Sunday January 9th, 2022

Sunday, afternoon at 2pm, and I have got the outside chairs set up again, cause there is nothing except sunshine in the ten day weather forecast. I’ve taped up the air conditioner cover and have it back in place, and I just ordered a whack of items to resealable a number of items on the coach roof from Amazon, now I’m kicked back with one of those whiskey sour cocktails waiting for Tom & Kathleen to join us. And after the first sip, I have made the corporate decision that there will be no more ladders in my future today. As I’m thinking this one is going to need a second, or possibly a third, and now I’m starting to understand what could be the source of some of my time management issues … jus’saying.

Ok the jury is in, the second whiskey sour was just as good as the first, but I must admit I wasn’t brave enough for a third. Our gathering grew as John & Karen, as well as Lincoln joined us for a beverage, and as hard as it may be to believe Miss Laurie rolled out some liquor shots after our two whiskey sours, we also fired up the fire pit and enjoyed a little warmth as the sun has moved around the coach to shade us, or at least we had some heat, till we ran out of propane.

After an afternoon of beverages and laughter we settled in for a evening of leftovers and some television, including a few YouTube videos. I didn’t get out for my regular Sunday walk in the arboretum, but I will get out for this week’s photos, so fear not.

Monday, and the sun is just starting to peak over the mountain 7:58, as we are back over the ten hours between sunrise and sunset, but because we are tucked in between the mountains we see the sun later and lose it earlier, but it paints the mountains with such beautiful colours and shadows that it is all worth it. We we near freezing again last night, but are warming up all week as we climb to 21°C (70°F) by Friday, which will have us actually move over the average temperature for January.

In the mean time I wanted to get some more propane for the fire-pit and the barbecue so I headed into Superior where I fueled our toad and went looking for a place to refill our propane tank. Well I couldn’t find a refill station in Superior, oh almost every where had exchange tanks, but I didn’t want or need to pay for that service, but along with precooked bacon that seems to be the American way. I was also looking for information on local hiking trails in the area and had been told that the visitor centre in superior was a good spot for such information but the sign in the window said closed, no hours or anything, just closed, so a quick tour of the Main Street found a total of four tank exchange places but no one that would refill my tank.

Now I had seen a propane tanks and trucks on the way to Gold Canyon, on the north side of US-60, so I headed west, and found the spot, and it looked like they could refill tanks but the gate was closed and padlocked, again no sign with hours or any information. So I ventured further through Gold Canyon to the town of Apache Junction where I found a refill station. And there was a long line of people and propane tanks to be filled, a few cold nights and closed for New Years the main cause for the line.

Small propane tanks have always been a bone of contention with me, back home in Ontario most refill stations just charge a set price, so the cost to fill a tank or top off a tank is the same. And that always bothered me enough that we purchased of a second tank to allowed the luxury of draining the tank completely before refilling, getting the best value. Every where we have traveled since charges for the actual amount of product being sold, todays price was $2.79 per gallon ($0.72 per liter), and here in the States they call the regular small propane tanks, 5 gallon tanks as opposed to 20 pound tanks and 30 pound tanks are 8 gallon tanks. Tanks are not filled while sitting on a scale, they are filled properly by cracking the vent and being filled until the liquid shows at the vent. The same process used back in Ontario to fill a propane powered vehicle, or to fill an on-board mounted propane tank on our motor-home. So todays fill of my empty tank was 4.6 gallons of propane, so 4.6 times $2.79 plus the state sales tax, meant a cost of $14.06 as opposed to $24.95 plus sales tax for the exchange. I will also tell you that $2.79 a gallon is not a good price as it was usually just over the two dollar a gallon mark in Quartzsite. And just to annoy my Ontario friends even more, we paid under $0.80 per litre to fill the propane tank on our coach, when we left Goderich in November.

But enough of this rambling rant on propane prices, as Ray & Karen are coming to visit this afternoon, so a couple of hours wandering through the arboretum, finishing with a hike of the high trail, and I would say we have seen less that half of the arboretum. Water was still flowing in Queen Creek, in fact so much flow, that the lower crossing was still closed to foot traffic, but the sound of the flowing creek just seems sweeter here in the desert, and has been a wonderful treat. After our hike we enjoyed a cold beverage and one of Miss Laurie’s dips as a reward, with Ray and Karen escaping, just before the gates locked for the evening. Because I had got propane, I was able to barbecue pork chops for dinner before catching the season ending Yellowstone.

