Back at it...

 

Joan had a plan for us today: go to Lowe's, buy stuff, bring stuff back, assemble stuff.  Check that all off.

The main thing she wanted (and I completely agree): a large cantilever patio umbrella.  It is something we considered when we bought the patio furniture, but decide to hold off until the pergola was installed.  The pergola is great, but as we approach the winter solstice, the sun is quite low in the sky (rather than overhead).  We decided to go with a patio umbrella, and Joan found one at a particularly good price at Lowe's - we're assuming it is a discontinued color, because the same umbrella in a different color is $250 more.  This one is tan, so it goes with the hot tub and the trim on the pillows on the patio couch.

We knew right where to look for the umbrella - Joan had the aisle and bin pulled up on her phone... except it wasn't there.  And the app showed they had two of them in stock.  We found a nice lady to help us... and it took a long time to track it down.   As in: an hour.  Joan was determined.  In fact, after describing to the lady who was helping us, our new friend Helen said, "If we do have two of them, I'm going to buy the other one."

Turns out, it was in their Receiving area, and customers aren't allowed back there...

 

Helen said it would be brought to Customer Service at the front of the store.  We went on with the rest of our shopping: a storage cabinet and two moveable hanging shelving units for the garage.  We found what we wanted on our own and went to Customer Service.

Someone from receiving brought up the wrong color umbrella (which was $250 more), and Helen told them to take that one back and bring both of the color we wanted (at the price we wanted)... it took another 45 minutes for that to happen.  Surprisingly, I stayed more patient than Joan.  We paid for our stuff, a Lowe's employee helped us getting it all loaded in the Equinox (we had to leave the tailgate open and tie it down - the umbrella is big - 11' diameter, plus the base and cantilever mechanism).

Back home, we unloaded everything into the garage and started assembling... everything except furniture from American Furniture Warehouse needs assembly.  We started on the storage cabinet first; the instructions said it should take 45 minutes to assemble it... with both of us working on it, we knocked it out in an hour and 10 minutes.  You can see it it the back of this photo in the garage...

While Joan started putting stuff in the cabinet, I went to work on assembling the cantilever umbrella.  It was relatively straight-forward, and in a half hour or so, I had it ready to go into the courtyard (what we're calling our portion of the yard now), where the 4-piece base section could be filled with water (for the additional weight) and then the cantilever arm installed on the base...

 

 This thing is nice!

During the umbrella assembly, I heard a truck pull up in front of the house... we were expecting UPS to deliver Rufus's ashes.  Yep.  Some misty eyes once again, but our boy is home with us.  After some hugs and composing ourselves, we went back to work.

I studied up on how to actually use all the adjustment features on the umbrella, and when Joan was done in the garage, she came out to the courtyard to try out the new-found shade...

While putting stuff away in the new storage cabinet, she came across something we thought may have been lost in the move...

The bear was always with us - we couldn't find the "Welcome/Go Away" sign that he holds.  Joan, being nicer than I am, set it up with "Welcome."

Tomorrow... or maybe Friday... we'll hang the shelving units in the garage.  It is coming together in there, as well.  I did see something at Lowe's that would make a good Christmas present for me...

It is a rolling tool chest with a solid wood top that can be a moveable work bench.  It may have to be one of those "To Me - From Me" kinda presents.

A productive day, even though it took a couple hours all in at Lowe's.

Riding Together...

 

We haven't ridden together since we left the Black Hills (in September).  We got to change that today.

I made breakfast for us to start the day, and we ate out on the patio...

We had to be here to let an electrician in on Steph and Dan's side, to tighten an exterior outlet.  Then, some finishing work in the garage to get the car in (for real)...

My bike had been in the garage (along with the last of the boxes); Joan's bike was in the shed.  With the car in there, we took some measurements to determine what size cabinet will fit in there, along with the workbench.  In the meantime, I put my bike in the entryway to the front doors...

And almost immediately got a text from Steph - the front door camera alerted her: "Did Hell's Angels come to our house??"

Joan asked me if it would be OK to take a ride up South Mountain... "Something close since it's been a while since I've ridden."

"Absolutely!"  I love riding with my Honey.

We geared up, got the bikes ready, and shoved off...

A photo essay of our ride today...

Tarsnakes...

A stop at the top of the road to enjoy the lookout area...

The obligatory selfie...

While up there, we were parked next to two BMW GS bikes, one of which had a South Dakota license plate.  Those two guys were just coming back to their bikes as we were getting to ours... so, of course, I asked about the SD license plate.  Turns out he is a full-time RVer (lots of them use SD as their residence) and he spends his summers in... yep: Hart Ranch.  We visited for a while.

