Ninety Years Old

At Sister’s House in Citrus Heights

   

Both mom and dad have birthdays in April…dad’s was on Sunday, an April Fools baby.

To celebrate the occasion, we thought “wild turkey” would be in order…but alas, them critters are hard to catch….so….

Black Angus was our secondary choice.  Saturday late afternoon, before they are too busy, those children and spouses who were able to attend, took dad there for his favorite…Prime Rib.  Pictured left to right are Marcia, sister Patti, sister Sandy, Arny (behind Sandy), mom, dad, Rochelle (Roger’s wife) and just out of the picture to the right, brother Roger. 

    

On Sunday we gathered again for an Easter – April Fools – Birthday dinner.  Easter has fallen on Dad’s birthday only four times in his lifetime, 1934, 1945, 1956, and 2018…and will do so again in 2029, but dad says he does not want to be around ‘that’ long…which is understandable. 

We asked permission from the Fire Department to put 90 candles on the cake…but they said ‘no way’.  I think there are 90 sprinkles on it instead…

    

In the upper left picture are dad’s brother’s two children who were able to attend, Richard (far left) and Barbara (next to Richard), along with Richard’s wife Marci, and Roger’s wife Rochelle.  Barbara lives in Italy, and I had not seen her for many years, and it was the first time she had met my wife Marcia.  In the upper right picture is my son Michael (far right behind dad) and his wife to be Anna (July wedding) to the left of Michael (his right, picture left).  In the bottom picture is Arny’s mother Euleda (left) along with my mom and sister Patti.

Above, Sandy and Arny, whose home we all gathered at, enjoy talking to Marci and Richard, who live in the Santa Cruz area…and Marcia and I plan to go over to their place in early May for a few days as part of our May excursion. 

   

And now that I got these two in the blog, I think I got a picture of everyone, although Roger only got his arm in a picture.

When I took mom and dad home, mom asked me to get a picture of their front door…the Independent Living Facility had decorated it for Dad’s birthday…so sweet of them. 

Unfortunately, Sunday also brought with it some sad news.  Marcia’s cousin, through her first husband, Sophie, passed away.  The above picture is from October 2016.  Every year we have driven through Fort Smith to visit with Sophie, who was 95 years old.  She will be missed, but we know she is no longer in any pain, and with our Lord.  Prayers to her family and friends who are mourning her loss.  We still plan to stop in Fort Smith to see her son Jim and wife Pat later this summer/fall.

66 Years–Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

One’s 65th Anniversary is called the Blue Sapphire Anniversary.  When you have your 66th Anniversary, there is no such honor.  So instead we made up our own….the Black Angus Anniversary.

Stuart Anderson founded the Black Angus Steakhouse chain in 1964.  They entered the Sacramento market when I was working for Mr. Steak back in the 1970’s, one in South Sacramento and one in Citrus Heights.  Only the Citrus Heights location is still in business.  As a restaurant chain, Black Angus once boasted over 100 locations….now down to 45 locations in six Western States.  As the name suggests, they serve Black Angus Beef, although they also have Seafood, Salads, and the normal items you would find in a classic Steakhouse.

Here is mom and dad above giving grace during our Memorial Day BBQ nearly two weeks ago.  I failed to take my camera to Black Angus today because I got caught up in the time…thinking it was a 5:30 dinner, instead it was a 4:30 dinner….barely had time for my shower after getting a few repairs done with the motorhome today.  (The above picture of the steakhouse was taken off the Internet from their website.)

Today I finished installing our LED floor lights which I got from Amazon, pack of 10 for $9.99.  Thought that was a pretty good deal.  Getting down on the ground to replace them, not such a good deal…but it was worth it.

Wednesday I replaced three of our lamps with these LED lights.  These were $9.95 each, and each lamp took two lights.  Not as good of a deal, but it was needed to in order to keep the draw of the battery down when we are not plugged into power.  They also give off a brighter, whiter light than we had before, so that is a bonus.

Also installed this AVIVA TRIO Dispenser in the shower.  This is our second dispenser in a motorhome, and we like having the convenience of not having to open and shut the soap, shampoo and conditioner bottles during each shower…and especially like not having to bend down and pick up said containers when they get knocked off a shelf, or fall from our hands.

We are having a slight problem with a few of the windows.  The window cornice is in two parts, and the inner part is stapled to the outer part from the inside.

As you can see with this one, they have a tendency to separate.  The one in the bedroom on Marcia’s side had a massive seperation…so much so that it was hard to raise the window shades because the shade would get caught up on the inner portion of the cornice.  So I took the cornice and shade down (all in one piece, which made that easier….only four screws!), and Arny used his staple gun on it and I put it back.  It now looks like the first window picture above.  I am going to get us a staple gun because I KNOW that it will need to be used from time to time.

Need to get back over to Camping World and get one of these Pleated Shades First Aid Kits.  Had one in our last motorhome…and of course, it went up in flames too.  Need to replace some of the cord retainers on a few windows too, and having the strings, springs and guides will come in handy “IF” a shade completely falls apart…which I am hoping never happens. 

    

Previous I talked about the missing propane line…well, Kerry McColloch at McColloch’s RV repair and storage called today and the line he ordered was in.  So around 3:00 pm Arny and I crawled under the motorhome and Arny installed the line in about 10 minutes or so….with the “or so” being the time needed to go back to his garage and get the proper tools…along with an “or so” for the time to find the white silicon tape used on the threads of the new fitting.

The new line did not need this elbow, which Arny removed first.  One end went where the elbow was, and the other went on the reverse side of the yellow cover in the picture above-left.  Then it was a matter of using tie downs to secure it, and it was done.  We should be able to get propane now, which I plan to do on Friday or Saturday.  And since we started this project at 3:00….and dinner at Black Angus was at 4:30 and not 5:30 like we both thought, it made for a quick shower and out the door in order to get there…and now you know why I forgot to take the camera for the 66th Anniversary Dinner at Black Angus.

And how was dinner?  Two had Prime Rib, three had New Yorks, and two had Filet Mignon (the coupon we used had Filet Mignon on it in place of Ribeye).  Since six of us were using three “Campfire Feast”, they came with three appetizers, and three desserts.  All I can say is that we were all stuffed when we left, and the three desserts came home in boxes for later consumption.  And mom remembered to share a little of her Filet Mignon with Skruffy and Bubba, who gobbled it as fast as they could.  We are blessed to still be able to enjoy mom and dad and to celebrate their 66 years together.