Uneventful Work Day

First of all, the Penn State/Ohio State game yesterday, although a good game, was disappointing. Penn State led the entire game, and actually had a two touchdown lead (26-14) with only six minutes left in the game. Then, they shut down. The offense disappeared and the defense followed them. Final score: Ohio State 27, Penn State 26.

Today, it is the Seahawks vs the Cardinals here in Phoenix. Go Seahawks! If the Seahawks don't win, it's ok if the Cardinals do.

Josie's day working at the 67th Ave store yesterday was a good experience. The commute was less than 15 minutes and the work was not as intense. She actually worked alone the last couple hours and left with the idea that maybe she can somehow get transferred to that location. There has to be an opening first that gets posted, and then she can apply. There is the possibility that that situation can happen within the next couple months. She's in a better frame of mind this morning.

Rain is on the way according to the forecast. It also appears that, at least over the next 4 or 5 days, the 100 degree days are not in the picture. Amen. So far now, we are in second place with 129 days of 100 degrees or higher for the year...

Not Over Yet

Well, after all of the political infighting and arguing over the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, it isn't over yet. The President has ordered an FBI investigation to proceed for one week, with findings to be presented before a full vote is taken on the nomination. I, for one, am in agreement with the requirement for the investigation so as to remove the cloud that is, and will always, hang over the nomination without the investigation. I hope it goes well.

Josie and I made a loop yesterday that covered all the flower shops within a 20 minute radius of our home. There were five shops, one of which was closed and she didn't get a chance to talk with anyone, where she talked to the manager/owner/designer about opportunities. She left her resume at each, got some interest from a couple and in one instance, Josie performed two floral designs as a test and was offered a job on the spot. It would be a part time (20 + or- hours per week) beginning on November 1. Josie will think on that and respond pending results from the other locations. She is also working her scheduled day the 67th Ave AJ's store today and she is hoping that something comes out of that experience. At least there are some chances that something can be done about her current, horrible situation. Her stress level rises more each day that she has to work at the Arcadia location.

I am looking forward to watching the Penn State/Ohio State football game on TV today. It doesn't start until 4:30 this afternoon, so I guess I will watch other games and also watch the Ryder Cup competition from Paris, France. That is a fairly close competition right now, but it looks like the Europeans are getting hot and may blow-out the Americans if they don't swing the momentum...

Judicial Hearings Marathon

Josie was called into work yesterday on her day off, so I spent almost the entire day watching the Judicial Hearings on TV. I was shaken by the testimony of the Brett Kavanaugh accuser, Dr.  Christine Blasey Ford, and thought for sure that Kavanaugh would have a really tough time disputing the testimony. As it turns out, her testimony has no corroboration of the facts and her best friend (who was supposedly at the gathering where the incident occurred) even stated that she had no recollection of the incident.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh came out firing on all cylinders and, basically, convinced most people that he was not involved. His claim, and with a lot of supporting evidence, is that she may have been attacked by an individual, but not by him. It's anybody's guess at this point what the truth is, but there does not appear to be any way to determine the truth. She said-He said. At any rate, it appears that the nomination will proceed to a full vote by congress.

Our plan for today is to visit 5 area flower shops and drop off Josie's resume at each and for her to discuss opportunities. They are all within 15-20 minutes of our house and if she can find the right fit, would change jobs in an instant. Well, almost in an instant. She is scheduled to work at the AJ's 67th Ave store tomorrow. If that is a good fit and if there is an opportunity for her to transfer to that store in the near future, that would be the preferred solution. Hang on....

Last Minute Changes

I picked Josie up at work yesterday and she was still not feeling 100% OK. The schedule for today was suppose to include a visit to some other work options for Josie that were a lot closer to us. She received a call from her manager at AJ's asking her if she could come in to work today to help with the workload. It seems that the manager saved two weddings to do for today rather than getting a head start on them yesterday. Josie relented and went into work today - on her first day off - and now only has tomorrow off until next week.

The Judiciary hearings have taken the entire morning which is why this entry is late. It still has more to go with Brett Kavanaugh testifying this afternoon. So far, the accuser has testified, convincingly, that something happened to her. The question now is to determine if Kavanaugh was involved. Stay tuned...

