Sunday ; Valentine's Day
Sunny and hot, temperature reaching 90 degrees for the first time this season. Joanne prepared and I cooked a pot roast in the Sun Oven today.
Joanne went shopping by herself this afternoon. I had a bit of a lazy afternoon. I did
Bo-gility. We turned the Welcome Committee golf cart and supplies and responsibility over to Carolyn, this week's Welcome Committee ( with her husband Bob ). We returned the borrowed flame thrower. Good riddance ! Scary piece of equipment ! Joanne borrowed an electric juicer to squeeze a lot of lemons to obtain fresh lemon juice to make lemon meringue pies for the upcoming pie social fund raiser. I did some investment update work. Great < tongue in cheek > ! So far we have lost about $55,000 this year ! ! ! Might as well go nap with the dogs ! HA HA HA !
We took Bo and Lucy for a pack walk before going to the ice cream social. While chatting with Canadian friends afterwards the chairman of the audit committee found me in the clubhouse to advise me that there would be an "emergency" meeting of the audit committee tomorrow morning to discuss one member's opposition to one of the committee's recommendations. < rolling eyes > I'm of the opinion that since the annual general meeting is on Tuesday morning, and this particular member of the audit committee missed almost all of our meetings, that the time for debate has passed.
Monday ; Los Algodones, Baja California, Mexico
This morning I attended an "emergency" audit committee meeting at the clubhouse. It went well, from my perspective. After the meeting was over I watered all our plants and gardens, then we left for Mexico.
We arrived in Los Algodones around noon. We walked across and through town to Farmacia Veterinaria Safari where we bought two packages of heartworm medication for a neighbour's dog. We walked back through town and had a very quick lunch at our favourite restaurant. It was very busy at the restaurant, as it was everywhere in town. Is it spring break week ? We had to rush to make it to the dentist on time.
I recently broke a tooth. Dr. Armando, a new dentist in Clinica Dr. Camacho, recently graduated from nearby Universidad Mexicali, examined and x-rayed my broken tooth, then confirmed that a repair was not possible, it would need to be crowned / capped.
< sigh > It took an hour and a half to grind down the broken tooth and install a temporary crown. And it took five injections of anaesthetic before I was "frozen" sufficiently to allow him to grind the broken tooth down to a stub suitable to accept a crown. By the time the work was completed, my jaw ached, I was sore underneath my tongue, and I was "frozen" from behind my left ear to the right side of my nose ! ! !
Before leaving Los Algodones we bought some pan dulce at the panaderia. The line up to cross the border was very long, as it always is in January and February, but ... it took only half an hour to reach the CBP inspection agents and cross the border back into the United States. As we drove home my discomfort increased.
Once we were back home I took some pain killers then napped for an hour before going on the daily pack walk, followed by bicycling at sunset. We didn't eat supper until 8:30 PM, and my face was still "frozen" at that time. SHEEESH !
Tuesday ; Sunny and hot. I am still sore in the mouth, particularly my left jaw and under the left side of my tongue.
We were up early to get to the clubhouse before 9 AM to register for the annual general meeting which started at 9 AM. The meeting progressed well, and quickly, and was over by 11:30 AM. Before coming home for a quick lunch we went over to console a neighbour who had failed in his bid to be re-elected to the Board of Directors.
At 12:20 we picked up Laszlo and Gail and headed to the Quechan Casino on Interstate 8 on the other / California side of the Colorado River for the annual local meeting of the Canadian Snowbirds Association at 1 PM. The meeting was okay ... somewhat of a waste of time perhaps.
By the time we got back home around 4:30 PM I felt in desperate need of a nap.
I napped with Bo and Lucy, then Joanne and I took the dogs for our daily pack walk.
I cycled at sunset, then while Joanne went to the clubhouse for the annual "Hail & Farewell" ceremony ( to say "goodbye" to outgoing Board members and "hello" to incoming Board members ), I made supper for myself ; cream of mushroom soup and pad Thai. Yesterday's supper and today's lunch were too "hard" for me. I need soft foods for awhile.
Wednesday ; Sunny and hot. Joanne cooked a Mexican Chicken & Rice casserole in the Sun Oven today for this afternoon's Happy Hour Potluck. My jaw and under my tongue are still sore.
This morning I drove to the shoe repair place where I had dropped off a pair of sandals a few days ago for repair. I picked up the repaired sandals, and left them a brand new pair of identical sandals to make an identical "preventive" repair / modification. I was home by noon, when I made a Skype test video call to our 94 year old friend Eilene in Oregon. I will be using Skye video to bring Eilene to the pie social in the clubhouse on Saturday.
After an early lunch we left for the Humane Society. We missed our regular Tuesday afternoon shift yesterday, so we went today instead. I dropped Joanne off at the Humane Society then I drove to The Foothills to refill a propane tank and buy a couple of propane fittings at Cactus Propane, then I returned to the Humane Society. I walked dogs, Joanne cuddled cats.
