RV Storage

With the recent Monsoon storm activity that always carry high winds, we wanted to check out the status of our fifth wheel that is stored at Lake Pleasant. Yesterday was as good a day as any, so we combined a visit to our rig with several other errands we had to make. The main concern was that the cover was still intact and not shredded by the high winds. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived and discovered that the cover was almost exactly as we left it in June. This shot shows the rig that looks pretty much as it did when we left:

The only blemish was a small tear where the cover caught on the sharp corner of the step:

We didn't have any tape to repair the small tear, but it didn't look like it would grow any larger as it is a small area where the cover contacts the step corner. We are happy about the performance of the cover and the condition of the rig.

We made a few other stops along the way which included one at a CVS Pharmacy where Josie picked up a prescription, Walmart where Josie tried to schedule a haircut but her hairdresser was too busy, and Costco where we gassed up and also stocked up on water before heading home.

One last trip to the grocery store was in order before we settled in for the evening. It was 111 degrees yesterday but we see where the temperatures are expected to go down to the low 100's by the end of this week. Could that be a sign that the high heat days are numbered for the rest of the summer? We hope so.

I'd like to end this entry with congratulations to Patty and Mark who are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary today. We hope you enjoy the next 25...

Gate Project

I had mentioned that the HOA sent a nasty welcome letter to us requesting that we fix our utility gate on the side of the house which was in "disrepair". The letter gave two weeks to get the job done, and I finished it yesterday, one week early. I forgot to take a photo of the gate before I disassembled it to do the staining of the wood and the painting of the metal frame. But, this is what it looked like as I started the project. The first shot is of the wooden slats as I started to stain them:

I wasn't going to spend a lot of time doing any sanding or prep work on this thing as it is 1) - a utility gate, and 2) nothing that didn't look that bad to start with and this was a ridiculous request.

This second shot is of a section of the gate frame which actually did need some help. It looked pretty faded:

At any rate, I completed the job even though it took longer than I anticipated. I had to return to Lowe's to pick up more stain, Rustoleum for the gate frame and another brush to finish the job. I started at 8:30 AM and finished at 1 PM with the temperature rising to 113 for the day. I was soaking wet from sweat and completely drained physically from this project. This is a shot of the finished product and the HOA better think it's OK:

Josie got home from work at around 4 PM and we went to Macy's to pick up some bedding for our new bed. We stopped at Olive Garden for dinner while out and enjoyed their soup and salad special and a couple glasses of wine before returning home and calling it a day...

Our A/C is Back

I was super frustrated in the morning yesterday when I couldn't get any answers from anybody at the warranty company on when to expect our air conditioning to be fixed. The people I spoke with all said that the equipment was targeted for delivery on Friday, yesterday, but nobody knew for sure. I was reluctantly looking ahead to spending the weekend in our oven of a house.

At 11:30 AM, I received a phone call from the service technician at Circle Mountain Cooling - the company that is doing the repair. He indicated that he had the equipment and a crew scheduled to come out to perform the installation but he was having a problem getting the proper authorization numbers from the warranty company to assure him that he would be fully reimbursed for his effort. I immediately got on the phone with the warranty company and told them I wasn't going to lose my position in the repair schedule with Circle Mountain and that they had better obtain agreement with them on the finances - now. I eventually received another call from Circle Mountain telling me they were on their way.

We have a brand new Payne PH15NB Heat Pump and it was installed and running by 1PM. It was 92 degrees in the house and the technician thought it would take about an hour to bring the temperature down to about 80. Well, it took the rest of the afternoon and I believe that is because the outside temperature was rising to 110 while it was trying to cool the inside. Anyway, we are back to normal as far as inside temperature. I am a bit concerned that it took so long to cool down, so I will chase some answers today to make sure the unit we received is properly sized for our home.

We celebrated last night by going out to dinner at The Village Inn where we both enjoyed a nice salad and pie for dessert. Maybe we can get back to our normal schedules again. I have a project to complete outside on our utility gate. The HOA has said the gate needs to be repaired (repainted) so that project sits at the top of my list right now...

Day Three With No Air Conditioning

We have been able to keep the inside temperature below the high of 94 degrees that we experienced on day two. Yesterday, we had the help of an afternoon storm that was unexpected. The winds picked up and did a little damage to one of our queen palms and it blew a lot of debris into the pool, but the main result was a downward spiral of the temperature. It was 111 degrees when the storm arrived at around 4 PM and when it ended, about a half hour later, the temperature outside was 84. That resulted in our opening all the windows and the doors and cranking up the fans to get the cooler air circulating inside. Our temperature dropped to 88 inside.

