Monday, March 12, 2012

March 4 to 10, 2012

Sunday ; Beautiful weather ! This morning I did an agility session with Bo. We don't have an agility course here like I the one I built on our summer lot in Canada, so I improvise with on and off folding chairs and on and off and over the back yard fence, and on and off the "toadstools" in the back yard, and so on. HA HA HA ... well done, Bo, good dog !

This afternoon Terry and Marlene, our friends and neighbours from back home at Riverside RV Park Resort, came over for lunch. They visited with us for the afternoon.

This evening we attended the regular Sunday ice cream social. I volunteered to be a "dipper", an ice cream server. After I finished my serving duties and eating a bowl of ice cream for supper we visited with a couple from Ottawa, Canada, where we last lived in a "bricks and sticks" home. Afterward we went over to visit our friends Bill and Liz who are leaving tomorrow to begin slowly heading north towards their summer home. Their dog Riley is a member of "the rat pack", the "founding members" of the daily pack walk. Their summer home is on an island off the coast of Vancouver, BC. No hydro on the island. Their electricity comes from solar panels and / or a generator. No roads or vehicles on the island. They take a water taxi to Vancouver and back whenever necessary.

Monday ; Baked a loaf of bread in the Sun Oven today. It's for serving tomorrow when we have visitors. Preparing this loaf was easier than the last one. Up the learning curve !

We spent most of the day out running errands and shopping. Albertsons for advertised specials on groceries. Fry's for advertised specials on groceries. O'Reilly Auto Parts for truck fluids. Recycling place to dump recyclables. Food City for advertised specials on groceries for the Cajun meal we're preparing at the Chapter 7 Spring Rally out in the desert off Ogilby Road next week. Lunch at a taco truck near Food City. WOO-HOO ... Bo goes shopping ! PetsMart for dog food and dental spray to try on Sully. We can't brush his teeth any more because of feline absorptive lesions on his gums. Refill with diesel at Baron's Fuels. GEEEEZ ... a hundred and twenty-seven bucks to fill the tank ! Smart & Final for ice cream and shrimp for the Cajun meal and Sun Oven demonstration at the rally. Home just in time to join the pack walk already underway. Small pack ... Spanky ( Terry & Judy ) and Riley ( Bill & Liz ) both left today.

Showed Sun Oven to neighbours Bob & Frieda. Went on a bicycle ride. Stopped to view swarm of bees on neighbour's shed. YIKES ... kind of scary looking ! Chatted with park's new assistant managers. Barbecued supper. Joanne went to do laundry while I worked on computer. Got a picture of Molly ( previously Kaydee ) via e-mail. Looks good, hair growing fast !

Tuesday ; Another beautiful, sunny, hot day. It became very windy late in the evening.

Our friends and neighbours back home at Riverside RV Park Resort, Rick and Debbie, arrived today. They are slowly on their way home after their first winter as RV’ing Snowbirds. They spent the winter at La Peñita de Jaltemba in Mexico. They left home a few days before we did. And except for a nightmarish first day that turned into three days in Pendleton, Oregon dealing with a truck problem ( should’ve bought a Dodge ! ), their winter went very well. And they loved Mexico. They will be returning next winter. They arrived here at Kofa Ko-op just before lunch. We spent the entire day visiting with them. We were really glad that they had a great winter in Mexico and are enthused about returning. There is so much negative ( and largely unwarranted ) propaganda here in the United States about Mexico it's nice to see that reality is quite positive. Most of our American friends don't share our opinion that Mexico really isn't so bad, and certainly no worse / more dangerous that many places in the United States. I tell Americans that downtown Detroit is an awfully ugly place at 2 AM ( been there ! ), but that doesn't discourage me ( or anyone else ) from travelling through Michigan in an RV ! The negative bias towards Mexico was reflected in the occupancy statistics of the La Peñita RV Park that Rick and Debbie stayed at. A one hundred and twenty-four space RV park occupied by one hundred and eighteen Canadian rigs and ... six American rigs !

It was wonderful having Rick and Debbie here for a day of visiting. They will be leaving early tomorrow morning to head to Palm Springs for a week with their daughter there.

Wednesday ; This morning I attended the tenth and final Tai Chi class. My knees are grateful that it was the final class. Afterwards I went home and napped. We had planned to go out for date shakes with Dave & Maisie, friends from the SKP BC Okanagan Chapter 33, but it was too cold and windy for date shakes today.

