Author: Rudy

Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Skyped with Alex and Max — Max was golfing and riding his Strider and shooting baskets in the basement. He looked to be enjoying a whole day at home with Mom and Dad. I decided that because we have so many movies cued up ready for us to watch, we would watch one of them this morning. “Big Eyes” isn’t up for any Academy Awards, but it was nominated for 3 Golden Globes and Amy Adams won one for Best Actress in a musical or comedy movie. We watched it this morning — and enjoyed it. Later in the morning Sue and I went for a bike ride — rode around the loop to Bashas where Sue picked up groceries while I ordered a sandwich at the Subway restaurant. We ate at the outdoor tables and then cycled back home. I took a few clubs and cycled across to the driving range — still working on the hybrids.

I got home just in time to have a quick shower and then head right back out to the Mountain Brook Golf Course. We had a 3 o’clock tee time with the Driedgers. We walked nine holes on a beautiful Saturday afternoon — no waiting for the group ahead, no pressure from a group behind. Now all I would need to make it a better afternoon is to actually be able to shoot a golf ball. But not this afternoon. I played TERRIBLE. We finished by 5pm and headed back home.

After a quick stop at our place we went out again — invited to Dave and Marylou’s for supper. Hans and Chris were there too. Dave and Marylou made spaghetti and salad for supper. We watched the sunset from the deck and then spent the next 3 hours around the supper table. Good food, good conversations. Home around 9pm. A bit of TV and off to bed.

Started working on my website shortly after 6 in the morning when I got up. It’s supposed to be ‘done’ today. We’ll see. Around 11am the Bishops arrived. They came to pick up their car, their golf clubs, and some clothes. Turns out they are staying here (at a friend’s house) for the next month! Well, the car didn’t start. They called CAA and within half an hour the service truck was here. The guy tried to pick the lock on the car but finally resorted to breaking in ‘the old fashioned’ way — using a long ‘coat-hanger’ style rod to unlock the door. Popped open the hood, put the charger on the battery, and voila! the car started. We all had a drink in the back yard while the car ‘charged’ up. When they left Sue made us a sandwich and we had our lunch. It was 1:30, two hours AFTER ‘official’ lunch time. I did my best to finish up the website and finally signed off on it at around 4pm. Then Sue and I went for a quick walk to Walgreen’s to pick up some lipstick (I’m almost out!) and to get our exercise. We got home, showered, and then had to hurry across the road to the Hitching Post where we met the Driedgers and the Neufelds (Hans and Chris) for pizza. That place was hopping tonight! And under-staffed! I guess the pizzas we finally got had been properly aged (and cooled) on the serving counter. Not bad pizza for Saturday morning, but not so hot for Friday supper. But we got to watch (another) great sunset from our table. Marylou and Hans got a bit camera-happy. The Driedgers and Neufelds were off to see a concert at the Methodist Church — the ‘Carpe Diem’ String Quartet. Well, we’re IN. No matter that the boys were more interested in watching the Jets on TV — tonight we were in for a ‘cultural’ experience. And so while the Driedgers pedalled and the Neufelds burned some fossil fuel, the Nikkels marched as fast as they could down to the big church (“OUR” church; we’ve been there before — a couple of years ago, to see an ORGAN concert!). Made it just in time. And a good thing that we hurried; it looked like all the front row seats were gone. The group included 4 players: first and second violin, a viola, and a cello. A mix of jazz, classical, and country. ‘Something for everybody.’ Even an intermission! The Neufelds gave us a ride back to our main gate. Cool evening. Lots of stars. Still lots of cars at the Hitching Post — I guess that ‘guy and girl singing along with a karaoke soundtrack’ band really got the old fogeys hopping tonight — it’s WAY past their bedtime! Not us, though. We’ll watch the CBC News and have a bowl of chocolate-peanut-butter ice cream for night-snack. And THEN we’ll go to bed. Party Animals!

After breakfast I got out the vacuum cleaner and while Sue dusted and tidied things up, I vacuumed the house. I cleaned up the garage and remembered that I had a flat rear tire on one of the Bishops’ bikes. So I took it apart and put a patch on it. Hope it holds. I monkeyed around on the garage door — the opener gets confused at certain times of the day (usually when it’s most inconvenient and we’re in a hurry) when the sun shines on the safety sensors — and prevents the door from closing. So I’ve made several cardboard ‘sun shields’ to keep the sun off the sensors and every time I think I have it fixed until the next time we’re in a hurry to leave. I made a new box-shield — we’ll see if this one will do it. It was a nice day again today. Sue and I pulled a few weeds out of the gravel that is our front yard — don’t want to have the neighbours complaining about us!