Even More Driving

This morning started out a lot better than yesterday. Josie was sick most of the day yesterday until nearly bedtime. I took her to work again this morning - start time of 7 AM - as she was still feeling some aftereffects from yesterday. Wow. That's 3 days this week that I suffered through her commute, two of which were double trips as I also had to pick her up on two of the days. The commute is definitely brutal, and we plan to try to fix that over the next several days. She has tomorrow and Friday off and then works at the AJ's store on 67th Ave on Saturday. Tomorrow, we plan to visit most of the local (within a half hour driving distance) flower shops to check for openings and to leave a resume. Hopefully, with this being the ideal time of the year to search for floral openings, she will gain some interest. The ideal solution - and one that is still the primary choice - is that she can get a transfer to the 67th Ave store which she will push hard for on Saturday.

We have now had our 125th day over 100 degrees this summer. The record is 143 days and we are now in 4th place (behind 127 and 129).  The forecast is for 5 more days over 100 this week which will move us up to the 2nd place slot at 130. I also heard that the projection by the year 2100 is that, with the continued climate changes, the average number of days each summer will be 163! I believe that Phoenix may be a ghost town by then.

It will be a bit nostalgic this weekend. This would ordinarily be our last weekend in Jackson, WY for the summer. We probably would have left Monday or Tuesday to come back to AZ with a couple stops along the way. We do miss that, for sure...

Lots of Driving

I drove Josie to work yesterday and picked her up at 6 PM. The drive is made much easier when we can drive in the car pool lanes. I can vouch for Josie's terrible commute as without the benefit of those car pool lanes, it would be horrible.

She was up and down all last night and barely got any sleep at all. I agreed to take her to work again this morning and pick her up later today. As we arrived at her workplace, she said she felt weak and sick and would try to get the day off. She walked into work this morning and turned around and walked back out to take the day off to recover. In a way, it is nice to not have to do the drive again today. She has been under a lot of stress with her schedule and the commute, so today will become a recovery day.

We plan to shop around at a few options that she might have to solve the elevating problem of her commute and the stress at work. Her next days off are Thursday and Friday, so we will try to do some research on those days...

Cards and Hawks Have A Pulse

It turned out to be somewhat of a turnaround yesterday for our favorite pro teams -the Cards and the Seahawks. The Cardinals jumped out to 14-0 lead in the first quarter before somebody reminded them who they were and they shut down to lose 16-14. The Seahawks, on the other hand, showed the Dallas Cowboys that they were not going to be doormats this season after all by winning, 24-13.

The biggest sports story of the day was, of course, Tiger Woods, who won the Tour Championship yesterday for his 80th tour victory and first in over 5 years. What a comeback from his physical and personal problems. His age is also showing through a little bit as he didn't have the arrogant "I'm so much better than thou" attitude, but was thankful that the hard work has paid off.

I will be taking Josie to work again today as she works from 10-6. Once again, it is getting too dark for her long commute when she works that late. Changes may be forthcoming...

Ho-Hum Sports Day

On a ho-hum college football day - as far as my interests go - the big story was in golf. One of the local teams lost - ASU to WA - and one local team won - U of A over Oregon State. As mentioned though, the FedexCup golf championship with the final tournament also being the Tour Championship is a huge surprise. Tiger Woods is back. He birdied six of the first seven holes yesterday to take a commanding lead in the tournament. He played like he did years ago when nobody could come close to matching his performance. One more round to go today and I see no pro that is capable of beating him right now for the Tour Championship, although Justin Rose will probably win the $10 million FedexCup which is based on a points system.

My sports weekend will also end today with the Cardinals playing the Bears and the Seahawks playing the Cowboys. Tough games for both teams.

Josie was not able to get her schedule changed from the 9 straight days of scheduled work. She is working again today and will not have a day off until Wednesday. Tough schedule...

Good Football Weekend Ahead

The football weekend got started with a nice win by the twins' team, Waubonsie Valley High School. They won their game last night 31-24, and their record is now 5-0. Brandon held up his end with two interceptions during the game. Way to go guys!

