Christmas in Arizona

On the morning walk today I saw how beautifully the main clubhouse was decorated.  Since it was still dark at 7am I was able to get these photos of the lights.  It's cold, windy and there is a possibility of snow after midnight.  Happy New Year!

And the hard work begins

We've finally arrived back in AZ and have done nothing fun, yet.  We've been working like dogs getting the new place cleaned up and getting the current place ready to put on the market.

So far we haven't played Pickleball, taken any walks, gone swimming, or done pottery.  Soon.

Also, a mountain lion has been spotted, several times, near the new place.  I'll keep a lookout in the backyard when I'm working.  But I don't think mountain lions care for oranges or grapefruit.

Entry way, white walls, linoleum - all going to disappear.  Notice the dirt on the wall on the left.

Looking into the family room from the kitchen.  Walls and floor are both changing.

Den/Gillian's room.

Very dirty guest room.  Currently.

Hallway to master bedroom.

Living room/dining room.  Carpet, walls and window coverings will change.  Notice the orange tree on the right.

Master bedroom.

Look forward to the exciting pictures as the transformation takes place.  Starting next week!

Activities of Late

There is a neighboring 55+ community called Sun City.  At that development there is a pottery club and they hosted our pottery club for a "meet and greet" and luncheon.    So we carpooled there and got to tour their studio/facilities and see what are they were making.

And they served us lunch too.  It was fun to get out of the compound and see other communities.  I still like Saddlebrooke best.  So mainly a bunch of older women oohing and aahing over ceramic pieces.

Some of the tennis courts are being resurfaced.  I think this job is $250,000.  It's interesting to see all the equipment and manpower that is needed for tennis courts (which didn't look that bad to me).

Ceramic Factory

On our last day with our visitors, Linda and Pete, we went to the HF Coors factory where they make dishes.  This was a great one hour tour and really interesting.

We all use dishes everyday, but to see them made in mass production makes me appreciate the work involved.

The above photo shows the glazing process.

Just a small amount of the hundreds of shelves of dishes they made.  They also make the mugs that Ellen Degeneres uses on her show!

Miscellaneous happenings

The month of March is when the smaller cactus start to bloom.  The blooms only last a couple of days so everyone is kind of on the hunt for taking good photos.

There are also white and pink blooms, but I didn't get those pics in time.

On our hike to Madera Canyon we rested at the Santa Rita lodge.  It's an area known for birding.  At the lodge there were benches set up to view about 40 bird feeders and it was fun to watch the many different, colorful birds who fed there.

A late stroll around the compound last night and this is the moon starting to come over the mountains.  Really fun to watch it rise.

And this morning as I was heading to the grocery store I noticed that Oracle Avenue was "on fire".  There were two men trying to put out about six small roadside fires.  It eventually was contained by the FD, but kind of spooky to see something like that.

Uncle Update

Oh, no good news.  Kevin has been having a lot of problems and now he has finally had a bunch of invasive tests.  Looks like he has a large tumor in his esophagus and something else that is causing a blockage.  They are driving back to CA tomorrow to meet with doctors and surgeons.  He has been in discomfort and pain for months.  I'll know more later this week once he sees more doctors.

It's so sad to see him this way since he's been feeling bad, not sleeping, and has lost a lot of weight.  He's much too young (82) for all this.  He definitely not been his usual jovial self.  I don't think there will be any good news.

Just an unhappy FYI.

Picacho Peak hike

The other day I went on a "D" hike with the hiking club to Picacho Peak.  "D" means it is flat, short and easy.  This was not the case.

We had a lot of elevation gain and it was very rocky.  It felt like we were just walking on bits of shale.  Going downhill it was easy to slip and fall - a few people did.

I rode to the hike with an 80 year old Austrian man named Bernie who is a nice friend.  He fell as it was too slippery for him.  And our hike leader is a little goofy.  This is my last organized hike of the season.

During our lunch break I saw all these baby Jumping Cholla plants growing on the ground.  It's easy to see how these plants repopulate.

Some of the hiking group.  No one is young.

Too Much Food, Old Food

We had a nice dinner at Tina and Kevin's for St. Paddy's Day.  Of course, I had to check out the ever growing laundry room of food and useless junk.  Don't let this happen to you.  This is not just after one shopping trip - this is every day.

Then I visited my sister.              

This is a can of Baking Powder from her pantry.  Notice the date on the bottom of July 1996.  That's when it expired.  So it was probably made in 1994 - as old as Gillian.  I think it's time to throw it away!

