Wednesday, Jan 10th

A different kind of day here in the valley, it rained so hard and the wind blew long and hard changing the landscape.  There was water laying all over as well as branches and general debris this morning, including under our carport.  I had caulked around the bottom of the Arizona room walls yesterday and we never had any water seep in, so a big improvement.
  Gerry C came over early as it was golf day.  There was a lot of road construction on Ironwood, so it was a good thing we left early.  There was a full slate of players at Apache Sun this morning and it was a bit chilly.  I think the temps were in the 50's, so it was long pants and jackets.  Gerry and I were paired with the Knake's and Al is a very good golfer.  The course was in great shape except for the branches everywhere and a tree [about 40 ft] that was toppled.  I had a better round than on Monday, but nothing to brag about.  Gerry played well and Al well, he shot par, he plays at an entirely different level.  Oh yeh and Terri, she's a hoot to play with.  I had my name on the longest putt, but someone in the last group got a longer one and took the prize money.  Note to self, leave a putt longer than a foot if you want the moolah. 
  Marg did laundry this morning and cleaned up the breezeway & furniture.  It was a real mess with mud and crud all over the place.  She went to the Superstition Ranch market and picked up more vegetables and fruit than she could carry.  Then we had a nice crab/corn chowder soup for lunch, followed by a bowl of fresh fruit.  She cut up a bunch in a fruit salad, something we both love.  She also got a bag of oranges and they are great.  They are so fresh here that they taste very different than anything we get in GP, and it's like $2 for a bag of them.
  After lunch I drained back the hotwater tank and replaced the pressure valve.  I'm not certain but the water I drained was kind of milky coloured so need to figure out what that is all about.  Likely some kind of sediment in the tank.  We don't get it when we run the hot water, so it must be a layer at the bottom of the tank or something like that.  Anyway the replacement has stopped the discharge from the pressure relief valve, so it must have been a problem with the rubber in the valve or seat releasing hot water.

  My next project was the brakes on the golf cart.  I spoke with Wink and he offered the use of his golf cart hoist.  It's pretty cool as it gets the cart up off the ground and at a height where it's easier to work on.  It really helped in seeing what's going on with the mechanism around the brake system and I think we have a handle on problem with the park brake.  It was a handful, but we managed to remove a brake drum on the driver's side wheel to get a look at he brakes.  The drum is in like new condition and the shoes themselves are like new, but with some glazing on the surface so we buffed them off.  It was very time consuming as we made several trips to get tools from home and they were on very tight.  It's a mechanical rather than hydraulic brake system, so we have a bit of a challenge getting it figured out.  It was a big help as it turned out that Wink had a factory manual on the Melex carts. 
  By that time we to take a break as it was time for hamburgers for supper, so we put it together and plan on doing the other wheel tomorrow.
  Poker tonight was a full table and a couple of uncanny lucky players.  I was not one, but I think I was around the break even level.