On the road again

Well, sort of. We left Arizona on May 2, and headed to Mississippi to visit with our son and his family. It was an uneventful trip. We did it in two days. A hard 2 days but we had nice weather except the morning we woke up in Texas and it was in the 30's. After Arizona this was down rite freezing cold! Between the last post and us being on the road again, not a whole lot was going on. Our first full day here in MS was eventful. We were on our way to the store when we had to stop for a car that was making a left hand turn in front of us. Well, the SUV behind us didn't stop. Bam!! What a jolt! You see, because of the fuel prices we drove the car instead of bring the RV and the truck out east. We were transported to the hospital as a precaution. You should have heard the fireman teasing Rick. They wanted to use the jaws of life to get him out of the car! He kept telling them, don't cut my door off. They said they had never extricated a Chief before and were wanting to have some fun. I just told them not to drop me as they were taking me out. LOL!! They treated us great and we thank them for doing a great job. Then we find out that the lady who hit us has no insurance and her license had been suspended. Now we are really upset because things are now coming out of our pocket for repairs. Our ins is covering the medical bills and the cost of the car repair except our deductible. Come to find out that this lady (and I use the term loosely) has been making it a career of not following the law. She needs to be in jail! But we have been enjoying the kids and grandkids despite the bad luck. Will post pictures at a later date. Josh had his last day of school today and not sure when he will start summer school. He will try to do all of the summer school on line so he can be home with the kids. The fuel prices have dropped here in MS but looking at the computer back in OH they are still very high. I won't go into my tirade about the economy and the politicians. Hope all is well with everyone. We are doing ok. We both have a little stiffness now and then.

Winding down

I have not had time to write much in the blog since I volunteered to take over the Activity Dept here at our park. It has been a very busy time and a great learning experience. I learned that I would not do this job again to save my soul! LOL!! I have had a great crew working under me and they made it bearable. I knew it would be time consuming but never imagined how much time it took. Just when you think you are done for the day, you have to show up for the event planned for that evening. But the end is drawing near. I am now in the process of leaving notes for next years lucky winner of this job. NO, I will not do it again. We have been busy making plans for the summer. The fuel prices are scaring us to death. How much do we want to spend on fuel this summer? Only time will tell. Hopefully, the prices will come back down soon. We can only pray they do. We are not sure yet when we will pull out of here and head back to Ohio. We will be spending a lot of the summer in Ohio and then over to visit my Mom in Pennsylvania. I have a family reunion in July that I promised my family I would be at. It has been a couple of years since I have been to one. Looking forward to seeing everyone. We are hoping to fill the freezer with perch and walleye while we are home. We really miss the fish from Lake Erie. It is very hard to get a good dinner of fish here in Arizona. Rick was hit with what we have dubbed the "Crud". He ran a fever and was congested and coughed and coughed and coughed for about 2 1/2 weeks. Finally he got some of his strength back and was starting to feel human again. The cough still lingers on but not nearly as bad. Almost everyone in the park has had this "crud" in one form or another. Hopefully, with the warm weather coming, it will go away. It is 90 today with a cold front coming thru and taking it back into the 70's. Our life is so hard to take at times! LOL!!! We did take 3 days off and went to Parker AZ for a golf outing. We stayed at a nice hotel/casino and played at a beautiful golf course. I did take pictures and hopefully, I will get them on here soon. It was a very nice getaway and we had a great time.

