Author: Rudy

Friday: Got up at 6:30. Packed and cleaned. Moved the outdoor furniture in. Unplugged things. Emptied the fridge. Charlotte came over to inspect. She was happy to have the leftovers from our fridge. Mike came over and said goodbye. I tried washing off the oil stains on the driveway. The van looks like the Beverly Hillbillies’ wagon — it’s stuffed to the roof.

Left at 9:30. Dropped off the modem and settop box at Mediacom. Then we headed out to the Bush Highway. Up to Holbrook, to the same Dairy Queen we stopped at the last two times we’ve driven this route (first time down here, then again a year ago on the way home, and now again). Burger and milkshake. Beautiful country.

Then east to Albuquerque, and on through New Mexico. Listened to the Tina Fey audiobook (“Bossy Pants”) for 2 hours. Got to Amarillo, TX at around 10pm local time (lost 2 hours with the time change and Daylight Savings time difference). We went to a nearby Outback Steakhouse for steak, lobster, and coconut shrimp. A late supper, but a great supper!

Then we went to the Quality Inn where we had a reservation. The room was nicely appointed, but not clean. Worn. Hard. We watched a bit of TV. Checked email. Noticed a Winnipeg Free Press front page story warning about serious tornado threats EXACTLY over the midwest US — the same region that we planned to drive through on the way home tomorrow, centered over Omaha, Nebraska, where we planned to stay for night tomorrow! Oh well. We’ll rethink this tomorrow. Maybe we’ll stay here for 2 nights and let the storm blow over. No need to endanger ourselves.

I went to lie down on the bed and write my journal. Fell asleep right away. Too tired from a long day of driving to stay up any later than 11pm. Zzzzzz….

Thursday: It’s my dad’s birthday. I tried calling him but got the voicemail — it’s 8:30 at home and already they are out celebrating! Today is the last day here! Woke up just after 5 and got up not long after that. It’s a bit cooler today. Supposed to be that way for the weekend, maybe even rain. I guess we’ll miss that. Sue says it will be cold at home when we get there next week. Sue was doing laundry at 6. More packing.

I went to get the van window repaired. The appointment was for 8 and I was there early. The guy drives in my van and pushes the button and rolls up the stuck window! Hey, what’s up? He tried it a few more times and it failed. So he determined that is was the switch. So they replace the switches in both doors and $225 later I’m on my way home. I washed the van. Then spent the rest of the morning squeezing 3 bikes (our 2 and Robert Dyck’s road bike) into the back of the van. Add four golf bags. And my little office chair. And the big Rubbermaid container. Two suitcases. My big computer box.

After a quick lunch we headed back into Apache Junction. We had 3 dental appointments. First, the girl that cleaned my teeth did another inspection (and cleaning) and polished my teeth. Then we headed into Mesa and visited an implant surgeon to get the lowdown on what’s up with her sinuses. Estimated cost to repair: $10,000 to $15,000. Then to another orthodontist to see about braces for Rudy. Yep, could and should be done. Made an appointment for November 1, 2012 at 9:00am. Estimated cost: $5,000.00 for 22 months of adjustments, etc.

Then we headed to the Total Wine store in Santan to pick up another big bottle of gin. And to Walmart for some cosmetics for Sue. Then back to the house. I guess it’s too late now for one last game of golf.

So we had appetizers and happy hour. More cleaning. Leftovers for supper. Tried calling my dad one more time. Again, answering machine. So I left another message. Sue is busy packing. Cleaning. Packing. Work, work, work. Laundry. One last shower. A bit of TV. Off to bed.

Wednesday: Right after breakfast I headed out to Apache Junction, in search of an auto glass place that would help me with my van window (passenger window is stuck down). After a bit of hunting, I found a place. The guy seemed to know immediately what the problem was, and said he would order the parts and they could probably do it this afternoon. Whew!

