Author: Rudy

This morning Ed made us crepes for breakfast. That provided enough energy for us to hike Silly Mountain. Coincidentally, we were near the top when we ran into Ed & Val and the Foxes. We took a photo at the summit, planted a flag and claimed the land for our God and King, and then hiked back down the long way around. We got home at noon, just in time for lunch, which we had outside on the patio.

After lunch I went to the driving range for an hour. The girls went to the pool. Ed stayed home and finished watching the movie “Whiplash”. That’s where I found him when I got back from the driving range. When the girls came home we had G&Ts and watched another Oscar-nominated film, a documentary called “Finding Vivian Maier”. Okay. When that ended it was 5 o’clock — time to tune in the Jets game on TSN.

While Millie and I watched hockey, Ed took a little nap and Sue started supper. The Jets really weren’t ever in the game, but we waited until there were only a couple of minutes left and the score was 5-1 for the Capitals, before putting the chicken on the barbecue.

After supper we (finally!) got out the cards and the crib board. We sat at the table until 11pm, looking for scoring cards in Sue’s hand in order to help the girls add up enough points for them to win a couple of games. A little chocolate peanut butter ice cream and it was time for the CBC National and the ‘At Issue’ panel. That about did it for this Thursday.

This morning the four of us did a bit of cycling. First we went back behind our place, on a short ride through the “Deerfield” area of Gold Canyon. We continued on around “our loop” all the way to Bashas, where Ed treated us to doughnuts and coffee. That helped give us the energy to cycle back UP the hill on the way back to our house.

We’d invited Dave and Marylou, and Dave’s brother Paul and his wife Shirley (who have a condo in Scottsdale), to come to our house for supper. The Hildebrands and the Driedgers all grew up in Leamington and are friends from way back. After lunch Sue and Millie got their grocery list organized and headed back to Bashas. Ed and I took a drive out to the ‘TotalWine’ store in Santan. We went for a little stroll around the shopping village, and peeked into the Apple Store too. By the time we’d driven back home, the girls had packed away the groceries and Millie had baked a couple of apple pies. We were ready for our company.

We were sitting in our backyard, enjoying our happy hour, when Dave called. Paul and Shirley had missed a turn on the drive down from Scottsdale and would be delayed a bit. So it was around 5:30 when the Driedger clan arrived. Dave had made a big pot of chilli and Shirley brought a salad. We all sat in the backyard and had some crackers and guacamole and visited. I turned on the propane heater (the first time we’ve used it) and we managed to sit outside in the cool of the evening until it was time for supper at around 7pm.

The eight of us squeezed around our little dining table and enjoyed the dinner and the company. We’d just finished our dessert (pie with ice cream and coffee) when the doorbell rang. It was Joel, Karen, and little Henri! Dave and Marylou’s kids and grandson have been staying with Dave and Marylou for the past week and a half. The three of them had been out for the day, visiting friends in Scottsdale, but made it back here in time for them to see Joel’s uncle and aunt and to give us a chance to Henri, who will be 3 years old in April. It was great to see them.

By around 9pm the party was over. We cleaned up the dishes and sat around in the living room until around eleven. Then to bed.

The big activity of the day today: a hike to the petroglyphs at Superstition Mountain with Ed and Millie. We left soon after breakfast and joined about a million other hikers on a trek into the mountains to see some aboriginal(?) graffiti, known here as the ‘hieroglyphic trail’. Still, a very comfortable day, and a nice bit of exercise for a couple of hours. Obligatory photos, lots of interesting plants along the way, and back home in time for lunch.

After lunch I went to the driving range for about an hour — gotta stay sharp! — while the rest of the gang sat at the pool and read/talked. When I got back I showered and then around 4:30 the four of us got on our bikes and cycled over to Ed & Val’s for happy hour. They are entertaining Val’s sister and brother-in-law, the Foxes, and the eight of us sat outside on the patio and enjoyed some special chips and salsa while the sun set. We cycled back at 6:30, quickly before it got too dark to cycle. At home, Sue got a salmon dish going and soon we were sitting around the table for supper.

After supper we watched “Rosewater”, the movie produced by Jon Stewart about a journalist imprisoned in Iran. Pretty good. In honour of our band-teacher guest, we watched the first third of “Whiplash” next. But it was eleven o’clock, time to go to bed and get some rest. Tomorrow will be another ‘busy’ day.

