Author: Rudy

We are waking up later and later every morning. Today it was after eight when we finally dragged ourselves out of bed. Ed was already sitting and reading in the living room. I made coffee and soon Sue was busy making crepes.

After breakfast we watched some curling on TV. Sue and I went for a quick walk. It looked like the day would be a warm one — not the cool miserable day forecast for today. I checked the mail and got the ‘parcel’ Marylou Driedger was waiting for — her long-lost camera. I sent Dave a text to let them know — and got an update back: they left for home this morning and were just having breakfast in Gallup, NM. We’ll bring them the camera when we get home in a month.

Today is the Hildebrands’ last day here with us. After they got back from their walk we sat around and watched a little more TV. They packed their suitcases and loaded them into the van. They have booked a hotel in Phoenix for themselves where they will stay for the next few days. On the way there we made a pitstop at the fruit and vegetable market where Sue bought more groceries. Then we headed down to the mall at Santan Village. We had a nice lunch together there. Then, at around three o’clock, we headed to midtown Phoenix. We dropped off our visitors at their hotel, said our goodbyes, and headed back to Gold Canyon.

Before arriving at our house, we stopped at Bashas to get more groceries. I picked up a burger at Jack-in-the-Box for my supper. At home, we watched 60 Minutes and then drove over to Ed and Val’s. We visited and had ice cream. We got back home by ten o’clock, in time to watch the CBC National. The forecast for tomorrow is for rain and cooler temperatures. We’ll see.

Saturday morning: bacon & eggs. I did a bit of computer work in the morning. Max and Alex skyped. Sandwiches for lunch. And now we get to the good part:

We left for our 2:15 tee time at Poston Butte Golf Course (down in Florence) a bit before one o’clock, thinking we’d probably be caught in the traffic between our place and the Renaissance Festival south on Hwy 60. But no, no delays at all. I guess the cooler (17 degrees) weather and the clouds (that looked like they might rain on us) scared off the hundreds of visitors that clog up our highway most weekends. So we actually arrived at the golf course about half an hour early. No problem. We’ll go putt a bit and drive a few balls on the driving range, and then tee off a bit early (because some golfers may not show up due to the weather). And even though we had about 17 drops of rain on our windshield on the way down, that was it for the rain today. Though the temperature wasn’t really at all cold, the wind was blowing pretty hard and made it feel cooler than it was.

After shooting my tee shot on hole #1 left onto the driving range, most of my subsequent drives were much better. I managed to score a 44 on the front nine, with 3 pars. Not bad for a windy day like today. Ed and Jessie both played well too, while Sue had a few issues with the big sand traps. My pars changed to bogeys on the back nine, and I finished the day with a 92 (to Ed’s 90). The wind died down quite a bit and on the final hole the sun came out and lit up the 18th green. Not that I was ON the green. No, sadly I was in the bunker and was lucky to shoot another bogey on the final par 5. Sue also redeemed what had been a less than stellar day golf-wise, and shot a TWO on the 17th hole, which is an island green! All-in-all it had been a very good day, considering that all week the forecast had been for rain and cold. We’d had to wait for the groups ahead of us at every tee box, so although we’d played a fairly steady pace, we finished our game 4 and a quarter hours after our 2:15 start. The sun was down. We drove the 30 miles back to our house in the dark.

Sue warmed up the leftovers (Chinese and pasta) for supper. We played a few hands of bridge, and (for a change) the ladies won most of the hands tonight. The guys tried to mount a comeback, but fell a bit short when we called it a night at around 10 o’clock. The Hildebrands watched the final ends of a dramatic curling game on TSN and then we switched to the news. Everyone was in bed by eleven.

Poor Jess! She’s been fighting a cold all week — and just when it looks like she’s getting better, she feels worse again.

We had a visit from the Driedgers this morning — they are getting ready to leave. They have to be out of their rented home by tomorrow noon, and will probably be on the road heading for home this Sunday. So they cleaned out their fridge and brought over a big laundry basket of food things. We’ve enjoyed their company here for the last couple of months and we’ll miss them.

After breakfast Ed and Jessie went for a walk in the neighbourhood. They were just back when Sue and I got on our bikes and cycled over to Bashas to buy some bread. We got back at noon — just in time to have sandwiches with that ‘new’ bread.

After lunch Sue went to the pool and I went to the driving range. Jessie had a nap, trying once again to ‘sleep off’ her cold.

