January 10 to 16, 2010

January 10 to 16, 2010

Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot. It was our intention to begin washing the trailer today, but … I was just too tired and sore from yesterday’s job of changing the truck’s front brakes. My knees hurt from kneeling on gravel. My shoulder blades hurt from lying on gravel. My hands were blistered. My arms were bruised from working within the confined space under the wheel wells. My knuckles were scraped. My back ached from working all hunched over. Changing brakes would be a difficult enough job with the truck up on a hoist, working at chest to eye level. Doing the job with the truck on the ground, and the ground was gravel … !

We slept late this morning. We spent much of the afternoon floating around the pool on our pool noodle chairs, and in the hot tub. We took Bo for a long walk around the dog park. We took Sully outside for awhile. I did some computer work sitting outside in a lawn chair. At 6 PM we headed for the ice cream social. Today was the monthly birthday ice cream social. Everybody whose birthday is in January ( including Joanne ) got their ice cream first. There was birthday cake for everybody. After eating a huge bowl of ice cream covered in chocolate sauce, butterscotch sauce, and chopped nuts, along with two pieces of birthday cake ( me … Joanne only had one ), we returned to our trailer to have supper. HA HA HA ! Actually we were obviously too full of ice cream and cake to eat supper. At the ice cream social we visited with a couple from near our home in B.C., a couple from Alberta, and a couple from New Hampshire. We invited the New Hampshire couple to visit us next summer on their way to or from Alaska.

Monday ; Today was sunny and warm. It was a day for running errands. First stop this morning was Lowe’s to buy some hardware. Then Sears to buy a phone card, a socket, and a socket adaptor to replace my neighbour’s that I broke. We went to CJ’s RV Supplies where I finally found a piece of moulding for the trailer that I had been looking for since last spring. Then Food City, CVS Pharmacy, a panaderia, Fry’s, and finally UPS to try to get my Amazon.com shipment re-addressed / re-routed. UPS refused to re-address / re-route the package for the recipient. They will only do that for the shipper ( sigh ).

At the checkout at Fry’s we received an interesting and unusual offer. We always bag our own purchases in cloth shopping bags that we have been using for over 20 years. The cashier at Fry’s offered to exchange our very old cloth shopping bags for new Fry’s cloth shopping bags at no charge. Great offer … okay !

After a very late lunch at home I took a brief nap, we walked Bo around the park, then headed for the swimming pool. AHHHHH ! ! ! I finished up the brake job on the truck by checking the torque on the lug nuts and reinstalling the wheel liners and hub caps. Just before it got dark I went to the clubhouse to work online. I sent an e-mail to Amazon.com asking them to contact UPS to get my package re-addressed / re-routed.

The first time I had the front brakes replaced on the truck, in Penticton a little over 2 years ago, the brakes were hot and smelly from home all the way down here to Yuma. Consequently I thought it normal for new brakes on this truck to be hot and smelly for quite awhile. Apparently not ! These new brakes are neither hot nor smelly. I surmise that that means perhaps my brake work may be superior to that done by the dealer. And since I’m obviously not very good, what does that imply about the work done by the dealer ? ! ?

Now that I have the netbook computer and a portable hard drive one of my objectives has been to ensure that all my files, documents and photos exist on two different storage media for safety / backup, either the computer’s main drive, the portable hard drive, a memory stick, or CD. For the last few nights I have been copying all my old archived photos from CD’s to the portable hard drive. Tonight I copied all our full time RV travel year 2 photos. Three more years to go.

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and warm. I’m going to stop making that comment, because it’s rare for Yuma to not be sunny and warm. I’m only going to comment on the weather when it isn’t sunny and warm.

Well … what a Dumb Ass Day I’ve had ! I slept late this morning. Got up and dawdled, planning to putter around until lunch time, then leave after lunch for our late afternoon dentist appointments in Mexico. At 11 AM Joanne asked “What are you doing ? We have dentist appointments in Mexico in an hour”. HUH ? ! ? WHAT ? ! ? YIKES ? ! ? ZOOM ! ! !

We got to our dentist’s office right on time. And there was no waiting, we went straight in. I had difficulty during the dental cleaning. I couldn’t breathe. I choked and gagged. My sinuses were draining and drowning me. For about half an hour, then my brain went “BOING” ! ! ! Oh … I forgot to tell the hygienist that I’m allergic to latex and I need her to wear vinyl gloves instead. DUH ! ! ! The cleaning was excellent. I need an old filling replaced and a new cavity filled. I made another appointment for next week. Dr. Camacho’s rate for a dental cleaning and examination has increased to $45, triple the price of the little storefront dentists ! But … I suppose the services of his large modern clinic are worth triple the price.

