last days of August

Summer is still trying hard to hang on here. Some mornings are a cooler mid 70's to low 80's but the days are still in the lower 100's. At night, when we talk Lola for her evening stroll, the temp is often times in the lower 90's and it almost feels cool. I know that sounds quite bizarre, but when the temps that time of night have been in the low to mid 100's, 90 does feel cool. Never thought I would ever say that 90º was cool. LOL 😛 As most of you know, summer is NOT my favorite season, but then neither is winter.

Mark is not real thrilled with the work he has to do at Walmart. Most everyone that works with him is quite a bit younger than he is and they all are expected to be able to do the same thing. Well, that is not floating well. He works 4 days a week. The week starts on Saturday, and his 4 days are often right in a row. That is not a good thing either.  Not sure how long he will want to continue his employment there. But he does like being with the people and he seems to enjoy showing me what and where things are when we go into the produce and meat area in Walmart. He speaks of it with pride. Any job he ever does he does his best and has reason to be proud.

I've run out of storage room for my craft projects but with the craft fair just a couple months away, I need to get back at my projects. Just not sure where to put them when I'm done with them though. Maybe I should never have started this to begin with. There are some fall decorations that I want to make yet, but after that and my craft supplies have been depleted, I'll just call it done. Keep what I want and add what I want to sell to someone else's table. That would work too.

Cooler

No the temps aren't really cooler but the water in the pool sure is cooler. The days are shorter so the sun is not blazing down nearly as long as it had been. By 7:50 it's pretty much dark outside. Less sun time heating the pool, and no heater turned on in the pool in the summer months, makes the water quite cool in the morning. My arthritis isn't liking the cooler water one little bit. But it's the only form of exercise I get right now. So I have to grit my teeth and keep plugging away. I'm anxious for it to cool down enough to walk outside comfortably. Lola will love getting longer walks in too. I'd much rather walk too.

Marks job at Walmart is getting better. I know he enjoys being with people other than me day in and day out. He is a people person. Since last Saturday he toned down what he does at work too. There are other people to do the work, it's not all for him to do. Lola is still not happy to have "daddy" away from home that long each day.  It's taking me some getting used to as well.

As much as our family and friends aren't looking forward to winter we are looking forward to winter. We hope to get out and about more to do some sight seeing. Too hot to do so yet. It's fun to drive around with no real destination and see what we can find. There are places of interest that we would like to check out as well. Right now, it's mostly mondane daily things that we do. Kind of like ya'll up north in the winter. We think of winter as summer and summer as well, you can imagine what we think of that. hehehe But all in all we love it here in Yuma. As in most any place you live, there are pluses and minuses.

Rained hard today.

This morning we enjoyed a nice cool dip in the pool. The morning is when the water is refreshingly cool. Today another couple showed up so we had a nice visit with them. It sure made time go fast and we spent more time in the water and sun than we had planned. But we enjoyed it all.

About 20 minutes after we got home from the pool it started to rain. The gentle rain turned in to a very heavy rain that caused some areas of flooding. Here in the park it was just rain, no flooding. But boy it sure did come down. There was a little thunder with the rain which I really enjoyed. I love a thundershower. It had been some time since Lola had heard thunder so she let out a couple woofs to let her thought about it be heard. hehe With the rain the temp went down some but the humidity went up. There was a nice breeze so the mugginess didn't last all that long.

Mark headed to work today only to come home a hour later. Somehow he was not on the schedule that was at work, but the one he had here at home said that he worked tonight. Well, he didn't stick around and argue. hehe.  Another day off, suited him just fine. And mamma's supper is better than a brown bag supper. :)

Just another day in the hot Sonoran desert.

A new month

The summer is finally working it's way to the end. For the first time in our lives we are anxious for winter. The summers here are indeed hot, but we have endured. Going to the pool daily is a big help in more ways than one. It cools us down, gives us good exercise and gives us something to do on the hot days. It's nice having the pool at our disposal anytime we want. And it doesn't cost us to use it either. Just one of the many perks to living in an rv resort. :)

Today Mark started his new job, or at least the training for his new job, at Walmart. Lola was not at all happy to have him leave without her this morning. So she is spending her morning pouting. I can always find things to do around here. There is no shortage of dust and dirt living in the desert. hehehe

Why is Mark going back to work? Part of it is, he is bored. Not much to do when it's too hot to do anything outside. And there is not much of anything else for him to do inside either. Plus we have plans on going back to MN this spring for our sons wedding and rent a truck to bring our things here from storage.  Being about 2000 miles from MN, it won't be a cheap trip to say the least. So the extra money will really come in handy. I just pray that he will like the job and that it won't be a stressful job. If it is, then he will leave that position. Mark is a person that likes to be around people, so I hope this job will fill the bill for him.

