Author: Rudy

Tuesday: After yesterday’s busy day, today was the opposite. Sue did some more laundry. She had a long phone call with Garth. I did a bit of logo work for Tim. Then at around 11 we went for a bike ride (my first since before Tim and Alex were here). Lunch. A bit of reading. Finally, after fighting it for a little too long, I gave in and went for a nap. Probably 2 hours. Great. Woke up in time for happy hour. Watched the Daily Show rerun. Then we had a skype call from Alex. The news is out. She’s told her in-laws, her boss, and Irmy. She seems happy. So are we. Then I cooked the crap out of a couple of chicken breasts while Sue prepared mac and cheese leftovers. We had supper. We watched 60 Minute reruns. Then some PBS docs on the Panama Canal. Then news. Night snacks: ice cream with chocolate sauce, pistachios, a Coke. Late night TV. To bed. Tomorrow Robert and Arlene are coming over for lunch and some golf. Should be fun.

Monday: Woke up just after 6. A quick breakfast and shower and then we were on our way to Goodyear. We were a bit worried about making it there on time for our 10:00 tee time, but we managed to stay in the HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane most of the way and even had time to fill up gas before joining our friends at the Estrella Golf Club. I rode the cart with Reg, while Robert and Henry rode in the second cart. The girls were right behind us, Sue and Ingrid, Arlene and Penny. It was windy but otherwise very comfortable.

My game was up and down — started off with a par, but blew it on every second hole. Sue golfed well all day, but was less than pleased with her putting. We had a great day.

We headed to the Goodyear house at around 2:30. I visited quite a bit with Henry, learning a bit about what he does (trade commodities). We watched the sunset and had a very fine steak barbecue — for my birthday! Sat around the table for a couple of hours and told stories.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the table and said our goodbyes. Reg and Ingrid are heading home tomorrow. The other four are leaving on Thursday. Robert may come by here on Wednesday to drop off his road bike for us to take home for him.

At home we checked our respective computers for new emails (a few) and watched a bit of TV before calling it a day.

Sunday: Had an early breakfast. The day wasn’t supposed to be quite so hot, an expected high of 70. Alex, Sue, and I left before 9am for the parking lot at the hieroglyphic walk. We had an interesting walk up to the petroglyphs! About halfway up another hiker warned us that there was a rattlesnake ahead. He had put a few rocks in the path so we would know where it was. Alex wanted to turn right around and head back to the house. We insisted on continuing. When we got to the snake, another couple with a camera were already photographing it. The snake was right next to the path. It was at least 4 feet long, and quite a bit thicker than what I expected.


           


When we got back to the house it was time for the kids to pack their bags. We had lunch at 12 and then headed for the airport. Said goodbye. Their flight left at around 2:30. We went home and Sue started doing laundry. We watched golf on TV. I booked the final tee time for the day at Mountain Brook for 4:20. Sue and I were back to our routine. We walked nine holes. And our games were pretty good! I started off with a par on hole one. My tee shot on hole 2 made it almost to the green. Of course there were a couple of holes where I doubled par. But in the end, both Sue and I shot a 50. Not bad.
We went home and Sue started making supper. We skyped with Walter and Angie and sort of arranged a summer cycling trip to the east coast. After supper we watched a bit of news — I had some podcasts of Fareed and the CBC panel — and then some TV. I was once again falling asleep in my chair when we got a call from Alex. They were home, safe and sound, no hitches, no problems, no delays. All good. It was just after 9:00 our time. Went to bed not long after that!

It’s the beginning of April. Spring is here. The desert is blooming. The weather is hot. The golf courses are getting emptier. Snowbirds are heading home. Our kids are heading home. But we are NOT heading home. We will enjoy another two weeks here in Gold Canyon, Arizona. Good times here.

Saturday: No bacon and eggs today. Irmy phoned to wish me a happy birthday. I tried my best to finish book 3 of the “Hunger Games” trilogy — only got to 90% complete on my Kindle.

Alex sat outside in the morning. Sue went for a haircut. Tim and I sat inside and waited for the golf on TV to begin (at noon). Tim and Alex made whistle dogs for lunch. We ate out on the patio.

Tim and I went to the golf course for our 18 hole game at 1:37. The girls dropped us off and then went to the fruit market to buy a bit more fruit. Then they went home and did some prep for the supper today. At 3:30 they joined us at the golf course for the second nine.


   


I had 3 pars and at least one bogey on the front nine for a 51. Not quite as good on the back nine. But the hot sun was made bearable by a slight breeze. No golfers putting pressure on us. We had a very good last day of golfing with our kids. Good times. Tim shot a 91 on 18. I ended up with 51 and 58 for a 109. Okay.

Sat out on the patio for snacks and G&T’s and beers after the game. Then everyone (except Rudy) worked on preparing supper: ribs and macaroni and cheese a salad and stir-fried vegetables. Yummy.

We ended our last evening (of March, of our holiday with Tim and Alex) by sitting in front of the TV. Another perfect day in paradise!

Friday: Six o’clock. Phone rings. Helga on the line. Did I wake you up? Good, because 56 years ago Rudy woke me up too. Happy Birthday to you. Dad on the line. Happy Birthday! Come home soon. Goodbye. Back to sleep.

Woke up for the second time at around 8. Happy Birthday all over again. French toast and bacon for breakfast. Sue gives me a card that says she likes to be alone together with me. Tim and Alex give me a nice card that shows me sleeping in front of the TV. Just like I do every night! And some peanut butter cups. And Oakleaf pens. And movies and supper tonight. Sue and Alex went for a bike ride and returned movies to Walgreen’s before lunch.

