Luncheon engagements two days in a row....!

Monday at noon, we had a bloggers get together at the Streets of New York... an Italian, New York style deli....  Its only about two miles North of me here on Signal Butte...

That was pretty far from Ray and Cindy who are staying over in Val Vista RV Park.. And from Susan in the Good Life RV Park in that same neighborhood...  But with Gordon and Juanita about ten miles to my South and Sandi and Jim up in the North part of Apache Junction, I would think it was somewhat centrally located...

I was going to take my phone and get a picture, but alas I drove off without it..  Ray gave his camera to the waitress and she shot a group photo  of all of us anyway...




From the left around the table, Gordon, myself, Jim, Sandi, Susan, Ray, Cindy and Juanita in the blue blouse... (picture stolen from Ray's blog without shame....)

I ordered a little Meaty Beast pizza, and the crowd had a good time with me and the beast name...  We were all talking at once, so I'm not sure if we were listening too well..  LOL, but a lot of stories passed and we held that corner of the restaurant for a couple of hours... We hadn't had the group together since last year, but as bloggers we were all up to date with each others lives like old friends..

Ray did a better job of reporting on this and has more pictures, so go see his write up here....

Today, (Tuesday), I went to Casa Grande to visit my former business partner from the central Iowa area...  Craig has a Tiffin Phaeton, which he parks at Palm Creek RV Resort...

If you haven't been to Palm Creek, it really is a resort... Not just an RV park..  True, your space isn't much different as its the same old gravel lot with a concrete patio, but they have every imaginable activity available...  The park surrounds a full 18 hole golf course and the entire place has much more of a Country Club atmosphere than most of the other parks here in Arizona... Also the buildings and common grounds are newer and nicer...

We sat leisurely catching up on each other's lives for quite a while...  We are both widowers, so we have that in common...  We moved our little get together up town to McMasher's Sports Bar, and their outside patio...  Craig bought, and wouldn't have it any other way....LOL  Thanks Craig!

Tonight I watched the Iowa basket ball team go down in flames to a charged up Minnesota team up in Minneapolis...  ugh.... that hurt...

That's about it from here...

Retired Rod

I'm still here.......

Somehow even with the filter on comments set against anonymous commenters, the post that I made informing of Loyce's passing is getting spammed...  That's almost cruel..  I know its a computer without any sense of what is happening, but...........

I have spent the last several days attending a religious conference in the North end of Phoenix...  Joyce Meyer is an evangelist from St Louis, and I relate to her Midwest manner of teachings...  They have been coming here for a number of years, but this is the first time I have attended..

It is 45 miles from the house here in the East end of Mesa to the North end of Phoenix..  With the parking lot reminding me of the arrival and departure from a football game, it took about two hours to make the 45 miles, causing me to arrive home after 11 PM...  

I made this trip three times, but gave up on the fourth time, as I was worn out..  The conference was crowded to beyond overflowing with many overflow rooms connected to the main sanctuary by large video screens...  It was an amazing experience..

On other days it has been amazingly warm here, and I have been riding the motorcycle almost daily to various destinations...  Usually a restaurant or a distant Wal Mart..  One day it was in the upper 80s, or perhaps 90...  This was the first time this year that I actually felt hot...

I contrasted this to my family that was suffering below freezing back in Kansas and Iowa..  I didn't have the heart to write much about our good fortune in weather and that I was enjoying it...   

Late in the week, my friend Bob Evans in Des Moines passed away to his maker...  Bob went with us year after year to the Dayton Hamvention..  He was more senior in years than some of the rest of us, and eventually had to stay home several years ago to take care of his handicapped wife..  We all understood, but missed his presence...

He was a Navy man serving on a destroyer in WWII..  When ever we would get ready to drive away for Dayton, he would proclaim "Cut er Loose"...!

So Bob is now with his maker, and with this departing from our world..... I wish Bob to "Cut er Loose!" in his new journey in the afterlife...

Retired Rod 

The original Roosevelt Dam

As reader Becki points out in her comment on the last post, Roosevelt Dam was originally a brick structure and the Wikipedia entry has this picture taken when it was much newer, or way back when it was new...




As she points out, the road actually went across the dam on the top, and the bridge wasn't there...

The dam was started in 1906 and finished in 1911...   In 1996 the old dam was completely encased into the new concrete dam...  The Wikipedia info is here.

This is a more detailed history and a bunch more neat info here...

