Some Sad News

I failed to mention the fact that we received a phone call on Tuesday from Josie's niece in New Jersey informing us that her brother-in-law (sister Marie's husband) passed away on the day before Thanksgiving. He had been fighting prostate cancer for a couple years and succumbed to the illness last week. He was 88 years old. Time has a way of getting away from us and we forget that folks we don't talk to very often are getting older. We also heard that Josie's sister, Marie, is not doing well since her battle with stomach cancer has taken a toll on her. We pray that the Lord is watching over that family at this time.

We are about to close out November and head down the stretch to Christmas. Our shopping is about done - actually, it is already done for ourselves - as we hope to get things wrapped up early this year. Our house is all decorated on the inside and we are still trying to decide how much to do outside. We have discovered that folks in Sun City don't go overboard with exterior decorations. That is probably because most of them either aren't home over the holidays or are getting to the age where they avoid the use of ladders. So far, we have seen very few homes with lighting displays on the outside. We'll see how it goes over the next few days...

Leak Repaired

I did some research of plumbers yesterday before settling on a recommendation from Angie's List. I have had great success with contractors from that source and decided to go forward with one that had excellent ratings. They showed up at my door within about one hour from contact. They looked at the problem and quoted a repair cost of $385 if repaired using galvanized pipe, or $315 if he used plastic. I told him the price was too high and that I would get another quote from another source. He then sharpened his pencil and asked what I thought it should be worth since he was already here. Without knowing what would be a fair price, I suggested $250, for a galvanized pipe repair. He called is boss and we had a deal.

These are the shots - before and after:

It is now fixed and I have a two year warranty on the repair. I guess I am satisfied.


I made a trip to Home Depot in the afternoon and closed a deal on the new refrigerator that Josie and I had seen at the Home Depot in Naperville. We also got the Black Friday deal which was excellent. That price ends today, so we had to move on it yesterday. It will be delivered on Thursday, December 6. Our old (current) refrigerator should make it for another week with all the loud noises it is making. It's kind of funny that all the appliances in our home are covered by the homeowner warranty we were given by our realtor when we bought the house - except for the refrigerator! Hmm.

We ended the day with another fabulous Arizona sunset:

Leak Discovered

We have discovered our very first problem with our house. Even though it is a very minor problem, it represents the kind of issue we can expect with any older home. The plumbing is as old as the house - 40+ years - and we are not surprised that problems will occur. Here is a shot of the leaking pipe that is in the water line to the front of our house:

I have been searching the local Sun City paper for a handyman and also the Angie's List for a local plumber. I know that the certified plumber will cost more, but I also know that I don't want to have more than 1 visit from anybody for the same problem. It isn't a major leak as it is only a slow drip at the present time. I'll keep you posted on that development.

The latest NFL power rankings are out for this week. The Seahawks have moved up again - to the #10 spot - and the Cardinals have finally done it - they reached the bottom - #32 out of 32 teams. It is not something to be happy about but I could see in the beginning of the year that the Cardinals were going backwards. I still maintain that they will never improve with the current (new) coach.

I picked up my hearing aid yesterday - a brand new replacement, so all is well there...

We Missed This

Patty had sent these photos to us yesterday morning to show us what we beat out of town:

One day makes all the difference in the world sometimes. I'm sure they will not miss these occasions after this year. Along with the snow, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees from when we left on Sunday. Every time we see shots like these it reminds us of our final winter in Michigan way back in 1977-78!

I got the fifth wheel moved over to our new space in the Sun City RV Compound yesterday morning. Everything went according to plan and we now are settled into the space that we will attempt to keep for the foreseeable future. We have a 50' pull through space that will cost us $200 a year. You can't beat that anywhere else unless you can store it at your home. We may attempt to downsize our RV in the near future which would potentially result in a cost savings at the RV Compound.

We will restock our refrigerator today and also go to Mesa this afternoon to pick up my hearing aid that was sent back to the factory for replacement before we left for Chicago. There are also some terrific deals on new refrigerators that we may take advantage of before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales end...

Beating the Storm

The primary goal for the day yesterday was to beat the anticipated storm. We left the house early - before 8 AM - and drove to the airport exit in near record time. That is where the unbelievable backup started. We had crawling traffic for the final mile or so to the departure area at the terminal. These shots give a good example of the delays:

Fortunately, we still arrived at the gate in plenty of time.

