The artist is in

On one of our trips to San Antonio I discovered a cute little artist’s easel that folds up into a carrying box.  So on the way out of Lake Medina we stopped at Hobby Lobby and I bought Marilyn an early Christmas present.  She got it set up after we moved here to Colorado River and then spent the last couple of days varnishing it.  It’s a very complex little piece of equipment and it took a long time to coat all its various surfaces but today she pronounced it ready to use.  It wasn’t a really nice day out today so she is painting indoors tonight.  She needs one of those big floopy hats like artists wear and probably a sloppy shirt about 17 sizes too big but otherwise she is a artist.

We met a couple at Lake Medina who were planning to move here and then on to Lake Conroe.  Typically when we meet someone at a campground they move on or we move on and we don’t see each other again.  In this case they moved here the day before we did and today they moved on to Lake Conroe; we’ll follow them there on Sunday.  So we’re getting to know each other a bit and last night they dragged us along to a party night in the local town.  They called it Lady’s Night Out but there were lots of guys out too.  It was pretty hokey but we got a glass of wine and some bad hors d’oeuvres for $5 each so it wasn’t a completely wasted evening.  Its coming up to Christmas so every local crafting fool had a booth set up to sell whatever crap they think people should buy in the name of Christmas.  Its mind boggling what some people will spend their money on.  One guy had actually twisted barb wire in the shape of Christmas trees and then strung lights on them.  I think I heard him say he wanted $15 for the monstrosities but I didn’t get close enough that he might think I was interested.

Yesterday I got confirmation that my equipment should be in Navasota by Tuesday at the latest.  That means there’s a chance we’ll be out of here and maybe even back to the boat by Christmas.  For a while there I thought we might still be here for New Years so its good to be able to almost see the end of this project.  Not that I’m excited to get back to the prairie cold – this Texas winter is pretty easy to get used to.