Author: Rudy

Well, I’ve already told you about the highlight of my morning. No, actually the highlight was bacon and eggs with 1 piece of toast. We skyped with Alex a bit. Sue sat outside beside the pool and read. After soup and a sandwich we got into the van and headed west to Desert Hot Springs. Back to Desert Dunes golf course. We knew it would be a bit cool today, but at least it wasn’t as windy as last time we were at this course. Wrong. Very windy. Gusty. WAY windier than the light breeze we had in Rancho Mirage. Oh well, maybe it’ll be okay — after all, we had fun last time. Sue got us the same discount, so for $25 each we got into our golf cart and teed off at the first hole. Big drives into big wind. Just like last time. And Sue really wasn’t enjoying it very much. But we persisted. The upside was that there weren’t very many other golfers on the course. By the time we turned the corner and got onto the back nine things were looking up. Better golf shots. Wind let up a bit occasionally. And instead of losing lots of balls, we actually came out a bit ahead after finding a cache of balls when we went looking for one of our errant drives in the scrub brush along hole 13. So that was a bonus. The course is really a very nice course — challenging, beautiful, well-maintained, and inexpensive. But that wind!

We returned our Redbox movie on the way home. Then, after happy hour, I barbecued chicken and Sue made quesadillas. Then we watched some TV and waited for Daylight Savings Time to kick in.

But not today. Tonight we went to a Mexican restaurant, Agave, in downtown Palm Desert. We had supper there. I had 2 margaritas. Sue drove home. The end.

The rest of the story (updated Saturday morning)

Actually, Friday was a ‘work day’ here in Rancho Mirage. It felt a bit like the old days in Gold Canyon when Sue and I would do some of the day-to-day housework and chores, just like at home. So, as I write this on a bright and cheery, if somewhat cool, Saturday morning, here’s what I recollect about our day yesterday.

In the morning Sue and I did quite a bit of skyping — with Alex, with Tim, with Koop. It was too cold and windy for golfing and we’d seen or we weren’t interested in seeing any of the currently showing movies. So it was a day to putz around. I did a bit of computer work. After lunch Sue gave me a haircut. Then at around 2:00 we headed out into Cathedral Canyon to have the oil changed on the van. I had a printed out a coupon that I found online. We went for a bit of a walk while we waited for the oil change. Sue got a call from her brother Dave — there’s an opening at Bethesda Place for their mom, so she’ll probably move out of Maplewood Manor this next week.

After filling up gas we went looking for a hardware store so I could try to find replacement rollers for a broken shower door at the house. Some of my faithful readers will know that I am a bit anal about ‘fixing’ things around the house. I can’t stand a burned-out lightbulb and can hardly concentrate on anything else until I’ve changed it. I’ve had a little shopping list in my pocket now for at least a week — the house we’re in is nice, but there are little things all over the place that need to be repaired or adjusted or cleaned. And one of the things on my list is to fix the shower door in the guest bathroom. One of the rollers is missing and the door doesn’t slide open very easily and already the bottom track has some serious wear on it where the door has scratched along the channel. So we found a Home Depot and I flagged down a clerk and explained what it was I was looking for. Oh yes, it’s on the right-hand side in aisle 11. He was a very friendly and helpful older man, who then came and helped us find the item on the pegboard in aisle 11. (Wow, Penner Building Centre should be shaking in their boots if ever a Home Depot with friendly and helpful staff move to Steinbach!) Well, now the problem is what size might our rollers be — there are 3 different sizes here. I picked the middle size — I could always exchange the $2 item if I’d guessed wrong. We made another pit stop at Albertson’s, to pick up a movie rental and some more of that great peanut butter chocolate ice cream, and then headed home. When we got home I took the shower doors out and discovered that I need the ‘small’ rollers, not the ‘medium’ ones I’d bought. Well, we could exchange them next time.

Sue had made a dinner reservation at Agave’s, a Mexican restaurant the Tim and Alex had highly recommended. We could only get 5:30 or 7:30, so we’d booked 5:30, thinking that that way we’d have time to watch our movie before bedtime. So we got all dressed up and drove into town for a Friday night out.

The restaurant was busy. We got a table. We knew what we wanted — the chimichanga, but not the one on the menu; no, ask for the ‘pork’ one — it’s the best. And the margaritas are big and strong, so have one of those. Calamari appetizer. Share the chimichanga. Each have a big cold margarita. Good times. Good food. And yes, those drinks are pretty strong! No wonder Tim went to bed early the night the kids went out for Mexican food!

Rudy ordered a second margarita. Whoa, Sue, you’d better drive home after this. I’ll navigate, but I shouldn’t be driving. We shared the chimichanga and decided to forego dessert and enjoy some of that new ice cream at home later, after our movie.