Our flight left on schedule and except for a couple "bumpy" areas, had an excellent flight that arrived in Phoenix a bit early. We were back home by 3 PM.

All was well in the home and we even found one more golf ball in our back yard. That makes 16 balls discovered in the 6 months we have lived here:

Almost all of them are quality golf balls. Not a bad way to stock up.

Today is the "big day" for finally moving our fifth wheel into the Sun City RV Storage facility. I hope it all goes well, as I have been ready for this since the middle of May...

Saying Farewell to Naperville

This morning marks the end of - what has been many wonderful years - visiting family in one of the nicest areas in the Chicago vicinity, Naperville, Illinois. We had a terrific Thanksgiving holiday this year that has created one last fond memory. There is a winter storm approaching that is going to see temperatures drop dramatically and bring some snowfall. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 11:15 AM and is expected to beat the storm front out of town.

Our stay concluded last evening with a wonderful Italian dinner at one of the best restaurants in Naperville - Maggiano's Little Italy. It was a very nice change from all the Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings.

Of course, we all have to get on some serious diet programs now.

Our flight should get us to Phoenix at 2:00 PM this afternoon. It's back to the old grind again tomorrow. See you tomorrow from Sun City, AZ...

Naperville Christkindlmarket

The order of business yesterday was to attend the annual Naperville Chriskindlmarket in downtown Naperville. This is an annual event that runs for the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas and is in downtown Naperville. It is an event that is very unique and is not to be missed. There are so many interesting and unique gift items, from ornaments to crafts to food items that cannot be found anywhere else. Following are some shots from our visit:

It was a fun time and an experience that we will not forget. We picked up a couple nice souvenirs of the event and even had some spiced wine in Christkindlmarket mugs that we brought home.

Another big event from yesterday was the arrival of Austin's new car that was promised for his graduation from Western Michigan University - his new Jeep Grand Cherokee:

Congratulations to Austin - it sure is a beauty!

We began to get a little concerned this morning about the weather forecast for the Chicago area for tomorrow. It appears that a winter storm front is moving this way and we are watching it closely to make sure it doesn't impact our flight for tomorrow. Our fingers are crossed...

Great Thanksgiving Day

All of the work and all of the preparation was well worth the effort yesterday. The final count was 17 people. I took many photos during the day and will share some of the most significant ones here.

Starting with some of the preparation, including getting the turkey ready for the oven:

and the "after" when we removed the turkey from the oven - all 25 pounds of it:

We had lots of activity in the kitchen as the preparations involved lots of different traditional Thanksgiving foods:

I also made our Holiday Eggnog which was enjoyed by most of the guests. It is a powerful and potent recipe which means you have to watch what you take as it does sneak up on you:

There were also lots of choices between wines, beer and "specialty" beers that Mike brought and were super delicious.

All of the food was spread on the counter in the kitchen for our "cafeteria" style meal. There were so many different foods available - lots of which were brought by some of the guests - that the only way to make all of the food available to everybody was to set it all out on the counter. It worked like a charm as everybody went through the line and helped themselves:

We had set up two tables for the meal. The big table was for the older adults, and the smaller one for the younger adults. These shots are of all of us sitting down and ready to eat:

What a fantastic meal and terrific day. There were lots of desserts available - pies, cakes, chocolate covered cherries, etc. that there was no shortage of any delicious choices.

Throw in a few excellent football games on TV and it turned out to be a memorable Thanksgiving Day celebration...

Safe and Ready

Our flight arrived a little early but Patty was right there to pick us up outside the baggage claim area at around 10:45 AM local time. We had a super day catching up on things with the boys and getting a few last minute items for the big meal today. Mark was busy working with Austin to complete the deal for the new Jeep that was promised to him following his graduation from Western Michigan University. I took some photos of the activity before the big day today.

This is one of Mike (visiting for a couple hours) with Brandon in the kitchen:

And these two shots of the girls getting things together for the meal. Josie did a couple arrangements for the two tables we will have set for the meal, and Patty was getting "Tom" ready:

I said it before - 25 pounds is a HUGE turkey.

