Sunday
;
Sunny and warm.
This
afternoon I did a 6000 km. inspection on the truck. HMPH …
muffler’s not looking too good ! Maybe after 13½
years and 365,000 km. it’s time to replace it ? HA HA HA !
I updated my investments
summary and posted my blog entry. The stock market has shown steady
recovery since the beginning of the year.
MMMMM … barbecued lamb chops
for supper !
Monday
;
Sunny,
mild, windy.
This morning I took care of
household chores, and watered our cactus gardens and plants before we
headed out to get rid of our recycling. We have no recycling pickup
in our park, so we take our recycling to a local recycling depot.
Most of our community just discards their recyclables in the trash.
After
lunch I went to the storage yard to do some preventive maintenance on
the truck. And discovered … < sigh > … two flat rear
tires, one on each side. Each flat tire is the outside tire, the
ones with 135 degree valve adapters. I am certain those valve
adapters are the cause of the problem. So … after about 14½
years of dually valve extender problems … the drama continues ! I
also
removed
the old / Happijac camper tie down hardware in preparation for the
installation of my new ( to me ) FastGun tie downs.
In
the evening I worked on the computer, doing semi-annual backups of
backups. Once every six months I copy all backup and archive files
from my portable hard drive to flash drives / memory sticks.
Tuesday
;
Sunny,
mild, very windy.
This
afternoon we went to the Humane Society and did our weekly volunteer
shift of dog walking and cat cuddling. When I got tired of walking
big, unruly dogs, and went to the cat wing to “rest” a bit,
Joanne asked me to use the pet clippers we keep in the car ( for use
at the Humane Society ) to trim tangled mattes off the tummy of
Princess the cat. Another volunteer, Richard, held Princess while I
trimmed her tummy with the clippers. Too bad Richard didn’t have
gloves. HA HA
HA !
After we returned home we went
to the storage yard to do some work on the truck. With Joanne
helping I siphoned some power steering fluid out, after overfilling
it yesterday. I exercised our camper generator. And I drove the
truck to the RV park’s compressor station, removed the 135 degree
adapters / extenders, and refilled the two flat rear tires with air.
I’ll replace the 135 degree adapters next week, after we return
from Palm Springs.
In
the evening we gave Ozzie a bath. Joanne thought he was beginning to
stink. And she’s adamant that he look decent
and smell decent while in Palm Springs. HA HA HA ! That’s
something she always tried to achieve … and failed … with Bo. HA
HA HA HA HA !
Wednesday
;
Sunny,
mild, windy again.
Late this morning we headed
out to run some errands. First stop was Jiffy Lube to have an oil
change service done on the truck. First time I have gone to Jiffy
Lube. And it will be the last ! I provided them with a list of the
eleven grease points under the truck. They lubricated six of them.
When I “pushed” them, they explained that they did not have the
necessary grease “needle” to lubricate the grease needle hole on
the drive shaft. You mean … Jiffy Lube is incapable of properly
lubricating all Dodge trucks ? ! ? And no explanation was given for
why they did not grease the remaining four grease nipples. AND …
most of the “additional” inspections / services listed on their
invoice, and all marked as “done”, were, in fact, NOT done !
I
refilled Lanoire with diesel at Fry’s Fuel Bar, then we had lunch
at Rally’s. We bought some advertised specials at CVS Pharmacy,
then went to Lowe’s to buy some fluorescent light tubes. By the
time we returned home I was feeling a bit ill. I took a nap, then
took Ozzie for his afternoon walk before supper. In the evening I
did some online bill paying.
Thursday
;
Sunny
and mild. Joanne baked an applesauce cake in the Sun Oven today.
This
afternoon I took a propane tank to be refilled. Then … our
priority for today was to get the camper put onto the truck, and
secure it with the new ( to us ) FastGun tie downs. They work well !
