Sunday ; New Year's Day ; We started the New Year with a pancake brunch.
WOO-HOO ... Kaydee loooooves maple syrup on her pancakes. HA HA HA !
We continued working on "home improvement" projects in the Arizona room. We were unproductive, spending a lot of time chatting with neighbours strolling by, enjoying the lovely weather. After lunch I applied a Canadian maple leaf temporary tattoo to my belly and headed over to the pool for the first annual Kofa Ko-op New Year's Day Polar Bear Plunge / Pool Olympics / Belly Flop Contest. Alas, I did not win the belly flop contest, but with the maple leaf on my belly, and waving a small Canadian flag as I flopped into the pool, I did my country proud !
Afterwards there was a "hot dogs and pop" party around the pool, followed by the regular Sunday evening ice cream social. We sat around socializing for quite awhile after the ice cream social.
Didn't get much done today. But ... had a good time !
Monday ; Another day of good intentions and plans, but poor execution. Not getting much done lately !
Joanne went shopping today. I did some patching of the folding shelf in the Arizona room, on the exterior wall of the shed, to prepare it to be painted, the last piece of Joanne's Arizona room painting projects. I spent much of the evening working on year end financial analysis. 2011 was not a great year for us in the stock market.
Late this afternoon Herbert and Anka came over to see Kaydee and consider her for adoption. They arrived here at Kofa Ko-op yesterday and this afternoon saw our poster regarding Kaydee in the laundromat. They are full time RV'ers from Maine. After visiting with us for quite awhile in our Arizona room ... they took Kaydee home with them for an overnight "test drive". Nice 2011 Dodge dually they have !
Tuesday ; Well ... Kaydee's back ! Well ... Kaydee's gone ... again !
This morning Herbert and Anka brought Kaydee back. Herbert's "not ready". I'm not exactly sure what that means, but ... okay ! Bo and Kaydee were both thrilled with her return. They greeted one another, and both performed "happy dances", like long lost siblings. No more than an hour later, Jim came over wanting Kaydee. He and his wife had been over a week or so ago to consider Kaydee, and then got sidetracked by illness. So ... off Kaydee went for yet another overnight "road test".
Joanne worked on laundry and painting today. Her painting in the Arizona room has made a very nice change / improvement. I worked on landscaping. I have been acquiring cactus cuttings from neighbours and the landscape committee. Today I planted about a dozen or so cactus cuttings, some in the front yard and most in the dog park behind our back yard fence. I would have liked to have planted more in the front yard, but first I need to create some concrete scalloped curb bordered gardens.
Jim and Kaydee joined us on our regular daily 4 PM pack walk around the dog park. Kaydee’s first few hours with Jim and his wife had gone well. Despite being neutered, Spanky decided he would like to mount Kaydee today. Kaydee has developed a lot of
self-confidence in her three weeks with us. And she’s been a bit crabby for the last few days, either from being in heat, or on antibiotics, or from “road tests”, or all of the above ! She whirled around, snapping and snarling at Spanky. You go, girl !
We had another great Sun Oven dinner. We're really enjoying experimenting with solar cooking. Late in the evening we went for a drivey to get some money from the Bank of America ATM. We need lots of money for tomorrow in Mexico.
Wednesday ; Los Algodones, Baja California, Mexico
Well ... Kaydee's gone ... forever ( hopefully ) ! WAAAAAHHHHH ! ! ! That was both me and Bo ! Bo misses her. What a great "big brother" he turned out to be. Who knew ?
This morning before leaving for our dental appointments in Mexico I attended the first ( of ten ) weekly Tai Chi Chih ( pronounced Cha ) class here at Kofa Ko-op. And somewhat to my dismay, I was the only male. I was able to stay for only half the class before we had to leave for Mexico.
As soon as we arrived at our dentist's office, my periodontist was ready to see me for a periodontal examination. I had made an appointment for a dental cleaning and examination by our dentist before seeing the periodontist, but she advised me that she had changed that because she wanted to examine me before the cleaning. HMPH ... sneaky periodontist ! She had some criticism of my "aggressive" brushing and flossing techniques and wants to examine me again in three months just before we leave Yuma.
We both had dental cleanings and examinations by Dr. Mr. Camacho ( as opposed to his wife Dra. Mrs. Camacho ). Dr. Camacho said that it has been so long since Joanne has had a cavity that he prescribes ... more candy. HA HA HA ... dentist humour !
Next on the day's agenda was a haircut for Joanne. The price for a woman's haircut has just increased to five dollars. We went to Meyer Optical and Joanne ordered two new pairs of glasses ; a pair of regular bifocal glasses and a pair of bifocal sunglasses. The sunglasses were going to be ready in three hours, and the regular glasses would be ready in a week. They needed to be sent somewhere else for anti-reflective coating. We went to our favourite restaurant in Los Algodones for lunch. Joanne had the pollo a carbon ( barbecued chicken ) platter con frijoles ( refried beans ) y arroz ( seasoned rice ), and I had tres ( three ) tacos ; uno taco borrego ( lamb ), uno taco camarón
( shrimp ) y uno taco carne asada ( seasoned grilled beef ). After lunch we did some comparison shopping for Glucosamine + Chondroitin. WOW ... a lot less expensive than in Canada or the United States. We bought some. We wandered around browsing and doing some miscellaneous shopping, killing time waiting for Joanne’s sunglasses to be ready. Finally we picked up her new sunglasses and headed for the border crossing. OH, NO ... huge, long line up. However, that length of line up, which used to take two hours to reach the border inspection station before it was renovated a couple of years ago, was only forty minutes today.
