This morning I set up the Sun Oven and put three drying racks of thinly sliced Roma tomatoes in to be sun dried. MMMMMM ! It's been about a year since we've had fresh sun dried tomatoes. A few days ago we bought six pounds of Roma tomatoes at Food City, on sale for thirty-three cents a pound. Carol Mae came over to discuss Humane Society fund raising ideas.
This afternoon I did back yard Bo-gility. I did some minor maintenance and "home improvement" projects around the yard and trailer. We went to the storage area and did some work on Elsie the truck camper. We've done a lot of cleaning, minor maintenance, and refurbishments / improvements to Elsie in the short period of time we've had her, in order to make her "ours". And we have a lot more that we want to do during this winter season. I did some cactus gardening in the dog park behind our rear fence, positioning pre-cast concrete tree ring sections around all my plantings back there. We took Bo for our daily walk around the dog park. No one else joined us today, so ... Bo was a pack of one.
Late in the afternoon we went to the regular Sunday late afternoon / early evening ice cream social. We chatted with new arrivals, and new full time RV'ers, from Texas about their interest in visiting Canada next summer. Afterwards we had a late, light supper while watching Downton Abbey on PBS.
Monday ; Still sunny and warm, and forecast to remain that way for at least the next week. Don't ya love Yuma ? ! ? We finished the sun drying of the Roma tomatoes started yesterday, then Joanne put a Hungarian Chicken casserole into the Sun Oven to cook for tonight's supper. It was very good. That recipe is a keeper !
This morning we walked over to the other side of the RV park to give Bo's Christmas gift to Dulce, and say goodbye and wish Merry Christmas to Carol Mae and Larry. They're going to celebrate Christmas "in the desert", a common euphemism around here. There is a clique of people here who spend all holidays boondocking out in the desert, avoiding the large communal dinner gatherings of the RV park.
I continued working on the repair of the corner of the truck bumper that I damaged in Bullhead City a month or so ago. This afternoon Joanne went shopping by herself. "What ... again ?" you might ask ? I watered all my cactus gardens and plantings. Joanne returned home just in time for the daily pack walk. After the pack walk I washed the truck. A nearby, old lemon grove was set on fire a few days ago ( intentionally ... the lemon trees had reached the end of their useful life ) and ash floated over our RV park and settled on everything !
Around 1:15 AM Sully and I were awakened by the sound of coyotes howling nearby. It scared Sully and he came to sleep beside my face, using my cheek as his pillow. After a few minutes of howling the coyotes were silenced immediately following the sound of seven rapid fire shots. Yup ... them semi-automatic assault rifles are certainly effective at blowing coyotes to Kingdom Come. Especially around a populated area like this ! ! ! God Bless America ! ! ! And I say that as only a pinko Canadian atheist can !
Tuesday ; Christmas Eve
AHHHHH ... sunny and warm !
Today I remember my father, who died on Christmas Eve eighteen years ago.
We were up a bit early this morning so we could head to the Humane Society of Yuma. When we signed on as volunteers recently, we chose Tuesday afternoon as our weekly "day of work". But today the Humane Society was closing at noon, so we wanted to get our weekly "work" done this morning.
It was our first day as trained volunteers, me doing "dog walking" and Joanne doing "cat cuddling". We both enjoyed our two hours of "work". I walked six dogs, and named four of them. Tonight I'm stiff and sore from "wrestling" a young, intact male pit bull that was a "puller". I was naming the dogs alphabetically, so by the time I got to him, I was up to "D". I was sorely tempted to name him DORK, but settled on DENNIS. The fifth dog
I walked was a cute little Terrier cross named Santa. Sadly, Santa did not leave on Christmas Eve.
Back at home we had lunch in our Arizona room, as we do most days. It's wonderful to be in there on sunny, warm afternoons. I spent the afternoon puttering around with home improvement work, while Joanne worked in the kitchen, baking for Christmas, and preparing her special Christmas Eve dinner. Upholding her family’s tradition Joanne prepared tourtiรจre ( French Canadian meat pie ) for Christmas Eve dinner. Thank you, my dear.
I'm typing this at 7:15 PM. Supper is almost ready. I've got a Zydeco Christmas album playing in the computer's CD / DVD drive. We've just returned from a long, slow, leisurely walk up and down every road in the RV park, admiring the hundreds of luminaries laid out along both sides of each road and lit at dusk, a Christmas Eve tradition at Kofa Ko-op.
It's a wonderful life !
Wednesday ; Merry Christmas / Joyeux Noel / Feliz Navidad
Well ! ! ! Life may have been wonderful last night ... BUT ...
Today was sunny and warm, as Christmas always seems to be in Yuma, Arizona.
We got a bit of a late start to our day. And ... while preparing our traditional Christmas morning brunch of Belgian Waffles, we had a vicious little squabble. It really soured us over brunch and for awhile thereafter. We finally came to our senses when we went out to the Arizona room to open gifts.
