Thanksgiving and Friday

Thanksgiving dinner around here was in the form of the Old Country Buffet over at the Superstition Mall complex...  This is where the Fuddruckers hamburger place and the Jeep dealership are located...  Of course there are hundreds of businesses in this area and on the Mall grounds..

They had Steak, Ham, Turkey and Prime rib....  With all the trimmings...  They added dressing and cranberry sauce to the rest of the normal spread...   Pumpkin pie and apple pie were in abundant supply along with the ever present soft serve ice milk machine....

I was in line by 11:15, and had to wait for 30 minutes to get to the desk to purchase a table ticket...  It was about then that they announced that the restaurant was completely full... I and another gentleman teamed up to become a party of two, when a table for two was announced..  Most other groups were much larger, so we slipped in from behind passing about 30 folks all at once..

This fellow turned out to be a mine worker from one of the mines South and East of here..  He seemed to be very mechanical, and I wondered if he was a repair worker.. But he never did offer to much about his job, or why he was alone at the restaurant...  We got along just the same for the duration of our meal, mostly talking about the food and the other folks in the restaurant.

Later in the day, I was back out on the motorcycle on my favorite trip South of the city here...  It never becomes completely rural or desert, but rather an intersperse of all of the above...  I rode thru Queen Creek and then East to Ironwood Crossing...  Some of it at highway speeds, but mostly it is about 45 mph.  Traffic on Thanksgiving was medium to light..  But most of all it was 74 degrees and very pleasant....

The weather man on the 6 PM news reported that we had the warmest and nicest weather in all of the country...  And from the looks of the temperature map, that appeared to be correct...

On black Friday, I was waiting for the Hawkeye football game in the late morning...  I was surprised to find that the game was carried on ABC as a national game..  This increased the coverage of the team exponentially.  

I get so nervous watching these games, I had to continue on my project of writing thank you notes from the funeral.....  Letting the game run in the other room and only checking in on it now and then...  And before anyone wonders, I haven't been able to dig thru the funeral stuff and cards without having grief overwhelm me...

So ever so slowly, I have made a list of the folks that needed to be sent thank you notes...  But today is the first time that I could actually write them without a loss of composure...  I was kind of dual tasking listening to the game and addressing envelopes at the same time...

And while that was happening, my Hawkeyes overwhelmed the Nebraska Cornhuskers.... They stepped away from the start and never looked back.  That makes the team 8 and 4 for the year and should get them a good bowl bid...  Its fun when your school does well....

There was not a bit of black Friday shopping at this address...  I stayed home for the rest of the afternoon once the notes were posted late in the day...

Retired Rod

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What do I have to be Happy For????

Everything!!!!!!    And mostly the wonderful 45 years I was allowed to have with Loyce....

May your day be great in every way....

Retired Rod

Computer fun

I rode the Goldwing out to Saguaro Lake yesterday while the sun was out wall to wall...  Not a cloud in the ski...  As usual, my phone that doesn't take pictures was stalled out in my pocket....

Lately it has been taking photos again.....  I used it the other night at the Eddie Diamond concert to take both the still shot and the video of the too loud music...   And then when I pressed the off button it crashed and said it wasn't working...

Going back to the gallery though proved that the video was there....  The next day was when I updated this computer to W8.1 and I had a dickens of a time getting the stuff off of the phone...  Then when I went to store the You Tube Video I found that the blogger upload didn't work on their client under W8.1...

Next I had to download live writer, which doesn't like w8.1 too well either...   Windows live is now older software as well, and I wonder how long that will be supported...  But once I made a new account on You Tube under my real name and uploaded the 30 second video, I succeeded at running live writer, and finally made the blog posting it...  That took most of Sunday afternoon...

It would seem that 8.1 is yet a further step away from the older and more compatible windows of old..  And also Skype didn't work either...  Rick made a comment to get Skype for 8.1, but I couldn't get the old version to uninstall...  It was their companion program Click to Call that wouldn't go away...

Finally I had to completely remove Chrome and old Skype, then repair Click to Call and then remove it..  What a mess...!  Click to call is an extension that resides in Chrome and somehow was messed up on this old HP machine..

