Hard Times

Arcadia, California         High 76 Low 54

Why am I in California? My son-in-law Ken, that lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, came to have back surgery in California. The surgery he had a year ago didn't go quite far enough and he has been in pain ever since. This time they went in and fused some bones.

After surgery he seemed to be doing OK, but about 4 hours later he quit breathing and his heart stopped. No one knows for sure how long it was, but could have been up to 15 minutes before they got him going again.

He was unresponsive except for his breathing and heart. From what my daughter-in-law told me, he was having some kind of seizure and the decision was made to induce coma and put him into hypothermia. Susie told me that there is a larger chance for recovery if this is done.

They lowered his body temperature for about 24 hours and then slowly raise it back up. He should have been back to normal temperature at about 3:00 this morning.
then then take hime off the medications which takes a while before they know anything.

Once he comes out of the coma they will do testing to see if his brain is OK. It may not be until tomorrow until they really know anything.

I felt like I should be here for support for my daughter, Sabrina.

Hopefully there is a good outcome from all this. Right now everyone is just waiting.

It is nice to have a son and daughter-in-law that are both doctors so we get a little more information. (Nick and Susie) I did get to meet my grand daughter, Vivian. She is quite the cutie.

I plan on staying until maybe Saturday to see if there's anything I do for Sabrina.

Getting here, I was reaffirmed of why I hate driving in California. My GPS had my arrival time at approximately the time it told me at first until I got about 30 miles from here. Then all the traffic got so bad that I lost 25 minutes going the last 30 miles. And all this was at 1:00 in the afternoon. I wonder what it would have been like during "rush hour" and I'm only on the outskirts of LA.

Anyway, I hope you are having a better time than I.

Thanks for visiting.

Another Christmas Behind Us

Yuma, Arizona        High 59 Low 45

It was cooler today with the wind blowing. We remembered from last year that this was the coldest time of the year.

We went to a Park wide dinner yesterday. The Park furnished the turkeys and gravy just like Thanksgiving. There were twelve tables with 20 seats each. The people at each table furnished all the sides for their table. We had a good meal and as usual ate too much.

Cindy started to take down our Christmas decorations today but won't get really serious until this week end. She did take a picture of me by our Christmas tree here in Yuma.

I started the day out playing shuffle board while Cindy spent her morning sewing.

This afternoon we drove over to the Pilot Knob RV Park to see George and Susie. We spent a while talking to them. Penny started out sitting on Susie's lap and then went down to a dog chair. George told us that there are several couples in the same Park from their home Park in Ottawa. They plan on leaving next Tuesday (after New Year) and boon docking for a while. Perhaps we will see them again in Quartzsite at the Bloggerfest the last of January.

We need to make a trip to Phoenix and are not absolutely sure when we will do so. We have some presents for Cindy's son Scott. She also needs some embroidery thread and I am low on quilting thread in some colors so we will visit our favorite quilt store while we are in Phoenix.

We are both staying busy and enjoying being away from the colder weather. Even though it felt cool today, it is still better than in Utah.

Thanks for visiting.

Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas

Yuma, Arizona      High 68 Low 56

Although the temperature isn't too bad, the wind blew most of the day and to us (Yes, I know we are boobs) it felt cold. I'm sure glad I'm not where it really is cold. It started raining at about 7:00 tonight and is supposed to rain until sometime in the morning. It rained a little one day last week and one of the locals told me it was a 2 inch storm, two inches between drops. It was just enough to get all the cars dirty. The rain now looks to be a little more.

We had Santa in the park and then had a pet parade. Most of the dogs were dressed up to be in Christmas costumes. Penny, on the other hand, doesn't like to be dressed up and so I carried her in her bag. The only time I put her down, she walked about 25 feet and then put on the brakes and acted afraid of the carts and so I put her back in her bag and just walked the rest of the way in the parade.

This is before Penny's hair cut.

She feels safe and secure in her bag.

This picture was taken by Nephi on our way home. It has snowed a lot since then.

