Wednesday, March 30th

This morning it was a bit nicer day and got gradually warmer. 

Richard & I went golfing with Gerry at Apache Sun.  The game went pretty well, but I was concerned with Richard hitting the ball so well off the tee.  He was using my Calloway clubs, so I will have to keep my eye on the driver, I'm afraid as he was doing so well with it that I need to make sure it is still here after he leaves.  LOL  He was pretty impressed with the tortoise, for a 9 yr old it is pretty big.
    When we got back the girls were no where in sight, I guess they went shopping to Cato and Dollar General after their long walk in the park.  Marg took our leftovers from last night with her and left them with Gary.  He loves left overs, me not so much, so it works out well for all of us.  Richard & I went for a walk through the cactus garden of Patti's and the over to Dales to look at his scorpions.  On the way Richard had somewhere got a piece of jumping Cholla cactus in his foot.  He went to pull it out, but instead I got him to go back to Dale who pulled it out with pliers.  On our walk I met 3 people who said they heard I was working on the hamburger crew tonight, which I of course denied.  Well except Cheryl who said something like - oh yes you are.  They got back shortly after and then it was lunch time.  Gave the Proulx's a bit of a taste of some of the desserts around here as we had some Mexican cookies on hand.
  After lunch we went out to Total Wine.  Richard didn't find anyone to jam his cart into this time, in fact never even pushed one or stood in line with at the cash out, he got Evelyn to do that.  We were all very disappointed as we got lots of laughs last time.  Anyway they both bought a 1.75 litre, so it will be interesting to see how they make out with C'dn border security folks.  On the way back the girls got to thinking about missed shopping opportunity and asked to stop at Ross.  After a few minutes both emerged with a bag of stuff, in Marg's case just a pair of casual shoes.
  It was just about time to go to the hall for the hamburger supper.  Yes; I learned that Marg had  told Patti we would lend a hand because they had lost 2 couples from their crew.  It was a bit of an experience, much busier than the breakfast crew.  After we were done I also learned that she had invited the crew to our place for drinks.  It made for a nice end to a busy day.  Lots of laughs.

Tuesday, March 29th

What a change in the weather, it cooled off drastically and is in the 70 range today.
  I went for a bike ride and there were only two of us this morning.  We made the short route, only about 4 miles, but the wind was blowing pretty strong, so that was good enough.  When I got back it was starting to sprinkle and that was the deciding factor.  In fact I had a few drops on the mirror and my glasses.  We have this rule on rainy days, everyone for themselves and if you are slow too bad, you just get wetter than the rest.
  when I got back Marg was doing housework in advance of having house guests.  One of the ladies at happy hour yesterday said she was making rolls and to stop in and get one for each of us.  I went down to take the garbage and they were just getting set up to have coffee, so Nancy gave me a couple to bring home.  They were very nice and much appreciated.

  Richard and Evelyn Proulx got to our place about mid morning.  They had been staying in Sun City West and drove over to spend a couple of nights.  It was great to see them again.  After a bite of lunch Richard & I went to play pool while the ladies went to do a bit of shopping; Bells & Kohls I think.  Richard made lots of excuses about not playing for a long time, but that generally sets of the alarm bells thinking that the complainer may want to play for money - LOL.  Anyway we had some good games and he beat me a couple of times.  It was his first time playing 1/15 eight ball, but he adjusted quickly and adapted to the difference.
  We took them to happy hour.  With the wind and cooler weather it was at Blanke's and remembered seeing each other last summer at the lake.  There was a pretty good turnout at happy, I would guess about 2 dozen.  As it turns out there were 6 couples who left on Monday and 2 more today.  That was a topic, as would be expected.   After Marg had supper in the slow cooker, so it was back to the park model for that.

  Supper was a bit of a hurried effort as we had to go to bingo.  They said they hadn't played for quite a while, but then Evelyn pulled off a win in the last game of the evening.  It was the full card and she did have to share it, but still a good payday for her.  Well off to bed as we need to get up early for golf tomorrow.

