the cigar box, break the cigar box into small pieces, just for the hell of it, and then rip your stand aparty for fire wood to roast the corn over. It is a different world out there.

But, the neal was delicious, and we enjoyed our conversation. It is nice to have such good friends. The art of conversation is really lacking in the world anymore. Just think, we didn’t have to text them, or they didn’t have to email us to ask us over – I saw them at WAB at noon, while Carol was at her luncheon, and they verbally invited us to supper. No cell phones involved, none needed.

We received a notice from MDA today saying Carol was scheduled for an MRI in early July, but supposedly, they told us if she was still in remission at the last MRI – April – we wouldn’t have to return for a year. I phoned to ask what was up, but no reply so far. I will call again on Monday.

Carol had a good time at her luncheon – all the women wore hats for some reason, I never did find out why – guess that is their secret, but they sure looked nice. I am glad she can still get out and have a few laughs with the ladies of the community.

We have seen several ads for the “Destination America” channel, on the Discovery Channel, but still haven’t seen on featuring us, or the WAB here in Rockport. We will keep watching – hope you will do the same.

But, it is late, and I think I’ll hit the sack a little early. I really didn’t do much extra today – fixed my coyote like I said last night, and worked on yet another novel, so not a too busy day.

Thanks to the folks from India who dropped by to see my blog. Hope you will return and possibly order a few of my novels on Kindle.

Until tomorrow,
Vaya con Dios, our friends,
Karl & Carol

Another great day…

Good evening, family, friends and fans,

Today was a carbon copy of yesterday, and I got in 22 round trips on my bike.  I love riding, wish I could take longer trips, but have to stick around the house in case Carol needs something. 

Not a lot to talk about tonight, and I really don’t want to get into BO tonight for a change.  He is digging his own hole, and hopefully we will cover him up in November. 

I bought new lights for the flagpole today, and installed them, then forgot to turn them on before raising the flagpole all the way up.  I need to check them tonight to see that they are doing the job.  I used the ones that usually go along a sidewalk, removing the stake part, which made them easy to install.  Then, I discovered that the stakes will fit over the Coyote statue I have out front, on the bottom, as the steel posts have rusted and one just broke off.  Tomorrow, I will drill two holes through the bottom of the statue, and attach the plastic stakes, which should do the job and keep the Coyote howling at the gaslight for years to come.

Carol has a luncheon tomorrow, and I need to take her to get her nails touched up.  She has a nervous habit of rubbing her fingers together, which doesn’t do the polish job any favors.  Hopefully they won’t need much time to patch two nails.  We both need haricuts before the cruise.  I checked our Mess Dress, and they are in good shape.  I had them cleaned after our last cruise, but that was a couple years ago.  I may take Carol over to Walmart to see about a couiple new tops.  But, overall, I think we are ready to pack soon.

I have to make reservations at a hotel near the airport and hope they will allow us to park our van and Kris’ in their parking lot for the week, even if they charge for the parking.  It will be easier than driving to one of those parking lots along the highway to the airport, carrying our luggage from the van to their shuttle and then having to do the same at the airport.  Let’s hope the hotel has a shuttle, which I think they most likely do.

We are using a suite of rooms on this trip.  We were upgraded to one on another cruise, and really enjoyed the extra room.  With Kris, we will need the bed formed by the hide-a-bed couch in the living area. 

I sent our trip plan into Corporate and to our publicity agent, so if we have any interviews in the Dallas area, they can arrange them for us and let us know.  We are all looking forward to the Discovery Channel program. 

But, for tonight, I think that about covers it.  Check out my novels while you are here.  They are all available on Kindle for a whopping $2.99 each – download a few, or all of them – you won’t be sorry.

Vaya con Dios, our friends,

Karl & Carol

A new game show…

Good evening, family, friends and fans,

Since we have driven so many miles in our quest to visit all 722 Whataburger stores, this latest game show seems very interesting:

Due to the popularity of the “Survivor” shows, Texas is planning to do one entitled: “Survivor, Texas-Style!”

The 8 contestants will all start in Dallas, then drive to Waco, Austin and San Antonio. Then, over to Houston and down to Brownsville. They will proceed up to Del Rio, El Paso, Odessa, Midland, Lubbock and Amarillo . From there they will go on to Abilene and Fort Worth . Finally back to Dallas .