There is no further word on the repairs to our air conditioner. I called the warranty company for an update, left a message, and received no return call. I assume from that that there is no change and our parts will be due to arrive today, and when we hear from the service company a scheduled time will have to be set to perform the fix. If we are lucky, it will happen today. If we are just a bit unlucky, it will happen tomorrow. If we are really unlucky, we will have to wait until Monday for the repair which would make it one full week with no air conditioning. Unbelievable.

Our plan yesterday was to spend as much time as possible in an air conditioned environment. We went to the Arrowhead Mall and spent several hours there just walking around and trying to stay cool. We also stopped at Jersey Mike's Cheese Steak restaurant on the way to the mall to get a sub and a cheese steak. We were both disappointed this time in our sandwiches and will probably not go there again anytime soon. The strategy to stay cool at the mall worked except we spent some money that we hadn't planned on spending. That happens anytime you go to a mall, I guess. It just seems like the natural thing to do.

Josie goes back to work today for our fourth day without air conditioning and it will hopefully be a shorter one. Maybe the parts will arrive and the work will be done before the end of the day. Our fingers are crossed...

Day Two With No A/C

As the daily temperatures begin to rise again with the Monsoon storm threats going away for awhile, the inside temperature of our house continues to also rise. The outside high was 108 yesterday and our inside temperature rose to 94 degrees at bedtime last night.

I have had communication with the warranty company (Old Republic) who is handling the repair, and their news is barely encouraging for getting a fix anytime soon. It still looks like we have to wait for "parts" to arrive - now projected to arrive on Friday - and then we have to hope that the service company can get somebody out to do the installation before the weekend. Isn't it just unbelievable that in Phoenix - one of the hottest places on the planet, and certainly within the US - air conditioning components are not stocked anywhere in town? It seems that the more efficient we are "suppose" to become as technology improves, the worse we become in satisfying customer needs. I am so frustrated with this situation that it is hard for me to stay positive in any way.

We took a drive to Lowe's in the afternoon - the car A/C sure felt good - to pick up a pedestal fan to help with the air movement in the house. It especially works well at night with our windows open and the fan placed in front of the window to draw in the cooler outside air during the night when the temperatures drop. The temperature dropped to 84 during the night and we were able to bring down our internal temperature to 89 from the high of 94. It will, of course, rise again today and with the higher temps outside today, we will most likely exceed the 94 inside temperature we reached yesterday. Thank goodness we have the pool to help with some relief during the day. The water temperature yesterday was 93, but felt real good...

No Air Conditioning

I cannot remember ever having a day like yesterday. The Old Republic Warranty company sent a service technician (from Rocky Mountain Cooling and Refrigeration Co) to our house at 10:30 AM and he discovered a major problem with our air conditioner. There are at least two holes in the coils which are causing refrigerant to leak and those leaks have resulted in the air conditioner shutting down entirely. It wasn't until late in the day - around 4 PM - when we heard that Old Republic had approved the required repairs - I suspect a new unit - and placed the equipment on order. The real bad news is that it takes 2-3 business days to get the parts before they can be installed.

We started the day at 85 degrees in the house. By the time Josie got home from work at close to 6 PM it was 90 degrees inside the house with no way to cool it down. To make matters worse, we were under a severe storm threat and there was a monsoon storm bearing down on us. That prevented any use of our pool. Actually the storm was a welcome sign as it would, hopefully, remove the terrible humidity and lower the outside temperature. We opened just about every window in the house before going to bed and this morning the temperature is 87 inside the house. I don't know how we are going to cope with this heat and humidity for another couple days.

I had to stay home all day to wait for the landscaper to return with a couple plants and to fertilize our queen palm trees. He never showed. I would have otherwise gone out in the car somewhere to cool down. I also had to cancel my audiology appointment for yesterday as a result of all the problems and I re-scheduled that for 3 PM today. What did people do before air conditioning? There are still some people in the Phoenix area that don't have air conditioning and I can really sympathize with them now, knowing what it is like to be without any cooling except for fans.

Sometimes it's tough, but we should be thankful for what we have...

First Real Problem

Yesterday was not a very good day for us. It started well enough with our new landscaper performing all the necessary tasks to get our plants back on track. He and his crew worked from about 6:30 AM until almost 11:30 fixing the entire system. They repaired a few leaks in the system and placed the proper drip nozzles on the plants that needed them and trimmed everything to where it looks perfect. They also set the system program properly to water the trees and plants as they are suppose to be watered. He is scheduled to return briefly again today to install a couple plants where some were missing.

The bad part of the day started with the mail. We received a compliance letter from our HOA informing us that our gate on the side of the house does not comply with their standards. They feel that the wood and the wrought iron frame are in disrepair and they have given us 14 days to fix the problem. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the gate as it has a rustic look. The wood is in perfect shape and the wrought iron frame is a bit faded. So what. Besides, that is the way it was when we bought the house so why wasn't that pointed out to us at that time. The letter gave us 14 days but by the time we got the letter, we only have 7 days left.