A New Year

Well, it is 2011 already and where did all the time go? It is amazing how fast time flies the older you get. 2010 went out with a bang. It turned cold here and there has been a few snow flurries sighted. What a cruel joke on us here in sunny Arizona. LOL! I have volunteered for a new job here at our park. I am now in charge of our Activity Dept. I have received a good response from a lot of the other residents and I am hoping things go smoothly for the next 3 months. Please pray for me as this is a little new to me. I have run offices before and I have been in customer service for years and I will be drawing on those experiences to pull me thru. I have 5 fantastic ladies working for me and I hope we become good friends. They have a lot of ideas and are very hard workers. I am already working on next years New Years Eve party. In snowbird country, you have to book your entertainment a year in advance. Wish me luck. We really love this park and the people that come back year after year. That is why we came back and that is why I volunteered for this position. I want us to continue to have fun. We have a neighborhood coyote that I got to see for the first time Friday. He almost walked right in the front gates of the park but got spooked by a passing car and ran off. I guess the hosts' see him on a regular basis. This park is in the middle of a residential area. The park was here and the town grew around it. So I was a little surprised to see this coyote so close to us. Just hope the people with little animals keep a close eye on them. We have seen a lot of beautiful sunrises and sunsets lately. I just never seem to have my camera with me. Rick is still singing in the choir at Sunscape RV park and loves it. They have about 30-35 people in the choir and they sound great! We are still doing our once a month Sorry Dear golf outing and everyone seems to be enjoying that. You know, I am the one with the pencil and figures out who wins and I have not won yet. Something is wrong with this picture! Maybe one of these days I might win a buck or two. LOL! We keep hoping it will warm us soon. I know this cold weather is not good for the plants. Night after night of 20 degree weather for plants that only see that once or twice a season is not good. I know all of my family and friends that live up north in snow country are not feeling sorry for me. They are probably laughing right now. But that's ok. I know this won't last as long as it will in their neck of the woods. I want to wish everyone a Very Happy and Healthy New Year!!!

Christmas is over and it's almost a new year.

Hope everyone had a great holiday. It was a bit hectic here. On Christmas Eve, we went to the candlelight service. Rick was to sing with a trio and he was to do this toward the end of the service. Well, just as the guys were getting ready to sing, an 80 year old lady had a stroke. So the service ended and we waited for the paramedics to come. They ended up life flighting her to Phoenix and called her family in. Doesn't sound good. So we all prayed for her. After that we went over to Rick's cousin Kelly's house for a Christmas Eve celebration. We took our friends Lawrence and Elaine with us. We had a great time. Christmas morning we went over to his Uncle Keith's house for brunch. Lots of food. Then back to the park for the afternoon Christmas dinner here. When we got there we found out that the Pastor from this park and his wife had been in an auto accident up in Phoenix. Totaled their new car but they are ok except for being very sore. We again were praising God for that. The weather for Christmas was great! It was in the low 70's and we really enjoyed it. We will be in the 60's for the next week . We can handle that. Hope all is well with everyone and hope you ring the new year safely. Love to all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I know it is a little early but I did not send out cards this year. Hope I did not offend anyone by not doing this. We have been very busy at the golf course. Every time Rick turns around, they want something changed. Hopefully, things will start to settle down as Rick has everyone in place for all the jobs. After having a very, very cold Thanksgiving, we warmed up real nicely here. It was in the upper 70's and low 80's for awhile. We did have a cold front come thru and brought a little rain. The rain was needed to clear the air of all the dust. The farmers have been busy taking in the cotton and replanting the fields for the next crop of whatever. So there has been plenty of dust in the air. But the rain helped. Woke up this morning to fog. That is a little unusual around here. It was late morning before it burned off completely. I was able to get my gift boxes off to the kids on time and they have already received them. We just finished our shopping for us today. We have been golfing more and I am improving most times I play. I had a really bad day of golf on Wed. Hope I don't have a repeat of that ever again! Sometimes I wonder if my Dad is looking down on me and smiling when I hit a good shot. I am just sorry I wasn't able to play a round of golf with him. This time of year is a little hard because this is the time that we lost him. But he lives on in our hearts. I hope all of you remember what this time of year is all about. The birth of our savior Jesus Christ. Hope your holidays are blessed. Love to all and Merry Christmas!