Each will be driving a pink Prius with bumper stickers that read:

1 “I am a Democrat”

2 “Amnesty for Illegals”

3 “I love the Dixie Chicks”

4 “Boycott Beef”

5 ” I Voted for Obama”

6 “George Strait Sucks”

7 “Re-elect Obama in 2012″

8 ” I am here to confiscate your guns”

The first one to make it back to Dallas alive wins.

God Bless Texas!

Be sure to watch from now until November, for the thrilling conclustion…

Vaya con Dios, our friends,

Karl & Carol

Another lovely day in Paradise…

Good evening, family, friends and fans,

Lots of sunshine today, but for once, the wind was very light and riding my bike was a breeze – pun intended…We sat outside for an hour tonight – the gulls came around begging me for popcorn, and at first I thought about not making any, but relented and went inside, only to find they had all disappeared when I returned with a pan of popcorn for them. It was nearly a half-hour (a near record) waiting for them to return. Then, one lone gull arrived, I guess he was the brave one, and in less than two minutes, we had 100 of them, and the popcorn was history.

I keep thinking I am getting caught up on things, and then something else arrives, and there I am, working on another project. I finished the trip plan for the last big trip to the Dallas area, and doublechecked it, and will send it to WAB soon. We don’t plan on leaving until the 22nd of June and will do the 47 stores in 5 days…hopefully. We may stay an extra night on the road home, as we finish with 8 stores on Tuesday, the 26th, and I may be too tired to drive all the way home.

Now, I have to re-do my address book – over the many years that the old one has served us well, it has become cluttered with new addresses over old, and sometimes is confusing, so I plan to straighten that out in a new, larger book.

I am also working on re-editing my novels – one more time – for Kindle, and just finished “The Cyrus Caper” – now to move on to the next one, and the next one, and the….. you know….

Just remembered I have a load of laundry in the dryer, so will head out there to fold it and put it away in the morning. Nothing like keeping busy late at night…

So, with nothing much else on my mind, I will close for tonight.

Vaya con Dios, our friends,
Karl & Carol

A rainy day in Rockport

Good afternoon, everyone,

I am taking a chance and typing this on my laptop – which has been known to lose everything in a heartbeat…

I have been on my laptop all afternoon, finalizing our WAB tour trip to the Dallas area. I discovered I missed one store, so had to go back and correct that, but, I believe the draft is done, and we know which stores we will visit, in what order – hopefully…

I was riding my bike today, and noticed that it was getting dark, and looked behind the house to find a huge storm headed our way – the sky was a nasty black, and it looked like we might get some severe weather, so I ran around telling our neighbors to put their garage doors down, vehicles inside, etc. It did rain fairly well, with lots of thunder, but I guess it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Now, the sky is overcast, but the rain has ceased. Anything we get now, is great!

We have to get ready for the cruise to Alaska soon. I need to check our formal mess dress to insure they are pressed and in good shape for the formal nights. Then, it’s time to think about packing and just what we will take. Since this is only a seven day cruise, we won’t need much. Sweatshirts usually are okay for shore excursions, and daytime activities on board the ship. Smart casual for dinnertime, except for probably two formal nights, and the Captain’s party, and the Captain’s Circle get-together. Kris will enjoy everything for the first time, so that will be fun.

We helped out at our WAB on Business 35 yesterday afternoon, when they were selected as “Business of the Month” by the local Chamber of Commerce. Toni, the manager, got a nice plaque and now they have a large sign hanging from their fence declaring them the business of the month.

We received an agreement form to sign for the Discovery Channel to use our personal photographs in their advertisements, so I took that to the bank and FAXed it to them this morning. The show will be on the “Destination America” channel, a new one for the Discovery Network. I’ll let you all know when it will be aired.

Not a lot happening – Carol’s cough is still hanging around, but I think she may finally be getting rid of it – she isn’t as bad as in the past. Maybe the meds are working and she will be okay for the cruise.

Whatabuddy is sitting on the couch with Whataalien in his lap, and has a big smile on his face – whether it if from fear, or he is happy, I can’t tell.

Now that I have the draft of our trip plan complete, I will doublecheck it tonight and then work on making up some more baskets for our WAB auction. There are still a lot of items to get ready.

But, I guess that’s about it for today.

Vaya con Dios, our friends,
Karl & Carol