Tuesday / Wednesday

Not sure what happened to the post for Tuesday and at my age it's getting hard to remember that far back.  LOL  Well as I recall, Larry & I went riding and made a short track, but still got in our 3 miles.  When I got back Marg was in water aerobics and they had a good turnout, I think she said about 14 of them.  It seems to be getting very popular, or perhaps it is the weather that has been so nice that draws people to the pool.  For those concerned about my status at the pool, the regular pool boy has returned, so that is not just part of my history, but may prove useful on my resume or CV.  I stopped to help Kenny with the trim on the car and to insert the milk caps in the hub cap slots.  It is getting very close to being complete and is looking good.
  After lunch we went out for a few things, well Macy's was supposed to be having this big sale event.  Marg checked it out while I read my pocket book in the parking lot.  She didn't have much luck there, so went over to Dillard's without much luck there either.  She did find out that they have a store at the Fiesta mall where they send all their year end and clearance stuff, so I think we may have that in our future.  She is looking for a bathing suit, well apparently this is off season for them here as well as it is up north.  Now go figure that, I didn't think there was an off season for things like that here with the nice winters.  Well they are only nice to us folks from the north, down here they think it is positively cold.  I guess it's just what a person gets accustomed to.
  Time for a short happy hour with only a few of us, but we wanted to keep Larry company as Nancy left for home today and won't be back until Sunday.  After supper it was time for bingo, so we headed down to the rec hall.  It was a small crowd, a new caller; so we are thinking:  this might just be what will change our luck and we'll come away winners.  Hah!  So much for that theory.
  I thought I had written a blog entry at that point, but alas something went wrong.
  Yesterday I was dead tired, so almost falling asleep I opted to make a blog entry today.  It was busy day.  I started out with 9 holes of golf at Apache Sun.  We had a small group, there were only 6 of us, but the group opted to played for the putt & chip competition anyway.  I played with Mickey & Joe and started out with a rotten snowman [8] on the first hole, where last week I had a par; 5.  Fortunately I settled down and had a good game, for me it was anyway and I carded a 43.  That's about as good as it gets for this guy.
  Marg again in water aerobics, because it may be the last one this week.  We are forecast to get cooler weather for the weekend and she is not here on Thursday.  While she was there the UPS truck came with the part for out stove.  The large burner just got red hot and no matter where you turned the dial, the temp never changed, made for some challenging cooking.  The manufacturer sent the switch from Tennessee and I decided to install it myself.  Well I started out poorly as a wire shorted and blew off the element receptacle, so then I turned off the breaker.  Then I phoned the manufacturer service line and the guy talked me through the electrical connection.  It is a 5 prong rheostat type switch behind the dial and the new one never looked anything like the old one.  In the end I got it all together and re-connected the wire and voila, it works fine.  Should have had Phil here, it's 220 and he is more familiar with that voltage.  LOL
  The afternoon was spent getting ready for the evening activities.  Well I played a few games of pool, but Marg was getting ready.  Like she got some candy to throw to the people on the sidelines, who were almost out numbered by the people in the parade.

Oh yes I almost missed Kenny's car project, well he mounted it on the roof of their golf cart and it was quite a hit.  From this picture you can't see the tail pipes, but the back end is really cool.  There will be more pics of it.

We had out golf cart parade in the evening and Millie had hers all decorated, but decided not to go, so convinced Marg to take hers so it wouldn't be wasted.  We had a good number of entries, I think 45 golf carts, a couple of bicycles, an electric scooter and a mobility scooter.  The parade went around the walking track and then the park, with some stops.  Our first stop was hot chocolate, then one for Christmas chocolate, then 2 for popcorn, one for fudge and finally one for mulled wine.  After the parade there were hot dogs provided in the rec hall.  I think Gary cooked about 120 and some of the people like Marg helped serve hot dogs, chips and condiments.

 
  After the hot dogs and things were cleared away we were treated to a performance by Cale Moon. He and his family just checked in to the park this week, Monday I think.  The were happy to be at the block party as their site is on Tequila lane and he offered to sing at this event.  He did it without charging, but they put his tip bucket out and I think he did very well with donations.  He is an up and coming entertainer and has a website if you want to see more about him.  It was a great performance, some people saying it was the best they have seen in the park.  Anyway it made for a late day, so not blog was posted.  Well Marg's day was not quite done as she made up the dish for the slow cooker and put it in the fridge so we will have supper tomorrow night.
 
