December 29, 2013 to January 4, 2014

Sunday ; Still sunny and warm.

This morning we headed out to Yuma Park N Swap a.k.a. Dog Track Flea Market ... again ... to exchange a couple of items purchased yesterday ; wrong size socks ( her ) and wrong size J bolt ( me ).

In the afternoon we gave Bo an overdue haircut. Like a bath, he hates the process of getting a haircut but loves the results. He had a lot of desert grass "quills" embedded in his skin underneath his long hair, especially in his "armpits" and on his abdomen. Poor Bo.

At 6 PM we attended the regular Sunday ice cream social then spent the evening chatting with friends in the clubhouse. Until 9 PM when we had to cover the pool and hot tub, a job Joanne signed us up to do this week. We had a very late supper while watching Downton Abbey on PBS.

Monday ; Still sunny and warm. Joanne cooked a wonderful Mexican seasoned rice and vegetable medley in the Sun Oven today.

She did a lot of cleaning chores today. I puttered around with gardening chores and did some "home improvement" project work on Elsie. And for the first in quite awhile I napped after lunch with Sully. He appreciated it and was very cuddly. This afternoon I installed a headlight and a flashing taillight on my bicycle. And at dusk when I went for my daily bicycle ride I felt much safer.

Tuesday ; New Year's Eve

Still sunny and warm. Joanne cooked a marvellous Mexican Chicken Chile Verde in the Sun Oven for supper tonight.

We spent the morning at the Humane Society, doing our weekly dog walking and cat cuddling.

In the afternoon while Joanne did a lot of laundry I worked on repairing the damaged corner of the truck bumper. Previously I had applied fiberglass gel to the damaged area, then sanded it. I applied fiberglass gel a second time, and today sanded that second application. It's coming along nicely, and I think I'm just about ready to apply Bondo body putty.

As we do every day we took Bo for a walk around the dog park, walking the perimeter of the seven acre dog park twice. Great physical exercise and socialization for people and dogs. I went cycling at dusk, up and down each road in the RV park, then down East County 17th Street to Avenue 4E and back to Kofa Ko-op. I started a little later than I usually do, enjoying the security of my new headlight and taillight. I did some online banking work, getting all bills paid before year end, even some that aren't due yet. Year end finances look pretty good. While eating dinner we watched the holiday edition of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a Canadian comedy show. Hilarious year end episode ! The show has improved over the years.

After Joanne washed dishes we headed to the clubhouse for Kofa Ko-op's New Year's Eve party. Along with the "eat & run" mentality of this RV park, the New Year's Eve mentality is one of the very few things I can bitch about. At midnight New York time, everybody "celebrates" Happy New Year ! It's 10 PM here ! ! ! About 75 % of the people leave a few minutes later. At midnight New Orleans time the process is repeated. It's 11 PM here ! ! ! Most of the remaining 25 % leave at that time. At "real" midnight, we were two of the only TEN people still left in the clubhouse !

Because we had volunteered to be the swimming pool and hot tub "closers" this week, we covered the swimming pool at 9 PM but left the hot tub uncovered. A few minutes after midnight, everybody left the clubhouse. Joanne and I went home, changed into bathing suits, and went to spend about a half an hour in the hot tub, musing on what a good year 2013 had been for us.

Wednesday ; Happy New Year / Bonne Heureuse Année / Feliz Año Nuevo

Another lovely day, still sunny and warm.

We had a fun obedience session with Bo in the dog park behind our back yard. Our 93 year old friend ( mostly Joanne's friend, actually ) Eilene brought over some freshly baked date cookies, her specialty. MMMMMM ! ! ! Never met a date cookie of Eilene's that I didn't like. HA HA HA ! Our new friend Connie and her Golden Retriever Sassy stopped by for a visit in our Arizona room. I did some home improvement / refurbishment work on Elsie this afternoon. We had a pleasant daily pack walk, twice around the perimeter of the seven acre dog park, with a pack of four dogs.