The more serious situation occurred last night. We realized it was getting warmer in the house and no adjustment we would make to the air conditioner could cool down the inside. The temperature rose to 85 degrees so we shut down the air conditioner and started the process of contacting our home warranty company to get service scheduled for today. We haven't heard from the service company yet, but expect to have them out to fix the problem sometime today. They better, because the inside temperature is now 87 and it will only rise until the repair is made. In all the homes we have owned over the years, we have never had our air conditioner go out. I guess it was our turn...

New Bed

Our planned day of relaxation didn't turn out that way.

We have been planning to replace our sleep number bed that we have owned for about 30 years. It has been moved several times, placed in storage for years and recently has become uncomfortable for both of us. There is a special sale at Costco that runs through the end of August that has a Sealy PosturePedic mattress for $120 off its already low Costco price. We had planned to purchase one - a King set - before the sale ended at the end of the month.

There is also a local store - Anna's Linens - that is a popular, nationwide store, that has filed for Federal Bankruptcy and is selling all of their inventory at 60-70% off. We had already purchased a comforter set for one of our spare beds for $49 which regularly sells for $200. We wanted to take advantage of that liquidation sale to buy bedding for our new bed which we didn't have yet and therefore didn't know what size to get. So, we decided to buy the bed at Costco in order to take advantage of the Anna's sale. Now, we had another problem.

We didn't have any vehicle that could haul the mattress and box springs home from Costco. We called Costco online to see if we could get it through the warehouse which would include delivery. No problem, except that it would cost $100 more through the warehouse  - delivery and handling charges - and it would be 2-4 weeks before delivery. That wouldn't work. The solution was to go down the street to the U-Haul store and rent a 5x9 trailer to take to Costco, buy the bed set, and take it home ourselves. We did that at a cost of $21. Here is our new bed:

There was a Value Village store about 2 blocks from the U-Haul store, so we dropped off the old sleep number bed on the way to returning the trailer.

Our next stop was to return to Anna's to take advantage of the liquidation prices for bedding. The sale had been going on for too long to have any kind of good selection of bedding, so we struck out there. We ended up returning to Costco, again, to pick up some sheets and a couple pillows. By now it was around 6 PM.

And that, my friends, was the extent of our "relaxing" Sunday...

Great Visit With Friends

Josie was able to leave work a little early yesterday so she could get a head start on preparations for the dinner last night for our guests. The Sandlin's - Rodger and Sue along with Sue's mom who is traveling with them - arrived just after 3:30 for their visit.

They are near the end of a trip that stated out in Maine and included stops all along the way west to the San Diego area where they have relatives. Sue's mom lives in Connecticut and she joined them when they traveled through that state. Their destination is Texas where Rodger and Sue have a workamping assignment and where Sue's mom will catch a flight back home to Connecticut. The big surprise to us was that their workamping assignment is at a new, Amazon.com Fulfillment location that is located just north of Fort Worth. We had been under the impression that they had a repeat assignment at an oil field complex where they had previously worked. Surprise, surprise. They will keep us posted on the Amazon job and how it goes. Their starting date is in early September, so they don't have a lot of time left before starting.

Our dinner was excellent - salmon, rice, green beans, salad and a nice chocolate mousse for dessert. Here is a shot of the group around the dinner table:

Sue's mom is 92 years old and we were shocked at how healthy and sharp she is. She shows no signs of a person that age and actually could almost pass for a woman in her sixty's. Remarkable lady.

We really enjoyed our visit and feel blessed to have such good friends as the Sandlin's. We wish them safe travels and hope to see them again soon along the way.

Today will be a rest day for us and we hope to just relax and enjoy the day, and maybe even take in a swim later this afternoon. It was a wonderful day yesterday - and a memorable one...

Landscape News

I knew that the news about our irrigation system would not be good. A couple of our trees were looking dismal and the system just isn't working right. I had a landscaper out yesterday who confirmed that the system needed an overhaul. Unfortunately, nobody knows who the original landscaper was, so we need to discover things the hard way - trial and error. There is only one water line for the entire system which is OK. He needs to locate the main line that runs through the property. The main problem is that the drip nozzles are wrong for many of the plants. Some are getting too much water, others - like our queen palms - aren't getting nearly enough. Two of our palms look dead but the landscaper said there is a chance he can save them with fertilizer and proper watering. He will return with his crew on Monday and do a complete rework of the system to get it back on track. This effort will run $550 which is a deal if we can get our system in order and save some nice plants in the process.