Back at the ranch, Sue is feverishly packing. Cleaned the 2 extra bedrooms. Cleaned the bathrooms. Most of the kitchen supplies are neatly arranged on the counter. Sue keeps saying how we’re not going to have room for all our stuff. Books are in a bag. I fiddled with Alex’s wallhanging in the van. Bikes are ready to be packed up (but I can’t do it because of the broken window). I put the screens back on the dining room window. Temperature today is very nice — a bit of a wind to help keep things comfortable.

After lunch we watched a Mike Wallace tribute on Charlie Rose. Charlotte from next door stopped by and we arranged for her visit on Friday morning to check the house before we go. Then we read and frittered away time until it was time to go golfing. Nobody else on the course. This is the best time of year to go golfing. Except that my golf game is shitty. Well, not quite as bad today as yesterday, but definitely not as good as it should be considering how much time Sue and I have spent on this course. Shot a 53, Sue a 52.

Went to Walgreens to pick up our last DVD rental (Johnny English, a ‘Mr Bean’/James Bond comedy). Then we went home for gin and tonics and a barbecue. Chicken. With leftover rice and potatoes. Alex skyped and told us about her supper with my folks and a couple of messages on our home phone.

We ‘watched’ the movie — well, the parts of it where I wasn’t snoozing — and were in bed by ten o’clock.

Tuesday: This morning after breakfast we tried out some of the products we bought yesterday to clean our shower. Final result? Not perfect, but better than it was — probably better than it was when we got here. Then, before it got too hot outside, we went for our bike ride. After lunch we watched Charlie Rose. Wasted a bit of time on the internet. Called Alex at 2:30 (4:30 her time) to wish her a happy 29th birthday. Then we went to the golf course.

Hit a bucket of balls before going for our nine holes. Hit some pretty good drives using Sue’s driver. Then we went to the first tee. Two balls hit to the driving range — couldn’t even find one of them! Missed a two-foot putt. Hole number two: two drives that dribbled about 50 yards. Chip shots that went half as far as they were meant to go. Hole 3: shot a ten. Hole 4: tee shot on the road; hacked up my lob wedge by hitting the ball off the pavement onto the green. BUT, I parred the hole! And so it continued. By the time we were finished the ninth hole I was tired from taking 59 shots! Better to leave those clubs right in the bag!

Drove home and when we pulled up on the driveway the passenger window wouldn’t roll up. Oh, oh! What now? I cleaned out the garage and for the first time ever, parked the van in the garage for night! We’ll have to get that fixed tomorrow.

Barbecued some great little steaks (wrapped in bacon) to go with almost cooked scalloped potatoes and a fine tomato and avocado salad. Watched a bunch of 60 Minutes reruns on TV. And more TV after that. Tomorrow? Fix the window on the van, close the bank account here at the Chase bank, clean up a bit more around the house, and…

…go golfing!

Monday: I loaded up the big pink bike into the van. We’re taking it to Al & Shirl’s trailer in Chandler today. Sue tried again to clean the shower — and finally I remembered Gerald Dyck, our junior high shop teacher, telling us that tooth paste is an excellent polish. So we tried that. Sure enough, it seemed to work. And if it wasn’t exactly 100% effective, it surely was as good or better than any of the myriad of cleaners we’ve discovered in the closet and tried so far. And it sure smelled better than the WD-40 I tried on part of it.

I showered and we hurried off to the Mediacom office in Apache Junction. We joined the long line-up of people returning cable boxes and modems and waited our turn. Swapped our cable modem no problem and soon we were off. Heading to Al’s trailer court.

We unloaded the bike, adjusted the handlebars and seat, and parked it in Al’s shed. Then we headed for the Chandler Fashion Mall. Along the way we discovered an In-N-Out Burger restaurant — which I had wanted to try since last year when we were in Arizona. The restaurants are only to be found on the west coast and many bloggers rave about it. We tried the ‘double double’ burger, a plain hamburger for Sue, and a strawberry milkshake. Not bad! A VERY simple and short menu, low prices, freshly made food.