So with a clean install of Chrome and Skype................... it still didn't work!!  I threw my hands up in despair.....

So later that night, I was sitting here watching TV and suddenly out of the clear blue, I hear the computer make that tell tale sound that means skype has logged on.....  WHAT?

And yes you guessed it, it was there and running.....

By now I was completely out of monthly gigs on the verizon mifi...  Today starts another month on that...

So see why I was out riding that motorcycle on the sunny 71 degree afternoon up in the desert... Sometimes one has had about enough of the computer for one day...

Retired Rod

Windows 8.1

Moving on to Windows 8.1....  This was 3.6 gig to down load...  Since I only have 4 gig for the entire month on the verizon mifi, something different had to happen.....

So I found an open wifi...  And looked at it to see if it was unlimited access....  And yes the router was connected to the local cable company...  So I connected and downloaded our really big file...  It took quite a while but it was a done deal after a while....

So now I have my smaller HP up and running on W 8.1....  But all is not well...  Seems as though Skype doesn't like the new operating system....  It just crashes...  Says it is trying to resolve the problem...  But then goes away and doesn't come back...

And I use the blogger interface to write the blogs...  Never did like the MS Live Writer program, found it too involved..  The blogger client doesn't like W8.1 much though..  It seems to get along on text ok, but if you try to add a picture or a video....  You just get a blank screen..

I haven't decided why that is yet either...

And then when I was reading Rick's blog tonight, it didn't like the fact that he was using google + for his comment format...  It just wasn't there....  I messed and messed with that one, and just a mysteriously as it was gone, it came back and started to work...

So while I didn't have a bit of trouble downloading or installing the W8.1 programs, on my 18 month old HP, a number of the features that normally used to work, seem to be gone...  This computer started life as a W7 machine, so perhaps changing it over twice might be an issue....

Who knows..

Retired Rod

Eddie Diamond from Saturday Night

He lacks a little but got to singing better once he got into it more…

Birthday over retirement age….

Yesterday was my birthday, and I celebrated by completing that restaurant dinner that Sandi Dixon and I planned out earlier in the week.....  Well not exactly like that, as she had Jim call me and we learned that they had tickets to a show over in the main part of Mesa..

I and another friend of theirs were invited to go along to see Eddie Diamond...  A Neil Diamond impersonator and his band the Az Daimonds....   It was a one night stand at the Arizona Event center...

So tonight we went to Texas Road house for a nice sit down diner and out to the show...  Its not exactly like going to Neil himself, but it was quite fun and a tad loud...  My ears are still ringing, but hey it really beat sitting here pouting about things.... LOL

 

It does appear that these fellows are in demand and most of their shows are for private events, but they will be appearing at a couple of big RV parks after the first of the year...

Retired Rod

Clean trailers and friends...

I was again on my way to another boring day around here, but convinced myself to get into the Jeep and head for the storage lot...

The hitch that I purchased before I left Kansas needed to be transferred to the Jeep and the trailer needed to come home....  The driver's side was covered with the grease from the bad axle bearing... Biscuit was with me as well, as we had gone on a nice walk down the green grassy area here in the center of our housing development..

It took a minute to get the locking pin into the back of the Jeep, but after that was done, the trailer pulled back over to the house without incident..   I had to stop at Wal Mart for a big can of engine degreaser..

So I spent a couple of hours with the pressure washer and the foaming cleaner...  It didn't come very clean, but mostly its not black anymore...

When I went back with the trailer, I put it in front of the motorhome since it won't be used much this winter....  That will let me get the coach out to go on a trip if need be...  I'm not sure how that will all work as the car that can be pulled is still in KC...  Will probably need to make a few changes in that program....

Once I had the storage lot all locked up, I went over to Sandie Dixon's RV park on the off chance that I might catch her or Jim at home.....  I needed to get on their appointment calendar  for a restaurant trip...

They seem to be busy all the time, being in much demand  socially...  Jim was fishing and had taken the truck and boat...  But the door to the RV was open, meaning she was at home...  We sat outside for a while catching up since last season...  While it threatened rain with nasty clouds...