Our guests that we are having for dinner - Sue and Rodger Sandlin, and Sue's mom who is traveling with them - are in town and staying at the RV Resort in Goodyear. It is located only 15 miles from our house so it is convenient for them. We have all the fixing's for dinner and look forward to their visit. I expect to have some good shots of the visit for tomorrow's entry. Josie will be working today until 3 PM, so all the action will begin after she gets home this afternoon. Here's hoping the weather stays decent...

Odds and Ends

Yesterday was a kind of mixed day for activities. We did some organizing and cleaning around the house, but mostly worked on some projects that we have in development. Josie is creating a collage of photos for Harmony's birthday that contains pictures of our visit with her last year in Washington. We made a couple trips to craft stores for supplies. I worked some on my new cross stitch along with some other activities inside the house to get ready for our guests that are coming tomorrow. We also made a trip to Costco to pick up our salmon that we are preparing for tomorrow's dinner and some other snacks and goodies for the visit. We are about set to go and we heard from our guests yesterday who indicated that they were on schedule and would be arriving at the Cotton Lane RV Resort today so they could relax some before our visit tomorrow. They are driving from California, so it is good that they will be rested for tomorrow evening.

It appears that the weather will cooperate as the high is expected to be only around 105. It is still too hot to sit outside and visit, but at least it isn't so hot that everything you touch burns your hands. Maybe we will begin to see some cool down in about a month.

Josie has to work today and tomorrow and she has created a "honey-do" list for me of things to get done while she works. I also have a visit scheduled today, late this afternoon, by a landscaper that has been recommended to us by a neighbor. I still have concerns about how our irrigation system works - or doesn't work. There are a couple of plants and trees that don't look too healthy that I have to get an opinion about. Two of our queen palms look like they are on their last legs and we need advice on how, or if, we can save them. I hope it's not too late to salvage most of our plants...

Some Outdoor Decor

One thing we have no shortage of, and that is wall hangings. We have pretty much filled the open wall space inside with all our pictures and we still have tons of wall hangings left. We'll have to store those in the garage or somewhere. We also have some outdoor wall hangings that we wanted to place on our new home. This first one is of the Kokopelli's that we had on the side of our house in Sun City Grand:

It's kind of nice and definitely Arizona.

The second piece that we hung was one that Josie got at one of her shops where she worked over the years and is an interesting piece that can hold small plants or, in our case-, battery operated candles that we will insert later:

That about wraps up the outdoor wall hangings except for our welcome sign that will go up today.

We did a lot of moving of boxes and sorting during the day and each day we get a little closer to be settled. Nah. We will never be totally settled with all the stuff we still have and need to find room for. Some day - when it gets a lot cooler - we will get storage shelves for the garage and take care of the items that are still packed and stored out there.

We will go to Costco today to get the final food and items we need for our weekend entertainment plans. This will be the first real visit by friends in our new house and we will be excited to visit somewhere besides under our awning and around our table and chairs for the first time in almost seven years...

Audiologist Results

Since I had my hearing test a couple weeks ago, my Audiologist has been trying various solutions to help improve the quality of my hearing. The last week I was provided a loaner pair of hearing aids with the newest technology. They run $5K per pair and they were no good at all. In fact, I changed back to my current hearing aids after less than one day wearing the new ones. My appointment yesterday was to review those hearing aids and to switch to plan B which involves reprogramming my current hearing aids and trying Bluetooth technology that exists for my current set. The initial experience with the TV link and the phone link produced excellent results yesterday. I believe the investment ($325) in this technology is well worth the money and will extend the life of my current hearing aids for who knows how long. If all goes well the rest of this week, I will pop for the new Bluetooth devices. Basically, I wear a lanyard around my neck (receiver) while watching TV to direct the audio straight to my hearing aids. The phone works the same way except the calls go directly to the hearing aids and I have the best clarity that I can remember having with the telephone. This technology has existed for a long time but it is new to me.

Josie has the next two days off which will provide the time we need to prepare for our guests this Saturday. There are some minor things that need to be done to the house, but basically, we will shop for the food, snacks and drinks that we will have. It should be a great time and we are looking forward to visiting with them. It has been a couple years since we have seen them, so we have a lot to catch up on. It looks like the weather may cooperate and only go to about 105 on Saturday. That is a nice relief from the 116-118 days we had last week...

More Surgery

My appointment with my doctor - the same one who removed my Gall Bladder - was a bit different than I expected. The aneurysm that was discovered in my MRI is a bit larger and in a different location than originally described. It is located near my abdomen and is .56 centimeters in diameter where .50 centimeters is the largest it can be without surgery. Anyway, I am scheduled to go into the hospital on Friday, September 11 for my surgery to have it taken care of. It requires an overnight stay at the hospital so here we go again.

