Welcome to summer

For several weeks now we have been in some pretty warm weather. It's been in the mid to upper 90's, some days there is a nice breeze and other days, not so much. Without the humidity it is still tolerable to walk to get the mail, and head out to do some shopping, and you can still breath. There is a big difference in the feel from sunshine to shade as well as a big temp difference of 10º or better. The sun actually hurts somewhat when shining down on you. But I am not a sun worshiper so I don't sit in the sun unless it happens to be on me through a window in the car. This week we are in a low pressure system so the temps are more to my liking, the mid 70's. By Friday we will be back in the upper 90's.

Last week we joined a class at church to hopefully meet some people. It's a small group of great diversity. It meets every Monday evening, not sure for how long. There is a ladies retreat the weekend of Mothers Day that I am considering to join, Mark is pretty adamant about me going, but he never demands me to do anything. I'm not very social and very insecure, so I'm debating on joining. Part of me wants to, the other part is not so comfortable about joining. We love going to church again and love the message of Pastor Tom and the music. So at least we are getting out with others. It's just a slow process of meeting people when you are new.

Yesterday a friend from MN went to church with us. We were excited to share with him. He said he really liked the service and the message. The music wasn't quite as exciting as it usually is because there were new people in the worship team. But they still did a great job. We went to lunch after church at the Black Bear. The food is wonderful, portions are generous, the price is right and the service is great. We had a nice visit too. There were plans of going to a museum but allergies prevented us from doing so. Maybe another time.

Today we are enjoying the fact that it's cool enough to have the house opened up and the a/c off. With the cooler temps I'll be able to make a supper in the oven and not be concerned about heating up the house.. First order was my home made pizza, hehe. Mark loves them. 

After today we will be down to just one other neighbor on our block. And they are on the other end. It is so quiet here it is erie. Last night something was banging in the wind, a sound that we shouldn't ordinarily be hearing. First I thought someone was trying to get into an empty place so I grabbed my gun and looked around outside from the porch. Nope, just a piece of aluminum that came loose at the neighbors a few doors down. Today I'll walk down there and see if I can fix it or have Mark come with and maybe the two of us can fix it for them. Everyone around here looks after one another. That's the way it should be too.

Freezer

Well we finally broke down and got a little freezer. Now to figure out how in the hell you organize one of those stupid chest freezers. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to have a freezer. But the chest freezers are such a pain in the butt to find things inside. If you don't have many small baskets to will lose everything to the bottom. And no matter what or how you pack the freezer, you have to empty it to get to what you want. We looked into upright freezers but none are small enough or a home with limited space.

It was getting crazy very frustrating finding good sales and having no room to put extra foods. And paying full price all the time really cuts into a limited budget. Right now a grocery store in town has a really great meat sale so we will be off to fill our freezer. hehe Actually there is quite a bit in there just from the overstuffed fridge freezer. I could almost hear the fridge sigh in relief. At least that one will no be easier to find what I need. hehe

Dust blizzard

Yesterday we headed into town on a mission. Ok so mainly we wanted to get out of the house for awhile. There was a medical and safe driving alerts being broadcast on the radio and tv as well as signage on the I8.

I have mentioned in the past how sand can blow like a snow storm well here is a picture shot from our car as we drove down the road. Sand Blizzard both in and around the city. Visibility down to less than 500 ft. at times.

Luckily we are pretty protected from this in the park where we live. But there will still be cleaning that will need to be done. And Mark just washed the car the day before too. Just a nice breeze today.

It's Always an Adventure!

Wind and dirt.

We had a couple days of really nice temps after being pretty hot for a couple weeks. With the two nice days of mid 70's the wind was horrendous. And in the desert dirt blows heavily in the wind. Especially when the wind is clocked at 25 and the gusts are 30 mph. In some area's the visablility was less than a mile. Against my better judgement I had windows and doors open then too.

That being said, I had a lot of dirt that had to get out of the house. And that mean moving furniture, taking curtains down, washing and vacuuming everything in and out of sight. Ok so I didn't wash down the inside of the cupboards, but thankfully they were spared from all the flying dirt. It took me all morning to get everything cleaned. So very thankful our home isn't large!!!!