We ignored that and talked on...  She was gracious and realized my pent up need to talk and talk...  Perhaps we will get that restaurant meal in one of these days too...

Retired Rod

A story...

I went to Wal Mart this afternoon, out in the South part of the area at San Tan Village Mall..  It was just a different area of the city to go see....  Nothing too important, but I got the idea that I would purchase a George Foreman grill..

So after picking out the groceries, I went over into the aisle where the household appliances were kept..  And picked out the small little two burger unit...   About $20 worth...

Biscuit and I went thru the gas pumps outside of Sam's club and came on home...  That saved about a dime a gallon over our prices out here in the far end of the valley....

But as I was putting the supplies away, I got a weird kind of a feeling that I was doing something wrong...  Maybe my wife was telling me something from the land beyond....  About that grill...  So I started to dig thru the bottom cupboards.....

Ya, you guessed it.. I found the exact same grill, brand new in the box....  Just a small story, but I thought it was interesting how I had no idea about this, but yet somehow I knew......

Retired Rod

Property tax.... What property tax?

Part of the problem of having property in a state that you are not familiar with such as Arizona, is that you don't know when things come due....  Case in point, the property tax around here...

I kept wondering when I would get a billing for that tax...  And the truth is that I must have gotten it while the post office decided that all my mail needed to be returned to its sender back in KC. During the funeral in Des Moines, I didn't get the mail box emptied... Let's face it, I wasn't doing anything rational or correctly then..

Loyce had always been more worried about the mail than I was...  And she had been sick for several days, so the box was probably jammed before she passed...  Well anyway my taxes here are delinquent...  Since November 1st..  It took me most of the morning to determine that fact using the internet and parsing the governments web sites...

Then mid day I decided to wash Biscuit... She ran and hid under the big bed...  Where I couldn't reach her..  So I crawled on hands and knees and grabbed her tail.....  A scuffle ensued...  But she went thru the shower with lots of doggy soap...

She is so soft and clean... and she hates it...  Rolling on the carpeted part of the floors..  And I had to watch her outside as she will roll in the dirt given any chance at all.. I thought of taking her picture...

Somehow this computer I am using has a broken SD card slot...  Not physically, but rather its software drivers...  I tried and tried to reload it, but have failed... So my cell phone has a bad camera, and my HP can't read the camera cards...  The Dell laptop, does read these cards, but I have tried to keep it for more special occasions..

That therefore causes me to get out the good computer in order to upload just one picture from one of the cameras....  Maybe I need to get a USB dongle that accepts SD cards... Probably get that at Wal Mart.....

Well anyway I was feeling downhearted last night after the Chiefs lost and I probably shouldn't have been going thru the cards from the funeral while that was happening on TV...  So today I decided to ride the Motorcycle over to the mailbox and then way out South to see if I could remember where Gordon and Juanita's RV park was located.....

Its out to our Southeast almost as far as roads go into the desert... paved ones anyway..  And after driving around thru several missed turns, I did in fact find the place....  And they weren't home..  It was a spur of the moment deal, so they didn't know I was coming, and it wouldn't have been fair to just stop by anyway...

But it was such a nice afternoon with the temperature reported by the bike of 81 that I was out tooling all over the place just to be out...  That was before I found that Ironwood Road was closed coming back into Apache Junction.. and had to backtrack all the way down to Combs because of an accident on Octillo...    But hey it was a nice afternoon... And the property tax is now paid.....

Retired Rod

Weekend activities

Kansas City is unbeaten no more.....  It seems like I was waiting all day for this game to get under way....  And I'm not so sure what I was excited about, because I knew in my heart there was no way that Peyton Manning was going to let a game at home get away from him..

It was a really nice day here with the temperature reaching 75 in the middle of the afternoon..  Wall to wall sunshine as well...  Biscuit and I were out in the back yard and since it was so nice decided to go get some dog food..

That is over in Pet Club by the Superstition Springs Mall... Biscuit knows she can go into the store there and gets so excited... She fairly jumped out of the car by herself, but her leash was around the gear shift...