I was recruited to drive once again for Josie's shop yesterday so I went in and did a few deliveries to help them out. I don't mind doing that occasionally, but as I mentioned to Josie, I don't want it to become a daily occurrence and a situation where they think they can call me every day. Sometimes the deliveries are far apart and it doesn't pay to do the deliveries. My gas is important and the money for each delivery - $5.25 - has to show a good profit or I don't like doing them. We'll see how things go with the deliveries.

It is about time for us to prepare for or guests that we are expecting this Saturday. We are pretty much ready except there are some groceries and special stuff that we want to get to have on hand for when they arrive. They will be staying in their motor home at the Cotton Lane RV Resort - remember that name from when we stayed there for a year in the early 2000's? It is convenient to our house and they can get an early start on Sunday morning for their trip to Texas where they will spending the winter season. We are looking forward to their visit. Since the Amazon.com employment issues have made the news, it will provide some interesting conversation for us as we met while working at the Amazon facility in Campbellsville, KY. Basically, the claims that it is a sweatshop are pretty close, but not quite as bad as the news has made it out to be.

I guess that will do it for today...

Cold Snap

Our high was only 114 yesterday so I guess we are in what you would call a cold snap. These high temperatures are brutal, and we can't wait to see them go away.

There were a few small items that we had to get from Home Depot so we did venture out yesterday. We have a couple of "suns" that we purchased while living in Sun City Grand and we had hanging on the outside of our house that we want to hang on our current house. In order to do that, I had to pick up some stucco anchors to put in the walls. I didn't hang the suns yesterday, but will get that job done when the real cool weather arrives (?).

Josie is back to work today and I have a follow up appointment with the doctor that took out my Gall Bladder. He wants to talk about the aneurism that I have that is supposedly not a real threat. I guess there are some options that we can discuss to make sure it doesn't create any problems.

I am seriously thinking of cutting back the entries on the blog as it is more difficult to create interesting reading with the lack of travel that we now have in our more permanent lifestyle. It has been 2286 straight days without a miss since I started the blog. Some habits are hard to break. We are missing the varied activities that we had while on the road - especially in Jackson - and are hoping that, eventually, we can create the same kind of interesting activities we had before. That is not likely to happen though until the cooler weather arrives...

Still Cookin'

The weather forecast was right on yesterday - another scorcher. It was 118 degrees for the second consecutive day and it was another stay inside kind of day. I did go outside in the morning to water the plants and shrubs with some extra water as I'm sure the sprinklers aren't giving enough water in this heat. The last three days have been 116, 118 and 118 again. Can't wait to see what our number will be today.

We received our second electric bill since we moved into the house and it looks like some of the adjustments we made are paying off. Of course, the first month we didn't pay any attention at all to the electric use. We went from an initial bill of $400 to $287 this past month. A lot of that has to do with the fact that we were gone for the one week we were in Jackson, WY, but it also reflects due diligence in our paying attention to temperature settings, lights, fans and generally not wasting any electric. We also have the gas range now instead of the electric, so that has helped.We'll see how this third month goes with our being here the entire month.

The final round of the PGA golf tournament is today and Jordan Spieth is right there - he will play in the final group as he is only 2 shots back in second place right now. Wouldn't it be something if he wins his third major tournament of the year. It's for sure that I'll be watching the final round today...

Cookin'

I thought it was hot on Thursday when it hit 116 here at our house. Yesterday, it reached 118 degrees and let me tell you, that's too hot. It is difficult to go anywhere even though we have air conditioning in the vehicles. You only have to leave the vehicle for a few minutes and it becomes an oven when you return to restart the car and leave. I guess the forecast is for more of the same today.

It is a good thing that I have the golf tournament to watch during the high heat days. The PGA Championship is heating up (so to speak) as there are probably a dozen golfers within 4 shots of the lead. Jordan Spieth is one of those, and it is fun watching this young 22 year old contend once again for his third major win of the year. I hope he wins it. Tiger is destined to miss the cut again for his fourth missed major of the year. Too bad.

I got a call from Josie's shop late yesterday afternoon asking if I could come in and help with deliveries. That's the first time I was asked to do that. I don't mind as the shop is close by, and we can always use a few extra bucks. I did four deliveries in about 45 minutes. I'm sure there will be other occasions when I am asked to help out that way.

It looks like a repeat today of yesterday's activities - trying to stay cool while the temperature soars...

Mostly Golf

It was the start of the final major golf tournament of the year yesterday - the PGA Championship. I wanted to watch as much as I could of the opening round for several reasons. The first is that I wanted to see if Tiger Woods has regained any of his playing magic - he hasn't - and I wanted to watch the grouping of Rory McILroy, Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson - the winners of the previous majors this year and the defending PGA Champion from last year. It was a so-so round for those guys and they barely shot par while the leaders were about 4 to 6 under par. That's ok, the second round today will begin to separate the best players.

