Monday, January 24, 2011

Sharon was off to Curves this morning when she got up at 8.  I was publishing my Journal when she left.

Terry and Jo-Anne Bertamini were back from San Diego and their rally that they attended  there.  We plan on meeting them today at Burgers and Beer and have lunch with them.  Phil and Joyce decided not to go today so we were on our own.

We knew where the restaurant was but still had a hard time finding it.  We drove around the parking lot for at least 5 minutes trying to find the place.  We were early and Terry and Jo-Anne were late cause they were attending a meeting at Outdoor Resorts, so we didn’t have a problem.  They arrived about 12:30 and for the next two hours we sat and caught up on the last couple of weeks.

As we left the restaurant we thought about going back with them to visit for awhile, but a dip in the pool won out over that idea.

We came back home and spent the rest of the afternoon bobbing in the pool.  We stayed late today until about 5 PM.  By the time we got home we still weren’t hungry for supper.

We planted ourselves in front of the tube tonight and watched American Chopper all night.  They had a bunch of new shows on that we hadn’t seen yet.  It’s one of our favorite shows and we even watch the re-runs that are on in the afternoon.  We taped our shows that were on the regular channels and we’ll watch them over the next couple of days.  I think we caught up on all the American Chopper episodes that we missed tonight, and now we’re ready to move on.

Phil called tonight with the final plans for tomorrow’s Breakfast.  We had planned on doing a Breakfast with the Bert’s and Bachs and Phil had called Terry tonight and arranged for the meeting tomorrow.  Phil and Joyce will pick us up for the trip over to Rancho Mirage and Bristol Farms.

We caved at our usual time tonight and never looked back.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

We got a phone call this morning from our daughter Jessica with some devastating news from back home.  News that I prefer not to talk about in this Journal, but it has affected us greatly just the same.

We were on our way out for Breakfast, to a new place,  when we received the call, so naturally Sharon’s eyes were all red when we got into Phil and Joyce’s car.

We were off on our way to Outdoor Resorts in Palm Springs to Terry and Jo-Anne’s RV lot, before we followed them to Bristol Farms.  Bristol Farms is a market that has a small café in it that sells a neat little omelette for a very reasonable price.  Most of us, except Joyce, had the omelette for $4.99 which included potatoes or a fruit cup and toast and coffee.  It was quite good for the price.

After Breakfast we headed over to Terry and Jo-Anne’s just to sit around and relax for awhile before we headed toward home.  We got back to our own hacienda about 1 o’clock and settled in for some American Chopper before hitting the pool for the afternoon.  By the time we got to the pool everybody was floating in the shade for the day.  The water in the pool was quite warm and that may have been the reason people were seeking relief from the warm water in the shade.

By the time we left the pool we had already decided to go to Rocky’s tonight for supper.  Rocky’s has a Calzone that people rave about.  It’s very unusual for us to eat out twice on the same day, but we decided to go anyway.  So Terry, Jo-Anne, Wes, Phil and Joyce and us, met at the restaurant in Desert Hot Springs at 5 PM.  The Calzone was good but not as good as Sharon’s.  She makes a thing called Brizza that’s made with Bread Dough and she adds all the ingredients for pizza and then coats the top with butter and Parmesan Cheese.  She also puts the sauce on the inside instead of as a dipping sauce in a cup.  But all in all we enjoyed ourselves very much and went away sated again.

When we got back it was time to camp out in front of the TV for the night.  The President’s State of the Union show was on tonight but he’s go NOTHING to say that I’m interested in listening to.  He’s got a bunch of spending plans he’s planning on implementing.  What part of No doesn’t he understand?

We stayed up til 10 and then tried to go to bed.  Sleep didn’t come for either of us because of the “back home” problems.  Sharon took a sleeping pill and I got up and watched TV until 2 AM.  Neither was the ideal solution but it was all we had.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I had a few things to do today before we headed off to the VFW for Taco Wednesday.  Sharon had picked up some windshield washer that needed to go into the reservoir in the car, and I had to dump the holding tanks.  I managed to get both jobs done before Phil and Joyce picked us up for tacos.

