Day 108 – Tuesday – Free Christmas Lunch

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Yesterday we joined a large contingent of Bone Yard dwellers for a very nice lunch at the base community center. It was a full-blown Thanksgiving Dinner all over and it was wonderful.

Someone told me a few weeks ago they had planned to have Thanksgiving Dinner at the community center, but it was changed for some reason, so they just stuffed it in the refrigerator and saved it for another date. I suspect today was the chosen date. Voila! Thanksgiving Dinner became Christmas Dinner. We’re happy that happened. As we were leaving, Diane was given two full take away containers for later. It was perfect because our neighbors didn’t attend the meal, so we took it to them.

Then we went to the humane society thrift store and shopped for a while. Max and I were asked to calm down or leave because he was having words with a noisy chihuahua. They didn’t have to leave. It was plainly a case of sexual bias. We walked around in the parking lot for a while then sat in the car till Diane was finished. It was OK.

From there we returned to the base and stopped by the visitors center to find out what someone with a VA card had to do to get on base. Now I must tell Gene and Patty.

The Christmas tree has been erected.

The mornings here are 38-ish and it warms up to the 70’s. It’s interesting weather. When we3 first got here, a 100 degree was common. When in the sun it was very hot, but in the shade it cooled right off. Nothing like home. With the temps cold like now, it’s really chilly until the sun gets high enough to hit you in the eye. Then it gets warm. The temp shift is drastic.

Diane got me a giant Snickers Bar the other day. I’ve been gnawing on it once in a while, one slice at a time. It’s really good and should last me well into next year if I’m careful. I’ll let you know how that goes.


She also got me new socks. They are very festive, and I appreciate them very much. I wish I could reciprocate in kind, but I’m not creative like she is. One of these days I might figure out.

I actually got her a couple dozen pairs of socks one Christmas and creatively wrapped them after mismatching the pairs and making it necessary to unwrap each pair individually. I guess that was pretty creative. But I think the fun wore off about halfway through the unwrapping process. Still, it was pretty cool. Maybe I should buy her more socks.

Maybe I can paint her a picture. That would be nice. I actually have all the tools to do it, but getting started is difficult. It’s like writer’s block, something I’ve never had because I just start writing gibberish until something coherent rises to the top. Sometimes that never happens, but at least I got the gibberish. Transferring that to painting, I suspect I need to just start painting something with no clear notion about what it might be. That sounds interesting.

By golly, I think I have a plan. Maybe I’ll even take a picture of it.

Peace to you all.

Day 107 – Monday – Stuff

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I don’t work on Mondays. I used to but really didn’t like getting back in work mode after the weekend. So, now I don’t work on Mondays because I don’t have to. I don’t work on Tuesday, either. Actually, I don’t work any day. I just “do stuff” that may appear to be work but, since I don’t get paid, it’s not work. Since I don’t get paid, I can just stop doing stuff any time I want but, oddly, that never seems to happen. Doing stuff is satisfying. Doing stuff right, is exhilarating. Doing stuff on a regular basis keeps me out of trouble with my first wife.

Doing stuff on my days off only works if Diane doesn’t have something planned, like me doing stuff for her. That happens a lot and that’s OK. I love doing stuff for her. Sometimes she gives me stuff to do when she’s gone doing stuff outside the house, leaving me alone, unsupervised. She’s learned to only give me stuff to do that only involves one thing because having multiple kinds of stuff to do usually ends up with some of the stuff not getting done. I used to get in trouble for that a lot in the past and it created a situation where supervision was necessary to ensure all the stuff got done. Trust me, it’s not a good thing when it takes two people to get stuff done when only one of them is doing stuff. I guess that the supervisor is also doing stuff in her efforts to keep me on track for doing stuff for her.

Having a routine of doing the same stuff at the same time on every one of my days off has resulted in far fewer scoldings for not getting stuff done and that makes my life much nicer. It’s better for Diane, too, because she’s concerned that not getting all my stuff done is a sign that dementia is lurking somewhere in my little brain. I can’t deny that I forget stuff but my excuse for that is I only remember important stuff. As for stuff being important, or not, it’s subjective because the stuff that’s important to me is probably not important to someone else. To complicate that, importance of some stuff changes in the blink of an eye and can cause a great deal of chaos.

