Year 3 Week 25

December 3 to 9, 2006

Yuma, Arizona to Palms Spring, California

Year 3 week 25

 

Sunday ; Today was a sunny, warm, windy, day. The sky to the northwest was hazy with smoke from the wildfire that started today just north of Los Angeles.

We were very tired today. Bo kept us up for most of the night, suffering from extreme itching discomfort, and resultant anxiety. In the middle of the night, and again first thing in the morning, we treated him with a flea spray. In the morning we discovered evidence of flea bites on him, and allergic reactions to the flea bites, known as flea bite dermatitis. In the morning and again in the afternoon we gave him ¼ of an antihistamine pill. This seemed to reduce the itching and anxiety, and made him drowsy, allowing him to finally get some sleep. In mid-afternoon he started vomiting bile, most likely from licking itchy spots and ingesting flea spray. Poor Bo. And the odd irony is ... the most probable source of him getting fleas in the last few days ? Wait for it ! Santa Claus ! HA HA HA ! Poor baby Bo probably got fleas from the Humane Society's Santa Claus.

I removed the damaged brushed aluminum gas cap door and replaced it with the factory gas cap door. I used my new "California Duster" brush on the truck, to remove all the desert dust. We recently bought this California Duster brush, because we're tired of how often we need to wash the truck, when it's not really dirty, just very dusty. The California Duster brush works well. We each spent much of the day trying to keep Bo calm and resting. I prepared quite a few e-mails, some to update personal friends, and others to get some information regarding tax issues. We gave Bo a flea bath.

I wanted to go to the weekly ice cream social at 6:00 P.M., but Joanne didn't. So ... we didn't go. We had supper, then watched Amazing Race.

 

Monday ; Yuma, Arizona to Palm Springs, California

Today was sunny and warm.

We departed Kofa Ko-op, and Yuma, heading west on Interstate 8 into California. At El Centro we turned north on Hwy. 86. For lunch, we just pulled off the road, and off the shoulder, onto the desert, beside the Salton Sea. Joanne wants to take a day trip while we're at Guide Dogs Of The Desert to visit the Salton Sea. At Indio, turned west again on Interstate 8. We stopped at Flying J in Thousand Palms to refill with diesel and refill a propane tank. We arrived at Guide Dogs Of The Desert late in the afternoon.

Our "boss", Kathie Flamm is on vacation this week. We checked in with the front office staff in the administrative offices across the road, then began to move ourselves into the dormitory parents' suite in the dormitory. We realized this is the first time in the 2 years that we've had Bo that he's actually going to live in a building. He was excited to be in the dorm, and enjoyed romping up and down the hallways. The dormitory is empty except for us. Teddy just took it all in stride, settling in comfortably on our new bed. He's pretty laid back.

There is lots of cleaning and minor maintenance chores to keep us busy for the next little while. The previous dormitory "mom" seemed to focus most, if not all, of her attention to the kitchen, and meal preparation. Apparently cleaning wasn't her forté.

 

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and hot.

The vistas here are magnificent ! The Guide Dogs Of The Desert property is on a mountain side, looking across the Coachella Valley to the Santa Rosa Mountains. The cities of Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs are visible. I just went for an exercise walk ( at 6:00 P.M. ) up a steep hill and around the back of the property. The views of the cities at night are spectacular. As I walked out of the dormitory, there was a small owl sitting on a brick wind fence staring at me. If he's hunting for rabbits to eat, the pickings are easy. This property is crawling with small rabbits at night. They have destroyed the small patch of grass that was laid in the courtyard 2 weeks ago. I think they're going to have to give up the idea of having a small patch of grass in the courtyard.

We spent the late evening last night trying to figure out how to watch TV. You wouldn't think that figuring out how to watch TV would be that difficult for 2 reasonably bright people. This place has satellite TV. About 200 channels, of which about 4 are worth watching. I'm not kidding ! And the major networks aren't available. No CBS, NBC, ABC, etc.. In our dormitory suite there are 2 TV's. One is connected to the satellite dish. One has rabbit ears, and is used to watch the major networks, but with relatively poor reception. Tomorrow I'll see what kind of reception I can get in the trailer using the roof top antenna. We watch 2 network shows a week ; Amazing Race and Survivor. We can't seem to find CBS on the rabbit ears TV, and at least one, maybe both of those shows are on CBS.

We spent most of today prioritizing, tidying, and cleaning. I hauled a lot of garbage to the dumpster behind the kennels across the road. There seems to be a lot of cleaning and minor maintenance chores that have been neglected here. I guess that's not surprising. This is a non-profit agency, which relies on volunteers for most of their labour requirements. And they don't seem to have a shortage of volunteers to do the work, they seem to lack a cohesive view of what exactly needs to be done. Obviously, most of the efforts are aimed at the dogs. The student dormitory seems neglected. We're making the assumption that as dormitory parents, it will be our responsibility to do anything and everything that must be done to keep the dormitory functioning well. The previous dormitory "mom" may have taken a less broad view of her responsibilities. The next class begins in a month, so we have lots of time to do chores before starting the real job of feeding students.