As we drove back into Kofa Ko-op we stopped at the boondock area to check how Kaydee was doing with Jim and Linda. Everybody was happy, and after a discussion ... we declared the “road test” to be completed and transformed into an “adoption”. Goodbye, Kaydee, after 25 days of being your “foster family” we will miss you. Kaydee and her new family will be leaving Kofa Ko-op tomorrow morning < sniffle >.
Thursday ; This morning we saw Kaydee's new home departing Kofa Ko-op. What a rush of sadness we felt to see her go. Goodbye, Kaydee. What a sweetie she turned out to be.
This afternoon we took Bo and Sully to the veterinarian for their annual health examinations and inoculations. Bo is the only dog that we've had that thinks going to the vet is a great adventure ! "WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO ... some stranger is going to shove a thermometer up my ass". Ya gotta love his enthusiasm. Both of them are in good health. And there is nothing that can be done for Sully's feline oral resorptive lesions. I'm certain that Sully is not upset that his tooth brushing days are over. We discontinued brushing his teeth about six months ago because it was obviously hurting him due to the development of feline oral resorptive lesions.
This evening we received our first update by e-mail of Kaydee's new life. She's in Bouse, Arizona, between Quartzsite and Parker. And she has happily accepted this new chapter of her life as a full time RV'er dog. She spent much of her first day of travelling snoozing in her new pet carrier on the back seat of the truck.
Friday ; WOW ... we have just finished eating dinner ; the best roast turkey we have ever had, made by us or anyone else ! This morning we put a turkey into the Sun Oven at 10 AM, I pointed the Sun Oven to where the sun would be around 1 PM, and we went shopping. We returned home at 4 PM and the turkey was cooked. I repositioned the Sun Oven aimed into the setting sun and we just left the turkey in it until the sun set at 6 PM, hoping that the company's claim that you can't really overcook or burn food in a Sun Oven was true. The turkey was incredibly moist, tender, and tasty ! And the skin had even browned well, which I thought wouldn't happen.
Our first stop this morning was the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Branch to obtain Arizona identity cards. They look like Arizona driver's licenses, but are for people who want Arizona identity cards but have a driver's license from some other jurisdiction. There were hundreds of people waiting for service at the Motor Vehicle Branch. Our wait for service was an hour. Then it took half an hour to process our applications and issue cards to us. And ... < sputter > ... it wasn't until the cards were in our hands that we noticed that they expire in six months. The online information said that the cards would be valid for five years. "Oh, yes ... unless if you're Canadian. Since you Canadians have to be out of the United States after six months, the cards expire in six months." Well ... if I had known that beforehand ... I wouldn't have wasted my twenty four bucks and an hour and a half of my life ! ! ! Just because we have to leave the U.S. after six months doesn't mean our identities expire ! ! !
We headed east to The Foothills. In the old Fry's mall we had lunch at Subway, then while Joanne went to a swimwear shop I went to the UPS Store and sent a package to Canada. Then over to Al's RV Service & Supplies, and Radio Shack next door. We drove across the street to the new Fry's mall, bought groceries, and refilled with diesel. Heading back west towards "home", we shopped at Wal-Mart, then Wally's World. We rushed to be home in time for the daily 4 PM pack walk in the dog park.
Saturday ; This morning we headed out to Yuma Palms Shopping Center. Bo came along. First stop was the Farmer's Market at Yuma Palms. Bo thinks wandering around a Farmer's Market is an excellent opportunity to meet new people. And lick their toes if they happen to be wearing sandals. Strange dog ! Next stop, also in Yuma Palms was ... WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO ... PetsMart. Bo loooooves shopping at PetsMart. From Yuma Palms we got onto the freeway, crossed the Colorado River into California, and headed for the date farming area around Bard. We had date shakes for lunch at Sun Gardens Date Farm. WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO ... Bo loooooves date shakes !
On our way back to Yuma I stopped at a lettuce field that had just been harvested and picked two heads of lettuce. One Romaine and one Iceberg. The Iceberg was left behind by the pickers because it was "oversize". And the Romaine was left behind by the pickers because it shouldn't have been there. It was a field of Iceberg. The Romaine seed must have blown in from a nearby field. After a lettuce field has been harvested, and before the "leftovers" are ploughed under, it's acceptable to go into the field and pick a "leftover".
Back in Yuma we did some shopping at Harbor Freight, then the Salvation Army and Goodwill thrift stores. We were looking at the thrift stores for an end table for our Arizona room. We didn't find one. We arrived home at Kofa Ko-op just in time for the daily pack walk. After the pack walk we went to the clubhouse for the communal turkey soup supper. That wasn't quite filling enough, so we went home and had a salad made with lettuce that had been growing in the field a few hours earlier. Salads don't get fresher than that !
Later in the evening we returned to the clubhouse again for an evening of entertainment by Herbert the Entertainer, a German born Canadian singer / songwriter / musician and ventriloquist. He sang and played music on two amazing keyboard instruments. Some kind of high tech synthesizers. He was indeed entertaining. During his performance, the outside door of the clubhouse opened and ... in walked Barry and Jackie, two friends of ours from the Escapees B.C. Okanagan Chapter 33. They had arrived at Kofa Ko-op last night.
After the musical entertainment Barry and Jackie came over to see our "new place" and to visit.
DSK
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