Retired Rod

Friends Visit

Biscuit was sky high when my friends Roger and Dianne arrived on Saturday morning...  She ran and ran...  Jumped up in Dianne's lap and licked her to death....  I have never been able to cure Biscuit of jumping up on folks...

We headed out on a country tour of Globe, and Roosevelt lake...  Biscuit got to go along and she was hard to settle down...  But eventually sat in the back seat fairly still... She went just as nutty over Rich when he was here too...

We just drove around sight seeing ended up at the Roosevelt dam..  Again I am struck with the really low level of the water...  We haven't had any rain this past winter, at least while I have been here...

It was late in the afternoon and the shadows were all over the front side of the lake, but the low sun illuminated the concrete back wall nicely in early evening glow...  So that gave me the opportunity to grab a new header photo...

We were able to have a nice breakfast the next day, before sending our guests on to their next friend here in the Valley....

While way too short, I really appreciated the time I was able to spend with Roger and Dianne...

Retired Rod

Some nice days here

Well my friend Rich flew out to Iowa Tuesday night...   His ticket was in the evening, so we had lots of time to yak it up all day....  He had his bags packed, so we decided to go to another bar and grill place over in Tempe.  They have home made potato chips that they deep fry right on the spot..

They come warm to the touch and lightly salted........  They are almost better than the burger...  We hung out drinking diet cokes and watching TV, as it was still late afternoon...  When the evening crowd began to arrive, we headed on out...

Since we were over by I 10 on Warner Road, we only had just a few miles to make it to Sky Harbor airport....  Of course I 10 was at walk speed... But we were three hours early for his flight, so it didn't matter....  He's a retired corporate pilot, so he's used to hanging out at the airport and he had his book reader as well....

Later that night I got a message that Des Moines was at 12 degrees when he landed....Eww.....

The next morning, my other friend Roger that is staying with his wife down in the Tucson area, called me that he was coming up to get some work done on his car..  We have a foreign car repair facility that isn't the dealership or factory approved here in Mesa...  Of course it is much more economical  for the same work...

Roger wasn't certain that they could do his work in a day, so he packed a bag...  After dropping off the car, we ended up at the Bass Pro Shop's attached restaurant..  Islamorada Fish Company or something like that...

Loyce and I used to go there because she enjoyed seafood so much....  So Roger and I enjoyed a nice meal of seafood.... We laughed afterwords that we couldn't remember the names of the fish we had ordered....

And when we got back to the car repair shop, they had finished the work so Roger could go back to Tucson...  Seems they had the correct parts in stock....  The car company won't sell them parts directly, so they have to order them from a sympathetic dealer over in California....  That means they have a lot of stuff in stock...

Today, Thursday, I spent most of the day doing domestic chores running the washer until I ran out of soap...  So late in the day, I was over at Wal Mart buying soap and fabric softener...  That stuff is higher priced than gas and oil...!  But the day was nice!

Our days here have been beyond nice per the Jeep's display..

Sometime in the afternoon, I learned that Roger and his wife will be up here during the weekend and plan on stopping by...  So I am looking forward to their visit....

Oh, poor ole Biscuit managed to let me catch her this afternoon, and found her way into the bath tub....  She doesn't enjoy the process, but she seems really content to be clean once its over..

When she is dirty, she incessantly licks herself all over trying to be clean....   But after her bath, she seems to stop that practice and sleeps contently...  That is how I know she is happy being clean..

Retired Rod

Every day its something....

Saturday was the Goldwing Road Riders Club meeting here in the city of Mesa...  I was looking at my insurance card on Friday, and discovered it was out of force after the beginning of the year...  What?

Well that kind of made sense, as I purchased the bike last January, and the bill would have been mailed to Kansas...  So I went to the Saturday breakfast in the car...  Better not take any chances...

So on Monday I went over to the Insurance office, and the lady said I was totally legal and paid up..  Seems that the cars are tied in with my home owners insurance, and when I paid that bill, I had paid for the bike at the same time.....  Somehow I had missed putting that card in the bike's documentation...   Man, I'm slipping...  Well anyway I now have a new card and it didn't cost me anything...

Seems like we have been going out to dinner a lot here, spending Friday night in a bar and grill down in Gilbert... A friend of Rich's plays in a two piece band and were playing that night... We made the night of it doing what you do in a pub.

Saturday after the motorcycle meeting we sat out to drive around the San Tan mountains to our South..  We stopped at the Casa Grande ruins and drove thru Florence and Coolidge..  That night we had steaks on the grill in the back yard...