Sue headed back home and I navigated. We were heading up along Monterey and since we were going right by it anyway, we decided to stop at the big Lowe’s hardware store and exchange the shower rollers. (Stick with me here now, kids.) While Sue took the receipt to the returns clerk I headed down to aisle 11 to get the right-sized shower door rollers. I knew where they were. But I couldn’t find them. I stumbled around, checked aisle 9, aisle 13. Nope, none of these aisles have a pegboard with shower rollers on them. After a few fruitless minutes of searching, I see Sue coming up the aisle — big grin on her face. Rudy, we’re in the wrong store! We didn’t buy this at Lowe’s. Oh yeah, it was a Home Depot. So we sheepishly left the store and got back into the van. Oh well, the Home Depot was just up the street. We went there and exchanged our rollers, no problem.

When we got home I quickly wrote my journal entry. That’s the little blurb at the top of this entry. Then I put the DVD into the player and pressed play. I remember the opening title credits of the movie. But nothing else. Sue watched the movie alone, with me sleeping soundly on the couch beside her. After the movie she woke me up and we had some new ice cream. I don’t really remember that. Then we went to bed.

Next morning I got up at 6:00. I’d slept 10 hours. Sue made coffee. She caught me up on what had happened last night. Well, why don’t I go fix that shower door now.

I removed the shower doors and checked the new rollers. Yup, those are the right size. I put the new rollers on the door. Well, maybe Sue would like to clean this tub before I hang the doors back on the track. Okay, let’s get out a selection of cleaning products (from the many stored under the bathroom sink) and there’s my Susie on her knees, scrubbing away at the tub. Okay, that will have to be clean enough. Now help me hang these doors back on the tracks. A bit of finnagling and their done. Work nicely. No more shearing and rubbing metal on metal. See? Fixed it! We wipe everything up, wash our hands and put the cleaning products back under the sink. I pull open one of the drawers in the vanity. What’s this? Brand new shower door rollers. Still in the package! They’d been there all along.

The day began like every other day here — but it gradually turned into the kind of day that the weatherman had forecast — cooling off and getting windy. I re-watched my movie from last night — since there were numerous ‘holes’ in my recollection of the plot because of me drifting off during last night’s viewing. After lunch we went for a walk — out to the movie theatre on Dinah Shore and Monterey. It was just over 2 miles in each direction. A bit cool to wear shorts but that’s what we did. We saw the movie “Side Effects”, a pretty entertaining story. After the movie we walked across the road to Costco where I bought more reading glasses and we had a big ice cream sundae. Walked back to our house. Since I’d left my DVD at home I hopped on the bike and cycled to Vons to return it. When I got back to our house I went to check out our fruit trees in the backyard. Hmmm… When we first moved in we thought we had lots of our very own fresh oranges, lemons, and grapefruits. Well, yesterday the gardeners were here and they cleaned up all the fallen leaves and fallen fruit. So now, as I look at our trees, I notice that really we only have TWO grapefruits (although the tree is blooming and maybe there are more on the way). And we have a TON of fresh lemons. And although it LOOKS like we have quite a few oranges, those pesky little birds are enjoying more oranges than we are. In fact I think I’ve seen the birds perching right on the head of the fake owl that sits at the top of our fountain! So much for the owl scaring off the birds! 

We waited with supper because we’d eaten so much ice cream. So we watched the news and our comedy shows. Then I barbecued in the dark and Sue and I ate our supper in front of the TV. More TV (and scrabble on Sue’s ipad) before going to bed. Weather for tomorrow is not so good, but it’s supposed to get back into the 80’s by early next week.

Worked on some projects on the computer this morning. Sue read a bit and did her morning yoga. Around lunch time a couple of landscaping guys showed up and worked on the yard for a couple of hours. They trimmed back all the hedges, took the big leaf-blower to the whole yard, mowed the grass, and cleaned up all the fallen oranges and lemons from our fruit trees. We left for Desert Dunes golf course at around 1:30. Desert Dunes is up in Desert Hot Springs, about 20 miles northwest from here. Apparently the course has been bought by a group of Canadians and there are plans for further major developments to what is now a very fine Robert Trent Jones Jr golf course. As we got nearer to the course we realized how windy it was — and quite a bit windier in that part of the valley than where we live. No wonder they’ve got windmills planted along the length of this valley. At the course they told us we could start right away. And they gave us a ‘non-refundable’ discounted price — we golfed for $25 each. Not many other golfers — in fact probably only one other couple on the front nine with us. So we never waited for anybody.