This final shot from this morning shows all the activity in the kitchen:

The final count for dinner guests today is 17 the last I heard. I will make the "special" Holiday Eggnog for everybody to enjoy.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everybody!! ...

Travel Day

It's about 3:15 AM and we are just about ready to head out for the airport. It will be a long day today as we got up at 2:30 to get everything ready to go. We don't have any idea what we will run into on the freeway or at the airport, but we are allowing extra time just in case. The flight arrives in Chicago at 10:43 AM and Patty will meet us outside the baggage claim. Again, we don't have any idea what kind of traffic mess there will be on the Chicago freeways but we expect the worse. It will sure be nice once we arrive in Naperville.

Here's hoping for a terrific Thanksgiving for everybody! See you tomorrow from the Guido's...

Ready for Flight

I printed our boarding passes this morning for our flight to Chicago tomorrow. That gives us a bit of a head start for tomorrow and saves time picking them up at the airport. Now, the only thing we have to do before our flight is check our one bag through when we arrive at the airport in the morning. We expect to arrive at the parking facility between 4:30-4:45 AM tomorrow which should allow sufficient time for our flight which leaves at 6:15 AM. If we are lucky we will beat some of the traffic on both the freeway and at the airport. Chicago will be a different story. We expect that to be super crowded and lots of traffic by the time we arrive at 10:43 AM.

Patty indicated that the crowd for Thanksgiving dinner is now up to 15. Wow! It should be a good time at the Guido's on Thanksgiving.

I heard from the Sun City RV Storage facility yesterday. They have a space available for us that we can move our RV into when we return from Chicago. The appointment for the transfer from our current storage location to Sun City is set for 10:30AM on Monday the 26th. I calculated that the money we spent using the interim storage facility over the last six months, as good as the deal was, is equivalent to 2 years worth of storage costs at the Sun City facility. It will sure be nice to finally get the fifth wheel settled into the local location...

Shame on Cardinals

If there was one game that I thought the Cardinals would win this season, it was the game yesterday against the Oakland Raiders - the bottom team in the NFL power rankings. Wrong. They lost, 23-21, AT HOME! What an embarrassment. They may not win another game this season.

Our decorating exercise is completed and we can see the floor again in the house after moving out the empty boxes. We are basically done decorating with the possible exception of some outside decorations. We will wait to see what the neighborhood does before rushing into covering our house with lights and outdoor Christmas décor. As of today, we see no indication that the houses on our street are going to do anything. I guess that is one aspect of living in an area where almost all of the residents are seniors (kind word) and/or part time residents. At any rate, we will wait until after our return from Chicago to address that issue.

Two more days of work for Josie before getting the rest of this week and the weekend off for the Thanksgiving holiday. She is really excited about that and we are anxious to start our holiday. I know that we will be facing mobs of people at the airports in Phoenix and Chicago, but that comes with the territory these days...

Decorating Almost Done

We spent almost the entire day going through boxes marked Christmas and deciding which items to keep packed and in the garage. The ones we kept out were placed around the house and the empty boxes taken back to the garage. The problem we had was that almost all of our decorations were in our storage unit for years and we bought new decorations over the years when we couldn't get easy access to the main decorations. That has created a situation where we now have a "mega" amount of decorations. Asking Josie to get rid of anything is not a good approach to solving the dilemma.

Wrapping up the project is on today's agenda along with gathering our clothes that we expect to take to Chicago on Wednesday. Josie will get everything cleaned today so we can begin packing our bag. We will have to leave here at 4 AM on Wednesday to allow enough time to get to our 6:15AM flight. I'm sure that all airports will be like a zoo on Wednesday, so we will need to have patience during the entire day. I will also get our boarding passes printed on Tuesday morning, 24 hours before our flight.

This will most likely be our final visit to Naperville. Hopefully, Patty and family will be relocating to Arizona next summer so we look forward to that happy occasion...

Tree is Up

It was an interesting day and a productive one yesterday. It was productive from the standpoint we got our tree up and decorated:

It was interesting because now it appears that we just moved into the house. We have boxes everywhere that contain Christmas decorations. We have accumulated so much stuff over the years that we will never be able to display lots of nice decorations. The garage is also a mess now as we had to identify all the boxes that contained Christmas items, open them to see if we could use the contents, and bring them into the house. We will have to empty all the boxes we brought in and then take the empty boxes back out to the garage to save for after Christmas when we will have to repack everything. The chances of our ever getting the garage emptied are slim and none. We sure do miss a three car garage!