After the dentist we went to Algodones Optical. I have been having a bit of difficulty adjusting to my new glasses and I wanted the glasses checked and my eyes re-examined. Something seems to me to be wrong with the left lens. The eye doctor checked the glasses under some sort of microscope type piece of equipment and verified that the lenses conform to the prescription. Then he re-examined my eyes and confirmed that the prescription was correct. He suggested that the problem might be that my right eye is dominant, and that might be why it seems to me that the left lens is not quite right. Hopefully a bit more time to adjust to the new glasses will rectify that.

We went for lunch to our new favourite little restaurant for some of their excellent tacos. Joanne had dos tacos carne asada y uno taco pescado. I had dos tacos carne asada y uno taco camarón. I dropped the salt shaker … and it landed in a bowl of guacamole, splashing all over the table … and us !

We walked across town to Farmacia Safari, the veterinary pharmacy, to buy Sentinel for Bo. They didn’t have any. I guess we’ll have to get it from the veterinarian in Yuma when we take Sully and Bo in for their dental cleanings next week. Before heading for the line up to cross the border we stopped at Liqui’s Farmacia y Licoreria a.k.a. The Purple Store so that Joanne could buy another 3 litres of Yomi Lala ( rolling my eyes ). The line up at the border today was 45 minutes.

Back home at Kofa Ko-op we had time to take Bo and Sully to the dog park, and then some time in the pool for us before dark. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with both Amazon.com and UPS. UPS will not re-address / redirect a package in transit for the recipient, only the shipper, or so they initially claimed. Amazon.com said they couldn’t / wouldn’t do it. I finally convinced a telephone agent at Amazon.com to phone UPS and arrange for the package to be redirected. While I stayed on the line the Amazon.com agent phoned UPS who refused to re-address / redirect the package. ( sigh ) Fine ! The package will eventually find its way back to Amazon.com who will eventually issue me a refund. I won’t do business in the future with either Amazon.com or UPS. And Joanne doesn’t get her birthday gift !

Wednesday ; WHEW … today was trailer wash day. Tough job ! Although Harvey wasn’t as filthy as he usually is after a trip from north to south. We had pretty nice weather in early November driving down. No nasty weather until almost San Francisco. And the exhaust pipe extension I had installed on Lanoire last spring seems to have been effective at keeping most of the diesel exhaust soot off the trailer. Although the temperature today was only in the mid-70’s ( snicker ) the intense desert sun made it impossible to work outside wearing jeans. I had to change into shorts to wash the trailer.

Late in the afternoon we headed to the clubhouse for the regular Wednesday afternoon “heavy appetizer social hour”. In addition to everybody’s potluck contribution of heavy appetizers there was also homemade bean and bacon soup. I couldn’t eat any because of the bacon, but Joanne quite liked it. She was one of the women who had volunteered to bake cornbread to accompany the soup. We chatted with a couple who are about to embark on a 100 day around the world cruise. We signed up for an upcoming farm tour, and Joanne signed us up for a week of pool closing duties. This park is a co-op. Everybody has to make a “fair share” contribution to the work that needs to be done for the park to function well. We think that includes visitors who are staying here longer than just a few days.

I spent the evening entering year end investment fees data, and copying our travel year 4 photos from CD to portable hard drive. At 9 PM we went to learn how to cover the pool and hot tub from the people that are doing it this week.

Thursday ; Yuma to Quartzsite & return

This morning we headed off for a day trip to Quartzsite, about 2 hours north of Yuma on Hwy. 95. Quartzsite is “Mecca” for RV’ers. Every year tens of thousands of RV’ers converge on the small town of Quartzsite. They begin arriving in November, and peak in about mid-January … like now ! Each year in January there are a number of events to attract them. A huge RV show. A massive rock, gem, and mineral show. Thousands of flea market vendors, and miles of flea markets. These thousands of RV’s boondock / dry camp for miles and miles and miles around Quartzsite, out in the desert, on BLM ( Bureau of Land Management ) land. We’ve been to Quartzsite a number of times before. Never in peak season in mid-January. And never for longer than two days. We’re not really Quartzsite kind of people !

But yesterday and today were a two day Escapee Happy Hour event. Hundreds of Escapees from all over North America who were anywhere near Quartzsite headed for the two day event. And RV’ers definition of “near” is pretty broad. Many of the people from Kofa Ko-op were there. Some just for the day, like us. We didn’t want to take our rig to Quartzsite just for a couple of days and lose our site at Kofa Ko-op. Some took their rigs there to stay for a few days or a week, and attend both the Escapees Happy Hour and the big RV show which starts Saturday.

We were a little disappointed in the “Happy Hour” event. While we weren’t certain of what to expect, our expectations were nevertheless not met. There were a few hundred people sitting around in lawn chairs listening to a group of musicians play. One of the musicians was our old friend Ernie, playing saxophone. We visited with Ernie and Colombe, from BC, whom we haven’t seen in a year and a half. We visited with Dennis and Carol from … Texas, I think, … whom we haven’t seen in 5 years. And we visited with a variety of our friends from here at Kofa Ko-op.

