Author: Rudy

Sue and I went for a bike ride in the morning. After lunch Sue went to the pool to read and I ‘went shopping’ for TV antenna stuff. By happy hour I was deep into stringing up coax cable and scanning for digital TV signals. I had hoped to get the big TV in the bedroom hooked up, but I need a digital converter for that — so my little computer room TV is now sitting on the ledge in the bedroom closet. BUT IT WORKS! NBC, PBS, FOX, CBS, and a bunch of Spanish channels all come in crystal clear, better than cable! Happy days — no, happy nights, because now I can fall asleep to the sound of Jimmy Fallon’s crappy jokes.

After supper we were sitting and watching TV (and I was now trying to get the living room TV hooked up to an antenna as well!) when we had a text message from Arlene — happy days, no surgery, got a walking cast, having dinner at the mexican restaurant behind Bashas. Great news. The Dycks came by after dinner and we had drinks and conversation until it was time for the aforementioned Jimmy Fallon to joke me to sleep. Which he did.

After breakfast we picked up Robert at the motorhome and headed out to Silly Mountain for a hike. Another nice day here. We had to hurry our morning a bit because Robert and I were going to join Ed and Art at Mountain Brook for a 1:15 tee time. After our hike we headed out to Apache Junction to the Fresh Fruit Market to do a bit of grocery shopping. Then we skipped the trip to the grocery store and hurried back home to have lunch and get ready for our afternoon golf game.
Sue went to the grocery store and then to visit Arlene in the motorhome in the afternoon. The boys golfed. Started off not that great, but by the time we got to the last two holes we had shot some good holes. And by the time we got to the last two holes it was getting quite dark, and quite cool. Jackets came out. If we’d packed flashlights we might have hauled those out too.
Robert headed home and I joined Ed and Art for the walk back to Ed’s place for supper. Sue was already there — actually, she was there BEFORE Val and Wendy got back from their own afternoon of shopping! We had a fine supper with the Peters couples — and I probably overdid it with my tale of ‘almost sailing’. (Art and Wendy are planning to go sailing in the BVI this February. Robert and Arlene and the group are going in late December. Seems like we’re the only ones NOT going!) We got home just before 11:00 and after a bit of channel surfing we went to bed.

We THOUGHT we were going for a little hike with Robert and Arlene this afternoon — but that all changed when we got a text message this morning. Arlene has injured her ankle during their morning walk and she and Robert are sitting at the Urgent Care Clinic waiting to see a doctor!

So…

We watched our Sunday Morning shows — and skyped with Alex and Max for a while. At 11 o’clock the football games started. That’s what I did all day — watched the Vikings and the Giants both lose, and the Packers and the Patriots both win. OUCH! Well, at least the Arizona Cardinals continue to win and at least the Bengals beat the Saints, and the Chiefs beat the Seahawks. I guess I’ll cheer for the Cardinals.

Sue hung out at the pool all afternoon — finished reading the Miriam Toews ‘Puny Sorrows’ book.

Looks like Arlene will be laid up in the motorhome until at least Tuesday afternoon, when she will see a specialist and find out what’s next for her ankle. At least for now, hiking and golfing is out for her.

Bacon and eggs for breakfast. We met Robert and Arlene at Mountain Brook Golf Course for our 1:15 tee time. The day was perfect, weather-wise. And golf was good too — no one chasing us, no one to wait for ahead of us. Good thing too, because we were not always taking the shortest route to the pin. And we were VISITING — tough to continue a ‘story’ when you have to chase your ball all over the course.
After golf the Dycks came to our place for supper and we continued our visiting until we all were too tired to say anything more than ‘good night’. Tomorrow again.

We wanted to go hiking Silly Mountain at 10, but were delayed by an old guy who spotted our Manitoba license plate on our driveway and came over to visit with us for about half an hour. We parked on the Silly Mountain parking lot and hiked up. Just like old times. When we got to the highest point I tried to Skype Mom — and although it rang and she tried to answer, our connection wasn’t good enough to talk, much less show her ‘the view’. So I took a couple of photos and sent them to her later. We walked for just over an hour and then hurried home to have a quick lunch. We sat outside for lunch, and then I skyped Mom again — Linda was there visiting, and so I gave them a look at our backyard.