The rest of our weekend has been determined for us - finish the decorating and empty the house of the boxes...

Great Game

The Packers/Seahawks game last night did not disappoint. It started out like the Seahawks were going to be blown away as they trailed 14-3 after the first quarter. They improved steadily throughout the game and ended up pulling out the game, 27-24, in the final quarter. They may not go to the playoffs this year, but the consensus among the analysts is that they will certainly be spoilers. They do have an outside chance to make the playoffs, but have a very tough schedule the rest of the way.

Josie is off today and has a doctor appointment at 9:15AM. It is really just a consultation for a colonoscopy, so it shouldn't last long. The rest of the day will be spent in our garage (ugh) locating and bringing all of the Christmas decorations inside. I hope it isn't as difficult as it appears to be after looking at the garage situation.

I saw where there is another winter storm heading for Illinois with about 4" of snow forecast in the northern Illinois area. I sure hope it either comes and goes quickly or doesn't arrive at all...

Golfing Slowdown

It appears that the rule of staying on the cart paths with motorized carts has impacted the volume of play on the course. After the reseeding effort which was completed on November 10 when the course reopened for play, the rules for play require that no carts cross the fairway or ride on the new grass for two weeks. I see a lot more folks playing with hand carts and, overall, less play each day. I'm sure it will pick up again after November 20 when the carts are once again allowed on the course. The course is in fine shape and the reseeding looks like it was successful.

Today will be Josie's final work day this week and she has off until Monday. Then, it is only two more work days before our trip to Chicago for the holiday. She says that the volume of business is picking up and she is very busy everyday leading up to the final days before Thanksgiving. Of course, much of the business is for center pieces, and she has been "greening" lots of containers in anticipation of the flurry of business for those.

The Seahawks will play the Packers on Thursday Night Football tonight. That should be an excellent game...

Switch to Heat

It happened yesterday for the first time since we moved here - we switched the thermostat from A/C to heat! So, from May 18 until yesterday (November 13) we have had the summer setting on our system. The heat wasn't on for very long, but it sure felt good to take the "chill" out of the air. It was 45 degrees outside. The daytime high was only 67, but today we expect to get back into the low to mid 70's for the next week or so. I like it much better than 115!

The word from Chicago yesterday was that the turkey is now "resting" for the big Holiday. It is a 25 pounder which is the largest I have ever seen. With all the big, hungry men that will be sharing it, I hope there is enough. We are anxious to begin our holiday and I know that Josie is looking forward to having the time off. She is working very hard to prepare for the Thanksgiving rush and is getting very favorable feedback from the owners. I think they realize they acquired a gem of an employee.

We are also getting mentally prepared to attack our garage situation this weekend. Hopefully, we will be able to get all of our Christmas decorations separated from the pile and get a real head start on decorating the house for Christmas...

Ready to Tow

The final step was taken yesterday to prepare the truck for handling the fifth wheel. The hitch was installed:

It is very similar to the one we had in our last truck and that one did the job in spades. It is rated for 25,000 lbs and we haul about 18,000 lbs when it is fully loaded. We are now ready to move the fifth wheel to the Sun City Storage ourselves - whenever we get the call that our space is available. That has been a real disappointment - the length of time it is taking to acquire a space at the Sun City facility. The good news is that we can save the money from having a third party move the rig for us.

We will try our best to attempt a trade on a smaller unit sometime soon. The amount of effort and expense required to fix the outstanding problems on our present fifth wheel are not worth the investment. We are gathering info on all possible candidates. Our time spent at the RV show over the weekend was time well spent. There is no set time frame to make something happen, so we'll wait and see...

RV Show

Every year, the La Mesa RV dealership has several shows at the stadium. One of them was this weekend and Josie and I went yesterday to check out some small fifth wheel trailers. There is definitely a fit for us in that segment of fifth wheels as we saw a couple candidates that more than fill our needs. There were a couple that are half the cost of what we own and what we have been looking at in the class C motorhome market. We will be following up on that possibility sometime in the near future.

