Wet

Today just before Mark left for work we got a little taste of the flash flooding. First the wind kicked in like on the Wizard of Oz. About half an hour later the rain come down in buckets with a force I've not seen since leaving MN just before a tornado. The rain kept up until around 4 at which time Lola and I went out to see how the park withstood the powerful rain and wind. One home had the skirting ripped off on one side, the rest of the homes looked ok.

I'm glad that I did the laundry yesterday or I would've been washing clothes in the parking lot using a rock or washboard. That whole area was flooded.

Before we headed back home we passed by two new swimming holes that used to be the volleyball court and the horseshoe court.

 Getting off of the porch Lola and I needed to use the front gate because the driveway was flooded.

Down many roads there was no way of crossing without boots or a boat. hehe As I was saying this was only a taste of what is yet to come. The flood watch continues through tomorrow and through Tuesday night. Right now it is calm, no breeze, muggy and everything is saturated as is our porch and all the shoes and sandals that were on the porch.

I heard that the pumps in Yuma were down so the water is still sitting in many places yet. We had a little flicker of power when the whole mess started but praise be to God, our power has remained on and stable. Being new to the area in the summer, I do have candles ready if need be.

Yesterday I should have gone to the store for milk and bread, but my back was giving me real pain so I just stayed in my recliner after doing the laundry. Tomorrow, God willing, the next round of nasty weather will hold off until we can make a run to the store and back home. Mark has off so he will drive us with the truck, incase roads are still flooded. The SmartCar, may be too small to clear the water safely

Beautiful morning

Oh what a beautiful morning....... 70º and sunny. The doors and windows are open. This the lowest temp we have seen in months and I'm loving it. I am going to go outside and sit on the porch with my coffee in a bit even though the chairs need a good vacuuming.

Mark has off today and I hope we can go and get a new screen door for the patio door. Our first day here Mark tried walking right through it and bam!!!! It got bent badly. After he tried twisting it back  we were able to kind of close it to some degree, but not lock the screen. No other plans besides the pool. But as cool as it is this morning I'm not going until this afternoon. Cold water is not good for the arthritis. Mark will go to the hot tub for a nice long soak on the sore muscles. And then we will both go to the pool later today.

Good morning.

Up early this morning because it's Sunday, church day. It's a warm morning and will be warm again all day. No snow predicted here at all this winter. The the kind of winter weather we love. We are so looking forward to another winter in Yuma.

The fields are showing signs of life once again too. The green is starting to peek through the ground, the fields are being flooded and sprinkled each and every day. It's a very unique way of farming, a way we have not seen anywhere else. It won't be long and I'll be smelling cut cauliflower, broccoli and lettuce. And the best part is buying it at the Arizona Market Place fresh from the field. Which will be opening in a couple more weeks. The produce won't be there yet, but we still enjoy spending time there. And I really could use some new shirts. Oh man I can hardly wait. Northern California is where we get most of the fresh produce in the winter, fresh but not quite as good as here.

Have a special Sunday.

Wheels

We are back to a two vehicle family. Yesterday we decided to insure the truck again and use that as our second vehicle. With Mark working and using the only vehicle to go back and forth made it too much of an inconvenience. After working hard at WM who would want to spend time on their day off shopping there too?  And we all know what it's like to need something or need to go  somewhere and not have wheels. Or make appointments when you don't know what the working schedule will be from one week to the next. Anyway, it was more financially smart to insure what we already own then purchase someone else's money pit.

When I got up this morning it was a beautiful 75º. A good morning to open up for some fresh air, or so I thought. Upon opening the door and sticking my head out, the smell of oil or tar was permeating the air heavily. So no fresh air this morning. We have had some nicer temperatures the last few days, but by Friday and the weekend the temps will be on the rise again. But cooler days are not far behind. Which means I will enjoy today for what it is now. Not like I can do anything about the weather anyway. hehehehe

I'm still working on some fall crafts and can see how much more detailed things are getting. So many of them I like so well that it will be hard to sell this fall. But I have to recoup some of the money I spent on the supplies and I have no good place to store them all either. Someday I hope to be able to get back into my card making, that is the craft I enjoy more. Plus card making is so much easier on my hand.

Time now to go and enjoy cooler morning walk with Lola.

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.