January 8th

Well I guess today would be Ukrainian Boxing day, well at least if could be in theory.
  Not sure about the weather here, a while back it was supposed to be very nice today.  Well it was a bit windy but the sun was out and had some heat in it.  By mid morning it was pleasant and by mid afternoon the very nice part arrived.
  Went to the church service in the park this morning and it was well attended.  Good thing I did as the pastor wasn't certain if today or yesterday was Christmas on the Gregorian calendar, so clarified that.  I was a bit surprised it came up mainly because being the day of the birth of our Lord and a point that must be at issue between the orthodox churches and the rest of the Christian world who follow the Julian calendar.  The issue would not be his date of birth as all seem to agree on the 25th of December; rather it is which day is the 25th, today or two weeks ago.  So much for the ramblings of a confused senior citizen who follows the Julian calendar.  The service took a bit of a solemn note with the special prayers.  One was for family of a couple in the park.  Their grandson's wife and twin sister were killed in a car accident and while the two infant children in the car survived, on may have serious damages.
  When I got back home Marg had made biscuits in the oven.  They were very nice with some homemade jam we have as well as with the honey.  They were fresh out of the oven, so the butter just melted on them, very nice. 
  Then I took the propane fire pit and tank back to Gary.  It was nice of them to bring it over as it was a big help taking the chill off the night air in our breezeway.  By the time I got back, Gary was here to pick it up, so we had coffee with them instead.  We had a few laughs as we talked about last night and then they left, I think Gary was still a little rough around the edges.
  I had bought a tube of caulking yesterday to use on the shed roof.  I have a small leak that showed up after the recent rains.  It was a butyl compound, kind of messy to use, but I managed to get it where I think it will solve the problem.  The tube was really hard to get flowing properly and the goop was sort of squirting out the back of the tube.  I did manage to finish, but it only took 1/4 of the tube, so I went back to Ace to complain about it.  I hope what I was able to accomplish with that tube will do the job.  They gave me a full refund, so that worked out OK, well other than the mess from it squirting out that I had to clean up with mineral spirits.  Took longer to clean the mess than it did to put the stuff on.  While we were out I also had some stuff from the other hardware store I had bought and didn't use, so took it back as well.  It really wasn't worth making a trip, but it was on the way so it just involved a stop.
  While we were out we went for a bit of a stroll around the Mesa market place.  It wasn't as busy as I expected, so good that way.  Marg bought be a couple of caps, said mine are the wrong color for when it gets hot out here.  I have not bought any yet, so it was a good deal.  I looked around and checked some stuff out but it's getting harder to find anything that I need.  We were sort of looking for post cards, but had no luck.  Then on the way we stopped at a dollar store, but again no post cards.  We like to send mom one every so often, so Marg will probably find some tomorrow.
  Went for happy hour to Johnsons where Marg took a cold coffee and I almost took a pop, but then I thought that beer would be healthier - you know vitamin B.  It was a small group today and the conversation pretty casual.  Not sure about the gals, but the guys talked about the weird things other nationalities eat.  I think it started with Lutefisk.  Supper was left overs with a  fresh garden salad and was all good.  Oh lettuce seems to be coming into the harvest season as the Ranch Market had a special of 4 heads of lettuce for $1 and it is amazingly fresh. 
  To finish off the day we went for ice cream social.  It was well attended tonight, which was nice to see.  We sat with some new people in the park, knowing how daunting it can be seeing everyone in conversations and feeling like an outsider.  They are from Michigan and seem pleasant enough.   Marg had a dish of ice cream and piece of cake, me well just another banana split, but I get them made without pineapple.