Many hands, light work and time to pack!

I normally start the week's post by Tuesday, but not this week. It is Thursday and I'm trying to remember what I did and what happened throughout the week. It's gone by so quickly! 

The weather has stayed hot, but not quite as excessive as it was last week. I stayed in most days, watching curling and enjoying the a/c. In addition, I had to stick around early in the week as the chairs were expected to be delivered on Tuesday. I was able to use the tracker and saw the truck had left Calexico about 9:30 a.m. California time (an hour behind us). The drive is only an hour, but I knew the truck would have other stops.

Since I cannot see the trucks from my end of the park, mid-afternoon I wandered down to S and L's to watch from their unit for a bit. By 4 (and time for the next curling game),  no truck had arrived. Around 6 p.m. I called Dome Hepot and they could only tell me that the delivery would likely be made the following day. Later I got a notification that the truck had returned to Calexico.

The truck did  finally arrive around noon on Wednesday. A huge semi pulled into our small park. L spotted him and ran out to tell that he wouldn't be able to turn around at the end of the park, due to the size of the trailer. As I walked down from my unit, one of the permanent residents G, came to assist. The driver pulled the pallet from the truck and dropped the chairs in front of our clubhouse. With the extra hands, we had the chairs off the pallet and into the clubhouse in short order. From there, L opened the boxes, I pulled out the chairs, removed the coverings and delivered the chairs to the patio where S sprayed them with the fabric protection. As she was finishing, J arrived and helped L break down the boxes and move the cardboard to the recycling bin, while I gathered the garbage. We had the whole process done in less than an hour.

That afternoon, I went to play Canasta, though I had my phone tuned into the curling. I was able to catch the last couple of ends. After that was done, we set up for Thursday's coffee hour. S, L and I were responsible for purchasing the goodies and I figured I'd take care of set-up. But, the rest of the Canasta crew stepped in and helped and again, everything was ready for the next morning in a short period of time. S and L ordered the apple fritters (a must have for this crew) and a dozen donuts that afternoon and picked them up early the next morning.

We had a good turn-out at coffee hour, with about 20 people in attendance. I had announced earlier that the old chairs were up for sale, and managed to get rid of fourteen of them, for a $1 a piece. There is still a good number of chairs available, some of which are in bad shape and will be trashed, while the rest will be donated to a local charity thrift store. 

After coffee, H and I started cleaning  the remaining cabinets. At 83, this woman is an Energizer bunny! While I sorted through items she had passed me from the cabinets, she scrubbed down the interiors and laid down leftover magazines. There were empty jugs that went to the recycling bin, while broken items were tossed. Other items went into a box for next year's garage sale, and still others were put in the proper containers out in the party shed. I left about 11 a.m., tired and ready to relax and watch more curling! H continued until about noon, and cleared and sorted out the drawers. I stopped by later with paper towels I'd picked up, and oh my, everything looks tidy and organized. I just need to borrow the label maker from the office to finish the task.

Friday, I was at the clubhouse just before 9:30 and folded up the chairs. I knew there was a group at exercise class from 9-9:30, so when they had finished we moved the chairs inside and hung them on the racks. Finally, I can say the sage of the chairs is over! Though I do need to get to Dome Hepot one more time to discuss an appropriate something something for the trouble in ordering and receiving the items. I'm hoping for a gift card of some amount that we can use next year for the flowers we plant in front of the clubhouse each year. 

At 11:30, H, S, D, and I met with many of the other women in the park for a lunch at the River City Grill. It doesn't look like much on the outside, slightly better on the inside, but the food was fantastic. I ordered an appetizer for my main, crab and salmon cakes, along with a side spinach salad. The salad had gorgonzola cheese, craisens, and walnuts, along with the spinach in a raspberry vinaigrette. The salmon/crab cakes were primarily salmon, but had some kick to them. The meal was a bit pricey, but very, very delicious. I don't eat out a lot and it was a treat.

My packing begins in earnest as I'm now just a week away from leaving. I'm sorting things out - items that were in the unit when I arrived in October, that I haven't used were boxed up and dropped off at a thrift store. Items I purchased for my family, t-shirts and shorts for Eli and craft items for my daughter are packed in a clear container. There are other items I purchased at thrift stores for use at home that will make their way into a tote as well. Something I wouldn't have thought about is clothing items that have elastic (mostly undies) which cannot be left behind as the elastic will be ruined by the high temperatures. I won't be taking a lot of the clothing home, but there are certain pieces I will want to take with me. My current knitting projects will be going with me too, though I'll leave the yarn I found here will stay behind. 

Another tote will carry my bedding - so I'll have clean bedding when I return next November. I'm told that most people cover their bed and bedding with an extra sheet. By fall everything will be covered in a layer of dust that blows in through any possible opening. I have an extra sheet to through over the bed, pads to place in the ceiling vents, and duct tape to close off the stove hood vent. Windows are covered in reflective insulation, bags of water are tucked into the drains, and the toilet, and lastly I'll put out several glass jugs of water throughout the unit. Last year, even with this last trick, the molding on the upper cabinets above the sink partially melted in the heat! 