It was 116 degrees outside yesterday and is expected to be close to that number again today. It is not the kind of weather where you want to do anything outside. So I won't. It gives me an excuse to watch the golf again today and to do some prep work for starting my new cross stitch project. Josie has a doctor's appointment early this am where she is going to get some work done on her nerve problem. The doctor will probe some areas of her leg with needles - doesn't sound like fun - to test her responses. It doesn't sound like a good way to start the day as she also has to go to work from there. She is a trooper though, so it will all turn out for her...

Productive Day

The main accomplishment yesterday was finishing the pruning and trimming of all the trees and bushes around the pool that have been growing branches that overhang the pool. It was a real challenge to get it all done before the real heat arrived by noon, but I did it. I guess it was around 100 degrees by the time I finished and I was soaking wet with perspiration as always when I work outside.

We went to the American Furinture Warehouse down the street in the afternoon and we picked up one of the carpets that we needed in our kitchen/family room area. It looks pretty good as can be seen in the photo below:

We still need a carpet (area rug) for the eating area but we will get that later. There are still "pockets" that need some attention, but for the most part, the major work is done throughout the house. One such "pocket" is the windows in the family room but Josie has some ideas on those that will be coming down the road. A lot of the enhancements that we have planned depend on the cash flow. Actually, all of the enhancements depend on that.

There was another period of "super slow" response times on our computer network this morning. We already have gone to the Verizon store to get some minor fixes for that, but this morning it is a real problem. It has taken and hour and a half to do the computer work that I normally get done in a half hour. It's for sure I won't live with that situation for very long without some improvement. I am really hanging on with Verizon until I can't take it any longer, but I also need to know that I wouldn't be jumping from the frying pan into the fire with another cell provider. These things have a way of working themselves out...

Hearing Test

As expected, the results of my hearing test yesterday revealed further loss of hearing, particularly in the area of word recognition. There isn't much I can do about it except to stay on top of the technology that is constantly improving and makes my hearing loss a little easier to accept. The Audiologist reviewed several options with me to help improve my hearing ability. One option is to upgrade into the latest hearing aid - not attractive because I can't afford it - and another is to explore Bluetooth technology that exists for my present hearing aids which are still excellent technology after 5 years of ownership. I was given a "loaner" pair of the new hearing aids to try for a week. The Audiologist is probably hoping that I will return next week and tell her I can't live without them. That isn't likely, at least after evaluating the first day of use with the new devices. I can't see a $5000 improvement in performance over my current hearing aids. In fact, I don't think they are better at all. We'll see.

We had a fairly violent monsoon storm yesterday. Fortunately, it didn't do any damage to us except dump a lot of leaves and debris in the pool. We'll take that kind of damage anytime. It is really the first violent storm we've had in our area this summer.

Josie has the next two days off so we expect to get some work done around the house. It is really shaping up now and we are excited to get some of the outside work done which we will concentrate on today...

Audiologist and Jeep Service

The main things I had to accomplish yesterday were to get my hearing aids cleaned and to get the Jeep serviced. The hearing aids have been cutting out on me which is a clear indication that there is wax in the devices. That was done and while there I scheduled an overdue hearing test for today at 10 AM.

The Jeep was way overdue for service - by about 2500 miles - and it was an absolute requirement to get that done. I have been taking it to the Jeep dealer where we purchased it and they do a great job, at a lower price than any of the fast lube and oil change places. It takes a bit longer, but I know everything is being done and I get a free car wash to boot. How can you beat $23.50, including tax, for a complete oil change, inspection and car wash? Besides, I get to look at all the new cars while the work is being done.

As mentioned, I have the hearing test scheduled for this morning and I then need to make a stop at Michael's and pick up the floss for my new cross stitch project that I received in the mail yesterday. Hopefully, I will be able to complete this new project in time for the County Fair in Wyoming for next year...

Garage Organized

Our goal yesterday was to organize the garage enough for us to be able to get both vehicles parked inside. We have been parking the Ford outside and the heat was going to eventually take a toll on the inside of the car, not to mention damage to the exterior paint.

It was difficult organizing the stuff without any storage capability. We haven't yet decided what kind of storage shelving to get but we knew we needed to do something to improve the situation. The Christmas boxes and other related items were placed against the wall at the front of the garage on one side of the door, and the tools and RV equipment were placed against the wall on the other side of the door. Everything else was placed on the opposite wall of where it was previously located to free up the single space side of the garage. The result was good enough to accomplish our goal and this is the way it will be until we get some garage storage:

There were also some things that we moved to the shed which was assembled on Saturday. We have now opened all boxes that were moved and know for sure that we have some serious downsizing ahead of us. It took most of the day to finish the job and we went through lots and lots of water on this day that reached 110 degrees outside. Unfortunately, we couldn't wait for the cooler weather to arrive to finish up this important task.

