Early Mornings

I've been up too early too many mornings lately. I really don't like to see sunrises!

Though I must admit, I used to really enjoy them when I was driving home in the morning after having worked the night shift as an RN at Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake many years ago.

There was something neat about watching the sun rise as I was on my way home to bed. I got along quite well working night shifts as I never wanted to go to bed before 2 AM anyway. For many of those years I was the House Supervisor, so had a variety of things to keep me busy. My shift would start at 11 PM. We would be intermittently busy until the bars closed at 2 AM, then we would usually be very busy for a couple of hours. Especially on weekends or if we had a full moon.

The hardest hours of the night shift for me was from that hour or so around 5 AM. Things were usually very quiet by then unless we had a delivery in process. It would start to get lively again about 6 AM when the lab techs started getting their blood draws and the day's surgery patients began to arrive. By 7 AM, the day shift was there, report was given and it was time to head home.

I really missed working nights when I started working days (sometimes you get promoted out of your comfort zone). Driving 25 miles to work and having to arrive by 7 AM made for some very early mornings. I worked the night shift for about five years and then never had another job that allowed for that. It's hard to believe I would look by and really miss nights.

Saturday Evening

Forry made a bag of microwave popcorn that he's shared with me. So I am munching on popcorn, typing on the computer -- all while I am watching the bull riding on TV. What a nice way to spend a Saturday evening.

Julie's blog on "Mennonite Girls Can Cook" talked this evening about the very structured cleaning that went on in her home on Saturdays when she was a child. That was the routine when I was growing up as well. I don't remember it as much after we moved to the farm when I was in my early teens (perhaps since we had livestock and outside chores to do?), but as a youngster it was the routine.

One thing I have vivid memories of is the white cream cleanser?/wax? that we used on the kitchen cupboards every Saturday. If I am remembering correctly, I had to wipe it on with one rag, then polished it dry with another. The other chore that I recall is polishing furniture. My Mom didn't think you were doing a good job on chair and table legs unless she could hear the rag "squeaking" as you polished...

My Saturdays have never been that structured. Early this morning I got online to buy some tickets for Monday afternoon's "Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Richie Valen Tribute" here at Valle Del Oro. Then after Forry got up, we ran errands and picked up a few groceries, then came home in time for a nap! I made some corn chowder for supper and that was about the extent of our day.

Proud Grammy!

Granddaughter Claire's school is presenting "Rock Around the Clock: A 50's Musical Comedy." Claire (in the polka dots) is playing the role of "the snotty girl." The play is being put on in Mount Vernon last night and tonight.

Our daughter Mary Mae is the producer. We're so proud of both of them! I understand that Grandson Varick is tending to the sound. What a family!

Just Out Walkin'

Spent some time on the computer this morning, got another month done. Took care of organizing Valentines for the grandkids. Partially cleaned out the refrigerator. Otherwise it was a quiet day.

Later this afternoon, Forry and I went out for a walk down the street towards the west side of the park. It was another nice day with temps in the 70s. Our neighbors' red geraniums seemed to sparkle in the sunlight --

On down the street, we spotted this pretty peacock --

I'm not sure what kind of a tree?/cactus? this is --

We walked down to the end of the park and watched these fellows playing pickle ball -

This pretty corner lot with the park model has a nice yard -- I especially like the orange tree --

I marinated a thick pork chop after I sliced it thin; then made stir-fry for dinner. I haven't done that for a while and I thought it tasted pretty good.

Escapees North Ranch

One of the goals we set for ourselves this winter was to look around for a place we would like to settle on for a winter home. While Valle Del Oro is very nice, for my tastes, it is just too big with too many people!

Because of "the mess" you are not allowed to put up bird feeders, so we're not seeing a whole lot of the flying critters. And you can't see the desert from the streets here at all...

One of the places we wanted to check out is the Escapees North Ranch park near Congress, Arizona. This afternoon we headed a bit north and west to visit there. It's beautiful country when you got up there. It's a little over 2000 feet and in the foothills. Lots of saguaros and other cacti and brilliantly colored rock.

North Ranch is an Escapees Rainbow Park which is one at which you can actually buy an individual lot. It looks a lot like the home Escapee Park in Livingston, Texas with a mixture of houses, park models, RV lots -- each one different from the next. I loved it -- and could sure see living there part of the year.

BUT, Forry thinks it's just too far from civilization! It's about 65 miles from Phoenix. So I guess we'll have to just keep looking.

It's Tuesday Once More

I started work on our personal bookwork today and got the first two months done. It was fun entering items from our time in Florida last winter -- it brought back many good memories.

Tom's car ended up fixed late this afternoon, so Forry took him over to pick it up. They ended up back at Tom and Juni's, so eventually I walked over to join them for a glass of wine. I had been on the phone talking with Sister Sherry when he left and we were still talking when he got back.

Sherry and I had gotten started talking about our Dad and the horses he bought for us soon after we moved to the farm following our Grandfather's retirement. We both have vivid memories of driving up the old steep winding Lewiston grade in his pickup with a pregnant mare (Blaze) and her yearling colt in the back. I can truly remember being very, very scared!

We reminisced about learning to ride horseback by just riding. No such thing as lessons for us. We could both remember being surprised by comments in later years about such things as "leads." Sherry trained the colt Blaze had at her side and I trained the one that was born later -- again neither one of us knowing much more than getting them used to us on their backs and eventually saddles...