After lunch we went to the big Lowe’s hardware store just across the parking lot. Found our cleaners and detergents and a couple of other things on Sue’s list. Good service here too — quite different from what we’ve come to expect at E.G. Penner Building Centre in Steinbach.

Then we went to the Chandler Fashion Mall. We parked the van near the cinema. Walked into the mall. Visited Sears, the very nice Apple Store (to check out the iPad 3, which I still hadn’t seen), and Nordstrum. Then we went to see the 1:30 showing of the movie “Salmon Fishing in Yemen”. Enjoyed it.

After the movie we decided we would leave a visit to Walmart for later in the week. It was 37 degrees, stinking hot, but we decided to hurry home, change, and go golfing. And that’s what we did. We had a wonderful time on the golf course, and shot better than I had for quite a while (49, 50 for Sue).

Home for gin and tonics and imitation crab appetizers. Then Sue made spaghetti and meat sauce for supper while I fiddled with the new cable modem. I finally got it working just before supper.

After supper I called my mom — last time our internet hiccups cut her off and I hadn’t finished the call. No word from either mom or dad about the news of their impending first great-grandchild. Better not to talk about things like that — makes them nervous. But they seemed happy and doing fine — once again, their weather is far superior to ours.

We spent the rest of the evening surfing the web and watching a bit of TV. And trying to cool off.

Sunday: Woke up at around 6. It’s supposed to be a scorcher today. I wrote my blog entry for yesterday. And I watched my morning news shows. Sue got up and made coffee — and then she made the most delicious blackberry pancakes for breakfast! We watched a story about the Masters 25 years ago. Then we watched the final day of this year’s Masters. Sat in my big black leather lazy-boy all day. The golf was fantastic. Lead changing all afternoon. Oosterhuis leading by a couple, Phil making a valiant effort, Bubba Watson getting some key back nine birdies to force a playoff. And then Watson wins the thing on the second playoff hole. Fantastic.

Cheese- and bacon-burgers on the barbecue for supper. Then 60 Minutes — the news: Mike Wallace has died today at age 93. Then I watched a couple of episodes of Holmes on Homes — the Canadian carpenter repairing faulty foundations, etc. We watched my last downloaded movie, Red Road, a weird movie about a girl who is a CCTV security operator who watches a man from her past on her monitors and chases after him into dangerous situations. Very slow, hard to understand the accents, dark. But okay.

Internet was still flaky today — I tried to call my mom but got cut off. We’ll probably go return our modem to MediaCom first thing in the morning. Watched a bit more TV and went to bed.

Saturday: A lazy Saturday. I woke up at 4 in the morning and couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up. Sat at my computer for a couple of hours and waited for a respectable time to have my first coffee. Sue got up at around 7. We had bacon and eggs. With our windows open the birds begin singing just before sunrise and make a lot of noise for much of the morning. The dove outside my window is now sitting on her nest pretty much full-time.

It didn’t feel very hot outside today — just the right temperature for a run around the block. Sue did that yesterday; today I joined her. It’s about a mile. I had to stop running and walk a bit it catch my breath. We had leftover pizza for lunch. It was better than it was last night for supper — but not much. Then we watched Day 3 of the Masters Golf Championship on TV. Good television! Tiger stumbled. Phil Mickelson made an enthusiastic charge. By the end of the day Phil was 1 back of Peter Hanson of Sweden at -8. It will be a great final day tomorrow.

As soon as golf on TV was over we hopped into the van and headed to Mountain Brook. A slow foursome ahead of us let us play through on hole number 7. Although I had a few bogies, I was discouraged by some terrible tee shots on the short holes. But as usual, in spite of the scores, we had fun.

Sue made some delicious curried shrimp with pasta and a salad for supper. Yummy! No Redbox movie rental tonight; we watched Bat*21, the Gene Hackman movie I downloaded. It’s about a Vietnam pilot who gets shot down behind enemy lines and gets rescued. His love of golf plays a role in helping him find his way out. After the movie and our usual ice cream and chocolate sauce night snack, we went to bed.