It's back to work for Josie today and I have a couple errands to run. The first is to get the Jeep serviced and the second is to try and schedule a time when I can take my hearing aids into the Audiologist office for a cleaning. Other than that, it is another try-to-stay-cool kind of day...

Shed Assembled

I took advantage of a "cooler" morning (90 degrees) yesterday and assembled the shed before 11 AM. This is the same shed we had at Lake Pleasant and is really an easy job to put together. It only required about 4 bottles of drinking water and maybe an hour and a half total time. A lot of the time was spent leveling the shed, but I decided that the pavers we used at Lake Pleasant wouldn't work here because the shed would be about an inch and a half higher as a result of the crushed rock already on the ground. By eliminating the pavers, the shed would sit directly on the crushed rock and it was close to level that way. Here is a shot of the assembled shed in the yard:

It is now ready to take the outdoor items that are sitting in our garage.

I also took the Ford Escape to get gas and to get it washed. The wash was a less than positive experience. I took it to the TNT Car Wash that is down the street and I ended up taking it back a second time as a result of them totally missing cleaning the rear of the vehicle. Even after the second attempt to make it right, there was a whole section of the rear that was missed. The $16 for the wash was not a fair deal and we will think twice before returning to that car wash.

The rest of the day was uneventful and Josie came home from work at 3:30 which is normal for her Saturday. We expect to get some work done around the house today as she is off and we have no place planned to visit...

Old Appliances Sold

Craigslist came through for us. I received an email from an individual at 9 PM on Thursday evening informing me that he would phone me in the morning to set up a time to come pick up the three appliances. No questions, no conditions, nothing. Yesterday morning the individual called and said he would be at the house at noon to pick up the appliances. Still no questions. I was getting concerned that this was somehow a scam or a guy that wanted to perhaps try to pass a bad check to get the appliances for nothing. You always think the worse when things go too smoothly or happen without any hitches. Anyway, the guy showed up right on time and handed me the cash total for all three appliances, without dickering, and we loaded the appliances in his SUV and he drove off. He was the nicest individual -  it turns out that he owns 3 rental properties and he wanted these appliances for a recent purchase of a two bedroom condo that he acquired for $7500 (a total steal) that needed everything inside. He indicated that he didn't want to buy new appliances for the rental. The timing was right and the deal was a win-win. The ad was on Craigslist for 4 days before it sold.

The other main activity for the day was paying a visit - actually two visits - to the Verizon store that is in our area. Our cell coverage is very poor for being in such a high commercial area. I had to make a second visit to have them check out my 4G-LTE Hot Spot that I use for traveling and also is our lifeline for computer Internet service. We have been getting only one bar, sometimes two, and we have been dropping connections at times. The Verizon representative replaced my SIM card in the Hot Spot and said to try that for awhile to see if the reception improves. It is now three bars and very good, so I hope it continues that way. I would hate to change from Verizon as we have had great success with them all over the country, wherever we have gone, even though I have had my disagreements with them at times.

We're plodding along, anxiously awaiting the sub-100 degree days to arrive. We have a long way to go - at least two months - so we take each day at a time...

Medical Appointments

Josie's appointment with her doctor was in the morning before my lab appointment. The appointment was for 8 AM but we didn't get out of there until almost 9:30. It seems that she will be receiving 3 epidural shots to help with her pain in the hopes that they will relieve the problem. That is, as long as the shots don't cost a fortune. We are very upset and disappointed with the changes in our insurance this year as it is costing us much more than last year or in previous years. Thanks Obama.

Since we were not far from the lab where my blood test was scheduled we took a chance that they may take me before my scheduled appointment at 11:45. It was a good strategy as I was out of the lab by 10:15. There was a Café in the building where the lab was located, so we had some breakfast following the appointment. There wasn't much else that was done the rest of the day except a short trip to the grocery store. The real good news is that there were no more scorpions yesterday...

Scorpion

Even though it was hot outside, as usual, we still wanted to get some things done in our yard. Josie hosed off the patio and we then relocated the patio table and chairs to a new location in our yard near the pool. As we were setting up the umbrella for the table a huge surprise greeted us as the umbrella opened. A scorpion dropped from inside the umbrella onto the table and we immediately attacked it with a shoe before it had a chance to go anywhere. This is a shot of the deceased scorpion:

It was actually a pretty good size - 2.5 to 3 inches - and we have no idea where it came from. It is possible that it was in the umbrella since we left Lake Pleasant, or it is also possible that it crawled into the umbrella while it was sitting on our patio in the closed position. We would like to believe that it was brought from Lake Pleasant so that Josie can sleep at night.