I skyped with Alex a bit when I got back from hitting balls, and then Ed and I headed to Mountain Brook for 9 holes of golf at 3:30.

So on the first hole we both hit our drives to within about 140 yards of the pin. Ed takes out his nine iron and lines up his shot. He swings his club and the ball sails up in the air, straight for the pin. Good shot. Ed turns and puts his club back in the bag, then looks back at the green just in time to watch that ball land, roll forward, and drop into the cup just in front of the flagstick. Are you kidding me? That’s a TWO on the par four first hole! Wow!

But he’s not done yet. On the fourth hole he hits his tee shot, lands on the left fringe of the green, then chips it to within a couple of INCHES from the cup. Nearly a second TWO! Hole number 7 is another par 3 — and again he JUST MISSES with his first putt. Ed finishes the round with a 38, which includes a pair of sixes. Not too bad.

And I shot a 45. Too bad all that work on the driving range didn’t help my with my 6 hybrid, but at least my putting seemed a bit better today.

We came back to the house for happy hour. Jessie had had TWO naps this afternoon — let’s hope she’s feeling better for tomorrow afternoon’s golf game. We played a few hands of bridge and then Sue warmed up the leftover spaghetti that Dave brought us this morning. And the spaghetti sauces was DELICIOUS! Coffee and peanut-butter chocolate ice cream for dessert.

The boys won their share of bridge games tonight (what else is new?). We played bridge until the 10 o’clock news. Nothing really ‘new’ on there tonight. Then to bed.

After breakfast we decided to go for a walk. We headed up to the little hill behind our house, Vista Point, to take a look at the view. (And for the second day in a row, we saw a roadrunner, squawking his ‘meep, meep’, and running around the top of the hill — crazy! When Ed and Millie were here they looked for roadrunners but never saw one.) On the way down from the hill, Sue insisted on a photo next to one of the many blooming bushes that are making Arizona look ‘greener’ than we’ve ever seen it before. We walked to the Mountain Brook corner and back — not a very strenuous bit of exercise, but exercise nonetheless. When we got back to the house it was time for lunch.

After lunch we played a few hands of bridge. Then each of us went off to our own corner and did our own thing — reading, snoozing, listening to music. At 2:30 we hopped into the van and drove across the road to the Gold Canyon Golf Resort. We met Dave D and Ed P there — they had a tee time right after our 3:06 time. We got on the first tee right on time. Things were going pretty good — in fact, Jessie had a TWO on the par 3 Hole #2. Then, when we got to Hole #4 things got a bit backed up. I guess a couple of foursomes, all part of the same organization, were bunching up and slowing things down. They were ‘partying’ and playing their music loudly. There was NO way we’d finish more than 9 holes behind these guys. So at hole #5 we decided to zip back to the first tee and replay the first 4 holes. Which we did. Good move! Now we had no one behind us, no one ahead. And by the time we got back to the tee at #5 the holdup was long done. We continued golfing, finished the front nine, and then golfed another 3 holes on the back nine.

It was 6:15. The temperature was still nice and comfortable, although it was starting to cool off. We probably could have played one more hole, but we opted to call it quits for today. We phoned the ‘Great Wall’ Chinese restaurant and ordered take-out. We had a fine evening meal together and then picked up our bridge game where we’d left off earlier in the day. Once again, the boys managed to win the rubber. At 9 o’clock we put the cards aside and watched the CBC News before going to bed. I stayed up for the Daily Show and went to bed after that.

After breakfast, Ed, Sue, and I went for a short bike ride around the neighbourhood. Jessie wasn’t feeling well — she’s been fighting a cold for over a week. We made a pitstop at Walgreen’s to pick up some water and a pop for Jessie. When we got back to the house, Sue and I decided to get back on the bikes and do an extra circuit, just to get a bit more exercise. We doodled around in the east section of the Mountain Brook community. An hour later we were back at the house. It was 1 o’clock, high time for lunch.

After lunch I went to the driving range while the others went to the pool to read. By 3:15 I was back and it was time for all of us to get over to the Mountain Brook Golf Course — we had a 3:45 tee time.

Golf was great (again!). The sun was shining, and it was comfortably warm outside. No wind to speak of. The group ahead rarely kept us waiting. The group behind didn’t ‘push’ us. Not too many pars on the course today but, as Ed said, we made quite a few good shots. And we had fun.

