Sunday Feb 17
Slept in, took a nice hike and then vegged out watching the Blackhawks win again and close within one game of the record for consecutive games without a loss to open the season. Of course that was followed by the season finale for Downton Abby.
Monday Feb 18
Weather is supposed to turn nasty on Wednesday - cold, rain and wind. The park picnic was scheduled for Wednesday! So it has been moved up to Tuesday. After the morning meeting we took the truck over to the rec hall and loaded all of the folding tables on the deck to carry them over to the picnic area. Then we picked up a couple of picnic table from other sites.
In the afternoon Nancy backed a pie and I did some work on the truck. A beautiful day in the 70’s hard to believe it is going to turn cold later in the week - of course that means highs in the 50’s.
Tuesday Feb 19
As predicted the weather held on Tuesday and we had a really nice day for the picnic. A little bit breezy, but sunny in the 60’s. Only bad spot was our table was the last called in the rotation for the pot luck so stuff was pretty well picked over by the time we got there. Did not bother me much, but Nancy was disappointed about missing out on a lot of the salads. We did get first crack at the desert table though, so that was some consolation!
After the picnic we helped take the tables back where they belonged.
Wednesday Feb 20
Again as predicted, the weather turned nasty today. It was raining in the morning, got up to 50 by 11 AM and then dropped to 35 by noon! We got about 2” of snow here in the park!
Nancy had gone to the movies with Karen while I stayed home and did some cleaning. I put lemon polish on all of the woodwork - damn there is a lot of woodwork in this sucker!
Got a couple of pics of the snow and built a little snowman from the snow on the picnic table. The snow was pretty much gone by the end of the day.
Thursday Feb 21
Off to Tucson Yoga this AM, did not notice it until we were in the car and out of the park - the Tucson Mountains to the east of us were still snow covered and looked beautiful! Wish we had noticed it before we left and taken a couple of pictures.
After our almost weekly stop at Food Conspiracy, we came home and picked up Karen’s dog, Margo. Kept her here this afternoon until Karen returned from the Rodeo.
Karen and a few others from the park had gone to the Rodeo Parade early this morning and then Rodeo. They called us when they were on the way home and we joined them for dinner at Fred’s Arena.
Friday Feb 22
Grunt work this AM, Nancy did laundry and I went over to the pool hall where there is a hard wire internet connection to do our banking and bill paying, as well as a couple of software updates. I prefer not to do the banking on WiFi. We have a small, inexpensive notebook computer that has never been connected to a public WiFi and has never connected to anything other than secure websites. That is the one I use to go to the bank and credit card websites. A little more work, but also hopefully a little more secure.
Saturday Feb 23
Took a little longer hike in the desert today after sleeping in a bit. Saw the very first flowers of the year (other than Christmas Cactus) out in the desert this AM. Tiny, tiny (MICROSCOPIC!) white flowers that you have to get close to see at all. Then we went into town, had lunch at Beyond Bread, made a quick stop at Traders Joe’s and then went to the Friend’s of the Pima County Library annual used book sale. Spent a fair amount of time there browsing, but managed to get out with only four books, which showed tremendous restraint on our part. I wonder if there is a twelve-step program for people that buy more books than they can read!
Sunday Feb 24
Went off to Cushing Street Grille for brunch this AM, we had a 25% off coupon. Got there at 9:10 and discovered they do not open until 10 AM - oops! There was a cold wind this morning and we were not dressed for walking so we did a driving tour of Barrio Viejo. Not much of it left, but it was interesting and we found a little museum that was closed but had a number of descriptive signs telling the history of the neighborhood. Brunch was excellent once we got back there.
Back home to watch the Daytona snooze-fest - I mean 500. This new car seems worse than the old one on the super speedways, basically no passing other than the first few laps after a green flag.
Then we watched the Blackhawks win again and extend their record season opening points streak to 18 games (15-0-3). Guess we picked a good year to subscribe to NHL Center Ice so we could get all the games.
