Slowly Getting Organized

Since today is the last business day of the week, I've been trying to get a few things taken care of that count on offices being open. I called the Arizona Republic to stop our daily paper delivery. I told the lady to have our last delivery be this Sunday as we are planning to leave on Monday. I'll be curious to see if we get our Saturday and Sunday papers...

Then I went over to the Post Office here at Valle del Oro to return our mail box keys. It's changed a great deal here at the RV Resort since Easter. More people seem to be departing every day. There was only one other person in the Post Office instead of the usual crowd.

In a way it's a shame so many people have left as many of the flowers in the park are just beginning to bloom. There are lots of these yellow agave-type plants in bloom --

And this Beaver Tail Cactus is just loaded with blooms --

It's interesting how much they change color as they open...

This is one of the many little palm trees over by the office --

It, too, has clusters of yellow blossoms inside by its trunk --

Most of our neighbors across the street as well as the ones down our row have left. It's much quieter around the park, especially at night. There does seem to be a great deal of work being done on the Park Models. Two of the ones by us have had colorful coatings put down over their concrete driveways. They sure stunk when they put the resinous sealer coat on -- no wonder they waited to have it done after they left!

More Bloomin' Cacti

As we wander around Valle del Oro, we are seeing more and more cacti in bloom. This Barrel Cactus is one of two in our next door neighbor's front yard. The dark spiky things are last year's blooms/fruits. The whitish lumps with brownish spikes are actually buds for this year's blooms. And, of course, the yellow flowers -- that almost look fake! -- are the blooms that are open so far.

This is the other Barrel Cactus in their yard. The buds seem to be a little bit fatter and further along. I'll try to remember to get another picture in a few days...

It was an absolutely lovely morning this morning. I took my cup of coffee, my iPad and today's copy of the Arizona Republic that had been tossed in front of Auntie Violet, and sat outside enjoying the sunshine and the bird songs.

Our neighbor across the street was pacing back and forth while he was waiting for his buddies to pick him up for a golf game. While he waited, he raked his side yard, moved his and his wife's bicycles so that they were lined up together, then wiped down the hand rail on his porch. Finally, he chatted with me a bit until his buddies finally showed up. He is from Ohio. They are planning to leave on the 10th and head home via San Antonio and Atlanta! Guess we're not the only ones planning a direct route home.

Odds and Ends

I sat down this morning and put a package together of all of the tax stuff I've been gathering up for our accountant. I emailed the ranch Quicken files to Cleon's office as well. Then Forry took my envelope of stuff over to the Valle del Oro Post Office and got it sent off by Priority Mail. So now that task is done -- much earlier than usual too!

Forry stopped by Juni and Tom's on his way back from the Post Office. We had shared with them an article in the Arizona Republic in their Restaurant Gems column about a restaurant in downtown Phoenix that featured fry bread and Indian Tacos. It had received a James Beard "American Classic" designation. The decision was made to check it out for dinner this evening.

The Fry Bread House is another very small (less than a dozen tables and booths) gem. We each had a variety of tacos with everything from ground beef to chorizo, beans or green chiles. We are used to fry bread tacos served flat with all the accompaniments on top, these were folded like a taco --

Of course, we did have to share one of their dessert fry breads covered with cinnamon and sugar!

A Chilly Chili Thursday

We could hear melting snow dripping off of Auntie Violet's roof most of the night last night. This morning there was no trace of last night's snow. But it was chilly, very chilly. There were clouds of various shapes and colors floating around all day. Some of them were dark and looked like rain, but we didn't get anymore of that today either.

I read in this morning's Arizona Republic that last night's snow was the first measurable snow in Phoenix/Mesa since 1990! Evidently skiffs of snow are not that unusual, but it's been a lot of years since there has been enough to actually measure.

The Mariners actually were able to practice outside today. Their Facebook page had pictures of them doing their exercises on the field under some ominous looking clouds. Tomorrow is Opening Day for the Cactus League Spring Training games. Hopefully, it will warm up enough next week for us to go and enjoy some games.

Our friend Juni stopped by with a container of chili for our dinner tonight. She's doing a very good job of spoiling us! Tom said they thought it was pretty bland and not at all spicy, but it did have a bit of a bite to it. It was very good with soda crackers.

A Saturday at the RV Park

We spent another quiet day at the RV Park today. I was up early this morning, but didn't do a lot more than drink a cup of coffee and read the newspapers. We have the Arizona Republic delivered to our site every morning. In addition, I read the email editions of the Washington Post and the New York Times as well as the Seattle Times. It is quite interesting to read the editorial comments from each of the different newspapers. The Post tends to be more Republican oriented while the Times usually leans more Democratic. The Seattle and Arizona papers tend to be more state oriented along with local news.

Once I've waded through the news, I have to check my email and then of course, Facebook. With any luck one of the people I've been playing Words With Friends with will have made a move that I'll want to counter.

By then, Forry is usually up and it's time to fix some breakfast. We vary that between blueberries and cereal or poached eggs and toast or bagels. And, of course, there's always orange juice and more coffee. Forry then starts solving the Sudoku puzzles I've saved him from the paper.

In the late afternoon, we took a bicycle/tricycle ride around the park and ended up over at Juni and Tom's RV. They were sitting outside with the dogs, so we spent time with them getting our puppy fix. Juni had made chicken and dumplings for dinner last night and sent the remainder home with us tonight for our dinner. Delicious!