We were back at the house by 5:30 — time for crackers and crab and drinks. We played a few hands of bridge and then got supper on the table — barbecued cheeseburgers, etc. We followed that up with some more bridge, including a slam by Ed and Rudy. Dessert was a slice of homemade apple pie (courtesy of Millie) with ice cream and coffee. More bridge.

At around 10 we called it a day. CBC News and off to bed.

After breakfast the Hildebrands and we went for a little ride in the van — around ‘our loop’. We ended up at one of the trail heads into Silly Mountain. We’d brought along extra jackets and sweaters, but when the sun peaked out from behind the clouds it was nice and warm. And hiking up the trail warmed us up even more.

We ended up making our way down the mountain by way of a poorly marked trail, and had to pick our way through some cacti and prickly plants. We got back to the main path okay, and decided to hike back to the van by another way.

We stopped at Bashas for some groceries before going home for lunch. After lunch we all found a corner to ‘relax’ in. Ed had a snooze on the lounger in the sunshine in the backyard. Jessie and Sue read. I watched a feature on “Muscle Shoals” on Netflix.

At 3:30 we loaded the pull carts and our golf clubs into the van and went to Mountain Brook for 9 holes of golf. The sky was VERY dark, and the wind picked up and a few drops of rain began to fall. We wondered whether we’d made a bad choice, but decided to give it a try and if it rained too much we’d ask for a rain check and try again another day. But once we were at the first tee the weather quickly improved — the dark clouds disappeared in the eastern sky and the sun came out and warmed everything up again. We took our jackets off and had a great time golfing 9 holes. Quite a few pars, too.

We got home by 6 pm and had happy hour and played a few hands of bridge. Then the ladies got the salmon and rice on the table and we had a delicious supper. More bridge after supper. We called it a draw at around 10pm. Time to watch the news and go to bed.

It’s too bad I booked tee times for the four of us today on GolfNow on a ‘Hot Deal’ — that means it’s ‘non-refundable’. That means we gotta pay even if it rains and we can’t go golfing.

The sun was shining when we woke up at around 7:30. We had breakfast. It looked pretty good outside, even if the temperature was a bit cooler than it was for the past few weeks. Sue and Jessie went into Apache Junction to buy a few bags (i.e. about $20 worth!) of fresh fruits and vegetables. Ed and I practiced putting on our backyard putting green.

After an ‘early’ lunch, we left for the Apache Creek Golf Course a little after 12 noon. No rain yet. We checked in and were sent out to the first tee as soon as we were ready. Cool! And it was a bit cool. And we had a very fun time golfing eighteen holes over the next 4 hours. Yeah, every once in a while we had a few drops of rain, and yes, the wind was blowing a bit stronger than it usually does, but the Hildebrands hadn’t hit a golf ball for a few months, and today was a real treat for them. And for us, too. Ed had a couple of birdie TWOs. On the ride home he calculated that as a foursome we’d shot a 70, counting the best shot on each hole. So it was a great afternoon.

We were back home at 5 and had a little ‘happy hour’. Then out came the cards. We played a few rubbers of bridge before and after our pasta supper. Coffee and ice cream for dessert. Rudy and Ed even got a ‘slam’. All-in-all, a very fun day. And the forecast for rain proved to be a bit premature. The ‘real’ rain finally fell for about 10 minutes at 10pm while we were watching the CBC News.

By 10:30 the effects of all that fresh Arizona air and the exercise we’d had in it got the better of us. Bedtime.

Sunday morning. Sue made a nice omelette for me for breakfast and we watched our Sunday morning shows. We even got to watch Fareed on CNN this morning. After our shows were over, Sue took the van to Bashas to pick up some groceries. I watched more TV. In the afternoon, after we’d had lunch, we watched Codebreaker on Netflix. It’s the story that the movie “The Imitation Game” is based on — the story of Alan Turing, who invented the computer. Sue and I both thought it was better than the movie which is nominated for an Academy award tonight.

I was about to watch another Netflix show when we got a Skype call from the kids. They were just back from a weekend with friends in Thief River Falls. They’d had a great time. As soon as I hung up the Skype call, I had a text from Ed Peters wondering if I would like to join him golfing Sidewinder at 3 o’clock. You bet! I was there in a flash.

