Another Update for Patty's Visit

The main activity for yesterday was the pruning of our fruit trees.

We did, however, spend more time in the AM going through the storage cabinets in the garage and finding more "material" for the dumpster and for the charities. That was a breeze compared to Tuesday's effort.

The landscaper arrived at around 1 PM and began the task of pruning the trees and fertilizing them. He did the largest two trees but had to leave early before completing his effort because of an emergency family issue. He will return sometime next week to complete the third tree, prune the agave and clean up the yard. He did a terrific job on the main trees and these shots will provide an idea of the extent of his effort.

Starting with the "before" shots of the main trees:

The "during" of the two big trees:

and the "after" shots:

The nice thing about the trees after he was through is that we can now pick fruit from inside the tree as well as the outside. He cleared all the deadwood from the inside and we can actually climb the inside if necessary to reach fruit.

Patty will spend most the day today at ASU with Jordan helping him to get around to places to get a haircut, shop and do other errands. We will probably see him again this evening if he can come home with Patty for the night. Tomorrow, Patty leaves for home and we will probably drop Jordan off at the campus on the way to the airport.

Oh, and we went out to dinner last night at Oregano's Italian Restaurant and celebrated both Patty's birthday and mine. It was delicious, as usual...

Patty Visit Update 1

So far, everything has gone according to plan during Patty's Visit. We even had some extra stuff thrown in, such as a pizza dinner with George, Cheryl, Brian and Amy on Tuesday night to provide all the oranges and lemons that they could take.

We have almost completed the garage project. There is now enough room to park the car in the garage and we have emptied the dumpster once already. There is still a portion left to do as we have to go through and sort out the stuff that is in the storage cabinets in the garage. It has been a fun project actually, and we expect to wrap that up today.

Almost all of the fruit has been picked and we made a trip to the Food Bank in Surprise with all the extra oranges and lemons. The landscaper is due today to perform the pruning of the fruit trees and fertilize them for next season. It is going to happen just in time as the new growth has already started on these tress with blossoms beginning to appear with the new fruit.

I will continue to update the activities and events during Patty's visit but here are some shots of things that have happened so far.

Starting out with the garage:

The Crew:

The end of the first day with the car finally fitting into the garage:

The dumpster being emptied for the first time:

Our fruit picking party:

The rest of our effort to clear the trees of the fruit and the breaks we took along the way:

This is a sample:

And, finally yesterday, the bins at the Food Bank:

Patty and I also stopped at St Vincent DePaul to drop off items for charity. So, our working crew is about ready to start another day in the garage, so I will end this entry for now and try to get more for an entry tomorrow...

Patty Visit

Patty arrived at the Phoenix Airport at 12:30 yesterday to begin her first of two visits to our home. This one will last five days (until Saturday) and involve primarily work in our garage to create some kind of order. That might be a dream. The fact is that Patty wanted to help sort through all our stuff to see if there might be some things that the boys can use and also some things she might be interested in keeping after they relocate to Arizona. Most of the goods have not been touched for years and will be as much a surprise to us as to her when opened from the boxes.

We started the visit with a stop at ASU to visit Jordan and to take him to lunch. We went to Varsity Tavern on the ASU campus and it was terrific - more than any of us could eat.

Here is a shot taken outside the restaurant:

We had a nice visit with Jordan before stopping at Walmart to pick up some items for his room and then returning to his dorm.  He is all alone now for the rest of this school year as his roommate dropped out and they didn't replace him. Here is a shot of his nice dorm room:

We then returned to our house where we sat outside and had a nice cocktail hour before watching some TV and going to bed.

Our plan for today is to work in the garage and end the day with a pizza night with the rest of our AZ family - George, Cheryl and Brian and his family. Aside from having a nice visit, we have lots and lots of oranges and lemons that we would like to offer everybody so that we can pick the fruit from the trees to ready them for a pruning by our landscaper this Thursday.

Patty had a taste of one of the oranges this morning for breakfast that she picked from one of the trees and it passed the test:

We look forward now to having a very productive week and a great visit with some very nice weather to share....

Changing Seasons

It is about that time of the year when we can sit outside without wearing a sweater or a jacket. That is probably our favorite time of the year when we don't need A/C and don't need the heater. It might be nice to live in Hawaii.

I wanted to show a couple photos of the sunsets around here. Josie is very active in that department. She took these two shots last night:

It is amazing how quickly the sky changes at sunset. It is always a beautiful sight.

Josie is off for the next couple weeks which includes the time during Patty's visit the last week of February. It's time to get some projects done around the house...

Happy Valentine's Day

Just like every other Valentine's Day that we have been home- Josie works long hours the entire week. I have lots of things to do myself while she is working. Some of our projects are on hold though until Patty comes to visit on the 24th of February for a week. We have a dumpster reserved for that week so we expect to have major surgery done on the garage during that time.

We still have lots and lots of oranges and lemons for anybody that would like some. I contacted the St Mary's Food Bank to make sure they would accept what we don't use. We are good to go for that when we are ready which should be in about another week or so. We still have to schedule our landscaper to prune the trees and we keep delaying that until we get all the fruit picked.

It's pretty quiet around here now without the truck and RV. I guess that means that any trips we take will have to be in hotels. That isn't all bad as we haven't traveled that way for a long time. We will miss the RV and just hope that maybe someday we can do it again only with a much smaller configuration.

The next big hurdle for me is to complete our taxes for 2019. I don't think we will fare as well this year with all the changes in the tax code. At least, I can't see any advantage to us. We'll find out pretty soon...