The football games that I followed yesterday were, for the most part, disappointing. The Cardinals actually showed some improvement while losing to the KC Chiefs, 26-14. The Seahawks lost for the second time this season to the Rams in another close game, 36-31. The Seahawks should have won the game - as they should have won the first meeting - as they had the ball in the red zone as time expired. They are so very close to putting it all together.

I will call the B & M Hitch shop this morning to schedule the hitch installation on our truck. This is the same company and location where I had our very first hitch installed on my green, 2008 Ford F450. They are very competent and very reasonable. I hope they haven't changed.

This promises to be a very busy week as we begin preparation for our trip to Chicago for the Thanksgiving holiday next week and we begin the process of decorating for Christmas...

Hotspot Activated

The solution to our slow response time and loss of data allocation on our phones was to activate our hotspot. We purchased that when we signed with AT&T and didn't have a need for its use until now. So, for $20 per month, we get another 10GB of 4G data access before slowing again to 158KB. That makes a total of 40GB that we will have available each month (15GB on each phone plus the 10GB on the hotspot). The lesson here is that anytime you have to switch computers and download tons of data, make allowances for the extra data transfers on your monthly plan.

The only game I watched yesterday on TV was the Penn State/Wisconsin game, won by Penn State 22-10. It was another lackluster performance by PSU but it is another win. Today, we get to watch the Cardinals play scrimmage with the KC Chiefs who are expected to win by two touchdowns. The Seahawks schedule doesn't get any easier either as they face the Rams again today for the second time. They made a great game in the first contest, so maybe they can surprise some people today.

We will go to church this morning on Josie's day off and then plan to go to the La Mesa RV show at the State Farm Stadium today. We want to check out smaller fifth wheels as a possible alternative in our RV plans. Since we are no longer "fulltimers", it makes some sense to downsize.

Things are Never Easy

I took the new batteries to the fifth wheel yesterday and installed them the same way (I thought) as the old batteries. After connecting them, I tried to operate the levelers and got nothing. What a dilemma. I called my AAA service (which includes RV coverage) and they transferred my call a few times to different areas where RV service is handled. I finally was connected to someone who could help, only to have them tell me that the AAA RV coverage does not cover battery calls. I asked her what good the RV coverage was if I couldn't get help when I needed it and she responded that it only covers breakdowns and flat tires. Excuse me, how can a trailer break down? Whatever, I then tried to connect with a mobile RV service. The one (nearby) that I contacted was on his way to Camp Verde on a service call, but could help me tomorrow (today). I asked him what he charges and he indicated $75 for the call and $150 for each hour with a one hour minimum. Sheesh! $225 to fix a battery connection? I don't think so. My next move was to stop at our local RV dealership (Orangewood) and ask their service department for suggestions. I showed them this photo of my battery connections:

It was during this conversation that the service tech pointed out that the batteries could be in the wrong position. Yes! the battery on the right needed to be turned around and reconnected according to the photo above.

I went back to the trailer, disconnected the batteries, turned the right battery around, reconnected them and ….. success! It turned out to be a major project for such a simple task.

I am also now dealing with snails-pace response times on my computer. The new computer purchase exhausted my 4G data allocation while I was downloading so many files and applications. We reached 15GB after which the data transfer rate goes to 158KB. AT&T does not offer the ability to buy extra data like Verizon did. So, we are stuck until the monthly allotment resets on November 19. So much for their "unlimited" data plan. Another of the many, many strikes against AT&T...

Trailer Tests

It was a good day to take the truck over to the fifth wheel to test connections. I had no high expectations and it was a good thing. The batteries in the fifth wheel were completely dead which I suspected. No amount of charging from the truck revived the batteries. I tried attaching my charging cables and still got no life from the batteries. Alas, I took them out and headed to Sam's Club to buy new ones. The old batteries were over three years old, so we are due for new ones. I will take them back to the trailer today and install them.

I am waiting to hear from the dealer regarding the hitch installation. I spoke with them yesterday about some other items and I anticipate having an appointment scheduled soon for the hitch. There are also a couple small items that need to be fixed and we will take care of all of them, probably early next week.

We saw where Patty had some snow over the last couple days. Get that stuff out of the way now before we come for Thanksgiving!!...