For instance, I find it important to know where the closest bathroom is at all times but that’s not important to many others who are younger and have a more accommodating bladder than I do. That’s only one example, but I suspect you understand what I mean. As we get older stuff changes, and the important stuff evolves and moves up on the priority scale causing less important stuff to move down. Sadly, some of the stuff that moves down is probably still important to others so there’s a risk of offending them by focusing on your new important stuff. An example might be that you have an emergent need to visit a toilet, and speed is the critical element for success. If there are lots of people around, you may find it necessary to plow you way through them to reach your destination. In this instance, you might forget that it’s polite to excuse yourself each time you run into someone, but politeness has taken a back seat to the need for speed. This generally leaves many people in their wake shouting vulgar epithets at them as they race to their goal. It’s times like this that makes me wish that I could encounter some of those offended people when their older and in a similar predicament. I think I would help clear a path for them, if I’m able, because I’m totally immune to epithets of any kind. I just do stuff that needs to be done. You know?

I think that’s enough of that stuff and should move on. If you actually read to this point, I applaud you. I started reading it myself and only made it halfway through before deciding it was a waste of time.

I hope all is well with you and that you have only simple stuff ruling your lives.

Peace.

Day 106 – Sunday – SaddleBrooke

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The trip to SaddleBrooke was about the same as us driving from St. Helens to Portland. About an hour long. But getting to the destination involved having a minor altercation with either a sheriff, or state trooper. Here’s what happened.

SaddleBrooke has about 3-4 exits off Oracle Rd. That’s a long road. According to Wikipedia, it’s over 293 miles long. Today it was used for an Arizona version of Oregon’s Hood to Coast. They used the northbound side of the road (our side) to accommodate hundreds of runners of all shapes and sizes that just happened to be the most dense in front of all the exits we needed to use. We only needed one, but they covered all of them. I tried to find out what the race was about but the internet was not forthcoming with info, so I have no idea. I do know that by running on our side of the road made it difficult to make a right turn which was necessary to get to SaddleBrooke. Two cars ahead of us were allowed to make a right turn but when we tried, the policeman made a scene by yelling into my ear, so we drove ahead. I’m pretty sure he saw our Oregon plates and didn’t deem us worthy of a right turn.

A little further up the road, away from the major intersections, we turned right, driving willy nilly through the cones (didn’t hit even one of them), and we found our way to the church almost on time. I think we were about 2 minutes late.

The church is non-denominational, but it was amazingly like all the Lutheran services I attended over the years. Very familiar. It was very interesting and there must have been a couple hundred people there. Impressive.

After the service, we rode with Patty and Gene to one of the eating establishments for breakfast. The food was awesome, and we had a great time visiting. Before going to their home for more visiting, Gene drove us all over SaddleBrooke and The Reserve to see incredible views of the Catalina Mountains. It’s my understanding that there is a SaddleBrooke one, two and three and each of them have resort quality facilities for entertainment and eating. Very magnificent.

Then we went to their home where we sat and visited for a long time. It was a lot of fun. Eventually we had to leave and go rescue Max from his isolation in the RV. He wasn’t alone the whole time because our neighbors planned to take him for a walk while we were out. He was ready to get out of the bus when we got there, though, because neither Diane nor I turned the heater off. Thankfully, it wasn’t a particularly hot day, but the heater kept it toasty for Max. I immediately took him for a walk around the park which pleased him.

Now we’re all relaxed and ready to call it a day, but it’s only 1830 so I’ve got to mess around for another couple of hours. Guess I’ll watch the Seahawks/Packers game for a while.

Here are some more photos from today that might please you.

Dr. Patty and Diane, two former Warren Girls.

Gene stopped so I could get a shot of the two large Cacti that are actually Verizon antennas.

This is part of the Catalina Mountain range that resembles Abe Lincoln. He’s lying on his back, head to the left and it looks like he’s got a huge growth on his chest.

Gene didn’t comment on the growth part, and I didn’t notice it when I took the photo. Looking at it now, though, it’s pretty evident, don’t you think?

Here’s a view of a street in SaddleBrooke.

Gene’s and Patty’s license plate.

Very patriotic.

It was a good day.

Day 105 -Saturday – Football, Maybe

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Saturdays are usually my day to watch NCAA football, but Oregon had time off after winning the Big 10 conference championship game. We won’t see them again until the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. Until then I just kinda watch whoever shows up on the TV.

I actually started watching the Army vs. Navy game and saw Navy score first, but let it go when a movie came on that Diane had set to record. Since our Dish receiver only has one tuner we can’t record a show and watch a different channel. Diane was out at the time, replenishing our food and I know she would not have minded if I have cancelled the recording. It didn’t seem right, though, so I just let the system change channels. I heard later that Navy went on to win that game 31-13. How about that? The only other scores that sometimes interest me is when Notre Dame gets beat.