Yesterday Penny went to the groomers and got a hair cut. Now she doesn't have to look through hair to see. Everyone that saw her told me she looks smaller than before and lots cuter. I have to add that she's not very spoiled (yes she is a lot spoiled) but when she looks up at me those big eyes, I just can't resist.

After her hair cut.

Cindy has been busy making another quilt. She also spent today making Christmas cookies. We have a Christmas pot luck in the Park and she says she will probably spend Saturday getting ready for it.

I finally got all through with the dentist until March and I'm glad I don't have to go back for a while.

We got our bikes going, but I had to replace one of my tubes. When I inspected the tire, I found a large thorn in it. Hopefully there aren't any others.

The time here seems to be flying by. Probably because there is so much to do in this Park. Lately I have been able to play Shuffle board 4 mornings a week.

I take Penny to Yappy Hour most days and she has a good time running and playing with the other small dogs.

Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope everyone get's what they want for Christmas.

Thanks for visiting.

Nice Day

Yuma, Arizona

We are really enjoying the weather here. Today it got to 80 degrees. I know all you in the north feel sorry for us that it only got to 80, but oh well. It is getting clear down to 55. We had to laugh at the TV weather person from Phoenix the other day. He told the viewers it would get down to about 42 and they should be careful and take all their pets inside. Salt Lake City is supposed to get down to 14 later in the week, so we are really glad to be in Yuma instead of Utah.

This Park still has a lot going on. Cindy has been working with the pottery, while I have been playing shuffle board. I still take Penny to the small dog Park most days so she can play with all her friends at Yappy Hour. Today there were 11 dogs, so we are getting a few more. One couple was bring their dog to the Park, but almost decided not to, when about five of the dogs barked at their dog. We assured them that it was only the greeting committee and that everything would be OK. After everyone smelled the new dog, they were all playing together in just a few minutes.

There are quite a few Christmas decorations up and I will have to put some pictures on a future post.

Monday we had our monthly pot-luck dinner. It is really easy to over eat, everything tastes so good.

In our Park there is trash pickup two day a week and I have volunteered to help on Thursdays.

We got our bike going and have started riding them. I have found out how out of shape my behind is, but hope it gets tougher.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season, Thanks for visiting.

PS: if you get to Yuma, please look us up.

It Was Cold

Yuma, Arizona       High 75 Low 55

We made it to Riverton with out any problems. With the stops we made it took us 12 hours. For me, it seemed like a long day of driving. It is a little over 700 miles. When I was 20 I thought nothing of driving that far, and I still think nothing of it. We probably won't try to do it all in one day again. I'm only glad Cindy was able to drive some of it. I probably wouldn't do it without her. Poor little Penny got sick on the roller-coaster road from Parker to Needles and threw up Tuesdays meal, as I hadn't fed her before we left Wednesday morning.

Thursday it only got to 21 degrees F. We got our paperwork signed at both title companies and then went to do some shopping. We went to Costco and the wind was blowing so hard that we thought we were going to freeze going from the car to the store. No wonder we like Arizona in the winter.

Last night we went to see the house we bought with the money from the Redwood Road property. To us we thought it was a pretty good home for Tammy and the kids.

Yesterday morning I went over to fix a decent furnace filter bracket so she could change filters without a lot of trouble.

Then we left to drive to Mesquite, Nevada where we stayed for the night. Cindy's sister, Linda, gave us a coupon for the room and a two for one buffet at the Virgin River Hotel and Casino. The room only cost $10.00 for Penny and the buffet was a fish buffet for Friday. It was very good!

This morning we left Mesquite at about 8:00 MST, again without feeding Penny. I decided to go about 5 miles per hour slower than the speed limit on the roller coaster road and Penny got a little sick, but didn't throw up. When we got to Parker we stopped for lunch and I fed Penny some and she ate it and acted OK.

We Made it to Yuma just after 2:00 and got the car unloaded. I decided to take Penny to the small dog park for Yappy Hour and she had fun running with all her dog friends. Some of the people told me that they had missed Penny while she was gone.

We are glad to be back in Yuma out of the cold weather.

Thanks for visiting.

