Friday, Jan 15th

Started the day off with a bike ride.  It has been chilly at night and although warmer during the day, about 10-12 degrees below normal.  For me this means, no short pants yet and a coat on the morning bike ride.  It was nice that Larry is back on his bike, as it has been about a week since his fall at the service station.  We stopped and picked up Gary, so just 3 this AM. We took a short route, only made about 3 miles as Larry was not feeling up to much more and we never leave anyone to go back on their own.  The only exception is in rain where it is every man for himself.
  As a result I was back early.  My hands were pretty cut up from the vent stops I was making, so I sprayed sealant on some of the leaks on the carport.  There were a few areas where it dripped badly in the rains last week.  There was also a small roof leak, so I applied a special coating to an area at the front of it.  I also had some gutter to clean out as it was caked with mud, likely from the dust storms this past summer.
  Marg went out and cashed the big Powerball ticket.  It turned out our $8 win was double that because of the options we had chosen, so $16.  Instead of cash, she took a $15 ticket for Saturday's draw and the dream lives on.  $1.5 billion is an insane amount for a prize, we would be happy with a normal win or a piece of one.  The only winners in Az were million dollar winners, well that's not chump change, we would do nicely with something like that, so we are back in the draw.  She also stopped at the Superstition Farmers market for veg & potatoes.  In the end she came home with some great produce for $11.
  When she got back we had a bite of lunch. We also tried to sort out our calendar.  We are starting to get too many commitments to leave it to memory, so started putting them on our calendar and on the phone calendar.  I'm not sure why, but that seems to be the way it ends up here.  How busy can it be, well we are booking in February now.
  After lunch Marg had a friend stop in.  She & Marg have buddies for quite a few years now & she is quite hilarious/serious.  What a combination.  Anyway she is organizing a small group gathering [38] to have deep fried turkey on Monday & Marg wanted to clarify what she is contributing to it.  There is also a celebration of life on Sunday.  Quite a few people in the park died in the last year and given we are from such a wide geographic area, the residents here don't get to deal with it in a comforting way.  This is just one of the downsides to retirement, everyone is getting old.  Anyway there has been quite a bit of question on where and when, so I made her a couple of posters for the event.  She also needs pictures of the departed for the event and I always seem to have some , if it is someone who we have done things with.  This was the case with Bud, he was always at happy hour and came by often during out renovation, giving us his official building inspector approval.  That kind of became a standing joke.  Anyway we managed to print off a couple for the event.  There was also a lot of other stuff discussed, that I really didn't follow, but the ladies seemed to be satisfied with the outcome.
   Supper tonight was out with Binger's & Blanke's for all-you-can-eat cod.  We went to a different restaurant this time, Dirtwater Café.  We have been there a few times with the Blanke's, but it was a first for the Bingers.  It is a regular routine, Kenny almost always drives, picks us up first, then Bingers.  Marg & Doris sit in the 3rd row seats, Bingers in the rear seat and I always get the passenger seat up front with Kenny.  The restaurant is always busy, but as usual we went to the patio part where they have a singer; country & western, as you would expect here.  The cod was very good, the beer was at happy hour prices, what else could you ask for?  When they say all you can eat, they expect you to eat fish like a seal.  They brought our meals and before we were done a platter of fish, minutes later 3 plates of fries, then shortly after another platter of fish.  I was one of the early quitters at 5 pieces of fish.  It was really good, the entertainment good & the company good. 
  After we got back, it was out to the animal races.  I picked 5 out of 8 winners, Marg 4 tonight.  It helped that the elephant won twice as I am a charter member of the Elephant Lovers of Apache Junction, LOL.  It was well attended and a fun evening.  While there Marg made plans with 2 or 3 ladies to go garage sale-ing in the morning, so you know who will be the designated driver so that they can scoop and run.  Should be interesting.