March 6 to 12, 2011

Sunday ; Today was sunny and very warm.

Since we had been planning to attend Midnight At The Oasis yesterday but went to the Strong Hearts PowWow instead, it was our plan to go to Midnight At The Oasis today to view the exhibition of hundreds of classic cars. But … we didn’t go. I discovered that the bottom of the pass through storage compartment of the trailer was wet. Uh-oh … a leak somewhere. And finding a leak in an RV plumbing system is usually not all that easy ! Joanne emptied out the storage compartment, in itself a difficult job. The wetness seemed to be fresh water, not waste water. Okay … first clue. I checked as much of the fresh water supply plumbing lines as I could, and didn’t find any leaks. I removed a small section of panel to peek into a hidden compartment where the fresh water tank is located. No leak was obvious. < sigh > Okay … this is obviously going to be a tough one to find, let alone solve. We keep the fresh water tank full, so I felt that the first step would be to empty the fresh water holding tank, and see if the wetness in the storage compartment dries out within a few days. If so, the fresh water tank is the source of the leak, although that still leaves a lot of different possibilities. I drained the fresh water tank.

Joanne went shopping. I downloaded and processed photos I took yesterday at the Strong Hearts PowWow. I did a lot of online work. When Joanne returned we went to the swimming pool and hot tub, then took Bo for a long walk. Joanne may have found a clue to lead me to the source of the leak !

Monday ; Today was sunny, very warm and very windy.

This morning we headed for Bark Park where we were to meet our friends Lynn and Micha and their dog Gypsy. We spent about an hour wandering around Bark Park chatting with Lynn and Micha while Bo and Gypsy romped and played, by themselves and with many other dogs.

This afternoon I continued working on trying to identify the source of the water leak in the pass through storage compartment. Today I was able to ascertain that the two plumbing lines between the black tank flusher inlet and the ( sewage waste holding ) black tank were not the source of the problem. HMPH ! That’s where I expected to find the problem ! Tomorrow I will refill the fresh water holding tank and attempt to determine if that’s where the problem is. I did some online work. I reviewed the rules, regulations, and bylaws documents of Kofa Ko-op. We are now “low” enough on the waiting list that these documents were recently made available to us for review. There was nothing in those documents that surprised or concerned me. We are eager to become “lot owners” at Kofa Ko-op. We expect that will happen before the end of 2011.

In the evening I did monthly computer maintenance ; scans and backups. We watched VCR tape 1 of a 2 tape movie ; Casino. Okay so far !

Tuesday ; MARDI GRAS ; Today was sunny, very warm, and a bit windy.

After lunch Joanne went grocery shopping. I continued to work on identifying the source of the water leak in the pass through storage compartment. I still could not find it. I refilled the fresh water holding tank. No leak was immediately obvious. Maybe tomorrow ! It’s remotely possible, I suppose, that the “leak” was simply a “bleeding” of excess pressure inside an overfilled fresh water tank. It wasn’t overfilled when I filled it a couple of months ago, but as the weather warmed up, perhaps the water inside the extremely full tank expanded until it found some way to leak out a bit ? I am reluctant to accept that explanation, but if I can’t find any other … ? ? ?
I won’t give up looking just yet.

In the batch of mail forwarded from home that we received last week was the last of my investment year end statements. This afternoon I finished reconciling and analyzing them, and did some long term financial planning. After Joanne returned from shopping we took Bo for a long walk, then I took Sully for a short walk. He likes going outside every day or two when the weather is nice, which down here is pretty much all the time.

Tonight we watched the rest of the movie “Casino”. It was okay … a bit violent.

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and hot. And forecast to get hotter over the next few days. Okay by me !

