Let it Snow.

I'm a day late in posting but we got snow Sunday morning, about an inch deep on everything but the roadways.  It was probably gone before noon but we weren't home to see.  About half way to church we realized there was no snow and hadn't been any on the ground on Swan.  The mountains surrounding Tucson were beautifully covered with snow.  Some all the way down to the bottom, which is why we got snow.  The view from the church pew was magnificent.  One of the guest pastors described it as the most beautiful mural on our north wall.  It's not a painted scene, it's ceiling to floor glass facing the Catalina Mountains with nothing to block the view.
Since we have so much in our little deep freeze we've decided to eat as many meals at home as possible so we can get it emptied out by the time we leave this spring and since I don't mind doing more cooking, we're doing pretty good.  The largest quantity is bacon. Since this is our first year of not being able to transport frozen and refrigerated foods back with us, we're having difficulty not buying on sale.
We even turned down and invitation to join Wayne and Norma after church for lunch at Golden Corral.
We are going to meet our friend, Marcia, for lunch Tuesday at Sweet Tomatoes.
At 10:45 it's already as warm as the high yesterday, 50 degrees.
Had a real shock this morning.  Ron went to deliver our newspaper that we share with our friends Gerry and Larry and their motorhome was gone.  Now we know where they were but we didn't realize they were going to leave that early, 8:30 am and that's early for them.  We hope they get all the work done on it in one day so they won't have to get a motel room for the night.
Ron's off to do laundry and I'll doing some cleaning and take another lesson using my Rosetta Stone language program.  Adios

Thursday, Thursday

Sorry I haven't written lately.  There has been the lull between the Gem Show and the Rodeo since the Golf thingy doesn't interest us.  I can't believe what some people pay to watch men swing at little balls and loose.  A couple years ago some friends here in the park said they paid a hundred dollars a ticket.

Yesterday was running day and then lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, nothing new and exciting.  Last night was Duke basketball and they won without me watching and bingo which I won one game.

Tomorrow is La Fiesta de los Vaqueros.  We ordered tickets and Ron picked them up Tuesday while I was at quilting.  Think we did OK.  Half way up, aisle seat, center bleachers.  It's suppose to be in the low 70s tomorrow so with long sleeves and pants and a hat, it should be great weather for watching the young cowboys in well fitted jeans jumping off horses and wrestling calves and then stand up with their cowboy hats still in place. WOW Can't wait.  LOL

Pizza Night

Nice day of coffee and donuts complements of friends.  Quilting during the day and pizza for dinner.  Pizza  with friends is always nice and then the fact it's all you can eat and being the first table to get pizza made it a really great evening.  The park is nice enough to start early enough that we can still enjoy the meal and be home in time to see any TV shows.  Especially The Good Wife, which I really like.  It keeps me up on Chicago politics with different names.
Because we missed the park coffee and donuts this morning we didn't find out till later that our Entertainment Director is quiting after this season.  We'll miss Eunice and Larry but they've been doing it for 10 years and Larry's health isn't good so they're going to retire.  Rumors have been rolling all day about who and how they're going to be replaced.  Should be enough time to keep us talking till the season is over since the managers don't tell us anything anyway we'll have plenty of time to fantasize.

Catch Up

Actually, hold the ketchup but that's dinner.  What a great few days we've had this week.  Wednesday was a running to get things done before our late lunch at Sweet Tomatoes.  Ron's phone battery has been going dead way to often so it was time for him to see about a new phone.  The good news was he was eligible for an upgrade but the bad news was they don't make the EN-V anymore.  But the good news was they make the perfect phone, not LG but Samsung sounded OK.  It's a flip phone, which is much easier to talk on but it converts to a full qwerty keyboard for texting.
Thursday was a trip to the Tucson Gem, Minerals and Precious Stones Show.  We managed to walk 3 of the many venues, which is really good for me.  The fact that we had the closest parking available without a handicap sticker made it a little easier.  We bought a couple things at Keno Memorial Park venue but nothing at the RV venue or the 22nd Street one.
Today was a trip to Tubac for their Arts Festival.  It was a perfect day to walk around the town and view the different vendors even though the rude people were there we had a good time.  Again the parking was first row after the vendor's private lot.  Couldn't believe it.  Last year we had to park the furtherest parking space away from the town and I'm not exaggerating one inch.  A lot of the spaces for booths were empty spaces and the one booth I really wanted to buy something from wasn't there and believe me, I walked the town to find him.  Oh well, guess that's what the internet is for.  We bought some great CDs from him last year and wanted to buy one as a gift.   There was a booth selling honey.  Don't know why I didn't buy any but they gave us a taste of honey comb.  Ron had never tasted it before.  It is so sweet and chewy and good.
Got to go thru the new border check point on our way back north even though we never left the US  we were about 20 miles north of the Mexico boarder when we were in Tubac.  No they didn't detain us but they did look in the driver's window to see the inside of the van and waved us on with good wishes.
Now it's time for hot dogs with no ketchup, pork and beans, cottage cheese and Mexican Pepsi for supper.

