Happy Thanksgiving!

I showed great restraint last Saturday at the park’s yard sale day, only spending 50 cents on this lovely Christmas candleholder.

I’m looking forward to doing a little Christmas decorating this year (“little” being the operative word.)
I also did a bit of knitting, finishing this baby hat for the American Heart Association’s February drive in 2018. I’m sure I’ll do a few more...they are so quick and easy to knit up.

Wednesday was my birthday, and we celebrated by going to Seasons 52 in Phoenix, where I enjoyed the Vegetable Tasting. Yum.

We had a lovely time!
When we returned home, we changed into our bathing suits and went for a swim. I don’t believe I have ever gone swimming on my birthday. Since the temperature here in Mesa was 88 degrees, it was perfect for swimming. And being a dry heat it really just felt comfortable, not sticky-hot like we are used to.

This morning I sang in the choir at our Thanksgiving service, then returned home to start cooking. We had a very traditional dinner, even though it was vegan: tofurkey, homemade stuffing, mushroom gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, and pumpkin pie for dessert. Bob agreed that it tasted like a regular Thanksgiving feast and not at all strange. This was our first tofurkey and it really tasted like turkey. Success!

Wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Our Week in Review

One of the things I worried about when we headed out on this Grand Adventure was that we might pick up fleas from dog parks that Auggie visits. We have traveled 31,000 miles without seeing a single flea. By our luck changed this week when we noticed Auggie scratching and we found a flea on him. He is extremely allergic to flea bites. So we dumped food grade diatomaceous earth all over the carpeted areas in the coach and vacuumed it up 12 hours later. Auggie got a Capstar (nitenpyram) tablet to kill any crawling on him. I guess we’ll have to put him on a monthly Frontline pill, something we stopped giving him because A) we haven’t had problems and because B) I don’t like giving drugs to my dog. I called the office yesterday to ask when they were going to de-flea the dog park and they told me it was done just that morning. I’m glad they are on top of it.

The former house owners told us the other day they’d be leaving a couple of days later because their Thanksgiving guests are staying longer. I was not a happy camper! Bob went over and talked them into just one more day rather than two. Honestly, how hard is it to say to your guests “I’m so sorry but you can’t stay longer—we told the new homeowners we’d be out on the 25th and we are MOVING.”? So our moving date is now a week from Sunday. I’m glad Bob dealt with it because I might have not been diplomatic.

We went to a free class Thursday afternoon on cooking for the holidays at our local Natural Grocers, a national chain. Anyway, the instructor never showed up so Bob and I each got a $5 coupon for any purchase. Definitely a good deal for waiting around for 15 minutes. We’ll try and catch another class soon.

Bob went golfing yesterday and had his best score ever, while I drove over to the local library to check it out. I’ll be able to get a library card as soon as we get our first electric bill and can show them we are here for a few months. I love libraries.

This morning is the park’s monthly yard sale and we will walk around to see what we can’t live without. I suspect that next month we’ll have things to sell, after we see what has been left in our new house. And later today we will visit an RV show, just to look at RVs and to see what free stuff they are giving away. As a matter of fact, we are here in this park today because of a coupon we picked up at an RV show, 2 1/2 years ago. It boggles the mind how life is like that!

This is How RVs Burn Down

We had a busy day today. I went to the fitness center for my workout, Bob went to woodcarving (he’s working on carving a bird,) we went to Walmart, Bob worked on replacing the motorhome’s clearance lights, I worked on a crocheted shawl..we took a walk... the day passed. And we almost had an electrical fire.

I had just finished making my Green Drink for lunch when the CO detector started beeping and there was a burning motor kind of smell mid-coach. At first I thought it was my Vita Mix and that maybe I had burned out the motor. But when I bent down to pick up something off the floor near the detector, I could smell a very strong burning odor down low. Bob unscrewed the detector and removed it from the wall, and finding it hot to the touch, he cut the wires. This was the CO detector Bob had replaced twice this year (the coach’s original one was replaced by one that started giving us a false alarm so the company sent us another new one.) Bob called the company, explained what happened, and they asked us to ship it back so they could test it. We were very glad we were home (and awake) when this happened, otherwise we probably would have had a fire. God is good.

I’m not so sure I want to put this company’s CO detector back in, even if they send us a new one.

We Meet Again

Bob and I went over to the Sleep Number Store in Mesa today to purchase a new mattress for our winter home. We purchased our first SN mattress in Santa Fe, NM, and have been enjoying it. However, it would be a real pain to move it from the motorhome to the house, then back again, every six months, so we decided to have a mattress for each.

We really liked our sales representative, Nathan, in Santa Fe, but lost track of him after he left that store. So who should we see when we walked into the SN store in Mesa?

Nathan!

How cool is that??! And what are the odds? He remembered us, and helped us buy our second SN mattress. Such a nice young man. We told him to let us know next time he moves, so we will know where to buy our NEXT mattress.