After lunch Sue went to the pool to read and I worked on my computer. Crunch time — the website is supposed to be done by tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have to pull an all-nighter. Around 3:00 I took a few clubs and hopped on my bike to go across the road to the driving range. Success. What else is new? Everything works on the driving range; it just doesn’t seem to ‘stick’ when I get on the course. When I got back Sue and I went for our walk to the Mountain Brook clubhouse and back. A lovely afternoon.

Back home we had happy hour. I showered while Sue made supper. After supper we watched one of the movies on my ‘must-see’ list. The Oscar nominations came out today and that puts some pressure on us. Tonight we watched “The Sniper” with Bradley Cooper. Good performance by Cooper. The movie is just ‘okay’. After the movie we watched a couple more episodes of ‘Suits’. Popcorn and ice cream. It seems that eating is the ONLY way for me to stay awake in the evening! The obligatory CBC News, with Thursday’s “At Issue” panel, completed our Thursday.

Sue started making supper right after breakfast. That way it would be ready for when we got home from golfing Sidewinder this afternoon with the Driedgers. We went to the golf course at around 12:30, even though our tee time was for 1:36pm. We hit a few balls on the driving range and Sue practiced her putting before we headed off to the first tee. Long wait there. The group ahead was waiting for the group ahead was waiting for the group ahead. I guess yesterday’s rain got lots of people to postpone their games to today.

All that waiting must have negated whatever ‘warm-up’ I got on the driving range. First tee shot ends up on the green of the hole BESIDE our fairway. I managed to salvage the hole but was scrambling for most of the game. Once again, the ONLY hole where water comes into play on the entire course swallowed up a couple of my Titleists. I always say that as long as I have a couple of good shots I’ll keep coming back to the game, but it sure feels like I’m going backwards! Meanwhile, Dave shot ten pars, Sue had only good drives, and Marylou made all the long putts.

It was getting close to 6pm by the time we got to the final hole. There were a few groups behind us, and we were still waiting for the groups ahead. Everybody was ‘pushing’ to finish their game. As we were waiting for the people ahead to move on up to the green, one of the golfers behind us hit a tee shot that hit the roof of our cart and landed ahead of us. Yikes! This could get dangerous.

We were cold and tired by the time we took the bags off the carts and headed back across the road to our house. The four of us sat around our table eating chips and drinking G&Ts before Sue served up her delicious pasta dish. That, and the nice bottle of wine Dave brought along, warmed us up. After dinner we moved to the living room for more visiting and dessert. By 10:30 I was having trouble keeping my eyelids up. (I should have had one of those coffees I made for Marylou — it seemed to work for her!) Not long after the Driedgers car left the driveway I was deep in a coma in my bed. What else is new?

After sitting at my computer in the early morning darkness for about an hour, I got up to open the blinds. What kind of day will it be? Looks cloudy — almost like it might rain! I suggested that possibility to Sue, who was busy checking her weather apps on her iPad. Last night when I called my parents my dad asked me a few times how the weather was — and I told him that really the weather is ALWAYS nice! I told him that we never have to first check the weather before deciding on if we should go for a walk, or a bike ride, or golfing. It’s just always nice. In spite of that, Sue still checks her weather app a couple times a day and reports her findings. Today Yahoo tells her there’s a 30% chance of showers at around 3:00 in the afternoon.

Since we hadn’t been to the gym (we have a free membership at the Silly Mountain gym) for nearly a week, we decided to do a quick one-hour hike, stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things, and be back home in time for lunch.

We parked the van on Bashas’ parking lot and set out on our hike to the mountain. Still cloudy, but nice temperature. We crossed a dried-out creek bed where I noticed fresh turds. Can’t be dog do-do — people here who have pets (and that means EVERYBODY except us) walk around with one or two of those little blue pooper-scooper bags in their hands. I’d seen a big coyote (or maybe it was a wolf!) slowly ambling by the wall in our back yard yesterday morning. Maybe we’d see some wild animals out here on our walk today!

We were nearly at the top of the hill when we had a few splashes of rain on our face. Huh? We started down one of the trails. The rain came harder. I thought it wasn’t supposed to rain? I took out my iPhone just to check — yep, there were lots of big drops splashing on the screen. That proves it: it’s raining. We got soaked. So much for all my bragging to Dad last night!