As we were leaving we received some very interesting information. Last week we brought home three kittens born a day earlier. They are now nine days old, and thriving with their foster mother in Phoenix. Today ... Animal Control brought in a sibling / litter mate of theirs. A kitten from the same address, now nine days old. It obviously had been nursing from the natural mother, still not caught. The fourth kitten went home with a Humane Society staff member for tonight. Tomorrow morning it will be heading off to Phoenix to join its three litter mates. It was pleasing to advise our friend Carol Mae tonight. She cared for the new born kittens last week for about thirty-six straight hours.
Upon our return home from the Humane Society we took the casserole out of the Sun Oven and headed to the clubhouse for the potluck. As the potluck was starting, in walked our dear old friends from Barrie, Ontario, Hans and Peta. WOO-HOO ! Three years ago Hans and Peta adopted a kitten that we rescued in this park. It had been feral born in our dog park. After dinner we visited in the clubhouse for awhile with Hans and Peta, then went over to their motorhome to see the cat. It was thrilling to see her now, three years later, all grown up, and named Kofi. A much loved and very cared for cat, living the good life on the road in a large motorhome with her "brother" Simon the Siamese. What a rescue success story !
Tonight we watched the season premiere of Survivor. WOO-HOO !
Sometimes life seems good, n'est-ce pas ?
Thursday ; Partially cloudy, warm, a bit humid.
This morning I compiled the tools and hardware needed for my water heater maintenance seminar this afternoon. After lunch I conducted the water heater maintenance seminar for about a dozen people at Laszlo's and Gail's trailer. Their trailer is about three years old, and the water heater has had no regular preventive maintenance, so it was a very good demonstration of what needs to be done to an RV water heater, how, and why.
After the seminar I visited with Laszlo and Gail for awhile, then came home and took a well deserved nap before going on today's pack walk with Bo and Lucy. Lucy's tolerance for walking is increasing. She has such short legs, and is a teensy bit pudgy. Afterwards I went to the truck camper and did a bit of preventive maintenance before going bicycling at sunset.
I cooked Manitoba / Lake Winnipeg Pickerel again for supper. My goodness, I certainly did buy a lot of it when we were in Winnipeg in October !
Friday ; Mostly sunny, a bit of thin cloud, warm. Joanne cooked Sweet & Sour Chicken in the Sun Oven today, a new recipe she created.
I had a lazy day. I thought it was earned and deserved. Joanne worked in the clubhouse with a group making lemon meringue pies for tomorrow's pie social. We chatted with friends. We chatted with new neighbours. We walked the dogs. Tonight we watched episode two of Amazing Race.
Saturday ; Sunny and hot.
We found out this morning that our friend Bill had a heart attack two days ago, in the middle of the night, Wednesday night to Thursday morning. WHAAAAAT ? ? ? ! ! !
We don't know how Liz kept that news from everyone, but now we know why Bill, Liz, and Riley have not been on the daily pack walks for the last couple of days. I walked over to their trailer to see if Liz was home and needed any help to care for Riley. She wasn't home, Riley was barking, their rig was unlocked, so ... I took Riley ! He spent the day with me, Bo and Lucy.
Joanne was busy from early morning until mid-afternoon with the Welcome Committee's pie social fund raiser. The pie social started at 2 PM and was finished about 3 PM. I set up my laptop in the clubhouse, connected and configured it to the clubhouse's big screen TV, and at 2:30 brought our 94 year old friend Eilene in ... from Oregon, via Skype video call. The featured pies were Eilene's recipe lemon meringue pies. The limited bandwidth this park's Wi-Fi has resulted in a poor connection, and the call was dropped within just a few minutes, but in those few minutes everybody got to see and hear Eilene on the big screen TV. About $400 was raised selling pies at a couple of bucks per slice, and some whole pies were auctioned off at about $25 per pie.
Shortly after the pie social, Liz arrived to retrieve Riley. And ... < sputter > ... Bill was with her ! ! ! Two and a half days, from arrival in emergency having a heart attack, to diagnosis and treatment plan, to stent insertion surgery, to discharge. WOW ! The Yuma Regional Medical Center certainly is capable of dealing with heart attacks efficiently ! I suppose there's a certain advantage to being in a "Snowbird" destination like Yuma. There certainly is a lot of expertise in geriatric medical issues here. HA HA HA ! Plus ... < whispering > ... I think there was some concern on the part of the hospital on how profitable it is ( or isn’t ) treating Canadians. The amount of time one spends in a hospital here has a direct correlation to how well insured one is. And the Canadian travel medical insurers “persuade” the hospitals here to “treat ‘em quick, and get ‘em out”, or the insurer will simply air ambulance the patient back to Canada for treatment.
Welcome back, Bill !
DSK
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