Barns, Banks, Bridges and Birthdays

We celebrated Aunt Louise's 93rd birthday this past Sunday. She's still incredibly self sufficient, able to manage her daily needs despite her fading vision and loss of mobility. She makes the sandwiches for lunch and washes the dishes after meals. Her cat Sugar is her best motivation to keep her up and going.
My cousin, Auntie's great niece, drove over from Fort Worth to spend a few hours with us. We drove into town and picked up KFC for lunch and celebrated with birthday cake. Saturday night we celebrated at our favorite Chinese food place and Asian Bistro, Mr. Wok's where she ate sweet and sour shrimp. Yum.

This morning Dallas had a record breaking low temperature of 37 degrees. For this late in April, it's amazing after the 89 degrees we had a few days back.

The news on TV is filled with the disaster at West, Texas where a fertilizer plant exploded killing at least 15 people and leaving over a hundred injured. Others have lost their homes, possessions and loved ones. The explosion cut a crater 93 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The blast could be heard for 50 miles and measured 2.5 on the Richter Scale. West is 80 miles south of Dallas.

NBC DFW Channel 5 says, "The town of West is still struggling to its feet after the April 17 explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. plant killed 15 people, injured hundreds, destroyed 140 homes and wrought havoc on the town's infrastructure."



Old Bank Building in Lavon, TX on the Detour

I headed out early this morning to run some errands; stuff I used to get done on my lunch break now seems to take half a day. Started the morning dropping off the cardboard and plastic at the Recycling Center which is located in the fenced lot that houses the Cellular Tower and the RBS Shelter.

It brings back memories of my old days as a project manager to be this close to telecom equipment.




Cell Tower and Shelter across from the Recycling Bins

Last week's detour that reduced Highway 78 to intermittent one-way traffic is new and improved with a different detour that routed me through the City of Lavon. For a town with such a small population, they sure have the fancy police equipment. Very impressive.

The winding road led me to some picturesque views of the area and thankfully, I had the time to snap a few photos.

It was a gorgeous day.



Old Barn on the Detour



Detour on Hwy 78

New Bridge on the Overpass

Birthday Muffins on Income Tax Day

It's that time again; the deadline for filing tax returns. Thankfully, ours are finished and ready to be picked up at the CPA's office. We've been delighted with his services and he has filed our taxes for us since 1999. What a benefit to be assured that it's all done correctly with the latest changes in the tax rules. The bonus is that the fee is deductible on the next year's returns! Whoo hoo.

Today we celebrate two birthdays: one is my wonderful but dearly departed Buckwheat who would have celebrated her 35th birthday today if only dogs lived longer. Wow. She had a good long life for a large dog and made it to her sixteenth birthday. Not bad for a Flat Coated Retriever who weighed nearly 90 pounds.

The other birthday is the hubster who said he wanted chocolate chip muffins today rather than his usual yellow cake with chocolate icing. I got busy early and stirred them together. Here they are. Hope you enjoy these virtual beauties!



Yesterday's trip to Cosco yielded this box of Krusteaz Muffin mix with four packages included. Hubby wanted the big muffins and it made six huge ones or 12 regular sized ones. They're cooling now on the counter and the house smells delightfully of chocolate and baked cake. Can't wait for him to see them and taste test them.

We were tempted by the ready made muffins sold by the six pack in Cosco. But this package cost less for four packets of mix that make six muffins than cost of six muffins ready made. It doesn't even require a mixer to make them, just 3 eggs, a little liquid shortening and water. They baked in just twenty-four minutes. Yummo.

In The Misty Morning Fog with My Brown Eyed Dog

Morning fog

Patchy day

Sun comes out

Fog goes away.

 

 

Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison