A Quiet Palm Sunday

Since our friend Bill has figured out how to load the videos of the Menno Mennonite Church services to UTube, we have been enjoying worship with our home congregation. It is such a joy!

Forry was giving me a bad time today about my not having noticed the flowers blooming in the gravel at the back of Auntie Violet's parking space. These little beauties are actually blooming all over the RV park in various spots.

Coreopsis is pretty much considered a weed in this part of the world. It has naturalized in many areas and it is not unusual to see a hillside covered with these little orange and yellow flowers.

Since we were out at the ball game last night, we missed the first broadcast of the PBR from the Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This afternoon, we watched the 3rd round and the Final Go-Round (which the bulls won 9-1). After watching the National Indian PowWow there last fall, it was interesting to see it transformed into an arena.

Our Granddaughter Kyra turned 15 today! I am so amazed at how quickly our grand-children are growing up. Kyra and her sister will be staying with us during the Mennonite Conference in Phoenix in July. I am really looking forward to spending some time with them. (Yes, I know how busy the teens are, but at least we'll get a glimpse or two...!)

A Peaceable Sunday

We had good intentions of going to church in Glendale this morning, but I was not feeling well this morning, so we just decided to stay at home. We've had a very quiet day, mostly just reading the papers and a couple of books, doing puzzles and snacking.

We had watched Day 2 of the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) yesterday evening, but CBSsports repeated it this afternoon and then went on to Day 3 and the Finals. Basically we had almost five hours of bull riding to watch. As long as we were laying low, it was a good way to spend the late afternoon and evening. Especially since it was the Bulls 9 and the Cowboys 0 in the Final!

It was another delightfully warm day here in Mesa. It was actually warm enough last night to sleep without blankets. But, it sounds like we are going to be blessed with more rain in the middle of next week. I don't care for the rain, but it bodes well for the prospect of desert flowers in the next month or so.

Minimalist?

When we were in town yesterday, both in Spokane and Cheney, I couldn't help but notice all of the Halloween decorations. There are some pretty elaborately decorated houses -- with lots of colored lights and carved pumpkins. When our kids were little, we carved faces in pumpkins and I made lots of costumes for them and later for the grandkids. But, I don't recall ever really doing a great deal of decorating.

Now that we live in a motorhome, I still do very little decorating. Over the years, Granddaughter Claire has sent us a few funky decorations that just stick on the windows. There's this one with several bats for Halloween.

And this year she sent this set of harvest pumpkins --

But those five pumpkins are the extent of our Halloween decorations. When the day passes, they'll go back between their sheets of plastic and into the file folder for another year. I guess I enjoy enjoying other peoples decorating efforts, but am perfectly content to be a minimalist in my own home.

It rained pretty hard again last night. There are a few small puddles on the ground, nothing major.

What a day today for sports. San Francisco won the World Series in a four game sweep and the Bull Riding National Finals event title was won for a third year in a row by the Brazilian Robson Palermo. Asteroid won the World Champion Bull title and Brazilian Silvano Alves became the first back-to-back World Champion in the history of the PBR (Professional Bull Riders).

Baseball and Football and Bull Riding, Oh My!

It's one of those evenings on TV! The Mariners are playing in Texas with the game starting at 6 PM our time on ROOT Sports. The WSU Cougars are playing in Nevada against UNLV with the game starting at 6 PM on ESPN. And the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) are in Springfield, Missouri this weekend with the CBS Sports Network broadcasting the first night's riding at 7 PM.

As much as I dislike Forry's channel-surfing, this is one of those nights I have to admit I'm glad for it. We aren't supposed to covet, but it would be nice to have the kind of TV my Brother Pat has that allows you to have a second small channel showing in the corner of the screen.

It's been another quiet day. Forry did drive over to the nearby Freightliner dealer to make an appointment for an oil change for Auntie Violet on the day we're scheduled to leave Ponderosa Falls. We had tried to get it done the last time we were here, but they were booked solid.

After the couple of chilly nights we had earlier in the week, it has definitely warmed up again. However, we are seeing many RVers starting to make their way south. There's been a lot more turnover here at the park with several rigs only spending the night.

Another Quiet Day

We seriously thought about going to look at Abe Lincoln's birthplace and childhood home this afternoon, but knew that the Bull Riding Finals in Las Vegas were on TV at 4 PM.  That was all the incentive we needed to spend a quiet day at home!

We've only gotten to watch the PBR (Professional Bull Riding) live one time back in Tacoma, but we almost always manage to catch them on TV. (One of my dreams is to see the Finals in person someday...) I found it quite interesting that of the forty top riders who made it to the Finals, ten of them are from Brazil.  This year's top rider and also the winner of the Finals are both Brazilians. The incredible bull named Bushwacker was named Bull of the Year.

It was a good weekend for catching up with family and friends.  We talked with Granddaughter Havela and her family last night; Sister Sherry yesterday and today; Tom and Juni earlier this afternoon; and Bill and Leslie this evening.

While there was frost on the grass again this morning, it was a very nice sunny day.  Quite a contrast to all of the snow in the northeast we were seeing on TV today!  That early nor'easter has really reeked havoc -- with thirty inches of snow in Connecticut.