LOCATION:  In our tiny house in Retama Village, in Mission, Texas
WEATHER:  Another hot one – high 94.  A “cold front” is supposed to come in tonight

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise.  One of our Village residents took this photo of the  sunrise peeking through our clubhouse

I took a walk around the neighborhood before it got too hot.  It is interesting to look at the car/RV license plates to see where people are from.  The majority of the plates are Texas ones.  This is because many Winter Texans live here 6 months and 1 day, so that they can claim Texas (a non-income tax state)  as their primary home.  Similarly, you see several plates here from South Dakota, another non-income tax state that welcomes full-time RVers to claim SD as their home state.  Beyond TX and SD, I saw plates from (in somewhat descending order) Nebraska, Ontario, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Alaska, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Arizona, Florida, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and even Hawaii!  Many of the driveways, however, are empty as people have fled the Rio Grande Valley to hunker down in their Northern homes.

I did a yoga session in the air-conditioned Airstream, then a chair yoga YouTube practice.  I am really trying not to blimp up!

George decided that the bedroom armoir was leaning a bit (although I did not notice anything wrong).  So, he took it all apart, squeezed it through our narrow hallway, and turned it upside down in the dining area.  Not a small feat!  He moved the levelers around until he was satisfied.  My assignment was to clean it up well, before we put it back.  That project killed a few hours!  🙂

When happy hour time rolled around, we treated ourselves to a passion fruit gin and tonic.  When we were housesitting in South Africa, a few months ago, there was a huge passion fruit vine in the backyard that provided about 10 perfectly ripe passion fruits daily.  We made up this G&T  recipe and really liked its taste.  So, when we were shopping recently, we spotted a few fruits in the produce section.  Unlike being free in South Africa, each fruit was $2.00.  Obviously we will not be doing this often, but it was a  fun splurge today.

To accompany our cocktails, I grilled the rest of the tofu that we had had yesterday.  I squeezed as much moisture as I could out of the tofu, then cut it in small cubes, fried the cubes in a small amount of oil in a non-stick pan, then served drizzled with a soy/ginger sauce. 

Then, the fun began.  Copying Italy’s coping mechanism, one of our talented residents announced that he would be doing a saxophone serenade in front of his house.  At sunset, several of us walked or rode golf carts to his street to listen to him play his tenor and alto sax.  He performed a lot of favorites, including Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World”.  It was quite moving.  We all kept our 6+ – feet distance, sitting in driveways, on bicycles, and in golf carts.

DINNER:  Spinach quiche, topped with a sauce made of green onions, mushrooms, more wilted spinach and goat cheese.  Side was grilled asparagus.