It was a beautiful day - high temp around 80º, sunny, very light breeze... a great day for a ride.  We wound up doing some back-tracking when road construction closed a road we had been on earlier, making us have to go back a couple miles to get around.  Fortunately, we weren't on a schedule.

And back home (after a very late lunch / early dinner out), we put the bikes in the garage...

It was almost like being real people today.

Pergola...

 

For anyone not familiar with the term, it is a structure that provides some shade.  "Some" because they are designed to add shade while allowing some sunlight access.  The one we are having installed will have slats - the thickness of the slats will provide more shade morning and afternoon, not as much when the sun is directly overhead.

I was told to expect the pergola guys "between 8:00 and 9:30"... they started bringing their equipment and building supplies into the yard shortly after 8:00.  It is two guys from the pergola company doing the install: my new friends Martin and Brett.  They are young, but they seem very competent and went right to work...

 

Robert, the landscaper, texted me just before 6:00 pm yesterday, asking me to empty the hot tub and move it.

Nope.  When the pergola guys got here, Joan and I had all the furniture out of the way, and I asked them if they could work around the hot tub... "No problem."  I would have been pissed if I went through the time and expense to drain and move the hot tub for no reason.

 

They had to pull up some pavers to put the concrete footings in for the support structure.  I was pleased to hear that they will reset the pavers when that is done.

 

I visited with them a bit while they were working, being careful to not delay or distract them.  Martin (the lead guy) said they should have it done between noon and 1:00.  He asked if I would mind if they played some music... I said, "No issue - well..."

Martin said, "No rap - I promise."  I was relieved when they had some nice reggae music going.

Robert and I discussed the pergola when he was putting together the bid.  Looking back, I should have asked for more details... I essentially picked the color and texture - it is "Adobe" to go with our light green color scheme and is made from steel supports with aluminum slats that have a wood-like texture to it.  Robert asked if I wanted it on 4 posts or attached to the house and 2 posts - I decided to go with the 2 posts.  When I asked Martin about it this morning, he said, "You picked the right way to go with this - it is more solid and will give you more shade."  Good reassurance.

Setting the posts...

Plenty of clearance by the hot tub...

These guys don't need "babysitting.  I stayed out of their way, occasionally getting some photos.

More progress...

 At 11:57, Martin said, "We just need to put some caps on the struts and clean up - right on time."  He nailed it.  Whooohoo!

Done...

The pergola looks good.  As you can see from the photo above, the sun is low enough this time of year that it doesn't offer much shade around the ground.  As the sun moves west, it will provide more shade and further out from the house.  When summer rolls around, it should make a significant difference.

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That completes the "big projects" to be done around the house.  We are still working through the "30 day punch list" for repairs.  The guys to caulk the windows came just as I was saying good-bye to the pergola guys; good timing - they had their work done in about a half hour.  There are about 5 other things on that list (nothing major), but it is someone different for each task and they can't all come the same day - that would be too easy.  So, another week of needing to be around the house at some "non-specific time" (like: AM or PM) and we may be able to wrap things up for a while.

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With the pergola work done, it was time for a video walk-about in the yard...

Pizza Chef...

 

A new pizza restaurant?  Even better: Dan got a new pizza oven.  This afternoon was the inaugural use...

 They invited us to try out the finished product.  Joan and Steph had an assembly-line going where they put together the ingredients for cheezy bread and one pizza each...

Some things were learned, like: use cornmeal instead of flour on the wood pizza peel - the "peel" is the wooden paddle thing that you use to get the pizza into the oven.  Frequent turning of the pizza inside the oven is necessary.  Don't use giant pieces of pepperoni - the ingredients slide off when you bite into it.

That all said, the pizzas were tasty.  And by making 4 individual size pizzas, we each got exactly what we wanted... none of that half and half stuff.  ;-)

And, as Dan said: "It's only going to get better."  It's a nice addition to their outdoor kitchen area.

Joan and I stepped outside to measure off where the pergola will go - the install is supposed to be tomorrow.  While out there, we had this view to the west...

South Mountain Riding Video...

 

The finished video from a ride up South Mountain last week.  Lots going on, so this was the first chance I had to edit, add music, and a voice over track.

 It's about 14 minutes long.  My psyche and soul needed to show all the video from the ride up.  Lots of curves; I could have edited out the straighter stretches, but I wanted to see the ride up, uncut.