Monday

It was a nice day but the wind came up and blew quite strong most of it.  I think it is a sign that the weather is changing and is supposed to be quite a bit cooler for a couple of days.
  I went riding with 3 guys this morning and as usual Gary stopped to feed the donkey carrots.  She seemed pretty happy with it although we didn't get the loud chorus of donkey calls we had the other day.  We made about 5 miles which is good enough for me and I turned off with Larry while the other two went on for a longer route.
  We had our overnight guest in the Az room last night but never saw her arrive or leave.  It seems their family got in a bit late, so she was a bit like ships passing in the night.  Anyway it worked out for her and made use of our spare room.  It has been almost a year since anyone has slept in there.  Then Marg changed the sheets giving Linda back the ones she had brought over.  They stopped by later in the morning and we got to meet their son & his family, two charming grandchildren so Marg gave them some carrots to feed the donkey later in the day.
  Lunch today was french toast, now that's a winner in my book.  Marg actually made it with croissants, which is really good and only happens once in a while, so today was pretty special.  After lunch we went over to Walmart.  Marg wanted to picked up a few groceries and a plastic basin she could use to wash her feet in, so much simpler than the bathtub.  I just went for a haircut and was fortunate to get the same lady who cut it last month.  Nice young lady and pretty good barber.  I say young, because I learned from chatting that she is younger than Charlene.  Mind you it won't be much longer and most of the world will be younger.  LOL
  The

excitement of the day was a phone call from Jerry that he had a snake in his golf cart.  I asked if he was BS'ing me, or whether this was for real.  I told him that I was suspicious after having played poker with him and seen his bluffing.  Anyway when I got there I had to use the camera to take pics to verify that it was indeed there.  Apparently it came from the neighbours and crawled over the driveway while they were chatting and settled under the seat in the cart.  Kenny got a rod and prodded it until it crawled out of the wheel well and went back under the 5th wheel trailer next door.  It was a pretty good size gopher snake.
  It was happy hour at Johnson's again tonight and there were still lots of folks there tonight.  I think there were 5 or 6 couples leave the park today and quite a few more planning to leave by week end, so the reverse migration is starting.

Easter Sunday

Definitely a day to reflect on life's gifts and appreciate what I have.
  I started off the day attending the church service here in the park.  It was well attended and a happy occasion, it was also the last service in the park until fall.  Just another one of those last things we are dealing with as the winter comes to an end.  We had a nice breakfast when I got back and then got our day started.  We did some other stuff with the Az room for our overnight guest tonight and she stopped by to say she would be a late arrival asking if we could just leave the door unlocked.  Kind of like when our kids were out late nights, eh?
  It was another hot day in the sun and was quite warm early on in the day.  Taking advantage of the break in activity we took our laundry to the one in the park.  Marg was able to get enough machines to get everything going at once, making for a shorter time in there.  After she called so I would come down to help carry out the clothes and bring the freezes in the freezer.  It park manager's daughter was married this weekend, so the family were all here in the park to spend the day together.  Marg has a special relationship with her kids and being a hot day wanted to give them the freeze's for a treat.  They all give her hugs, especially the youngest girl.
  By the time she got it all steamed and put away, we were well into the day so only had a short time to take a break.  About 3:30 we got together with Blanke's & Binger's.  We had decided not to go to the Easter dinner in the park and they were of a like mind, so we agreed to go out for supper.  We had not been to the German restaurant this winter, so that was the logical choice.  We went down to Zer Kat, but isn't open on Sunday, so being Easter didn't help.  Fortunately for us there is a second one [Bavarian Point] in the same complex, but we had never eaten there.  As luck would have it they had seating and we were early enough to get seated almost immediately.  Now sometimes that is an omen of beware, but remember we were early for dinner.  The girls were immediately impressed as there was a well stocked salad bar.  The guys, with the 3 sizes of beer glasses with tap beer, almost all German.  I had a nice wheat beer, something I only order with certain meals.  I had a sausage plate with 3 different kinds of worst.  Marg had a nice roulade dish.  Both were excellent, in fact the bratwurst is made in house and was awesome.  So an accidental discovery that may change our plans in the future.
  When we got back we went for a walk around the park, as we needed to settle our dinner.  Well there were about 8 of us and walk is a generous description of what we did.  It was more like a slow moving visit with anyone out and about.  There were 3 stops to say farewell to people leaving tomorrow morning, one to look at the baby owls and several just to chat with 4 or 5 other folks.  It must have taken an hour to walk the park.  After we ended up with the group of walkers for coffee at our place as well as a couple of drop-ins, two being another couple leaving tomorrow.  Beth had made a cake that she brought over, so it ended up being coffee & cake.