Monday Feb 25
Monday AM meeting, then Nancy dug in and went to work on our income taxes. I helped with some research on various expenses and then went over to the pool hall for the hard wired connection and balanced our checkbooks - had not done that in a while.
Another Blackhawks game tonight and another win, albeit in overtime. They have made an amazing start this season. Everyone was concerned about the home stand after their great road trip record. They shut-up the doubters by going 5-0-1 at home!
Tuesday Feb 26
A bit chilly this AM, around 30 degrees both yesterday and today, but then up into the 60s by afternoon. Last year there were 2 days with below freezing, this year 17! Supposed to be into the eighties by early next week.
We waited until it had warmed up a bit and then went for a hike after breakfast. Hiked 5 or 6 miles. Don’t know how far for sure since the batteries in my GPS died, should have checked them before we left! We went up a small mountain nearby to some old mines. It is about 1.5 miles one way as the crow flies, so it was at least 5 miles by our route out through the county park.
Then we went to BK for lunch and stopped at the grocery store, back home we just relaxed.
Wednesday Feb 27
After our morning walk we went down to Green Valley for the weekly farmers market. Picked up a few things we were looking for. As long as we were in the area we stopped at BK for lunch again as we went by.
Thursday Feb 28
Regular class at Tucson Yoga, a stop at Food Conspiracy and then home. Nancy had a massage with Angel after we got back home and then she spent some time helping a fellow here in the campground straighten out his paperwork on a house sale and some other stuff.
Blackhawks game again tonight and another win - that puts them at 17-0-3. They just keep going and going.
Friday March 1
Morning walk in the desert, then Nancy did some laundry. After lunch we went to a seafood market/restaurant that Nancy had found. Turned out to be a nice looking restaurant in a non-descript building - Rodriguez Fish Market. No website, but it is on 12th Ave just north of Ajo Way. The halibut, which we brought home and grilled, was excellent!
Back home we watched the Blackhawks squeak out another win in OT. Not a really good game for them, but somehow they manage to win even with a sluggish performance (second game in two nights and they play again Sunday afternoon!). Now they are 18-0-3! Stretched the record for consecutive point games to open the season to 21. Counting the end of the regular season last year, they are approaching the league record for consecutive games with points.
Saturday March 2
Off to H F Coors first thing this am for the first Saturday seconds sale. Nancy picked up about eight small items and a bowl that Joan had asked her to pick up.
Then we stopped at BK Tacos for a late breakfast, Walmart for Sunday pizzas, then home to drop stuff off.
This morning’s newspaper had an article about an open house at the new Tree Ring Laboratory at U of A. Yes, a Tree Ring Lab, the study of dendrochronology. Apparently they have been in a “temporary” facility since 1937! So we thought that would be an interesting thing to see.
A really nice building with fascinating display of really ancient pieces of wood and timelines from ancient trees. The founder of the lab A. E. Douglass developed a timeline of tree rings going back to pre-history that is being used to determine the age of wood in archeology and a lot of other sciences. He was considered the father of dendrochronology.
The tour of the lab was very interesting with the researchers and lab assistants explaining the various types of research they are performing studying tree rings: historic water flow in the Colorado River Basin; historical climatic conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa; One guy is even working an dating petrified wood that is four million years old!
They had wood samples there, that we could actually hold in our hands, that dated to before Christ. They even had a ten foot section of a 1,700 year old sequoia on display, along with a timeline made up of actual photographs of tree rings that dated back to ancient Rome. You had to go about three quarters of the way down the timeline (which covered about 30 feet) to get to when Columbus sailed!
All in all a most interesting display.
After the tour we stopped at Beyond Bread for lunch (of course!) and a quick stop at Trader Joe’s before heading home. A pretty full day considering that the only thing we actually had planned was the stop at H F Coors!
Oh yeah, almost forgot, it was 85 degrees today!
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