Saturday - February 16, 2008

Today was a gorgeous sunny warm day – perfect weather! This morning I did some cleaning seeing how Molly is not appearing to do it – oh well, our house on wheels is much smaller than our sticks and stones houses were so it doesn’t take nearly as long to clean.

This afternoon we went over to Janet & Dave’s and had a very good steak dinner with all the trimmings. After dinner Janet & and I took Hey Yu for a walk then we all went down to the rec centre for the Red & Bernie show. Red & Bernie are a husband and wife team and they sing and do comedy, they were very entertaining and we really enjoyed their show. They did a bit about parking their RV and everyone was in stitches, I think anyone who has ever driven a RV could relate to their story. The show was about 2 hours so it was a good deal for $8 each. One of the things Bernie said was that a couple of years ago he had an e-mail from a woman who said “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift and that is why they call it the present”, how true. Bernie composed a song based on that and it was really good, as I say they were good entertainment and lots of laughs.

I am posting a picture of Jim and Linda which John took on Monday just as they were leaving, I e-mailed it to them and they were really pleased with the picture, want John to come and do their 40th anniversary pictures for them – LOL.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.


Jim & Linda

Friday - February 15, 2008

Today was sunny and a bit warmer than yesterday but there was still a cool wind, oh well the weekend is supposed to be nice.

I talked to my mom this morning and was really happy to hear that she is out of quarantine and got her hair done this morning, she still sounded froggy but was chippier than she has been in the last week so that was good.

Today was another quiet day, seems to me like we have had a lot of those lately, but what can I say. This afternoon we went to the market and I got a few more books so have more reading to do and I picked up a couple of other things I wanted to get so I am pretty well done with the market for this year other than we want to get some insulation covering for the windows for the summer but that can wait until towards the end of our time here.

When we came back I went over and did laundry, another job done for a week or so. Today was windy so we decided to use up the left over spagetti sauce for dinner so that John didn’t have to contend with the barbecue in the wind, good choice and dinner was yummy, I always think of spagetti as my comfort food.

John saw today that you can download movies through I-Tunes so we bought another I-Tunes card and he downloaded 3:10 to Yuma so it will be interesting to see how it works out, we have 30 days in which to watch it but once you start to watch it you have 24 hours before it is deleted off your computer – interesting concept.

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

Thursday - February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone, hope you had a nice day, we did. The weather changed, and not for the better, overnight as predicted, I woke up about 4 a.m. to hear the wind howling so knew the forecast had been correct! I don’t think the high today got above 60F and it was overcast and windy all day, oh well we can’t have perfect weather all the time!

This morning John went and got propane and diesel fuel, usually Superfuels is really busy but he said it wasn’t too bad for fuel this morning and there was no wait for propane, what a nice surprise. The fellow doing the propane was quite impressed with the polishing job on the aluminum tank John purchased from him a few weeks ago, John told him aluminum cleaner and elbow grease produced the nice results.

Janet and I had planned another shopping day and had arranged to meet at Olive Garden for lunch first so John made sure he was home in time for me to head out. Somewhere along the line wires got crossed as Janet & Dave arrived just after me so I thought he was dropping Janet off but she said no the 4 of us were supposed to meet for lunch. Fortunately, being Valentine’s Day, it was really busy so I borrowed their phone, called John to get ready and headed back home to pick up my honey and we arrived back just as appetizers were being delivered to our table. After a really nice lunch the guys headed out to do their thing and Janet and I went to Beall’s shopping, not a great experience today as I only found a pair of capris and a couple of tops. By the time we were through there we were ready for a bit of a sit down so went across the parking lot to Starbucks for a Cappucino, and then on home. Janet & Dave didn’t stay too long as Hey Yu was home waiting for their return and a walk, can’t leave these little guys home alone for too long.

We are planning a quiet evening, a bit of TV if there is anything worth watching otherwise I have a good book I can get lost in. And so ends another great day in our life of retirement and we are looking forward to another nice (and hopefully warmer) day tomorrow.

Wednesday - February 13, 2008

Today was another great day but there were clouds in the sky and it wasn’t total sun all day like we have been having – anyone feel sorry for us!!