While I was cleaning on the inside of the house, Mark was washing the outside of the house, porch and windows too. The previous owners had carpet put down on the porch, which looks nice and keeps the dust down, but it also traps the dirt and stays wet for quite some time. When the house side of the porch dries Mark will hose off the sunscreen on the north side of the porch. My but we will have a very clean abode when all is done.

Oh NO!!!!!!! After all my work the wind has kicked in. Geesh I just can't win. Well the house was clean for a couple hours anyway. I'm thinking the a/c isn't such a bad idea today. ;)

A New experience for Mark

Today there wasn't much of a breeze and that makes 102º in the shade hot! But the AC is working great keeping the PM at 81º inside so we are very comfortable.

This morning we went shopping before it got to hot and I couldn't help but notice that most of the store's have free wifi and in their entries they have benches. And the AC running in several stores keeps the entries cool as well.

Hey Haralan your instructor was right. Yesterday I had to stop at the the Social Security office which was an adventure in itself. But I came across a man setting in his car running outside with all the windows open AC blasting. As I passed I could tell he was in his 30s, quite heavy set, really sweating and his breathing labored. So I asked him if he was ok and he smiling said "Oh Yea, I'm just trying to cool this old girl down some before I take off". I smiled thinking how glad I was to only have a small Smart Car to cool instead of his caddy!

I have to admit I have done all my Social Security activities on line until now so I had no idea what to expect entering the building. What an Experience! It was very busy their but the officer standing guard also served as receptionist so after you passed the check for weapons she helped you sign in at the kiosk.

They have monitors running on the front walls in the waiting room that much like in hospitals keeps you apprised as to who is being served by the number your assigned at the kiosk. Giving you an idea of flow.

So even though seating was packed they had all 8 windows open and thru your kiosk sign in you have already been assigned an agent who knows why you are there and has access to your account before hand saving a lot of time.

Also if you need more than what you had requested at the kiosk they are happy to assist you further. Very Friendly!

Something I need to personally get use to is that the main language spoken hear is spanish or at least english spoken with a strong spanish accent which is a work in progress for me to understand. So I felt not to miss my turn I had to stay in view of the monitor which really wasn't the case as all went well.

I do not know if I will ever have a reason to go back there but the experience was impressive. Good Job!

It's Always an Adventure.

Always a need for adult supervision.

Today my bride left with some friends to head south of the boarder on a Drug Run. Before everyone goes crazy, we, as a lot of the resort occupants, legally purchase some of our pharmaceuticals in Mexico because of the substantially cheaper prices.

Now that I have cleared that up the point of this is that I was left with no adult supervision for several hours. Never a good thing even from my perspective.

As it was only 61deg this morning I sat with the door open and a fan blowing into the house to capture the cool outside air. One of my first tasks after two cups of coffee while doing some internet surfing was now to decide when to close up and turn on the AC.

For most people who do not live here this would not be seen as much of a dilemma but keep this in mind it heats up very fast here in the desert. So I closed up once at 79º and turned on the AC. Shortly there after stepping outside I came back in shut down the AC and reopened up.

A half hour later it is time for me to leave to run some tasks and again I am closing up and turning back on the AC as it is 90º. Glad the park is scantly occupied on our block this time of year and Cindy is with most of them so no one saw me looking so clueless.

After completing my tasks I rewarded myself with a stop @ Del Taco for breakfast. Poor Decision? Possibly but as mentioned No Adult Supervision!

It was still quite early and I not wanting a breakfast asked for a #9. The clerk looking back at me with a puzzled look on her face again asking what I wanted so I repeated a #9 while pointing at the menu. She then said oh you want a regular meal and after agreeing she rang me up and gave me a guest number. On a side note as long as it took it was obvious they were not ready for orders other than breakfast at the time.

While waiting I took a table next to two Boarder Patrolmen, a common sight around the FootHills, and struck up a conversation. As it has been announced that the National Guard was being deployed to Arizona I was curious to know if they were going to be receiving any Troops assigned to their location, so I asked and was quite surprised by their response.

They said that they hoped so, as they were down about 100 Troops from their regular numbers. I asked why and they said one of the reasons is the 18 to 37 year old age bracket for recruitment, unless you have a military background which then they said your physical condition becomes the limiting factor.