And they were out of the 15# bag of her taste of the wild bison mix....  Drat.. I had given up selecting the 5# sack which costs half as much for 1/3 as much product, when an assistant came from the back room with the bigger bag...  She also got one of her expensive bully sticks to chew on...  Loyce routinely spoiled her with those...

She was carrying it all over the house when we got home..

Tonight I was going thru the cards from the funeral, which is the first time I have been able to even look at the bag sent with me from Des Moines...  The words from everyone are very kind, but still remind me of how alone it is around here...  Tough on me....

Retired Rod

Pictures from Al and Kelly's

As most of you know, I was out to Congress, Arizona on Wednesday and stopped in to see Al and Kelly..   I'm not sure that I am all that likable, but Biscuit is a big hit, so I always take her along....

Anyway this afternoon I took the memory chip out of the camera and transferred the pictures onto the blog....

Al finally suggested that I turn on the flash to get a better picture...  I had to fiddle with the camera for quite a while... Long enough for Al to shut his eyes when I pressed on the presser...

Al calls this Cactus Man...  He's out in the farthest corner from the porch along the road...

Speaking of the porch......  Lots of problems solved here...

The law of the land..  The two big cactus are probably over 200 years old, kind of like they are the judges around here..

Its really peaceful out on Ghost Town Road.....

Retired Rod

The Jeep rattle..

From my service ticket at Jeep Chrysler.......

Customer States that vehicle has rattle coming from drivers rear area while driving at speeds of around 45-50 mph going down rough roads...
Extra clip left from factory behind fender flare rattling..  Road test and verified rattle at 45 mph.  Noise coming from left rear area of vehicle.. Aligned left rear door for tighter fit and road test and noise still present.. Road test with assistant, and found noise coming from outside vehicle. Raised vehicle on hoist and tightened all under body bolts on left side..  Road test and noise still present..
Remove and replace left running board and noise still present..  Found noise coming from left fender..  Removed inner fender liner and noise still present.. R & R left fender flare..  Found extra clip rattling behind flare.  Removed clip and road test,   NOISE GONE!!

The service lady called mid afternoon and said she was sending the shuttle driver to get me from my home to come and pick up the Jeep...   And as promised above, the noise seems to be gone...

It only took all day, while I was here at the house without the car...  I could have ridden the motorcycle out into the country on a joy ride, but then I wouldn't have been sitting right here to be picked back up by their shuttle driver...  And since missing the driver would have put the onus back on me...

So I wouldn't take the chance of missing their drivers...  I guess I could have called a cab..

But hey, at least its fixed...  Ford has never acknowledged that I even have a rattle in the back of the Explorer... They just state that the customer complaint is un demonstrated..  I drive the car with the back seat unlatched and pulled forward so it won't rattle..

You know that a lot of this is how individual car dealerships decide to service their customers...

But today, it became my entire day.  Something us older folks don't have an unending stock of..

Retired Rod

Rattling down the road and ending up at Al's

I got up this morning to a sore mouth....  All of the novacane was by now long gone and all that remained was that beat up feeling in there like I had been thru a prize fight...  Biscuit licked me on the chin, like she knew exactly what was wrong with me....  How do they seem to know these things..?

The Jeep has a rattle somewhere in the back seat...  It was there the night I drove it home.... Seems worse at 45 to 50 miles an hour...  After that the vehicle makes enough more noise that you can't hear it as well...  I made an appointment for tomorrow on Tuesday...  But it seemed to have stopped...

So I started to drive around on the interstates.... Sitting home just let me think about my mouth hurting... I hadn't determined that going fast covered up the noise... Yet...!  I drove to the North side of Phoenix on the 101...  So I thought I would go on up to Wickenburg, and maybe see what Al was up to on Ghost Town Road...

It was when I was going slower on the two lane that I noticed the nasty rattle wasn't gone but rather a lot more noticeable at slower speeds....

From the time I arrived until I left, Al has numerous pictures of my every weird gesture and Biscuit playing with Phoebes....  So see his blog for today

Its farther up there than I realized, as it was after 7 PM when we finally arrived back out here in East Mesa....

I took a few pictures but the good ones were all on Al's camera...  He did take a few pictures of me and my camera, but you will notice that it still has its lens cap on it, so you already know how my shots turned out...