This is the week where they take reservations for next year and you can put in three choices for sites so John and I went around the park trying to decide where we might want to be next year, it is hard to know and of course you don’t know when you look at a site if the people on it are coming back next year. The woman at the office said the “No Pet” area was actually easier to move into as most people have pets, so we finally put down where we are as well as two other spots. We like where we are except we get a fair bit of road noise so thought if we could move farther back in the park we might not get the road noise. Anyways we will see what is happening next Monday, that is when they open it up to people not already in the park, so if we don’t get one of the other sites we picked we can probably see what else is available and pick one. I imagine this whole issue must be a real pain for the park unless most people want to have their same site again.

I talked to my mom this morning and her temperature is normal so hopefully she is on the road to recovery.

Other than that we had a quiet day, I went down to the pool and swam for about 45 minutes, it was really nice as by the time I got down there was only one other person in the pool. Dinner was leftovers so was an easy fix!

And so ends another great, but quiet day in our life or retirement and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Tuesday -February 12, 2008

Another beautiful sunny day with highs in the mid 80’s, sure do love it and it sure beats Ontario weather!

Today was golfing and they had 42 people signed up, fortunately I drew a 7 and 8 so for once we weren’t waiting for each other to finish. Neither of us had scores on the winning end so we left shortly after we both finished.

I came home and had a snooze, guess this heat zonks me as I was wiped when we got back. After that I didn’t do a lot, got caught up on e-mail etc.. I put a pork roast in the slow cooker this morning to make barbecue and was it ever good – a real easy dinner – thanks for the recipe Kel.

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

Monday -February 11, 2008

Today was another gorgeous day, sunny and in the 80’s, I talked to my sister-in-law tonight and had an e-mail from our son and both said it was -25C in Kitchener – guess where I am glad not to be!!!

We had a really great visit with Jim and Linda, they arrived about 11:30 and left around 6 so lots of chin wagging going on. They are staying in Desert Hot Springs California and have booked for 4 months next winter so we said we would go visit them next year. We went for a walk around the park shortly before they left but other than that spent the time chatting. When they left John went for his bike ride so he could get one in before dark.

I called my mom tonight and she sounds terrible and her cataract surgery scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled so we hope she is feeling better soon, she was feeling so miserable she didn’t even feel like talking but my sister-in-law had just come in for a visit so I talked to her for a bit instead. She will let me know when they reschedule the surgery but there is no point in doing that until mom is feeling better.

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

Sunday -February 10, 2008

Wow, the weather continues being great, today it was in the 80’s and sunny all day. This morning I did a major cleaning and John cleaned the windows so now we can see out again – LOL!

We are having company tomorrow so I thought I would do some deviled eggs and wouldn’t you know it that it was that time when the eggs didn’t want to peel nicely, hopefully by the time I get them filled tomorrow they won’t notice all the gouges out of them!! It’s funny how some times they peel easily and other times they are a royal pain to do.

I called my mom today, she is in quarantine because of her cold so I don’t know if she will be able to have her cataract surgery on Tuesday. She is not happy about being in quarantine (I don’t blame her) but on the other hand I can understand that they don’t want her cold spreading to the other residents. My sister was visiting when I called so I had a good chat with her also, she said she was told that she could visit but had to wear a gown, mask and gloves and couldn’t stay long – here’s hoping mom’s cold will clear up soon!

This afternoon we had a t-time for 4:10 and Jim & Sonia joined us for the game. We had a good time and my game was a bit better than it has been but still has a good ways to go before I will be happy with it. John didn’t have a great day today either but as long as we are having fun and getting some exercise I guess that is something! We decided to pick up a pizza on the way home for dinner, what a zoo the pizza place was so we were glad we had decided to bring it home and not eat there, we had a coupon for a large pizza and a litre of pepsi for $12.99 – a good deal. When we got home we warmed up the pizza and enjoyed it and there is still enough left for lunch some day this week.

We have a hummingbird feeder and every time I look it is covered in bees, if anyone has any suggestions on how to get rid of the bees I would really appreciate it – yesterday there was a hummingbird hovering at it but then it flew away so I don’t know if the bees turn them off or not.

Tonight is a quiet evening of TV and reading – and so ends another great day in our life of retirement and we are looking forward to another wonderful day tomorrow.

