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!

Today is Tuesday

Today is Tuesday and after our very busy Monday, we have spent the day recuperating. I think we did overdo it yesterday.

At least it is a bit warmer today. According to the news, the "cold snap" is now over. Our neighbors have brought their plants back outside and removed the covers from the ones in the ground. We saw a great deal of broken portions on some of the cacti yesterday. I'll have to get out and get some pictures.

We listened to the President this morning and have been listening to all of the arguments pro and con about how to cut down on gun violence. I just saw a graph on Facebook that purported to show how few gun deaths there are in comparison to other causes. But, I guess it's that the idea of of massacres, especially of children that gets to us all. I can understand the argument that all of the various proposed restrictions only penalize law-abiding citizens. But on the other hand, there has to be some way to cut down on all of the violence.

It's been a good night for watching TV. Many of the shows we like were on tonight with new episodes. We have really been enjoying Nashville. I think partly it's because we spent time there last year and it's fun to glimpse sights of places we've seen or were at.

Waiting...

The pastor at Koinonia Mennonite Church over in Chandler based his Advent sermon this morning on waiting. He admitted that he was not very good at waiting in line for anything -- five minutes being about his limit.

 I had to think about that...

I've spent a great deal of my life waiting. I can remember as a child anxiously awaiting becoming a grown-up. Grown-ups had all the answers. They knew things.

What a disillusion when the time came! To realize that technically I was a grown-up, but I still didn't have all the answers and there was so much I didn't know! I'm still waiting on that one.

So much of our lives is spent waiting. For small things -- for the guy at the part store to find the new part that will match the one I've brought in from the combine; for the line at the grocery store to finally reach the register; or for the stop light to change to green. And for the big things -- the birth of a baby; the end of a surgery and the arrival of the surgeon in the waiting room; or the transition of a loved one at the end of their life.

Sometimes the waiting ends in disappointment, sometimes it ends in joy and sometimes we wonder if that's all there is to it...

In some ways waiting is easier than it used to be. Can it be that I have become more patient? Or is it because I've usually got one of my electronic toys with me? I can play a game or check on Facebook on my iPhone or read the paper or my latest novel on my Kindle.

Waiting is also easier because time seems to fly by so much faster these days. It used to take forever for Christmas to arrive. Now it seems as though it was just a couple of months ago and here it is again. Our grandchildren were just babies and now the oldest is graduating from high school this spring.

Waiting.

Something to think about.

Something to ponder.

Dinner With My Bro --

We weren't terribly ambitious today. It rained hard during the night. It's great sleeping in a house with a metal roof when it's raining. ;-) It's even nicer to not have to get up early and just snuggle in...

We did spend some time this afternoon moving Forry's old van away from the front of the storage unit -- we had to find a rope and tow it with the Suzuki... We spent time looking for some of the old pictures we had stuck away a few years ago. I want to scan some of them and upload them to to my family tree on Ancestry.com.

My brother Pat had called a few days ago and suggested we meet in Moses Lake for dinner one more time before we leave for Arizona for the winter. It was a delight to meet him and Sister-in-law Cindy at El Rodeo for some Mexican food tonight. Pat had Diablo shrimp (the hot version) while the rest of us had some very tasty crab enchiladas. While we really enjoy spending time with their kids and grandkids, it was very nice just to visit with the two of them for a change (since Halloween was last night, none of the kids were up for another night out tonight.. Granddaughter Claire sent me a note on Facebook today saying today was National Vomit Day post all of last night's candy)

This is what we saw as we drove home tonight --

Journey to Touchet

This morning I packed my suitcase and my computer; loaded up assorted items I had picked up during the last year's travels; and fixed a bag with various groceries and headed for Touchet to spend a few days with my sister. As I drove down Highway 395, I realized that in all the years my sister had lived near Touchet, I had never driven there by myself!

I guess I have gotten rather lazy about driving. It is so easy to let Forry be my chauffeur. He likes to drive and it's not really my favorite thing to do, so it's just easy to let him drive. I'd much rather be checking in on Facebook or reading my Kindle or just watching the scenery as we go. It was actually a very pleasant drive. Toad II handles the road well and the Suzuki is very comfortable. I had bought some of Sherry Farmer's CDs last week, so I listened to them most of the way down.