This evening we went to the regular weekly Wednesday Social Hour & Potluck. We sat and chatted with new friends Bill and Lynne for five hours !

My ambitious "to do" list for today got thwarted by too much socializing.

Thursday ; Still lovely weather. Joanne cooked an Italian Sausage casserole / stew in the Sun Oven for supper tonight.

This morning I went out to Pep Boys to buy some auto body repair materials to continue work on the damaged corner of the truck bumper. And I have a neighbour who would like my help to repair some minor damage on the corner of the bumper of his fairly new Class A motorhome.

This afternoon Joanne went out to shop and run errands by herself. I spent the afternoon mounting artwork in the Arizona room. We brought to Yuma some of our artwork that had been in storage in Winnipeg for the last 9½ years.

Our friend and neighbour Shauna asked for my help today to remove a tick from her dog Zona's ear. Odd shaped tick, from my perspective. Not the same shape as the ticks I'm used to seeing in Manitoba, Ontario, and British Columbia throughout my life. Shauna ( and her husband ) and Zona were in Southern California during the Christmas and New Year's season. Must have been a Southern California tick. I wonder if it was a bad driver ? Or an asshole tick ? HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

I ordered another Sun Oven today ! Sun Oven sent an e-mail to their previous customers advertising a "scratch & dent" sale on a discontinued model of Sun Oven, selling test units and demo units. It seemed like a good opportunity to not have to cart our Sun Oven back and forth from Arizona to British Columbia every year. We'll leave our "old" one here, and take the "new" one home in the spring, and leave it there.

In the evening I printed year end banking and financial data, and worked on year end reconciliation and analysis.

Friday ; Still sunny and warm.

This morning we headed to The Foothills, the eastern side of Yuma. Today was the monthly 15% off everything sale at Al's RV Service & Supply. And I had a lot of supplies to buy for Elsie the truck camper. Including about $150 worth of LED light bulbs ! They're not cheap ! Especially the fluorescent conversion kits !

While I shopped at Al's RV Joanne shopped at the 99¢ Only Store. After finishing at Al's we went to Foothills Shoes to look at Birkenstock sandals for me. Too expensive here in Yuma. I'll get them in Laughlin, Nevada in the spring. I withdrew cash from the Bank of America ATM to pay for my eyeglasses and our dental cleanings next week in Mexico. We drove to a thrift shop Joanne wanted to browse in. We went to Wally's World and I bought more truck camper stuff. We came home for a very late lunch.

With what little there was left of the afternoon I worked on refurbishing the truck camper's propane regulator and hoses, as well as sorting and prioritizing today's purchases. A neighbour and his dog came over to visit. Well ... first the dog came over looking for Bo. Then the neighbour came over looking for his dog. HA HA HA ! We went on the daily dog pack walk. Afterwards I went for a bicycle ride.

In the evening I installed and configured my new Wi-Fi booster antenna / external adaptor ... that Santa brought me. Should have much better range and reception of
Wi-Fi now.

Saturday ; Warm but mostly cloudy today. Unable to use the Sun Oven to bake bread as planned.

Joanne defrosted fridge in trailer. We worked on Elsie again today. I changed all incandescent light bulbs to LED. Joanne cleaned dinette upholstery. I flushed scale out of water heater, installed new sacrificial anode.

Late in the afternoon Joanne went to run some shopping errands. I connected computer to TV with HDMI cable purchased on Thanksgiving. Spent most of evening trying to download DVD player software. Didn't know until trying to set up DVD for "movie date" tonight that ****ing Windows 8 doesn't have DVD player software. I downloaded three different software programs ( and deleted two of them ) before I found one that worked properly on my computer and DVD drive configuration.

By the time we were finished supper, and I finally succeeded in getting the damn DVD to play properly, it was quite late. Our "movie date" was supposed to be a viewing of borrowed copy of Lone Ranger. Halfway through movie had a malfunction, and by the time I rectified that problem, Joanne was asleep on the sofa with cat. < sigh > Sent her to bed. Will watch remainder of movie some other time, I guess.

DSK