After Diane returned, we went off base and got the car washed because we’re going to church tomorrow in Saddle Brooke. This trip is so we can visit with pattyaz and her husband geneaz. With the use of very few brain cells I think most of you can interpret those names to be Patty and Gene. Patty is Diane’s legitimate cousin and, therefore, my cousin by marriage. Patty and I were also classmates all through high school in Scappoose. Unlike me, Patty paid attention in all her classes.

Because of our lack of activity this day, I don’t have any new photos, except for this stellar sunset. I’ll leave you with that.

Kinda nice, huh?

Day 104 – Friday – PIMA Air and Space Museum

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This morning when I got up the first time it was about 3 degrees outside. I’m guessing, of course, but judging by the way parts of my body shriveled up when I put my foot on the tile floor, I think I’m pretty accurate. My shrivel-sensor works pretty good. Even Max told me it’s too cold to do much by the way he refused to participate in the process of putting his harness on.

On his good days, when I pick up his harness, he’s front and center for a walk. On cold days, he remains laying down while I dress him and won’t get up until I put on my hat, or my fuzzy shirt, for the trip outside. He’s really funny that way.

We managed to make it around the park without falling prey to the cold as long as we kept moving. Moving is critical to keep your joints from freezing up. Once that happens, you’re a goner. That’s true. I Googled it.

We made it back to the bus and it didn’t take long for us to thaw out. Then, after Diane got up, around 1030, we gathered ourselves and headed over to the PIMA Air and Space Museum. We’ve already been there as you may know, if you’ve been reading all this stuff, but the entrance fee allows 2 visits because there’s way more to see than a normal person can do in one day. This is true.

We walked to the different buildings and think we actually saw the majority of displays and aircraft. There must be at least 7-800 airplanes surrounding the buildings, and probably that many on display inside the buildings. They are scattered around on the floor and hung from the ceiling all over the place. It’s an amazing place.

Now I will add some photos I took.

This is us on the way.

Here we are at the entrance.

Here’s one to make you wonder about Santa’s sleigh …

This is what a SR-71 looks like flying over you head.

This looks like fun

There’s Diane, waaaaay down there.

On our way to another building, we passed this one. I think Les told me he dismantled this one and put it back together blindfolded.

Then there’s this in a building specifically for the B-29 bombers and their missions. We were told there was soon to be a birthday party for the oldest member of one of the crews. He’s going to be 101 and he’s a local boy from Nogales.

This is one wall of the flight crews with their planes. There are three walls like this.

This is a place to visit if you’re ever in the Tucson area.

Day 103 – Thursday – Laundry Day

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Yup, all the clothes are dirty again. She didn’t know it, but I’ve been running around the Bone Yard for the past 3 days without underwear. I didn’t realize how much denim chaffs.

I don’t normally lie so blatantly, but that’s a big one. Old denim doesn’t chaff at all.

Helping with the laundry is something I always do willingly. That’s a tradeoff because I’m totally not allowed to actually do laundry unsupervised. There once was a sweater Diane really liked …. need I say more?

As directed, I put designated stuff into designated washers and put washed clothes into designated dryers. When clothes are dry, I help fold them.

In the morning, I called brother Jack to wish him a Happy Birthday. I try to do this every year but think I didn’t get it done last year. He’s much older than me so it’s OK. It was good to talk with him. During our talk he mentioned that Roberta lives somewhere down here and said he’d see if he could find her phone number and/or address. Our guess was that she’s in Green Valley. Not long after that visit, he sent me a text with a phone number. When I took Max on his afternoon walk, I called the number and had the pleasure of reuniting with my long-lost cousin. We had a nice long visit, remembering some of the many things we did together as children. It will be great to look her in the eye and say Hi. May be toss in a hug or two.

I’ve kinda kept track of her over the years through contact with other family members but was never in position to make contact until now. Plans are in the works. She’s only 36 miles away.

Our conversation carried on until it got dark, and it ended while Max and I sat next to the laundromat. We’re only 4-5 RV’s away from there but it’s still a little unsettling to be that far away with no flashlight knowing the coyotes are patrolling the area. I know it’s not likely we’ll be attacked, but you just never know. They might be hiding just around the corner. With Max on guard, I doubt if there’s any danger, but I can pretend. It keeps my sphincters in shape.

That’s it!

Just for fun, here are a couple of school photos that do not relate to this post at all except they are related to us in the form of Grandchildren.

First is Siah. He’s 3.

Then there’s Jasper. He’s 4.

