Today was one of those days where not much went according to plan. We slept late. When I did today's regular preventive maintenance I discovered that the truck had a flat tire. And you know how much I hate changing a tire on the truck ! Especially a rear tire ! < sigh > With help from Joanne I changed the flat tire. Joanne left to go Wal-Martin'. Fine ... as long as I don't have to go along ! Our friend Terry brought back my bicycle after he had completed some refurbishment work. Thank you, Terry. I spent some time playing around with the bicycle, doing some minor adjustments and riding it around the park. I did some other minor maintenance work then took Bo on the pack walk. It wasn't very well attended today because there was a park wide barbecue scheduled at 4 PM. Joanne and I have stopped attending park "dinners" scheduled at 4 PM. That's three ( or more ) hours earlier than our normal supper time.
We did, however, attend the regular Sunday evening ice cream social. Where we met Gerald and Helen. New retirees. New Escapees. New visitors to Kofa Ko-op. I worked with Gerald at Canada Post in Ottawa ! More than twenty-one years ago ! And his parents are Escapee friends of ours ! Joanne and I chatted with Gerald and Helen for a couple of hours after the ice cream social.
Monday ; < YAWN > ... Didn't sleep well last night. Chatting with Gerald yesterday conjured up all sorts of Canada Post ghosts and goblins that kept me tossing and turning and having bad dreams. Oh, well ... I suppose that validates my decision over twenty-one years ago to leave Canada Post and open our first pet food and supply store.
I spent the day creating a new garden along the front of the front patio. When this park was developed about twenty seven years ago, the lots were sprayed with an oil based sealant to stabilize the sandy soil, seal against weeds, and reduce dust. Over time this sealant interacted with the sand and gravel to form a layer almost like asphalt just a few inches below the surface. So ... much of today's effort was using a pick axe to smash through this layer where I wanted to create the garden. WHEW ... hard work !
I excavated and hauled heavy pails full of the excavated material to the dumpster. I built the border using scalloped edge concrete curbing. Then I hauled heavy pails full of sand from the dog park over the fence and to the front yard to "back fill" the new garden. I'm too old to work that hard ! I walked over to the park's landscaped gardens to snap off some segments of cacti to transplant into my garden and while I was doing that a resident within the park offered me a lovely Barrel Cactus that he had just excavated from his yard and was going to discard. WOO-HOO ... thank you very much. I wanted a Barrel Cactus but balked at the $35 price tag at Yuma Nursery Supply.
While doing all this I learned a fundamental Cactus Landscaping 101 lesson ; WEAR LEATHER GLOVES ! OUCH ! ! ! . Joanne was out shopping and my leather work gloves were in the truck. I wore rubberized "grip" gloves to handle the cacti. The needles on the Prickly Pears that I was handling are microscopic and easily penetrated the gloves ... and then my t-shirt, it seems. My hands and my abdomen were itching like crazy all afternoon. I took a pair of tweezers with me on the daily pack walk and as we walked around the dog park I was yanking near invisible cactus needles out of my fingers. When Joanne returned home from her shopping errands she helped me finish up and clean up.
Nice cactus garden ! With a Barrel Cactus flanked by two Aloe Veras. More to come !
Tuesday ; Another in a long string of beautiful, sunny days. It's amusing to look at the daily newspaper's weather page to see how many different ways the weather people can forecast "sunny and warm" for each of the next seven days. HA HA HA !
Today Joanne cooked rice pudding in the Sun Oven. I worked on demineralising the shower head and the outside water pressure regulator. Yuma's water has such a high mineral content that "scale" / mineral deposits form inside fixtures. I soak them in CLR
( Calcium, Lime, Rust remover ) every few months. I reinstalled the wheel liner, valve extenders, and hub cap on the spare tire that is now on the truck. I decided to leave it on the truck and move the flat tire to the "spare" position after I have it repaired. I installed the framed screen I recently fabricated, onto the shed ceiling under the "Whirlybird" roof vent. And in a few days I will climb up on the shed roof and repair the holes I made in the shed roof / ceiling by using screws that were too long < fume > !
Early this afternoon Carol Mae walked by with her dog Dulce ( Spanish for "sweet" ). We chatted for awhile, then Bo and I joined Carol Mae and Dulce on a walk to and into the dog park. Carol Mae has maintained ... until now ... that Dulce has such anxiety around other dogs that she can't "pack walk". I wanted to prove to her that Bo is such a good pack walker that Bo and Dulce could walk "together" and Dulce wouldn't "freak out" and attack. I was right ! Carol Mae was very pleasantly surprised ! Good dog, Bo !