Great Global Warming

Scientist (Al Gore) are going to have a hard time proving global warming this year.  We're a hop, skip and a jump from the Mexican border but our nighttime temperatures have been in the teens for the past two nights.  Frozen water lines have been the norm.  The natural gas supply has gone causing very cold homes.  Schools have been closed just like they are up north.  Not because of the snow but because of no heat.
 I must admit LSD looked awesome the past few days.  Love that Chicago lake front and skyline.
It's official, our truck is sold.  The check is in the mail on it's way from Lockport and the title is in the mail on it's way from Tucson.  I would imagine that it will be removed from Larry's garage storage and be seen on the road this weekend.  I know the buyer is itching to get his hands on it.  He's going to clean it out for us since we had no idea it was going to be sold so quickly.  We were planning on doing that when we got back in the spring.  The Lord must know of something which we need to spend that extra money.  I'm just waiting for Him to tell me what it is.
I forgot that this was Desert Patch Quilters Friday so I missed the shopping trip to Sahaurita for fabric and then lunch with the other ladies.  I had promised to drive, too.  I've got some apologizing to do.  

Friday Night

 Ron and I joined Gerry and Larry for dinner at Cattletown Restaurant last night.  We really haven't been able to spend much time with them this year.  With them being parked so far away and having family in the area time seems to fly by.
Cattletown is one of the few restaurants in the area that serves fish on Fridays.  The others being Montgomery's and Irish Pub.  Their food is adequate, nothing to write home about.  Small fresh salad, to big for the plate so you loose some of it to the table.  Rolls are usually warm and the fish is usually fresh with no fish taste.  They only serve baked potatoes at the fish fry but they do serve butter and sour cream along with bland tartar sauce for the fish.  At $10.00 for all you can eat it's a pretty good deal.  The people who drank adult beverages had quite a wait for their drinks but my ice tea was served right away.
Conversation between Ron and Larry was ongoing throughout the meal.  Gerry and I just ate in silence.  LOL.  Actually, Larry couldn't hear me (he forgot his ears) so I gave up shortly into the meal.  Our political believes are pretty much paralleled so we manage to solve all the problems of the world by the time the evening is over.  We were glad we got their early.  We had to wait a few minutes to be seated but no where near as along if we had been much later.

Shed and Car

The new shed in relationship to the rest of our yard.  It's in the very back corner to the left of our rig as you're looking from the street.

It's been a busy week in the Cummings household.  A bad drug reaction day on Tuesday didn't help but we made it thru and managed to enjoy pizza at the rec hall with friends.  Sure was a lot of good pizza for $6.00. 

The shed with it's flag flying all closed up.

Wednesday had promises of a nice quiet day with a stop at the Honda dealer to get the van fixed from a factory recall but while we waited we walked around the showroom.  Thank goodness there was nothing there that interested me.  After all, we weren't getting another van and what ever we got would definitely not be white.  The Accord they had on display was dark red and stripped down model but the did have a white van.

The inside of the shed showing Ron's work bench on the right.  There's a freezer and shelfs on the left.

As luck would have it none of the salesmen spoke to me, a mere woman, so we were safe.  Alas, poor Ronald made the trek too and a salesman spoke to him but then all they had was that white van, very white van.
Ron came and got me out of the service waiting room to just look.  He said he knew I wasn't interested in a van but if I would just look.
Mr Salesman caught on right away that we didn't want white so he took us out in lot with the other new cars setting in the sun and made us touch a white car and a gold car.  WOW what a difference.  Maybe white wasn't such a bad color and it really wasn't the same shade of white as all those squad cars were.  Then he started showing us other vans but that white van kept coming back in the picture.  I took it for it's first test drive.  Drove just like the old van, which was good.  Ron had to test out the U turn radius, which is just as good as the old van, and the backup camera.  NEATO.  We were hooked.  Maybe a new white van titled in AZ wasn't a bad thing after all?

We're still working on the various personal settings such as the lights and door locks and hands free operation of everything from the phone to the radio to the temperature controls but it has all the nice features (toys) the other van didn't.  No DVD players for the passengers, we opted not to get that one.