Busy morning here in Gold Canyon today. Right after breakfast I hauled out the Dirt Devil and vacuumed the house. I swept the walk and took out the garbage. Sue got her shopping list and gathered up her reusable grocery bags and went to the fruit market and the grocery store. When she got back it was time for lunch. I went to the driving range for about an hour while Sue made a big tortilla dish for supper. When I got back I got a text from Millie — they are an hour away, in Globe, and expect to be here for happy hour at 4:40.

And so it was. Ed and Millie have spent the last several weeks in northern Alabama, on a ‘work-away’. Sanding and painting a house. From the tales they tell, it sounds like it was quite a bit more fun than what comes to MY mind when I think about sanding and painting. I’m sure it was, although I’ve come to see that the Hildebrands have a positive view of most things and seem to enjoy whatever they do, and they’re game to try just about anything. So they moved their luggage into the guest bedroom and we had our little happy hour in the back yard. Around 6pm we took them for a little walk up the hill behind our house to see the sunset and to get up close and personal with a couple of cacti. We meandered back down before dark and came back to the house to eat that big tortilla dish Sue was working on this afternoon.

There was some talk of card games and TV shows and movies after supper — but just talk. So that’s what we did tonight — just talk. And talk. And start to catch up a bit on what’s all gone right and wrong with the world since we last visited like this (on our Danube cycling trip last September). And before you know it, it’s midnight. Time to go to bed. Agree to get up around 7, have some coffee, and probably go for a hike before lunch. We’ll see.

Nothin’ special for breakfast this morning — just fruit and toast! How is that a Sunday? Where’s the french toast and sausages? Things are starting to slip here in Gold Canyon.

We watched CBS Sunday Morning. Had a call and a skype from Alex and Max. I wanted to go golfing today — it looked like it would be a perfect day for it, not too hot, a bit cloudy, a bit of a breeze. So I went on GolfNow and got a tee time at Painted Mountain for 12 noon. Someone we’d golfed with a while ago recommended that course to us. So Sue packed us a couple of sandwiches and an apple and off we were.

Hold it! Not so fast. The drive to the course is half an hour. We’ve got an hour. But wait, what’s with all the traffic? We can’t even get out of Gold Canyon! Is this because of the Renaissance Festival down the road? Can’t be. This is crazy. The line-up at the corner will take us 15 minutes just to get onto Hwy 60. So I do a U-turn and go back around the loop — 10 kms to get to the ‘other’ corner. Oh yeah, now we realize there’s a MARATHON taking place here today. Lots of cops. Lots of cars. Lots of pylons on the highway.

Luckily the marathon was just over and we were only slightly delayed. We got to the course with about 15 minutes to spare. We were paired up with two single golfers: Bruce (from Calgary) and Jay (from Phoenix). We had high hopes for a good game and a fun time. Jay tees off — long ball flight, clears the water to the right, lands in the middle of the fairway, halfway to the par 5 hole. Bruce tees off — straight down the middle. Rudy’s turn: Splash. Mulligan. Second try just misses the bunker on the LEFT side of the fairway. Still a LONG way to go. Sue tees off. Into the same bunker. Second shot: into the NEXT bunker. I scored a snowman on the first hole! Well, not an auspicious start to the afternoon, to say the least.

BUT, things got better. And we had fun. Jay finished with a score of 72. Bruce broke 90 for the first time this year. Sue had a 93, and even though my drives let me down today, my putts were good enough for me to finish with an 84. (I hope you’re all keeping track of those stats at home.)

We drove home and barbecued hotdogs. Watched 60 Minutes, and then the SNL 40th Anniversary show, which went on till 10:30. Fifth Estate after that. Great chocolate-peanut butter ice cream for night snack. A pretty good Sunday after all.

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then we put on our cycling shorts and went for a bike ride. We popped in at Bashas’ to pick up some bread and sandwich meat. We stopped by at Ed and Val’s to return Ed’s phone which he’d forgotten in my van yesterday. Then we cycled home — just in time for lunch.

After lunch Sue went to the pool to read and I worked on the computer for a while. Shortly before 4pm I headed out to the driving range for an hour. When I got back we had a Skype call from Alex and Max.

Sue got supper going and I barbecued the steaks. After supper I did some computer work while Sue watched TV. By eleven Sue was in bed; I stayed up for another hour to watch Austin City Limits.

