Winter Begins

It's that time of year again when it seems like it is dark outside most of the day. Of course, the first day of winter is also the shortest day of the year. We don't see the effect of the shortest day as much as we did when we lived in WA all those years, but conversely, the longest day of the year in summer was much longer in WA.

Josie is plodding through her busy schedule at work and she said this year is much busier than last. I guess that's another sign of the economical rebound. All the signs point to rising interest rates and more inflation to begin again in this country. I heard yesterday that there are some economists who are predicting another recession - worse than the last - to begin next year if the Feds don't slow the march to raise interest rates. It will be interesting to watch. It is beyond me how President Obama can justify flying off to Hawaii for a vacation when there is so much uncertainty and confusion surrounding his health program. I guess he believes that his house is in order.

We again had a beautiful sunset last night as the storm ended and the clouds began to move out:

How can you beat that?

I will drive Josie to work today and run some errands while she is at work. Since she will not have another day off until Christmas, it is the only way I can do certain things - like get a haircut, for example. This is one of the few occasions when we wished we had the second vehicle. Right now though, the advantages to having one outweigh the disadvantages, so we'll make it work...

The Rains Came

Fortunately, most of the day was nice yesterday. I spent much of the day outside continuing the consolidation of files and sorting through old papers and travel info. I even had a chance to take a bike ride around the resort. Since Josie uses the truck, there aren't many choices of places to go. The exercise is needed anyway, so I used a trip to the office to check for mail to also begin a ride which took me to the other side of the resort. The marina is an inviting place, and this is where the party was held over the weekend:

There is another boat launch on the north side of the resort that is also a popular spot for families that want to picnic or use a "beach" to swim:

I only rode for a few miles, but even that little bit of exercise was beneficial for somebody that has been sitting on his butt for about the last month.

The forecast was for a storm to move in late in the afternoon, and the forecast was accurate. By 5 PM, the clouds rolled in and I closed up the gazebo while taking this shot of the western sky:

We ended up with almost .5" of rain through last night, and the forecast is for more to come. The skies should clear late this afternoon and begin to warm up again for Christmas. Thank goodness there were no high winds with this storm - yet - and everything seems to be normal. There was a small problem that I will fix today, and that is to dry out our connections for the outside lights. Evidently, water got into one of the connections and we had no outside Christmas lights last night. I suspected a potential problem for that situation and I should have taped the connections when I installed the lights.

I suppose that tomorrow I will drive Josie to work and use the truck during the day to get a few errands done that I have been putting off. With her working straight through to Christmas, it is the only way I will get them done...

Outside Stuff

It was another beautiful day yesterday and a good one to get some outside work done. The main projects were to connect more plants to the watering system and to clear off the site from debris we received from the windy days last week. The plant connections were easy except I didn't have enough water line to reach the plant in the front of the fifth wheel, so that one will have to wait until I can get to the store to buy more line. The site clearing was another easy job using our blower that we brought home from the storage unit.

The rest of the afternoon was spent going through some files that we have been carrying around with us to try to consolidate them into a single box. That takes a lot of time since each file needs to be gone through in detail to eliminate all the old, unnecessary data and junk. I came across some other interesting things that I forgot we had, such as a rookie baseball card for Alex Rodriguez when he was drafted by the Mariners in 1993. That card cost me $4 when I purchased it years ago and is worth a lot (?) more today. I need to put that in a nice, safe place. Sometimes it pays to go through old boxes of stuff that have been ignored for years.

It appears that my outside activities are headed for a delay as we have a good chance for rain coming in by tonight or tomorrow morning. The rain is always welcome - in small doses - as long as the winds don't get ugly...

Week Away From Christmas

Man, we have been here almost 3 months already, and with Christmas just a week away, the time is flying by waaay too fast. It probably isn't going fast enough for Josie although she still loves her work. I'm enjoying our time here at Lake Pleasant more than last year at Happy Trails. It is a much prettier location and much quieter. We certainly don't miss the sirens from all the emergency vehicles that went behind our site last year. It seemed like there were two or three every day. Also, we don't miss the jets flying over our site from the Luke Air Force Base that was down the road about 10 miles from Happy Trails. If we can do something about the extra winds we've been having, it will be near perfect.

I have a shot of a couple more hats that Josie has made in the last week:

She is getting ready to move on to more difficult crocheting projects, so stay tuned for more goodies from her "needle". Her spare time is almost all consumed with her crocheting projects which provide some nice relaxation.