One of the fun things about being at Sister Sherry's is cooking with her. My Brother Pat and his sons and his Brother-in-law Gary and his sons were going to be here for supper (deer hunting season starts tomorrow), so she had already made bread pudding and pumpkin bars. We ended up making hard sauce for the bread pudding and frosting for the bars. Then put a ham in the oven and made some scalloped potatoes (Patrick brought fresh potatoes from his garden).

It was fun to see the young men that Pat and Gary's sons have turned into. Nephew Nick went back to Walla Walla for the night (he'd already gotten his deer during the black-powder hunt.), but Nephew Jared and his cousins Matt and Mike are staying here along with their dads. They are planning to be out in the field by 6 AM, so they headed for bed quite early.

I had bought the largest collar they had at Margaritaville for my favorite mastiff Deacon, but it just barely fits. He is four years old now and though he's no taller, he's gotten much more massive through his chest and shoulders. I'll take some pictures tomorrow.

A Tale of Two Dealerships

 If you remember, I mentioned last Saturday that Forry had spent the day at Barton Jeep having some work done on the Toad's brakes and other parts. While he was there with nothing really to do, he started roaming around the lot looking at some of the newer Jeeps. They had a couple of 2011 Liberty Jeeps that had been traded in -- quite a bit newer than our 2005 one!

Forry didn't like the feel of the alignment they had done on Toad, so we went back out on Wednesday to have the shop re-check it. While we were there, he showed me the Jeeps he had been looking at. Since Toad has over 117,000 miles on her, we had been talking off and on for the last year about possibly replacing her. We talked with the salesman John who Forry had talked with on Saturday, but he was busy with a another customer, so turned us over to his partner, Lane.

We spent most of the afternoon there, but could never get an answer from him as to what it would cost us to trade the Jeep in on one of the 2011. He acted like the kind of old-time sleazy salesman, insisting that WE TELL HIM what we thought the price should be, then pointing out how ridiculous he thought our price was (I was looking a Blue Book prices on my iPhone). He would go back to the "boss" and then come back and tell that the offer he had made on the trade was NOT acceptable. This went on for so long, that we finally decided to just give up on it and leave.

Then the first guy John cornered me and told me how foolish we were being, that if we didn't trade now, we would regret it as Toad would continue to lose value and would be starting to cost us "real" money.

Now, I am 71 years old and this guy was talking to me like I was a rather stupid teenager! Then after we had gotten home, he called us on the phone and repeated his rationale as to why we weren't being very smart. He offered to meet us again the next afternoon, saying he could really make us a deal!

I started thinking about the fellow we had bought one of our Neons from many years ago. I had sort of kept track of Thomas Suwanmaneedang ever since on Facebook and knew he still worked for a car dealer (we used to see him and his young family at Spokane Indians games back when we lived in Spokane and had season tickets). I decided to give him a call and see if he had taken any Jeep Liberty's in as trade-ins. When he asked about the price for the Jeeps we had been looking at, he said he could probably make us a deal on a flat-towable Suzuki at a better price than that.

So the next day we went out to see him at Hallmark Suzuki in Spokane Valley and looked at a couple of very nice new Grand Vitara Suzukis. He told us the price, told us what they would give us for Toad, and offered 0% financing for 72 months! So this is what we have ended up buying:

Thomas is one of those people I like to deal with. He was upfront about what they could offer and didn't denigrate our concerns or what we wanted to trade. There were no games of running to a back room to see if his manager would approve (Thomas said he wouldn't think of taking a deal to his manager that he knew he wouldn't okay.). He actually made buying a new vehicle fun -- even though Forry can't quite believe he has purchased a foreign made car!
 

So this is our new tow vehicle. Not sure if it will end up being named Toad II or Suzie Q...?

I did call John back at the Jeep dealer and tell him we wouldn't be trading our Liberty to them after all -- and would you believe I got the same lecture about how we weren't being very smart?!!