Our Riverside RV Park Resort neighbours Dave and Joy came by for a brief visit this afternoon. And brought us a house warming gift of two small potted cacti. Great ... thank you ... I will plant them in the new front patio cactus garden between the Barrel Cactus and the Aloe Veras. I excused myself during their visit to take Bo on the daily pack walk. When the pack walkers had completed the first circuit around the perimeter of the dog park, some were preparing to continue on a second circuit and others were leashing their dogs to leave the dog park, I looked around and ... HEY ... where's Bo ? ? ? Well ... as we had passed by our yard on the first circuit he had decided to abandon the pack walk in favour of going back into our yard to visit Dave and Joy. Thanks to the steps I've installed he can climb over our back fence without any help. And I hadn't noticed that he went home ! Way to make me look stupid, Bo ... thanks a lot !
Wednesday ; Week five ( of ten ) of Tai Chi first thing this morning. Still the only male. The instructor is a "healing arts" practitioner and today incorporated "healing sounds" into the Tai Chi movements. Stretched her credibility a bit there, I thought !
Feeling a bit ill today again. Took a nap after Tai Chi hoping that would make me feel better. It didn't. So ... headed out for a day of errands. First stop was Yuma Nursery Supply to buy a couple of buckets of decorative finishing gravel and some ice plants, both for my new front patio cactus garden. Then to Sears to have the truck's punctured tire repaired. Twenty-two bucks ? I don't think so ! Over to Purcell Tire. Twelve fifty ? Yeah, that's more like it !
Kofa Ko-op's Wi-Fi has been out of order for a few days, so I brought my computer along today, planning to have lunch at Burger King and use their free Wi-Fi. Purcell Tire had free Wi-Fi so I got quite a bit of work done online there while I waited for the tire to be repaired. WOW ... you should see the size of the bolt they pulled out of the tire. We went to Burger King for lunch and I finished my online work using Wi-Fi there. Last two stops were Walgreens and Albertsons for advertised specials and groceries. I'm so impressed with Joanne's careful shopping, taking advantage of coupons and advertised specials. Albertson's cash register receipt shows "savings". Today our bill was $35, with savings of $40. Well done !
We arrived home just as today's pack walk was ending. We took Bo for a walk in the dog park, and there were two other dogs in the park, so we had a pack walk with a small pack of three. Afterwards Joanne finished planting in the new front patio cactus garden.
Thursday ; Well ! ! ! First thing this morning I discovered ... the floor of the cupboard underneath the sink was wet ! < sigh > Joanne emptied the cupboard. I stuck my head in and searched for a leak. It wasn't hard to find. It was hard to repair, just because of its inaccessibility. And the amount of time it took to find and repair the leak upset my day’s work plans. I accomplished quite a bit less than I had planned.
I remounted the spare tire underneath the truck. I watered the front yard ocotillo and cactus plantings. WOO-HOO ... the ocotillo has two little buds on it ! It’s alive ! And perhaps coming out of winter dormancy. I spread decorative red gravel in my new front patio cactus garden. Very nice ! I “plucked” old blossoms off the Barrel Cactus. Easier said than done ! My new front patio cactus garden looks great !
Friday ; This morning I fabricated and installed a metal "guard" under the sink to protect the water tank fittings, to prevent a recurrence of a leak caused by pots and pans and cans against water lines. In the afternoon I did a minor repair on the shed roof then spent the rest of the afternoon working on my cactus gardens. I moved three of my plantings from one location to another. I dug up some plants that a neighbour wanted to get rid of and transplanted them into my gardens. I now have thirty-six cactus and succulent plantings in our yard.
Saturday ; Today was one of those days where, despite our best efforts to the contrary, we intermittently squabbled and made one another miserable.
Joanne worked on a new painting project today. I continued working on landscaping. Tonight we went to the annual Yuma Accordion Band concert at Historic Yuma Theatre, an annual fund raising event for Habitat For Humanity. Well ... there goes sixteen bucks and another two hours of my life that I’ll never get back ! Thirteen accordions, a tuba, and a banjo. Two hours of “oom pah pah” music. Come on, people, the accordion is a much more versatile instrument that that ! At least my money went to a good cause.
DSK
No comments:
Post a Comment