The big TV news from last night was, of course, the final of the Voice. I don't agree with the final choice, but the winner is terrific even though I thought the teenager had more talent. I'm sure that all of the finalists have bright futures in the music industry. It looks like The Voice has taken over from Idol as the premiere show for new singing talent.

The temperature hit 80 yesterday, and we had calm winds. Great combination...

Longer Work Days

The week before Christmas is noteworthy for one big change in our daily activities - Josie will work longer days. She left at 7:30 yesterday AM and didn't return home until after 5 PM. It seems that every day will be at least that long until Christmas Eve day.

I sorted through some boxes that we stowed away in our basement that were filled with old magazines and papers that we shoved in a box before we hit the road to go to Wyoming this past summer. I came across some items that we thought we had lost or thrown away, so the time was well spent for me both for lightening our load and for following up on some items we misplaced. I just need to rearrange the file cabinet to find a place to keep those papers that we will need for awhile - to do taxes, at least.

We had to go to the store after Josie got home last night and we went just in time to catch the rising moon over the hills to the east:

The days are about as short as they will get for the winter season, so it doesn't get light until close to 7 AM and darkness is here by 5:30 at night. Winter hasn't officially arrived yet, but you would never know it by watching the national weather forecasts.

Even with the longer work days, Josie has found time to finish up another hat that she crocheted in one night:

Her collection of hats is growing and she still has some ideas for other hats, so expect to see more "fashion" ideas from her in the near future.

That's about all there is to report for this day, so we'll see you tomorrow...

Marina Party

There was a notice in our mailbox about a week ago regarding a holiday party that was being held at the Marina. The flyer indicated that there would be complimentary music, hamburgers and hot dogs, along with free boat rides to advertise the boat rental program. It was a chance to get in some exercise by walking to the marina and also to check out the boat rentals.

The party was to run between 1 PM and 5 PM, and the weather was terrific. We started out to go to the marina at 2 PM. The walk is one that we've taken before, but the views never get old:

We could see lots of people and smoke from the barbecue fire as we got closer. The music was also loud as we entered the walkway to the marina:

It appeared to us that the level of the lake had risen substantially since we last visited about a month ago. It didn't take long to see where the action was and we went immediately to the food line:

The party was in full swing and Josie and I each picked up a burger with some chips and a brownie from the desert tray. We also had a beer that we bought at the small bar that was set up before the food line. We sat at one of the many tables that were there and visited with some nice folks from Bellingham, WA that were also staying at the resort.

The only complaint we had about the whole party was that the burgers, although appearing to be ready to serve, were very rare, and Josie even went back to get a second one after only eating half of her first burger. The second one wasn't any more done than the first, so she ended up eating about one burger from the two she picked up at the food station. It was still a nice setup and we had a good time while visiting the rental boat station and picking up all the information for future reference.

The walk was good for us and we were thankful for the beautiful, warm and calm day. We vowed to increase our exercise and to get onto a regular program, of some kind, after the first of the year. We are holding pretty close to our goals - weight wise - for the holiday period.

It's back to work for Josie today to start the final, big push for the busy week before Christmas...

Ready for Christmas

Yesterday completed all of the remaining actions to declare ourselves ready for Christmas. We picked up the final gifts, packaged everything and sent them on their way to be delivered in Santa's sleigh on Christmas. The only problem we had was finding the nearest post office. Our GPS indicated the closest one as being in New River. When we went to that location, there was nothing there but an elementary school. The next best location was behind the Outlet Mall in Anthem, which is where we ended up going. It was not a bad experience at all as we anticipated lines out the door with folks trying to mail their Christmas packages. We stood in line for maybe 5 minutes, got all of our transactions completed and left. There was actually a second trip to the post office to mail one final package for which we needed to verify the address. Done!

The afternoon turned beautiful with calm winds, so we were able to sit outside and enjoy that before dinner. The winds picked up again during the night - 32 mph gusts - and it is now calm once again. I feel bad for Josie trying to sleep through these windy nights as the topper awnings on our fifth wheel flap like crazy during the winds and I can't hear them without having my hearing aids in my ears. I do feel the rocking motion that is created by these winds, but she endures much more than I. When the winds blow long and steady like this, they come from the east or from the northeast which is where our rig faces, so we get the winds almost head-on. Occasionally, we get high winds from the west, which is to the rear if the rig and we don't feel those as much. Of course, our bedroom is in the front, so that makes for more motion from those head winds.

It looks like another beautiful day ahead with temperatures in the 70's, so we will have to plan something to do outside. Exercise maybe?...