Retired Rod

Dental office fun....

Last week Tuesday, I was eating breakfast which included a chewy plain bagel....   The plain ones contain less sugar for diabetes...  But they seem to be more rubbery from their time in the boiling bath....

And as luck would have it, a piece of one of my back molars broke away...   I fished it from my mouth and inspected the damage....  which wasn't good at all....  Its temperature sensitive and will hurt if you bite down wrong.....

So yesterday, I drove over to the dentist I use here in the valley....  Of course they wouldn't let me leave until they had the look see.....  And wanted to fix it right away that afternoon.... But another scheduled fellow came in after all....

So this afternoon I will be  back over in the chair again to have a crown made...  You probably know the drill.... (pun)  Grind off the rest of the bad tooth, and make impressions...  Then cap the tooth with a temporary crown while the real one is made...

Then go back next week once you are healed up enough and get the new one glued in place...  I dread all of this.....  But it is not to be avoided since letting it go will just bring on big tooth ache when its least expected....  Like in the middle of Christmas or something..

So I won't check back in until I get the drool that will be running down my already numb chin washed off of the front of my spattered and stained shirt....

But Biscuit will sit in my lap and look at me in wonderment, trying to figure out what's wrong with her daddy....

Retired Rod

Veterans Celebration Apache Junction..

On Sunday morning, I participated in the Goldwing Road Riders motorcycle club as it joined the Harley Owners Group local chapter in riding to the local chamber of commerce in Apache Junction.

They were kicking off their Veterans Day celebration and wanted a big entrance of the Flags..  Again the Motorcycle Color Guard on their Goldwings lead the entrance of about 80 bikes...  We aligned ourselves along the road in front of the main chamber office and flag pole...  All of us were given a flag on a PVC pole which we held on the side of our handlebars...

The local VFW had several mounted horse color guard members that rode in in parade fashion with the main large flag....  We all stood at attention as the main flag was raised...  And then in complete silence as the black POW flag was raised....  There were tears in the crowd.....



Again since I was in the middle of this display, I couldn't take any pictures...  I did have my black US Navy Vietnam Veteran hat on along with the large Vietnam service patch that is on the shoulder of my mesh riding jacket...  Several people walked the row of bikes, thanking the Vets....  It was humbling...

They were having another parade again this morning, but since it was almost 90 during this activity yesterday, I decided against participating.   You stand there for what seems forever, in the sun while they get things coordinated...  With that many folks, it is kind of like herding...

Most motorcyclists have participated in these kinds of events before and fall right in line, but still seems to take a long time...

So I stand at attention  today with my right arm raised in Salute to the many Veterans that have given their time and lives in order that we might continue to be a Free Nation!!

Retired Rod

Burgers and Goldwing Road Riders...

I've been sitting here trying to remember what I have done in the last two days.... And the short answer is not too much....  Didn't start the Jeep at all on Friday, but rather relied upon the motor cycle to take me out for supper on Friday night...

One of the favorite spots to go out for supper for Loyce and I was Fuddruckers over at the Superstition Springs Mall...  I've been sort of avoiding going over there because of all the memories it would bring up, but gave in when I rode the cycle past last night...

And while they have raised all of the pricing structure, the food was as good as I remembered...  The burger and sweet potato fries with all the trimmings filled me up to medium bloat... And I sat in front of one of the many TVs along the wall, to keep my mind busy and not over think the experience...  A couple at another table were interested in the fact that I was riding a Goldwing and related that they had ridden one for several years...

And then this morning early, I went back over to the area to meet with the Goldwing Road Riders Association chapter from Mesa..  They meet at the Old Country Buffet which is about a block away from Fudd's.  There were about 40 folks there this morning at 7:30...

We waited outside until they opened the restaurant, so the food in the steam tables was completely fresh..  They have a program during the meal, and it included several raffle ticket drawings..  Buying these tickets is how they support the cost of the activities...

That seemed to work out fairly well for me as I won the Holiday door prize....  A 12 pound frozen turkey...  It was rock solid... And then I managed to win a lesser prize from the purchased tickets...  A sewing kit in a decorator tin box...  Just what I needed, some more sewing stuff...