We Are Going to be Cold

Yuma, Arizona             High 73 Low 51

We finally got scheduled for our closing on the house that is being taken by UDOT for the road widening. We close Thursday morning. While we could have done everything by mail, we wanted to take some things back to Riverton and bring down our bikes which we haven't had room for.

It is only going to be a high of 35 with a low of 17 tonight with a low of 12 tomorrow night. This is -11 C for you Canadians. Either way it is too cold for me.

We hope to have all our paperwork taken care of Thursday and we now plan on leaving to head back south on Friday. We want to see the replacement house we are buying for Tammy before we leave. The interesting thing about all of this is that what we are getting for the old house is exactly what we are paying for the new one.

I know that we have gotten used to the warmer temperatures of southern Arizona and do not like the cold and snow anymore. It is supposed to snow all night tonight in Salt Lake City and again on Thursday. The only clear days are Wednesday and Friday.

We are driving all the way tomorrow but will probably take 2 days getting back to Yuma. One long day is about all either of us can handle any more.

In case I forget later, I hope everyone has Happy Holidays.

Thanks for visiting.

Things Are Good

Yuma, Arizona                High 66 Low 42

While it is a lot cooler here than when we first arrived, it still is a lot warmer than Utah. Yesterday the wind blew most of the day and it felt downright cold. It is supposed to blow again Friday and Saturday.

I talked about our Thanksgiving dinner here at the Park, and we had such a good time that we want to do it again with the same people on Christmas. There was enough food left over for everyone to have left overs and we enjoyed turkey and dressing for another day. The following pictures are from our Thanksgiving dinner:

We finally got some word from UDOT about the house they are taking. They needed a little more paper work from us and the title company lady told us it probably would happen in about a week. It has been snowing so much on the way to Salt Lake City, that we haven't really wanted to go home. But next week it looks to be better by Wednesday and we probably will leave here to go back to Riverton to get ready for signing the necessary paperwork to get the sale taken care of. I hope it doesn't take too long and we can get back here to Yuma. We do have a few things we still want to bring here, for instance our bikes.

I have to go to Algodones one more time and then I should be through with the dentist for a while. I have tried to get early appointments so there hasn't been too long of lines getting back into the USA.

I try to take Penny to the small dog park most days for Yappy hour with all the other small dogs. I think the most that have been there was 11 one day last week. They have fun playing and chasing each other. They all bark at any new dogs that come to the dog park and we have had to assure a lot of owners that they are just the greeting committee and will not do anything once the new dog is set loose in the park. I guess I might be nervous myself if 10 small dogs came barking at you.

Today is our little grand-sons birthday. He told us he turned 7 today.

Thanks for visiting.

Happy Thanksgiving to Each of You

Yuma, Arizona               High 75 Low 50

The weather the past while has been very delightful.

Today the Park is putting on a Thanksgiving dinner. The Park supplies the turkey and gravy and all the guests supply pitch in.  There are 12 tables with 20 to 22 people per table. The activity director, Al, made an announcement that we needed to see what was volunteered for each table because he had noticed a table with nothing being supplied but salads. We checked our table and it looked fairly balanced. It should be very tasty. Cindy and some of the other ladies at our table went over this morning and decorated it. I haven't seen it yet.  

I have been going to Algodones to have my teeth worked on and finally am almost finished.

We have been enjoying our time here with all the activities in the Park and some in another Park. Last week we went to a nearby Park for square dancing, but when there weren’t enough people, they turned it into a work shop.

Cindy has been spending time on the tread mill and doing some other exercises. I have been spending some time playing shuffle board.

I hope all of you are having a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope that if some of you get to Yuma this winter you will look us up.

Thanks for visiting.

Sunday Sundae

Yuma, Arizona           High 91 Low 64

It is still quite warm here, but a lot better than having the awful 4 letter word (snow).

Things are picking up here. There are a lot more people here than even a week ago.

Today at the small dog park there were 11 dogs running around playing with each other. That is the most so far.

Last Friday I got to start playing shuffle board. We had 16 players Friday and 20 today.

Cindy has been taking fitness classes and we plan on taking more advanced square dance lessons.