This afternoon I got myself invited to the puppy room to see Ruby the Golden Retriever and her ten puppies, now 9 days old. She had eleven, but one died on the second day. WOW ... I've never seen puppies that young. Hard to believe that something that small is going to grow up to be a Golden Retriever.

Teddy and Bo love this place. The inner courtyard is completely fenced, so both Teddy and Bo are allowed outdoors unrestrained. And we allow them the run of the dormitory, so they can explore up and down halls and in common area rooms. Until there are students here, with their guide dogs, Teddy and Bo can go wherever they want.

 

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and hot again.

I spent most of the day doing minor maintenance around the dormitory. And the more minor maintenance I do, the longer my list of minor maintenance chores to do becomes. This dormitory has been neglected, from a maintenance perspective. I repaired the screen door on our dormitory room. It was installed for our benefit, to allow us to leave the solid door open, and still have the screen door to keep Teddy and Bo in our room when necessary. But it's a really cheap screen door, it was installed very poorly, and it was damaged by the previous dorm "Mom's" big dog. I repaired an emergency exit door's panic bar. Gee whiz ... an institutional dormitory, with non-functioning emergency exit doors, and burned out emergency exit lights. I wonder when's the last time a fire marshal inspected this place ? ! I installed a couple of wall switch plates that were missing from electrical outlets. Somebody purchased the hardware, but didn't install them. Probably couldn’t find a screwdriver !

We spent the latter part of the afternoon washing the trailer. We had to wait until fairly late in the day to do this job. The desert sun is simply too intense to work outdoors in the mid-day sun. The trailer was filthy. The last time we washed it was 3 months ago in Revelstoke, B.C.. Driving through foul weather in Washington and Oregon a month left heavy road grime on it.

We’re preparing and eating our meals in the trailer, and will continue to do so until we finish cleaning and fixing things in the dormitory and begin to do the same in the kitchen. The dormitory complex is 3 buildings. Building A is the kitchen, dining room, and auditorium. Building B is the bedrooms and common area living room ... the dormitory. Building C was designed to be another dormitory, but is used as offices, storage, and for new born puppies.

After supper, I did some research on local mystery shopping opportunities, using Wi-Fi. Just before we started travelling 2½ years we signed up to become mystery shoppers for an international mystery shopping organization. We did 2 mystery shops in Ottawa before we started travelling, but haven’t done any since. While we’re in the Palm Springs area, I think we’ll do some. It pays hardly anything, but the mystery shops are often fast food outlets, and the cost of the meals are reimbursed, as well as a small payment for services. A free lunch, so to speak. And while there were few opportunities available in Canada, there are many in the Southern California area. Ironically, we received a telephone call from the mystery shopping company 2 weeks ago, as we were driving from Palm Springs, California to Yuma, Arizona. They phoned, based on our Lorette, Manitoba address in their files, because they were desperate to find somebody to do a mystery shop for a client in Steinbach, Manitoba. Joanne laughed uproariously and told them we couldn’t do it because we were about 5000 miles from Steinbach. HA HA HA !

 

Thursday ;Today was sunny and hot again.

Today we explored the city of Palm Springs for the first time. It's about 6 miles or so from Guide Dogs Of the Desert, about the same distance as going to Desert Hot Springs. Desert Hot Springs is east, beside the Santa Rosa Mountains. Palm Springs is northeast, beside the San Jacinto ( pronounced Hasinto ) Mountains. First stop was the Visitor Information Centre on Palm Canyon Drive where we picked up a lot of information on the area. Then we went off searching for Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, Pep Boys, and the downtown area where VillageFest takes place every Thursday evening. WOW ... what an upscale city ! Big box stores and fast food restaurants do not look like they do everywhere else. They must have to conform to some upscale city design regulations or something.

We drove north on the very ritzy Palm Canyon Drive shopping area to find the VillageFest area, then headed east out into the suburbs / adjoining cities of Cathedral City, Thousand Palms, Palm Desert, and Rancho Mirage. Interesting street names ; Gene Autry Trail, Dinah Shore Drive, Bob Hope Drive, Gerald Ford Drive, Kirk Douglas Way, Frank Sinatra Drive. I think they all lived in Palm Springs at one time or another. Bob Hope certainly did. His home is a local landmark.

We found all the stores we were looking for, then headed back towards Desert Hot Springs. In Desert Hot Springs we found the McDonald's that we will "mystery shop" tomorrow, then went to Von's for some groceries.

We returned to Guide Dogs Of The Desert. While Joanne put away groceries and prepared supper, I took a quick look at our investments on Wi-Fi. < GULP > Wow ... sure hope the market keeps performing like it has in the last week !