There are some pretty good college games on TV today followed by tomorrow's pro games. The Penn State game was played yesterday which they won 63-24 over Illinois. That's two in a row where PSU scored over 60 points. The biggest game for me to watch today will be the ASU game vs WA at 7:30 tonight on ESPN. The pro games  tomorrow will feature the Cardinals vs the Bears, and the Seahawks vs the Cowboys. I don't hold out much hope for "good guys" wins in those games, but who knows. It's OK if the Bears win though as we know the Guido's would be happy.

That's about it for today - a sports entry. Josie is working until 3 PM today on an easy commuting day...

ZakTek Applied

When we purchased our 2015 Ford Escape, we had a semi-annual application of a paint protector (ZakTek) included. I took it into the Ford dealership service this morning and had it done for this most recent 6 month period. Who knows if it does any good, but with these super hot AZ summer days I don't think it hurts. Besides, it was free and I had no other work performed. In a nutshell, I waited about an hour, had a free coffee and donut and left without spending any money.

My new hearing aids are terrific. So far, I can notice a big improvement in reducing highway noise while driving, having a much easier time hearing TV and understanding normal conversation a lot better. I hope it continues to show these nice improvements as I get into other situations - like restaurants, crowds and  church - where I have had some problems in the past.

Josie got her schedule for next week and has a serious problem with it. The schedule has her working 9 consecutive days before getting another day off which is not going to work. I don't think her manager knows from one week to the next how she has her people scheduled. She must not look at the current week's schedule when writing the new one. I have to say that I am getting worried over the stress effects on Josie. She has lost a lot of weight as a result of not eating properly with all this stress from work and the commuting. I hope we can somehow, and soon, find a way to help...

Fall is Approaching

We had a different kind of day yesterday- rain and cool temps. It finally dropped below 100 degrees and we will also have a second day below 100 today. Don't fret though as we go right back to 100+ beginning tomorrow, at least for the next 4 days. As slow as it is progressing, we are seeing signs of Fall approaching.

I drove Josie to work yesterday and picked her up last night. The combination of her late quitting time and the rain potential indicated that would be the wise thing for me to do. It was no problem and I am happy to help relieve her tension from that horrible commute when it is feasible - but not every day.

Dinner was already prepared when we arrived home from her work. I did a whole chicken in the instant pot which turned out excellent. That was the chicken that was slated for our rotisserie, but the weather hasn't cooperated for that to happen just yet.

This morning I had an early appointment with my Audiologist to pick up my new hearing aids. I noticed an immediate improvement over my old set and hope that it continues so that my follow-up appointment in a couple weeks is an easy one. I'll report updates along the way...

Power Rankings

I was looking at the Power Rankings of the 32 NFL football teams following the second week of play. Yep, it is confirmed. The Seahawks rank #29 and the Cardinals rank #31. Seeing is believing, and watching these teams play in their first two games leaves little doubt about the validity of the rankings. I never thought I would see this happen - at least not to both of these teams at the same time. Sheesh!

There appears to be a weather front coming through our state today which is expected to produce some afternoon thunderstorms. Since Josie is working from 10-6 today, I have volunteered to drive her to work and pick her up tonight. I wouldn't necessarily take her except it will most likely be getting dark around the time she leaves and the combination of rain and darkness isn't one of  her favorite conditions.

My new hearing aids are in and I will go to the Audiologist tomorrow AM to have them fitted. I am anxious to get those as my current pair is rapidly reaching their end of life. There are some new technologies in the new set that will make some environments a lot more friendly for me. I hope to have some positive feedback on those very soon...

Glimmer of Hope

Last night's game between the Seahawks and Bears started out like the first game of the season. The Bears took the opening kickoff, marched down the field, touchdown! The rest of the game produced some glimmer of hope for the Seahawks to right the ship. The final score was 24-17.  Even though there were lapses on defense and especially lapses on offense, they showed some signs that the new players may develop into something special. It wasn't like the Cardinals who dug their hole deeper in the second game. I honestly hope that both teams can get some life and return to their winning ways.

There is also some glimmer of hope that this long, long summer may be coming to an end. We actually have three days in the forecast with highs less than 100 degrees. Of course, the 100's are returning after those three days, but into the low 100's. Today is 106 in the forecast and will, hopefully, be the last time we see a number that high this year.