Open-faced sandwiches for lunch. Yummy. Got in the car to look for a Weber barbecue for the kids. Didn’t find a 4-burner model. Decided to go to the 2:30 showing of the hit movie “The Hunter Games”. Great movie. After the movie we drove down to Santan Village to check out the wine store. Dick’s for a hat for Tim — no luck with that. Then we drove back up into Mesa to “Vito’s Italian Pizzeria” for our 6:45 dinner reservation. We had great pizza, great atmosphere, great service. Drove back via Superstition Springs Mall — checked for cowboy hats at Target — nothing. Went to the Cold Stone Creamery on Signal Butte — and had delicious ice cream outside in the evening. A perfect end to the day.

Back at home we watched a bit of golf on TV until (what else?) I fell asleep. Went to bed early. The end of a perfect day!

Thursday: After Alex asked me about going to the Winnipeg Folk Festival this summer, I checked out the line-up. Sunday night features Eliza Gilkyson and Mary Gauthier. Also on the bill are Iron & Wine, David Bromberg, Jimmy Lefave, Ellis Paul, and Ruthie Foster. I spent most of the morning downloading a bunch of music by those artists.
Alex and Sue went for a walk to Walgreens, where they picked up two movies for tonight.
After lunch we hopped into the van and headed out to Tortilla Flats. We went past the Flats, a couple of miles on the washboardy gravel road, and went for a short walk on a mountain trail. Stopped for ice cream in Tortilla Flats on the way back. The motorcycle accident we saw on the way in was cleaned up by the time we were heading back to Apache Junction.

Tim and I went for a 4:00pm golf game and Alex was going to have a nap. We played nine holes and then decided to go for a few extra holes before it got too dark. We golfed #10, 11, 14, 15, and 18. It was completely dark by the time we got back into our van. We got home at around 7pm. The girls were waiting impatiently, wanting to start watching movies.
We had appetizers and then barbecued pork tenderloin with twice-baked potatoes. Best of all, we had chocolate pudding with whipped-cream for dessert after watching the “Muppet Movie”. I think only Tim managed to stay awake during the second movie, “Tower Heist”. After the movie the girls and Tim headed off to bed. I read news on the computer and then went to bed too. I updated my journal in bed, just before 1:00am.

Wednesday: Today was a ‘reading and relaxing’ morning. We had lunch outside on the patio. Tim had gone to get hotdogs and the fixings, so we had delicious whistle dogs for lunch.


    


Soon after lunch the four of us went to the golf course for our 3:22 tee time. We walked nine holes. All of us had quite a bit of fun. After golf we went to visit Ed and Val, who are leaving Arizona tomorrow. We had nachos and salsa with our drinks and visited on the back patio. Then we went to the Mexican restaurant near our house. Very nice. Weather and food was very good. Back at our house we watched a bunch of cooking shows before going to bed.

Tuesday: Made coffee before 7 in the morning. Alex was up soon after that. It was already getting a bit warm outside. After breakfast the girls went on a bike ride and returned the movies to Walgreens. I worked on a logo for Oakleaf. Tim watched cooking and golf on TV.

After lunch the girls were getting ready for a big shopping trip to Chandler Fashion Mall. Ed Peters came by at 2:30 to pick Tim and me up for golf. Tim and I shared a cart. Great start. First hole Ed got a little upset about missing some putts. After that, we all played pretty good. I had some good hits, and some not so good hits. But no real disasters. By the time we stopped to pick up some beers before the second nine, none of us had scored an 8. So that was good.

              


The second nine were not as kind. First hole, a ‘9’. Next one, a ’10’. But the day was fantastic. And the golf course was eerily quiet. No one ahead of us, no one behind us. Perfect. It was getting to be around 6pm by the time we stopped for photos on hole 16. Then at 17 Val pulled up with her ‘Cyclematic’ electric bike. She took a few more photos, of the group. And okay, after scoring 53 on the front nine, my back nine score of 64 made for a total of 117 for the round. Tim had 105, Ed shot 99.

Back at the clubhouse Tim spotted 6 javelinas running across the driving range to the #1 fairway. Cool! We tried to get closer to get a better look at them in the twilight, but then they jumped over the wall into the neighborhood. Ed drove around a bit to try to get another look, but they were gone.

Ed dropped us off at our place at around 7pm. The girls were still not home from their shopping trip. Tim and I had a beer and we added up our scores. When the girls finally got home we had appetizers. Then we barbecued steak and potatoes. Had a great supper. Sat down in front of the TV to watch Frontline — and I quickly nodded off. So did Alex. After Sue had taken a few photos of sleepers, we all shuffled off to bed. Happy. Tired. All’s well in the world.

Monday: Alex and I went to Basha’s to pick up pastries for breakfast. Then, after a bit of reading outside, Sue, Alex, and I went for a hike up Silly Mountain. Tim stayed back and checked out the golf course layout on the iPad maps app.

     


After lunch we read a bit more and then we went to Walgreens to rent a couple of movies for the kids tonight. Ed Peters called an we arranged a golf date for tomorrow afternoon. At 4pm Sue and I left for Goodyear, to celebrate Robert Dyck’s 60th birthday.

We had a bit of traffic on the way, but got there in time for happy hour. Reg, Bob, and Robert were still enthusiastically discussing their just-completed golf game. We had supper with the Penners, Schinkels, and Dycks. Bob and Dorothy are planning to drive home tomorrow. We’ll probably go back to Goodyear to golf with the Dycks and Penners a week from today.

We got home just after 11pm. The kids were watching their movies. They had barbecued sausages and had pasta for supper, with lots of snacks during the movies. We all went to bed around midnight.