Sunshine...

 

If you said, "Jonathon Edwards, 1971," you are my people, and you get 25 bonus points.  There have been other "Sunshine" songs, but this is the one that gets you the bonus points.  My favorite line from that song: "... he can't even run his own life
I'll be damned if he'll run mine, Sunshine"

It was a cold start to the day, but at least the sun was shining.  Only got to a high of 62º today, so still below normal.  Joan and I went to Mark and Cindy's today.  Once again, Cindy made lunch, then she and Joan went to check out fabric for a potential quilt, while Mark and I made some music.  Nice way to spend the afternoon.

We stopped at Steph and Dan's before heading for home.  Someone is having a birthday in 9 days; I won't mention who, but it is Steph.  We booked a Spring Training baseball game as part of her celebration... the Brewers (for Dan) vs Cincinatti (because I like their chili).  There was plenty of cat petting and some attention for Blaine the Guide Dog puppy.  And plans for getting together over the weekend.

Rufus was happy to see us when we got home.  We felt likewise.  It kind of feels like we are getting beyond our self-imposed "house arrest" due to the crap weather.

Squeeze

 

Moving around in your skinny coach?  Yeah.

A cold start to the morning, after last night's storm.  Rufus likes routine, and his food has to be in a different place when the slides are pulled in.  I have to step over the furry boy as I go about my morning routine.  The weather woman on the local news talks about snow on the Estrella Mountains.  It is a damp cold.

I told Joan that I felt like a McDonald's breakfast today... it has been too cold for me to make breakfast on the griddle.  I think I made breakfast a couple times right after we first got here, and then... the cold.  It was in the upper 30s.  I needed a coat (obviously) to go out, but the closet slideout in our bedroom is blocked by the mattress when it is pulled in; Joan moved the mattress a bit, then squeezed her hand in the closet to pull out my puffy coat... you know it is cold when the puffy coat comes out.

I got in the car and turned on the heated seat; you can feel it right away.  It's a feature I don't think about, but it sure is nice when it's cold like this.  I had to squeeze through traffic in Buckeye - this is a busy small town, and made worse by road construction creating "clogs."  I am not joking when I tell you that I saw a woman hold up a line of traffic because she was putting on her makeup and didn't go when the light turned green.  Mickey D's is reasonably close, but the road out front squeezes from 3 lanes into one... and most people seem to have lost the ability to take turns in squeezing into that one lane.

The drive-up was busy, but they moved people through efficiently.  The lights were in my favor on the way back - Joan was surprised that I was back so soon.  That was perspective because she had been wrestling with making the bed with the closet squeezed against one side.  She reminded me why I felt the need for McDonald's this morning: there had been a piece on the Today Show where a guy was eating there for 100 days and expecting to lose weight by eating a keto(ish) diet.  It was on while I was gone, but I must have heard the preview for it while I was getting Rufus his breakfast.  The power of suggestion.  ;-)

I didn't have to "squeeze" (see the theme here?) into my jeans, since we really have been eating better.  I haven't had McDonald's since we've been here, and this morning I just felt the need for "a treat" after the storm and "living skinny"... we'll put the slides out soon and get back to our routine.  That routine would be better if Mother Nature would cut us some slack and not make it too cold to griddle outside for breakfast... man does not live by keto breakfast cereal alone.

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Snow on the Estrella Mountains this morning...

 

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A big difference between life here in the Valley of the Sun and back home in Texas: yesterday, authorities were called in when a dead body was found at the entrance ramp to the Interstate nearest us - it got quite a bit of airtime on the local news because… it was holding up traffic.  Today: no mention of the dead body; did I mention: the big news surrounding that situation was… that it held up traffic.  Not the fact that somebody got seriously dead.  Today, that is, literally, yesterday’s news.  Priorities?

Meteorlogical Spring...

 

That's what the weather weasels call the 1st of March.  The rest of us recognize that spring starts with the Vernal Equinox that will occur on March 20th.  Today will be a "moving day" for those in the RV lifestyle... it happens a lot on the 1st of each month.

Here in Arizona, the local weather is full of stories about huge snowfall in the northern part of the state (schools are closed in Flagstaff), another closure of parts of I-17 and I-40 due to snow, and predictions of wind, rain, blowing dust (making for "blowing mud") here in the Valley of the Sun.  We put off getting together with Mark and Cindy today due to predicted winds up to 45 mph here... yes, we will be pulling in slides to hunker down through the afternoon.  Didn't want to leave Ruf alone if the weather really gets nasty.