Black Friday in Arizona

Yesterday we had dinner at Rick's Uncle Keith's' house and had a great time with them and cousins and friends. Ate to much, but don't we all on Thanksgiving. Mary and Kelly were going thru the ads to map out there strategy for Black Friday. I don't know what time they got up, but I know it would have been way to early for me! I didn't really see anything in the flyers that we wanted or needed except a new electric blanket at Penneys. It has been a long time since we bought an electric blanket. I had sticker shock when I started looking! So I found a good one for 60% off original price and I still paid a pretty penny for it. But if it lasts as long as the last one did, I will get my money's worth. So then I started looking around and of course found some really good buys on other stuff. All in all it was a good shopping trip and I didn't have to get up when it was dark out to go. Rick is at choir practice right now. He loves singing in the choir over at Sunscape RV Resort. He started there last year because Don and LaVon were over in that park. Don was the preacher. Even though he is not here this year, they were glad to have Rick back singing. We have so much to be thankful for this year. Our health is one of them that we take for granted. We had a wake up call a week ago when our 58 year old neighbor had a massive heart attack and passed away. Wow, what a shock! His wife started CPR and then Rick took over for her until the paramedics arrived. This has hit Rick hard. But the hospital said that everything had been done for him, it just wasn't meant to be. So please keep us in your prayers and please pray for Bonnie as she adjusts to being alone. And the weather here has been cold. But the sun is out and that helps. Last night I had to go out and cover my plants because of frost. It is way to early in the season for the weather to be this cold. Coldest Thanksgiving in 80 years. But we did not have snow. Well, I need to get off here now. Have to move our things from the park model to our 5th wheel. The renters will be here by the 1st weather permitting. They are coming from Canada and she said last night that they have tons of snow. Hope they leave it there! LOL! Hope everyone has a great day! Love you all.

Busy

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last wrote in here. We have been so busy with the park model and with the golf course. The golf course opened up 2 weeks early after the over seeding. That meant that most of the workers, who are snowbirds, were not here yet. So, with Rick being in charge of the rangers, starters, and cart washers, he had slim pickings for workers. So the people that got here early ended up getting the jobs. But we spent 2 weeks or more washing carts and putting them away every night. We have so many hours of golf under our belts it isn't even funny. Now that we are settled into the park model, it won't be long for us to move back into the 5th wheel as our renters will be coming in on Dec 1st. What I will miss the most is the washer and dryer. It has been nice to just go out and throw a load of clothes in while watching TV. I have started attending a class called Zumba. This is an exercise thru dancing. Salsa style. It has been fun. It was only once a week but now they have added another day. The instructor has lost 54 pounds in the past year. I just wish to lose a few at a time. Any weight lose would help. We bought a car to drive around while we are here. Saves wear and tear on the truck. Getting 21 mpg compared to 12 in the truck. It is a 1992 Ford Taurus station wagon. I had put pictures on facebook and people were making fun of our family car. I said they weren't thinking right. Four (4) sets of golf clubs and four (4) adults. That is why the station wagon works for us. The park here put on a great Veterans Day service. We have one veteran here in the park that is an outstanding person and a walking miracle. His name is Lawrence. We love him dearly. He golfs with us and makes us laugh all the time. He lost half of his stomach in Vietnam and because of agent orange, he lost the other half to cancer. He is real skinny but he eats all the time. They honored him at Golden Corral yesterday and he was floored. He never expected that. We are so honored to have met him. The park is not as full this year at this time like last year. Maybe the economy is keeping people home longer. It has been cooler at night. Going down into the upper 30's to mid 40's and only getting up to 70 during the day. We can actually get cold water out of the cold water tap. Very unusual for living in the desert. But it is going back up into the upper 70's and only going down into the upper 40's to lower 50's at night. We have started our Sorry Dear golf outing we do once a month and it was a great success for the first outing. Everyone had a great time. I know a lot of "Sorry Dears" were said to their prospective partners. Fun is what it is all about. This week we start the golf scramble and that will be fun. Well that is all for now. I have work to do. Hope all is well with your world. It is with ours.