January 15 to 21, 2012

Sunday ; Today was cloudy again, second day in a row. A few drops of rain even fell. And I do mean ... quite literally ... a few !

This morning after doing an agility session with Bo I went out into the dog park with a spade to dig out a huge pile of barbed wire that I discovered sticking up out of the desert sand a few days ago. When we do our daily pack walks the dogs run and romp. I was concerned that one would eventually run blindly into this pile of barbed wire sticking up out of the sand. I was hoping that it wasn't going to be too large to dig out by hand. As it turned out, what was visible above the sand was about a third of the pile of rusted, old barbed wire, and I was able to dig the whole mess out and haul it to a dumpster. I'm guessing that it was buried in the sand since before this was an RV park's large dog park, which it has been for about 27 years. Shifting desert sand uncover all kinds of "finds" around here. Apparently there is an old car completely buried underneath this RV park's storage area.

This afternoon we went to the Yuma Home & Garden Show at Yuma Civic Center. It was ... disappointing. There was nothing "Home" that was relevant to RV'ers. And there was nothing "Garden" that was relevant to us.

This evening we went to the weekly ice cream social.

Monday ; Today was sunny and warm. AHHHHH ! First thing this morning I set up the Sun Oven and cooked some eggs. Then ... I baked some potatoes. Eggs and potatoes both are for a potato salad tomorrow or the next day. After the potatoes were done we put tonight's supper into the Sun Oven, a baked fish and zucchini dish. Lots of work for the Sun Oven today.

Carol Mae came over to take our picture for the Escapees Roadrunner Chapter 7 newsletter story about Kaydee and to discuss the agenda / schedule for the upcoming Spring Rally. Joanne and I will be conducting a solar cooking demonstration that will result in dessert, and a "participation" Cajun cooking class that will result in dinner for the group of fifty or so attendees.

This morning I dug out our dead ocotillo. This afternoon we went to Yuma Nursery Supply and exchanged it for one that is obviously alive. The staff were apologetic about the dead one. Seems ours wasn't the only dead ocotillo they sold recently. They received a batch of dead ocotillos from a supplier that is usually trustworthy. One has to examine quite carefully to tell the difference between a dormant ocotillo and a dead one. And at this time of they year, they're dormant, especially potted nursery stock. I got the new one planted. Wish me luck !

I'm having a bit of a problem with our daily pack walks. A few of the "participants" don't seem to understand the "rules" without having them spelled out to them explicitly. So today I "explained" the rules to one of them quite explicitly. We "started" the daily pack walk ritual. But we're not the resident "pack walkers". Dogs and their owners are invited to join us daily at 4 PM for a pack walk around the dog park. That doesn't mean ... bring your dog to the dog park at 4 PM and then abandon it while we walk around the perimeter of the dog park, expecting that "someone" ( read that as "me" ) is going to pick up your dog's shit ! NO, NO, NO ... come along on the walk, and pick up your own dog's shit ! Today while we walked around the dog park, one of the dog owners relaxed in a lounge chair soaking up the pleasant sunshine ... expecting "someone" to pick up his dog's shit. After completing the circuit around the perimeter, I tossed the bag of his dog's shit on the lounge chair beside him, and "encouraged" him to join us on the walk. Think my message was clear enough ? ! ?

Tuesday ; Happy 13th Birthday to Joanne’s niece Madeleine

Madeleine's a teenager ? ? ? ! ! !

Today was sunny. So ... we roasted marinated beef short ribs and potatoes in the Sun Oven today for supper. Very nice !

This afternoon while Joanne made fresh marmalade for me ( MMMMM ... thank you, my dear ) I cut and installed some oak crown moulding as a new headboard behind the bed. After completing the job, using two sections of moulding, we decided that a third section of moulding would make the job look much nicer. So ... I'm not quite finished yet.

After today's pack walk ... with eleven dogs ... we went for a drivey to buy some groceries at Albertsons and some moulding at Lowe's. Late in the evening we went for a soak in the hot tub, something I think we should do more often.

Wednesday ; Another sunny day. Another day of work for the Sun Oven. This morning I decided to try a solar cooking "recipe" I had read. I cut the top off a large tomato and scooped a bit of the insides out, making a sort of "scoop" inside the tomato. Then I baked it in the Sun Oven for about half an hour. I cracked open an egg and poured it into the "scoop" in the top of the tomato, then baked it for another half hour or so. Okay ... cooked egg inside a baked tomato. Interesting, but ... !

Before playing with the Sun Oven this morning I got up early to attend the third weekly Tai Chi Chih session here at Kofa Ko-op. And for the second time ( out of three ) I was the only male. What ? Real ( old ) men don't do Tai Chi ? ! ?