An hour later we were back at Bashas. I sat in the van while Sue, looking like a wet rat, went in to pick up groceries. I guess we’re not going to the driving range today. I pulled the van up to the front entrance so Sue could escape the downpour.

After lunch I worked on my website. Sue read her book, “The Finkler Question”, on the Kindle. We left around 3:30 to go see a movie at the Harkins at Superstition Springs. “Wild”, starring Reese Witherspoon. Now THAT is a good movie! Sure, it’s just about a long hike, but I think it’s cool how the director can make a story like that into a film. Good acting, good music, good story-telling. At one point in the movie the woman encounters a rattlesnake — and just at that moment my phone starts vibrating in my pocket. I jumped! Sue returned Alex’s call in the van on the way home. Just calling to chat.

While Sue was frying up the fish she’d bought at Bashas today, I turned on the TV. A new sitcom by Eugene Levy was premiering on CBC. Schitt’s Creek. Really? They can name a TV show that? I watched the first of the two episodes they were airing. Hmmm… More ‘Schitt’ than ‘Creek’. But maybe I was too hard on it, after the movie we’d just seen. Anyway, we enjoyed our supper and then watched THREE episodes of ‘Suits’ before going to bed.

I was going to work on my computer project all day today; it needs to be ‘completed’ by Friday. When I got up the road was wet — it must have rained a bit last night — and the sunrise was obscured by clouds. A good day to stay home and get a lot done. I was well into my code when I had a surprise visit from my accountant. No, now is not really a good time, but then when IS a good time? Better deal with this right away. Okay, let’s go over the Mastercard bill line by line. What did you buy here? What is this charge for? Are you billing for these charges or are WE paying for them? Exactly what kind of ‘system’ do you have for keeping track of these expenses? Hmmm… One of THOSE days! And so I put away my project and worked on my defence. And sure enough, when I looked closer at some of the invoices I noticed there were some ‘new’ charges that I should take care of. And if you’ve ever been on the phone with MTS so-called ‘support’ you have some idea of what it’s like to talk to computer and internet companies. So there went my morning! And if I don’t count MY time as having any value, I made out okay. I got a $5 refund from my internet hosting company and a promise of a nearly $15 charge reversal from Amazon. So we’re “richer than we think”.

After lunch I got back to work on my website. Sue was itching to go for some ‘exercise’, but most of her suggestions involved getting me out of my chair, and that wasn’t happening today. Finally at mid-afternoon we got into the van and drove down to Signal Butte to the movie theatre to see “Unbroken”. We weren’t expecting a great movie and so that way we were not disappointed. We both enjoyed the book a lot but figured it might be impossible to tell such a long and incredible story in a two-hour movie. Still, after reading the list of nominees for the Golden Globes yesterday, we really need to buckle down and start working our way through all the movies we want to see. And so far this winter we have seen only a few.

We got back home for a late supper — leftover Chinese. I phoned my parents and Sue phoned Irmy. That was another half hour. Finally we sat down at our stations and watched another two episodes of ‘Suits’. Midway through Season 2. I think it’s getting better. Then the news. And to bed at 10:30.

Woke up at 5 again. I made my coffee and checked my email. I always do that — although I NEVER have email waiting for me in the morning. Except today. Someone named ‘naughtygirl’ wants to get physical with me. What!? How did that get through?

We watch our Sunday morning shows although (once again) Fareed on CNN is pre-empted for coverage of the big anti-terror march in Paris. Two big play-off NFL games on today. Before the first one starts at 11am Sue and I go for a morning walk — all the way to Mountain Brook clubhouse and back. A bit cloudy, but nice temperature. Lots of geezers pass us in their big shiny cars, either going to or coming back from church (there are 4 big churches within walking distance of our place). Friendly waves. The clubhouse restaurant and the Hitching Post parking lots are packed too — Sunday brunch. When we get back I take my new driver and cycle across the road to the driving range. I’m going to see if I can ‘adjust’ some of the adjustable settings on it to keep it from slicing. Which I do. And after whacking balls until my back is sore, I’m satisfied that I can hit the ball straight and far at will. Can’t wait to take this baby out on the course.