As we talked I asked more questions about their targeted age group and they elaborated  saying, with some sarcasm in their tone, that one of the problems is finding recruits that can pass the "Lie Detector Test" which is the common term used for "Drug Test".

I really had not given a lot of thought to it but as we talked they said that with most states now allow Medical Marijuana Prescriptions as well as more and more states passing Recreational use of Marijuana while the Federal Government still lists it as against the law i could see a whole new perspective to the problem.

Perhaps it's time for Jeff Sessions (DOJ) to revise his  thinking on the issue if not only from a employer employee perspective.

Nice ride near the Mexican border.

Yesterday Cindy and I took a 70 mile road trip most of which ran parallel to the border fence (could hardly call that a wall) between Mexico and US in our Smart Fortwo car. It was nice getting out and surprised to see all the farming going on.

I am not sure if you know this but the Farming Area around Yuma during the winter months of Sept. thru March is the WORLDS LARGEST supplier of Lettuce. Yes I said World Largest. Keep in mind that Yuma and the surrounding area is a Desert Valley flat and almost at sea level bordered on all sides by mountains, foothills or sand dunes which are viewable from the road in almost any direction.

It reminded me a little of Minnesota in that passing through farm fields with flowing green growth, tractors were working the soil and fertilizer trucks were delivering their products. On the way back we took the road less traveled and drove thru Date and Cotton fields. It is an amazing view and accomplishment.

This area is very unique in it's agriculture diversification which btw was started in 1859 by a father and son team. They came to the area and were the first to tap into the water running from one of the local rivers. They trenched it building a cannel to their field which they had build channels in for the water to flow thru and started planting crops much to the citizen of the locals folly. Obviously in a few years this idea caught on much to the locals surprise.

We took notice thru our travels at all the Helicopters flying around and along the boarder fence. Fact is this area has a huge military presents with not one but two large bases within it's proximity to Yuma. And I could not help but think about the possibility that more air support for the boarder might me added soon. One also sees a large Boarder Patrol presence covering the area. We even while out target shooting last year were approached by them ourselves.

I have to say there is not much more air space to be filled without some serious danger of over crowding. And now they are talking about the possibility of bring in National Guard troops to monitor the fence or wall or what ever the correct terminology is.

This place is flat, hence the fact that there is almost always a breeze. You can see for as far as your eyes will let you in any direction. And because most the area is planted in low height crops. There is no place to hide, other than a few agriculture dump sites and those are inhabited by snakes and scorpions. My point being, should the National Guard be deployed I would hope not to this location as from what I have seen over the last several years is that the area is already well served.

All in Gods plan.

I have been looking for Opportunities to arise and yesterday on the way home from church one did. An older couple traveling on the I8 had the misfortune of their patio awning coming loose (something that happens all too often) turned into a sail and tore from it's mounting leaving them stranded along side the road.

As I passed them I could see they were struggling with what remained of the awning dangling from the side of the 5er. So after heading home just a few blocks down the road, I grabbed a ladder, pry bar, my largest water pump plier, 3 reflective triangles and tossed out all in the dually and  headed out to offer assistance.

It didn't take long to find them. Pulling over I turned on my warning lights and set up the reflectors. As I had changed my clothes and was now dressed in orange, most of the traffic pulled into the inside lane as they sped past giving me a little room to work.

I approached a little lady that went about 4 foot nothing in her sombrero. I offered my assistance to her and her husband. Her pale face lit up with a smile as bright as the sky. Her husband and I talked about a solution as we assessed the task at hand.

He had already cut the tarp freeing it from the 5er, but was still dangling by the bent bracketry that hadn't ripped free from the 5er. I retrieved my wrenches, pry bar and the water pump plier and started bending and disassembling what was left, as I assured the little lady everything would be just fine. She had gotten quite upset by the experience.

We got the rest of the pieces removed and I helped put them and the awning into the camper while the husband explained they were slowly heading back to their home 850 miles away in N. Cal.. The lady asked me where I was from and I told her my wife and I were Minnesotans originally. She asked what brought us here meaning Yuma and looking her directly in the eye said. To help you!

Obviously we all knew that wasn't true but the look in her eye as she said, "well you sure have" was priceless.

I stayed collecting my things and putting everything back into the dually as they headed back out on their own Adventure and I mine!

Well until the next opportunity arises.
It's Always an Adventure.