Spring?  Yeah, I'm ready for it.

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Walking Rufus last night.  Well, early evening, just after sundown.  A guy saw my walking the furry boy and said, "Do you have a minute?  I have to go get my wife to see this - we love cats!"  She came out and they both made a big fuss over Rufus.  They have 3 cats and a dog in their motorhome, but none of the cats go outside.  She took a couple photos of Ruf, then showed me a photo of one of their cats - who looked a lot like Rufus, without the white paws and belly.  When they asked where we are from, they got excited and asked questions about south Texas - they hope to go there in the near future.  Right now, they are in the "newly retired" stage, and driving 500+ miles per day.  She went inside to get a notebook and wrote down things about RV parks in our home area and things to do.  There are here for an overnight while passing through... can't say I envy them being on the road today.

The next door neighbors, with Morgan the devil child, are getting ready to leave this morning.  Can't say we'll miss the screaming and stomping... but Joan said, "And now the unknown of who the next neighbors will be."  She has a point. 

Ah, spring is in the air... no, wait... that's blowing mud.  ;-)

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Here it comes...

 I'll be watching for an old lady blowing by on a bicycle (Wizard of Oz reference).  Slides are pulled in.  Wouldn't hurt my feelings if it turns out to be less than what the weasels are predicting.

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The rain has rolled in to go with the building wind.  Looking across the street, I will be surprised if the slideout awning on that motorhome survives unscathed; that's why we pulled slides in and "battened down our hatches."  The motorhome is made to go through the wind... but, not with the slides out. There are awnings over our slides (not all RVs have them - they keep debris and heat off the top of the slideout).  Ours fit good (a built in tensioner keeps them snug), but strong wind can start them flapping.  So, we put up with being "skinny" overnight to protect our equipment.

I learned a new weather term today: graupel.  Well, I don't know if it is a new term, but it was new to me.  Have you ever experienced "slushy hail"?  Graupel: "As the snowflake travels through the cloud the droplets attach and freeze around the snowflake, helping it to grow into a tiny snowball. Those tiny snowballs are then sometimes referred to as snow pellets, ice pellets, soft hail, hominy snow or the more official name graupel."  Another weather term to add to the SnowSUX® line: GraupelSUX®.

Here's the current radar on the local weather...

Towards the left of the screen, do you see "Buckeye"?  Yeah, right there in the red and yellow.  That's where we are.  Fun.  Not.

Gettin' 'er done...

 

We had an appointment for 8:45 at Discount Tire this morning.  We were there 10 minutes early, they got right after it, we went to Denny's (next door) for breakfast, picked up the car, went to the grocery store, then back to the motorhome by 10:15.

Timely.

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After getting Rufus his lunch, we headed to Steph's house; one of her furry boys needs some medicine and it needs to be given at a specific time.  Fortunately, we are available when needed - Mom and Dad to the rescue (well, Grandma and Grandpa to that furry boy).  He's a good boy and is quite patient while we give him his pills.  And since we are there, it was a good time to update all our devices on their fast home wifi, do some laundry, and Joan made some paste e fagioli (soup) to get us through the crap weather forecast for tomorrow (more of that cold, windy, rain, blowing dust stuff - with a chance of snow just north of us).  That was the purpose for the stop at the grocery store this morning.

While Joan was making soup, I had some time to drive to the nearby motorcycle dealer, hoping to get to see the new Honda Rebel 1100T (a Rebel with a windshield mount fairing, saddle bags, and dual clutch transmission).  Of course, they didn't have one; in fact, they had 3 Hondas that weren't dirt bikes: a Ruckus scooter, a Goldwing dresser, and a last year's flat black Shadow.  I didn't spend much time there.

On the way back to Steph's place, I got a Tire Pressure Monitoring System alert on my dash... it wasn't a low tire, there was no readout on either tire on the driver's side of the Equinox.  When I got back, I went through recommended reset procedures on the internet, none of which worked.  The owners manual said, "See your Chevrolet dealer where they will use a reset tool."  Instead, I called Discount Tire.  The nice young man apologized for the inconvenience and told me to bring the car in and they'd getting taken care of.

Once back at the motorhome and all our stuff unloaded, I took the Equinox back to Discount Tire.  It took longer to wait in line for a service writer than it did for that service writer to reset the system with his "tool" (that looked a lot like an old-time TV remote).  Truly, about 30 seconds per tire.  He once again apologized that I had to come back, but I was appreciate that they took care of it on the spot.  Our dealings with Discount Tire have always been good.