Friday: Still had internet problems — on and off all day. Irmy called Sue and had to redial many times because our connection kept cutting out. Sue went for a run around the block. She finished reading her two books, “The Hunger Games” and I don’t know what the other book was. After lunch we watched the Masters Golf on TV. Sue called Val and told her the news about Alex. Then at around 4pm we went golfing. Had to wait for a couple of carts to go by and finish their tournament and then we had the course to ourselves. For a while we were shooting two balls each. A highlight was when we both reached the green with our tee shots on Hole 7 — and came away with a birdie for me and a par for Sue. Really, other than that, the scoring wasn’t very good for me. We each lost a ball. But we had fun. We returned our movie rental and then went to Bashas to pick up a pizza for supper. Added extra toppings. Watched the end of the Masters on TV while we ate less than half of the pizza. The pizza was bit of a disappointment, but we’ll probably finish tomorrow and then be on to better things for Sunday. Watched some ‘news’ shows on TV and went to bed early. Tired. It felt like Saturday all day today, but it was actually Good Friday. Yippie! that means there’s still 2 more days of weekend to come!

Thursday: I guess the title of this post says it all. Read a bit in the morning. Had internet “issues” all day — it was cutting out for extended periods of time. Hope it will be fixed tomorrow or we’ll have to go to the MediaCom office. I filled up the tires on Robert’s nice road bike, raised the seat, and Sue and I went for a quick ride to Walgreen’s before lunch. The first day of the Master’s in Augusta was already on the Golf Channel when we left.

After lunch we watched golf on TV all afternoon. Well, actually I apparently snored through and hour and a half of it. Sue only napped ‘gracefully’ and quietly. At 4:00 we were once again at Mountain Brook for another spectacular late afternoon of whacking the ball around. Some bogies. A par. Some wild drives. A few sand traps. But everything is blooming now and looking great.

Got home and had leftover tortilla torte with our gin & tonics. Then, after Daily Show reruns we watched our Redbox DVD rental, “A Dangerous Method”. It was a story about Freud and Carl Jung. So-so. Actually, not very good. Followed it up with a couple of “20/20” reruns that were more interesting. I tried to stay awake long enough to watch Anthony Bourdain guest on The Daily Show at 11:00, but I’m afraid I missed that. Finally headed to bed ‘for real’ at midnight.

Wednesday: Didn’t do much in the morning. I read my book (“Blink”) and although the Kindle said I was only about 65% finished, it turned out that the last 35% was endnotes. So I finished that book. Sue was busy cooking a Mexican tortilla torte for our lunch. She went to Basha’s for one last week’s worth of groceries (seniors’ discount day today) and came home and continued cooking. Robert and Arlene arrived at 12:30. We had lunch together. All the windows were open in the house — it was warm today. We unloaded Robert’s road bike from their rental car and put it in the garage. We are taking it home for them. Then we loaded their clubs into our van and headed to Mountain Brook for our 2:00 tee time. I guess I thought that we were going for our usual 9-holes walking game, but Arlene paid for the four of us — 18 holes with cart at $46 per person!

Started off the round with a par on hole number 1. And then a decent tee shot on 2 (with too many putts after that). Followed that up with a few bogies and even a birdie on hole 7! I think that’s my first! I shot 51 on the front nine. We stopped to pick up a couple of beers and headed to the 10th tee.

The back nine were not as good for me as the front. But Robert played really well, and I think the girls did too. There was no one ahead of us, and no one behind us. A bit of hazy cloud cover gave us some relief from the heat and it turned out to be a perfect day weather-wise. The one disappointment was the old guy on the course who was rushing us and picking up the pins behind us — letting us know that we were the only ones with carts out on the course and that as soon as we finished he would be able to go home!

After golf we went home and had some drinks and snacks. Sue thawed the salmon she bought in the morning and made rice and a salad. We had a late supper. Visited. Had a very nice day with the Dycks. They left at around 9:30. They are closing up their house and flying home for the season tomorrow. We have another 10 days.