We took a drive to the AJ's store that is closer to us - 67th Ave and the 101. Josie talked with the manager there and discovered something: the manager is leaving to relocate to North Carolina soon, and there will be an opening for her replacement. Josie doesn't know if she wants to throw her hat into the ring for that job as she doesn't want management anymore. However, that is a smaller operation and may not be so bad. It will be interesting to see what develops there. She is still scheduled to work there on September 29 for one day, so maybe that will help with decision making - on both sides.

In the meantime, she is back to work today and the awful commute...

Pathetic Performance

I think that I have the answer to my question from last week - Who has fallen the fastest and the farthest, the Seahawks or the Cardinals. The answer, before watching tonight's game between the Seahawks and Bears is the Cardinals. Yesterdays' Cardinals loss to the Rams was the worse performance by an NFL team that I can ever remember. They only had two first downs and didn't cross midfield until the final seconds of the game while losing, 34-0. It wasn't even that close. Personally, I think the Cardinal's choice for a new head coach was a huge mistake, as is their choice for the starting quarterback. There were several good games yesterday with some upsets along the way. Oh well, Go Seahawks tonight.

We went to the local Lutheran Church yesterday for the first time since we moved here. Below is a shot of the church as we arrived and took our seats:

It is a very nice church - big - and it was about 3/4 full for the service. Normally, there are two services on Sunday but the summer, of course, has many of the members still away in their cooler climes. Two services return in October. The service was just ok from our standpoint yesterday as it was very different from what we are used to. It seems that all of the Lutheran churches now do their own thing with the service formats and they all take some getting used to. We will definitely return,  though, as the church is only 5 minutes from our house. Also, we didn't see our friends at the service but they sing in the choir - of which there was none yesterday - and they may still be traveling while enjoying the summer. At any rate, it was nice to give it a try.

Josie has been content to just spend some quiet time at home on her days off, so we have nothing else planned for today except for maybe a trip to the grocery store and a BBQ tonight...

Two Days of Free Time

Now that the two days are here that Josie has off this week, we will try to schedule some different activities to enjoy. Starting with church today. We have been trying to get to the local Lutheran Church since we moved here in May. There has always been something that has come up that has resulted in our missing the service on Sunday. Our friends, John and Vicki Tate are very active in that church and we hope to see them today. The summer Sunday service starts at 9:30 and will be the only Sunday service until October when they go back to two services.

Josie also wants to make a stop today at the AJ's store that is much closer to us and would only be 15 minutes away. She has stopped there before and is scheduled to work one day - September 29 - at that location but she wants to make sure they know that she is available to work there full time with a transfer from her current location. I sure hope we can eventually work something out at that store.

The rest of the time that Josie has off over the next two days will (hopefully) be spent doing some interesting things that she maybe hasn't done for awhile...

Looks Like Relief Ahead

For the first time in almost 5 months, I see the long range forecast with highs in the upper 90's. That will be next Thursday and Friday which is the first sign of the season changing - finally. That means that we can begin to line up some outside activities that we have been putting off as a result of the excessive heat. On that list is, but not limited to: emptying the garage so we can park our vehicles there, connecting the rear patios to make one large patio and updating the landscaping. For awhile there, I thought we would be stuck with this heat forever.

I did my chores at the 5th wheel yesterday at the storage unit by placing the wheel covers on the exposed tires and I also added water to our dead batteries. I don't know if they will hold a charge, but that is on the agenda for the next visit. Until that happens, we can't open the slideouts so it is a high priority.

I made another pot roast in the instant pot last night for dinner in time for Josie to get home from work. It was another excellent meal from that wonderful appliance. The entire meal took just over 1 hour to prepare from start to finish.

Josie has off the next two days starting tomorrow. I hope we can do something that can help relieve her stress from the commute that she has every day...

New Doctor Passes First Test

My annual wellness exam with the doctor was yesterday. It was the first with the new Primary Care Physician that was assigned to us by Banner Health. The first impression is a good one and Josie and I both feel that it was a good change for us as this doctor seems to be more "genuinely" concerned about our health. I say that because he asked some good questions that our previous provider would never ask and he immediately provided prescriptions and advice that we didn't expect. Also, my wellness exam was actually held before my one year anniversary from the last one, so he is rescheduling another one in December which keeps the annual exam program where it should be each year. So far, there are no problems to report.

