Author: Rudy

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!

We got up at seven and I made some great coffee (fresh French roasted coffee beans). Because it was supposed to be a hot day today, Sue and I decided to go for an early walk. Sue had lost her reading glasses so we headed to Walgreens to see if they had replacements. Sue decided that none of the choices there were fashionable enough to frame her beautiful eyes. When we got home we selected a couple of golf clubs and walked across the road to the driving range to practice for 45 minutes. Then home for lunch.

After lunch Sue went to the pool to read. I talked on the phone with Koop for a while and worked on my computer. Then I got a text from Val saying that they and Rich & Linda were on a boat cruise on Canyon Lake but would be happy to come to our place for happy hour at around five. Which they did. Rich and Linda are visiting Ed & Val for the week. So we had happy hour in our backyard and as the sun was about to set, we took a walk up to the top of Vista Point, the hill behind our place. Another beautiful Gold Canyon sunset.

Upon our return the Peters(es) invited us to join them for supper. And so we all hopped into Ed & Val’s van and headed out to Chicago Pizza at Superstition Springs. Good pizza, good fun, great friends. And Rich paid (thanks Rich).

We got back home at around 9 o’clock, just in time to watch the news. And then I fell asleep.

Crepes and bacon for breakfast — so it was a special day right from the start. We watched our Sunday morning shows and then Sue went outside to read while I played on the computer. After lunch I took a few clubs to the driving range while Sue went to the pool to read. I called Mountain Brook to see if there was a chance for us to go golfing. Yep, come just before 3 o’clock. So that’s what we did.

The group ahead of us were beginners and we had to wait for them for the first couple of holes — but then they ‘skipped’ a hole and after that we moved along at a nice pace. We finished by 5 o’clock. Back at home we had ‘fake crab’ and crackers with our G&Ts (well, I had crab; Sue won’t eat that). Sue made a great stir-fry for supper. I watched 60 Minutes while Sue talked on the phone with Alex. Then we made one last attempt to make it through the 3-hour movie “Inherent Vice”. Sue gave up and went to the bedroom to watch another episode of “Downton Abbey”. I persevered, although in the end I had no idea what it was all about. At 10pm we switched to The National, followed by The Fifth Estate. Then, to bed.

I got up at 7:00, Sue at 8:00. I made coffee and then Alex and Max skyped us. The first thing he asked when Sue answered was, “Where’s Farmer Ed?” (The last time we skyped Ed and Dave were here after our golf game, and I guess it made quite an impression on Max that ‘Farmer Ed’ was here with us in Phoenix!) I gave Max a virtual ‘tour’ around the house, and he showed us how he can ride his strider bike downstairs. After we said goodbye, Sue made bacon and eggs for breakfast. Because of our ‘day off’ from the exercise regime yesterday, my personal trainer had something special lined up for us today. A Gold Canyon ‘Duathlon’: a bike ride on either side of a mountain hike. We were just about to leave when Sue noticed her front tire was flat. So I had to get out my toolkit and patch the tube. That delayed the official start time by about half an hour.

We finally got on our bikes and headed out around ‘our loop’. Just as we were coming down the big hill a big black truck whizzed by, and the occupants shouted some naughty words at us. Too bad for them there were a number of cars ahead of them and they were all stopping at the stop sign at the next intersection. That gave me a chance to catch up to the truck and pull up beside. The driver did his best to crowd the curb, but by now I was staring at him through the passenger door window. “You got something to say to me?” He rolls down the window, answers that he has no idea what I’m talking about. I encouraged him to be nice to people, to drive carefully when daddy let’s him take the family car out for a spin on a glorious Saturday morning. By now the young juvenile passenger in the truck is bending over and covering his face with embarrassment. And then the traffic ahead clears and they’re off. So are we. We cycle up to one of the trail heads, park our bikes on the road, and start our hike up Silly Mountain.

There were quite a few other people who thought a morning hike might be a good idea today. We trudged up the rocky pathway until we reached the main trail. Halfway through the hike there were a number of volunteers building a footing and mixing cement for the pad for a park bench. Once that’s done, we’ll be able to sit down and rest and gaze out across the valley, all the way to Mesa. Nice.

When we got back to our bikes we took the gravel trail over a hill into Mountain Brook. Quite a few garage sales and open houses in the neighbourhood this morning. Lots of people out and about. Highway 60 is a parade of cars heading east to the Renaissance Festival which takes place just about 3 miles from Gold Canyon and will take place every weekend from now until the end of March.

Back home, we changed into golf shirts and went across the road to the driving range. Both of us. And we hit balls for about 45 minutes. Then we came back to the house and had a late lunch. Then, for about an hour, I diddled around with the satellite dish in our backyard, trying to recalibrate it. Some of the channels we used to get now report ‘Receiver has lost satellite signal’. So while Sue stood by the patio door, watching the TV signal meter and shouting the numbers out to me, I was in the corner of the backyard, turning and tightening and loosening that dish. In the end we were lucky to get back to where we started. Oh well. We showered and changed. It was time for us to hurry out for our afternoon matinee. We arrived at the Harkins 25 at Superstition Springs just in time for the 3 o’clock showing of “A Most Violent Year”. Nice. Sue reserved seats while I got popcorn. The movie was excellent. Great story, good performance. And a nice way to get out of the heat for 2 hours.

After the movie we zipped around the block to the Costco on Sossaman Road. We picked up coffee, wine, beer, and pork tenderloin — the necessities of life. That’s how we roll. Grabbed a hotdog and slice of pizza on the way out and headed for home. That sure is a LONG string of headlights coming back into Phoenix from the Renaissance Festival! I sure am glad we’re heading in the opposite direction.

Back at the house Sue put away the groceries. Then at around 7:30 it was time for us to get back to our stations to see to see how many episodes of ‘Suits’ we could stay awake for. Answer: three.