After breakfast Suzie Homemaker baked another delicious batch of monster cookies. We also finalized our plans for our summer trip to Europe and Sue booked flights. At 11 o’clock we were at the Peters’s house. Sue was going shopping to Santan Village with the girls. Ed and Rich threw their golf clubs into the van and we headed up to Longbow Golf Course.

Our tee time was for 12 noon, but things were running about 15 minutes late so we had plenty of time to have a hotdog and a beverage at the clubhouse before heading out to the course. It was going to be a warm sunny afternoon — perfect for golf. Perfect as a sendoff for Rich and Linda who are heading back to 40 below weather in Manitoba tomorrow. This would be the third day of golf for Rich, who was being a great sport about it all. At home in the summertime, Rich would rather meet and greet people at a company golf tournament than swing a club. But when in Rome…

We were lucky to golf as a threesome; the course was busy and backed up a bit. Next Tuesday it will shut down for a week so it can host a major LPGA tournament. We had to wait for the group ahead at every hole, and they in turn were waiting for the group ahead of them, etc. Still, as Ed was fond of saying, there really isn’t anything we’d rather do on such a pleasant afternoon than enjoy the sunshine on a golf course. Well, for Ed at least, no matter how many times he insisted “he was happy with that,” he’d surely have enjoyed things more if he hadn’t missed putts by a fraction of an inch on the first 6 or 7 holes. But on the golf course, attitude is at least as important as skill — maybe more so.

And it was hot. And three thirsty golfers couldn’t figure out where that beer cart was staying. What a business opportunity missed! And then, just when we’d about given up hope, there she came. A mirage in the desert? No sir. And to top it off, if you’re going to be thirsty on the back nine too, here’s a deal for you: buy 5 drinks and get one free! Oh yeah? Well, let’s see what else you have in that cart. And she gives us the line of the day: “The reason I’m so late is that everyone wants to look in my drawers!”

As good as I played on the front nine (44), the heat (and the drink deals) caught up with me on the back nine, adding a stroke per hole to my score. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. Rich played a steady, consistent game, making most of his long putts. And Ed’s luck came around eventually and those near-misses started finding the cup. It was a very fun afternoon.

We got back to Gold Canyon around 5:30 — plenty of time for the Peters boys to shower and get themselves to their 6:30 dinner reservation. And I went home and got all the lowdown on the day’s shopping expedition. When there was nothing left to tell and we’d had our little happy hour and watched the evening news, Sue and I took the flashlight and walked across the road to the Gold Canyon Golf Resort. A warm evening out on the restaurant’s deck. Fireplaces and patio heaters going, lanterns lit up around the railing, guitar player plucking Pachelbel’s Canon in the corner, a pretty good barbecued chicken pizza to go with a glass of merlot and a cold brew, a pretty lady and a sun-soaked but happy golfer enjoying an evening in beautiful Arizona together. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Nothin’ wrong with this picture.

I went to bed at around 1:00 last night — Sue had already been sleeping for a few hours but had the TV on. PBS. “Return to the Wild” — the story about the FAMILY left behind by the kid who dies all alone up in an old bus in Alaska. We’d read “Into the Wild”, the book by Jon Krakauer, and we’d seen the movie too. Now here was a documentary about the parents and siblings of the main character. I found it very interesting, but I only watched the first 20 minutes and then fell asleep. Well, apparently Sue woke up when I went to sleep and watched the last part of the show. And couldn’t fall asleep again until 5:00. Not because of the show; just ‘because’. So this morning I made coffee and looked up the show online, found it on the PBS site, and the two of us sat there and watched the 1-hour documentary again.

After breakfast we were going to go for a walk. But then my accountant and financial advisor decided it was time for us to do ‘year end’. Yikes! Talk about wasting a perfectly good morning looking at spreadsheets. I’m not joking! The good news was that we can carry on for a while yet. The bad news was that we wouldn’t have lunch until after 1 o’clock. Whew!

So after lunch Sue went to the pool to read. I worked on our Danube journal and photos. We finally did go for that walk in the late afternoon. Then happy hour.