 
 

Monday

An early start today and Larry & I picked up Gary to ride.  No donkey visit today even though we could hear him calling.  It appears he gets lots of visitors, so we took our regular route that Gary has not been on before.  We got our 3 plus miles in and showed Gary the big housing development going on just south of here.  Larry was quite concerned about Cooper as he won't eat since Nancy left.  Earlier Marg had gone there and he seemed to eat then, but he suspects the dog hides his biscuits in his bed.  It would be funny, except she will be gone 5 days and the dog needs to eat.
  We got back just as Marg was leaving for water aerobics.  She convinced Janice, next door to tag along.  She is new in the park and said she wanted to meet more people, so Marg has been helping her get out.  They had a good sized group today, something like 14, I am surprised the pool didn't overflow with all the splashing and thrashing they would create.
  I went over to check on Kenny and his car project.  I kid him about running an illegal body shop, or chop shop using undocumented foreign workers [me].  We came up with a couple of neat solutions to his project.  He is going to use the lid of the spray paint can for the center of the steering wheel, like a horn button.  For hub caps he is going to use milk bottle caps, they are just the right size to friction fit in the recess in the rim and best of all between us we had enough red ones.  We did some masking so he could paint the windows in and put some chrome trim on the bottom of the bumper.  It should be ready tomorrow, so I will make sure I get pics of it.  He's kind of protective of anyone working on it with him, but seems to make an exception for me even after I told him if I was being to helpful to just tell me to get lost.
  We had a bite to eat and then I went to play pool, Marg went to the grocery store.  When I got to the pool room there was no one to play.  I looked around and saw Warren watching Gary & Aaron working on a golf cart to get some Christmas decoration problem sorted out.  Warren played pool once last year, but really hasn't been a presence there, so I was surprised when he said he would play.  He is quite good for a guy who doesn't play regularly and beat me twice.  I joked that I should know better than to play a carpenter as he seemed to know all the angles. 

  There was a block party on Tequila lane at 4 today and Marg made:  a Greek salad & a ham.  It was a picnic ham and was sliced at the market.  She made a glaze for it and put it in the oven to get it ready to take.  There were a lot of people there, probably close to 100.  The road was pretty much full around the party area.  Marg talked Janice into going and it was nice to see some of the year round residents in the party.  There was lots of food, everything I took was very good and best of all both of us got a piece of the peach cobbler Smitty made in the dutch oven.  This was only my second time getting a slice of one of his creations, they are legendary and delicious.
  After we went back to our place, Marg was speaking with some new folks across the road from us.  They are from around Slocan, BC but did not know Jock & Helen or any of Helen's family in the area.  They are only here for a week as their winter break strategy is to move around every week or two.
  After a bit of a break we went to bingo in the rec hall.  Here again Marg convinced Janice it would be fun, so she went as well.  We did indeed have about as much fun as you can without winning.  Marg was one number on multiple cards and singles so many times I lost count and she sat waiting for her number for many calls, but alas success was not to be.

December 12th, a Monday

Got off to an early bike ride with Larry & Gary this morning.  This was Gary's first day out and Larry gave him a bag of apples both to feed the donkey and Patti.  Last time he had an apple for the donkey, his wife ate it.  Gary also brought a couple of carrots.  This was our first trip down to see the donkey this winter and Gary is the one in our group who feeds him.  Funny thing was last year he ate apples, this year he was having no part of them, but was keen on the carrots.  We could hear the darn thing braying long before we got there, we joked about it calling Gary for his treats.  After we went west to Idaho and back.  It was just over 4 miles, a good ride for us this year, especially Gary on his first time out.
  When I got back, I caught Marg at the end of dying her hair and here I thought her hair was still it's natural color.  I am so disillusioned, not!  After she went for water aerobics and by the time she went the sun was starting to warm the day right up.  She said the pool was in the 80's, which is almost too warm.  They had a pretty good turn-out, 8 I believe she said.
  I went down to check on Kenny's progress with his toy car.  He has a child's plastic ride in car [VW] that when operational had a battery and electric motor.  He is fixing it up as a lawn [well front yard anyway] ornament.  So far he has painted it red, made black rubber floor covering, black upholstery on the seat, put on real reflectors for tail lights, painted the wheels black and the inserts.  He had some chrome pipe he wants to make tail pipes with, so I took my pip cutter and cut two short pieces off it.  Then I took my hole saw to drill the holes in the back bumper.  There will be a block of wood behind the bumper to hold them, so we drilled holes in the wood to make for a friction fit to steady them.  He is getting close, I think he mainly has to paint the windows on it to make them look like glass and do something with the steering wheel.  He even has a small license plate on it that says Kansas.
  After that it was back to the trailer for lunch as my mermaid had returned from the pool group.  After a quick bite to eat I drove to Superstition mall where she wanted to check out the sale at Macy's.  Funny thing but there were several other guys sitting in their cars reading pocket books like me.  I believe this both helps to reduce congestion in the store and keeps the guys from saying - are we done yet?  Anyway she returned to the vehicle empty-handed, so success was not to be had.
  We got back in time to string up another Christmas banner and read a few pages in my book. Oh yeh, she did some emails.  Then it was off to happy hour.  Marg really wanted to go as Nancy flies home tomorrow for her sister's funeral and she is one of Marg's pals.  The gals must have talked about the block party on Tequila lane tomorrow as they all seemed pumped about it after happy.  One of the guys tried to talk me into golfing tomorrow.  I have a bit of muscle soreness and I don't like to play 2 days in a row, so declined.  This guy plays every day.  Then it was perogy's for supper.  Marg got them from Costco and fried up a bunch of bacon & onions with them, so they were very good.  Well cheese cake for desert was good too and that was our day.

