Saturday - February 2, 2008

Today was another gorgeous day in sunny Arizona, it was cold overnight with a low of 39F but it got up to the high 60’s this afternoon so it was very pleasant. John went for his bike ride and I went for a long walk this morning.

Today was another quiet day, this afternoon we went to Yuma Palms Mall so I could get some stamps and mail some stuff at Hallmark, then a stop at Best Buy (we kept our money in our pocket) and then on to Wal Mart. We decided that it was so nice we (John) would barbecue chicken wings for dinner so we made a stop at Wal Mart to get the wings. When we got home I did a couple of loads of wash and that was it for our day.

I talked to my mom and Nan today and am always happy after I talk to our family.

And so ends another great day in our life of retirement and we are looking forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Friday - February 1, 2008

Wow, February already, where does the time go! Today was a beautiful sunny day and it got up to about 70F, perfect.

This morning I did some cleaning and just generally puttzed around then this afternoon I got real lazy and laid down for a while, I didn’t nap but did a couple of crossword puzzles. When I got up I got things ready for dinner as Janet and Dave were coming, we did a roast leg of lamb which was real yummy, with potatoes done around the roast, green beans and a salad. Janet doesn’t eat lamb so we did a chicken breast and baked potato for her. They brought a blueberry pie for desert so it was a good meal with good company. Once I got everything ready I took my book outside and read for an hour or so until they got here.

And so ends another great day in our life of retirement and we are looking forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Thursday - January 31, 2008

Boy, we must have been tired after our long day yesterday as neither of us woke up until 9:30 – talk about lazy!

Today was a quiet, cool day, it was sunny all day but the temperature never got over 60, oh well with the severe storm warning they are calling for in Ontario I am not going to complain about a cooler day here.

Janet and Dave are coming for dinner tomorrow night so John and I went out to get a few groceries. While in Fry’s I checked the steaks and they had T-bones for $3.99/lb so guess what we had for dinner tonight. I have a leg of lamb in the freezer and Dave likes lamb but never gets it as Janet doesn’t like it so we are doing the lamb for dinner tomorrow night and a chicken breast for Janet. Now John is hoping it won’t be too windy tomorrow as we are going to do the lamb on the barbecue.

As you can see it was a quiet but great day in our life of retirement and we are looking forward to another great day tomorrow.
I will add some of John's pictures when I get them.

Koala

Polar Bear

Two Year Old Panda Enjoying Bamboo Lunch

A Pretty Duck

Egrets

Flamingo

A Member of the Duidink Family

Members of the Pig Family

Wednesday - January 30, 2008

Today was a wonderful day, the weather was cool but mainly sunny so a good day for walking around the zoo. Jeans, a t-shirt and my nylon wind breaker were perfect and kept me comfortable for the day.

The bus left our pick up spot right at 6:30 a.m., made one more stop at their downtown office to pick up a few more people and we were on our way. We stopped at El Centro for breakfast about 7:45 and were quickly on our way again. From there to San Diego was new territory for John and I and it was an interesting drive. We went through quite a high mountain pass with very large rocks, very barren looking! About the top of the pass the sky got very black and it looked like we were going to be in for a storm but fortunately that didn’t happen and it was sunny by the time we arrived in San Diego around 10 a.m.

Some of the people on the bus were doing a whale watching tour, some were doing Old Town and then there were 6 of us doing the zoo, fortunately we were the last ones to be dropped off so got to see the harbour, old town and downtown San Diego – it looks like a very interesting city.

The zoo was absolutely fabulous, among others I have been to the Detroit, Toronto and Sydney Australia zoos and I have to say San Diego is the nicest one and we couldn’t believe how clean it was.

The first thing we did was take the aerial ride across the park, what a great view and it let us off near the polar bears – they were fun to watch and the one had an absolutely huge bone he was gnawing on.

We saw the two year old panda sitting enjoying his lunch of bamboo, then next was his mother and 4 month old brother and it was a riot to watch them playing. They were rolling around with each other then the little guy would try to climb a tree and mom would haul him back down but he was very persistent with his efforts to climb the tree. One of the panda keepers said they had been playing for over an hour so we were fortunate to see them at play. We also saw a mother anteater, she was the largest one I have ever seen, and her baby was on her back. She was trying to shake the young one off and make him walk but he was holding on for dear life and having no part of being parted from mom, fun to watch them. Of course I enjoyed the koalas, they are so cute but can be very vicious.

Because of the incident at the Los Angeles zoo the tigers weren’t out, they are adding to the height of the wire around their area and until it is done they won’t be out – disappointing. We walked around most of the zoo then took a 35 minute bus tour to see what we missed, we sat on the top of a double decker so had a good view – and it was just nice to sit for a while! When we walked around the elephant area there was only one out but when we went by on the tour there were 4 and one of them was pulling at an object hanging from a large piece of wood, the driver said there was food in it and the elephant sure was reefing on it trying to get at the food – quite funny to watch.

By the time the tour was over we had about 20 minutes before we had to meet our bus so Janet & I wandered through a couple of shops while John and Dave went through the reptile house.

On the way home we stopped at Alpine for dinner, there were a number of places to eat so we decided on a barbecue restaurant that turned out to be good and very reasonable. There was another quick stop at El Centro on the way back and we were dropped off at our truck about 9 p.m. – weary but having enjoyed a really great day.

I still have to go through my pictures, as well as John’s, so will wait until tomorrow to post this and some pictures.

And so ends another great day in our life of retirement and we are looking forward to another great day tomorrow.