After supper we drove back to downtown Palm Springs for VillageFest. Very interesting ! Every Thursday evening, they close about a mile or so of the trendiest section of Palm Canyon Drive, and turn it into a pedestrian mall / street festival & market. A very eclectic collection of craft vendors, food vendors, artists, entertainers and street performers, etc.. Sort of a very upscale flea market / craft market / produce market for the rich and famous. And my goodness, are we ever out of the fashion loop of the rich and famous ! If we're going to hang around downtown Palm Springs I'm going to have to do better than a pair of jeans with an Escapee RV Club patch covering the tear on the hip. Next week Bo will come along to VillageFest. There were lots of dogs. Palm Springs is very dog indulgent. But Bo's fashion sense is even worse than mine. Most of the Palm Springs dogs had a wardrobe of some sort. Bo's got ... well ... a harness !

 

Friday ; Today was sunny and hot.

I have just finished ( at 10:30 P.M. ) electronically submitting my mystery shopper questionnaire. It took about an hour online. The mystery shop itself took about 45 minutes, plus about 15 minutes of driving time. Two hours, times both of us, plus fuel to drive to Desert Hot Springs and back, for a free lunch at McDonald's and U.S.$7.50 ! What a moron ! I made about 100 times that amount in the stock market today, sitting on my thumb !

This morning Joanne made phone calls, and purchased us 2 tickets on a bus excursion to the Rose Parade in Pasadena on January 1. NOT CHEAP ! But we have heard good things about the Rose Parade, and decided we should attend, since we're so close by. The bus leaves Palm Springs in the middle of the night for Pasadena, which I think is about 2½ hours away. We have reserved bleacher seating for the Rose Parade, then the bus returns in the afternoon.

At noon we drove to Desert Hot Springs and did our McDonald's mystery shop. Afterwards, we went to K-Mart for shoes for Joanne, then to Vons for a few groceries. By the time we got back to Guide Dogs Of The Desert it was after 3:00 P.M.. Joanne worked on waxing the trailer until it got dark shortly after 5:00, then she assisted me in the dormitory. I spent about 4 hours doing maintenance in the dormitory. I'm a bit miffed at how much minor maintenance there is to do here. Especially with how much of the neglected maintenance is safety related ; broken panic bars on emergency exit doors, burned out emergency exit lighting, fire extinguishers falling off the walls, lots of hallway lights burned out, etc..

Just before it got dark, Bo escaped. I'm not sure how, but I probably left him roaming loose inside the dormitory, and then I worked on the emergency exit doors, one of which does not open into the fenced courtyard, but into the parking lot. I must have been looking up at the broken closer mechanism mounting hardware, and he just walked out. Normally I would hear his tags jingle as he approached, but we removed his harness because he has an itchy scab under the harness from a Santa Claus flea bite. Joanne was on a ladder waxing the trailer when he went zooming by in pursuit of bunnies. He disappeared into the desert for about half an hour. We wandered all around, calling him, but he didn't return until he felt like it. BAD BAD BAD DOG, BO ! ! ! That just reinforced the bad mood I've been in for 2 days already !

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny and hot again. It got very windy late in the evening.

WOO-HOO ! Today was the big Guide Dog Puppies In Training Christmas Party. Forty large dogs, ranging in age from a few months to a little over a year old. And Bo ! And Teddy ! And a Santa without fleas. Ha Ha Ha ! Oh ... and about a hundred people.

Bo didn't know there were parties for dogs. WOO-HOO !

We did a lot more work for this party than we had anticipated, and are very tired. I was asked to light the ovens so that a couple of hams could be roasted. Joanne volunteered to roast the hams. The woman in charge of the "puppy raisers", and the one in charge of today's party, completely abdicated all food and kitchen responsibilities. We are more than a little miffed. But the party went exceptionally well. And partway through the party, I brought Teddy in, in his sling carrier. It was great. Many of the "puppies in training" had not yet been exposed to cats. And Teddy was a wonderful introduction. I would kneel down, with Teddy in his sling carrier. The dogs sniffed him and licked him. He took it all in stride, objecting slightly only twice. Once when a dog licked inside his ear. HEY ... DON'T LICK IN MY EAR ! And once when a puppy reached up and nibbled his foot dangling below the sling carrier. HEY ... DON'T CHEW ON MY FOOT ... !)@(#*$&%^ DOG !

We had photos taken of Bo with Santa, and Teddy and Bo with Santa. We participated in the gift exchange, so Bo got to select a wrapped gift from underneath the Christmas tree. He got a "big dog" Nylabone. Great ! He's been playing all week with "big dog" Kongs, which are lying around all over the place here. Bo now thinks he's a big dog, and should play with big dog toys. Although the big dog Kongs are the size of his head !

I had an impromptu meeting with the Director Of Operations, and let her know that I had a chip on my shoulder about the abdication of responsibilities today, the amount of cleaning and maintenance that was necessary in the dormitory, and that we weren't here to become their 24 hour a day, 7 day a week "Joe Boys". She accepted my comments well, and hopefully will take them to heart.

Unfortunately, another one of Ruby's puppies died overnight. Now there are nine left of the original eleven.

DSK