Then there’s Mom, our daughter Jennifer:

Day 102 – Wednesday – Biosphere 2

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Today Diane drove me north to visit the University of Arizona Biosphere 2, a giant 3+ acre terrarium. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Eight people entered the facility in 1991 and stayed there 2 years and 20 minutes. during that time, they had no contact with the outside world. They ate what they grew and recycled everything. I’m guessing the food they ate had a head start so they wouldn’t have to wait for something to grow so they could eat.

I thought the additional 20 minutes was a little odd but after careful consideration I figured it had something to do with skepticism about how accurate the clocks were in 1993. Adding 20 minutes might have been a cushion to ensure they had indeed spent 2 years locked up.

Or, it might have been because one of the detainees had to use the facilities one more time before exiting. It could also have been because the second to last person to use the facilities used the last few strips of toilet paper and couldn’t reach the Kleenexes.

With Diane’s blessing I was allowed to take the 90-minute walking tour and learn all about Biosphere 2. By the way, after a little research, I learned that Biosphere 1 is actually planet earth. Biosphere 2 is a miniature earth because is encompasses most of the various environments found on earth.

Max was allowed to accompany me because he’s a good dog. That was true right up until the moment we got through the gate, and he saw the turkeys. Three of them. He did his best to yank my arm off and it took a while to convince him that Thanksgiving is behind us, so he had to leave the turkeys alone. Finally, he saw something else move and we detached from the turkeys to follow the RED arrows.

I took a lot of photos after Max decided we were OK, and he didn’t need to protect me from anything. He was, however, very curious about everything. I mean that literally. He is curious about everything and what he was seeing was totally foreign to him.

The walking tour is accompanied by an app you download to your phone that leads you to 23 locations throughout the complex. At each stop you can watch a video on your phone of someone explaining what you’re looking at. Pretty cool. It worked just fine until I missed a turn somewhere and missed #7 so had to go back and find it. That involved going down 3 levels of stairs then finally asking a handy docent where #7 was. He looked at me, leaned to his left a little and point over my shoulder at the #7 hanging in the window behind me.

Apparently I missed #1, too.

Max paused here and I’m sure he was thinking, “that’s a lot of stairs.” But, he skipped the ramp and dragged me to the bottom.

Proof of life. Made it in one piece.

That tall portion of the structure is the library that was reportedly not used a lot because getting to it involved lots of stairs like those below.

The skylight in the center is the top of the library from the inside. I think I would not have gone up there very often, either.

Next is one of the three sections where the atmosphere is controlled so they can study how water flows through soil – like how much water hits the ground and how much of it makes it to the bottom of the hill.

This tree apparently fell down, broke it’s hip and was doomed to use crutches for the rest of its life.

Finally got back outside.

This dome structure is called the “Lung” of the facility. I’s purpose is to ensure the air pressure of the enclosed buildings is maintained as the air heats and cools. Had the lung not been included, the hot air inside would have caused the big buildings to explode. That’s a lot of glass that would have littered the dessert. There’re roughly a bazillion glass panels in this place. It’s true. I’m sure I heard that on one of the videos I watched. Amazing.

Inside the next structure are a stunning variety of trees and plants.

There’s even an ocean with a coral reef. Sadly, we learned, the reef did not survive but it served it’s purpose to allow people to study the effects of various temps of ocean water.

Some of the trees in the rain forest section are 90 feet tall. This is a big terrarium.

Heading for the exit.

Back up the stairs makes a full circle.

Another aspect of the facility is the many casitas they built to accommodate scientists who come to study. I believe I heard that the casitas had 3 to 5 bedrooms for a total of 200. They are very nice, too. They won’t let riffraff wander through them. Seems like they could probably make a few bucks on the side if they rented them out to common folks.

Somewhere not far down the road to home we stopped for lunch. When I did a search for a likely location, Max spied the Grain River Asian Bistro so that’s where we went. I think it was a lucky call on his part because it just happened to be the first one on the map and we were hungry. How handy.

While waiting he thought maybe he could sit at the table with Mom.

I convinced him that dogs eat while standing on the floor. When I told him I’d order some chicken for him, he readily agreed.

Thanks, Dad

Day 101 – Tuesday – Tacos and Nachos

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Today we visited a museum where all the displays are all miniatures. Very stunning stuff. I took at least 125 pictures and videos of the displays. I know, it doesn’t take me long to use up that much film and there’s no way I’ll be able to share all of them with you. I was fascinated looking at the incredible work the artists created. The houses and everything that fills it were awesome, but what got me the most was the art created at the end of a #2 graphite pencil. Simply amazing.

Max enjoyed it, too, and we didn’t even have to pay his way in.

The miniatures start before entering the museum. The door is beautiful.