Tuesday -January 29, 2008

Today was another nice sunny day but a bit on the cool side, I had my vest on until about 1 p.m. when it warmed up enough to take it off.

There was a big crowd golfing today, our group as well as others, and we were about 40 minutes late teeing off, there were 44 golfers so a good turnout. When I got there a lady came up and said how glad she was to see me back etc. and I felt terrible as I didn’t remember her at all from last year. As it turns out they are from Langley B.C. and her husband remembered John right away, guess they have far better memories that we have. Anyways, it ended up that Karen and I were partners so had a good visit but my game was absolutely awful, my last two drives and putts saved me from total embarrassment. The only saving grace was that one of the fellows on our other half of the foursome was having as bad a day as I was so I didn’t feel totally like a fool. Thanks to Karen we ended up with a 30 so not totally shabby, John and his partner didn’t have a good day either so John and I headed out shortly after we got done as we knew there would be no prizes won in this family today!

I needed some buns so we did a quick stop at Wal Mart plus stopped for propane on the way home. When we got back I got things ready for tomorrow and John got the propane tank back on, did a bit of this and that then went for a bike ride. Johnny stopped for a little visit then after she left I did some vacuuming and called my mom.

We are looking forward to our visit to the San Diego zoo tomorrow although I AM NOT looking forward to being up at 5 a.m. - I am not a morning person! We don’t expect to be back much before 11 tomorrow night so I doubt I will be doing my blog tomorrow.

And so ends another wonderful day in our life of retirement and we look forward to our day at the San Diego zoo tomorrow.

Monday -January 28, 2008

Here we are with another nice day behind us, the sun was shining and the temperature was nice so we enjoyed the day.

I did a load of wash, the laundry was a busy place but I ended up chatting with a couple from Oakville who just arrived yesterday so that helped pass the time.

I was in desperate need of a haircut so told John that I was going to go this afternoon to get it cut, when we first got here a woman recommended Rosie at Daniel’s Barbershop and Rosie does a good job so I have stuck with her, better the devil you know! Getting your hair cut on the road is always a game of chance, sometimes you luck out and other times you don’t so when I find someone who isn’t too bad I try to stay with them. Anyways, John wanted to get his ears lowered also so we both went to Daniels.

After our cuts we did a quick stop at Wal Mart and Albertson’s, then on home. I went for a walk around the park and then came back and sat outside for a while reading, until it got too cool to be comfortable.

John barbecued chicken breasts for dinner and they were delicious. The dishes are now done, the coffee ready to put on in the morning so I am doing this and then will resume reading my book when I am done. John is making our cuppa evening tea so I will enjoy that and my book.

I just had an e-mail from Jim and Linda, the couple we met in the fall in the Gaspe, and they are coming for a visit on Feb. 11th so we are looking forward to seeing them again.

And so ends another wonderful day in our life of retirement and we are looking forward to another great day tomorrow.

Pretty Sky

Nice Sky

Sunday - January 27, 2008

Wow, it isn’t supposed to rain in Arizona but the rain started early last evening and it rained all night and most of today – wonder if it will make the wildflowers grow in the desert!

Today was another lazy day but this afternoon we did got out for some groceries, we went to Fry’s and Wal Mart and both were a zoo, guess the grocery stores here are the same as at home – Sunday is the worst day to shop!

On the way home the sky was really pretty and just before sunset the sun actually came out and we saw some blue sky – hopefully this is a good omen for tomorrow.

I talked to my mom and my children today so am happy, I always enjoy hearing their voices.

Saturday - January 26, 2008

Today was a bit of a cloudy day, there was some sun this morning but by late afternoon it had clouded over and by about 7:30 p.m. it was raining – what, rain in sunny Arizona!!

We didn’t do anything exciting today, I got the laundry done so that is another job down although tomorrow I will have to change the bed and do the sheets. There is a rule at the laundromat here that between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. you are only supposed to do two loads at a time so that is why the sheets will have to wait for another day.

My blog started out life as a daily diary which I sent to the kids to let them know where we were and what we were doing, then I started the blog and including pictures. I still do the diary and then just copy it into my blog, this allows me to send my mom, who lives in a retirement home, a copy of my diary on a weekly basis although there are no pictures in the diary. The receptionist at the front desk prints it off and gives it to her so she can also keep up to date on what we have been doing.

Anyways, I have been thinking that if somehow the blog got lost I would only have the diary part so I have been putting the pictures into my diary so that I have the whole thing on my computer. Yesterday I finished doing our trip to Newfoundland but still have three more trips to update, a good lazy days project.

There are some blogs that I follow on a daily basis and one fellow had the following on his blog the other day, I though it was cute so am putting it on mine, hope you don’t mind me copying it from you Ed.

" My Next Life." I want to live my next life backwards. You start out dead and get that out of the way right off the bat. Then, you wake up in a nursing home feeling better every day. When you are kicked out of the nursing home for being too healthy, you spend several years enjoying your retirement and collecting benefit checks. When you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work 40 years or so, getting younger every day until pretty soon you're too young to work. So then, you go to high school, play sports, date, drink, and party. As you get even younger, you become a kid again. You go to elementary school, play, and have no responsibilities. In a few years, you become a baby and everyone runs themselves ragged keeping you happy. You spend your last nine months floating peacefully in luxury, spa-like conditions, central heating, room service on tap. (Are you ready for this?) Until finally, you finish off as an orgasm.

And so ends another wonderful day in our life or retirement.