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Teed off on hole one and were lucky not to have the terrific side wind blow our shots off into the desert. Even chipping and putting was unpredictable in the face of this wind. So we decided NOT to keep score. And we had fun. The course was gorgeous. By the last few holes the sun was starting to set behind the clouds and the mountains to the west of us — and the temperature had fallen from 77 degrees when we started to 64. And vicious winds — Sue will probably have a frog in her throat for the next month! We headed to Walmart to return my Redbox DVD and pick up the one I’d reserved. Then home, where Sue made a delicious shrimp supper. We watched our comedy shows. Then we popped in our DVD, “The Intouchables”, a French (subtitled) movie. The movie was pretty good, but a bit hard to follow because I drifted off a couple of times. I may have to watch it again in the morning. After the movie we had some chocolate and watched some more TV before going to bed.

Good coffee in the morning. Skyped with Max and Alex. Did some computer work for Koop. Sue organized a bike ride for 10:00. Went around the neighbourhood. Then out on Dinah Shore all the way to Portola and then back along Gerald Ford. Returned yesterday’s (terrible) movie and picked up one for tonight. Lunch at 11:30! Wow! Right on time! Sue sat in her lounger outside and read — a perfect day. I skyped with Koop and did some web updates. Then I read a bit.

Then it was time for supper. Cheeseburgers on the barbecue — plus some cool corn concoction that Sue got the recipe from Alex for. And then, after the news and our comedy shows we watched our movie rental, “A Late Quartet”.

Wow! that was surprisingly good! I tried to take a photo of us watching the movie but now my batteries in the camera are DEAD. And after the movie we watched “Knocked Up” on one of the TV movie channels. That was funny too — and we were staying up until nearly midnight, which we hardly ever do. Got a tee time booked at Desert Dunes for tomorrow afternoon. Weather is supposed to cool off for the next couple of days. That’ll be okay. Well, I’ll finish watching my movie and then mosey on off to bed.

Because we went to sleep so early yesterday we woke up so early this morning. Couldn’t sleep after 5am and finally got out of bed by 6. Sue made coffee. I spent some time on the computer.
After breakfast Sue went outside and read. She finished her book, “Ten Degrees of Reckoning”, and half-finished “Prisoner in Tehran”. She did a load of laundry but really that’s about all she did. And I spent the day on my Mac. Did a bit of work but mostly just fooled around. I got on my bike and went across the road to Von’s to pick up my Redbox movie. Sue made supper — grilled fish. I couldn’t get the DVD to work on the big TV, but after a bit of searching I found another DVD player and hooked that one up — and it worked. So, after supper, and after I phoned my mom and dad (it’s VERY comfortable in Manitoba, at least INSIDE, because the big storm outside isn’t so bad even though nobody’s driving, and at least it’s nothing like the big train accident in Japan, and why don’t you come home and shovel, don’t be so lazy…), we sat down and watched our movie. “The Master” was the one ‘big’ film that had at least 3 major academy award nominations (but didn’t win any) which we hadn’t seen. So when it became available for rent I thought we should check it out. Hmmmm… weird movie. Don’t get it, really. And how can THAT movie be considered for academy awards? We worked so hard to stay awake through it but it really wasn’t worth it. FINALLY, at 10:30, it was over and we could go to bed! Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
Here are a few photos of our place — which Sue took with her iPad mini:

Sue, who woke up at 5, had to make coffee twice this morning — the first cup tasted awful. I guess you need to dump out the filter basket every once in a while so that the next time you try to drip coffee through it some of the water will have some coffee flavour. Soon the house was awake. We didn’t watch our regular Sunday morning TV shows. Breakfast was eggs and toast. Sue and Mary went for a walk around the neighbourhood. Naomi read her book. Simpson and I visited outside in the shade of the gazebo. It was going to be a hot day today! By the time everyone was packed up and ready to go (the Lee Wings are heading back to Phoenix today) it was time for lunch! We had sandwiches outside. After lunch Sue and Mary yelled into the phones at their mother while Simpson tried to watch a rerun of LA Law on TV.

Once the Lee Wings said goodbye it was time for Sue to do laundry. And make beds. I was sitting at watching a bit of golf on TV when JP called. They are leaving for Phoenix tomorrow morning! And they were busy for supper. But they had time to go for a little drive and come see our new place. I met them at the gate to let them in as they drove up in their hot little red Porsche. Jim took me for a ride around town in it. We had a drink outside — more of Sue’s freshly squeezed lemonade from our own lemon tree — and then the Peters too were off.

Alex and Max skyped for a bit before supper. They had just come home from a shopping trip to Winnipeg and Max wanted to show off his new high chair. Sue made supper and we watched “60 Minutes” on TV. We tried to watch more TV after that but we took turns drifting off — until 9:00 when we decided to ‘finish watching that show’ in the bedroom. Z-z-z-z-z.