After a quick shower I had to hurry out of the house to get to the golf course at Mountain Brook for the 1:15 tee time with Ed and Art Peters. The two Peters couples had arrived in Gold Canyon late last night — Art and Wendy will be staying with Ed and Val for a week. Sue had already decided NOT to join us today since we’re golfing the same course tomorrow with Robert and Arlene and she didn’t think she needed the extra practice.

Ed and Art were already on the driving range. I got my own cart and after quick hellos we headed out to the tee at Hole number 1. The golfing was good. Not so hot today — in fact it’s cloudy for the first time since we arrived here a week ago. My game was pretty good — parred the first hole and finished the front nine with a 45. Not quite that good on the back nine — shot a 53 for a total of 98. Had fun. Finished before the sunset.

We invited the Peterses to come over for a drink — which they did. When I got home the phone was ringing (Brigitta), then Alex and Max FaceTimed, and then I see I’ve missed a phone call from Arlene who has just arrived in Gold Canyon today. Busy place! Oh well, we’ll catch up.

The visitors left at around 7. We barbecued cheeseburgers and watched TV. Went to bed tired.

I worked on the Prov project for Koop for a couple of hours in the morning. Sue did laundry. Then we went for a bike ride — ‘our loop’ with a detour through Mountain Brook. After lunch I restrung my guitar while Sue finished doing laundry and went to the pool. I wanted to try an antenna on our bedroom TV but I need a cable adaptor — a project for another day. After sundowners and a bit of putting in the backyard we had supper (shrimp) and I thought I’d watch Thursday Night Football. Oh no, now we don’t get Sportsnet on our Shaw! So I emailed the Bishops and headed out to the Hitching Post, a pizzeria and bar just across the road from Vista Point (our ‘community’). Yep, they had about 6 TVs showing the game. There were about 4 tables with customers, and a couple of guys sitting at the bar discussing the Buffalo Bills of days gone by. I sat down at the bar and ordered a Bud! I fit right in! No sound. Well, no TV sound. Everyone is looking up at the big flat screen TVs but way back in the far corner of the restaurant, far removed from any occupied tables, stands a sad-looking weary old ‘cowpoke’, holding a guitar and singing along with a ‘karaoke’ soundtrack. One table applauds sympathetically after each ‘song’. So I’m listening to the football fans next to me with one ear, focussing on the TV, and trying not to cringe too much every time old Hank there goes for one of those high lonesome wails! An email from the Bishops hints that they are going to try to get my channels back for me. I ‘facetime’ call Sue to find out if there’s any luck with our TV. Yes! By now the game looks like it will be an easy win for Miami, and I pay for my beer and walk back home. A million stars but it’s dark as pitch out here in this unlit development. Back home the game is on TV, although not in HD. Oh well, neither of these teams deserve HD. Sue makes an ice cream concoction with our Costco-sized barrel of Grand Marnier and the day ends on a happy note. No, EVERY day here ends on a happy note.

While I went for my first golf clinic at Mountain Brook today, Sue went to get her hair done. First Sue dropped me off at the golf course for 9 am. As we’re unloading the clubs, another Manitoba car pulls up behind us and the guy says something about ‘Steinbachers’. It’s Brian Reimer, Bob Kehler, and Vic Reimer — and they’re golf here this morning. No, I’m not golfing — I’m going to try the ‘Fairway woods and hybrids’ clinic. There are 5 of us who will get a 90 minute lesson from Curt Miles, the resident pro and co-manager of this golf club. And it’s helpful, although I’ll have to wait and see how it pays off in a real game.

After my lesson I waited for Sue to come pick me up. When she arrived she was in a hurry to get to her 11 o’clock appointment for a haircut at a salon near Bashas. So she dropped me off on King’s Ranch Road and took off for her appointment. And as soon as I’d walked about 10 steps I realized that I didn’t have a key to get into the house. Shoot! Well, I took my time walking, and ended up sitting in the shade in our backyard, waiting for Sue to come home. Which she did, an hour and a half later. Well, both of us had had a successful morning — Sue’s got her hair fixed, I got my golf swing fixed.