Sue made a delicious curried chicken dish for supper. Then we sat down to try to finish up a few odds and ends on our ‘Oscar’ movie list. First, “Into the Woods”, which is nominated for 3 awards, including Meryl Streep for Best Supporting Actress. Really? A Disney musical medley of three classic fairy tales? Sue and I caught each other yawning regularly through the first half hour. We ended up ‘speed-watching’ the rest of it, just so we could say we’ve seen it. Well, that was the last of the ‘major’ movies on our list. We still have a few ‘onesies’ to watch. A couple of documentaries and foreign films. Speaking of which, we watched “Leviathan”,  a Russian movie nominated for Best Foreign Film. It’s nearly two and a half hours long. And it’s quite depressing — a story of power and corruption, basically the story of Job in the Bible, but set in a decaying fishing village in Russia. The movie already won the Golden Globe for best foreign film.

After the movie we switched to The National and the ‘At Issue’ panel for something more uplifting.

I slept in this morning — woke up after 8 o’clock. We had breakfast and then went to Ed & Val’s to pick up the gang for a hike up Silly Mountain. Another nice day here in Gold Canyon. We parked the van in the parking lot and trudged up to the highest point. We were not alone up there — and immediately appointed a fellow hiker to take a group photo of us up there.

We got back to our house at noon and Sue made lunch. Sue did a bit of laundry and then went to the pool to read her book. She finished “Orphan Train”, a book she borrowed from Marylou. I sat at my computer and tried to ‘organize’ our Danube cycling photos into a gallery. Just before we were about to leave for Ed and Val’s for dinner, we had a Skype call from Max — proud to show us his new haircut! Nice.

We sat outside at Ed & Val’s and watched the sunset. Val and Linda had made a delicious supper. Ed lit the patio heater and we ate outside, and after dinner we sat around the table and visited. Lots of fine conversation. Some very smart people said some very smart things. Too bad the rest of the world can’t get things figured out like we seem to have done. And then to complete the evening, we had some delicious Schwann’s ice cream for dessert.

It was almost 10 o’clock when we got home. Sue watched the CBC News while I wrote my journal entry.

We had a skype call from Max this morning — he wanted to ask Opa if I would take him to Tinkertown. I would if I could. After breakfast I tried once again to ‘fix’ the bird perch under the eaves in front of the garage — and used up just about all the rest of my roll of duct tape to do it. Now if I see a fresh pile of bird shit on the driveway tomorrow I may have to put aside my dislike for the NRA and invest in a more ‘Arizonian’ solution to my bird problem. Oh, and while I was out there ‘fixing things’, I got out the rake and pulled some of the weeds that have sprung up on our ‘gravel yard’ because of the recent rains. And then Sue came out and we pruned the tree in the front yard until our neighbour across the street came out and told us we that what we were doing sure looked like ‘work’. So we put away our tools.

We got on our cycling shorts and took a spin into Apache Junction, down to the Dollar Store next to Ace Hardware. Now THAT is a great combination of stores! Hardware and cheap dishwashing detergent! Yikes, a couple of ‘retirees’ like us could spend a full hour in that strip mall. But we found what we came for: new snazzy reading glasses for Sue. Six bucks. And a nice 30km bike ride to boot.

Back at the house I was going to go to the driving range but frittered away the next hour until Sue said it was time for lunch. After lunch she went to sit at the pool and read while I tried (once again!) to get google maps to ‘redraw’ in a hidden div on my website. Still no luck. I know, most of you have no idea what I just said, but Werner, if you’re reading this…

Finally at about 3:30 I gave up and cycled across the street to pound balls at the driving range for an hour. Man, if only I could golf half as good on the real course. When I got back I took a shower and then Sue got back from the pool and made us each a nice G&T. Now THAT is the best part of the day, especially these days, when the weather is SO nice and a cool drink tastes SO good.

I decided we should start watching one of my movies before supper — that way I might not fall asleep watching it. We’re getting down to the bottom of our ‘Oscar’ list and so neither of us really had all that much interest in today’s movie. But we are determined. ‘Interstellar’ is nominated for 3 awards. It’s a sci-fi movie that’s almost 3 hours long. It’s very much like the movie ‘Gravity’. Too much like it. We paused halfway through and had supper. Then we paused it again about 20 minutes from the end and switched to “Frontline” on PBS — a report on how doctors deal with terminal patients. Not an easy job for them. And then I switched back to my movie and watched the last part of that. And then the news, and then the Letterman show. Wow! we stayed up late tonight! Without coffee!