We finally got all of the paperwork for the offer on our property that is being taken by the Department of Transportation for the widening project back in Utah. It all seemed to be a good enough offer, so we signed the acceptance and sent the paperwork back. Now we have to close with them and will drive home for a couple of days to do so. Meanwhile we found a replacement for the exact amount we were offered. We put some down on it and they are letting Tammy and the grand kids move in before we close on the replacement. Then the other set of kids will move in with us.

As for the title, one of the RVers has a get together every Sunday evening for anyone that wants to stop by and have a sundae. Last night there were about 20 people. We all manage to have fun in this Park.

I had to have another tooth pulled and fortunately one of the things I'm allowed to eat is ice cream.I'll be glad to get the dental work all finished but it is going to take a while. The dentist told me it would be about 6 months before I'm able to have an implant this time. Too bad I don't have dental insurance with the exception of cleaning and checkups.

Tomorrow Cindy will probably start the pottery classes again. Also one of her tomato plants has some small tomatoes on it.

Thanks for visiting.

Cindy Turned Into a Pot Farmer

Yuma, Arizona        High 94 Low 72

It has been nice and warm since we've been here. We did get some rain one evening. Other than that we have no complaints with being here.

Cindy's birthday was last week and we didn't do much.

We have been busy doing lots of different things: for instance I went to the dentist in Algodones for some work I needed done. I haven't decided for sure whether to have the implants done or not, but probably will. Even with out that I have to go back at least 2 more times.

Cindy has been busy being a pot farmer (No not marijuana). lol We have a lot of ceramic and plastic pots. She has bought lots of tomatoes and different herbs and vegetable seeds which we planted and most are growing quite well with the exception of the cucumbers which came up and then fell over and died. We had to get more seeds and she is trying them again.

One of the tomatoes has doubled in height in only 2 weeks and has blossoms on it. Hopefully we get some fresh veggies before we have to leave in the spring.

We plan on putting some of the pots (the ones with flowers) in front when it cools down a little bit.

We finally got an offer from UDOT on the house they are taking. It seems to be a fair offer. Interestingly, we found something to replace it for exactly the same price.

There isn't much going on in this park yet, but Halloween is the big kick-off. We have a pot luck on Monday evening with costumes optional. That should be interesting.

Thanks for visiting.

Enjoying Our Time Together

Yuma, Arizona           High 93 Low 67

Right now it is 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Earlier this week the car read 102 degrees. I'm not looking forward to the electric bill because the AC has ran almost constantly during the day since we have been here.

After we got here one of the first thing we did was take Penny to the groomer. She looks a lot better and I'm sure she is a lot cooler.

We have been busy in the yard. Cindy went to the nursery and bought some tomato plants and planted cucumbers and squash. It almost seems like early spring in Utah due to all the gardening but this is all in pots.

I spent some time trimming our palm trees and the trash trees in the back (they are actually for shade, but drop lots of leaves and seed pods). Hopefully, by trimming them we don't get so much junk in our back yard like we did last year. I found out the hard way to pick up the palm trimmings with gloves and not bare hands. I ended up with lots of slivers from them.

We also planted a lemon tree which we hope will give us fruit some day. Our grapefruit tree doesn't seem to have as many grapefruit as last year but it might be because our neighbor told us that this summer was unusually hot. We have a small orange tree that looks pretty sickly.

Last night Cindy got some pictures of the full moon just after it came up. I picked what I thought were the best for this post.

The Park doesn't get things going till the first of November so it has been quiet as far as activities. There are a few people coming into the Park. I've seen one or two per day coming in.

We still haven't heard anything from UDOT about the house so that's still an unknown.

We talked to my sister-in-law last night and she says their Mom seems to be doing a little better and Linda is talking about taking her on a motor home trip this summer. She wants us to go with her but a lot depends on their mother. Linda thinks it might have to be a shorter trip than she originally planned but that is still OK.

Cindy has been busy sewing away and needs some white material but we still haven't made it to Grandma Jo's, but we will soon. She volunteered to have a quilt class making an easy baby quilt but that will wait until more people are here.

Thanks for visiting.

It's Hot!

