Sunday ; Today was sunny and warm, a bit windy early in the day.
This morning we headed out to run errands. First stop was Barney’s to refill with diesel and buy a Sunday newspaper. Gee, the price of fuel has increased a lot in the last month or so. Next stop was Yuma Park N Swap / Dog Track Flea Market / Swap Meet Los Perros. Take your pick of names !
I didn’t find all the hardware items I was looking for. Joanne did not find all the produce items she was looking for. Artichokes are not yet in the market this year. HMPH … I want a big, fresh artichoke soon ! We drove to Lowe’s where I bought the items I couldn’t find at the flea market. HMPH … paid about four times as much !
Early this afternoon we drove to Kofa Ko-op where our friend Eilene was hosting an appreciation luncheon for her friends. She’s a widow, doesn’t drive anymore, and relies on friends to take her where she needs or wants to go. So today was her “thank you”. Her luncheon was held in Kofa Ko-op’s lovely, large gazebo. We had lunch and socialized. While we were at Kofa Ko-op we took the opportunity to join Escapees Roadrunners Chapter 7 and sign up for Chapter 7’s upcoming luncheon. We had been planning to join Chapter 7 next winter when we become lot owners at Kofa Ko-op, but we decided to do it now so that we could attend the upcoming luncheon. Roadrunners Chapter 7 is the Yuma area Escapees chapter. So … Escapees BC Okanagan Chapter 33 will be our summer chapter and Roadrunners Chapter 7 will be our winter chapter.
When we returned home I was eager to attempt to remove some of the sutures in my mouth. It has been eight days since my lower gum surgery and some of the sutures were really becoming irritated and irritating. A week after my upper gum surgery, my periodontist removed the sutures from the upper gums before operating on the lower gums. But the sutures in the lower gums were supposed to remain until they dissolve. I couldn’t wait. It was too uncomfortable. So, with considerable difficulty … OUCH … I cut and removed two of the sutures. I’m not sure if there are four or five sutures in there, but the first and the last were bothering me. AHHHHH … what relief, that feels better !
Since we were so intrigued by watching a Stanley Kubrick film last night
( Dr. Strangelove ) we decided to watch another one tonight. “2001 : a space odyssey”. Even allowing for the fact that it was made 43 years ago … how pretentious … and tedious !
Monday ; Today was sunny and warm. And today was like … “The Day Of The Freebie”.
Passport America is having a rally here in Yuma this week, at the Yuma County Fairgrounds. We are Passport America members, and while we didn’t want to haul the trailer to the fairgrounds and attend the entire rally, we were interested in finding out if we could attend some of the rally activities / events as guests / day visitors. This morning we headed to the Yuma County Fairgrounds. We got the information we were looking for, and decided we would like to attend a couple of the rally’s scheduled information seminars, one today and one tomorrow. As Passport America members we could attend any of the rally’s seminars for free. Today’s seminar was more than an hour away, so we thought we had time to go for lunch and maybe run one other errand before returning for the seminar.
We went to Burger King for lunch. Joanne … a.k.a. the Queen of Coupons … had a BOGO ( buy one, get one free ) coupon for a Whopper. We had an excellent lunch at Burger King ( somewhat to my surprise … salad instead of fries, small sized “senior” drinks ), then went to Walgreens to buy some advertised specials. There was a big red motorhome parked in Walgreens parking lot. It was a health screening unit, offering a variety of health tests, sponsored by Walgreens and AARP ( American Association of Retired Persons ). The tests were free … paid for by Walgreens and AARP … and apparently had a value of $140. I didn’t think the tests offered were worth that much, but … I’m Canadian and really have no good idea of what health care costs are in the United States. We wanted to go to the Passport America rally seminar, and ascertained that the health screening was available until
5 PM so we could return after the seminar.
We drove back to Yuma County Fairgrounds and attended the seminar. The seminar topic was “cleaning the exterior of your fiberglass trailer / motorhome”. That’s a big concern in our “world”. Fiberglass oxidizes, and it’s difficult to keep it looking good for more than about five years. We learned a thing or two that justified the expenditure of an hour of our time. We returned to Walgreens and had our free heath tests. Except for a few extra pounds on Joanne and a whole lot more than a few extra pounds on me, all the tests indicated levels about where they should be.
Tonight’s movie was “Down With Love”. Another bad movie !
Tuesday ; Today was sunny and warm.
This morning I started a project of replacing the under hood sound and heat insulation liner on the truck. The existing under hood liner was heavily damaged by mice and / or pack rats chewing it up to use the fibers for nesting material. And this is the second one to be destroyed in 5 years, so I’m averaging one every 2½ years. So I don’t want to buy another one from a Dodge dealer at a cost of over $150 knowing that it‘s likely to be destroyed by rodents again. So … I’m going to try to make one myself using some insulation material I bought at the flea market on Sunday. Today I removed the old chewed up one from underneath the truck hood. WOW … what a lot of damage ! That must have made a lot of mice and pack rat nests !
After an early lunch I headed to the Yuma County Fairgrounds to attend another educational seminar at the Passport America rally. When I arrived I found that
Tonight’s movie was The Secret Agent. Not a good movie. And most puzzling … why was Robin Williams not listed in the credits when he had a fairly substantial supporting role ? ! ? As I’m typing this immediately after watching the movie Joanne is asking … “are you typing "there goes two hours of our lives that we’ll never get back ?"” HA HA HA !
Wednesday ; Another lovely day, as usual in Yuma.
AHHHHH … relief ! This morning I cut and removed the remaining sutures in my lower gums. They were bothering me and I wanted them out. It was a tough job, but hey … somebody had to do it !
