February 5 to 11, 2012

Sunday ; I've just retrieved the mail from our mailbox. A letter from my sister and a card from her husband. WOO-HOO ! ! ! Great news ! Bud's pathology was ... everything's okay ! Cancer's gone, nothing in the lymph nodes, nothing in the margins. Congratulations, Bud ! Or, as it would be pronounced in Mexico ... Bood ! HA HA HA ... new family joke !

Today I did the last transplanting of this winter season. There's only two months left before we will be leaving Yuma. Only two months to nurture the plantings before they have to be abandoned to fend for themselves over the 115 degree summer. Joanne doesn't think anything transplanted after this date would be rooted sufficiently to survive the summer. So, I have to stop my cactus gardening projects with only thirty-nine plantings in the ground. HA HA HA ! More next year !

Joanne did some laundry, including washing the Arizona room's sofa throw that a neighbour's dog peed on. That wasn't really a big deal. What annoyed both of us was the neighbour's lack of a simple apology and offer to pay for the laundering. I did an agility session with Bo. I puttered around with some landscaping. I took some photos of my cactus gardening. We took Bo on the daily pack walk. I did monthly computer backup chores, working at the desk in the Arizona room. We went to the Sunday ice cream social. There wasn't much of an ice cream social today because most people were engrossed in watching the Super Bowl.

Late in the evening I updated my investment files. HMMM ... January was a pretty good month in the stock market !

Monday ; This morning I discovered what seems likely to be < sigh > a leak in the freshwater holding tank. I really hate discovering a problem that is likely to result in a huge maintenance project !

This afternoon we ran a few errands ; Lowe's and Bank of America. After our regular daily pack walk, Bo and I went on a second pack walk with Carol Mae and her dog Dulce. Dulce has anxiety around other dogs so it's pretty special that she can pack walk with Bo.

Tuesday ; We got up earlier than usual this morning to be ready to leave at 8:40 AM to head for the Farm Smart Tour. We picked up Eilene, Terry, and Judy, who "car pooled" with us. We headed west on Interstate 8, crossing the Colorado River into California, and driving for a bit more than an hour to reach the University Of California Desert Research Center near El Centro.

The rest of the morning was taken up with an indoor audio-visual presentation on farming in the Yuma and Imperial Valley area. Lunch was a huge salad. After lunch we headed out into the fields on hay wagons towed by tractors, stopping frequently to learn about the crops, farming practices, and research activities. Last stop was the "pick your own" fields where we were each given a large bag to fill with a variety of vegetables we picked ourselves. Lots of Romaine lettuce, Iceberg lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, beets, Swiss Chard, radish, Daikon radish ... what did I miss ? We returned to the main building to be served ice cream to end the "day at the farm".

We drove to Holtville, bought some pan dulce at the panaderia in town, then over to Holtville Taco Shop to buy a couple of burritos to take home for supper. Between Holtville and Yuma there were six CHP cruisers with traffic stops pulled over. What ? Traffic ticket quotas ? Easy money for a state with budget problems ? The local donut shops were closed for the day ?

Wednesday ; It's beginning to get warmer. Sunny and warm has become sunny and very warm. Spring is on its way ! Plants in my new cactus garden are blooming. My ocotillo has little buds on it. WOO-HOO !

First thing this morning was Tai Chi for me. It makes my knees hurt !

I brushed Bo's teeth. I took a propane tank for refilling. I put everything back into the back of the truck that Joanne had removed to make room for passengers for the trip to the Farm Smart Tour yesterday. Can't believe that we have a truck this big and ... we need a bigger truck ! HA HA HA ! I did an obedience session with Bo. Well done, Bo, good dog.
I trimmed my beard. Bo and I went for an impromptu pack walk with Wolfgang the Doberman Pinscher and Duke the Golden Retriever. We had an unexpected visit from Robby and Christine, neighbours of ours back home at Riverside RV Park Resort.

After lunch Joanne went shopping and ... WHEW ... I laid sixteen feet of walkway using one square foot patio stones. Tougher job than I thought ! Warmer day than I expected !
I think that will be my last yard project of this winter season. It's time to switch to some trailer maintenance projects. Joanne completed her latest painting project, the doorway between the Arizona room and the shed. We went for our regular daily pack walk. I went for a bicycle ride, an exercise and relaxation activity I try to do daily.

Thursday ; Happy 8th Birthday to Bo

What a beautiful day ! Brilliant sunshine and temperature in the mid 80's. Spring has indeed arrived in Yuma.

