Friday, November 24, 2006

Happy Day, Sad Day

Happy day, sad day....that is what yesterday was. It was a mixture of joy and sadness. Why, you ask? Well here goes....

Thanksgiving, a time to be thankful and to be with family and friends and that is what we did. Family: our Tucson family; Bruce, Holly and Cortney were here. Friends: Good friends Dick and Lano where here. We had a good dinner, Lano and I prepared it and had a good time doing it. When we are together we always have a good time, laughing, goofing off, doing silly things and we did that with the dinner as well. I have been putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for over 40 years....you would think I would have it down "pat" by now, but I always have to have an "oops" or two while preparing or cooking it. It just makes it more fun! On Wednesday, while making the cranberry jello salad (which is one of my favorites) I put the water on to boil an promptly dumped the jello into it to "boil" with the water...obviously my head wasn't with me! However, I learned that it is okay to add jello to the water before it boil and "bring it to a boil"...it still gels...making me think that jello must be "idiot proof"! The rest of the dinner went off well...Holly and Corntey were helping with the last minute touches and with clean up. If I didn't have to do the clean up after the dinner I would do turkey dinners all of the time! I have always hated to do dishes and that hasn't changed...what a boring job!

And the sad.....my Aunt Martha, my Auntie M, died yesterday. She was 81 years old and the last of my mother's siblings...that generation is gone now. Auntie M was always one of my favorites. When I was young she was my idol...I wanted to be just like her. As she aged, she was still my idol...she always had fun, no matter what she was doing. She bought my wedding dress when I married Al; she did all sorts of wonderful things for me through out my life. When my mom died, Auntie M was the one that got me through that bad time in life; became my surrogate Mom, gave me advise (sometimes whether I wanted it or not) and generally was the one I went to when I needed a little "motherly love". She is the one I helped move to Colorado Springs last year so she could be near her daughter and grand daughter and great grandchildren. I am so glad I could help make that happen. She has been ill for several years (sometimes, somewhat of a hypochondriac) but aging did take its toll on her, as it does everyone. I tried to see her every six months when she was living in California, or more if I could. I called her almost every week while she was in California and generally kept in touch as much as I could. Yes, I am sad she is gone. However, part of me is very happy she is gone....she is finally with her brothers and sisters, mom and dad, husband Ted and all the animals that have gone before her. SHe was a real animal lover...however she was allergic to dogs and cats and as badly as she would want one, she was always allergic to them. We would take our various dogs to visit her over the years...it always made her happy. I know I get my great love for dogs and cats and all animals in general from her (minus snakes, and that she and I agreed on...ICK....snakes are icky!) So one more gone, leaving me with a tremedous amount of wonderful memories. I will shed a few tears over her from time to time; but remember her with loving, fun memories. God Bless Auntie M...you are not in Kansas anymore! Her grand daughter did a wonderful thing on Wednesday and I will be forever greatful to HIllary for this...she called to tell me that Auntie M was doing bad and that she was failing fast. She was with Auntie M at the time and I got to tell Auntie M goodbye and that I loved her...may she rest in peace forever.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

One Million and Counting!!!

Yes, Tucson has reached the one million population mark as of last Sunday. Glad they didn't do the count during snow bird season...it would have been one million permanent residents and one million additional residents that come here and don't know how to drive! But I degress! I didn't realize Tucson was that large! Of course it is spread out over many, many miles. And when AL is on a hunt for something from a grocery store, you could, concievably, cover all those miles (right Cammie?) The forecast is that by 2040 the city will be 2 million...I don't plan to be around to see that one!

We are getting settled in, but it is tough. I don't want to do anything but go sit outside on the deck and enjoy the sun shine and the 80 degree weather. And look at the beautiful mountains and listen to the gazillion of cars that use Lago del Oro as the main road to Saddlebrooke. I know, quit complaining!!!! I could be doing the back stroke in Seattle! NOT!

