January 6th, Ukrainian Christmas eve

  Our first birthday of the winter that we are missing out on, so we phoned Kassidy to give her best wishes on her 11th birthday.
It rained and stormed last night, like you would not believe.  The rain came down in buckets and we awoke to the news being filled with stories of water problems on roadways and people needing rescue out in the desert.
  In the park, it was golf day at Apache Sun, so Gerry Canuel came in and we went out to join the group and for me it was the first round of the winter.  While we never played well, we were even on the score card and as a bonus, Gerry won the long putt prize on hole #4.  It was a bit of luck as no one else had a one putt green, because his was only about a 6 inch tap in.  There was carry-over money from last spring, so it was a good day for him.  They had a good turnout and the weather was very nice.  Although not real warm, the clouds cleared off and the sun shone for the entire time we were out there.  The course is in tip top shape with the rain and all.
  When I got back to the park, Marg & I had lunch and then she went for groceries, while I went and played pool with some guys in the park.  It went pretty well, although the characters I played with yesterday were not there, so not quite as many laughs.  I only played for an hour or so, as I had a project to do.  The Canadian flag at the park entrance was torn in the high winds we had.  In fact one of the park residents called me when I was on the golf course saying something had to be done.  It turned out I still had the flag I brought down last year as they never hung it because it never had grommets to clip it on to the rope.  I pulled it down and then got the new one flying.  Looks great.  I think one of the reasons they didn't want to deal with it was they weren't sure of the protocol for dealing with the old one, being a foreign country's flag.  If done improperly, it can be quite a controversial issue.  Anyway I took it down and will see to the proper disposal of the old torn flag.
  On the way back I stopped to help Gary & Linda move a sofa and then paid a brief visit to Elmo, who has been feeling poorly with some very serious health issues.  By the time I got back, Marg was just pulling in, so I helped unload the groceries.  She went out to buy the specials she saw in the flyers in our mailbox.  She really cleaned up.  On the bill it showed the savings from regular prices and it was something like 48%, and outstanding result.
  By this time it was happy hour and we went down to Johnsons.  Jerry & Pat Binger just got in from their Christmas break.  It was great to see them again, as the last time we saw them was in April.  Also got caught up on Larry's status as he had a bad fall at the propane outlet yesterday and was both shaken up and injured.  He seems to be recovering.
  After happy hour we went out for supper, Ihop again.  I must be doing something right, this is our second one since getting here. It wasn't too busy, so we were in an out pretty quick.  On the way back I stopped to fill the truck, $1.87 per gallon, so fuel prices here and pretty darn good.
  It was then back to the park where I went down to play poker.  We had a good turnout tonight and played with 7.  It started off a bit slow as we tried to refresh each others' memory on various card games.  It's dealers choice, so we often get quite a variety.  I came out of it OK and the money bag was a little heavier than when I started.  We had lots of laughs as there are a couple of characters in the group.  On of those guys had his son visiting, so brought him to play.  He seemed to be having fun, but near the end was getting money from Bob so that he could play until our predetermined quitting time.
  Ukrainian Christmas [according to the Julian calendar] tomorrow, so let me be the first to wish you Khristos Razdayetsya