Saturday, March 26th

It was another nice day in the valley of the sun.  We slept in a bit and then when I got up I knew why, I was so stiff from golf yesterday, must have overdone it.  In fact I called Gerry to tell him that I would not play on Monday as I was feeling too beat up from the day.
  After we got mobile, we went to take some pictures in the park.  Patti has an amazing cactus garden and it has some neat features, so that was our first stop.  She is also pretty creative, like the statue or mannequin she has with the binoculars that appears to be looking at whomever is passing by their place.  Being Easter she had it dressed like a rabbit, pretty funny.  Then across the road I took a picture of Aaron's shed that he had painted to resemble the countryside near where they live and posted them all on facebook.  When I put pictures on the tenants assoc. site it always gets lots of interest and this has been no exception.
  After we went over to the big Walmart on Picture Butte.  Never really found much of what we were looking for, although Marg did pick up a few things.  When we got back home, I put up some hooks to hang things on [one of the purchases].  Then we cleaned out the Az room putting all my golf stuff and the rest of it in the shed.  We are having a house guest tomorrow night, Linda has her family coming and needs a place for one night.  Then Proulx's are coming on Tuesday for 2 nights.  Linda brought her own sheets, so Marg & her put them on and when she takes them with her will put a set on for the next guests.
  After lunch I went and played pool.  There was no one there, so I went and got Dale.  He is a very good player, but has not been playing much in the park.  Even though he generally thrashes me, he is fun to play.  Just after we got there, Luther, then Jim showed up so we played four for a while.  Then another guy came in so we played 3 as one guy went to give then newcomer a game.  It's kind of the way it goes here, the guys generally try to accommodate anyone who wants to play.  I had a bit of a hot streak going at times.  During one of those times, Kenny came to watch a bit and seemed to be impressed.  It was a game where I was alone against the other two, both of whom are very good players.  They were down to the 8 ball and I still had 3 balls on the table.  As luck would have it I ran all 4 remaining balls to win.  Well you would have thought I had split the atom from the way Kenny regaled anyone who would listen with tales of the game.  I have played him a few times and it convinced him I had been going easy on him; it was pretty funny.
   Marg got some clothes steamed in the afternoon.  Being quite warm, she does it on the patio rather than inside.  Then she started getting stuff ready as we were hosting the happy hour group today.  She put out taco chips with 2 kinds of salsa and guacamole.  She also had a cheese tray and a platter of crackers, some sausage chopped up and some taco type cups filled with a dip containing spinach, artichoke hearts and parm cheese.  These were really a hit.  There were about 20 people here in the breezeway and they stayed longer than the regular hour, in fact about `2 hours or more.  Rita had also brought a dessert dish she made.  Anyway it was a fun evening.

Friday

It was a nice day and I started with a bike ride with the guys.  There were 6 of us this morning and as we approached the place where the donkey is and she saw Gary, the braying started.  That animal is louder than you can imagine and was in the bush already at the fence watching for him.  He didn't have carrots today, rather had a couple of apples.  It was funny because the donkey would only eat a bit at a time, so Gary cut it into slices and it went better that way.  It's pretty smart because we pass by on the way back and it doesn't expect anything or make any noise on our return trip.  Larry keeps saying Gary has made a friend for life and I think that may be the way it is.
  Marg did some vacuuming on the outside rugs as they get lots of fuzz and stuff on them.  She uses my shop vac for this stuff as it will pick up the leaves and weeds that blow in here.  While she was doing this I took my compressor and brad nailer over to Stan's place.  He had a piece of trim that kept coming loose and wanted to try fastening it with brads.  He had it all marked out and ready to nail down, so we will see how that works out. 
  Then Marg went to water aerobics and they had a bit smaller group today.  She actually likes that better because it gives them more room to thrash around in the various routines.  The best part is, before she went down to the pool, she made me a sandwich for lunch and left it on the counter here. Now that was pretty thoughtful.
  I ate and then went off to Encanto to play golf with Gerry.  He had a tee time just after 1 PM and it was just starting to get hot when we went out.  Fortunately there was a breeze blowing, so it didn't really feel like 87 degrees in the sun today.  We were paired with a couple of guys from the west end and the game went pretty well, with 2 birds and a par on the front 9 for me and that was still only 46, so the bad holes were quite bad.  The back nine was not quite that good and it was a bit backed up so the other 2 guys went for beer instead.   Traffic home was lighter than normal, but there were a couple of wrecks that caused some delays.