After lunch I did a couple of computer jobs for Koop. Sue went to the pool. Mid-afternoon our Amazon order arrived — books for Sue, coffee filters and new guitar strings for me. Just before sunset we went for a walk, to Walgreen’s and back. Sue had a lot to talk about — she hadn’t been able to read at all at the pool because of the entertaining conversations she’d overheard at the pool.

After supper we watched some TV. By 9pm I was drifting off pretty regularly. Sue too. She went to bed, I went to work on the computer — did that from 10 to midnight and then had a bit of trouble falling asleep.

That’s what they call Remembrance Day here in the U.S. I started off the morning working on the MTG website. Then Sue declared that if we’re going to go for a hike today we’d better go now, before it gets too hot. We put on our hiking boots and went up the little hill (Vista Point?) behind our house. There were a few marked paths going up. It’s not a very long climb. But, amazingly, the view from up there is pretty impressive. We can see Sidewinder Golf Course, Peralta, and lots of desert with mountains in the distance.

Well, that was hardly a workout. Let’s go for a bike ride. Our old ‘loop’ around Gold Canyon. Which we did. My new chain and cassette on the bike was a bit of a disappointment as it still clunked with every turn of the pedals. I’ll have to make a return trip to the bike shop.

It was lunch time by the time we got home. After lunch we doddled around — Sue made sauce for the spaghetti supper for tonight, I played on the computer. Then we used the clothes line I’d bought to re-string the old lounger we got on the garage sale. I fixed up the water line from the sink to the fridge and stabbed my finger in the process. Happy hour, with a bit of putting on our putting green. Supper. Skype call from Mom. (Now they’ve got snow and cold at home. My sister Linda from BC is coming for a visit on Thursday.)

What’s on TV? Hey, half the channels we got on Sunday are now ‘unavailable’! What’s with that? How does that work? Finally Sue put one of the DVDs from the collection into the player. It’s Complicated. Well, not really. I fell asleep by halftime, woke up once for part of the news, was in bed just before 10. Oh boy, this is getting ridiculous.

After morning toast and fruit I loaded my bike into the van and we went to the Santan Village Shopping Center in Gilbert, about 25 miles from our place. I took my bike to a bike shop there to have the chain replaced. Then, while the guy repaired my bike, Sue and I went to the Costco nearby. Yikes. A short grocery list doesn’t work at a place like that! Even the shopping carts are so oversized that you feel like a little kid pushing them around the maze of double-wide aisles. So we walked out with huge ‘econo-size’ containers of things. The van was full! After a quick lunch we went back to pick up the bike. Then a stop at Total Wine. More ‘deals’. I loaded up on Pilsner Urquell, the Czech beer we had on our European bike trip. On the way back home we made yet another stop. A ‘Super’ Target store. Sue bought a few more toiletries and I found the extension cords I wanted to get.

Back at home Sue barely had time to carve up the massive hunks of pork from Costco and put away the groceries while I strung our living room wall lamps together with those afore-mentioned extension cords. We had to hurry to get to Mountain Brook for our 3:00 tee time. We needn’t have hurried. We still finished before the shadows were too long to find our ball — although, as you can see from the photo, by the last hole the mountain was looking pretty good.

Back at the ranch Sue got supper ready — our first barbecue — and then I watched Monday Night Football (another blow-out) while Sue visited on the phone. After the news and a bit of late night talk shows (yeah, we’re managing to stay up past 9:00pm) we went to bed.

I got out of bed at around 4:30 and read my blogs and made coffee while Sue snoozed for a few more hours. By 7 we were having our toast and fruit. We had another visit with Max in the morning — he seems quite happy to talk on FaceTime. We drank our coffee and watched CBS Sunday Morning. Sue went to sit outside while I watched some pre-game NFL talk shows. Because we’re an hour ahead of Steinbach, but our Shaw on-screen TV Guide is on ‘Steinbach’ time, I had to try to figure out which NFL games we could watch and when. By 11:00 I was ready for a day of football. We probably should have gone to the Cardinals’ game here in Phoenix — they played the Rams and won, even though they lost their quarterback to a season-ending injury. But my Giants were playing the Seahawks at the same time and although I didn’t have much hope for them — you never know! Well, now I know. Another blowout! Although not as bad as the Bears were blown-out by the Packers in the Sunday night game! By halftime we switched over to 60 Minutes, and by the time the CBC National News was on I had already dozed off a few times.