When we got to the VFW it seemed like the crowd was smaller today than last week.  We also noticed that they had raised their prices on their food since last week.  Sometimes it’s not a good idea to raise prices on senior citizens because they seem to get even by not purchasing your stuff.  I don’t know if that was the reason but we did think that the place cleared out today rather early.  By the time we left at 1:30 (early for us) the place was almost empty.

When we got home I took off for the auto supply in DHS to find a bulb for the car that burnt out.  When you have a couple of beers and drive in California it’s not a good idea to have lights missing on your car.  When I got home I changed the bulb and put the car back together again immediately.

By this time we were almost late to go to the pool.  When we got there Phil was already in the pool which meant that he didn’t have much luck at pool (the shooting kind) today.  I guess his partner took him down today.

The water in the pool seemed a little cooler today which is a good thing since the weather is getting warmer now.  Our days are now staying in the high 70's which is very pleasant.  We were at the pool til about 4 or so when we came home to play our usual game of Jeopardy.

Since we ate out for lunch, neither of us was in the mood to eat supper tonight at the regular time.  We mulled around for a couple of hours before we finally got ourselves something to eat.  I managed to have a couple of Bratwurst that were just laying around the fridge waiting for me.

We settled in front of the TV for the night.  There were a couple of original episodes on tonight that we caught and then played a couple of things that were on tape that we hadn’t seen before.  We were up until 10 and then headed for the padded room.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

We were off this morning to the Spa Casino for their Buffet Breakfast.  We picked up Phil and Joyce and we would meet Terry an Jo-Anne there.  We left at 8:30 and arrived at the casino just before 9.  We made it through the construction on the Palm Drive overpass without any delay.  They’ve been working on turning it into 4 lanes for awhile now.  Sharon has to cross there when she goes to Curves in the morning.

We had another lovely Breakfast this morning.  We even got 10% off our bill this morning having our casino card with us.  We managed to have everything we wanted to eat and then some.  By the time we got home it was almost time to take a nap but it didn’t happen.

Sharon took off with the laundry and I got around to writing my Journal.  It managed to take us both a couple of hours to finish.

We skipped lunch today having still been full from Breakfast.  It doesn’t take much for us to skip a meal this year, and this just happened to be another one.

By two o’clock we got ready and took off for the pool.  It was rather empty since none of our friends were there yet.  It didn’t take long for them to start showing up however.  We stayed and “swam” til about 4 and then came back home again.  We did have our “usual” computer discussion again with Daphne Garrett teaching the class.  It was a very nice afternoon indeed.

We ate our leftover Calzone for supper tonight.  We had a t least half of it left from when we went to Rocky’s the other night. and it was almost too much for us to eat tonight but we managed to get in all down and it was good again.

We planted ourselves in front of the Telly for the night and they’re still playing re-runs.  I think they’ve gone longer this year than any other year.  Sometimes I wonder if there’s ever going to be a second season.  We filled in the night with shows from the Discovery and History Channels.  It was almost as good as watching our regular shows.

Friday, January 28, 2011

We were taking a day off today from going out to eat.  We’ve been eating out for the last 4 days and it’s now gotten quite old.

Sharon was off to Curves this morning and then to the grocery store to pick up a few items on her way back home.  She decided to take a different way this morning to avoid the construction on the Palm Drive overpass.  I knew she wouldn’t be happy with the way she chose but I didn’t argue with her.  Sometimes it’s just better to let her go and see for herself.

When she got home with her groceries she told me that her route to Curves was a whole bunch of stop lights and a couple of extra miles.  I knew she wouldn’t be happy.

For lunch today we just fended for ourselves.  I wasn’t very hungry having just eaten Breakfast an hour ago and Sharon decided to have a salad.  Not my cup of tea anyway.

Sharon decided to clean up the hacienda before we head over to the pool this afternoon.  She was dusting and vacuuming and cleaning for about 20 minutes.  That’s usually all it takes to clean up the whole place.