Saturday - February 9, 2008

Last night we were sitting here and all of a sudden the trailer started to rock, John went out and couldn’t see anything outside to cause it, then started checking the internet and realized there had been an earthquake in Mexico, south of Calexico, and we were getting the aftershock. About 15 minutes later we shook again but not as much, it turns out there were 2 quakes, one was 5.3 on the Richter Scale and the other was 3 something – what a weird sensation!

Today was another gorgeous sunny day, sure gotta love it! This afternoon we went out grocery shopping and it was 4 when we got back so I rushed around to get everything put away then went for a swim. I had the pool to myself which was nice so swam for about half an hour, then came back and it was still nice enough to sit outside – guess the weather is really changing for the better! It is also nice that it didn’t get dark until about 6:45, gotta love that too.


Our Site in Del Pueblo Shortly After We Arrived Here

And so ends another day in our life of retirement, not an exciting day but a nice one nevertheless and we are looking forward to another nice day tomorrow.

Friday - February 8, 2008

Maybe the weather is on the up swing, today was another warm, sunny day. This morning we didn’t do much, the usual coffee and checking the news, blogs etc. on the computer.

This afternoon John went for a tour of the Marine Corp. Air Station (MCAS) and he said what they saw was interesting but they only saw the fire and rescue part of the base. Apparently there is a complete tour of the base on March 18th so if we are still here then we will try to go. I decided that the weather is finally nice enough to enjoy the pool so went and had a couple of good swims with some reading in between, a nice way to spend a couple of hours! I was chatting with a fellow from Wainwright, Sask. in the pool and we were saying how glad we were to be here and how bad we felt for those stuck in the snow and cold at home. On the way home I checked the laundry and it was empty so came back, changed, gathered up the laundry and headed off to do it so that is another job done for a few days.

By the time I got done with the laundry it was time to think about dinner, we decided to do burgers so John did a couple on the barbecue – yummy.


Fire Truck


F15s


Helicopters


Rescue Helicopter

Tonight is a bit of reading and TV, we just watched Air Farce and the Rick Mercer Report – always a couple of good laughs with these programs.

And so ends another wonderful day in our life or retirement and we look forward to another great day tomorrow

Thursday - February 7, 2008

Today was another beautiful day, sunny and warm – I sure feel sorry for all the people in Ontario suffering with all the snow, our daughter said it POURED snow all day yesterday. It is sad to see all the devastation in Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama etc. from the tornadoes, our hearts go out to all the people who lost their families, homes, etc., it is incomprehensible to see all the damage on the news.

This morning I worked on updating the pictures from my blog into my diary of our 2006 fall trip, that is another one done with three more trips to update, I will then have a complete copy of my blog on my computer.

This afternoon we golfed at a new, for us, golf course with Janet and Dave, it was a nice enough course and the price was right - $11 for 9 holes. The par 3 we play is $9 for 9 holes during the week and $7 on the weekends, yes, the weekends are cheaper than during the week. I am still struggling with my game, hopefully it will come together again some time soon. After golf we went to the Texas Roadhouse for ribs – yummy.

The weather seems to be finally changing, it was still in the 60’s when we got home around 7:30, usually it is in the low 50’s by then so here’s hoping this stays. It is also nice to see it getting dark later and later each day as I really do hate the short days of from mid November to mid January.

As usual another wonderful day in our life of retirement and we are looking forward to another great day tomorrow. Oh yes, we are thinking of all you back home dealing with the snow and cold – tee, hee.

Wednesday - February 6, 2008

Last night was very cold, the fans were running in the orchards overnight and it was 38F when we got up this morning, but it warmed up beautifully during the day and turned into an absolutely gorgeous day.

Looking at the news and papers it looked like a terrible day at home, I had an e-mail from sister this morning and she had a snow day today so I figured it would be a good chance to talk to her, so called and we had a good chat. I also had an e-mail from our daughter Kel who had a kind of snow day, the school wasn’t closed but the buses were cancelled so it was a pretty quiet day at school and she said she got lots done. Fortunately she doesn’t have far to go so the drive was okay. Sure don’t miss all that snow and freezing rain and we did our share of driving in it during our working days!