Another Quiet Day

My thoughts have been back in the Pacific Northwest these days. The Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference has been meeting in Moses Lake, Washington hosted by our home church, Menno Mennonite. As I've looked at the pictures posted by Bill Dyck and read various Facebook posts, I've gotten a bit homesick! Many of the folks in attendance have become dear friends over the years and I miss knowing what's all happening!

We didn't do a whole lot today. We slept in, then I put some cinnamon rolls in the oven that actually turned out pretty good. We've run into a new brand of frozen products, taste of inspirations, a gourmet brand that we are enjoying. We tried one last week of pecan sticky buns that were also very good.

We spent some time today trying to plan our time in Maine. We have friends with a farm near Waldoboro we want to visit; we want to spend time at Acadia National Park; and maybe go out on a lobster boat in Rockland. We've also heard a rumor that we might be able to see puffins at Schoodic Point. Then there's L.L. Bean...

Hallowell, Maine

I got a Facebook note from my friend Cathi last night reminding us that we should go to Hallowell, since we are so close. We needed to pick up some groceries (we're totally out of OJ and blueberries), so late this afternoon, we headed in that direction. This old town along the river is quite picturesque with some really neat buildings --

And brick sidewalks --

We popped into one of the jewelry stores along River Street to look at some of Maine's tourmaline jewelry. The lady in the store was quite proud of their watermelon tourmaline -- pink with a green edge around it. The one necklace I liked was only $1800... But another set with a gorgeous chunk of Maine amethyst that I really liked was $8000! I guess should quit looking. I seem to have a knack for picking out the pricey stuff...

After walking up and down the street, we crossed over to Hattie's Chowdah House where we had some wonderfully tasty lobster stew. Hattie's is in an old bank building. They are using the big built-in safe as their cooler.

While we were at the Chowdah House, it started to pour. There was thunder and lightening and buckets of water! Fortunately, the worst of it passed over while we were eating and we were able to get back to the Toad without getting drenched. Our waiter had given us directions to a very nice supermarket a couple of miles away near the turnpike, so we restocked our larder before returning to the KOA Kampground.

We Go To Visit Salem -- Massachusetts, That Is!

Today we drove in the Toad the 88 miles to Salem. (When I did a "check-in" on Facebook, a couple of my friends thought we were on our way to Salem, Oregon and got excited because we were almost in Washington State...) I had checked things out on-line and discovered that there was a "reasonably-priced" parking garage right across the street from the NPS Visitor Center. I was able to plug the address into the GPS unit and we drove right to it.

We arrived at the Visitor Center just in time for a quick potty break before we watched their film, Salem Witch Hunt: Examine the Evidence. It gave us a good overview of the history of the witch hunts and how it came to pass that 22 people were hung as witches during the craziness.

As has become our custom in these heavily touristy historical cities, we took a trolley ride tour to get a sense of the city. The weatherman had been right on with the forecast for today -- it was 98 degrees!

The only original building connecting to the 1692 witch trials is the Corwin House. Jonathon Corwin, one of the men who presided over the witch examinations, lived here.

St. Peter's Episcopal Church on Church Street --

The city is full of beautiful houses built in the Federalist style. Note the third floor windows on the yellow house and the one with blue trim. Many were built with the windows 3/4 size to give the building the illusion of being taller (and the smaller the window, the less the tax!).

 

A statue of Governor Roger Conant, founder of Salem, stands by the City Commons --

The Charter Street Cemetery, also known as "The Old Burying Point," is the oldest cemetery in Salem. Magistrate John Hathorne who served as the Interrogator in many of the witch examinations, and is the forebear of Nathaniel Hawthorne, is buried here.

After our trolley tour, we went back to the Visitor Center and found a book about the 1691 trials for Granddaughter Claire. Claire has the part of one of the young girls in the theatre production of Witches, A Musical, which will be presented in Mount Vernon this summer. We reclaimed Toad from the parking garage (the parking was indeed reasonable for a city -- $6.50) and then drove to see the House of the Seven Gables.