THanksgiving will be here before we know it and I am not ready....we will have Dick and Lano here, plus the Sanderson's, so it will be a nice, small gathering. AL is already trying to figure out how he wants to prepare the turkey and I can see an arguement coming...because I am going to prepare it in the traditional way! No smoking, brining, frying, etc....just a good, old fashing turkey! Speaking of which, we were treated to an early Thanksgiving dinner, which was wonderful. Cortney cooked it for us last Sunday and she did an excellent job! She is a wonderful cook. YuMMMMMMM

Monday, November 06, 2006

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH HEAT

Tucson
After a long, cold, trip we arrived home yesterday around 4:00 p.m. Home was a site for sore eyes....it was really good to be home. The animals exploded out of the trailer/truck and spent a few hours making sure nothing had invaded their territory! Cats came in a couple of times "fluffed" up...so something has obviously been here this summer! And we did have a visit from our Javalina's last night about 9:30 p.m.....Beau was definitely up on point and so was Schuster, however, not like Beau. BEAU HATES JAVALINA'S.

We finally got out of Odessa around 5:00 p.m. last Tuesday....a very cold Odessa to be honest. We traveled all of 40 miles to Moses Lake to spend the night there at Sun Country with Gordon and Denise and Charlie and Johnny. WHen we arrived we discovered our kitchen slide on the trailer had decided it was tired and didn't want to work any longer. Not a great way to start a trip! However, Gordon and LeRoy had it fixed by noon the next morning and we were on our way. It was a whopping 9 degrees on Tuesday night ... brrr! We drove to Baker City Oregon on Wednesday. It was a great 17 degrees there! Wow...heat wave! On down the wroad we went on Thursday with the HERD of snowbirds going south. We stopped for the night in Declo, IDaho, ya, I know, where is that? It is just south of Twin Falls and it was actually above freezing! Nice RV park right on the Snake River. The next morning I was walking the dogs when I looked over towards the river and lo' and hehold, here comes a BIG bob cat! He was stalking us! I think he thought he was having poodles from breakfast. Very soon the dogs and I were back in the trailer! The dogs never even got a scent of him/her. I have had my fair share of wild animals this year!
That night found us in Fillmore, Utah at the KOA. This is a nice park and we stopped there on our way north last May. The owners remembered us (acutally, they remembered the dogs) and the dogs love this park. There is a huge field for them to run in. That is, after I made sure there were no critters stalking us! Saturday night found us in Flagstaff, Arizona....almost home. Again, it was cold that night, but not freezing. We stopped in another KOA, not so nice this time. It is an old park and has very narrow roads and not very big sites.

Yesterday we stopped in Phoenix at the Arizona Casino for my birthday brunch. Boy, was that ever good. Not as good as Ivar's in Seattle, but it runs a close second. I drove from there home and then I let Al have the pleasure of parking the 5th wheel. For those of you who have never seen where we live here, we live up on a hill, which is accessed by private road, dirt. Last monsoon took out part of our road and we just had it repaired last week. And where we park the trailer is next to the house and not a lot of room to 1) turn trailer around up here, 20 said trailer. Al did a wonderful job getting it turned around and parked. We unloaded just want we needed to and then went to Jude and Roger Hubbells for a wonderful dinner. We were so glad to see them...they have been good friends for many, many years.

The house did fine over the summer, with the exeption of the wroad being washed out and having a hot water heater go out on us last week. Thank goodness for Bruce, he replaced the hot water heater for us. This has really been a "water" year for us...Odessa pipes freeze; trailer sprouts water leak; road gets washed out and then the hot water heater goes...hope that is the end of it.

Speaking of water....Seattle is really getting the rain. I think they are starting to build arks and installing snorkels on vehicles. WOW!

We are enjoying our 80 degree weather, and it is beautiful this time of year here. OF course, to me, it is always beautiful...now if I could only convince Al.

So until next blog...hope all is well with all of you!

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