Sunday

Sunday, so I went to the church service this morning.  It's nice this time of year, the hymns have been what we generally call Christmas carols.  Attendance was good with some folks who are new to the park attending, as well as the pastor's daughter and her husband.  Both Pastor Don and his wife had birthdays the last couple of days, so they came from Colorado to celebrate with them.
  I knew Marg had a Bundt pan of pull apart rolls that she put together last night, so I was keen to get back as soon as the service was over.  They were nice buns covered in a caramel sauce and pecan nuts.  They were very good and we did our best to eat them all, but there were just too many.  So Marg took a couple over to Janice next door and there are a couple left for tomorrow.  Knowing Marg doesn't eat breakfast early in the morning, her chances of getting one tomorrow don't look very good.  LOL
  Marg swept and washed the floor in the trailer, I vacuumed the patio area.  We had to do a bit of clean up after the happy hour on Friday.  Although I couldn't see any food bits laying around we never take chances because we're never certain what kind of critters they could attract.  Some of them are probably OK, but things like termites & pack rats are not so great to deal with.
  We went out to he big Mesa outdoor market as I had quite a stack of pocket books to trade, well sell actually.  I got $11 for my books and spent $16 for 8 new ones, well new to me anyway.  We wandered around a bit as Marg was looking for a booth that she had success at last year, but without luck.  There was lots of good parking available and the place didn't seem all that busy.  According to our neighbour [who works there], business is down significantly which they attribute to the Canadians just not spending like prior years.  There is no doubt an impact from the value of our dollar, but a person only needs so many ceramic turtles or donkeys or ...  Marg bought some things to use for putting leftovers in zip lock bags that she bought in the "Saw it on TV" booth.  Well it's called something like that.  I will try to stay abreast of this breaking news story so you too can find out how well they work.  Hah!
  We never had lunch, but did stop at DQ on the way back.  Middle of the afternoon is the time to go there, it's their equivalent of happy hour.  Marg is not all that creative in what she gets there, although she didn't have her usual cone, rather an orange Julius.  I tried something new, it's called hot apple pie, but is a kind of pastry with some apple and ice cream with a bit of caramel on it.  It was quite good, but I had to forego a banana split or peanut buster parfait to have it and I don't think it was that good.  Oh well, life is about choices.
  When we got back after lunch, well I guess you can't call an ice cream lunch, but when we got back, Marg did a load of laundry.  Ever since we got this machine, she is always washing something.  Then she steamed what she washed the day prior.  Apparently this little dual washer/dryer unit does an remarkably good job.  She claims the washer is every bit as effective as the super duty one she has at home and is vastly superior to the machines in the Laundromat.  Apparently it is saving us a lot of money in the process.  I really can't say as this is not my area of expertise, but my clothes are clean.
  No happy hour for us today, but we did bbq for supper.  A couple of very nice steaks and roasted potatoes and veg were the menu.  We cook quite a bit, a lot more than many as they eat out a great deal.  While we enjoy eating out, especially the variety it provides, we tire of it quickly and enjoy eating at home every bit as much if not more.
  After supper we took a walk around the park so that we could get some pictures of the Christmas lights on some of the units.  Although the street lights bleach the pictures out in some places, they are very attractive to naked eye.  Lots of palm trees with lights on them, lots of cactus lights, stuff that you don't see at home.