This is the house that the cousin of Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in and the house he used for his novel, The House of the Seven Gables. (Hawthorne actually changed the spelling of his last name because of his abhorrence of his relative's role in the witch trials.) Once again, there was no photography inside, but it was a fun house to tour. There is a secret staircase in the chimney on the right that takes you up to the attic on the third floor. It is VERY narrow and tight!

The grounds of the house have been beautifully restored. The climbing roses were just coming into bloom --

 

The house and gardens overlook Salem Harbor --

The house that is Nathaniel Hawthorne's birth place -- and where he wrote The Scarlet Letter -- has been moved onto the grounds as well and is also open to the public.

Across the street from the House of Seven Gables is the oldest candy company in America, Ye Olde Pepper Companie --

According to the history, the company dates back to 1806 when an English woman named Spencer was shipwrecked and landed in Salem in a rather destitute condition. When her neighbors learned that Mrs. Spencer knew how to make candy, they all got together and purchased her a barrel of sugar. She sold her candies first on the step of the church and later from a horse-drawn wagon.

I did  buy a package of Black Jacks, a candy stick made from blackstrap molasses. They are really good!

As we left Salem, heading back for Auntie Violet, I spotted this one last bright blue house across the street from us --

Home Again, Home Again

My, Auntie Violet looked so good when we drove into Mouse Mountain RV Park tonight after Forry had picked me up at Orlando International Airport. My flight arrived 20 minutes early. As I only had my carry-on bag (I was only gone two nights), I was out and waiting at the curb fifteen minutes or so before he got there. Actually my flight from South Bend to Atlanta had been 25 minutes ahead of schedule as well.

I made a comment on Facebook this morning that I didn't know whether I was enjoying the singing or the speakers more this morning. Willard Metzger, Executive Director of Mennonite Church Canada, gave a very inspiring sermon with a lot of good food for thought. It was a good set of meetings with opportunities to re-connect with many of the people I've worked with over the years -- many, many good hugs.

It's good to be back home ( 'cause home is wherever we're parked!) and know that I get to sleep in my own bed tonight.

Mail and a Costco Run

We got a HUGE box of mail from Daughter MM today. She was not only forwarding magazines, newspapers and mail, but several filled prescriptions that were 90 day supplies. There was also a surprise package of coffee from Guatemala that Daughter Dawn had sent along (she had been there on a ten-day medical mission last month). I had planned to ride my trike up to the office when Bill called me to tell me the mail flag was out, but Leslie was nice and just brought it down.

I spent a good share of the afternoon catching up on the laundry which I hadn't done for over a week. I had three big loads that ended up strung all over Auntie Violet. At least it was cooler today so that we could have the windows open with a breeze to help dry the clothes.

A little after four we went with Bill and Leslie over to make a Costco run. Neither one of us needed a lot of stuff, so we just took one vehicle. I could NOT believe that this Costco had NO blueberries! That and Vitamin D were my reason for going. That left the main purpose of the trip be to have Costco Polish Dogs for supper... Which, of course, made Forry very happy.

As a friend commented on Facebook, you certainly can't beat the price. After all of these years, a Polish Dog and a refillable soft drink is still $1.50! (I always have to chuckle when we are there at noon-time and you see all the businessmen in their white shirts, ties and suits coming in to eat their hot-dog for lunch.)

My Kindle 2

I've been using my Kindle DX since Fall of 2009 and I really like it. I have over nine hundred books in the archives -- can you imagine how much space that many books would take up in Auntie Violet? Plus I've got about thirty more on my home page either waiting to be read or to be used for reference!

I wish I had kept track of how many of the books I've gotten for free from the Facebook on the Ereader News Today site. It's a good way to sample many different authors that I probably would not have considered. The bad thing about it that they often will have the first book of a series for free; you get hooked; and then you end up buying the rest of the series...

I've been VERY impressed with Kindle's customer service. I told you how they replaced my first Kindle DX last month for the minimum service price after the five-way switch quit working -- even though it was out of warranty.

