Saturday, December 28th

  The day started out cool and it must have rained last night.  It sprinkled periodically through the day, but nothing serious.  The clouds were low in the morning, with the top half of Superstition in the cloud or fog.  The high for today was 55 C and there was  a cool wind.  Not the Arizona we signed up for at all.
  In the morning a group of us met at Blanke's where Darryl got Paul's Bronco started and drove it out of the carport.  He leaves it there over the summer when they go back to Maine.  I turned on the power and water.  Then I unlocked the trailer [we got the keys from the park manager], so the ladies could go in and clean the inside.  The fridge had been left open, but sure had a nasty odor, in fact when I came out I said it smelled like something was dead in it.  When the ladies pulled  the crispers out, they found that something had fallen behind one and it was consumed by maggots.  They also found all sorts of bugs throughout the trailer, mostly crickets and flies, but a few cockroaches.  There were 4 ladies working and by noon they had the place spic and span.  I went over to Gary's where we had arranged to borrow his leaf blower.  The carport was full of stuff that blew in as well as dust, but the blower made short work of it.  Jerry was with us and he cleaned the eavestrough out and I believe he had to small pails and half a large one of mud and debris.  It was a good thing there was lots of help so by noon we were out of there.  The Blanke's are likely to be here Jan 2nd and with their health issues, folks wanted to do what they could to help with the start up work.
  After lunch Marg & I went to the big flea market in Mesa.  It still was not as busy as previous years, although there were lots of folks there. The old gal who I trade books with was not there, but her daughter was running the stall.  I got rid of some books and bought 4 new ones, so should be good for the week.  I think it will be a busy week, so don't expect as much reading time.  We did wander about a bit and I bought 2 caps and Marg a large bottle of Mexican vanilla.
  After the market, we stopped at Walgreen on the way home.  We need a few things and Marg picked up a bottle of Jag, another surprise.  We needed mouth wash and band-aids, but came away with a few other things as well.
  Back at our place we had a few visitors.  Jerry came by to return some of the things he was using to clean eavestrough and stayed for a couple bursts of scotch.

  Then Barb & Joann [Lynett's daughters] stopped by to give us a bouquet of roses.  These are the gals I had picked up and delivered to the airport last week.  When Barb called to ask if I would pick her up I said only on the condition they not give me anything for doing it, so when the ladies came they said these were just because they care for us and appreciate our helping their mother.  The B.S. was getting pretty deep in here by they time they left.  Nice ladies and a nice floral arrangement, but now I know why their dad used to get frustrated with them.  LOL
  Then it was off to happy hour just at the end of our street.  It was Darryl's birthday so we had snacks today and a patio heater, so it was quite pleasant.  At happy I sat by Barb and told her she may be using a taxi next year.  He reply was yeah, right.  Well really she may be, who knows.
  Supper tonight was a stir fry as Marg still had lots of vegetables left after making the Christmas eve veg tray and they needed to be used.  It turned out very well, with some left over lazy cabbage roll and chicken.