Monday, March 11th

The day started out nice enough, but gradually cooled as rain was in the forecast.  There are two winter storms moving through the area over the next 3 days, but after that the temps are supposed to get closer to seasonal norms.
  The park was pretty quiet as a bunch went for a picnic in a local area park. The park is up in the mountains and with the combination of Marg's hip bothering her and the amount of walking, we elected not to go.  Looking for fun things to do around here, Marg put in a load of laundry.  Yeh, I know, go figure.  I spent most of the morning on the computer. First I finished the report on the state of the finances and financial reporting for the tenants association here at Carefree.  After printing it off, I delivered a copy to the association president and vice president.  Then I printed the financial reports and bank statements for the condominium association at home for the months of January and February.  This is the information I use to review them in my capacity as the audit committee for the board back home.  This seems to be my destiny, something like a financial watchdog.  LOL
  For lunch we had poached eggs, using the recently acquired poacher.  It worked well and the eggs were perfect.  Some friends stopped by around the lunch hour and they had their two year old granddaughter with them.  The grandmother is one of Marg's pals her in the park so she had held a shower for her, the her mother and the little one when she was born, so a special connection.  She really didn't know who we were, but Marg won her over very quickly chatting to her.  But what cinched the deal was the package of licorice and package of juice boxes she gave her.  By the time she left she and Marg were good friends.
   After lunch we went out looking for a new headlight for the Malibu at home.  The passenger side lens is so badly scratched that the light from it is a problem when driving a night.  I have been looking at salvage yards back home without any luck.  I went to Pick A Part over in Phoenix, it was about 25 miles from here.  They had about a dozen Malibus, but none with the part we needed.  I had a list of 3 places with the 2007 models for parts, so went to the second one on my list.  It was about 4 miles from the first, but closer to home.  It was a pretty different salvage yard than the first.  I had a picture of the headlight and one of the bracket with all the model numbers on it so I could verifty it was the correct one.  They have computerized inventory and staff look after the parts removal and picking, but it comes at a cost.  They had what I was looking for and it was an exact match in very good condition, so worth $50 it cost.
  The thing I forgot to mention is the road to and from the salvage yard required we navigate what they call the mini-stack here.  It is where the #10 highway [part of the freeway] splits south going to Tucson or turns into the #60 highway [the freeway to Apache Junction].  As such this is one of the busiest traffic areas in Phoenix, it has 7 lanes of traffic going in and coming out and there are 3 lanes that exit where we had to leave the #10 for the #60 and they were pretty much all full of vehicles.  Bumper to bumper and it wasn't even rush hour.  During rush hour the mini-stack is always a problem with long delays to get through, but when we entered the jam was only about a mile long.
  Back at the park it was raining and we were just in time for happy, so I went.  Marg decided to stay in and start supper rather than sit out in the chilly air.  A surprise was Doris' eldest daughter was there, it was her first time down here in Arizona and only the second time she has flown.  There was a small group, but the patio heater at happy made it pleasant enough.