We brought Bo along to Quartzsite. He was feeling “drivey deprived”. He was exceptionally well behaved, which he usually isn’t in a crowded event. Good dog, Bo. On our way home I gave him a special treat. A few miles from Kofa Ko-op we passed a large field full of sheep. I stopped, rolled down the window, and allowed him to bark at the sheep until they all stampeded away from the fence along the side of the road. HA HA HA … Bo LOOOOOVES making a large herd of sheep stampede.

Friday ; Another long and somewhat frustrating day of running errands. And I’m in a foul mood ! And I don’t know which is chicken and which is egg !

I stayed up way too late last night trying unsuccessfully to copy our Year 4 Baja California, Mexico photos from CD to portable hard drive. I finally discovered that there was a crack in the CD. I’m going to download some software that is supposed to recover most of the data from a damaged CD and give it a try.

At least today was a great day for Bo. He got to go drivey, have a date shake, shop at PetsMart, and stampede sheep again. Right after an early lunch we set off across the Colorado River to Bard, California to pick up mail at the Post Office and go for date shakes. I was expecting two pieces of mail at the Post Office ; a letter from MasterCard and a batch of forwarded mail from home. Neither was there ! And both were allegedly mailed 10 days ago. We certainly have not had much success with our mail forwarding this year so far. We’ve been away from home for over 2½ months and have not yet received any of our forwarded mail !

We went to Sun Gardens Date Farm for date shakes. Having date shakes is undoubtedly the highlight of Bo’s winters in the south. While at Sun Gardens I visited with a farm cat who only had one ear. I thought it had lost an ear to a fight or accident, but when I petted its head I realized that it was born with only one ear. What an odd genetic flaw !

We returned to Yuma and went shopping at PetsMart. From there we headed to 24 Karat, a jewellery store, to have Joanne’s engagement and wedding rings repaired. After 35 years of wear, the backs of the bands have worn very thin. WOW … what an expensive job to have the backs of the bands replaced / rebuilt. The price of gold is at an all time high. Of course, when we got to where the jewellery store was supposed to be, it had relocated ( sigh … fume ).

After the jewellery store, it was time for Wal-Martin’ which really entrenched my foul mood ! Then a brief ( yeah, right ! ) stop at Sally Beauty so that Joanne could “quickly run in and pick up one item”. Our final stop was Barnes & Noble where I ordered the book I want to give Joanne for her birthday. It was 25% more expensive at Barnes & Noble, but I don’t care ! I can’t deal with Amazon.com and UPS and all their addressing and delivery protocol bullshit ! When the book arrives at Barnes & Noble, they’ll phone me, I’ll pick it up and pay for it then. No muss, no fuss ! On the way home I once again allowed Bo to bark out the open window of the truck at the field of sheep until they stampeded. HA HA HA … you’re one tough perrito, Bo.

In the evening I downloaded the CD Recovery Toolbox software and used it to try to recover my Baja photos from the cracked CD. It worked successfully and recovered all the photos on the cracked CD. I’m impressed ! I copied the recovered photos onto a blank CD and the portable hard drive, so now they exist on two media for safety. Well done, Daniel !

Saturday ; This morning we headed to the east side of Yuma, to the suburb community known as The Foothills. There was an advertised special at Foothills Hardware & Lumber I wanted. It was out of stock ( sigh ). We went into the large shopping mall in The Foothills for a few other items. I bought a particular brand of shoe cleaner I wanted at Foothills Shoes. We bought some advertised specials at Fry’s. The grocery stores in the Yuma area have very aggressively priced specials in their weekly flyers. Joanne checks the weekly flyers and we shop for advertised specials weekly at Fry’s, Albertsons, and Food City. It’s made a big difference in our grocery costs.

Sully has been acting a bit neglected lately so I promised him a cuddle nap after lunch. Joanne did a bit of waxing and buffing on the trailer. I polished shoes. I cut and installed a couple of pieces of exterior panel edge moulding on the trailer. I removed the screws in the slide corner braces and reinstalled shorter screws. The job looks better. We took Bo for his daily long walk around the dog run. He was ill during the night. We did not allow him to have an excess of date shake yesterday, a mistake we have made in the past. I wonder if he’s losing his ability to digest date shakes / dairy products as he ages ?

We went … again … to Ranch House Restaurant for their Saturday night special of barbecued beef ribs. Again they were not available. Last week they substituted something else, claiming the beef ribs were of poor quality. This week they were “sold out”. We won’t be returning. It seems as if they are using their advertised specials as “bait & switch”. We went instead to HomeTown Buffet.

DSK