This morning I worked on cleaning the barbecue. A few days ago I barbecued a chicken that I had injected with a lot of marinade. It sort of made a mess in the barbecue. But … it certainly was a great barbecued chicken !
This afternoon I fabricated and installed a new under hood liner for the truck. And what a great job I did ! I traced the outline of the chewed up factory hood liner onto a three foot by six foot piece of insulation material I bought at the flea market. I carefully cut it. I carefully punched holes in it where the retainer clips were to go, again using the original hood liner as a template. And finally, I installed it using new retainer clips I bought at the flea market. You know, the retainer clips that cost about $2.50 each at the Dodge dealer but that cost 25¢ each at the flea market ! WOW … excellent results, Daniel !
And the insulation material that I used will hopefully not be attractive to rodents. The cost of the factory hood liner and retainer clips at a Dodge dealer is about $180. I spent $13.50 on materials at the flea market. Joanne did some experimentation with cleaning products and techniques on the trailer’s fiberglass exterior based on what she learned at the seminar at the Passport America rally a couple of days ago. WOW … lots of oxidation on the fiberglass.
I recently read an article about old women saving their husbands’ lives because they knew CPR. Given my family history … I asked Joanne to take a CPR course … again. I took a CPR course … about 25 or 30 years ago. And Joanne took a CPR course twice. The first time about the same time as me, and the second time about 15 to 20 years ago as a refresher after having to actually perform CPR … for real. < whispering > The guy died ! But, hey … that wasn’t her fault. It was a successful suicide. But I digress !
Tonight we both attended a training course for CCO-CPR. Chest Compression Only CPR is the “new” CPR. It’s simpler and it’s more effective. It was developed here in Arizona by two professors of cardiology medicine at the University Of Arizona in Tucson. Tonight’s training seminar on CCO-CPR was conducted by one of the two developers. The training course also included training in the use of an AED, an Automated External Defibrillator. Not much training required there. The machine talks the user through the process. Like “Defibrillation For Dummies”. Tonight’s training certainly proved to me that I had forgotten most of what I had learned in a “traditional” CPR training course many years ago. CCO-CPR is simple enough that one should remember enough of it to be useful “forever”. Sure hope Joanne remembers enough of it for when I have an “unexpected, unresponsive collapse”.
Tonight’s movie was “SPEED 2 / Cruise Control”. I guess that proves that sequels can’t live up to the original !
Thursday ; Today was sunny and mild.
This morning I puttered around with some outdoor chores while Joanne went to her water aerobics class. Immediately after an early lunch we headed out to The Foothills to run some errands. First stop was Wally’s World for some hardware, then Al’s RV Service & Supply for some RV parts. From The Foothills we got onto I-8 heading west into California. Destination ; Bard ! Objective ; date shakes ! WOO-HOO ! ! ! Bo loooooves date shakes ! Well … so do we ! We had date shakes at Sun Gardens then returned to Yuma. We went to Wal-Mart. I went in with Joanne to help select a few items that needed my input, then I returned to the truck and took Bo to Bark Park behind Wal-Mart while Joanne continued shopping. Bo played and romped with a lot of dogs until he was tired. I watched Marine rookie pilots practice flying circuits in Harriers, flying lower and slower each time around, practicing hovers and vertical landings, which are pretty amazing manoeuvres in a fighter jet ! The MCAS runway’s final approach is just about over Wal-Mart and Bark Park. We were waiting for Joanne to join us in Bark Park after she finished the Wal-Martin’, but we got tired before she arrived. We walked back to the truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot, arriving there at the same time as Joanne.
Tonight’s movie was The War At Home. 1996. Good movie, emotionally tough to watch !
Friday ; Another sunny, warm day in Yuma. What can I say ? ! ?
We were planning to go to Hometown Buffet for a late lunch today. Of course, Joanne had a coupon. But … at the last minute I decided I wasn’t feeling quite healthy enough for an ETYS buffet lunch. At my insistence, Joanne incorporated a teensy bit of Serrano chile peppers into last night’s supper. I deluded myself into believing that my colitis would tolerate it. I’m the gastrointestinal version of the schizophrenic who believes that because he feels so well, as a result of faithfully taking his medications, that he no longer needs his medications. HA HA HA !
We went shopping to RV Connection, a local RV parts dealer with a 10% off everything sale today. I bought a couple of items I needed. One cheap, one expensive. Routine wear and tear maintenance items. I installed them both this afternoon. While Joanne and Sully napped, I might add ! After lunch I lay down for a brief nap with Sully and Bo, underneath the new heated blanket we bought yesterday. Sully and I were going to road test it. Joanne lay down beside us and began to work on crosswords. When I woke up an hour later, Joanne and Sully were snuggled underneath the new “heater blankie”, fast asleep. Where they remained for the next four hours !
Tonight’s movie … selected by Joanne … was Going Overboard, an early Adam Sandler film. It now holds the title of “worse movie we’ve ever seen”. I couldn’t even last the duration. About halfway through I went to the bedroom to read.
Saturday ; Today started out sunny and mild, but it became cloudy this afternoon and briefly it rained lightly.
We spent the afternoon attending a cancer prevention seminar presented by the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson. Each of three doctors made a one hour presentation. One was on breast cancer, of interest to Joanne. One was on colorectal cancer, of interest to me. The principal sponsor of this event here in Yuma was a local life insurance agent. We wondered why a life insurance agent would spend big bucks to host this expensive seminar, offered to the public for free. One of the secondary sponsors was a young physician with the same last name, his son we assumed. Throughout the very informative presentations we couldn’t help but notice the “for profit” aspects of health care here in the United States, a concept that is foreign and very odd to us.
Tonight’s movie was The Adventures Of Milo And Otis, an enjoyable, light hearted “fluff” movie made in Japan about a kitten and puppy.
DSK
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