   In the afternoon Marg viewed the video of Haylee's speech [it was quite moving] and then had a walk around the park. She made the classic error of walking inside the fence and in this case that meant 2 hours to walk the park, with all the visits she had enroute.  When she got back she my supper, pork chops, vegetables and potatoes in the slow cooker.  My supper was great, very thoughtful of her to do that for me.  Then she went with a bunch from the park here for supper.  It started out as a few folks going for fish and chips and ended up being 29.  He had it all set up with a reservation, even though they don't take reservations there, the smooth talker got it all set up.  They had the all-you-can-eat cod and it was good as usual.  They were in the back where there is a singer and as luck would have it this was at happy hour, so they had bargain priced drinks.  Sounds like they had a lot of fun with the girls making a fuss over Kenny and got some funny pics.  It made for lots of laughs and he enjoyed the attention.   Lots of folks stopped by to tell me about the fun they had and a few of them stopped in and had a beer with us. 
  We heard from Proulx's and will be getting together with Evelyn & Richard for a couple of days next week.  They are in Sun City West right now after driving down with Richards sister and her husband.  It was unfortunate that Doug's mother died just after they left, so they flew back to Edm for the funeral, but Richard & Evelyn are pretty resourceful and will make out just fine.

Thursday

Yes you know what the main event today was, the gamblin' gals went to the Fort.  There were only four of them this morning as one has gone home already and another must have had something else that held her back.  The day started out as a good one with a win for Marg in the early bird game.  She had to split it with 2 other winners, but a win is what she needed to break her dry spell.  With big expectations she daubed on thru the day, but alas that was it for bingo  On the slots it was a bit better story and she ended up losing only what I had won Tuesday night.  I generally give her my winnings as she has this theory about lucky money finds more luck.  Both her and Nancy waited on the same number for a big one [about $900], by Lynette was the big winner today.
  I went for coffee and donuts and it was amazing how many were there, probably one of our best turn-outs.  I think there is only one more, it's that time of year where every event is the last or there is just one more.  Leaving for home is pretty much the topic at every conversation now, well that and the weather at home.  There wasn't much news other than a recap of the few remaining events and some discussion about them.
  After coffee I went about getting all the stuff out to pain the ceiling in the park model.  There are a few marks on the ceiling and the first coat last year didn't cover as well as we would have liked.  This pretty much took the balance of the morning.  Well I was interrupted with a visitor or two, that made it take longer.  Doing a small job like this the clean up and prep is just about longer than the actual painting.  It was a pleasant surprise that the ceiling paint was still very good, so I was able to match the previous coat well and it covered better that way.
  After a bite to eat, I took the truck in for service.  James Tire down on the Trail had a coupon in the local paper offering:  lube, oil and filter for $14.99.  The deal was exactly as advertised plus tax, so about $17 all in.  They do use bulk oil, but what a remarkable deal, at home it would be about 5 times that.  The only downside was they are doing so many [mostly people getting ready to leave] that a reservation is needed, mine booking time was 5 days.  On the way back I stopped at the water outlet to fill the 5 gallon bottle for the water cooler; we use about a gallon a day.  The sad part is most of it is drank straight up, no scotch in it.
  I went to happy hour, it was at Jim & Beth's tonight.  The group was quite a bit smaller today.  When Marg got home, she didn't come because her hairdresser was over at Sue's and she had arranged to be there for a cut.  The lady usually does about 4 to 6 haircuts when she comes to the park and she is one of the few that doesn't leave Marg fit to be tied at it's cut.
  Supper tonight was Ihop and it was good as usual.  You want to know what is really funny, Marg had the 2x2x2, which is what I generally get & did tonight as well.  The place is noticeably slower as well, it seems the snowbirds have started leaving already.
  After we got back we went for a bit of a walk.  There are usually lots of people out walking in the park at that hour.  I took my black light along and stopped where we got the scorpion the other night and lo and behold found another one.  Gary was coming along and had his walking stick, so he killed it.  Starting to look like there could be a nest around there, because they are really not that common.   You have to really look for them most of the time.