Friday, Jan 5th

The first Friday of the new year, raising the age old controversy - is this the end of the week?  If not what day is the end of your week.  On the news today they said there are in excess of 8,000 cases of flu reported and it seems like one end of our park are among them.  Last year there were only about 600 cases in the Phoenix area. The area we got the cart from seems to be where most of the un-well people are so it was like venturing into no-mans land.
  Marg was up early again this morning, seems to be a new trend.  Yesterday it was a good thing as one of the guys was here to borrow a tool while I was in the shower, nothing as dramatic today.  It was a good start to the day as there were still 4 blueberry pancakes [one of my favourite foods] in the fridge.
  Time for another trip to Best Hardware to get some parts for Marg's recently acquired golf cart. The old gal at the cash register is probably thinking I am just coming in to see her.  LOL  One of the problems that troubled me has been the battery charger.  It was so loud that it could not be left on overnight, making me concerned it had a malfunction.  I noticed the case was a bit loose and seemed to have been opened quite a bit, so wanted to try and secure it better.  For this I got larger machine screws with rubber washers.  Another problem was the racket the window in the rear made when driving as a result of vibration or movement.  The third problem was the front windshield making squeaking noises and the final problem was an anchor to secure the cart to at night.  Picked up a variety of rubber washers and a concrete anchor bolt.  My next stop was Harbour Freight where I picked up a hammer drill and concrete bits while I dropped Marg off at Basha's where she picked up some good deals.  The fridge is not full yet, so there are likely more grocery stops in our future.  For example, she got some T-bone steaks that were about $5 or $6 each and the coolers were about half the price she saw at Walmart.  Never bought any fruit or vegetables as she plans to go the Ranch market where they will be fresher and a better value.
  When we got home installed the stuff and the best outcome was the battery charger is about 25% of what it was and at a very tolerable level.  The same with the windows.  I had tried to drill the concrete pad with my old drill, without success, but with the hammer drill it took about a minute and we now have a solid anchor point to lock the cart on.  You never know here, the neighbours lost their cart earlier, oh yeh they lost the key as well, it was in the ignition.
  With the cart to get around, Marg went to check the mail and as luck would have it the new SIM card for the 2nd phone was here.  Got it activated, so now her new cell number is 480-295-5443.  I went to trade pocket books with Larry, which took quite a while.  Marg had several people stop in to visit.  We then went out for water as we buy drinking water and only use the tap water for cooking and washing.  Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it cost very little and when things like the flu are going around, we don't take chances on anything going wrong.  Stopped in Fry's for fuel and used Marg's discount earned, it was 20 cents a gallon.  My fuel was $197.9 per gallon, so 44 cents a litre for my Canadian followers. 
  By this time it was happy hour, in fact we were late getting there and the place was full.  It was at Linda & Gary's, there must have been at least 30 people.  After that it was out to Long John Silver with Jim & Beth for fish.  We both had the cod and it was very good.  The leave what they call crunchy bits in with the fish & fries, much like they do in some English chip shops.
  Oh yeh, forgot on yesterday's post; Marg went to water aerobics on Thursday.  The water temp was 88, so she said it was a bit too warm in the pool.  The day time highs are in the mid 70's so the weather has been great!