Tuesday, Dec 23rd

Or as Anna calls it Christmas eve eve. 
  It was a gorgeous day in AJ, hey that is poetic.  Went for a bike ride with Larry & Gary again this AM.  I had a flat first thing, so had to pump up the rear tire [tyre for the Brummies'], it seems to be getting worse.  We went our old route down to Idaho and then back east to Meridian.  When I got that far, I elected to turn around and head back to Carefree.  I was a little nervous about how long the tire would hold air.  Made it back fine and still got in 6 miles today.
  Marg was up early and went with the gamblin' gals to the Fort this morning.  She called to get me to take some meat out for supper, saying that she was up and going in to the bingo.  It appears she was only up marginally as the bingo put her back on her own dime.  Sounds like they had fun, as usual and that is what it's all about.  They got back right around 4, the usual time.
  I went out to pick up some more stuff.  Stopped at Harbour Freight to get a butane torch.  Marg wants one to brown the marshmallow topping on the yams.  She was pretty happy as it looks just like the one some cooker or baker on TV uses.  Move over cake boss.  Had trouble finding my coupons, but did get a free flashlight.  On the return I stopped at AJ Cycle and got some tire liners.  They are heavy vinyl that sits just under the tire and shields the tube from punctures.  Next stop was Shoppers where I got a butane canister.  Not sure why HF sells the torches but not the fuel, but it was on Apache Trail, so on my way back.  Then it was back to Best where I bought the cold water tap handle, matching the one I put on yesterday.  I was surprised at her powers of observation when Marg noticed it as soon as she went in the bathroom.  I know I should have got the tap yesterday with the hot, but I wasn't sure it would fit.  My final stop on the way home was the car wash on Ironwood & Superstition.  The truck had some road grit on it from the rain last week, so washed it off.  It's not a great wand wash, but adequate for the level of dirt we get here.  In GP it wouldn't be good enough for the level of road grit we get on vehicles.  The wash also has a pretty good rinse agent & believe me you want that here, unless you like water marks when it dries.
  Made my way back to the park where I took the tires off the bike.  The front was fine and was going to replace the tube on it.  Unfortunately I didn't notice the tire had slipped up on the far side and the tube poked out, so when I inflated it I had a pretty severe rupture.  Kind of startled me when it blew up, and I don't mean that in a good way.  The tube was a puncture proof with the green slime in it & well let's just say I know how the ghost busters felt when they got slimed.  Got the liner in and after testing the old tube & seeing it didn't leak put it back in.  Sure would have save a lot of time just putting the liner in.  Sadder but wiser, took the rear wheel off and not so lucky, this one had several punctures.  Ran my hand inside the tire and ended up pulling out a half dozen goats head thorns that caused the flat.  Put in the puncture shield liner and flat proof tube full of green slime.  Inflated very slowly and had a much better result.  Took it for a test ride and everything seems fine.
  By this time it was pretty much happy hour, so went down to join the guys.  Had my usual one beer and midway Marg got there with the gals.  Back to the trailer to read the mail.  Got a really nice card from the Moore's with the Christmas letter from the Smiths in it.  Pretty clever way to say postage there Phil.  Thank you for both.  The letter was entertaining as always and the card with pictures of Sophie was precious.  By then it was supper time and a steak on the bbq was on the menu tonight.
  Had a really good day for family contact.  In addition to the mail, Charlene called while I was wandering about in the rv parts yard, then Brennan called followed by a call from Bill when I was installing the tires, sounds like everyone is ready for the big day.  All told I think I put better than a 100 minutes on the phone today, enough that the battery was beeping at me.  It was great, thanks for that.  Char pointed out an error on Sophie's birthday in our Christmas letter.  It turns out she was born on Sept 30th, but owing to the time difference it was the 29th in GP when we received notice from them.  Pretty funny!  Also booked the hotel for Anaheim in January, so we now have a place to stay right across from the magic kingdom, in case our 11 yr old is interested!