Back at the cabin I find Sue watching some infomercial — and NOT the Cowboys/Packers game. I’d missed the first quarter — and what’s this? The Cowboys are out-playing and out-scoring Green Bay. It’s actually a pretty good game — which Green Bay ultimately wins after trailing all game. Next up: Colts at Denver.

Sue and I skip the first half of the second game and drive back to Mountain Brook to walk the front nine at 3 o’clock. I gotta try out that driver for real. We are rushed out on the course ahead of a ‘big group’. That’s good. First shot: straight up and down. Huh? At least my new rescue club gets the ball close to the green from there. Bogey. Second hole is short; no chance to use the driver. On the third hole my drive barely clears the wash. This sucks! What happened? We both end up with a score of 50. I don’t need new clubs to do that!

We finished nine holes in record time and are home around 4:30. The third quarter of the Colts/Broncos game has just started. And look at this! The Colts are beating the Denver. Easily. Sue picked up supper from the Great Wall. Delicious. All that club-swinging has me starved.

We watched 60 Minutes and then switched to the Golden Globes. Some nice ‘dresses’ on some of those movie stars! I’m just glad that I’m on this side of the TV; I wouldn’t know where to look if I had to stand next to them on the stage. Like one of the presenters said, I get why they call it the ‘Golden Globes’!

We switched to PBS to watch the second episode of this season’s Downton Abbey. Hmmm… Seems like not much is happening in that series this year — Boring. Back to the Golden Globes. We managed to stay up late enough to have ice cream ‘night snack’ while we watched a Fifth Estate documentary about Russia’s Putin. In bed by 10:30.

I woke up just before 5am. I guess that’s not surprising — who needs more than 8 hours of sleep? At this rate, by the time we go back home in April I’ll have worked my way around the clock and be back to ‘normal’. Just in time.

Bacon and eggs for breakfast. It’s Saturday. Officially. Why am I writing in sentence fragments? It’s supposed to be sunny but it’s not. But the temperature is just fine for going out to the driving range and hitting a bucket of balls. So that’s what we do before lunch. I need to try out my ‘new’ clubs. The driver feels good in my hands, hits the ball pretty far, but it’s slicing a bit. I’ll need to either figure out exactly where to tee up the ball, or maybe all those fancy adjustments on the club head can fix this. I’ll have to ‘google’ that when I get home.

Sue makes lunch while I putt outside. And off and on I sit down at my computer and continue to work on my web project. Sue hops on the bike and leaves for her hair appointment. A few minutes after she leaves I hear a strange noise outside. What’s that? Rain. I go outside. Not lots of drops, but still, maybe I should hop in the van and give Sue a ride. But I don’t. It’s not that bad. And after 15 minutes it stops anyway.

And now it’s time to watch some NFL. Two games today, so I might as well make myself comfortable on the couch. I didn’t really expect either game to be all that close, but before I had all my snacks and drinks all arranged on the coffee table the Ravens had surprised the Patriots with two quick touchdowns. Holy cow! Maybe I should pay attention. Lucky for Tom Brady (and for Jim and Bonny), I was cheering for the Ravens. So my record is intact.

Sue got home with her new hair-do just in time to see the bitter end of the first game. And CTV didn’t miss a beat — just ‘cross-faded’ from one game to the next. There was hardly even time for a washroom break in between. We ate our hotdogs with beans and beer while watching the second game: the Panthers at the Seahawks. Again, there were glimmers of hope for the Panthers early on, but in the end (and by ‘the end’ I mean just before the late news!) the Seahawks were the better team.

A whole live-long day of football — no wonder it felt like Sunday! And the good news is tomorrow we get to do it all over again. Bonus day!

I got up early and made coffee. The usual. Worked on my web project all morning, although I was distracted by CNN’s constant updates about the shootings in Paris (today they caught and killed 3 of the 4 killers). Susie Homemaker baked another big batch of ‘monster’ cookies.

I have a couple of blogs that show up in my daily morning newsfeed — and today one of them mentioned a new ‘top-secret’ food that will change everything. I’ve been enjoying ‘imitation’ crab for a few years now, although Sue only lets me buy it as a special treat. I think it tastes as good as ‘real’ crab. Well, if what this article says is true, I may one day switch to ‘imitation’ hamburgers!