RVless

Yesterday was the day that ended our most recent stretch of traveling and camping in our RV. After almost 12 years with our fifth wheel, it was all turned over - along with our truck - to the new owners from Arlington, TX - without a hitch so to speak. I didn't take any photos because it was not the kind of event that I want to cheer about. The new owners are great people that will take great care of the truck and RV. We spent about four hours completing the transaction and going over all the features and operation of both vehicles. They will stay for three days at the Paradise RV Resort in Sun City which is only a few blocks from us. They will do the shakedown, learn about the features, ask us any questions, stock the fifth wheel with all their needs and head out to southern AZ before going home to set up at the Escapee Park in Livingston, TX. We wish them all the luck with their "new" setup.

We now begin our time with only one vehicle - the Escape. The plan is to try to save some money and eventually get a larger vehicle that can possibly tow a smaller trailer for our "retirement" so we can still travel and keep our hands in the RV world...

SPECIAL ENTRY

This is a special entry to remind folks that that not all anniversaries are good ones and that some are life changers.

Today marks the 53rd year that I have been consumed, on this date, with memories of a life changing event. It was on February 1, 1967, that my life changed forever. It was the day that I received a phone call - at around 8:15 AM - that my wife (Patty Ann White Reed) of just over two years was involved in an auto accident and was returned in very serious condition to the hospital where she worked - Princeton Hospital in Princeton, New Jersey.

We were, at the time, on the threshold of building a wonderful life.

We were within two monthly payments of completing the purchase of a lot not far from Princeton to build our house. It was in a new neighborhood and we had a choice, corner lot with woods in the rear. Along with being pregnant with our first child, there was lots to look forward to. We both were making good money and had wonderful jobs.

We had only the one vehicle - the 1965 Ford Mustang convertible - that we shared for driving to and from work. She used it during the night while I slept and she worked, and I used it during the day while she slept and I worked at McGraw Hill in Hightstown. Essentially, we only had the time together (except for weekends) from around 5 PM in the evening until around 10 PM when she had to leave for work. Her position at the Princeton Hospital was as the Charge Nurse in the Intensive Care unit for the night shift. She was an excellent nurse that followed in her mother's footsteps and her grandmother's footsteps. I will always remember the conversations we had about one of her patients - Doug Bo, a Princeton University football player who was in a coma since his injury in a game the previous November. She used to remind me of the sorrow that surrounded visits from his parents and their prayers to have Doug get well. She always said that she would never want her family to go through that kind of sorrow. Little did we know. It turned out that Doug Bo never came out of his coma before passing away - not long after Pat was admitted in a coma.

The prognosis for Pat was not good from the very beginning. She had endured a fractured skull in the crash which resulted in a brain hemorrhage that allowed blood to enter her spinal fluid - a sign of permanent brain damage. I was told that there were two trucks that hit her as she skidded on the ice that was present that morning. She almost made it through the crash until the second truck struck the passenger door causing the force to hit her in the head. The seat belt she was wearing in the auto saved the life of our unborn child. The reports from the doctors indicated that she would never be normal again - even if she somehow, miraculously,  recovered from the accident. The brain damage was so significant that she would have the mentality of an infant child.

It was Easter Sunday, March 26, 1967 when I walked into the intensive care waiting room to visit her and was greeted by doctors who informed me that Pat gave birth - naturally, to a 3 lb, 13 ounce baby girl who was placed in an incubator. A fear that I had all along to this point was that the child may not be normal as a result of all the medications given to her mother. We all know how those fears were unfounded as our daughter - Patty - is a beautiful, smart, and wonderful woman today. I love her to death. I thank God for that gift and her mother would be proud. I named the child after Pat as I knew that she would probably never have a say in what to name her. I can, along with everyone who ever knew Pat, see her mother in her. What would I do without her I my life?

After nearly one year of realizing that our prayers for a recovery for Pat would not be answered, I started thinking about creating a normal life for Patty. The job of caring for Patty rest totally on her grandmother - Clara White - to start, and then with her other grandmother (my mother) for the foreseeable future. I decided to change jobs and move to Pennsylvania to be closer and to help my mother as best I could. Prior to leaving New Jersey, I had spent some time trying to live a normal life. Then, I met Josie at McGraw Hill who immediately made an impression on me for her caring and honesty. We had a wonderful, growing relationship which I continued after leaving New Jersey. Josie never cared about the prospect of never marrying as long as Pat was alive and only cared about me and Patty.

Toward the end of 1967, the doctors suggested relocating Pat to a Convalescent Home as they had done all they could for her. During the entire stay, I was never charged one penny for Pat's care as she was treated as one of their own at the hospital. Pat would remain at the Convalescent Home until she passed away in June, 1971. Josie and I were married in October of that year after spending almost two years together. I will never forget the commitment that Josie made to mine and to Patty's happiness and well being without expecting anything in return. I even suggested that she sign on with Braniff Airlines as a stewardess and try to establish a life for herself since mine was on hold. The one year she worked for Braniff was almost like she never left me as she was always calling to get updates on Patty and our lives. She finally quit the airlines and moved in with me in 1970 without any expectations or without any concern about what the public may have thought. In those days, to live together without being married was not the norm. Now, I cannot imagine my life without Josie. I love her so much!

I often wonder how things would be different if my life had not taken that turn in 1967. There is no question that my life would have been more structured from the standpoint of staying in one place longer, and that I probably would have made a long career at McGraw Hill and Pat would have had a nice career at the Princeton Hospital. I will never know. I do know that our lives - mine and Josie's - has been wonderful and filled with exploration of places and experiences that we both never dreamed we would have.

I also have another anniversary to celebrate on February 1, 2020 - It has now been 21 years since I quit smoking. THAT is a good anniversary....