Happy Christmas to All

Saturday 12/19

Made a quick trip down to Valencia Rd to the Walmart and the bank, than I got a haircut (which I really needed!) from a lady here in the park, then we watched the Blackhawks mid-day game. Decided to run into BK Tacos for dinner, traffic across I-10 on Irvington Rd. was amazing and when we got to BK the line for ordering was out the door! Line moved pretty fast though and the food is as good as ever. Back home and settled down in front of the TV.

Sunday 12/20

Relaxing morning, watched Sunday Morning as we usually do and read the papers - getting Arizona Daily Star delivered again and get the Chicago Tribune on line. The Daily Star is a pretty good daily paper, a bi thin but better than a lot that we see around the country.

Monday 12/21

Our first Monday morning RV Park meeting, we are getting a lot of comments from friends and acquaintances who had wondered when we were coming. The fact that the park kept our space open for us indicated that we were coming in sooner or later. The park rule is that you have to start paying your rent by December first and occupy your site by the 15th in order to reserve your site from year to year. We paid December rent and just made it in by the 15th.

Finally getting settled in and relaxing a bit. Still doing some cleaning and storing things away. I applied Liquid Gold to the wood in the kitchen and on the entertainment center this afternoon. 

Tuesday 12/22

Headed off for therapy first thing this morning. The foot is really feeling better and the therapy is helping immensely, it almost feels normal already. Tim, my therapist is an interesting guy to talk to, which helps things move along when he is manipulating my ankle or using ultrasound on the repair.

After therapy we zipped over to Beyond Bread - Oh, Tim told me today he thinks it will finally be OK for me to drive! Nancy is relieved, she was getting a bit burned out on chauffeuring me around.

After lunch we stopped at the Albertson’s near Beyond Bread and then back home just long enough to put the cold stuff away. Then we went over to the Foothills to meet a builder’s representative - who actually turned out to be the builder’s wife.

We had noticed a house under construction by John Herder Building that had an “available” sign on it and wanted to take a look. We also wanted to investigate the possibility of building a new home as opposed to purchasing an older one.

Turned out the house in question was a bit out of our price range and larger than we are looking for, but we did have a nice discussion with Paulette about the possibilities. Of course she recommended building a new one, but there is actually a lot to be said for getting the latest in technology and materials. They have built over 400 homes in the immediate area and are currently developing another subdivision nearby.

It looks like building new might be a viable option since we are under no time pressure. We are going to look at floor plans over the Christmas break and then look into lot options in January.

Blackhawks got skunked by the Dalles Stars tonight. Nancy we went to the entertainment at the rec center, guess I should have gone also instead of staying home and watching them get beat! 

Wednesday 12/23

Nancy had Spanish class this morning, I did some house cleaning. Relaxed around mid-day and then over the mountain to Agility Therapy in the late afternoon. On the way home we drove around Starr Ridge, the other area off Kinney Rd. that Herder is developing. Still not many houses, but we are not crazy about the area anyway, too flat for one thing.

Then we cruised around The Foothills looking at empty lots. We have pretty much decided to have a new house built if we can find the right lot. That will be the first hurdle. Did some research on John Herder Building and found nothing but good comments. 

Dinner at home and a quiet evening.

Thursday 12/24

Nancy went to yoga class this AM. I am not quite ready for that yet, so I went over to the new gym her at the RV Park and did 10 minutes on the stationary bike. My ankle is showing improvement every day, should be able to ditch the stinking boot pretty soon!

Nancy spent much of the rest of the day studying Spanish, I putzed around and made a couple of minor repairs. One thing I repaired was the Fan-Tastic Vent in the bathroom. It had developed a mind of it’s own, a couple of times we came home and found it open and running. So I pulled the knob out to put it on manual - then it started running randomly until I pushed the know back in and let it register as closed!

Thinking old fashioned I thought it might be dust on contacts in the switch box, so I blew some compressed air into it, that made a change in the lights that were staying on so I pulled the fuse and opened up the box. Oops, solid state circuit board, so my dust theory went by the boards. However, Looking at the back of the board I could see that there was some kind of substance smeared around which looked like it could be shorting out the board.

Took a paper towel with hot water and the stuff came right off. Let it dry for a couple of hours, put the fuse back in, and it worked perfectly! Thinking about it, last year in Denver when we hit that brutally cold snap (14 below) we had a fair amount of condensation. There is a 1” square hole in the wall behind the control box and I bet cold air flowing in there caused condensation on the circuit board and left a deposit.

Late in the afternoon we headed into town for dinner at Pizza Hut with a group of friends from Desert Trails to celebrate Christmas Eve.

Friday 12/25

Quiet morning, Nancy helped with setup for Christmas dinner. The group here in the park is large enough that we have two venues, the Rec hall and the Oasis. We opted for the smaller group in the Oasis. Good company and good food. Pericles, the park owner provides the turkeys and condiments, everything else is pot luck and it is an amazing spread.

I went to dinner last night and today without my boot, I think I am about to dump it unless I need to walk a longer distance. Tim and his crew at Agility Therapy have been doing a great job, I can see improvement after every visit.