LOCATION: Our tiny house in Mission, Texas
WEATHER: Ongoing heat and humidity

The morning was filled with exercise – water aerobics (me) and gym (George). He bikes to and from the clubhouse. I usually walk, but in the heat, I rely on the pick-up. (I seem to whine a lot about the heat, don’t I?) 🙂

In the afternoon, I went to our mall to get new lenses for my scratched-up glasses. I just hate driving here. The interstate that connects towns in our area is under construction, and traffic is a mess. The speed limit is 70 and on the frontage roads, it is 55. Crazy! Mission is part of the Rio Grande Valley. We are about 1/2 mile from the border.

We did computer work at the clubhouse in the heat of the day. I crossed off a lot of my to-dos: 1) rental car from here to Austin to pick up our $149 Norwegian Air flights to London, 2) finalized our safari plans for Botswana, 3) reserved a B&B in Southampton, England before our housesitting assignment, 4) organized our VIP papers – wills, pensions, etc, 5) and reserved a rental car for our housesitting assignment outside of Southampton. Wow!

Later in the day, a Mexican fellow knocked on the door. Being hot outside, we welcomed him into the house. Later, I realized that we probably shouldn’t have done that, as we are advised that illegals pass through our area, and sometimes try to enter houses. But, I like to think that we are humane people, and wanted to help him. It turned out that he had washed our Airstream last year, and was checking to see if we wanted it washed and treated again. Generalizations are dangerous, but we have found that all of the Mexicans (legal and illegal) here are extremely hard-working and kind. They do really hard, unpleasant work that most white people would not do – like working in 100+ temperatures doing grueling work. This guy was just drumming up business ….the American way!

KARMEN’S KITCHEN TIP: Thought of one more, even though we are not camping right now. It is related to the kitchen drain strainer I mentioned the other day. That strainer helps keep little pieces of food out of the drain which can create bad odors. In addition to that, we treat the drains about once a month while we are on the road….. I put about 1/2 cup of laundry detergent and 1/2 cup of water softener down the toilet. Then, add a lot of water. I do the same with the bathroom and kitchen sinks, but just cut it in half for each. This seems to help keep things smelling nice and fresh.

DINNER: Shrimp tacos. Full of grilled shrimp, sauted veg, salsa and cheese Bueno!