What a great decision! There was no one ahead of us and no one behind us. We had a fun game and both played well. I think we both shot a 42 on the front nine. Ed played a very good back nine and while I didn’t play as well, I ended up with a 95. And I got back to our house by 6 o’clock, just in time to change and head out to the Sky Harbor airport to pick up our guests. We got there in plenty of time and I sat in the cell phone parking lot and wrote in my journal while waiting for the Hildebrand’s to get their baggage. It was after 8 o’clock when finally we loaded their luggage and golf clubs into the van and headed for our house.

Lucky for Jessie, the big final curling game on TSN still had two ends to go when we got home. We put off sitting down for “faspa” until Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones had won the tournament. Then, after we’d eaten, we watched highlights of today’s golf final on TV before heading to bed at around 11:30.

Well, the Hildebrands’ time in the sun is about done. They’re heading north today, scheduled to be back in the frozen tundra that is home for all of us by next weekend.

Sue rustled up some bacon and eggs for breakfast. (No break from the Nikkel routine, even for visitors!) A second pot of coffee. Ed and Millie pored over their devices, trying to figure out a route that would take them home by way of one more work-away connection in South Dakota. What’s the weather look like in Denver? Oh oh, snow in the forecast. How about in Kansas City? Hmmm… Oh well, we’ll be okay. We’ll just ‘wing it’. They packed up their stuff, we said our goodbyes, and they were on the road by about 10.

Sue did the laundry. I vacuumed. We have company coming for dinner tonight, and then tomorrow we’ll pick up the ‘other Ed Hildebrand’ (and his wife Jessie) who will stay with us for the coming week.

We had ONE LAST film to watch before tomorrow’s Oscars. “Citizenfour” is a two-hour documentary about Edward Snowden. We watched that this afternoon. We’d seen much of the story on various news and documentary shows — but this one gave us a pretty good glimpse of who Snowden is.

Sue went outside to read. I texted Ed Peters who came over right away to ‘re-calibrate’ the satellite dish for our TV.

At around 5:30 the Peters and Foxes came over. We had drinks outside. Then I barbecued the pork and we had dinner and sat and visited around the table for a few hours. The Jets were playing the Maple Leafs on TV — and ultimately lost in overtime. We moved to the living room and had dessert and coffee. I fun evening.

By 10:30 our company had left; we watched a bit of TV and then went to bed.

Leftover crepes for breakfast. The plan was for the Hildebrands to go visit the Mesa market and maybe tour the Boyce Thompson Arboretum while Sue and I joined Ed Peters and Dave Driedger for a golf game at Dinosaur. We left at around 11:30, hit a few balls at the driving range, and then teed off at 12:20. The first hole is pretty tough; I’d played this course once in November and that time I think I shot a 10 there. Today I shot a five. So far so good.

Unfortunately, that’s where my luck ended. Hole #2: I criss-crossed the green, chipping the ball from bunker to bunker to bunker. I decided NOT to mark my score — no point in recording my misery — and just enjoy the scenery.

Sue, on the other hand, played an ‘okay’ game, and Ed and Dave were making most of their shots. Dinosaur Golf Course is famous for its panoramic mountain views. Today, even though my game was going down the toilet, not all was lost; the weather was comfortably warm, the beer was refreshingly cold, each tee box presented spectacular vistas, and the company was _____ (find your own adjective) great. So, all in all, a fine way to fritter away an afternoon.

We were done and back at home by around five. Time for happy hour in the backyard. The Hildebrands had done a bit of shopping but had opted not to go to the park. Now, the four of us had some chips and salsa with our drinks, sat and visited in the backyard, and waited for ‘supper time’. Ed read a few excerpts from the diary of Noel Coward (a playwright who was famous in the mid-1900s) while the girls drank wine. Finally, a little after 7 o’clock, we were hungry enough to go for supper.

The Hildebrands were taking us out. We hopped into our van and headed out to Apache Junction, to the Handlebar Pub. Unlike the last time we were there, the evening was warm enough for us to sit at an outside table (under a propane heater). We could just barely hear the live band that was playing in the bar over the sizzle from the outdoor grille. The smoke and aroma of frying burgers wafted over us. Good food and good conversation managed to erase any remaining negative thoughts I had about what a crappy golf game I’d had that afternoon.

Back at the ranch, there was some discussion about the possibility of another crib game — but I quashed that and forced our visitors to watch yet another ‘documentary’ on TV. Sue slept through most of it, and my head bobbed a few times as well. I ended up fast-forwarding through the last half of ‘Man on Wire’ before finally releasing everyone to their bedrooms.