Tuesday, and for some reason I’m up at 5am, the evening was not as cold, so the electric heater has kept the coach reasonably warm over night, but we are still three hours before the sun starts to warm the coach, Mr. Sam has had his morning treats, and is napping on my lap, which is normal if I rise early, but a treat I miss out on if I get up at 7am as then he just has his treats and heads straight to the big bed. And I plan to turn on the television at 7am To catch the morning news. But this morning I finished off yesterdays portion of the blog and at 6:25 the eastern horizon is showing the first signs of light, and the beauty of the sunrises here is only exceeded by the sunsets. And it was just last evening as we watched the mountains being painted again by the setting sun, that Miss Laurie said we already have dozens of sunset photos, we just need to remember to enjoy the beauty every night we can. And as much as we dislike the short daylight hours of winter, we get to see more sunrises than we do during the summer months.

6:32 and Mr. Sam has woken and left my lap, he has made it to his food bowl, to have an early morning snack, I suspect he will be heading to the big bed for his extended morning nap, but I can now hear him trying to open a cabinet door as he makes his way to the bedroom, he is always looking for an unlatched cabinet, that he can open and explore. No wonder the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” because this is one damn curious kitty.

I’m not sure but I think today is our restocking day, because I think tomorrow we are heading to Scottsdale with Ray & Karen for a day of exploring and dinner, but for now I’m just going to enjoy the birth of another day, and think about how lucky we are to be able to enjoy these little simple pleasures that this life affords us …

7am and the red hews are starting to show through, we have gained enough light that my iPhone just took a regular photo as opposed to a long exposure photo but we are still close to an hour from the sun peaking over the mountain top. The sun peaked over the ridge a couple of minutes before eight o’clock and almost instantly I can feel the warmth, the forecast temperature today is 66°F (19°C) and for the next week the temperatures will continue to rise. I don’t want to sound like a smart alec but winter is pretty much over here in Arizona, there will be cool nights but any sunny day over 60°F (15°C) I’m ok with.

So today was restocking day a trip to Mesa, and our first “Trader Joe’s”, experience and after all the hype we had heard to call it disappointing would be an understatement. The crap some people buy “organic” mustard or “organic” ketchup, in fact the only thing I couldn’t find “organic” was the butt floss, but there was some recycled butt floss. Oh there were some neat looking, but overpriced items, things that I would maybe like to try, but common sense says no don’t do it, the same little voice that stops us buying things at Costco that sound so good but buying a family supply size bag of something that we have never tried doesn’t make any sense either. So Trader Joe’s, Costco and Bashas’ and we are loaded up for more than a week, other then perishable items.

I could talk about people not wearing masks in stores, but how would the States ever be able to set new Covid case records day after day? If people actually tried to protect themselves, like seriously let’s just let nature take its course, and if we loose a few thousand people on the way, oh well, at least they had the right to die their way. As I look at the news from Ontario and see the move to another lockdown, being brought back in to try to control the spread, here they are doing the opposite with close to a half a million cases a day, the drive seems to be infect enough people to get to herd immunity, will it work, the jury is still out, but we should know shortly.

Wednesday, just another sunny Arizona day, and today and we are off the explore “Old Town Scottsdale”, it sounds like a lot of shops, bars, and restaurants. And while it looks interesting, I’m thinking it may just be a good people watching day, especially on such a beautiful January day. We are going with Ray & Karen, and are planning dinner at a Spanish restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale, that has excellent reviews.

Well today was a day filled with a lot great conversation as Ray & I wondered around the old town area, but far as stores go, unless looking for ladies clothing, Indian jewelry, or some expensive souvenirs Im thinking that some of the bars would be the only reason for returning. Tapas Papa Frita was the restaurant that was chosen for dinner, and the group shared some tapas before ordering individual paella’s for our entrees. The tapas were flavourful and the paellas were obviously made to order, but I think Miss Laurie and I were expecting some what spicier dishes, we could be wrong in our expectations, but I had always imagined Spanish cuisine to be spicy, in the same way I would expect French cuisine to be rich and creamy, and maybe that’s because of our Mexican experiences with the Mexican use of chilies, and we both wondered if the dishes have just been toned down to satisfy the local tastes, I guess that will remain an unanswered question for now.