In about two weeks or so the fields in Yuma will be planted with broccoli, cauliflower and a little later lettuce will be planted. It will be nice seeing all the green fields again. Not all fields are baron right now, there is cotton for seed and greens for cattle feed. Watermelon and cantaloupe are being harvested daily right now too. And boy is it good coming right from the field. The cantaloupe doesn't need to sit on the counter  for days to ripen either. I buy it and cut it up in the same day. Mmmmmmm. We have only had maybe two watermelon that weren't very ripe, still eatable but not the best. And we have purchased many many watermelon. Watermelon is my summer addiction to put it mildly. I think I got Mark hooked on it too.

Looking

It's not that we enjoy moving, but the Village Coop in Hutch, didn't work out well for us and our health slowed us down on the traveling and  our adorable little park model is just too small to stay in permanently. We are looking into adding on to our existing home or buying a larger park model.  All depends on which is most affordable. We want to stay in 55+ resort too. In fact we don't want to move from our currant resort, we like it here. The only upkeep we have here is our home but still have the use of a pool, library, pool hall, gym and all the other amenities and we don't have to maintain any of them. Neighbors are only around for about 5 to 6 months too. All at a nice  affordable price. Who could ask for anything more??

Each morning we go to the pool for exercise. Yes, I said we. I'm enjoying the pool more and more, mostly because it is helping me lose some much needed weight. Mark is losing weight and toning up nicely and is as dark as an Indian. Is that politically correct? I really don't care. hehehe The hard part is getting breakfast in before we go. But with diabetes one can not skip a meal. Numbers have been good so a piece of peanut butter toast is substantial and off we go.

We are enjoying our new church more and more every Sunday. And we are looking forward to being a part of Alpha again in August. We are also looking into some other groups that will start up this fall. God brought us here for a reason.

Mark is holding his breath for a job at Walmart that could start on Thursday. He is just waiting for the last of a background check to go through. The job is in the produce and meat department. It would give him something to do and some cash back into our savings account. He has been really bored this summer. It's just too hot to do anything outside and there is only so much to do on the inside.

Campers and such don't sell in the summer months around here so we still have the Montana. And as long as we have the RV we still have our Ford Dually.  This fall we may be moving the Montana to another place to get it sold. We were in a hurry to get it moved out of the park last February so we put it where we could get it in quickly. And it's not the best place for exposure to attract potential buyers.

As always, it's an adventure.

Wow

It seems like it was just last week that I asked myself, "Where did the month of May go?" And here it is the last week in July. Living in Yuma, we wish the summer away and relish the winter. In MN we wished the summer and the winter away.

It is just after 7 and 90º. They are saying we could break the record for today. Record is 117º !!!! Well we have lived through that before so we can do it again, I just didn’t have to do laundry then. It won’t be any cooler for the next few days either. I do come home after I put the laundry in the dryers and hang the sheets on the line. That helps a lot.

Besides laundry there is nothing planned although we will need milk by tomorrow so we may to go WM after dark tonight. 

Lola recovered well from her major oral surgery. She is back to her old self and most all of her treats and dry dog food. By tomorrow she should be able to chew on her treats we use for her to clean her teeth. It doesn't seem that they did much good though. But she likes them. Tomorrow is her birthday. We have doggie ice cream for her as her treat for the day. No cake since we all are watching what we eat. :)

I better get moving, it's not getting any cooler out there.

Oh, just a couple hot day projects I completed yesterday.

Blessings continue

Two weeks from my EKG, Echo and blood work, I went back to the clinic for the results. God blessed me with all good news. Everything came back normal. And I was told that I should take less of my heart medication because my heart is too slow now. God's healing hands and answered prayers? I believe so with all my heart.

Following the diabetic diet with Mark has also paid off. God has ways of making things right in so many ways. Diabetes is no blessing, but God can make it one. To start Eating healthier may  have been a  reason for the diabetes. It was God's way of saying, quit the gluttony and start taking better of your body which is My temple. Mark is losing weight, his BG numbers are down, I am losing weight and we both are feeling better.  Praise the Lord.

Miss Lola had a bad report from the vet. She had to have 15 teeth pulled. So many were abscess, jaw bone bad and many lose from the plaque build up. Otherwise she was a healthy dog. She had the surgery Wednesday and was very happy to see us when we picked her up later that same day. You never would have known what she had just been through by the way she carried on towards us. She will be on antibiotics and pain meds for 10 days. Her food is also softened in water and none of her favorite treats for a few more days. The treat part she is not happy about at all. And on top of that, tonight, while petting her I found a nasty looking sore and lump. It was a deeply imbedded tick. Mark got the body out first, it was soft and skin colored. After looking more closely we put on some alcohol and found that the head was still in the sore. Getting that out too, Mark really dowsed her with alcohol. We cleaned her up and now pray that the sore will heal well and cause no issues.

We are in for some very hot days once again. But we have gotten used to it. And we have to now. As of yesterday we are both officially Yuma residents. I got the address on my drivers license changed and registered to vote. We are no longer Minnesotans, but are now Yumans. LOL