Yuma, Arizona          High 100 Low 70

Today we were both so excited about getting to Yuma that we woke up at 4:30 Arizona time. We spent the night in Laughlin, Nevada. Arizona doesn't change their clocks from Mountain Standard Time to Day Light Savings Time like Utah, so right now they are on the same time as Pacific. A little confusing? Our bodies are still on DST. It usually takes me about a week to adjust.

We had an uneventful drive to Yuma and had the car all unloaded by noon. The only thing it was starting to get uncomfortably warm for us. I actually saw a temperature on the car that said 102, but the official temperature was only (?) 100. Still plenty warm when we had frost 4 days ago. Tomorrow is suppose to cool off clear down to 99. (LOL)

Tomorrow Penny is scheduled to have a hair cut which she needs pretty badly. She probably will be a lot cooler. We were afraid she might get car sick on the roller coaster road (the road from Needles to Parker) but she slept most of the way. I didn't feed her this morning just in case.

We didn't have much traffic on the way here. Quartzsite is still pretty barren but there are a few die hard RVers there in the BLM sites. It didn't even look a little bit fun, but if that makes them happy.

Our Park still doesn't have many people here and all the things start up about Halloween time but we have things to do, so should be OK.

Sorry about no pictures.

Thanks for visiting.

Heading South

Riverton, Utah          High 70 Low 45

The weather here has been a lot cooler lately but warmed up some today. The snow (the awful 4 letter word) has been getting lower on the mountains.

Today we had an fabric estate sale to go to and found lots of treasures. We were able to get some large pieces of material for a dollar, one of which I measured was exactly 5 yards.There were lots of other treasures also. Cindy found one Anita Goodesign embroidery disc that sold for $75 she got for five dollars.

After the estate sale we had a funeral for one of my cousins to attend. He was barely 59 but last December had a stroke and was in bad shape. Cindy and I both wondered if it was made worse because they live in a small town and it took a while to get him to a hospital.

We have been packing the car to get ready to drive to Yuma tomorrow. Last year I told Cindy that I felt like the Beverly Hillbilly's because the car was so full. This year might even be worse, but we seem to be getting it all in. Penny kept going out in the garage while we loaded. She was acting like we were going without her. She sure is a dependent little dog. We can't go anywhere without her wanting to go. It seems like she wants to be with one or both of us all the time.

A very rare specimen of dogwood. 

As I said on my last post, we still haven't heard anything from UDOT in regards to them taking the other house. We were originally told 6 weeks, which got changed to 8 weeks. It now has been almost 3 months and we decided to leave for Yuma even if I heard anything from them today. When they make their offer, we still have 30 days to accept or reject, so if we hear from them, we are prepared to come back to Riverton. Hopefully is doesn't take them 4 years like it did for our friends.

The weather report shows about 100 in Yuma, but we both feel like we need to get away from all the commotion, even if it is for a short time.

Thanks for visiting.

Getting Ready to Go Party

Riverton, Utah      High 81 Low 49

Today was warm, but it has cooled off and there is a lot of wind and lightning now. Tomorrow is forecast to be a lot cooler.

Since we plan on being in Yuma for Christmas, Cindy decided to have a Mexican party yesterday. After the party she gave everyone their Christmas presents.

We had lots of good Mexican style food: tacos, enchiladas, refried beans, and black beans, along with guacamole. It was very good and if you left hungry, it was your own fault. Devon filled his plate at least 3 times.

Slayter, the second from the left, thinks he wants to go to culinary school and become a chef.

Here is Devon on his second plate. He is the second from the right.

Taylor is the little guy sitting down on the left.

Chris was supposed to work, but got the day off, Here he is filling his plate.

Cindy had wrapped all the presents, with the exception of Teesa's, our oldest grand-daughter, which was too big, so we had a treasure hunt for her. It seemed like it was fun for her and the kids following her. She likes to make jewelry from beads and got two boxes of them. She seemed happy to get them after all the running around on her treasure hunt. she did get somewhat frustrated on some of the clues and needed my help.

After the presents were unwrapped Taylor, who is six, Told Cindy that it was the best Mexican, Thanksgiving, Christmas party he had ever been to.