Some Updates

I neglected to mention the other day that both of the twins received acceptance letters from Universities for next year. Jordan will be attending ASU here in AZ, and Brandon was accepted at Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. He will be trying to make that a football scholarship as they are interested in his football ability. We are proud that both were accepted and have a commitment for their further education. That pretty much solidifies the move to AZ by the Guido family next summer.

I went through another marathon session on the phone with AT&T this morning over our monthly telephone bill which was wrong again - for the sixth consecutive month. I will investigate moving back to Verizon today and if the damage isn't too great, will begin the transition back to them ASAP. We are also not happy with their plans which slow your tethering speeds to a crawl after a certain amount of data. There is no option to add minutes - which Verizon had - and, as a result, I am forced to use Josie's phone to accommodate our needs. I may make a total break from AT&T as we are also having issues with DirecTV that they don't seem to be able to correct. I have information on Dish Satellite which doesn't look like a bad option.

All of the cleanup has occurred from our landscaping project and we are now looking at planters that may work around our new, extended patio. There is no rush for those, though.

I am also now waiting to hear from the dealer where I purchased our truck to have the hitch installation scheduled. Once that happens, we will be ready to tow again...

Whew! Another Election Over

Finally, we get to watch some "normal" ads on TV for a change. After weeks of political bashing, we will say goodbye to that horrible waste of time and money. I hope everybody is satisfied with the election results. From our standpoint, the results aren't too bad and we are just glad there was a record turnout of voters as now nobody can complain. It will be interesting to see how Washington changes, if at all.

We are still trying to get our landscaper out to finish the cleanup from our project. I guess I made a mistake in paying him his final check when the work was completed as there is little incentive now for him to finish the cleanup. There isn't much left, but it looks terrible.

I'm racing now to have our fifth wheel hitch installed on our "new" truck before we get the call from Sun City Storage that we can move into our space. I would sure like to save that money of having to hire someone to move it for us. I'm waiting on a call from the dealer that the appointment is set...

New Truck

We have been going back and forth for quite some time on which direction to take with our RV choices. We already have the fifth wheel which still has time to go on its contract, and to trade it on something else is not economically attractive - evidence our attempt to close a deal on a Class C motorhome in the Spring. We really have no need for two Escapes while we are facing lots of hauling while emptying our "full" garage, having a need to relocate our fifth wheel to the Sun City Storage and moving it to a service facility if work is required before our next trip. Plus, why do we need a motorhome to sit in storage while leaving us with only one car? In a nutshell, it made more sense for us to again go with a truck, although, this time, a low mileage, low cost, used vehicle that has all the equipment we will need.

I found it on-line last week but with all the landscaping activity, had no time to pursue the vehicle. I went to the dealership yesterday morning and was excited about what I saw to the extent that we closed a deal. It is a 2011 Ford F350 Lariat, 4wd, diesel, 54K miles with all the tow equipment and options that we like. It is a King Ranch without the expensive King Ranch leather (although it does have leather seating) which lowered the price to where we could afford the truck. Below is a shot of our new tow vehicle:

Josie and I both agreed that this will be our last truck that will see us through the life expectancy of our fifth wheel.

It has been an interesting week - and an expensive one - that has resulted in some nice changes for us...

Project Completed

It was a struggle at times, but the project was completed yesterday on our rear patios. The workers arrived early - at 7 AM - and wrapped up the final step at close to 5 PM. It looks terrific, and I took some shots last night before the cleanup occurs today so that you can see the effort and the results. Below are some before and after and photos where you can see how the two patios were connected with a new, pavers surface:

Starting with the bushes that we had planted along the fence of our neighbor to help create more privacy:

Before:

After:

Patio, before:

Patio, After:

Patio, Before:

Patio, After:

It looks a lot nicer and bigger in person than in the photos, but you can see the huge difference in connecting the patios with pavers. All of the old tile is gone now and all we have are pavers on the entire patio. Today begins the cleanup. We still have some smaller items to get before it is totally done - planters, patio cover expansion and some nice plants. There will be more shots as we continue with the modifications. There was a total of 740 SF of pavers used.