I understand that too often restaurants cater to local tastes rather than staying authentic, we have ran into that at restaurants in Mexico that are near the border, and they have what i would call a gringo menu for the tourists, apparently Americans cross into Mexico to order a hamburger at a Mexican restaurant, but they also have menus for the locals that are readily available to us gringos upon request. And in all reality most Americans eat very plain foods so I suspect local restaurants may just adjust to the local tastes and I personally didn’t see many spicy people in Scottsdale if you get my drift.

Thursday, back to work in our ticket booth, this working three days a week is a treat, and the job doesn’t require a whole bunch of thought process, and is actually a one person job, so I spend time watering plants in the morning and explaining the map and some of the arboretum high lites to guests. The problem is that every trip I make into the arboretum adds to the number of high lites, so I take a black and white copy of the map and with a highlighter mark the main arboretum trial and explain that it is 1.25 miles (2 kilometres) long and takes anywhere from 45 minutes up to 6 hours to walk depending on how often you get sidetracked.

So this week we took it upon ourselves to sweep, much of the area around our ticket booth, the area has trees overhanging the area, and as their leaves have fallen, no one has cleaned up, so during last weeks rain, the water was dammed up to prevent it from running to the drains because of the leaves. As we watch the amount of staff here and what actually gets done, and there seems to be a discrepancy. So far we have not been able to get a good read on the the actual staff directory of who works for whom, and how the areas are divided up. At this point we work under the direction of Lynnea, who is in charge of retail and admissions.

Friday, and today’s forecast sunny and 70°F (21°C), and as I watch the weather report for the nation, the temperatures back in Ontario that has sub freezing temperatures for the daytime highs, and I’m thinking that we’re good here in Arizona with the sunshine. This is our seven hour day, but it is a beautiful Arizona day, and with more visitors the days pass faster.

Friday dinners are normally burgers, and tonight was a burger night, sometimes it’s the simplest things that taste the best, and we are huge fans of Kirkland’s sirloin burger patties from Costco, they barbecue well, a little shrinkage but picks up lots of barbecue flavour and makes a great burger that isn’t juicy enough to run down your arms while eating, but is flavourful enough to enjoy, And after a seafood paella on Wednesday, tonight’s burgers seemed even tastier served with some plain potato chips, just simply hit the spot.

Saturday, and I’m up early again this morning, 5 am and it’s 46°F (8°C) and the forecast for today is cooler as another storm hits north of us, Northern California, Nevada, Utah areas, which is great because the moisture is badly needed, as many of the reservoirs are very low, Lake Powell and Lake Mead are down nearly a one hundred feet each, and are part of the Colorado river that is the water source for many towns and farms in the desert.

At 5:30 I crawled back into bed and slept till after seven, which left us hustling to get to work for our eight o’clock start. Saturdays are usually busy which just makes the days slip by even quicker, being our longest day at a full eight hours, if your not busy the day can drag on but today was busy and it wasn’t long until we we getting ready to cash out for the day and our work week. Tonight’s dinner was our left over paellas and were very good reheated in the microwave, way too often restaurant leftovers come out way overdone when reheated but these came out very good and if anything the flavour was even better.

Just a quiet evening, In the coach, got to watch some golf, we caught up on some YouTube videos, and took in a movie before turning in for the night. We have a new addition to the crew as the sixth work camper couple pulled in today, we have not met them yet

Sunday, and I’m sure you all will be surprised to hear that this blog is no where close to being ready to publish, and as I sit here watching “Sunday Morning” on CBC, I’m actually feeling a bit lazy, and can see that todays deadline is going to get kicked down the road a few hours. As I take my Sunday morning stroll through the arboretum, and below are a few of todays photos, again all taken in the Wallace garden section of the arboretum.

Well it’s now a couple of hours after the scheduled publication time of ten o’clock local time and I’m at least an hour away, but I’m back into go mode and charging ahead, now all I can hope for is a boring football game, so that someone will read my blog … lol

Be well, stay safe, & only 71 days till spring!

Day 1559

Blog 399

Sunday January 2nd, 2022

Sunday, and I actually got the blog out by the scheduled time, and that has not been the case in recent weeks. So what happen today? I’m not really sure so we can just hope I finish and publish this blog on time. Well I spent the rest of the day of catching up on some electronic filing, moving files onto storage discs, and as the year is coming to a close, it is a time to reflect on the past year and maybe even do some planning.