Today I was trying to buy the last book of Lauraine Snelling's Daughter's of Blessing series, Rebecca's Reward. When I went to the store, it kept telling me I had purchased the book last December, but I could not find it in the archives anywhere, searching under both title and author. When I called Customer Service, she reviewed what I had already done; put me 'on hold' for five minutes; then came back and told me to look on my HOME page -- and there it was!

And this Customer Service Rep was every bit as cheerful and nice as the one I worked with last month! Kindle definitely has the customer service thing down pat!

A Bit of Shopping

Juni sent me a note on Facebook last night asking if I wanted to go to the leather store with her today. It turns out that Tunica has an Outlet Mall that has a Wilson Leather Shop as one of its tenants.  Juni had promised her daughter that she would look for a leather jacket for her while we were here. I don't know what it is about stores that sell leather items, but they just smell so good!  I just want to stand in the doorway and breathe in that lovely aroma.

Juni found a very classic coat for her daughter and we looked at lots of purses, bags and jackets. One thing about being retired and not needing a lot of nice clothing -- I wasn't even tempted! From the Outlet Mall, we decided to take a look at the town of Tunica -- the whole two, maybe three, blocks of it.

We did find the Post Office and decided to check.  To my surprise, our box of mail that Daughter MM had mailed on Saturday was already here! She had sent the important letters last week went she had sent us our ballots, so a lot of this box is magazines, newspapers and "junk" mail.

Juni had made a pot roast today using her pressure cooker.  I made a tossed salad to go with it and we had another feast tonight.

I had to come back to Auntie Violet right after dinner as I had a conference call meeting with the Executive Board of Mennonite Church USA. We spent most of the meeting working our way once again through the Purposeful Plan incorporating the suggestions that had been made by the CLC and other groups since the convention in Pittsburgh in July.

At least tonight the wind is not blowing...

Finally -- RAIN!

It has been so dry in eastern Washington -- and then we've had those awful dust storms. The weather forecast said we would get rain today and we did wake to overcast skies. As the afternoon progressed it started to sprinkle. By the time we had everything buttoned up on Auntie Violet and were ready to go, there was actually drips of water coming off her sides. When Forry turned on the windshield wipers, the first few swipes were actually muddy!

The rain was sort of behind us all the way and it was dry when we arrived at Ponderosa Falls RV Park a little after five PM. But it started to drizzle when we went over to the Iron Skillet for dinner and now I can hear it on Auntie Violet's roof. I sure hope it settles in and rains steadily for a couple of days at least!

We are settled in at Site 6B and will be here for the next three weeks at least. I've spent the last hour or two catching up on reading all of the blogs that I missed while we were without wifi and while we were in Sundance. AND catching up with my Facebook farming!

Palm Sunday

Today was Palm Sunday and the service at the Church of the Brethren/San Diego Mennonite Church was very meaningful. It had been a rather hectic and stressful week and I needed the "re-inspiriting" of worship today. The church choir is small, but they are very good.

After church we met the other two long-termers (who had gone to the Jamul Community Church) at Janet's Cafe in Rio San Diego (about 16 miles from camp). The owner of the local automotive place where we take our vehicles for service had recommended it to us yesterday. It's sort of hidden in the back of the shopping center area and we had a bit of trouble finding it. It's a good thing that Joel and Jon had arrived before us so they could guide us in. But it was worth the hunt! This place is only open for breakfast and lunch (6 AM to 2 PM) and it was a real find. We all ate outside on the patio and enjoyed the sunshine. Forry had an avocado and cheese omelet and I had some wonderful french toast. Others had spinach omelets, strawberry waffles, enchiladas, and chicken salad croissants. Jon had an avocado bacon burger that was so tall he could barely get his mouth open far enough.

Forry and Ken went back up to House #3 to check out the doors while I took a nap -- twice in two days! I had decided to join Facebook in order to keep up with one of my friends and after I woke up I spent a couple of hours responding to messages from "friends."

This week's group of volunteers arrived in a timely manner this evening so we actually were finished with orientation by 7:30. We will have 15 teenagers and 5 adults from Fresno for the week.