Spent most of the morning cleaning. We wiped down most of the kitchen and vacuumed a bit. Then at around 11 we went shopping. Two stops: Costco and Ralph’s. So now our fridge is stocked for the month. When we got back to our house Sue went outside and sat in her lounger, trying to get a bit of afternoon sun and read on the Kindle. And it looks like all our efforts to find a place with a ‘sunny’ backyard have paid off — we have lots of sun in our backyard, in the morning and all afternoon too. I was downloading some music. Then the phone rang — it’s Naomi and Mary and Boston’s sister Simpson. They’are at the entry gate on Ginger Rodgers drive. Coming by for supper and an overnight! I hopped on my bike and cycled to the gate to let them in. When we got back to the house Sue had cheese and crackers and freshly-squeezed lemonade ready for us outside in the backyard. The girls had gone to San Diego for a couple of days (from Simpson’s house in Chandler, AZ) and were on their way back home.


They’ll spend the night here and head for home tomorrow. Sue made a great supper for us. Mary got on the phone for an hour, Naomi on her iPad. After supper we visited and watched a hockey game on TV. By 11 it was time to retire for the night. Mary especially was tired — got a bit too much sun today at the beach in San Diego.

We woke up in our hotel room in Temecula. Woke up at around 6. Read for an hour or two. Finished my book, Prisoner of Tehran, by Marina Nemat. A terrible story and a great read. We went down for breakfast and Sue had oatmeal and I had (too much) scrambled eggs and sausages. Plus yoghurt. And coffee. We checked out and headed back for home via the same great route — the Palms to Pines Highway. Sue thought the scenery was even better going east than it had been going west yesterday. More light and shadows. And of course the moment you crest the big hill and see the valley below, with the desert cities stretching out along the valley and the winding road leading you down the mountain into that valley — stunning.
We got to our new house in the Victoria Falls development at around 11:00. We parked in the garage and went in. Disarmed the alarm — that is going to take a bit of getting used to. Walked around again. The back yard was all lit up in sunshine. It was just over 80 degrees. The pool and fountain next to it warm running. We walked around a bit. And then the doorbell rang. What? It was Teddy, the owner. Oh boy, what now? He had lost our cheques. He couldn’t find them anywhere. He looked around a bit more but nothing. We told him we didn’t have any more blanks but could possibly get some mailed out. Sue started to unpack as soon as Teddy was gone. I got my big computer unpacked and set up in the bedroom. Then I logged on with all our devices so we were on the network. Sue started cleaning the kitchen.
We had lunch outside in our gazebo at around 1. Sandwiches and cold beers. Sue checked her email — phone calls from Michele — not to worry about the cheques, Teddy found them. Whew!
After lunch Sue got that cleaning machine going some more. The fridge! The cupboards! They sure have LOTS of cleaning supplies here. Most of it is still unopened and in the package. Sue opined that cupboards full of cleaning products don’t really work without a bit of elbow grease.
By 3:30 it was time to take a break. Happy hour outside in the backyard.
We ordered pizza from Domino’s at around 6 and I went to pick it up. We had supper and then sat down to watch our shows. Went to bed a little after 11pm.

Up before the 7am alarm. A quick breakfast and then we started packing. I got the bikes and golf clubs into the car. Sue cleaned out the kitchen and bedrooms. We were done and ready to go by 10. The van was packed to the ceiling. And, just for posterity, here are a few last-minute photos of our place in Chaparral:

We closed up our place at Chaparral, stopped at the clubhouse on the way out to pay our tab, and headed out to Victoria Falls where we will stay for the month of March. Met Teddy, the owner. He showed us around the house, access codes, alarms, pool controls, etc. Very nice. We unloaded most of our stuff in the garage — Teddy and family will be moving out tomorrow morning and we’ll move in sometime after lunch.
We stopped at McD’s for lunch and filled up the van at the ARCO station. Then we turned south onto the Pines to Palm Highway — California State Route 74. And we climbed the zigzaging road out of Palm Desert. A great highway and a great little road trip. We stopped at a lookout point and chatted with a cyclist whom we had passed on the way up. By the time we got to the top the temperature had dropped from 28 to 14, and there was snow alongside the road.

And then we dipped down into a big valley. We drove down to Escondido, headed for the San Diego Wildlife Park. When we got there we found out that they were closing in less than 2 hours — and perhaps we’d be better off visiting when we had more time to spend there. Probably not worth spending the admission etc for less than 2 hours. So we decided to skip it — and we headed back to Temecula, a town we’d never heard of but it looked kind of interesting when we drove through it earlier in the afternoon. We drove through a really cool part of the ‘historic old town’ with lots of little shops and bars and restaurants. At the end of the street was the hotel strip — we checked in at a Springhill Suites. We read a bit and then went down for their complimentary happy hour. After a couple of drinks we took a walk back to the main street. We decided on a restaurant and enjoyed a couple of curry dishes. Sue had baclava for dessert.

We walked back to our hotel and watched a bit of TV and I sorted through my photos from the day. My brother Walter skyped us — we visited a bit. And then I read and watched TV before calling it a night. Oh, and just in case I forgot to mention it, that little road trip today was a lot of fun for me.