Once again we were up early this morning to head to Mexico for another dental appointment for me, my second last trip to the dentist for this winter season …we hope ! The plan for today was for Dr. Camacho to remove an old crown from a lower back molar, and replace it with a temporary crown. Next week that will be replaced with a new permanent crown. Today’s work became considerably more complicated than either Dr. Camacho or I had expected, and it took 2¼ hours ! About 21 years ago I broke a tooth while skiing in Switzerland. I had a crown put on that broken tooth. It has recently contributed to my gum problems and so it needed to be removed and replaced. Removing a well installed crown is … well … difficult. It took a lot of cutting and grinding for Dr. Camacho to be able to get it off. And underneath it, in the broken tooth stump, he discovered … a silver filling … about 50 years old. He immediately wanted that removed. As I recall, silver fillings pose some manner of mercury poisoning risk. While drilling that old silver filling out … PEEEEEUUUUUWWWWW ! A horrible stench arose. Underneath the old silver filling was … a lot of decay. Years’ worth ? Decades’ worth ? ! ? So … a lot more drilling, until all the old silver filling and all the old decay were gone. It was very close to requiring a root canal, but Dr. Camacho felt that, while a root canal could be done if I wanted, it wasn’t absolutely necessary. He felt that he had “saved the tooth”, and the broken tooth stump, now with a lot of drilling in it, could be filled in preparation for installing a new crown over it. Okay … let’s go ! Lots of filling, and other preparation, then the installation of a temporary crown. While I was having my dental work done Joanne went shopping for some of our “must buy before leaving Mexico” items.

The line up at the border to cross back into the U.S. was the longest yet this season. Many other “winter visitors” are preparing to return home soon, so like us they’re down in Los Algodones doing their “must buy before leaving Mexico” shopping. But even a very long line up is only an hour long this year, as opposed to 2½ hours in previous years. By the time we got back across the border the anaesthetic / freezing was coming out and my mouth hurt ! On the way home we stopped at Burger King for a very late lunch. When we got home I took a couple of painkillers and napped briefly.

We spent the late part of the afternoon in the swimming pool. We took Bo for a walk. I took Sully for a walk. I wasn’t able to eat supper as Joanne prepared it. Darn … my ability to eat normally is impaired again … for at least the next week while I have this temporary crown < sigh >.

Thursday ; WHEW … today was hot !

This afternoon while Joanne went to run some errands I polished shoes. Then I did more work on year end investments analysis and long term planning. I decided yesterday that I should immediately buy about another $10,000 worth of U.S. dollar investments given the very favourable Canadian dollar to U.S. dollar exchange rate. When Joanne got home we went to the swimming pool. AHHHHH ! Intense desert sun, temperature in the high 80’s ! After relaxing in the pool we took Bo for his daily long walk. After supper, after it had cooled down a bit, we gave him a bath.

Tonight’s movie was “Nutty Professor II The Klumps”. It was okay. I’m not really a big fan of Eddie Murphy. Joanne thought it was a bit heavy on toilet humour.

Friday ; WHEW … another sunny, hot day, temperature high in the 80’s.

Today was the first day of the “new and improved” version of Yuma’s annual Lettuce Days festival. New venue, new program of events, and reintroduction of the very popular “farm tours”. We have previously attended Lettuce Days, and were eager to once again be able to go on one of the “farm tours”. As in previous years, the farm tours were to be conducted on an hourly basis throughout the day, today and tomorrow, but not on Sunday, the last day of Lettuce Days. The one hour “farm tours” are conducted by local agricultural students, on chartered buses driving around the Yuma farming area. We are not able to attend tomorrow, so today was our only opportunity. We arrived right at noon, the “gate opening” time. HUH ? The place was packed with hundreds and hundreds of people ! Some were already leaving ! HUH ? ! ? How early did they open the gates if people are already leaving at gate opening time ? We headed straight for the event tent to sign up for one of today’s three bus tours ; 12:30, 1:30, 2:30 PM. We arrived at the event tent at 12:05 PM, five minutes after the official gate opening time, to discover that all three of today’s farm tours by bus were sold out ! We, and a lot of other people, were really pissed off ! Because of the “hot weather”, the gates were opened early because people were lined up outside the gates, and by the official opening time, the farm tours were all sold out ! ! !

