Getting Back to Normal

We are slowly getting back to normal here. We've done some things in the last couple of weeks or so that we had not done in a long time.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Donna and I went to her hometown of Conroe to see her 3 brothers. This occurred the weekend of May 7th, almost one month ago. We stayed in a hotel for 2 nights, and we ate in a restaurant for the first time in well over a year. The group decided to eat at Rudy's BBQ in the Lake Conroe area. It was a good choice. The place is very open, and we felt comfortable there. To top it off, the brisket was great!

We attended grandson Xander's graduation on May 20th. That was difficult for me, as there were so many people there. It's going to take a while for me to get used to being in a crowd; I never have cared for crowds, though.  But we couldn't miss his graduation. He's off to conquer the world now. One down, two to go. Hope we're around when Camden and Jensen graduate.

Donna and I celebrated our 44th anniversary last week. We had been discussing whether or not to eat out. For weeks, we had been watching Red Lobster. We'd drive by while running errands at various times of the day and noticed the parking lot was never very full. We decided it was a safe choice because it is so roomy inside. We got there for a late lunch, sometime after 2:00 PM. Only a few people were there as they were only using a few tables. We had to wait for 10 minutes or so, then were seated. Only about 4 or 5 other tables/booths were occupied at the time. 

We've always liked our Red Lobster. The environment is nice, service is usually very good, the salads are great -- I especially like the Caesar salad -- and the biscuits are wonderful. The only thing about Red Lobster we really aren't crazy about is the seafood. But it's certainly adequate. We had a nice meal and we felt safe.

This past Saturday, we went to the clubhouse for bingo. The clubhouse has gradually been reopening the past few weeks, and local activities are re-starting. I'm not sure how many people in our community have been vaccinated, but I feel that a large number have. I know on the days we went for our 2 shots, quite a few people were there, and we were scheduled in alphabetical order. It was nice to see old friends again. Donna returned to the clubhouse earlier this week to play cards.

And we have trips planned soon. We will probably take a couple of trips this summer. If things continue to improve, then we will schedule more trips for the fall.

It's nice to be getting back to something resembling normalcy. 

In closing, we've had scant rainfall in town this spring; in fact, on the news last night, it was reported that we were over 4 inches below our norm. Now, when you don't get much rain to begin with, 4 inches is substantial. Areas around us have had good rain. Fortunately, most farms in the area have received rain. It just seemed that we weren't getting much rain in town.

Late yesterday, a storm began moving into the area. However, it just grazed the northern part of town and moved on. I thought we were missing out again. Then, sometime after midnight this morning, a storm moved in and seemed to settle in the area. I think I even heard some light hail, but it must have been very small. This has been a good rain. I checked the gauge about 7:45 this morning, and it registered a little more than an inch. I had hoped for more, but I'm thankful for this much. After all, beggars can't be choosers.

Stay safe out there.