By pool time we were all set to go over and soak for a couple of hours.  We got to the pool and only Phil and Joyce were there.  It didn’t take long for the pond to fill up with the rest of the gang however.  This will be Phil and Joyce’s last day in the pool for the next month.  They’ll be heading home tomorrow for about 3-4 weeks.  We stayed in the pool til just after 4 and then came home and played our usual game of Jeopardy.

Sharon had cut up all the vegetables so that we could have Shrimp Etoufeé tonight for supper.  It was very good and there was enough left over to have it again over the next couple of days.  It’s one of those meals that taste just as good reheated as it does fresh.

We were busy in front of the tube tonight.  Watching and taping and playing the tapes all night.  We had enough to watch to get us til 10 easily tonight.  Of course by the time 10 rolled around we were headed for the nite,nite room.  We had had a full day and never ate out once.  Good Job!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Nothing was happening this morning of any consequence.  Sharon was not off to any exercise program, nor did I have anything special that needed to be taken care of today.

We heard Phil and Joyce leaving this morning when they started up the motorhome and pulled out.  It was early and Sharon was still in the sack.

We got a phone call from Terry and Jo-Anne this morning asking if we wanted to come over for Burgers this afternoon.  They wanted us to come over early so that we could sit outside for awhile.

After lunch we went to the pool for our daily swim.  We knew we’d have to go early in order to be at Outdoor Resorts at a reasonable time so that we could sit outside for awhile.  We stayed at the pool til around 2 PM and then came back home and got ready to leave.

By the time we got to Terry and Jo-Anne’s they were gone.  Sharon called them on the phone and they were at Stater Bros. Grocery store picking up a few things.  We waited about 15 minutes before they got back home.  We sat outside while we were there today but it was a little chilly.  We were sitting in the shade and when it got a little cooler we went inside to sit.  It was almost time for Burgers anyway so it was okay.

We told Terry and Jo-Anne that we had changed our plans and that we were only going to Yuma for 1 week instead of two.  Circumstances had changed and the couple that we were going to see wouldn’t be there.  We half expected that there were problems since we hadn’t heard from them for awhile.

After supper tonight we came back home and camped in front of the idiot box for the night.  I had taped our regular shows before we left so we still had a nights entertainment on the DVR.  We hung in there until 10 and then we headed for the feathers.  The wind started blowing tonight, as predicted, but I didn’t hear it until about 3AM.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The wind was blowing quite handily this morning by the time we got up.  The motorhome was rocking with the gusting breezes.

Sharon got up and ready and headed off to church.  I had a couple of Sunday political shows that I watched while she was gone.

Today was get-ready-to-go day today but we didn’t have much to pick up outside.  Our beach towels were on the ground having been blown off our lawn chairs last night.  I picked up the towels and folded them and brought them inside while Sharon was gone.

When she got back it was almost time for lunch.  We didn’t have anything made and she wasn’t cooking so we just fended for ourselves.  Besides every once in awhile a guy has to figure it out for himself or he’ll starve to death.

All afternoon after lunch I tried to talk Sharon into going to the pool.  The wind was still howling and she wasn’t having any of it.  So we watched Them Most Shocking on TruTV for most of the afternoon.  The wind was playing hell with the dish so we really couldn’t watch TV without interruptions.

Sharon whipped up a batch of pasties for Supper tonight.  Pasties are Ground Beef, potatoes and onions, salt and pepper rolled up in a pie crust and then baked.  They are an old family recipe.(the truth) My father was a baker who owned a bakery in Upper Michigan.  Pasties were a staple in the bakery.

After Supper we hooked into the Pro Bowl for the evening.  There was really nothing else on the Telly tonight anyway.  The NFC jumped off to a gigantic lead but the AFC started coming back in the second half.  They didn’t come back far enough however, and lost the game in the end.

We tried to find something to watch on TV for the rest of the night.  There really wasn’t much on