So, I forsee a busy week ahead as I prepare to head north. There will be curling to watch as well, the playoffs of the Brier are in full swing, which along with my knitting will ensure it's not all work. 

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Friday Funny

 

Hot, hot, hotter

Someone turned up the thermostat outside this week. This photo is from Wednesday when I returned to the unit after playing Canasta. I should note, I can't leave the a/c on as it is not connected to the thermostat so will run continually. After running for almost an hour it was done to 82F(28C) and I shut it off to go to Happy Hour. On my return it was back up to 92F(33C). I left it running until the sun started to go down, and then opened the front door. By bedtime, the unit had cooled down to 78F(25C). It still felt quite warm when I went to bed!

By noon on Thursday, it was 94F(34C). I was out running errands for the social committee. We'd had our coffee hour that morning, then H and I spent 90 minutes clearing out the cabinets, cleaning them (H), and sorting what would go back in. We had a swack load* of plastic utensils, knifes, forks, and spoons. With the exception of the spoons that we use for coffee hour, we don't use these utensils as we have a drawer full of regular utensils. Since most of the packages were open, and we have soooo much dust, they went in the bin.

The sorting showed that we were short on small plates. I started a list, and added cinnamon raisin bread that seems to be a real favorite with the group. We continued our clear out, moving many items to a separate table to be moved out to the "party shed", items that won't be used except once a season. 

In back of one of the cabinets we found a dozen or so games. I don't think anyone really knew they were there. So I moved them out to the extra bookcase (if you recall we had cleared out the excess books a few weeks ago.) Now they are readily accessible. I'm going to suggest that new season we have a game night every Friday evening. People can play UNO or Yahtzee or one of the many other games. Anything that isn't of interest, we'll put in the garage sale.

Back at my unit, I ran the a/c again for a half hour or so before heading out to run my errands. Dome Hepot had sent out an e-mail saying part of my order was available for pick-up. I assumed, correctly, that this was the re-order they set up when the original order was only partially completed. I tried to convince the clerk to give me the chair for free, due to the original mix-up but she declined, so I just returned it. The order for the additional chairs will suffice. Those were supposed to arrive on Thursday or Friday but the tracking site shows they are sitting somewhere in Arkansas. I'm thinking simeone mixed up AR for AZ.

Friday morning I walked outside to clean up my airfryer and discovered the biggest, creepiest bug I've ever seen. I was on the phone with my brother so snapped a photo and sent it to him. He informed me it was a cockroach. EWWWW!

I won't share that photo, instead here's a photo my brother sent me:

I thought the damned thing was dead but when I went to sweep it up, it wiggled. I grabbed a can of Raid and gave it a bath! I've never seen a cockroach before and I hope never to see another. I called the pest control company; they'll be out to spray on Tuesday. The fellow said the heat is bringing them out early.

H and I did a bit more cleaning at the clubhouse sorting out games and discovering 200 or more food containers with lids. It was frustrating as I'd had to buy some back in January for our chili sale at the park garage sale. We sold very little as it was a hot day, though not as hot as we are now. (Next year, I'll suggest we sell ice cream bars.) In any event we now have enough food containers to last four or five years.

Several of us met in the afternoon for another round of Canasta. One of the couples is staying in a place without any a/c, so hanging out in the clubhouse with its swamp  cooler is a good break. 

For Happy Hour I headed over to L and S's to watch the first draw of the Brier (Canadian men's curling).They invited me to stay for dinner too. It was a great meal, good company, and the curling wasn't bad though the scores of all four games on the ice were lopsided. 

Today there are two curling draws to watch, more Canasta, and an even hotter forecast. We're expecting 97F (36C). There is a cool down to more normal temperatures expected by Tuesday. 

Finally, I'll leave you with this photo. The mourning dove is sitting on her nest in the neighbour's cactus just across the way. I'm hoping I'll get to see the wee ones before I leave.

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Friday Funny

 

Saw this and thought of you, Bob!

Wordless Wednesday

 

Running around, time is running short

Another week in the books, and it's just about a month before I start my journey north to home. Or maybe not home. I'm toying with the idea of visiting cousins just across the border in British Columbia before I head back to Saskatchewan. I haven't seen them since 2019, I think. Since our last visit, the last remaining uncle (G), my cousin's father has passed away and they moved from the island to the Okanagan valley. What it will come down to is the weather and road conditions. 

There was another big storm this week at home. It started Tuesday evening and snowed throughout the night and the following day. D said we got about 30 cms (12 inches) of snow in total. She was out snow blowing several times during the day. 

Meanwhile, after our wee bit of rain last week, we had big winds on Monday evening. I had to move things into the gazebo and close it up as stuff was blowing around. About midnight, I got up out of bed and took down a piece of metal art I have hanging on the side of the unit. It was banging so hard, there was no way I could get to sleep. 

