Yoga, Hockey, Bike Rides

That about covers it. A little late with this post, but not a lot going on, just enjoying life and the good weather.

Tuesday 1/14

A bit chilly this morning but we did our morning walk anyway as the sun was warm. After breakfast I ran down to the Shell station on Aho Highway to fill a propane tank.

Went in to BK Tacos for lunch and stopped to do some shopping. That pretty much filled up the whole day!

Wednesday 1/15

Nancy had he Spanish class this AM. I went over and picked up Margo as we are puppy sitting today. Took her on a nice walk around the park and came home and did some putzing around. After lunch Nancy spent most of the afternoon on her homework.

Dinner from the Lucky Girl food truck this evening. 

Thursday 1/16

Off to Tucson Yoga this AM, good class. Stops at Food Conspiracy and Walgreens on the way home. This afternoon Nancy did some shopping and a spa visit will I sat on my butt. Otherwise a quiet day.

Friday 1/17

Hung around home all day after our regular walk in the morning. Took a stroll around the RV park in the afternoon.

Blackhawks played Anaheim tonight. We watched the beginning while we were eating dinner and then went to the rec hall for the Ellington Band performance. A lot of new faces in the group this year as they graduated quite a few of the the kids last year. The band comes from the Tucson Jazz Institute and consists of high school kids from the Tucson area, along with a couple who come from as far away as Phoenix. As usual it was a great performance, it would be hard to find any better live jazz or a better jazz/swing band anywhere. A real treat to have them here every year. We try to make a fair contribution when they pass the hat and we will probably make a donation to help with the cost of their European tour coming up next summer. A good place for a donation if you are looking for one.

Back home we watched the rest of the Hawks game on the DVR and they finally came up with a strong consistent game, although they let Anaheim get close towards the end of the second period.

Saturday 1/18

Another fairly quiet day after our morning walk. Did a few maintenance items and Nancy did some laundry. I spend a fair amount of time doing Distributed Proofreading when I can find an interesting project.  I also do some Zoouniverse projects like Operation War Diary, although the interface is clunky on that one. Old Weather is another good one, as is Family Search Indexing.

Beautiful weather continues, they do need some rain here, but it is not going to happen this month. Nights in the 30’s - with amazing starry skies - and blue skies in the 70’s during the day. We sure like Tucson!

Sunday 1/19

Sports Sunday around here. Took our usual walk, then watch CBS Sunday morning while we had breakfast. The Blackhawks game was at 10:30 AM! We recorded it and then chased it on the DVR, a good way to skip commercials. Hawks beat Boston in spite of their continuing sloppiness in their defensive zone thanks to another spectacular performance from Cory Crawford. Wins against Anaheim and Boston in one weekend, doesn’t get any better than that.

Set the DVR to record the Denver/New England game and went to BK Tacos for lunch and then some grocery shopping.

Back home we went through the AFC game by fast forwarding between plays - makes the game a lot shorter!.

Later in the afternoon I loaded the bikes onto the rack on the back of the truck (he world’s largest bike hauler) in preparation for the bike ride tomorrow.

Monday 1/20

Monday AM meeting at the rec hall, then we came home and changed into our biking garb and met the rest of the group. We went to the bike path along the Rialto River on the North side of the city. As with the Santa Cruz, the Rialto is a dry river bed most of the year. In the 19th century these were free flowing rivers, but the growing population of the area resulted in them being dry for most of the year, but when the rains come they are serious rivers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zwvusqczUc  

We rode about 8 miles along the river trail, out and back with a group of 20 plus people. Then the whole group went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. A very enjoyable day with beautiful weather - it was 77 degrees when we got home.

Tuesday 1/21

Morning walk and then we were puppy sitting. I went over to the pool hall to get on-line and pay bills. Do not do financial stuff over the WiFi network. 

Drove into Tucson to Beyond Bread for lunch. On the way over we saw a pickup nose down in the ditch on the East side of Gates Pass. No idea how they managed to get it in that way, with the nose deep into a ravine and the back wheels off the ground! It was still there when we came back by a couple of hours later. The link above talks about the road being dangerous, this was the first accident we have seen there and we go over the pass several times a week. Yes it is steep, twisty and turny, with big drop-offs, but only "dangerous" if you do something stupid. I expect most of the accidents are at night and involve excessive speed - the limit on the whole road is 35! After all it is in Tucson Mountain Park and Saguaro National Park.

If you look at the map on the link to Tucson Mountain Park our RV park is just to the north of San Joanquin Rd. 

After lunch we stopped at Trader Joe’s and then back home. in spite of two idiots trying to run over our apparently invisible car. Nancy took Margo for another walk. There are some wildflowers starting to bloom along Gates Pass Rd. - about a month early, apparently due to the December rain and the unseasonably warm and dry weather. We should have an inch or two of rain and mid-60's in January. Been dry and in the 70's almost all month.

Wednesday 1/22

Nancy had he Spanish class this morning. I did some cleaning and applied Liquid Gold to the wood in the bedroom - damn there’s a lot of woodwork in this sucker!

After lunch we relaxed for a while and then went up to the Desert Museum for an hour or so. Got to see the beaver and otters swimming and in their den, something we had not seen before.  We would like to volunteer there, and have looked into it, but most of the things available require a year round or September to May commitment. Guess there are enough retired year round residents and they don't need us snowbirds!

Blackhawks play Detroit tonight - fingers crossed.

Well they blew a 2 goal lead and managed to pull out a tie and lose in a shoot-out. Other than two good games last weekend they have had a lousy month!

Thursday 1/23

Tucson Yoga in the morning then back home. Reed brought over some smoked salmon and later Angel brought us a loaf of home made bread! Great to have nice friend’s!

Nancy’s sister Joan arrived this afternoon and headed right over for a hot rocks massage from Angel. Then we went to Tiny’s for burgers.

Back home to watch the Hawks stink up things in Minnesota. Been a grim January for Hawks fans. Finally scored in the last 30 seconds but lost - however, it is only their second regulation loss in the last 18 games, so I guess slumps are relative. Seems like they have been doing worse than they actually have.