Later this afternoon, some of the Flag presentation team did a colors presentation with their motorcycles at the Mesa Swap Meet..  And since that is only a couple of miles North of me here, I went up to watch and see what that is all about...

It was an interesting tribute to prior service members, with each branch of the Armed Forces Flags mounted on the back of their Goldwings... I didn't think to take a camera...  It was in the mid 80s and the desert sun was bearing down, so I rode back home without spending any time at the swap meet...  I've been all thru those booths time and again...

I have enough of that stuff around here now.....

So that catches me back up to the present...

Retired Rod

Just who I am....

Loyce always told me that without her to do the cleaning and organizing, our house would become a pig sty....   And with that thought in the back of my mind, I have been religiously spending each morning attempting to clean myself back up from yesterday's activities.

Of course I always shirked any of these responsibilities in my former life as the husband of the house...  Partially because she would always  seem to come behind me and do most of the stuff over again should I become domestic....  I didn't have her ability to care for every little spot....

So my days are increasingly domestic..!  And it seems as though I am loosing the battle.. But my sheets are clean and the guest room is back ready for its next visitor...

I spent yesterday afternoon driving around looking for the specific type of dog treat that Biscuit is used to eating....  We visited several pet stores..   Never finding the exact brand...  It must be a local thing in Missouri or Kansas....

Loyce always used Pet Land back in the Midwest...  I think because they did sell pets...  Of course that has become a big no no..  She didn't see it that way, as long as the animals were cared for and sold in a timely fashion...  But that is another debate.  I know we got Biscuit on the second day that she was in the store....  But yes she was bread for the pet market as a designer puppy..

Because of their selling of pets, Petland was drummed out of the business out here in fashionable Arizona...  Screams of puppy mill supporter and the like were amplified into a law suit that stained the companies reputation beyond their ability to come back...  So they went broke...

That is a long winded explanation for why I can't find certain branded dog treats....  But at Pet Club, I found something that was reported as popular and a good seller...  Baked with peanut butter of all things....  And nothing healthy, but then they aren't her food, just treats....

Once we got out in the car, I gave her one of the biscuits.....  And..... she hated it...!  Broke it all up in her teeth and spit it back out in the cushion...  She did eat some of it in the 20 minute ride home...

Today I mixed some of the new treats in with the old ones and put them on the top of her food bowl... She ate them all, so perhaps........

My friend Roger was in a toot to get on the highway Tuesday morning, and tossed his stuff into the car early in the morning..  Thanking me for letting him stay here, he was out the door...   Of course he knew that I would talk his ear off and not let him leave otherwise...

But in that hurried departure, he left his tennis shoes and ball cap out in the garage... We had gone on a morning walk the day before and they were right where he had removed them...

So today I was looking for a box and the tape to seal it up....  Again this required digging thru the myriad of stuff in the sewing room..  But I found things right away and got myself off to the UPS store...

And on the Jeep subject,  Roger and I had decided that the carpet fabric floor mats that came with the vehicle were not appropriate for the Arizona desert..  The gravel just gets ground into the fabric almost immediately...

I had searched the computer web sites but didn't find anything made specifically for the vehicle unless they were $150 plus shipping....  Toooooo much...  So I stopped at local auto parts stores....  Where the solution was to cut generic mats to match the oddball shape....

But the guy at O'Reiley suggested going back to Jeep...  Saying that they weren't all that expensive and would be made exactly for the application.....

So after the UPS store, I went back to Jeep..  Where I found that the row of 20 Jeeps from last week had been reduced to 4....  That was amazing... But the parts counter guy knew exactly what I wanted and said they had them in stock for $85...  Sold!!!

That included the longer one piece for the back, and both front mats...  They are rubber and curve up to catch the spills of a bouncy bad road.....    I saved the carpet ones for the day that the vehicle is sold on to its next owner....  And you know that I will get a wild hair, sooner rather than later and trade it on down the road......  Its just who I am....

Retired Rod

Coming Clean

Ok, what has really taken place since arriving in Arizona...?    Long long term readers of this blog will remember that back in the spring of 2009, Loyce and I were out on a drive to Gila Bend and had a bad day...