This was the week of the chairs. Did I mention this in my last post? I don't think so, but hopefully you'll bear with me if I did. We are looking replacement cushions or chairs for some older folding chairs and attached cushions. One of our residents, A had taken the old cushion to an upholsterer to get a quote on replacing/recovering the cushions. We were quoted $30 a cushion. M did some research and found some chairs, but these were quite costly, $60 plus per chair. Plus they were only available on-line and had no local storefront. She asked me to do some research and order samples if I found anything.  

I did just that, and received an e-mail on Saturday that the chairs were available for pick-up at Dome Hepot (spelling incorrect on purpose). When I arrived at the store, there was only one box, not three as indicated in the e-mail. I won't bore you with all the details but that's 90 minutes I won't get back. I did, however chat with a lovely young woman, named Miriam who asked me to return to the store on Monday afternoon. (She had Sunday off). 

I did, and again there was only one chair there but she had somehow determined the other two were expected to arrive by the Wednesday. Just in time for our coffee hour on Thursday, hooray. However, she called me on Monday evening to say the other two chairs had arrived. An even bigger hooray!

Here's the chairs set up at coffee hour on Thursday. The two fabric in blue and burgundy, and the vinyl are the new chair options. The brown one with a pad are the old chairs, and the white holds the new upholstered pad.   After allowing those who chose to test them out and to vote for their favourite, the burgundy fabric chair won out. I returned the others and ordered replacements for the old brown chairs and the new ones will be here by the end of this month.

After picking up the chairs, I returned to the park, dropped those off at the clubhouse and returned home to do my outdoor chores. The tile patio was filthy, not only from the mixture of the rain and dust. Besides giving it all a good sweep, I used a mop and bucket to wash the tile. It felt good to be out in the fresh air and the patio area looked good when I finished (temporary I know!) I also did my spray painting - the planter and a plastic Adirondack chair that was a dark green. I ran out of spray paint before finishing the chair and had to pick up another can that afternoon. 

The photograph I posted on Wednesday was taken at the Landing, a local restaurant where a group of us had brunch on Saturday after our garage sale forays. These were Tecoma stans (Yellow bells/yellow trumpet flower) and I was impressed with the profusion of blooms on the bushes. So impressed, that I decided that I needed some colour out front of my unit. When I was at Dome Hepot, I wandered through the garden center and found a couple of plants that were marked down - it appeared they hadn't been watered for a bit, and I decided I'd see what I could do with them. Earlier last week, I had found a planter at one of the thrift and with a bit of spray paint, revived it too. The plant stand was a buy at the garage sale ($3). 

The yellow flowering plant is a Ranuculus, which I've learned, has corms. Before I leave, I'll dig up the plant and tuck the corms away to replant in the fall. I don't if they'll survive the heat in the storage area, but I'll try. The white flowering plant is an alyssum. It won't survive but I'm okay with that - it just makes me happy to have some flowering plants in my yard.

Also on Wednesday we had clouds roll in for most of the day, and mid-afternoon heavy winds again. While the clouds look threatening we didn't see a drop of rain.

Thursday, our Canadian women's hockey team were in the gold medal game against the USA on Thursday mid-day. I watched at home the first two periods, and then wandered down to another unit to watch the end of the game. Canada led for most of the game, just 1-0 before the USA tied up the game with only a little over two minutes in regulation time. Off to overtime we went and four minutes in the USA were able to score and win gold. It was a sad moment, but when one considers the USA beat Canada 5-0 in their first game of the tournament, our women put on a heroic effort.

Men's hockey grabbed my attention on Friday. Our Canadian men played Finland in the semi-final, while the USA played Slovakia. Finland led 2-0 at the end of the first period, but Canada came back and tied up the game. It looked like we would be going into overtime when Canada scored with just 35 seconds left in regulation time! Off to the gold medal game, which I believe is being played on Sunday morning. I watched a bit of the USA-Slovakia game and called it after the first when the USA was leading 5-0. Slovakia did come back with a couple of goals, but the USA was the winner with a score of 6-2. 

That finally brings me to the update on my knee. As I tell everyone, it is still there. Progress is continuing gradually and some days, I feel a bit defeated. I have to remind myself that when this first happened I couldn't even bear weight on that leg/foot. Also, I haven't been taking pain killers at all, and while there are times the leg and knee ache like the dickens, I can tolerate it...or more correctly, I choose to tolerate it. The good news is: I was able to walk short distances late in the week without the brace. 

Today, we're having our Heritage dinner this evening. This morning, I'll be putting together my homemade mac and cheese. We decided rather than having everyone bring something from the country/countries of our origins, we would bring food that our families enjoyed through the years. It was one of my favourites as a child, and my children's faves as well. I know there will perogies, Caesar salad, chicken biryani, and a number of surprises. We always put out a sign up sheet and question marks often end up on the sheet. One bachelor wrote, "whatever H tells me to". Actually, I think she makes it and gives it to him to bring. :)

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Friday Funny