January 24 to 30, 2010

January 24 to 30, 2010


Sunday ; After an early lunch we headed to the Yuma Civic Center to attend the Mexican Expo hosted by the cities of Los Algodones, Mexicali, and San Felipe. Los Algodones is the border town across from Yuma, Mexicali is about an hour west of here, across the border from Calexico, and San Felipe is a beach resort town on the Sea of Cortez / Gulf of California a couple of hours south of here. There were many vendor booths and a stage with a variety of live entertainment. It wasn’t quite the tourism expo we had expected. Most of the vendor booths were dentists and pharmacies.

We returned home and I went to nap with Sully and Bo while Joanne went to Wal-Mart. I hate shopping at Wal-Mart on Mondays to Fridays. I refuse to do it on Saturdays and Sundays. After Joanne got home we went to the dog park with Bo. I wanted to try out my new “low wind” kite on a day with no wind. There wasn’t enough wind to make the kite fly, unless if I walked with it. If I just stood in one spot, the kite wouldn’t fly. But it was obvious that it would indeed fly with almost no wind. Walking speed was enough.

We went to the Sunday ice cream social. We chatted with a couple from Ontario and a couple from northwest BC. After supper I reviewed the new TV’s manual and made some adjustments to the TV, then went to the clubhouse and did some online work.

Monday ; What should have been an hour or two of running errands this morning turned into an entire day ( sigh ). And once again, due to another ( bigger sigh ) “misunderstanding” of our mail forwarding instructions, our mail was not sent where I wanted it to be. After driving out to the Bard, California Post Office twice in the last two weeks, I discovered last night by e-mail that our last batch of mail was sent to Yuma, Arizona ! I hate picking up mail at the Yuma Post Office. The line up is never less than half an hour, usually closer to an hour, and more than that before Christmas !

This morning we drove to the Yuma Post Office. The length of the line up suggested about an hour wait. I didn’t wait ! We drove to the Fry’s Mall where Joanne went into Fry’s for a few grocery items and I went to Checker Auto Parts for some spray paint. From there we headed to 24 Karat to pick up Joanne’s rings. They weren’t ready ! We waited for half an hour for the work to be finished. And when it was finished, I wasn’t satisfied with the quality. We left the rings there for further work. We drove to Barnes & Noble to pick up the book I ordered as a gift for Joanne’s birthday. As I parked in the Barnes & Noble parking lot I realized that I had left a discount coupon at home ( another sigh ). We drove across town to RV Connection for a couple of items. They didn’t have either of the items I wanted. It was shaping up to be a pretty crappy day ! We went to Peanut Patch and bought some of their wonderful freshly made peanut butter. Then we went home for lunch.

After lunch we headed out again. Back to Barnes & Noble … with the coupon … and I got the book. She’d better damn well like it after all the trouble I went through to get it ! ! ! Back to 24 Karat to pick up Joanne’s rings. Still not as close to perfect as I expect jewellery repairs to be, but … ! Over to the 99¢ Only Store for way too much shopping for way too long ! And finally to the Post Office again to pick up mail. The wait was half an hour ( mumbling and grumbling ).

Once back at home we took Bo to the dog park for his daily long walk around the perimeter. And I brought my kite, thinking that flying my kite would be a good way to de-stress myself. Well … ( pouting ) … Joanne flew my kite and I walked the dog !

After every meal I must take an ulcerative colitis medication to enable my food to digest properly. It’s a packet of powder that must be mixed in a glass of water. Tonight after supper I was mixing my medication on the dinette table and glanced up at the TV. I knocked the glass of water over, and it poured all over the dinette table, where my new computer was sitting ! YIKES … DÉJA VU ! ! ! I grabbed the computer, yanked out the power cord, then as quickly as possible yanked out the battery pack. Most of the water and medication were on the bottom of the computer with only a few drops splashed onto the keyboard. VERY CLOSE CALL ! ! !

Not a great day !