As always, we allowed Bo to open all gifts. HA HA HA ... what a gift opening frenzy he experiences every Christmas. I'm certainly going to miss that when he's gone. He was so enthusiastic about opening gifts that I received a hardcover book as a gift ... and it has dog tooth marks on one corner of the hard cover. HA HA HA ! Slow down, Bo, you're leaving tooth marks on the gifts. HA HA HA HA HA !
Not long after we were finished opening and admiring gifts Joanne had to get dressed and leave for the clubhouse. She was a "greeter" for our park's 3 PM Christmas dinner. I thought 3 PM was a very odd time to schedule Christmas dinner ! I had time to phone my sister and chat for half an hour before I had to get dressed and head to the clubhouse. I was a server, serving turkey and gravy.
The Christmas dinner organizers actually had a strategy for planning dinner at 3 PM. They were trying to combat this park's "eat and run" mentality by scheduling dinner for 3 PM ... and dessert at 5 PM. They mostly failed. How discouraging ... and frustrating ! People finished eating their dinner well before 4 PM ... and most left. Most returned for dessert at 5 PM ... and the clubhouse was almost deserted again by 6 PM. A handful of us remained and chatted for a couple of hours.
You'd think that after this many years spending six months a year in the United States ... we'd have figured out how to avoid to getting drawn into discussions with Americans about their "constitutional right to bear arms" and Canada's universal / "free" health care system. < sigh >
Thursday ; Boxing Day ( in Canada )
Still sunny and warm. Except late in the evening. We went for a walk around the park with Bo after 9 PM. BRRRRR !
We spent much of the day visiting with friends and neighbours. Visited Tina and Everett, and their dog Maddie in the morning, then visited Lynn and her dog Windsor all afternoon. In the evening Penny and Paul came over to visit.
We walked Bo in the dog park. I rode my bicycle. I puttered around with Elsie the truck camper a little bit.
Friday ; Sunny and very warm, a really gorgeous day.
Let me tell you the story of my Scarlet Macaws wood carving.
On October 13, 1999, the day after our 25th wedding anniversary, we spent the day browsing in the open air market place in Ocho Rios ( Eight Rivers ), Jamaica. As we entered the market in the morning, a wood carver was just beginning to carve a five foot section of burled Cypress tree trunk. Throughout the day, as we passed by his location about every hour or so, I was fascinated watching the carving develop. It became apparent that he was carving a series of six Scarlet Macaws, large parrot like birds, in the burls of the tree trunk. The more he carved, the more fascinated I became.
Late in the day ... OMG ... the carving was finished, and ... he was painting the birds in the vivid colours that Scarlet Macaws possess. At the end of the day, as we were about to head back to our cruise ship ... he attached a price tag to the finished and painted carving. The paint had barely dried. Yes, yes ... I bought the damn thing ! It was a bit expensive, but ... it did represent an entire long day of work for the artist / carver.
I hoisted the heavy, five foot section of the Cypress tree trunk onto my shoulder and lugged it back to the cruise ship. A few days later I lugged it from the ship to Miami Airport. American Airlines wrapped it in a lot of bubble wrap. Thank you, American Airlines. Back in Canada, at Ottawa Airport, we underwent a lengthy inspection of the carving by Canada Customs, which included X-rays and drilling a long hole up into the bottom of the trunk to ensure that it was solid, and not stuffed with drugs.
It was on display in our living room for almost five years.
In June, 2004, as we prepared to begin our new life as full time RV'ers, I packed the carving into a tall box, filled it with styrofoam popcorn, taped it shut, and hauled it to Winnipeg, Manitoba where it went into storage in my sister's basement for nine and a half years. Thank you, Sharon.
In September 2013, we retrieved it from Winnipeg, Manitoba and hauled it to Keremeos, British Columbia. It was in our way on the entire journey !
In November 2013, we hauled it from Keremeos, British Columbia to Yuma, Arizona. It was in our way on the entire journey ! ! !
Today ... TA DA ... I opened the box, removed the carving, and set it up on display in our Arizona room. And yes, yes ... it's every bit as appealing to me as it was on the day that it was carved over fourteen years ago. Hello, beautiful birds ! Nice to see you again !
Anybody wanna buy a lot of styrofoam popcorn ?
Joanne spent the entire day out shopping by herself ! < scowling >
Saturday ; Partially cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, warm.
We spent most of the day out shopping, most of it at Yuma Park N Swap, a.k.a. Dog Track Flea Market. Sears for a minute, Salvation Army for a few minutes, Goodwill for a few minutes, then Harbor Freight ... for many minutes ... HA HA HA ... a few minutes at Walgreens and a few minutes at Bank of America before an early ETYS buffet supper at KFC.
Stock market doing well ! Looks like a good year overall for our investments. Unless if the sky falls in the next couple of days. HA HA HA !
DSK
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