Miss Laurie spent a few hours weeding the gardens here around the common area, because it is easier to fill her “need to weed” after a little rain to soften the soil. Before enjoying some sunshine, today we had some cloud, some sunshine, but at least not much wind today. We are caught up in some crazy weather that is not usual, last weeks rain has been met with jubilation here in the desert. Southwest United States has been under drought conditions for over ten years and now the yearly rain fall of seven inches looks like it is going to be met. With last weeks rain, the area got close to two inches which was almost triple the normal December rainfall. And with showers in next weeks forecast, records are being broken, and a look to northern states, is showing storms and snow that will help replenish, badly needed water for Nevada, Arizona, and California as well.

As usual I did get out into the arboretum for a short walk this afternoon, and here are some of todays photos. Taken in the Wallace Forest area of the new Wallace Garden area of the Arboretum.

Monday, and today is forecast to be one of the nicer days this week, but not near the temperature levels of normal, we just kicked back this morning, and after lunch made the trek into Mesa for this weeks supply run, so quick stops at Kohl’s and Walmart, as we just needed a few items.

Although there was signage at Kohl’s suggesting the wearing of masks while in the store, it appeared that still only be fifty percent of customers were wearing masks. Now yesterday there were only 200,000 new cases in the States, so really no need to be alarmed, right? And of course at any Walmart in the southern States we are always just glad to see people have remembered to wear their pants, so the wearing of masks would be just way too much to expect or hope for.

Our coach slide leaked again when we had the heavy rain so I wanted to pick up some tape to cover the area that I assume must be leaking. Because it leaks with the slide in or out, the leak must be at the outer edge, but there is no obvious spot of entry. So by tapping this area if we stop the leak for this weeks rain then I will know where I need to repair, and while it will be a difficult repair, Arizona is normally a good place for such repairs because it can be weeks between storms.

Tuesday, and another cloudy day, temperatures today are forecast for a high of 50°F (10°C) and a low of 40°F (7°C), well below the normal, but the rain that we have already received should make for an outstanding spring bloom here in the desert. Miss Laurie commented on our drive yesterday, on just how green the desert appears, and it does. Normally the desert looks brown and dry, now there is no shortage of things jumping to life, which has always amazed me, most of the desert is very fertile soil, so add a little rain and it springs to life, take the rain away and it again goes dormant until someone adds water. That becomes very visible in areas like Yuma, where huge fields of vegetables are being grown in the desert, “just add water”.

The sun is peaking through the clouds, and it feels warm on my skin, even on these cool days. Watching the weather this morning it looks like 2021 is going out cold and wet, and that weather pattern changes for 2022 to return us to the Arizona weather that we drive here to enjoy.

Well I took on a project today that I have put off for some time, our oil fired burner has not been operating, oh I knew why. This boiler is quite complex, and has a lot of moving parts, you may remember back in October and the issue with the fuel line. Shortly after that repair, we blew a fuse for the boiler, now a number of things are controlled by that fuse, but I could hear the air compressor changing its operating speed and tone. And again there was no information on the component, so it was just instinct that guided me through the repair. What I found was just debris on the armature of the compressor motor. So just some clean up after disassembly, reassemble, bench test, and reinstall and test the operation.

I do not understand why everything has to be just an automatic replacement in the world today. I can still remember an instructor during my first college session, he said that as a mechanic that you will never know how to repair everything, but you should be able to observe a device, and anticipate the mechanics of it, to allow you to proceed to repair it. And that has served me well over the years, having been able to repair many items that were considered un repairable. Here again the replacement item is $600 and it took a couple of hours to get it operating again.

Wednesday, morning and it’s beginning to look a lot like October in Ontario, overcast with rain, the main difference is it is still warmer here than Ontario. The neat thing about the winter in the desert is when it’s overcast at night the temperature stays much milder overnight. We will see some overnight temperatures near or below freezing, next year when we get back to those sunny Arizona days, but on the brighter side the days are getting longer, which means spring in the desert, must be just around the corner. Well that corner could be a few months off, but at least we are pulling away from that winter corner. I will be the first to admit as we watch the weather across the States that it is not normal in so many places as we hear of flight canceled because of weather or the lack of flight crew to fly the places. The covid cases are over 300,000 today and are expected to be over 400,000 by the end of the week, so we are planning on getting our booster shots next week, unlike back in Canada, vaccinations and boosters are available everywhere here in Arizona, people just are getting them. This is where I could fall into a rant about the pandemic, but I have flogged that horse almost to death, so I will just move on.

