Saturday, Feb 22nd

Woke up to the patter of rain on the roof this morning.  They had forecast this winter storm off the Pacific and it arrived during the night.  It was only about an inch, but water was running down the street and had formed ponds along road sides.  The desert doesn't allow the water to soak in like home, so it takes a while to disappear.  There were flash flood warnings issued for the area as well, although typically they only occur in the mountain washes.  The pleasant surprise was the temperatures stayed reasonably warm, not going below the 60's.
  I got out early and went to breakfast in the clubhouse.  I have not done that as regular this winter, but I had a craving for pancakes.  The place was very busy with a line almost back to the door, seems like lots of us had the same idea.  The crew seemed a bit overwhelmed by the response and it seemed they made what they consider normal quantities and were caught a bit short for a brief period.  It was a good breakfast and I got to sit with a few friends.
  When I got back home, Marg was pretty much done with her morning routine, so we went out to the Mesa marketplace.  I was running out of pocket books, so sold a half dozen and bought 4 new ones.
The rain continued through the day and I was stranded a bit in the market when the clouds opened up for a short time.  As soon as it let up I made it out to the truck and we went on a journey further out west.  We wanted to check out some things at Camping World as we have not been there for a few years.  When we had the motorhome down here we went regularly and there are a couple of things I was looking for.  The only one I found was a new type of roof mounted TV antennae.  I mainly wanted to see it and whether it will replace the one we currently have..  I was looking for a cover for the tow bar.  The one we have is the original from 2008 when we had it installed and has started to come apart.  It's only used when the tow bar is detached from the toad and stored.  The clerk told me they don't stock them and I would do better over Amazon.  Then I asked about a brake light for the coach and she said I should go to an automotive parts place and could probably do better with Amazon.  I may have to figure out how to buy stuff from Amazon.
  On driving home the rain sprinkled on and off and we splashed everything driving through the puddles.  On our way we discussed where to go for lunch, but ended up driving back to our place.  Marg had a hankering for tuna melts, so that is what we ended up having at home for lunch.  I stopped at 4 Sons to check my lottery tickets on the way, both were losers.  I bought two more, one for Powerball, the second for Mega Millions.  The tuna melts were very good, so worth the wait, even though it meant Marg had a lot of extra work.
  We spent a bit of time in the afternoon just chillin'.  It was raining off and on, so not much of a day to be out and about.  For me there were a couple of golf tournaments on the tube, for Marg some time to rest up as she kind of over-did it last night.  At some point we decided to go to Casino Arizona to play bingo tonight.  We called Gerry & Deb to see if they were interested which they quickly agreed to.  Just as we did that we had an invitation to dinner.  A couple of friends in the park decided to host a dinner and invited us along with some other folks.  They were all concerned at not being able to contact us while we were out this morning.  Unfortunately we had to decline.  We haven't done much with Gerry and Deb this winter and wanted to spend an evening with them, so to turn about and beg off on short notice was not an option.
  Shortly after we were on the road to the casino.  We got there early, so Marg went to play some slots for a bit.  The place was so busy she had difficulty getting on a machine that she wanted to play.  We had supper at the food service in there.  Marg had a Taco salad that she said was excellent.  I had Quesadilla that was made with steak cubes, also very good.  By then Gerry and Deb arrived.  Our luck at bingo was all bad, except for winning.  It was nice getting together with them anyway.