This morning Joanne whipped up a batch of her favourite brownies recipe and baked it in the Sun Oven. It turned out excellent ! It's going to be the recipe we use for our Sun Oven cooking demonstration at the SKP Roadrunners Chapter 7 Spring Rally in
mid-March. After removing the tray of brownies we put a pot filled with beef short ribs, vegetables, and sweet potatoes into the Sun Oven to cook for tonight's supper.

The leak that I discovered at the fresh water holding tank a few days ago might be nothing more than a loose connection. I can't seem to find anything more sinister than that.

After lunch we headed out to cross the Colorado River to Bard, California ... for Bo's birthday gift. A date shake ! WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO ! ! ! There's nothing that Bo loves more than a date shake. Date farms / date trees must emit a fragrance. As we approached the area of date farms, Bo sniffed the truck's air vent and began wagging his tail furiously. HA HA HA ... Happy Birthday, Bo !

As we were on Interstate 8 crossing over the Colorado River from Arizona into California, following a commercial tractor-trailer, a beer can flew out of the truck's window. Then another ! THEN ANOTHER ! THEN ANOTHER ! ! ! Just before the truck had to pull into the California inspection station ! ***hole !

Bo ate date shake until he couldn't eat any more. UH-OH ... HA HA HA ! Guess we'll see the effect of that on tomorrow's pack walk, won't we Bo. Maybe even sooner ! HA HA HA ! We returned home just in time for today's daily pack walk around the dog park. Bo and we were the only ones who made two circuits around the dog park. Everybody else thought it was too hot for a second circuit. I thought it was perfect ... at 83 degrees !

Friday ; Happy 63rd Birthday to my sister Sharon

Today was sunny and hot ! I love it !

I puttered around today with some minor maintenance and landscaping chores. Joanne worked on "spring cleaning" our closet. She discovered that her leather coat and my leather coat are both ruined. She has an expensive, full length leather coat. I have an expensive, ¾ length leather coat. Both are quite lovely. They harken back to our successful small business owner days in Ottawa. We haven't worn them in eight years. They were stored at the back of the bedroom closet in garment bags. Yearly we remove them to inspect them and air them out. This year they have ... some kind of mysterious, severe "puckering". We don't know if it's insect damage or mould damage or heat damage or ... ? ? ? But ... they're ruined now. We were walking with them to dispose of them in the dumpster when our friend Eilene suggested that we donate them to one of the local charities. A homeless person or some economically disadvantaged Mexican wouldn't care about the puckering, she suggested. Okay ... we threw them in the truck and will deposit them in a donation box.

Joanne and I were the only humans on today's pack walk, although there were two other dogs in addition to Bo. Too hot for everybody else, I guess. After the pack walk we gave Bo a bath. Oh boy ... the one day a month that Bo smells nice. HA HA HA !

Saturday ; This morning we headed out to Arizona Market Place, the nearby flea market, for one specific item. We returned home with that item ... and half a dozen others. My fault ! "Oh ... I need that ! And that !" And .. so on ! We stopped at Habitat For Humanity ReStore to browse and drop off some recyclables. Kofa Ko-op has no provision for recycling ... and we're throwing far too much recyclable plastic ( like milk jugs ) into the garbage

This afternoon we trimmed Sully's and Bo's claws. Gee, Sully can complain loudly !

Another hot day. And ... my cactus garden is blooming ! I took photos !

After today's pack walk we headed out to Yuma Nursery Supply to buy six more buckets of finishing gravel for the back yard. Then over to Goodwill Industries to donate our leather coats. We went to The Salvation Army first, but they didn't have an after hours drop off box. Then it was over to Harbor Freight Tools. WOW ... around 6 PM on Saturday is a good time to shop at Harbor Freight Tools, which is usually crowded, busy, and understaffed. We had a quick bite to eat at Burger King then headed "downtown" to Historic Yuma Theater, the fourth time this winter season we have attended an event there. Tonight was a "Romantic Classics" concert by Yuma Civic Orchestra in honour of Valentine's Day next Tuesday. And it was also billed as a symphonic celebration of Yuma's 100th Birthday, also on Tuesday. So ... the "theme" of the evening's music was ... more "old west / cowboy" than "romantic". < sigh > < whispering > I'm a symphony snob ! Perhaps I need to lower my symphonic standards. Oh, well ... it was nice to have another "date night".

DSK