Sort of Lucky Bingo

Monday was our third Bingo night of the year.  You can see everyone is looking very intense, and not necessarily happy, at their Bingo cards.  However, Tina (on the left) did win one game ($60) and the raffle prize.  So a good night for her!  We'll try again in 2019.

Wednesday Night Out

Last night we ventured into downtown Tucson, which is a good 45 minute drive.  I think we've only been down there once this year!  We are so busy up at Saddlebrooke, it's hard to leave sometimes.

We met Holly and Dave for dinner at a famous 1922 Mexican restaurant.  Probably the best Mexican food we have found so far.  Then we walked to the Fox Theater to see a band called Classic Albums who performed the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, plus a few other Beatles songs.

A very enjoyable show.  However, we didn't get home until 10:30, which is really late for us!

Naughty Javelinas!

This cactus is called Indian Fig.  They grow really fast.  In fact, people were giving away the "pads" and we took them.  When we got home we just planted them in the ground.

Next year, there were a lot more pads.  And the year after, even more.

However, they are the right height for the Javelinas.  A couple of weeks ago we noticed that the "pigs" came through and munched them badly!

You can see where they have eaten.  Good thing we didn't spend a fortune on these cactus just to have them destroyed.  It's easy to spend a lot on cactus as some are really expensive, but beautiful.

Juicing

Dave has finally gotten a lot of sources for free grapefruit!  We have been kind of lacking in the citrus this year.  Today he got his juicing system set up and spend about two hours working.

We use a lot of recycled jugs.  He made about two gallons and it tastes great!

Door before and after

Our front door takes a beating in the summer as the sun just bakes it.  The doorknob looks like a mess and the door has all the varnish on the bottom half gone.  So I manually sanded off all the old varnish.

Here is the door, better but not perfect.  I may add another coat of varnish for more protection.  I could have gotten the look more even if I had the electric sander and really sanded the door.  But at least it feels smooth and not rough like before. 

A view of some of the pickleball courts.  Just a few old men playing.

Book Festival

The Tucson Festival of Books (TFOB) is both Saturday and Sunday.  Our volunteer shift was on Saturday morning.  By noon there are literally thousands of people all over the place.  These photos were taken over an hour before the festival even opened.

We didn't get to go inside this bus, but it looked like it would have been fun!

I liked this booth - Three Amigos and a Lady.  All dressed up in their western clothing.  And they were all authors of western stories.

The volunteers who were author escorts (walking the author from the hospitality lounge to their speaking venue) all met here.  Dave and I were author escorts.  We waited for our authors to come out and then we took them away.

Dave's authors never came because a moderator took them to their venue, so he just went and listened to their talk anyway.  Apparently, I had the "big guns".  My authors were Scott Turow and Greg Iles.  I did get to spend several minutes with them as we were waiting and walking around.  Their "lecture" was very interesting and funny.  Now I have more books I want to read!

Scott is on the left and Greg's head is peaking over the podium.  After their session we went to listen to three other famous authors and that was very crowded, but interesting.  One author kept talking about a character that was supposed to be a MILF.  The old ladies around us kept asking "what's a MILF?"  Pretty funny.

77th Birthday

The strawberries make this cake look a little weird, but it was a good one.  And I had a strawberry cream filling inside.  We also had Tina's favorite ice cream for her at her birthday party last night.

Grandpa Van still is out of it.  He asked me, as he does every time he sees me, "so, how are the kids? How is number one, and number two, and number three?"  Then he asked how number four was.  He can't even remember how many kids I have, let alone names.

Trains at Saddlebrooke

Apparently there is a large Model Railroad club in Tucson.  Some of those enthusiasts are at Saddlebrooke.  Every March they host open houses so the public can come and see their set ups.  We went last year into Tucson to some homes.  This year I visited two of the homes in Saddlebrooke.  Here the owners dedicated their entire backyards to their model trains.

This train owner is building a new "addition" to his village.  You can see the white structure is just the base before he covers it with spray foam and paints it.  Right now it's just a hodge podge of styrofoam and wood nailed together.

San Diego, Day 3

Sunday was our Balboa Park, San Diego Zoo day.  The park is very similar to Central Park.  We spent almost seven hours there and only got to explore the very top of it.  Really a beautiful place.

There are a lot of ravines and hills in S.D. This is a suspension bridge in a neighborhood, designed for people to get across the ravine.  We did this before heading to the zoo.

A nice penguin.

The flamingos were really this orangey color.  There were over 100 of them in this pond.

This is a young bird as you can see he's a little fluffy and still has a lot of grayish feathers.

At the end of our day we took the Skyfari tram to get from one end of the park to the other as we were tired of walking so much!