Tuesday ; Well, today was a better day, thankfully. First we washed the truck. I had been procrastinating washing the truck for a couple of weeks already, and was going to postpone it again today, but somebody put her foot down and said it was getting done … today ! Then I continued working on my project of spray painting the corners of the slide where I installed some bracing brackets. I finished the painting and will remove the masking and reinstall the rubber moulding after the paint has cured in the sun for a few days. I glue repaired a kitchen cupboard door. I cosmetically repaired the bottom of the TV compartment in the entertainment wall. We took Bo and Sully to the dog park. Joanne walked around the perimeter with Bo. I ambled around with Sully while he sniffed Yucca plants and rolled around in the desert sand taking a dust bath like a chinchilla.

Wednesday ; Today was a more relaxed day than usual. I continued to fuss with a small repair that I am doing on a kitchen cupboard door. We gave Bo a bath, an easier task now that we have given him a haircut. I did some very minor work outside on the truck and trailer. We did the first weekly application of OraVet plaque prevention gel to Bo and Sully. It wasn’t too bad, easier with Bo than Sully. We’ll try it for 16 weeks then reassess.

Late in the afternoon we went to the weekly heavy appetizers potluck / social hour. We chatted with a couple from Northern California. After “Happy Hour” we took Bo for his daily long walk around the dog park. I went to the clubhouse and took care of online work. I am in the midst of changing our mail collection and forwarding arrangements, and I hope that will result in improvement.

Thursday ; Joanne’s 56th birthday

Happy Birthday, my love. This morning we headed off to run some errands. First stop was Arizona Market Place where Joanne wanted to buy some produce and I needed an RV accessory. In previous years there were a few RV parts dealers at the Arizona Market Place. This year there is only one. And they were out of stock of the item I needed. I will either have to check back in a week, or buy it elsewhere. I already know that RV Connection doesn’t have it, so we’ll probably have to drive out to The Foothills and check for it at Al’s RV. I don’t think we’ll be able to wait a week to check again at Arizona Market Place because we suspect the owners of the lot we are on will be returning soon to Kofa Ko-op to be here for the upcoming annual general meeting and we will have to vacate their lot and leave.

Next stop was Lowe’s for a variety of items. We bumped into Jim, a neighbour from back home at Riverside RV Park Resort in Keremeos. Didn’t know he was spending the winter in Yuma. Then over to the Salvation Army Thrift Shop. Today they had a 50% off sale on all electronics. I wanted to see if they had a DVD player. They didn’t. As I was heading to Wal-Mart to buy a birthday cake, Joanne took a peek at my “to do” list, seeing “buy cake” was my next chore. She said she would prefer it if I made her a cake instead of buying her one. Okay ! Although I don’t recall ever having made a cake before. We returned home for a late lunch.

After lunch I napped with Sully and Bo. Sully loves having afternoon naps with me. After napping I made a birthday cake. And icing. I modified the cake recipe a bit. I added peanuts and raisins to a chocolate cake recipe. Hope it turns out okay. I certainly am a messy cook ! Oh well, my job was just to make it, not clean up afterwards. HA HA HA !

We took Bo for his daily long walk around the dog park. We’ve come to really enjoy our afternoon walks in the setting sun. I went to the clubhouse to retrieve and send e-mail before we went out for Joanne’s birthday dinner. Just before leaving for dinner I sang Happy Birthday to Joanne, playing along on my Mexican Arpa Magica.

Joanne asked to be taken to Olive Garden for her birthday dinner. On the way to Olive Garden we stopped at Best Buy to buy a cable to connect the computer to the TV. The “geek” who served me was not able to understand my computer’s “expansion port” VGA cable connection. I’ll have to return to Best Buy with the computer ( sigh ). At Olive Garden we had a lovely dinner, then returned home for card, cake, and gift. We didn’t have any candles for the birthday cake that I had baked, so I stuck toothpicks in the cake and set them on fire. HA HA HA ! My gift was a book entitled “99 Days To Panama”, written by an American couple who travelled by RV with their dog through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. We are planning to do that trip in 4 years !