Saturday

A very early start, we were up at 6:15 AM and down to the rec centre to help out on the breakfast crew.  It was mainly because Patti & Gary have lost some of their crew while the others are not here yet.  Marg did her usual job, cooking the scrambled eggs and she does that so well.  Me on the other hand, I worked as the gopher.  I helped get the place set up, the coffee out and the dishes done up.  Then when the sausage & gravy ran low, opened a new can and got it heated up on the stove.  The hot water system was not working this morning so I had to keep heating water on the stove in the 3 gallon pots.  It ended up being a large crew and we only fed 45 or so which made the job very manageable.
  We were cleaned up and out by 9:30 so we went to a few park sales.  Marg had clipped the ads from the paper and was looking forward to it as a break.  We went to Happy Days where they had lots of vendors and got a few things.  Marg got a Santa figure, some stop drip pans and I got a nice 30 amp extension cord for the motor home at a good price.  Then on to Superstition rv park [a much larger park] where it was getting close to 12 when they shut down, so vendors were getting very negotiable.  Marg got a few more things and I picked up a couple of little things.  By then it was time to call it a day.  I had a corded drill from last year, but needed a chuck key.  I found one but it came with a drill that works for a buck.
  When we got back I had to wrap the gifts we bought for the Christmas gift exchange.  Marg did some laundry, but got a little carried away doing 3 loads.  She has been air drying to see how that works out, but that meant she was tight on hanging space, so a bit of a challenge.  Other than that we chilled at in the sun for a few hours.  Marg did a bit of visiting as she delivered two sympathy cards both to ladies who lost their sisters this week.  There was also a new arrival in the park, they are annuals, but just got in, so Marg convinced her to attend the party.
  Happy hour was brief and that gals talked mainly about the party and the margarita's and how much fun they had.  The guys talked about golf and stuff like that.  It was a brief one as we had to get supper before the party.  We ate in tonight, a shrimp sort of stir fry and rice.
  Then it was off to the rec centre for the party. I had agreed to be the photographer for the event so I could post pictures on the tenants association FB site.  The hits on the site have jumped dramatically since we got here.  Everyone brings a gift wrapped in newspaper so it can't be identified and then they passed around a pair of dice.  As soon as you roll doubles you go pick a gift from the pile.  There were about 80 people, so it was busy.  Then they allowed 15 minutes of exchanges.  The same process, if you rolled a double then you could take someone's gift in exchange for yours.  This was the mass confusion part of the process.  There was lots of food [snacks] and punch, then some caroling.  We also had a hilarious version of the 12 days of Christmas with 12 different groups sing their verse, each trying to be funnier than the rest.  Marg was in the 12 drummers drumming group.  We also had a 50/50 raffle with the proceeds going to a veteran [of Iraq I think] and his young family.  It was won by Paul [he is one of our happy hour group] and he told them to keep the prize and give it to the veteran for Christmas.  Paul and Doreen are full time rv'ers from Maine and are pretty decent people, obviously, when seeing what he did tonight.
  Then it was a scramble to get things organized and on the FB site when we got home.  Things should slow down for us now as our next commitment is the Christmas dinner.  It's funny, there are a couple of people trying to start a new breakfast crew as well as fill other crews.  It will be a challenge to stay off.

Friday, Dec 9th

Getting a little concerned, here it is the 9th and still have not written our Christmas letter.  This is a bit unusual for us, but we have been so busy and it almost seems poorly motivated.  Not sure but I think the letter this year will be an electronic one, although I will probably have to print a few.  Marg has some cards, so will have to try and get my act together this weekend.  Honestly us snowbirds do get too busy sometimes and this seems to be one of them.  LOL
  Out of necessity we got out and about early this morning.  I had the best of intentions to go riding with Larry, but my rear tire was flat. I tried inflating it, but nothing, so I knew it was a significant problem.  Larry went out on his own this morning while I took off my back wheel and pulled the tube.  It had a rip about 4 or 5 inches long on the side that faces the rim, so nothing was poking it through the tire and the tube was garbage.  It was the original tube that came with the bike, probably made in China as cheaply as possible.  Fortunately I still had the leak proof tube with the hole in it.  This is where you say, is that right or did I mis-read that.  I patched the leak and put it all back together, so we'll see how that works out.
  Then we went out to Costco.  Happy hour tonight was at our place, so we needed to get a few things as it was bring snacks, something we had kind of got away from.  Marg picked up some: spring rolls, chicken wings, salsa, a 6 layer dip for it and then we had a slice of pizza for lunch.  The place was sure busy, but not to bad at the cash registers.  There are a lot of seniors who go there on Friday because of the food samples and the traffic gets congested around them.  Not too certain whether this is about free food or nothing better to spend their time on, but it seems much the same at home.
  When we got back Marg went to Walmart to round out the things she needed while I went to play pool.  I played with 4 guys who are pretty good and we had a few laughs in the process.  There was only one other table with two guys, but they are kind of the grumpy old men in the pool room, so people tend to avoid them if there is another game where they can play.  Geez maybe I am becoming one of the grumpy old men.  LOL
  When I got back, Marg had picked up the rest of what she needed and started arranging the furniture in the breezeway.  We only had chairs for 12, but knew that a few people would bring chairs.  Happy was at 4, so she had to get the hot stuff heated up in the oven and then transferred into the slow cooker.  By the time everyone got here, she had her contribution to snacks all laid out and the blenders with the margarita ingredients all laid out.  I say blenders, as Doris brought hers over so they could have two kinds of margaritas on the go: lime & mango.  There was lots of other stuff brought by the other gals & the patio table was full to the edges.  In fact I would be surprised if any of them had to go out for supper after.  I think we had about 2 dozen here at the peak and rather than an hour, it was 3 hours long.  It was fun and a couple people said they thought it should be at our place more often.  I'm not sure how much people had to drink as they bring their own, but Marg went through a lot of tequila, a bottle and a half I think and I fed them some beer and whiskey after they drank what they brought, so they were well lubricated.  It was funny, the guys were hesitant about having something else, but the gals held out their margarita glass readily when refills came around.
  Another positive aspect of doing this was that one of Marg's very good friends who lost her sister yesterday was here and it was good for her to be around other people at such a difficult time.
  It was a nice day in the valley even though it started out cool, the mid-day highs were in the low 70's and we were back in shorts and hanging up our jackets.