The Hurricane (Florence) has hit the shoreline in North Carolina and with the 500 mile width of the storm is creating havoc from Georgia all the way to Virginia. We are expecting to hear reports of the damage form this storm through all of next week. It is a big one, for sure.

I plan to make a trip to our 5th wheel today to place the wheel covers on the one set of tires that is exposed to the sun. Every little bit of protection helps to prevent future problems while traveling, although it may be some time before we travel again with this unit...

Time for Wellness Exam

The only real event to report today - from this house, anyway - is my annual wellness exam which is scheduled for 3 PM this afternoon. Josie had hers last month and passed with flying colors. I hope to do the same. I have no "real" complaints, so it should go without a hitch. One thing that I am having a hard time with is the change in my metabolism that is making it very difficult to lose any weight. Even with regular exercise and diet, the weight just seems to hang on. Maybe the doctor will have some good advice and suggestions.

The latest word on Hurricane Florence is that it weakened a little bit during the night, but is still a category 2 storm with lots of rain and storm surge. It is expected to linger along the coast for a couple days beginning tomorrow which is going to result in the most damage. It seems like there is a price to pay anywhere you live that resembles paradise. The homes along the coastline will definitely take a hit during the next several days.

I see some signs that our season may be changing. The low this morning was 77 which is the coolest it has been in months. If we can just get the highs below 100 it would help create some hope for cooling down for the Fall season...

Ear Impressions Taken

Impressions were taken yesterday for the ear pieces on my new hearing aids. They will be ready sometime next week and I will get everything programmed and fitted before forking over the money. I am getting a very good discount on these new hearing aids as Connect Hearing is having a one month special for trading in old hearing aids for new ones. These "old" hearing aids will be donated to a poor country in Africa (the name escapes me) and represents a nice program for us, the company and the benefactors. I will trade the pair of hearing aids that I had before the current pair and keep the ones I now have as a backup.

Our fingers are crossed and we are praying for the folks in North and South Carolina as they face the deadly hurricane, Florence, now about 36 hours away from making landfall near the border of those two states. It looks like a huge storm and is expected to dump between 20-40 inches of rain. It's hard to comprehend that much rainfall at one time. It makes us thankful that all we have to complain about is the high temperatures in our area...

Trailer Check

The first stop on our agenda yesterday was a visit to our 5th wheel in storage. Everything was ok except that the batteries were dead which was no surprise. Without power, there was no way to open the slides to check out the inside, so we performed other checks in the storage compartments and the propane and battery compartments. One thing we wanted to accomplish was to place the wheel covers on the one side of the trailer that gets the most sun. When we first stored the 5th wheel, there was enough shade to block the wheels on both sides of the vehicle but now there is a smaller vehicle that doesn't block out the sun on the eastern side. We couldn't locate the wheel covers so they must have been brought back to the house and are somewhere in the maze of boxes in our garage. If the @#$%^& temperatures would ever cool down we could locate a lot of missing stuff in the garage.

Speaking of temperatures, I mentioned to Josie yesterday that in the almost four months now that we have lived here, I can only remember 1 day when the temperature did not reach at least 100. There is no relief in the foreseeable future.

We fired up our new grill and initiated it by grilling a couple nice steaks last night. It appears to be a great choice so far. I plan to roast a chicken on the rotisserie tonight to give that a try. The old grill was returned to the 5th wheel yesterday while on our visit there.

The final day off for Josie is today. We have nothing planned except I have an appointment this morning to get my ear pieces done for the new hearing aids which will be arriving this week. I'm looking forward to getting those new hearing aids which have all the latest advances in technology...

Yep, A Long Season Ahead

It's hard to tell which team has fallen the most and the fastest - The Cardinals or the Seahawks. The Cardinals lost, 24-6, with an offense that couldn't score if they had 6 downs each series. The Seahawks lost 27-24 with a defense that couldn't stop a runny nose. Not only that, it looks like Russell Wilson will have to carry the whole team again this year as the offensive line appears to have been chosen from a Pop Warner league. Wilson was sacked 7 times to tie a team record. The Seahawks will also, undoubtedly, lead the NFL in penalties again. Yep, it is going to be a long, long season.

