March 10, 2005

March 10, 2005

Usery Mountain Park, Mesa, Arizona

DAY 265

 

Today was another sunny, hot day. I like it !

Last night, for the second night in a row, we could hear coyotes in the campground. Their howls sound as if they right are at the trailer door, but I guess sound carries at night. Last year at this rally, a dog sleeping outside, tied to a rig was attacked by coyotes. I guess they're pretty bold.

I woke at dawn this morning, to feed the animals, and walk Bo as the sun rose over the mountain. Warm, light breeze, birds singing, it was almost enough to turn me into a morning person. Well ... almost enough, but not quite. I showered, and went over to the group area for coffee and socializing at 8:00. I was planning to join a led hike to the top of the mountain, leaving at 9:00, but the hike leader was this gung ho drill sargeant type. I'm not really keen on hiking up a mountain first thing in the morning at break neck speed, so at the last minute I decided to pass on the opportunity. About 10:00 some group games began. More my speed for the morning. I played a game of Ladder Golf in a group of four. I lost. Then I played Rummykub in a group of four which included Joanne, who had come over to the group area about 9:00. I won the game of Rummykub. We recently got that game, so it was an opportunity to learn how to play. Then I played another game of Ladder Golf. This time my team of two won, but I didn't make much of a contribution to the game. My team mate contributed 13 points before I finally managed to score a two to win the game. I passed on playing Marshmallow Golf. Around 11:30 I returned to the trailer to take Bo out for a walk and give him an opportunity to visit a bit. Some "pill" has requested that dogs be kept away from the group area due to allergies. It's beyond me how a dog in the general vicinity of an open picnic area can aggravate somebody's allergies, but ... I guess there has to be one in every group ! Joanne continued to play Rummykub, and won the next two games in a row. She liked the game, so maybe it'll be a game that we can enjoy playing together, like Scrabble. Great ... now she won't be asking me to play that damn Humzinger !

We had lunch in the trailer, then I took a short nap while Joanne prepared our contribution to the late afternoon communal dinner of finger foods. We returned to the group area at 2:30 for a "get to know one another" mixer game, followed by a men versus women game of beanbag baseball. I snuck out of that to go back to the trailer to prepare for my magic performance. I felt particularly nervous about performing today. I performed on Hallowe'en at Trout Lodge for a bunch of kids, and again at the C.A.R.E. Centre for a bunch of old folks, some of whom were Alzheimer's patients, but other than that, I haven't done magic for about 15 years. Performing for this large gathering made me nervous. The communal finger food dinner started about 4:30, and entertainment started about 5:30. First performers were Marcel and Louise Lemieux from Montreal who do a good duo juggling act. Marcel purports to be able to teach anybody to be able to juggle within a few minutes, following just a few simple instructions. He picked a member of the audience at random, and sure enough, was able to have him juggling within a minute or two. Good thing that the "randomly selected" audience member was already a juggler ... me ! HA HA HA HA HA ! Marcel has offered to teach me duo juggling tomorrow. My magic performance followed Marcel's and Louise's juggling. I made a few little mistakes, but nothing that I wasn't able to adequately recover from. All in all, it went quite well. Rather than watching me, Joanne watched the audience to guage their satisfaction with my performance. She thought my act was well received and appreciated. After my magic, Marcel and Louise performed again, this time as dancers. Finally, there was an act of really bad joke telling, à la George Burns and Gracie Allen. There was a short break, and we returned to the trailer to feed the boys and walk Bo, put away our leftovers and dishes, and sort out and put away my magic props. At 7:00 we returned to the group area, for campfire, music, and dancing. Tonight’s musicians were a man playing keyboards, and another playing saxophone and clarinet, performing mellow dance tunes from the 50’s and 60’s. The horn player was very good. Joanne even asked me to dance. I can’t recall the last time she asked me to dance. I never knew a good saxophone mellows her out that well. Maybe I should take up the sax ? NAHHH ! About 8:30, we left the campfire, and returned to the trailer to watch the last half of tonight’s episode of The Apprentice. Joanne went to shower, while I worked on this journal entry.

I tried to get online, through the cell phone, to update my blog, and retrieve e-mail. I made about 5 attempts to sign on, and each one failed, despite the phone showing a strong signal. I finally realized we must be in an area of only analog cellular coverage. Data connections won’t work.

DSK