After lunch we went shopping for RV dinette furniture. Joanne is adamant that we replace our dinette table and chairs. Especially the chairs ! Looked at RV Decor and Foothills Mattress & Furniture. We also made a couple of other quick stops at Wally's World and Foothills Hardware looking for a couple of hardware items I need. Found and bought one of two. From there we headed east to Wellton, to the home of Robby and Christine, neighbours of ours back home in Keremeos. We visited with them at their home and then headed to Ligurta Station for dinner. Ligurta Station is a dingy little diner in Wellton that serves barbecued beef ribs every Wednesday. It has a bit of a "cult following" for their Wednesday barbecued beef ribs and Tuesday liver specials.

WHEW ... the fragrance of the feedlot in Wellton was certainly ... shall we say "noticeable" ... today !

On the way home we stopped at Fry's in The Foothills to buy some groceries and diesel. I can't resist stopping at Fry's in The Foothills every time we drive by to buy some freshly made sushi at their superb in-store sushi bar.

Thursday ; A sunny day of work for the Sun Oven. Last week I had made sun dried Roma tomato slices. Today I tried making sun dried Roma tomato halves. I started too late in the day. They'll have to finish tomorrow. I cut and installed the third piece of oak crown moulding to complete the new "headboard" behind the bed. And I finished weatherstripping the living room escape window.

After our daily pack walk we headed out to Home Depot to buy some hardware items I have been looking for. Finally ... got 'em ... Home Depot had them. Just after leaving Kofa Ko-op there was a flat bed produce truck with half its load of boxes of broccoli tipped over onto the road. WOO-HOO ... "Yuma road kill" ! Thousand of heads of freshly picked broccoli on the roadside. I don't like broccoli enough to even stop and pick up a free head. From Home Depot we headed over to Yuma Palms Shopping Center. Tonight was the first weekly free jazz session of the season. Every Thursday for the next twelve weeks or so there will be a different jazz group performing at the shopping center's "Village Courtyard". And their definition of jazz is pretty broad. Tonight's group was Yuma Big Band. We both like "big band" music. The free concert was very enjoyable. And we bumped into Lanny and Clare, neighbours of ours from Riverside RV Park Resort back home in Keremeos, BC. Lanny and Clare were visiting Yuma briefly. Their winter home is in Phoenix, Arizona.

After the concert we went for dinner to Chili's. Joanne's idea, not mine. It was unsatisfactory ! Food was okay, service was not. I don't think we're their target demographic ! On the way home we stopped at Wal-Mart < sigh >. As much as I hate Wal-Martin' I must admit ... doing it after 9 PM is less painful.

Friday ; Yet another sunny day of work for the Sun Oven sun drying Roma tomato halves. They surely do shrivel up ! Had a long phone chat with my sister this morning. My brother-in-law's recuperation from prostatectomy is progressing well. I taught my sister the correct pronunciation of some English obscenities with a Mexican accent. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! Border town bigot humour ! This morning I worked on some minor home improvement projects in the Arizona room and the trailer. Didn't accomplish much. Kept getting interrupted by neighbours and their dogs strolling by and stopping to visit and chat.

Joanne went shopping this afternoon without me. THANK YOU ! I napped for awhile with Sully and Bo. I worked on the computer. I went on our daily pack walk with Bo. I climbed up on the trailer roof and removed the MaxxAir roof vent cover off the kitchen fan roof vent as the first step in the annual chore of cleaning the kitchen ceiling's Fantastic Fan, and its associated roof vent and cover.

Late in the afternoon we headed out for a quick supper at Burger King before heading downtown to the Historic Yuma Theater for a musical concert production entitled The History Of The Blues From A To Z. WOW ... what astounding blues for a bunch of white boys. Well ... eight white boys and a white girl. Well, actually ... seven white boys, one middle east Arab type fellow and a white girl. Great performance. I was inspired to buy one of the CD's available after the concert. Unfortunately, it's a disappointment. Oh well, ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances !

Saturday ; This morning I slept very late, having forgotten that I agreed to Joanne's suggestion that we go to the Wellton Tractor Rodeo today. We made it there just in time to have a late lunch. We enjoyed about an hour and a half of wandering around exhibits and watching an antique tractor pull competition ( old men with too much time on their hands and too much money in their pockets spending it on antique tractors ! ) before the wind picked up very suddenly and very strongly, creating a "desert storm" and forcing an abrupt end to everything.

We returned home just in time for the daily pack walk. The attendance was down because of the desert storm. Afterwards we updated the residents' name & photo board in the clubhouse. In the "lot 52" spot on the board we posted a label with our names and a photo of us sitting in the dog park at SKP Park of the Sierras. It's a good photo of us with Bo sitting on my lap. And I walked over to see lot 17, the lot that would have become ours very recently had we had to wait until we reached "number 1" on this park's lot waiting list instead of getting lot 52 while we were still "number 8" on the waiting list. WOW ... talk about a "bare lot" ! I surely am glad we got lot 52 !

DSK