On the bright side, Corey Davis (Austin's former roommate at WMU) had a very good game with the Titans yesterday with 6 catches. He is supposedly the prime receiver for that team this year. That game, although close, was won by the Dolphins with a long weather delay in the middle. The Chicago Bears almost pulled an upset over the Packers and the Cleveland Browns almost upset the Steelers but had to settle for an overtime tie. Maybe the season will be fun in other ways with unexpected teams rising from the ashes.

Josie has the next two days off and we have a few activities planned including a visit to our 5th wheel to check out everything. Now, if we could just ditch the 100+ temperatures every day...

Football Season Launched

Yesterday was the start of the 2019 football season for many college teams and today will start the season for all pro teams. Most of the colleges started last weekend, but yesterday saw some upsets and pointed to a long season ahead for some. ASU surprised Michigan State in and upset, U of A was clobbered by Houston - it looks like a long season for U of A who looked horrible, Penn State won big over Pittsburgh and Western Michigan was humbled by Michigan and could face a long season.

The pros begin today and I hold my breath for both the Cardinals and Seahawks. Neither is favored to win their Division this year. I just hope it doesn't turn into a long season for both teams. It will be Seahawks vs the Broncos today while the Cards play the Redskins. No matter what the season produces, it is always fun to watch and to cheer them on.

I finished the grill assembly yesterday and will wait to move it outside and fire it up tomorrow when Josie has her first of two days off. She has worked six straight days including today and I know she is ready for some down time. If we could only do something to help relieve her stress from the commute.

By the way, it was 109 yesterday and will be 106 today with no real relief in sight. What gives with the extended summer this year?...

New Grill Assembly

While Josie suffered through another horrible commute day - both ways - I was home assembling our new grill. As mentioned yesterday, we ordered a new grill from Home Depot that was finally delivered at around 1 PM. It is a Dyna Glo grill with 5 burners, plus a side burner and rotisserie that should last us forever.

Below is the summary of the effort, starting with the unpackaging and preparation for assembly:

It was a lot more physical than I anticipated as the grill weighs over 125 pounds. The instructions were very good but I had to utilize muscles that haven't been used for some time and I ran out of gas at the very end. Actually, all that is left to do is to finish connecting the side burner and placing the grates inside the unit. Otherwise, it looks like this:

I will wait for Josie to come home today before moving it outside which should be an easy task with the coasters that are on the bottom. I put all of the packaging material in the box that it came in and placed it outside this morning with our other trash that was being collected today. Surprisingly, they took the entire box containing the Styrofoam, cardboard and plastic bags. Good timing.

Josie works today and tomorrow before getting her two days off on Monday and Tuesday. The commute is so much easier on the weekends so she may request that she be scheduled every weekend which would relieve some of the commuting pressure. One of the activities we have planned on her days off is to pay a visit to our 5th wheel which we haven't seen in well over a month. That should prove interesting...

Ready for Football Season

Last night's game between the Eagles and the Falcons to kick off the new season was a great start to the season. I was happy to see the Eagles get by a very good Atlanta Falcons team and hope that it is a sign that the Eagles will be there at the end to contend for a repeat Super Bowl Win.

The consensus of opinions that I have seen so far do not hold much hope for the Cardinals or the Seahawks to be real contenders. Especially the Seahawks who are in transition and have lost many of the  players that were instrumental in their success over the last 5-8 years. Every team has to go through this but I wonder how a team like the Patriots accomplish this transition seamlessly and never lose a beat. Maybe I'll be wrong about the Seahawks and the new players will rise to the occasion. I hope so, and also hope the Cardinals surprise a lot of these so-called football experts.

The weekdays are really tough on Josie's commute. She again took 1.3 hours to get to work this morning. Tomorrow will be much better as the weekends provide some relief in the traffic.

I expect our new grill to arrive today from Home Depot. The model we purchased is not available in the local stores, so it was shipped from the Midwest somewhere. That means that some of my time today will be spent assembling the grill and making sure it works. Maybe we can try it out tonight....