Friday ; This morning I removed the masking from my spray painting project and reinstalled the rubber moulding around the edges of the slide. The paint job looks good despite my lack of spray painting skills. I have way too much “nuts & bolts” hardware in little packages and little bags. Yesterday at Lowe’s I bought a hardware storage container with many little compartments. Today Joanne helped me dump out all the little packages and bags, sort, rearrange, and store it all in the new compartmentalized storage container. Well, that’s better ! Now I won’t be searching for half an hour through little bags and packages to find the right size of screw or washer or whatever I’m looking for.

After lunch we headed to The Foothills. I found the RV part I needed at Al’s RV. We decided to visit Joy and Dave, neighbours of ours back home at Riverside RV Park Resort in Keremeos. We knew what RV park they were staying at in The Foothills. We spent much of the afternoon visiting with them. Before leaving The Foothills area we stopped for groceries at Fry’s and I bought another can of spray paint at Checker Auto Parts. Now I have a spare can of the paint that I occasionally need, and usually have difficulty finding when I need it.

Once back home at Kofa Ko-op we took Bo for his walk around the dog park. As we entered the dog park …WHOA … our friends Lynn and Mischa and their Canaan dog Gypsy from SKP Park of the Sierras in Central California were in the dog park. They had arrived in Yuma yesterday. They found out yesterday by phone that Kofa Ko-op was full so they went to another RV park. Late this afternoon they came over to Kofa Ko-op to see if there were any vacancies ( there weren’t ) or if any vacancies are expected soon ( there aren’t ). While here they decided to take Gypsy for a walk in the dog park, and that’s how we bumped into them. They came over and visited with us in our trailer for awhile before leaving Kofa Ko-op. Hopefully a vacancy will become available here soon and they can move in.

Saturday ; This morning we went to the clubhouse for the Saturday morning breakfast. Today was Eggs Benedict Day. Our friend Monica from Tennessee made excellent Eggs Benedict … for over 100 people ! We chatted for the entire morning with Dorothy, who lives across the street from us, and was seated at our table. She’s 90 years old, and in excellent health, physically and mentally. She has a fascinating life story. Especially the story about her mother’s undeveloped film. When her mother died about 25 years ago, in the mid-1980’s, she discovered 8 rolls of undeveloped film in her mother’s bedroom dresser drawer. She took them in for processing and found that they were photos her mother took between 1926 and 1932 ! It was the depression era, and her family couldn’t afford at that time to pay for film processing. The photos are now part of Dorothy’s life memoirs that she has written at the urging of her children … who are older than Joanne and me ! Dorothy is, not surprisingly, a widow, having been married to her first husband for 30 years and her second husband for 28 years ! One of the principal reasons we enjoy our membership in Escapees so much is because we meet such interesting old people.

I noticed a woman in the clubhouse working on an HP Mini netbook computer identical to mine. Surprise, surprise … the hinge assembly was broken ! I was going to offer to fix it for her, now that I’ve learned how to do that, but not only had her computer’s hinge assembly fallen apart, she had lost the tiny little screws. That reinforces my theory for why this “first generation” of Hewlett Packard Mini netbook computer had a “life” of only a few months before it was replaced by a “second generation” with a different hinge design ! And a different VGA port !

I spent some time this afternoon working on securing the new TV for travel. It fits into the space in the entertainment centre wall where the old TV was, but it needs to be held in place so it can’t move forward or backward, or “rock” from side to side which would eventually cause the little plastic stand on the bottom to break. I have figured out what needs to be done to secure the TV for travel, but I need to buy some double sided tape.

We walked with Bo in the dog park. I read and napped. We spent a long time in the swimming pool. Winter in Yuma is over. It came last week. Lasted two days ! HA HA HA ( SNORT ) HA HA ! After supper we went to the clubhouse for a performance by Rainbow Station, a children’s choir comprised of about two dozen children, about half Caucasian / American and half Hispanic / Mexican, ranging in age from four to twelve. They were very good ! Which was somewhat surprising to me ! I couldn’t help but notice … the Mexican kids were better than the American kids. Better voices, much better rhythm and timing, better stage presence.

DSK