 

Pain in the a...

 

Um, butt.  "Something to do with the RV park neighbors, the traffic, or the weather?" you ask.  Well, those things are what they are.  It actually got pretty decent this afternoon.  After getting in a trip to Costco and lunch out, we were back mid-afternoon.  It was 63º and sunny; the wind wasn't howling.  After over a month of not riding my bicycle, I decided to uncover and unlock the bikes and go for a ride.

After not riding for that long, I knew my ass would feel it.  I rode all around the RV park; since we are near the front of the park, I really didn't know what to expect.  About 2 miles, when you ride on every street.  And, a few RVs that look like they have seen better days.  There is a sign up front letting people know that they are "no sites available tonight."

With only two miles of riding here in the park, I rode out onto the road in front of the RV park and took the narrow space outside the white line on the edge of the road... not really a bike lane.  South a short ways to the large mobile home park "next door."  It looks to be a LOT bigger than this RV park... it is mostly double-wide and modular homes, and is nicely kept up, and some actual grass in areas.

I got a bit over 7 miles in on the bike.  Not feeling it right now, but I probably will later.  Not in the leg muscles, but(t) a bit higher.

When I got back, I took Rufus for a nice walk.  Down the street a ways, there was a couple sitting out in camp chairs, with a small poodle-ish dog.  As we got close, he scooped up the dog, apparently concerned that Rufus might attack it.  I let them know that Rufus was "dog friendly" (my usual line) and he said, "She has never even seen a cat before."

"Well, this is a good one if you want to let her meet a cat."  He let the dog down, and Rufus came up to get nose-to-nose with it.  I could tell it was an older dog, but Rufus was especially gentle with it (he was probably 3 times her size).

The guy got a little teary-end and told me they had to put down their other dog just three weeks ago, and this dog was really missing its sibling (this dog is 12 years old).  Sad situation, but Rufus left a good impression.  He's a good boy.

Bombas...

 

If you said, "Richie Valens, 1958," you are good at music trivia, but get no points... talking about socks.  Because I am all about the socks, drugs (blood pressure), and rock 'n roll.

Bombas is a socks company (they also sell slippers, t-shirts, and underwear).  They are one of those companies that provides a pair of socks for the homeless for every pair you buy.  Steph got me a pair last year, because she found a style they sell that have right and left foot socks.  Yeah, my tender feet appreciate socks that don't bunch up around my wide toes.

When Dan met the NFL Hall of Fame guys and did a reception with community leaders, they were giving out "swag bags"... he brought one for me, which included (among other things) a nice compact flashlight and a pair of Bombas.  They are the calf socks, which isn't what I generally wear, but they did feet my feet comfortably.  Today, Joan and I shopped online to find the same socks, but in a "quarter length" (just above the ankles)... who knew there were so many styles to pick from?? 

With each of us on our devices, we set about to find the style of these most recent Bombas so I could order the same thing, but in a shorter height.  Good luck figuring out what I have, because of the huge variety of socks they sell... "Well, this one looks kinda like the ones I'm wearing,"... "No, those have a stripe at the top and they don't feel like they have any wool content,"... "How about this one?"

It would have been less complicated to order a new car online.  Joan thought she had it narrowed down to a couple styles that this might be.  In the end, we ordered 3 styles, with the hope that they fit nicely, and then I can order a multi-pack.  It was a lot of work to buy some socks... they have "performance" socks... socks made for golfing... or running... or hiking... socks made with wool, cotton, polyester, nylon, spandex, etc, etc... and different percentages of those fabrics... socks to keep your feet warm... or, cool... cushioned bottoms.  Whew!  Ordering something for my feet made my head hurt.

Another day, another…

 

… walk.  We went to Steph and Dan’s today.  Dinner, with Joan working in the kitchen, Steph, Dan, and yours truly working outside on their griddle.  Chicken fajita tacos and quesadillas.  Tasty.

And, another walk with Rufus and Blaine.  Blaine won the “best walker” award today after Rufus plopped himself down on the way to the green space and refused to move.  I finally picked up him up and carried him - we were so close.

Blaine got to have some time on his 30’ leash, and practiced coming (back and forth between Steph and Dan) - it was cute, watching him frolic.  Rufus did not frolic… he seemed to be worn out just watching Blaine run.  ;-)

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This post is the first time using the new iPad for the blog, from downloading the images, editing and working them up, then writing and inserting the images here.