December 8th, Thursday

An early start as Marg had to get ready for her weekly road trip.  They were on the road at 8:30, as usual with visions of the free cookware and big win in the heads.
  I went for coffee [coffee klatch] & rolls.  I pulled a bit of a fast one, I learned that the rolls were free and knew whoever paid for them would be at the first table called.  As it turns out it was where the Casteel's, Evans and other friends were seated, so I joined them.  The people I normally sit with: Blanke's, Binger, etc. labelled me a fair-weather friend.  Well I don't want to be known for only have one friend, rather like to think I am more open to spending time with anyone.  Are you convinced it was a good decision, well I am, I got a very nice apple fritter.  LOL
  After coffee [which was long this morning] I went for a ride with Larry.  He didn't think we were going this morning so went out on his own.  Then when I showed up he went with me for just over 3 miles.  The weather was a bit chilly, but a nice day.  By the time we got back it was downright warm.
  When I got back I wrote the blog for yesterday and did some emails.  I did some organizing in my shed, then had a bit of lunch.  By then it was time to look in to pool.  It was a road trip day for the pool tournament, so I picked up a guy waiting to see who was coming and headed over to Eastgate.  In prior years this has been a park that kicked our butt badly.  We had 6 players, so each team had to play twice, meaning 6 games.  Not sure how the other teams made out, but Andy & I won 4 of our 6 games, so a good result.  They were tough games, the guys we played were Canadians: one from Bonnyville [Alberta] and the other from Saskatchewan and were fun to play.
  By the time we finished and got back it was well into the afternoon.  After dropping off my rider, I went to wash the truck.  It was a bit dirty with quite a few bug splats on the front.  Then I went over to the hardware to get a spare set of keys made for the doors of the trailer. If we lock ourselves out, we will be out of luck, so am looking for a place to hide a key.  I wasn't back very long and Marg got back.  She had a good day at the Fort; winning at slots and not bingo, the net result being she was not out of pocket any dollars.  Although she did wait on one number for and $1,100 payout.  Lynette did well on the slots, winning something like $500, so they were in good spirits coming home.
  Happy hour was packed.  In fact there were a couple of people who normally don't come, one of whom was the park owner.  The women talked about.......... well not really certain.  I think maybe the happy hour at our place tomorrow as they will be bringing snacks.  Oh yeh, they are all excited as they know Marg will be living up to her margarita reputation once again. This will mean a busy day for us tomorrow morning.
  After we went to Taco Bell for a quick bite to eat.  Marg once again had the $5 meal deal: a hard taco, a meat burrito, a gordito, taco chips with spicy cheese dip and a drink.  I had the quesadea meal [not sure of spelling] and traded my hard taco for her gordito.  Then it was back so we could go to the animal races.  They were well attended tonight and Marg did well winning 6 out of 8 races, while I won only 3.  I endured lots of razzing as the elephant struggled tonight while their choices prospered. Although the one race it did win paid $1, the big payout tonight. We are still short of a few people, so I told a couple of jokes during the lull in the action to help Clyde out.  They both got pretty good response.