I went for a long walk around the park today, then this afternoon I went out shopping for a bit. I was just going to go out and get some cards but seeing how I was by myself I took the opportunity to check out a couple of clothing stores. I got a nice blouse at 60% off at one store and then went to Beall’s where I saw a few things I would have liked to try on but they were painting the change rooms so I gave up and left, maybe I will get back on Friday afternoon while John is touring the MCAS base.

When I came back John was busy polishing the aluminum propane tank again, it will be blinding in the sun soon!! This afternoon the GPS that he bought off E-Bay arrived so he spent some time getting it set up and seems to be pleased with it, this one is for bike riding etc. and also would be good for geocaching, which I would like to try sometime.

Our friend Margie had surgery on her shoulder yesterday so we just called to see how she was doing, she has been quite sick from the anaesthetic so is not feeling great but hopefully she will be feeling better tomorrow and improves each day. We wish you a speedy recovery Margie.

It is time to get dinner ready and then a quiet evening of reading and a bit of TV is planned. And so ends another great day in our life of retirement and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Tuesday -February 5, 2008

Today was supposed to be warmer but the forecasters were wrong, it was windy and quite cool with a high in the low 60’s which felt colder with the wind.

We went golfing and I had to put my jacket on after the first hole, that is a first for this year but the wind was just too cool to be only in a short sleeved top. My game was pretty bad, I did make a couple of really good putts and on the last hole I redeemed myself by having a birdie so I ended up happier than I had been. I don’t know what I am doing wrong but I just can’t seem to get a decent hit, hopefully this will change soon as I am getting quite frustrated!

We stopped at Wal Mart on the way home as John wanted to get a belt and then came back and hunkered down, it was too cool to sit outside even though the sun was on the patio.

We just saw on the news that a tornado has hit the Memphis area, how sad and such destruction, I am glad we aren’t in that area. So, even though the weather was on the cool side it was still a great day in our life of retirement and it sure beats the weather in most of Canada and other parts of the states.

Monday -February 4, 2008

Well, the wind picked up again during the night but fortunately it had died down by this morning and we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, which continued all day with a high in the mid 60’s.

I did the cleaning today plus cleaned out the kitchen drawers and reorganized them, always something to do, it’s amazing how much junk can be collected! Every time I clean I try to do something extra so today was the drawers as well as cleaning the curtain tracks – it is amazing how much dust and dirt they can collect in a short period of time!!

Other than a bike ride for John and a walk for me it was a quiet but nonetheless a nice day. John got my computer backed up on the hard drive then I set up some of my banking spots etc. so if we lose use of our computers everything is on the external hard drive – I find this all so amazing but am glad to have it.

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

John gave me some of his pictures from the zoo today so I will post them with this.


And Here's One for Kelly & Margie


Ant Eater with Young "Un On Her Back


Red River Hog and His Friend


A Handsome Fella


Baby Panda


Mother & Baby


Kind of a Cute Statute


A Pretty Cat

Sunday -February 3, 2008

Today was another lazy, uneventful day. The wind it was a blowin and the sun it wasn’t shining so it seemed like a good indoor day. I called and cancelled our golf t-time as we figured with the direction the wind was coming from the golf course would be getting lots of dust from the desert and it doesn’t interest us to golf in the dust!

I spent the afternoon mapping a couple of routes home (we want to have a couple of alternatives) and a route for a summer trip we are planning, it takes time to do as I try to find RV parks and determine the driving distance from one place to the next and of course a lot of the parks will be in areas where we want to spend some time. Anyways, I have fun doing it but it is not cast in stone, just an idea for places to stay and things to see.

John found an external hard drive on the internet which was on sale at Best Buy so after ordering it, and being advised it was in stock here, he went and picked it up – the store price was $209 and the internet sale was $99, guess it always pays to check the internet first. He went and picked it up and then came back and got it set up while he watched the Super Bowl. Now we can back up both of our computers and if something should happen to them we can still use the hard drive as a computer as he has loaded Leopard onto it. My computer still has to be backed up so guess that will be this evening’s or tomorrow’s project.

The wind has finally died down a bit and it is clear out so hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day again, today I went out to the truck to get the Road Atlas and Trailer Life Directory for my project and that was my extent of being outside, totally unusual for here.

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

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