We wandered around the various exhibits. We got a free sample of “artisan lettuce” by one of the local large farm exhibitors. It’s a large package of the multi-coloured lettuce we saw growing in some local fields recently. It’s very … pretty … colourful ! We went to the small farmer’s market and bought some lovely fresh produce ; Baby Spinach, brussel sprouts, asparagus tips, strawberries. Back at the exhibitors’ displays we bought some freshly made specialty pastas. We attended one of the large cooking exhibitions. The chef was from the Quechan Casino. He prepared a fresh citrus vinaigrette dressing and candied pecans, then a salad with fresh baby greens, feta cheese, strawberries, the candied pecans, and his fresh vinaigrette dressing. When he was done we were able to get a small bowl of it to sample. MMMMM … very good. Joanne wants to try making her own fresh vinaigrette dressing. One of the largest producers in the Yuma area is Dole. At their booth we got some samples of their products, and we were in the right place at the right time to receive a couple of small “free gifts”. HMMM … nice manicure kits with the Dole name imprinted on the case. Thank you, Dole.

We were hungry, and it was just about time for a very late lunch. The price of foods at the various food vendors seemed a bit outrageous, so we left, and headed to Burger King for a very late lunch before heading home.

Today and tomorrow were the Rancho Bonitos “yard sale” days. Today from 2 PM to 4 PM for park residents, and tomorrow open to the public. We decided to go the “yard sale” as soon as we arrived home. We arrived at the clubhouse at 3:25 PM. They were just “closing”. It was “too hot” to stay open any longer, and if we wanted anything, we could come back tomorrow at 7 AM ! Well … not ****ing likely ! ! ! And that kind of b******t has been typical throughout our three month stay in this park. And is a large part of why we don’t like this park ! And so … as if to add insult to injury, we changed into swim suits and headed for the swimming pool … only to discover that it had just been “closed for maintenance” by some of the same people that had closed the yard sale early and now they had some time to do some minor maintenance on the pool ! ! ! On the hottest afternoon of the year so far ! We’re looking forward to leaving this park in three weeks and not looking back !

After it cooled down a bit we took Bo for his daily long walk. One of the farm fields adjacent to this RV park had been prepared today for sheep to be grazed on it. The field is … timothy, I think. Some kind of grazing crop ! And … as we have seen on other nearby fields, it had been entirely encircled with temporary electric fencing to contain the sheep within the field. That seems like such a labour intensive chore … stringing up temporary electric fencing around a field that is a quarter mile by a quarter mile. Hey, Bo, you’re likely going to have a BIG surprise tomorrow.

Joanne prepared a salad for supper just like today’s cooking demonstration. Great taste ! Great appearance / presentation ! WOW … what lovely strawberries !

Tonight’s movie was Tequila Sunrise. 1988, Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell. What …was that movie the inspiration for Miami Vice ? Or vice versa ?

Saturday ; Today was sunny and hot again.

HEY … BO … SHEEP ! He was too stunned to even bark at them. He just stared, wide eyed, when he stepped outside the park gate and saw the field full of sheep.

This morning I “finished” my “leak” project. Quite unsatisfactorily, for someone as OCD as me. I could not identify … nor could I “duplicate” … the leak. Very reluctantly I conceded that the water in the overfilled fresh water tank heated and expanded, and some found a way out. Where it found its way out remains a mystery. But … since there’s no more leaking … I guess the problem is solved. I hate “unsolved mysteries” like that !

This afternoon we went to the winter home of our friends Dave and Joy for an afternoon of socializing followed by a barbecue dinner. They had invited us, and other neighbours from Riverside RV Park Resort back home that are also here in Yuma for the winter, and some of their neighbours in their park down here, Mountain Cactus Ranch. We ended up in a corner of their patio, a bit surrounded by their local Yuma / Mountain Cactus Ranch neighbours, listening to them “diss” other neighbours and the park’s management and administration personnel. And at the same time trying to “sell” us on how wonderful the park is. HA HA HA HA HA ! Have another glass of wine !

So … whether it’s Mountain Cactus Ranch … or here at Rancho Bonitos … or back home at Riverside RV Park Resort in Keremeos … I guess people are all basically the same !

We had an “interesting” afternoon and evening, and enjoyable dinner. Thank you, Dave and Joy.

DSK