After lunch we picked up Dave and Marylou and drove out to Superstition Springs on Power Road. We went to see the new movie “The Imitation Game” — it’s getting lots of good reviews and it’s one of the few movies that the Driedgers haven’t already seen. We left a little early because the last time the Driedgers had gone to see it there was a line-up and they couldn’t get in. Still, we figured we had plenty of time and so we stopped by Vans Golf Shop so I could look for a driver — I’ve been using Sue’s driver for the past month and Sue thinks I’m wrecking it. I found a couple of used clubs that Dave thought would work for me — we’ll see how that turns out next time we go golfing.

We were glad we got to the Harkins theater early because by the time the previews started pretty well all the seats were filled — mostly ‘seniors’ like us who can’t stay awake for an evening movie so we go to the matinees. The movie was good, although not riveting enough to keep the elderly couple sitting next to Sue (no, not the Driedgers — they were on the OTHER side) from snoring loudly through the last 20 minutes of the film.

After the movie we headed back into Apache Junction for supper. Dave suggested we go for what may be the best hamburgers in the valley at the Handlebar Pub & Grill, a nondescipt little building we’ve driven by many times, not far from Gold Canyon. The place was busy. No seats inside. We sat outside at the bar watching the cook flip burgers on the outdoor grill while we waited for a table to open up inside. After about half an hour we took our drinks inside and ordered our meals. Nine ounce hamburgers, the ‘real’ kind. Craft beers. And live music.

By 8:30 we were back home. Too full of burgers and beer. Too tired to watch TV. Seniors!

Sue went to Bashas this morning to pick up bread. When she got back she made bacon and eggs! I’m not sure why, but it was a nice surprise. Maybe she thought it would fortify us for our big adventure today…

At 11:00 Dave and Marylou picked us up and we drove out to the parking lot near the starting point of the Peralta Trail Hike. The road there starts just a couple of kilometers from our place, but once we turned of Hwy 60 it soon turned to a winding gravel track through the desert. After about 7 miles we found the parking lot — we were not the first and not the only ones who thought the clouds and the slightly cooler temperatures would make for ideal hiking conditions.

There is a big board with a map at the entrance to the hike. There are also washrooms at the parking lot. And there is a ‘sign-in/sign-out’ sheet where Marylou registered us. And so began our hike.

We must have missed a turn early on — not surprising, since it seemed to me there was an awful lot of visiting going on at the front of the ‘group’. Soon we were following a dried out river bed, doing our best not to slip off the big rocks and trying to avoid getting our legs (like true novices, we were all wearing shorts for this!) from getting completely scratched up by the thorns and branches that were making the ‘trail’ narrower as we went along.

Finally it seemed we were stuck. Then we heard voices, up above, somewhere behind the brittle bush and cactus vegetation. Are we lost? Is there a trail up there? We finally managed to scramble up through thick brush and found the wide, clearly marked path that would take us through the Peralta Canyon to our destination.

And so that’s how we continued — about 5kms winding up and down through some interesting vegetation and rock formations. We were following the creek, so occasionally we heard a babbling brook or ducked through overhanging green ‘rain-forest’ as we gradually ascended into the Superstition Wilderness. On either side we had towering volcanic rock ‘needles’ pointing up to the cloudy sky.

After hiking 3 or 4 kms we could see Fremont Saddle. We recognized it because it looks like a saddle. There are many ‘balancing rocks’ along the hillside here, but this one is prominent, jutting out in the middle of the canyon.

We continued on, zig-zagging our way along the trail, always aiming for that lowest part of the ‘V’ on the horizon. We’d hiked about 5kms when we came to that crest. When we got there we got a fantastic view of Weavers Needle. And behind, and all around it, was a huge canyon. We could see Superstition Mountain and even the Four Peaks way out in the distance.

And, we had lunch! It was around one o’clock, way past a proper lunch time. But after hiking for a couple of hours those little sandwiches sure tasted good. We got another hiker to take a group photo of us before heading back down into the canyon. Although the return is mostly downhill and quite a bit easier, you still have to watch where you step and make sure you stay on the trail. And going downhill can be hard on your knees, and on your toes!

We managed to get back to the parking lot safely, and by around 3:30 we were back at the house. The Driedgers stopped by for happy hour.

Sue made supper and I had a long skype call from Werner — hadn’t talked to him in a long time. Things back at school are about the same as ever and he’s working far too hard and not getting nearly enough credit or appreciation for it. After supper Sue made a bunch of phone calls. I showered and worked on the computer. By the time the CBC National was over at 9pm I was having trouble keeping awake. I managed to find ‘The Daily Show’ on TV but I may have to watch the rerun in the morning if I want to know what it was about.