December 31, 2005

December 31, 2005

Benson, Arizona

YEAR 2 DAY 197

 

Another sunny, warm day.

This morning we went down to the clubhouse to sign up for a table at tonight's New Year's Eve party. They had a table sign up procedure so that people could sign up to sit at a table with their friends. We signed up to sit at a table with other visitors to the park, like us. We met and chatted with one of our table mates for tonight, a full timing rookie from Texas. Great ... a pair of fast talking Canadians and a pair of slow talking Texans sharing a table. Should be interesting. While chatting with this woman as we decorated our table for tonight, I kept wanting to shake her and tell her to hurry up and say what she's trying to say. " H e l l o , m a h n a m e i s C a r e - r o l l ". What ? Your name is what ? Oh ... Carol.

I reviewed the e-mails I retrieved last night, and prepared some replies. I entered some investment transaction details Rhonda e-mailed. We did some trip planning, both short term and long term. I took Bo for a long obedience training session. I'm not satisfied with the consistency of his response to "stay". We worked for a long time on just "sit, stay", while I walk away, and return to him. I guess I've been following all "sit, stay" commands with a "come", so he anticipates it, and won't hold the "stay".

We had lunch. I napped. Joanne baked some cookies, and prepared a refried bean dip for tortilla chips, for tonight's party. We went to town to shop for a couple of items at Ace Hardware and Safeway. Ace didn't have what I needed, so it will have to wait until we're in a bigger city and I can shop at Home Depot or Lowe's. When we came back to Saguaro Co-op SKP Park, we drove up and down each street, checking the place out. It's a very large RV park development, like a small village unto itself. Joanne is warming to the idea of getting on the Kofa Co-op SKP Park in Yuma waiting list for a site. Their waiting list is currently estimated to be 8 years. I did some computer work, scanning for viruses, scanning for spyware, defragmenting, and backing up all files to CD.

I decided to have some pocket magic with me tonight at the party. Doing magic for old people, drinking liquor, in a dark room, is easy ! HA HA HA ! I got 4 magic tricks out of my magic box, and practiced a bit. Gee, I'm pretty rusty. My fingers aren't as nimble as they used to be.

We had supper, thengot dressed for the New Year's Eve party. This RV park knows how to throw a good party. We decided this was likely a good place to spend New Year's Eve based on our experience last winter when we stayed here one night, and attended their toga party. The entertainment tonight was a 3 piece band playing ballroom dance music from the 40's and 50's, with some 60's and 70's rock thrown in to liven things up a bit from time to time. We had a fascinating table mate. A 77 year old man who was born in New Brunswick, went to Toronto as a young man. Worked as a tool and die maker at the A.V. Roe Company, working on the Arrow project. WOW ! Living history. He lost his job when the Diefenbaker government pulled the plug on the Arrow project, and the entire company, in the late 50's. Like many of the laid off A.V. Roe workers, he got a job in the aerospace industry in California. Has been in the United States for almost 50 years. Like me, he "hit the road" at age 49, and has been full time RV'ing for 28 years. WOW ! ! ! He's with his third wife, having outlived the first two. The "matchmaker" who set him up with his third wife was ... wait for it ... his second wife, before she died. It was a good New Year's Eve party, and we enjoyed ourselves.

We achieved our goals for 2005, and it was a good year.

DSK