Sunday we drove out to Saguro Lake in the afternoon as the day was finally in the upper 70s...  We hung around the lake for a while watching the big tourist boat go out on the lake..  The parking lot that is free without a Tonto Forest pass was beyond full so we moved on.

That left me going up to the insurance office this morning...  Only to find out that I didn't know what I was talking about..

Rich leaves to go back to Iowa tomorrow so he is accumulating his brave attitude while going back to the cold...  But as luck would have it, they are due for a warm up and will actually get above freezing during the afternoons next week...

Not to exciting, but we have been busy every day...

Retired Rod

More dentist, Yuck!

Today I finally went back to get that crown fixed at the dentist...  I was all antsy about it, and had called and cancelled last week because of having a sore throat...  But I wonder if I didn't invent that malady just to put it off again...

They did a root canal on that molar after I had it crowned...  So, they drill right thru the top of the new crown...  Today they put a support brace over the inside of the top of the crown and then did a big filling to fill things all up...

Since the tooth is now dead without a nerve in the middle, I didn't get any novacaine..  I just sat there and withstood the process...  Of course it didn't hurt without a nerve in that tooth, but the sensation of them working on the tooth with a drill and all the grinding is much the same..

But after the procedure was complete, just like that it was over with.. No waiting for hours for the numbness to go away....

We actually went out to a bar and grill tonight, where I had pulled pork as a sandwich rather than my usual burger and fries...  I will pay dearly later tonight, with reflux but such is life...

Otherwise it has been really cool here barely making 60 with overcast skies...  The weather folks report it is raining up in the clouds, but not making it to the ground before it evaporates..  I had on a sweat shirt all day, and it seemed to help me be warmer...

You get really spoiled, and then 50s seems like its freezing.......

Now before anyone says anything, I know it was in the single digits for a high back in the midwest today and your not impressed with my crying act one bit...  LOL

Retired Rod

Chilly but bike riding just the same..

I has remained cool here this week, as we were hoping the early 60 degree forecasts were going to be in error...  But they are not!

Yesterday we went to a grill over in the town of Gilbert.. The little shopping center is called the Farmhouse Meadows...   From the road is seemed somewhat extensive, but turned out to be a strip mall with mostly shops that would appeal to the gals..  But since we were guys, we went into the Groves Bar and Grill...

We promptly found half pound hamburgers and tater tots...  With Iced tea it all hit the spot...  Rich has a friend that lives out here from Iowa, and he plays guitar and sings...  He will be performing here at the Groves on Friday, so this was a trial run to find the place and learn the ropes...

Then today, I went out on the Motorcycle to my local barbershop over on Power Road...  The interplay in this place is beyond belief...  You forget why you came, but somehow my hair got cut in spite of all the badgering....

Then tonight we were over to Fuddruckers, for yet another hamburger...  I felt guilty and only ordered the small one...  But it was good and plenty with all the fixings that are available on the burger bar.... I was stuffed...  It was a late lunch-supper, and we didn't eat again...

I only saw 63 on the bike thermometer this afternoon, but pictures from back home in Kansas showed over 6 inches of new snow...   So 63 and sunny while riding the motorcycle will do just fine for us here...  We have been running the heat at night though...

Retired Rod

Keeping Busy

Well so much for Denver and the Super Bowl... I would have never guessed that they would have had such an off night and showed so poorly...    But perhaps Seattle was that much better and just totally shut down the Denver team....  Oh well, that is why they play these games.... Because you can't factor in the human performance issue on a computer model...

Our only vested interest here was that since KC is an AFC team, we are more used to rooting for a fellow AFC team...  So perhaps is was a bit demoralizing to have such a one sided game...

We haven't done too much here other than discuss everything under the sun and go to local eating establishments...  Rich is a fellow ham and we seem to have a never ending interest in everything mechanical and electronic...

It cooled down into the mid 60s during this weekend, so even the bike has been parked.  We have had so much nice weather, it is about time to have some cooler weather as a sort of pay it back time...  My son Chris reminded me that it was in the 20s back in Kansas tonight... Gulp...

I did spend time today after church, spraying the weeds and grass that has been springing up thru our rock yard, with the warm weather..  I don't remember the weeds sprouting so rapidly last spring...  But it wasn't nearly as nice last year in January....

So we start a new week without much in the way of planning, but we will keep busy no matter what...

Retired Rod