Friday, April 8th

 

  Went for a bike ride this morning, I was a loner but made a pretty good effort in spite of the wind putting in about 4 miles.  The weather started off nice and warm for what may be my last ride of this winter season.  Not having a carrot, I turned off before the donkey and took the route I usually travel with Larry, who is now safely back in S. Dakota.
  After breakfast I vacuumed truck [box & cab], then cleaned the windows and the interior.  After I started putting a few things in the truck, golf clubs, some boxes, a huge bag of shoes.  Then I put the yard ornaments in the shed and generally started on some of the stuff needed before we leave.   I checked our return to service date on Telus and found it was about a week after we get home, so got them to change it for the middle of next week, so it will be on when we get there.  It was nice to get a few things started in preparation for leaving as we are down to two days.
  A couple of people called to say they got home today and had a good trip.  Gary & Linda are leaving tomorrow morning, so the parade continues.  One of the guys in the park who has not been well just returned from the hospital and his situation is not good.  A sad day for him in more ways than one. 
  Marg went for a few things she wanted for supper tonight as we were having company.  It is one of the tactics to help clean out the fridge, so she made a pasta dish with the remaining shrimp, a marinated salad and got a dessert.  I was going to play pool after noon, but I had so many visitors that the last one was still here when she got back.  One of them stopped by to ask us to join a few of them on the patio, but we already had the supper gig planned.
  In the afternoon we could see clouds building over the Superstition's and the forecast had been for a possibility of rain.  The wind blew hard all day and if I had been home I would have expected a high risk of hail.  Curt & Aggie [the park managers] and later Gary & Patti showed up for supper.  Gary was critical of my route this morning, saying the donkey will be going through loneliness or was that carrot withdrawal.  Patti had brought a salad & Aggie a pie, even though Marg had told them to just show up.  The pie was one I had not had before, a coconut custard pie.  It was a fun evening with good food.
  The rains came right after supper and it rained hard for quite awhile.  When it was almost done, the rainbows appeared.  It is unusual to get a double and the main one was right over the end of our road in bold and bright colors.  Isn't a double rainbow supposed to mean luck?  I guess they had hail in parts of Phoenix, but we escaped it.  As the final part of the fridge clearing strategy, everyone had to take leftovers home.  Marg advised me that by Sunday there will not be any cooking in our place.  LOL I guess the dinner bell will be ringing in a restaurant yet to be named.