Cindy's Mom and sister, Linda, even made it. Her Mom seems to be doing a little better but is still quite weak and needed help going up the stairs into our home. We had all of Cindy's family here, with the exception of Scott and Daniel who live in Phoenix. We plan on seeing them while we are in Yuma.

We still haven't heard anything from UDOT about the house and probably will have to come back once we do hear from them.

I have been busy quilting a lot and we seem to be running out of backs. We might have to go back to Maine and visit Marden's next summer for more of their low priced fabric (as if Cindy doesn't have enough).

Thanks for visiting.

Change of Plans

Riverton, Utah    High 61 Low 43

The weather here really took a change from the almost too warm to what feels quite cold to me. It has rained for two days. The snow level on the mountains is down a long way and a lot of the leaves have turned color.

We have been waiting on word from the Utah Department of Transportation on what they are going to offer for a home we own on a road that is being widened.. They are taking all of our property along with 130 other pieces of property on the east side of the road to widen it from the current 2 lanes to 5. It is a rental for us and we wanted to replace it with something else and we were told that we should hear from them in about 6 weeks from when the appraisers were out. It now has been 8 weeks and as we have still not heard anything, we decided to make plans to head to Yuma.

We were over visiting our friends Eddie and Barbara a few days ago and they went through the same thing a few years ago. They told us that from when they found out UDOT was taking their property to when it actually happened was 4 years and their advice was not to wait for them. I guess government agencies work at their own time frame without regard to the property owners.

So we have decided to leave in 2 weeks and if we have to come back, then so be it. Cindy and I are both ready to leave for warmer climates. It might still be a little warm in Yuma but we will get used to it.

In the mean time all the peaches, pears, and apricots have been picked and bottled or frozen. We have a lot of grapes, which we will juice next week.  The tomatoes only gave us enough to eat and we had to buy some for Cindy to bottle.

We have been working on quilts and Cindy has sewn some and I have quilted them. She has made 4 since we have been home. She plans on taking the baby quilts with us and she is deciding whether to give a class on making them in the park this winter.

The following are some of what she has been working on:

The back of the first quilt. She said she just used scraps on the whole quilt.

 Another scrappy quilt with a little different pattern for the blocks. She can't stand to throw any small pieces away and this is the result.

 One of the baby quilts with a flannel back.

 This is the other baby quilt. The pin wheels  on both are 3-D.

Thanks for Visiting. 

Quilt Show and The Awful Four Letter Word

 

Riverton, Utah        High 70 Low 46

Today was a lot more pleasant with a high of only 70. This afternoon it got windy and cool. Last night we had some rain and we can see snow on the tops of the mountains by us. I was ready for some cooler days, but I’m not ready for the awful four letter word. Why aren’t we in Yuma? Because it’s still way too hot there. I looked and the prediction is still for 106 degrees.

Cindy got some pictures of me installing a faucet on our secondary water system so she wouldn’t have to use culinary water for the yard. We’ve been in our home for 15 years and why install the faucet now, you might ask. It was because the city turned off the secondary water for 2 weeks and things got mighty dry. I haven’t seen the water bill yet, but using culinary water instead of secondary will probably be kind of high.

Cindy also took some pictures of two of the quilts we finished. The first is called Oh My Gosh and the blocks start out as one inch strips, and then are made into 2 inch squares, some with 9 patches. The picture with the quarter isn’t very clear, but you can get the idea of how small the pieces are.

This is a king size quilt in Christmas colors.

The second quilt was a kit we picked up in Alaska and has what looks like a scene from Alaska. I used a lot of different colors quilting it with different patterns for each section.

I played with the log cabins, even quilting a door knob on it.

Today we drove to the Springville Art Museum to see a quilt show they had there. There were a lot of nice quilts and Cindy took lots of pictures. I put some of the ones I liked best on this post.

This quilt was made in memory of a little girl that died using her clothes for the blocks.

I think this was best in show.

This next quilt is for all RVers.

This movable water feature is in the lobby of the Art Museum.

Thanks for visiting.