Mini Crisis Situations

I have been experiencing a worsening problem with one of my hearing aids over the last couple of weeks. It seems that the volume has steadily declined to the point where I needed my Audiologist' opinion. Yesterday, I received the bad news that the microphones were failing in the one hearing aid and it would be a very expensive fix to rectify. Not what I expected or wanted to hear. To make a long story short, I got all the information on replacing both hearing aids with new ones and feel like the best decision I can make is to bite the bullet and acquire a new pair. These hearing aids are almost seven years old, out of warranty and expected to continue to be a cash cow for the foreseeable future. More on that as I get closer to finalizing the deal.

Josie came home from work frazzled almost to tears. Her commute, already difficult and stressful, is made worse now with the sun rising and setting in her face every day as the days grow shorter. She drives east - into the rising sun - each morning, and drives west - into the setting sun - each evening. This creates even more traffic congestion than is normal. I feel bad for her but I can't do much of anything - except provide emotional support - to get her through these situations.

Are we having fun yet??...

Golf

Our final day of the Labor Day Weekend was spent taking advantage of one of our Rec Center benefits. The miniature golf course has been one activity that we have had on our to-do list for a long time. It won't be so long before we try it again.

We went to the course in the morning before it got too hot and did the 18 holes in about an hour. There were no other players, so we zipped through the course. It is a very nice course with some challenging holes. Josie won the front nine, and I won the back nine to beat her for the match by 4 strokes. I had some real problems getting used to the speed of the new carpet that is on each hole and finally got used to it midway through the round. Following the round, we went to the George's Café next to the bowling alley and had some breakfast. It was a fun time at the Rec Center on a nice day.

We did some things at home in the afternoon and didn't get caught in any of the heavy traffic that we heard was all over the Valley. I did some research on gas grills which is something we have needed for our house and ended up ordering one from Home Depot to be delivered next week. Our traveling grill will not cut the mustard for the house where we expect to have a much heavier use than on the road. That one will be returned to the RV for future use.

We hope everybody enjoyed the holiday weekend...

Holiday Weekend

With this being the Labor Day Weekend holiday, it would be the perfect time to make a visit to someplace special. It is also a bad time to be on the highways as it is one of the busiest weekends for traffic. Since Josie has been working such long days with her stressful commute, we decided to stay home and stay safe. We heard about a serious accident on the I-17 freeway in Black Canyon City yesterday which is most likely the road we would have driven to go to northern AZ somewhere. That is a common occurrence on that section of freeway.

We watched some good shows that we had on our recorded list and did a salmon barbecue in the evening.

All in all, it was an enjoyable and relaxing start to the holiday weekend....

Final Service

I watched all of the proceedings yesterday for John McCain. I also copied them for Josie to see when she got off work at 3 PM. I don't know what happened with the recordings, but the major portion of the service - Meghan McCain's speech and those speeches of the other dignitaries - were not copied. Everything else was. The situation was that all of the shows had to be copied that were on the guide list from the time the events began at 5 AM yesterday until they ended after noon. There were probably a half dozen of those shows. The shows were obviously preempted by the memorial services and I had to copy each one individually. I guess I missed the one big one in the middle which lost all of the main speakers. Sheesh!

The only event remaining this week is the burial which takes place today. That is a preceded by a private service, so I don't think there will be much, if anything, televised live today.

Josie has the next two days off for the Labor Day weekend. Right now, we have no set plans, but will probably do something that takes advantage of her free time...

Continuing Memorials

The memorial services and events continued yesterday for Senator John McCain. He was in the Capitol Rotunda all day yesterday and thousands of people walked through to pay last respects to him. Today is the Memorial Service at the Washington Cathedral and I will have more on that tomorrow.

Josie had the day off and we watched the events from AZ up to, and including, the final departure from the state These were the recordings I made on Thursday while she was working. It was just as emotional the second time for me.

We then went to Costco to pick up a few items after stopping at IHOP for brunch. It has been quite some time since our last visit there and it was a good meal as usual. The rest of the day was a relaxing one as Josie went into work early this morning for her final day of work until Tuesday...