After leaving SN, we walked around the mall a bit. I found a White House/Black Market skirt for church for $12 at T. J. Maxx, and some weaving books at the Book Vault. 

Happy Veterans Day, and a big thank you to all who have served our country.

Life in Mesa, AZ

Bob and I are really enjoying life in this park. On Friday, Bob went golfing and had a great time meeting new friends. He’s signed up to be in a league, so he’ll be golfing every Friday.

I went to church on Sunday to the service that is held here in the park. It was very good, and was well attended. And today (Tuesday) I went to choir practice and was welcomed with open arms. It felt good to be singing again. I also attended an open house for the fitness center here, learning how to use the various cardio and weight machines. I’ve gradually increased my daily time on the treadmill and recumbent bike and am up to 30 minutes each, six days a week. The trainer told me it would be beneficial to add some strength training three times a week, so I’ll add that to my program. I’m feeling quite good, although I still have a little knee stiffness. Between going to the fitness center and walking Auggie to the dog park, I am getting my 10,000 daily steps in without any problem.

Today we had our slide toppers replaced on the motorhome. Boy, those fellows went to work and got it done within an hour or so. No more flapping sounds when the wind blows!

The old toppers were pretty grungy.

Tomorrow is the first meeting of the Fiber Crafts group and I’m looking forward to that as well. Life is good!

Visiting Friends

On Saturday, Bob and I took the RV east to Tucson, AZ to spend a few days with our friends, Chuck and Linda. They purchased a park model last year and have been just loving it. We can certainly see why. Their little home is in a park that has similar amenities as the one we are in, in Mesa, and the layout is pretty similar, too. Seeing them in their house has gotten us even more excited to move into ours.

On Sunday, while Bob and Chuck worked on replacing a shed door, Linda and I sat outside on their delightful deck and did some band weaving.

Her loom is so neat! Originally a card loom, she has adapted it to use with a Stoorstalk Sunna heddle for weaving Baltic bands. Afterwards, she gave me a tour of this lovely park. Check out the great Halloween display in the ballroom.

I visited the exercise room on Monday (and Tuesday as well) to use the treadmill and stationary bicycle. I was happy to see that I could continue my exercise program here. Bob and I drove to the SKP park in Benson to pick up our deposit that we had given them, and picked up our mail as well. When we got back I joined Linda at a crocheting group in her park. I showed off my recent shawl and Linda showed her current shawl project—beautiful!

Tuesday morning was the park’s “Howl-o-ween” Pet Parade, so we gathered in the courtyard to be judged. Auggie won “Scariest Costume” while Chuck and Linda’s Tucker won “Greatest Costume.”

Auggie went as “Jaws” while Tucker...

...was a hot dog in a bun. Such fun!

After the parade we all four (minus our fur kids) went to eat at Pita Jungle, a restaurant in Tucson with health-oriented Mediterranean fare. They were able to accommodate a vegan meal for me and I feasted on a Portobello “burger,” which was so yummy. Everyone else enjoyed their meals, too. We also stopped into Grandma’s Spinning Wheel to fondle some yarn, and the West, a needlework store with a lot of really neat items for embroidery, cross stitch, and needlepoint.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to our friends and head back to Mesa. We’ll be in a site that is quite close to our new house, and I don’t know if that’s going to make it easier or harder for us, being so close. With any luck, we’ll be moving in about November 25 when the previous owners move out.

Homeowners Again

This has been a good week for us. Bob and I went to a Meet & Greet on Wednesday where we had a very nice time talking to new friends and nibbling on a veggie platter. There was an excellent entertainer, too, and even though we didn’t win one of the door prizes we still had lots of fun.

We had our walk-through on the little manufactured home on Thursday and we didn’t see any real problems. The former owners are leaving a lot of stuff for us, some of which will save us a lot of money because we won’t have to buy new. On Friday we had our closing which took about ten minutes. Bob got a mailbox in the park to use temporarily until the former owners leave (right after Thanksgiving is the latest.) The earlier departure date will give us a few days to get all our things into the house before we have to put the RV into storage.

And I called Direct TV to find out about satellite TV.

Oh my goodness. They gave me such a hard sell. All I wanted was to find out cost and after over an hour on the phone with this annoying salesman we were signed up with a satellite TV/internet package. The next morning I cancelled the TV service. We get basic channels over the air, neither of us will watch 150 channels, and we will save $55 by just getting the internet service. And if the former owners leave their router, we’ll save another $10/month.

I’ve spent a few hours this week working on my class sampler for the Susan Foulkes band workshop. This is my favorite portion of the band so far.

Today (Saturday) we are driving a couple of hours to Tucson to spend a few days with our friends, Linda and Chuck, and their dog Tucker. We are looking forward to seeing them again and to seeing their park.