And … by design … they’re much “faster” and easier than
the Happijac tie downs that came with the camper. HMPH
! After bringing the truck and camper to our lot I discovered that
one of the truck’s fog lamps is burned out !
After
supper ( barbecued Coho salmon, caught by me ) I worked on
reconciling and paying our January MasterCard statement.
Friday
;
Sunny
and mild. Joanne cooked a chicken and beans recipe in the Sun Oven
today.
I
did some minor preventive maintenance on the trailer, camper, and
truck today. Joanne did some preparation for our weekend trip to
Palm Springs. I had to tell both a neighbour from
Alberta,
and a telephone caller from BC who has phoned me four times about an
item that I have advertised for sale, that I am not a satellite dish
service technician, and am getting tired of being repeatedly asked
for free advice. The
old man from Vernon BC was actually pissed off at me that he was
unable to reach me by telephone early this morning and ended up
phoning a local satellite TV service business that sent a service
technician out to his place and charged him sixty bucks to find and
fix a loose connection. HEY … **** you, pal !
Saturday
; Yuma, Arizona to Palm Springs, California
Sunny and warm.
We
left home this morning at 11:40 AM, with Ozzie but without Emma. We
will leave her home alone in the trailer for 2½
days.
We ran errands for awhile before leaving Yuma. First stop was
Lowe’s where I bought four keyed alike Master padlocks for the
camper’s new FastGun tie down turnbuckles. Then Goodwill for
another one of their 50% off everything sale. I needed some shirts.
I bought three. Goodwill was extremely crowded today. While we were
in Goodwill we left Ozzie in the camper. It seemed too warm to leave
him in the truck. During the half hour or so that Ozzie was alone in
the camper … < sigh > … he ate most of a wrapped loaf of
bread that Joanne had left on a counter. You wouldn’t think that a
dog that’s almost fifteen years of age would be able to get up on a
kitchen counter, but … you’d be wrong ! BAD DOG, OZZIE !
Next stop was O’Reilly Auto
Parts. While I went into O’Reilly’s to buy a replacement bulb
for the truck’s fog lamp, Joanne went to Fry’s next door to buy
another loaf of bread. Last stop before leaving Yuma was Harbor
Freight, my first visit to Harbor Freight this winter season.
<
snicker > Won’t be my last ! When we pulled into Harbor
Freight’s parking lot, we were parked beside old friends Lynn and
Mischa, and their dog Gypsy. We haven’t seen them in a few years.
We chatted for awhile, about my cardiac bypass surgery, and the death
of Bo. He was one of Gypsy’s first dog friends when she was just a
puppy, about ten years or so ago. And Bo was certainly a mentor of
hers on many pack walks around the Kofa Ko-op dog park.
After finishing our visiting
and shopping at Harbor Freight we got onto Interstate 8 and headed
west, crossing the Colorado River into California. We stopped at the
first rest area in California and had a very late lunch. And brief
nap. More west on I-8 then northwest on Hwy. 86 to Palm Springs. We
arrived in Coachella, on the eastern edge of the Palm Springs area,
around 6 PM ( 7 PM Yuma time ). Using our GPS we found our way to a
panaderia that Joanne had read about. WOW ! Second best panaderia
we have ever been to, second only to one in the Rio Grande Valley of
South Texas. We bought a lot of pan dulce ! WOO-HOO ! HA HA HA !
From
Las Tres Conchitas
( The Three Conchitas, a type of Mexican pastry ) we drove to
Spotlight 29 Casino, our boondocking / overnight parking “home”
for the next couple of nights. We walked
and fed Ozzie
… unsure of how much supper to feed him, considering the
consumption of the loaf of bread … then went into the casino to
have supper at their buffet restaurant. This was my birthday dinner
treat for Joanne’s upcoming birthday.
After
supper we returned to the camper, I raised the camper’s roof top TV
antenna, plugged the TV into the 120 volt inverter outlet,
and … found NBC Palm Springs. We watched Saturday Night Live.
DSK
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