Friday’s outing

Have you ever heard of the Freshman 15?  The term "Freshman 15" is an expression commonly used in the United States that refers to an amount (arbitrarily set at 15) of weight gained during a student's first year at college.  Consort and I are suffering from the Coronavirus 15.  We've spent entirely too much time sitting around reading books and snacking.  Because these are such trying times, our evening meals consist mainly of home-cooked, southern-style, comfort foods.  To keep the blues at bay, I endeavor to make desserts at least a couple of times a week.  All of this adds up to the Coronavirus 15.  (And let's just leave it there, shall we?  I don't own scales and refuse to believe it could be any more than that.)

Today we drove to McAllen, Texas, about an hour north of Brownsville to check out the city and do a little shopping.  Okay, okay.  The honest hard truth is that we went to buy new pants.  If you could see me right now, you'd know I was hanging my head dejectedly in shame.

We knew it was going to be a pretty hot day today, and there was shopping that had to be done, but we decided to take the wee mangy mongrels with us.  There is nothing Annie likes better than to go for a long truck ride; it's conducive to her napping.  We reached our destination in McAllen and found a shady spot to park.  We opened the windows and sunroof to keep the heat at bay and the dogs as cool as possible.

Let the shopping begin!

In the time it took me to scope out the Ladies Apparel section, and just as I was getting ready to dive in, consort appeared.  He said he was finished shopping and had made his selections.  I smiled, then suggested he might want to try on his choices.  He grinned back at me and said that he already had.  Are you kidding me?  I promise you, not more than ten minutes had passed!  We agreed I would continue to shop while he paid for his items, then he would head back to the truck and walk the dogs.

I'm really not a marathon shopper, unless daughter happens to be with me, and today I zipped through the store making all of my selections in record time.  I don't believe I was in the store longer than 45 minutes from start to finish.

Before we left this morning for McAllen, I verified there was a city dog park.  The dogs were happy to learn that there was.  The park was close to where we shopped and easy to find.  It was quite large and very pretty.  We were pleased to find it had lots of shade trees.  The only thing missing in the park was a source of water for the dogs.  But no need for concern; we always pack plenty of water for all dogs and humans on board.   

I don't believe I've ever posted any pictures of the dog park near Brownsville, mostly because there's nothing to take a picture of -- well, except the adjacent scary dog pound.  There are no trees, no shaded benches for humans; and at this time of the year, there is very little grass.  It does, however have water fountains for the dogs.  I guess everything in life is a trade-off, isn't it?

After all of this, and because we have bigger pants, we stopped at Delia's Tamales for lunch.  Without question, these were the best, and most unusual, tamales we've ever had.  We may have to make the trip to McAllen one more time just for the tamales, and possibly more pants.