This ride is about 5 miles from our home.  South Mountain is the view we have from our living room and bedroom.  This will probably become my "need to clear my head" ride, because it is reasonably close.  I wish the speed limits were higher (25 mph on most of it, 15 mph on the tighter curves), but did I mention: reasonably close.  ;-)

For those interested: video shot with one camera, the Insta360 One X2.  Voice over added with an Instamic.  Produced with iMovie.

Tradition...

 

For most of our married life, we decorated for Christmas on our Anniversary... which happens to be today.  About 10 years ago, I started decorating our deck earlier than that - generally right after Thanksgiving.  I liked seeing the sparkling lights on the water in the canal off our dock.  The indoor decorating got moved up a few days.

This year, we decided to go back to our tradition... no doubt in part because neither of us felt much like decorating after losing Rufus.  Steph and Dan decorated last week, when they had time off.

Yesterday, while shopping at At Home, we picked up a flocked, lighted tree for the outside entryway at our front doors...

 The wreath on our front door had been the centerpiece on the lights on our deck in Texas; all the decorations made the trip intact in our move.  We went to work on assembling our tree...

Yes, we did the assembling out on our patio - I was thinking there might be some shedding; there was not.  That flocked tree outside the front doors did leave white flocking debris around the patio table.  I carried the tree into the living room, while Joan guided me.  And then we went to work putting ornaments on the tree.  I got misty-eyed when I saw the Santa hats - one of my favorite photos of Rufus is with a Santa hat rakishly tipped on his head...

This ornament got to Joan...

If you can't read it, the saying on the bottom says, "Who Rescued Who?"  Yep, that gets me, too.

The finished tree...

Joan put a few other Christmas mementos around the house.  Not overboard.  There are plenty of personalized ornaments on the tree: a motorhome with a Christmas tree strapped on the top, an Orca, a sea turtle, a lighthouse, a seaplane, a pontoon boat, and some photo ornaments marking some special moments in our lives.

Joan has Christmas playing on the Sirius/XM app through the Bose soundbar.  'Tis the season.  No Hallmark Christmas movies playing.  Yet.

Before getting down all the Christmas stuff, I made us breakfast on the griddle...

Proof that we are getting settled in.

Out and about...

 

Again.  We had some shopping, and some returning, to do today.  Since IKEA was part of that, we decided to head that way.  Go east, young man.  Um, old guy.

We did our returning first.  When we got to IKEA, there was only one person in front of us in their returns area.  Or so we thought.  You have to check in at their kiosk, give them your name and phone number, and they put you into their queue... and there were a half dozen people ahead of us.  But, they had some IKEA chairs and couches where you could wait.  And an electronic board so you could see where you were in your wait.  The idea behind this: so shop in their store and they'll text you when it's your turn.

The actual return didn't take long.  From there, it was on to lunch.  We were thinking Texas Roadhouse...most of them open for lunch on Fridays... not the one right across from IKEA... doesn't open until 3:00 on Fridays.  So, off to a nearby Olive Garden.  It didn't suck.  And I splurged on my "careful eating" and Joan and I split a Chocolate Mousse Pie Cake (cheesecake).  It was my favorite part of the meal.  Last time I had anything that was "real" chocolate was a couple bites at Joan's birthday.

Then, on to At Home...

 It's been a couple years since we've been in one of these, and I knew we weren't getting out of there fast or inexpensively.  Actually, they had a good selection of Christmas stuff, and we picked up a few things... some Chrismas-y (a flocked, lighted tree for the front entryway and a doormat), and a couple pots for the yard...

Seems appropriate.  It is a huge home decor place, not just Christmas stuff.  This turned out to be our longest stop of the day.

From there, a stop at the Guitar Center that is close to IKEA.  No, I don't need another guitar, but I wanted to pick up a foot tambourine (it "jangles" when you tap your foot) for when I get together with Mark and the MIM guys.  Mark bought a cajon after seeing mine - it gives us some percussion when 5 guitars is more than we need.  Well, 4 guitars and a bass.  And for full disclosure, I did take a look in their acoustic guitar room... didn't see anything I needed.

And then to Fry's - we stopped at a nice one in the Chandler area, on our way home.  Joan had a list, and we found everything on that list.  For those not familiar, Fry's is part of the Kroger chain.  Today was "4 times fuel bonus day"... which means we're going to have another $1 per gallon off next time we need gas.

It was just about 4:00 by the time we got home.  Busy day.

I got a text this morning - the pergola is supposed to be installed on Monday.  Stuff to be addressed from our "30 day punch list" will be happening next week, too.  Pretty sure this is never going to end.  Yes, I'm kidding.  Maybe another couple months... or more.  Probably more.  All that said, the house is starting to feel like home.