We ended up rolling over a Toyota Corolla when a roll of  reinforcement wire came off of the back of a truck we were following....  We were banged up but survived.... At that time we purchased a Toyota Camry mostly with the insurance settlement...  Car Accident  Pictures

Last winter, that car still served us well but became 4 plus years old...  We had used it as a chase vehicle on countless RV trips... and it has been all over the country...   In short, it was getting long in the tooth and needed traded...

With too much windshield time on the trip out here, I made the decision that it should go now while it was still desirable enough to bring a decent trade...  So, during much of last week I was attempting to trade off that car...

Going to dealerships, getting bids and arguing for a better deal..  Using the last bid to get a better one.

And while I know that Loyce would not approve, I decided to replace it with a Jeep...  A traditional Jeep, not a new trendy SUV kind of a Jeep..

On October 31, and Halloween there were Sales for end of the month numbers and I managed to make it all work...  So, meet the new Arizona Car....

My friend Roger arrived just as I was taking delivery of the vehicle and closing the money application part of the deal..  He had to stop off at another friends house while I got things all settled...  That night, I couldn't even find the electric window switches or the mirror adjuster knob in the dark..

So now you understand why we were out driving up and down Fish Creek Canyon...  Just had to try out the new toy...  Roger asked if I was really going to take a two day old new car on this overwhelmingly dusty gravel road....???  Why heck yes!!  Its a Jeep Thang..!

We even had the front half of the hard tops out....  Remember that new pressure washer?  And with a commercial car wash up at the local station, it was clean as new...

And before anyone says it, yes I know I have toooo many vehicles...  It is my intent to make this Jeep the new Toad!  That will require selling Loyce's CRV, which has a base plate and the additional tail light bulbs installed....

Getting rid of her things is hard for me right now, but leaving a perfectly good Honda in the garage for ever because it is sentimental doesn't seem prudent either..  Do you need a 2011 Toad?

Retired Rod

Tourist stuff

Ok, lets be clear here, my friend Roger is looking at the real estate in the Tucson area....  I do NOT need another home to try and take care of....  It was bad enough with both of us doing the maintenance stuff and cleaning....

Other than that, we have been doing tourist things, driving out to Fish Creek Canyon thru Tortilla Flat.  And then again today driving out to Roosevelt Reservoir around thru Globe...  And no we did not drive the gravel between the Canyon and the Roosevelt dam... We went North out of the lake area and came back around on the road from Payson.

That was farther, but didn't require any backtracking.... We are kind of sight seeing anyway so why turn around....?

I'm not sure what else we have done, other than attending the Lutheran Church this morning here North of our home on Signal Butte...  And then needing some brunch, I surprised Roger by taking him to the Iowa Cafe up on North Higley...

This restaurant is themed with Iowa Universities sports memorabilia..    Both Iowa State and Iowa are represented with a smattering of other schools from within the state as well...  The menu is hard working farmer or farm hand all the way...

The main offering for breakfast was a 4 egg omelette.... with hash browns, sausage, toast and coffee...  I had grits and an egg over easy...  Yep, just like library paste....!

We were aware that it was time change weekend, but of course that doesn't happen here in Arizona. So it only means that changing back to central time when I go home for the Holidays will only be one hour.

Otherwise, we have no new news....

Retired Rod

Head Count....

Nothing has gone wrong here in Arizona, but rather my old friend from when we lived in Urbandale, Iowa has come to visit me here in Mesa....

Of course we are like a couple of old magpies yaking and yaking about our cell phones, (androids) and BMW cars and the like.   Roger has worked at the dealership in Des Moines off and on for years, so he really knows his cars...

Today we were off down to the North side of Tucson looking at new spec homes that are available for sale in the Twin Peaks area....  We are not serious customers, but perhaps if all the ducks fell in a row....

Biscuit went with us today and she had to stay out in the car and bark at all of the construction workers around the new homes...  I'm not certain she is really mad at those workers, but rather just can't understand why they won't come over and play with her while dad and Roger are inside looking at all those houses....

I just didn't want to be missing in action for too many days, so I am checking in for the head count...

Retired Rod