I scheduled an appointment at the Labs for my blood test yesterday but changed it to today so that I could get an earlier time. I didn't want to go through half the day without eating anything, even though I only improved the time a couple of hours, it is still scheduled earlier at 11:45 today.

Josie also has a doctor's appointment to discuss options for treating her pain that is related to a pinched nerve (?) that is creating problems up and down her leg. We need to end these doctor's visits soon as the co-pays are really beginning to mount. It isn't fun getting older and it certainly isn't cost effective...

Inquiries on Appliances

I had two inquiries yesterday for the appliances we are selling on Craig's List. One was a scam and the second one looks legitimate. The problem is that the individual who is seemingly serious is asking questions that you would ask about new appliances. Sheesh. They are ten years old and are available for $400 for all three of the appliances. If somebody wants new, they should buy new. They are in super running condition and are a steal for anybody that needs good appliances. It will be nice if/when we can unload these appliances and free up the space in the garage.

We would really like to get some things done outside and also in the garage but it is almost 90 degrees outside already and it's only 7:15 AM. It looks like another day of 115, so we will have to evaluate priorities and decide where we want to spend our time. Josie has off today and tomorrow, so it's a good opportunity to get some things done. Oh, well, we have another two months of this heat before we will see any cooling.

I also had a follow-up appointment with my doctor yesterday and, basically, it was a wasted co-pay. He just asked if everything was ok and if I had any complaints. I guess I'm good to go for another couple of years...

Selling Old Appliances

Before we can do anything to organize the garage, we need to get rid of the old appliances - stove, microwave and dishwasher - that are taking up valuable space. I took the first step to make that happen yesterday. I cleaned up the appliances, took photos of each and put an ad for all three on the Phoenix Craigslist. Hopefully, we will get a quick sale on those and we can begin the garage organization. As hot as it gets during the day, we need to do all of the garage activity in the early part of the day.

I also loaded up the boxes in the Jeep that we broke down and folded to dispose of in a recycle bin. I unloaded those so we now have a little extra space to begin our sorting in the garage. It's nice that we have the three car garage as we have plenty of space to store all the stuff that we don't have room for inside the house. Actually, we need to get rid of most of what is left in the garage.

I have my first follow up appointment from my surgery with my doctor today. All is going well with the recovery, so I expect a quick session with him this morning at 11 AM. The only open item now is the aneurysm that is not a serious problem at the moment...

Totally Down Day

It was too hot (111) to do anything outside yesterday and we didn't feel like doing anything inside, so - we didn't. It was the first totally restful day we've had that we can remember. We watched a couple movies and some TV shows that we had copied and didn't do anything else all day. In fact, Josie never got dressed the whole day.

We did communicate with some friends of ours - Rodger and Sue Sandlin - who are planning to stop by for a visit on August 22 on their way through AZ from CA to TX. They are another couple that we maintained contact with from our working days at Amazon.com.

It's back to our normal routines today so we are off and running in August...

More Hangin Out

While Josie was working, I did a few things in the den to organize some files and pretty much spent the day hangin' out.

I did discover some things about our irrigation system, though. It seems that when the previous tenant left the house and the owner turned off the power, it cleared the programs in the timer system. So, our plants and trees have not received any water since we moved in except for what they got from our hose and the little bit of rain we have had. I programmed some times into the system so we will see if that has any effect on our plants. The biggest problem remaining with that system is that I need to figure out what plants are connected to what program - A, B or C. Maybe the landscaper can help with that issue if he ever shows up. I am expecting him to come by any time now.

With most things done inside the house now, we can really begin to enjoy the home. So far, we love it and are happy with the choice we made...

Monsoon Activity

August did not go out quietly weather wise. We had a very active Monsoon storm that dropped almost 1/2" of rain and brought some winds that, although not as strong near us, created some havoc in areas not too far from us. The strange thing about the storm yesterday is that the weather people didn't forecast the storm. Just about every day they forecast some Monsoon activity and miss the mark. I guess it is a tough call as these storms just seem to "pop-up" anywhere, anytime.

I was waiting all day for the landscape guy to stop by and he never did. He is the "future" son-in-law of the folks that lived in our house before we became the owners. They rented it for a year and then purchased a larger home just down the street. Anyway, I stopped by his house at around 2 pm to find out when to expect him and I was told he would probably arrive later in the day at around 3:30 or 4 pm. He never showed up yesterday, but that could also be a result of the storm activity. Maybe he will stop by today.

Happy August everybody. We are slowly cranking through the Arizona summer that always promises to be hot and stormy...