This afternoon we drove out to The Foothills where I bought a used Star Choice satellite dish and tripod. So next winter we will bring our Star Choice receiver in the rig and have our Canadian satellite TV service wherever we are. While in The Foothills we did some Wal-Martin'. Back at home I inspected and cleaned the used satellite dish and tripod. Our Riverside RV Park Resort neighbours Terry and Marlene dropped by for a few minutes to pick up Terry's cap which he accidentally left here when they visited recently. Bo and I went on the daily pack walk. I did some painting on the shed rear window trim. I went bicycling. Our BC Okanagan Chapter 33 friend Dave joined me. His $600 bicycle looks surprisingly similar to my $10 bicycle.

Thursday ; Another beautiful, sunny, hot day. This morning I disassembled and stored the Star Choice satellite dish and tripod components. Gee, before we leave here to head north we're going to have to rearrange things in the trailer storage compartments. The satellite dish and its components and the Sun Oven are both going to take up quite a bit of room. Joanne went shopping. I sealed around the shed rear window's new trim with silicone caulking. The old trim had caulking around it and even that didn't stop desert dust from somehow finding its way into the shed around the window. Then I painted the trim.
I had other work projects to do but just then our friend Dave showed up. He was bearing gifts. A cactus for my gardens and a water bottle and holder for my bicycle. Well, thank you very much, Dave. Dave helped me install the water bottle holder on the bicycle and then he visited with me until it was time for Bo and I to leave for the daily pack walk.

Joanne returned home while Bo and I were on the pack walk. We left to go to the Thursday evening free jazz concert at Yuma Palms Shopping Center. Tonight's performers were the High Society Dixieland Jazz Trio from San Diego. Very entertaining ! As we were returning to our seats from buying ice cream at a nearby shop, we found ... Dave and Maisie. Well ... hello ! After the jazz concert, when we returned to Kofa Ko-op, Dave and Maisie came over and visited with us in our Arizona room until late in the evening.

Friday ; Well ... sunny and hot again ! Today I painted the shed rear window trim, then painted the caulking around the outside perimeter of the trim, then applied caulking around the inside perimeter of the trim, around the outer edge of the window. After fussing and fiddling with it a lot, I declared the job finished. Until ... while showing it off to Joanne later in the afternoon we discovered a bug hole in the new wood trim. A termite or some other bug had eaten its way into the window trim, or perhaps had eaten its way out of the window frame through the new wood trim. Either way, there was a new hole in the trim. DARN ! I patched the hole with wood putty and will have to paint it tomorrow. And I hope the bug is gone, and not in the wood.

This afternoon I did some online computer work. We took Bo on the daily pack walk.
I rode my bicycle. We went to the Kofa Ko-op Burger Bash late this afternoon. It was a bring your own hamburger patties and salad or dessert potluck. Dave and Maisie attended, and were at our table. Over dinner and afterwards we visited with Dave & Maisie, and Ray & Kathy.

Saturday ; B-B-B-B-BAD TO THE BONE !

Another sunny, hot day. Went thrift store shopping this morning. Met Dave and Maisie at Sears parking lot and headed across Colorado River to Bard, California for date shakes. MMMMM ! Picked some leftover oversize Romaine lettuce in a recently harvested field. Stopped at Harbor Freight and spent way too much at huge parking lot sale. Dropped Dave and Maisie at their car in Sears parking lot and we headed home.

Dave and Maisie took their cat into the veterinarian again this morning. Second visit in the last few days. Cat has huge abscess on forehead, right between the eyes. Probably poked herself in the forehead on an agave plant in the RV lot that they are in. Today vet put drain in forehead. Poor kitty !

Finished painting and caulking and fussing and patching bug hole and painting shed rear window trim project today. Sold two folding dining room chairs we discovered in shed when we took possession of lot 52 last November. Joanne's idea to sell them. Good idea. Very expensive folding dining room chairs ... probably from previous owner's motorhome ... netted enough proceeds to buy yard swing. Maybe ! I want a swing, Joanne doesn't.

Went to see George Thorogood & The Destroyers blues rock concert at Quechan Casino tonight. Very b-b-b-b-bad to the bone !

DSK

No comments:

Post a Comment