Thursday, and again it is our work week Monday, but this is a special Monday, just sixteen years ago today on a warm Friday in Las Vegas Miss Laurie became Mrs. Laurie Buchanan, making me one very lucky guy. So to celebrate we are after working from 10 till 3 today, and then heading off to Mesa for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, a big night out for the Buchanan’s. Since I have known Miss Laurie she has always had a favorite meal that has always be her go to, so when I asked what she would like to go for a birthday, anniversary or whatever it was the Outback’s Alice Spring Chicken, and as times have changed the Outback restaurant chain has diminished and it has become harder to find so now she has a backup which is “Thai Coconut-Lime Chicken” at “The Cheesecake Factory” so off we go.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like The Cheesecake Factory as well, my problem is the size of the menu, it has to have over a hundred items, and don’t get me started on all the different cheesecakes, and I guess I just have a problem with that many choices. And the descriptions of each make them sound so damn good, so when you don’t have that go-to meal, like Miss Laurie, picking an entre can become a major task, then throw in a dark atmosphere and me in old prescription glasses this is now almost a job, well not really but it seems more challenging than having known what you want before leaving home.

So the next issue is the size of the portions, this is an issue here in the states, lets just say to save room for a piece of cheese cake, I have leftover shepherds pie in the fridge. As always the meal was excellent and we left full and happy. Oh I forgot to mention, because we were early for our reservation we went shopping for a new frying pan, doesn’t everyone go frying pan shopping for their anniversary?

Friday, New Years Eve and an overcast day again, the rain is not expected until afternoon now, and while not what we were hoping for, it has been great to see the desert react to the moisture, as Miss Laurie stated earlier just about how green the desert is. As we prepare for the new year the staff is working hard to cover the most delicate plants to protect them from the freeze warning that we are expecting after the rain quits and the clouds clear. So it looks like we have big white ghosts in the arboretum now, or snow covering in some areas, the arboretum has plants from around the world and some just can’t survive the winter cold without some protection.

So todays attendance was not nearly what was anticipated but when looking at the weather, it was most likely everything that could be expected on New Years Eve.

Saturday, New Year’s Day and the power has been out at the arboretum since the Thunderstorm rolled through at 3am this morning, so I can hear the other host volunteers firing up generators as their coaches cool down, we are just running off our batteries, with our electric heater still running on high. I woke up to the sound of water dripping, and I found that cover had been ripped off of our front air conditioner, allowing the heavy rain to leak through in the living room area, so after using towels to catch the water, tomorrows job will be reinstalling the old cover until I can locate a new cover.

And as we prepare to start work at 8am we have watched the morning news, had breakfast, and prepared our lunch and as we shut off the electric heater our battery bank was down to around 25%, but with the sun rising and the clouds dispersing the solar should be replenishing our battery bank soon. Our supervisor Chris explained that a downed power pole would mean no power for at least a couple of hours, so we set up in the ticket booth and prepared for a couple hours of manual operation, and I just watched as Miss Laurie handled it like the champ that she is. Recording all the information to be entered later when the power is restored, but I must say it was damn cold in our little steel ticket booth.

The power came back on at about 10:30, then the scramble to get the electronics up and connected, as the crowd levels are building now, being one of just a handful of venues to open on New Years Day, but by the end of the day we had a busy day at the arboretum and everything was as it should be. A lot of new visitors to the arboretum who were either just exploring or maybe they were looking to start a new tradition for future New Years Days. But one thing that is heard over and over again “we didn’t know the arboretum was here” and as they walk back up the path they are truly amazed by its rugged beauty, and vowing to return soon.

Sunday, and its cold here this morning, like 30°F (-1°C) and at 6:30am , I’m sitting in from of my laptop wondering how come I’m so far behind on this blog, after working on it all week, how is this possible! And I guess the conclusion is that I just can’t be trusted to keep on schedule, because I look at this week and I see three blogs have posted since my last “weekly” blog, and one was a whole video experimenting thing that I had never done before and then I start to understand why I’m so far behind schedule. And while on that topic how did everyone like the video of Queen Creek flowing? You must remember here in the desert that was a big event, many people drove out just to see this event that happens just a few times a year. Would you like to see more videos? And less of my ramblings? I’m struggling a little with the concept of one or the other or maybe I’ll just throw in an occasional video and see how that works out.

It’s almost noon here in the desert so I’m only a couple of hours behind!

Happy 2022!

1552 Days