Anyone listening to a couple of 70+ year old ladies talking about their youth would have gotten a chuckle out of our conversation. We talked for over an hour. A fun way to spend part of an afternoon!

Back to Work Monday

After a not-very-good night's sleep, it was back to work this morning. There were a couple of things I had to get in the mail today -- including a 25+ page Federal Agricultural Survey! Ick! Got that done and then wrote a couple of checks for insurance policies that also needed to go by snail mail.

And then I finally finished up December in the ranch books. At least I figured out what I was doing wrong with a double entry I had problems getting rid of. That taken care of, tomorrow I guess I'll start on our personal stuff.

I did take time this afternoon while Forry was gone to pay the bills that I do electronically. After the mess I made last month when I transposed a couple of numbers, I did it while Forry wasn't around to distract me and made a real point of double-checking everything.

Tom has a leak around the sun roof on their Toad. He found a place where they thought they could get it sealed, but wanted to keep the car overnight. So Forry followed him over in Toad II and brought him back to his RV.

We've been gone the last few nights, so still had leftover ribs from our dinner at Waldo's the other night. I think they tasted even better tonight.

Super Bowl Sunday

Juni invited us over to their RV this afternoon for dinner before the Super Bowl. Juni is a great cook. We had pork roast with mashed potatoes and gravy also with an interesting new version of red cabbage. The cabbage had Granny Smith apples and onions -- quite a good combination.

Since we are all westerners, we were rooting for the San Francisco 49ers. The first half and the first few minutes of the second were pretty scary. The 49ers came back after the power was restored (would you believe the power went out in the stadium during the game? -- they had a 34 minute delay!), but couldn't quite overcome the Baltimore Ravens. They sure came close though.

When you go to Tom and Juni's you get the additional advantage of getting a puppy fix. The poodle Tica, spent most of the game sprawled out sleeping on my lap --

The little Yorkie Cassie, curled up on a blanket on the driver's seat and slept most of the afternoon --

Then migrated over to Forry's lap where she wanted to share his popcorn! You can barely see the other Yorkie, Izzie, who is napping in her dog bed behind Forry's chair under the pink blanket.

It was a good game and a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. I think my favorite commercials were the one by Dodge with a description of a farmer by Paul Harvey; the Tide commercial; and of course, the best one of all was the Budweiser Clydesdale ad with the nine day old colt.

Saturday Salsa

I was up early this morning, but Forry was feeling the effects of last night's hike and slept in. We actually had a fairly lazy day. It was nice and warm outside. This was the third day in a row of temperatures in the high 70s. So nice!

Towards evening we drove over to Rancho de Tia Rosa to meet our friends Victoria and Bill for a farewell dinner. I do like that Mexican restaurant. The food is not incredibly spicy, so it suits our tastes. I was a little concerned about how long a wait we might have on a Friday night. They only take reservations for groups of ten or more. You can call when you're 20-30 minutes away and ask to be put on the waiting list, but tonight their phone line was busy every time I tried to call.

It actually worked out okay as I went in and put our name on the list as soon as we arrived. Vic and Bill got lost on their way, so by the time they got turned around (and got the right address into their GPS) and finally found the restaurant our table was ready. We ate and talked and then talked some more.

Bill and Vic are leaving for Southern California on Monday and will be visiting some cousins and a high school friend of Vic's. I'm sure glad they stayed in Phoenix long enough for some good visits with us!

Back to Usery Mountain

Can you believe it is the first day of another month? It's February already!

It was a day for catching up. We got a packed box of mail from Daughter Mary Mae that needed to be sorted through; part of it tossed; part of it read; part of it saved for another day.

It was the day to pay for electricity, sewer and garbage charges here at Valle del Oro. With all of the cold nasty days we had last month, I was very glad to see that the electric bill was actually less than two hundred dollars!

It was a day to restock the larder. We made a trip to Costco and then over to Safeway. That bad part of all of that is having to put groceries away when we got back home. It meant breaking up packages of hamburger and steaks and re-packaging them for the freezer. I also broke down and bought a new toaster -- one that I can actually toast bagels in. (I'd say it's not too bad to say it's only the third toaster we've had in over fifty-three years of marriage! Even though Forry doesn't understand why I wanted a new one...)

It was also a day to go learn something and have some fun. We met our friends Vic and Bill out at Usery Mountain Regional Park about five PM. Bill needed a drill to make some small repairs to his RV. Forry got his out for him when they were at our house last night, but it needed charging. So he charged it and brought it along tonight.

We were at the park in time to go to one of the Ranger's talk entitled "All About Gila Monsters." One of the things about being retired is my disregard of what day of the week it is. When we made our plans to go out to the park for the evening, we didn't think about it being a Friday and NOT a school night. The room was full of kids.

Then we went on a Ranger-led Animal Flashlight Walk. It was billed as a night hike to see nocturnal animals. But if you can imagine 70+ people, half of them children, all of them with flashlights, you know that we didn't see any animals. We did see a scorpion, which glowed under the flashlights as if they were black lights. It was sort of fun to take the mile-long walk in the dark with Victoria. I think Forry and Bill were the "tail end Charlies," but it sounded like they had a good visit as well.