The Seahawks game yesterday was a bit of a disappointment. They played well in the second half, but the lapses on defense in the first half cost them the game. They still almost pulled it out with time running out as a pass was deflected in the end zone as time expired and the final was 25-17, Chargers. They are still showing signs of a promising team.

Thank goodness tomorrow is the election. We are so sick - like everybody else - of all the horrible political ads on TV - and all the signs on every corner and in all the yards. We'll be anxious to see the results tomorrow night...

Broken Commitments

I spent another day dealing with broken commitments yesterday. The landscaping project was scheduled to be completed on Friday, and will not actually be completed until today - hopefully. The crew that showed up yesterday to finish the project was only two individuals whereas the first (partial) day we had five crew members working, albeit, only for a few hours. Yesterday, they didn't start until almost 1 PM. It's really difficult dealing with some folks these days as they have little pride in doing the job as promised. The work that is being done is very good, but its like pulling teeth to have it completed. That's OK as my landscaper doesn't get paid until the total job is completed. At any rate, it will be at least one more day before photos will be ready.

It was a terrible day for Penn State football yesterday as they were embarrassed, 42-7, by Michigan which is probably the final nail in their coffin for the 2018 season. It was nice, though, to see ASU upset Utah who was ranked #15 in the country before yesterday.

The twins saw an end to their high school football careers this weekend and Patty and Mark are without football in their family for many, many years. There is hope that Brandon will latch on to a football scholarship somewhere to continue the tradition. The plan is for them to move to AZ next year after graduation and Jordan is supposed to attend ASU. We are looking forward to those days ahead.

The big game today will be the Seahawks vs the LA Chargers. The Cardinals have a bye, so there is no worry about them losing another game today...

Back on Track

I don't know exactly why the delay occurred, but we are back on track to have our project wrapped up today. The landscaper and his crew made great progress yesterday and expect to finish the entire project today. They are already here to begin the day's work. Hopefully, they will stay to the end and not leave early like they did the last two days. The work they completed yesterday looks terrific and we are anxious to see the final results. Hopefully, we'll have some before and after photos tomorrow.

We took a drive to the Pottery Place in Surprise yesterday to look at planters and try to figure out which ones we might want to put around the patio in the back. There are many, many options and some nice planters at reasonable prices. It will be fun to pick out the ones we might use and to get them placed around the patio sometime after the work is done.

Josie works today and hopes to get resolution to a couple issues tat I pointed out yesterday. We don't foresee any problems in getting positive outcomes to bot situations. She has already shown her "worth" to the company and I am certain that they would not want to take any chance on losing her at this point. However, we all know, nobody is indispensable to any organization. They really are not major issues anyway, so we hope for the best...

Disappointing Day

Yesterday was a disappointment on several fronts. Starting with our landscaping project. No work was accomplished as the landscaper had to transport all of the material himself from the source to our project. Actually, it was his choice to save the expense of a delivery fee. I understand the reasons for wanting to save the fee as he gave us a super price for the total project. The problem is that, as a result, the entire day was wasted as far as production. They are all out there this morning getting a head start on the day which is a good sign.

Josie received her first paycheck yesterday and it didn't match what she had agreed to with the owner. She needs to have a discussion with her asap to get it straightened out. The problem there is that the owner is ill and is very rarely available. An attempt will be made this morning to connect with her. Josie is off today, so that might be a little tricky. Whatever the result of that connection, the job is very good and the relationships are solid. It will all work out.

I hope to have some photos and better news for tomorrow...

Quiet Halloween

We weren't sure if there might be some activity on Halloween in our neighborhood, so we bought a couple of small bags of candy just in case. You know, there are always some people that like to dress up and trick or treat at any age. Well, everybody, in our neighborhood at least,  has passed that stage. We will have candy in our house for the foreseeable future without having to buy any more for any occasion.

Our landscaper showed up this morning with the material to begin our project. He expects to take two days to complete the main part of the project and then return on Saturday to wrap up the rest. We are getting excited to see some results.

Josie works today, has tomorrow off, then works Saturday before having Sunday and Monday off. It's a bit of a crazy schedule this week. The ownership is very pleased with her work so far and they will be giving her a key to the store so that she won't have to wait in the mornings for somebody to show, and they are also making some changes in the design area to make things a little easier for her to work. All is well on the job front (so far)...