Next to it is it’s miniature.

The pencil art is amazing.

This is the couch from Beetlejuice. It’s not a miniature, but it’s pretty cool.

I took a lot of photos but I didn’t do justice to the displays so please visit the Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures website and see for yourselves.

Day 100 – Monday – Taco or Nachos

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Wow! Monday was a blur. That’s true mainly because nothing of significance happened. That’s true, of course, unless you consider turning 2 pounds of hamburger meat into taco meat to be significant. To complicate things further, I used the taco meat to make a nice pile of nachos for supper. Diane didn’t want any and had a bowl of cereal, and two pieces of toast. Perhaps she was also confused about my dinner choice and the misuse of taco meat to make nachos instead of tacos.

I’m so confused right now, but the nachos were pretty good. Tomorrow I’ll eat tacos. I’ll bet they’ll be good, too.

Diane and I have talked a bit about snow birding and how much we aren’t very good at it. We both really like the traveling part, but not the staying in one place for a long-time part. Typically, we’ll go just about anywhere at the drop of a hat, but a long stay is 7 days. Then we move on to the next adventure. It’s been that way for a long time and is apparently difficult to change. We think we tried snow birding too late in life and we’re looking forward to moving on down the road. What that means is we’re looking forward to the trip home. We miss our family and friends.

Max agrees.

He misses the creek.

And he’ll miss his new friends, as will we.

Laurie

Day 99 – Sunday – Tumacácori National Park

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We left the bus not long before noon, and we only made it about 10 feet before Diane stopped and told me to get my keys.

I’ve done this before. So far, no harm has befallen us because of my mismanagement of the keys.

The park is about 55 miles away, a bit south of Green Valley, so we had to traverse familiar territory to get there. That was OK, because it’s actually a nice drive. It’s even better because I don’t have to drive. More accurately, I’m not allowed to drive. Max and I just sat there enjoying the ride.

Getting there was simple but when we approached the park there were cars parked all along both sides of the road. At first glance it was apparent that getting to the park itself could involve a long walk. Not knowing exactly where the entrance was, Diane kept driving until she spied a handicap spot and took it. As it turned out, that spot was directly in front of the entrance door into the park. Amazing, right? It gets better.

The entrance sign was very specific that no pets were allowed so I went inside to see if Max would be allowed to enter as a Support Animal. I made it clear that Max was a work in progress to be a Service Animal. To our benefit, the guy sitting behind the desk was a retired Command Master Chief with over 40 years of service so wearing my navy hat paid off. He only gave me a little grief about only making Senior Chief and for quitting the Navy after only 26.5 years. We chatted a bit and It was a good talk. He handed us off to a fellow ranger gave me the drill for service animals to ensure I understood the importance of not letting him desecrate the buildings or grounds. We understood. That actually isn’t a problem with Max because he’s the best little dog in the world.

There was a fiesta going on, the reason for our trip, and we could hear the music and singing in the distance. It was very pleasant.

We followed the fiesta signs that led deep into the park, behind the old church in the photo. Since it was on the way to the music, we had to stop and to see it before finding the source of the music.

Work on the church began in 1800 and the church was dedicated in 1822.

This is a rendition of what the interior looked like when it was in use.

This is what’s left

This is a rendition of what the altar area looked like

Here’s what’s left.

Now that you’ve seen my photos, you need to check out the park’s web site for better ones. I’m sure you will enjoy it.

The festival was a venue for many church, youth groups, and individual artists who sold items they made to support their groups. Scattered amongst the crafty people were many opportunities to by an incredible array of food. I bought Diane a bottle of water and a small Christmas tree ornament made out of string. Here are a couple of photos of the festivities. It was a busy place.

On the way out of the park we stopped for a while in a shady spot.

Here’s where we parked – the car on the right. That dark spot to the left of the car is the entrance door.

We drove back to Green Valley before hunger struck so we stopped at Arby’s for a fill-up. Max wasn’t offered anything to eat so he was a little bummed.

He stood like that the entire time I was eating my sandwich, so he got his way and wound up with quite a few bits of roast beef. It was only fair.

As soon as we got home, I took Max for a walk. We wound up talking to Chuck Berry, a fellow who drives an older RV with Oregon plates. I’ve been waiting to meet him, but he was never there when we went by, until this time.

I introduced myself and asked him which part of Oregon he had escaped from. He looked me right in the eye and said, “have you ever heard of St. Helens?” That was a true shocker. He and his wife live in St. Helens less than a mile from where we live.

Small world, right?

Needless to say, we had a nice visit and plan to have another before they leave this week.

Imagine that.