Monday, February 8, 2016

We were up this morning with nothing on our minds or schedule.  We’ve found that by staying on one site this year, we have less planning on where we intend to stay.  We don’t have to have reservations every two weeks at different campgrounds so that we can stay in the general area of Desert Hot Springs.  There is definitely less stress on Sharon by not having to worry about moving the motorhome if I have another bout in the hospital.  So far I’m feeling pretty chipper and going to the pool almost every day that the weather allows.  Actually at this point the weather is getting much warmer than its been for the last month or so.

Sharon was off on her walk this morning and I was settled in my recliner until she returned.  When she got back she took off for town to do some shopping.  She wanted to pick up some stuff, not groceries, but rather some OTC medications for our lingering maladies.

When she got back it was around lunchtime and we partook in that exercise even though it was only sandwiches and leftover pizza for today.

After a late lunch we left for the pool today.  We would be getting there early today so we’ll see how long we stay.  When we arrived we only knew a couple of people in the pool but it soon started to fill up with friendly faces, with most of the people we only know by their first names, but have seen them many times over the years.  We actually stayed at the pool until 4 PM before we started home.  We’re parked only 4 sites from the pool so its not really a long trek.

We got home tonight and Sharon did not want to cook tonight.  That wasn’t a problem for me as I can settle on PB&J anytime.  But we collectively decided we’d go to McDonald’s or In-n-Out Burger.  With that in mind we took off for Palm Desert where the McD’s and the In-n-Out Burger are located a block apart.  By the time we got there Sharon had decided on In-n-Out so we went there.  The place was jam packed solid & we knew we were in for a wait.  It was 6:15 and it seemed like everybody in the valley had the same idea.  It took us about 25 minutes to get our food with the number of people either ordering or waiting for their order.  But the final outcome was delicious as always.  You have to go a long way to get a better burger than the Double-Double from In-n-Out.

We spent the rest of the night glued to the Telly.  There wasn’t much on tonight but enough to carry us through until 11.  But then we crashed and burned and only two people survived.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

We were off to the Cottage 2 this morning to meet Terry and JoAnn Bertamini for Breakfast.  We had called them last night and asked them if they were interested this morning.  Obviously their answer was yes after they made a phone call and found out their friends would not be here until 2PM.

My watch was apparently wrong as we arrived about 7 minutes after 9.  After checking a couple of other clocks I agreed that we were late.  Terry and JoAnn didn’t seem to mind but I hate arriving late for anything.  By the time we left for home we had enough coffee for the entire day.  That’s usually what happens when we have Breakfast with Terry and JoAnn, and JoAnn doesn’t drink coffee.

We had to make a stop at Walgreen’s on the way home.  I needed some “eye lubricant” and we were going to stop just to see if they had it.  They did and Sharon paid $13 for a tube of it.  OUCH!!  It’s expensive but it’s only $10 at Wal-Mart.  After the “Walgreen Rip-Off” we headed back home again.

We would be skipping lunch today except for the small piece of an Apple Fritter that we both enjoyed after getting home.  We sat around for a couple of hours waiting for a decent pool time to arrive.  We actually went early because we had invited Henry and Arlene over for Happy Hour this afternoon.  So we stayed at the somewhat crowded pool until about 3:30 and then made our way back to the shanty.

Henry and Arlene arrived about 4, and it was so nice outside, that we sat out there until well after dark.  It usually get cold right after the sun goes down but it stayed relatively warm until about 7:30, when our company left for the night.

We came inside and camped out in front of the TV for the rest of the night.   We turned the furnace on for a cycle since we had the air on while we were outside for the night.  It’s great when you can use the air and the furnace on the same day.  Duh!  Sharon caved early tonight because of the adult beverages that we consumed.  I hung in there until 11 catching up on the shows I taped tonight.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Sharon was up and walking this morning on this fine “Taco Wednesday” while I just sat and absorbed the news of the day on TV.  I do my job well while she’s doing her exercises.

While she was gone I stopped over at Anke and Wayne Doughty’s to see if they wanted to come with us to the VFW today.  They don’t have a car since they just traded their 5th wheel for a motorhome a couple of weeks ago.  But apparently they had an appointment with the ShadePro awning guy this morning, and didn’t know when they’d be done with him.  They decided that they’d come with us next Wednesday instead of trying to make it today.

At noon we took off to pick up Henry and Arlene at their park and headed out for the VFW.  Sharon thought that it wouldn’t be crowded today, since it’s Ash Wednesday, but when we got there the parking lot was full.  I thought that the parking lot was an indicator that “not being crowded” was pretty much out the window for the day.  And it was crowded so I guess the Catholics were taking the day off and the Canadians were in attendance.

After lunch we headed home and Henry and Arlene asked if we wanted to stop “for a nitecap.”  I had enough beer to cap off my night already, so we declined the invitation.

By the time we got home it was time to go to the pool.  We got changed and headed over to the water.  Even the pool was quite crowded today.  Apparently there are no restrictions for Catholics to swim on Ash Wednesday.  We only had a short time to “swim” today since we got back from lunch later.  But we were there anyway until just after 4 when we came home to have Supper.

We had some leftover fried chicken from our chicken strips and fried potatoes from a couple of days ago, and Sharon fried them up again and made Chicken Melts out of the pieces.  They were quite good and an excellent “throw together” meal.

After Dinner we settled in for our entertainment tonight.  We had some regular shows on tonight and a bunch of programs on tape.  I fell asleep in my chair a couple of times tonight before we finally made it to the end of the day.  We finally went to bed at 11.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Sharon was up this morning and off on her daily walk on this fine morning.  The Sun was up and it was sure to be a warm day today.  Our days have been warming up considerably.  Unfortunately we still have to run the portable heater every night, all night.  But by noon it’s Summer out Y’all.

We didn’t have anything to shop for, or do, this morning so we just relaxed and sat around watching TV.  We still had a bunch of stuff on DVR to watch but those shows we enjoy watching at night.

By this afternoon we only had a short time to go to the pool because we had to be ready to go at 4:30 today.  I really didn’t care if I went or not since I was lounging in my recliner and almost falling asleep.  So we both opted out today and just sat in the air conditioning and watched TV instead.

When 3:30 rolled around I jumped in the shower and got ready to go.  We were supposed to be at Red Lobster by 5 and it was all the way across the valley.  It’ll take us a half hour to get there.  We left about 4:20 and got there about 4:45.  We were the first ones to arrive.  There would be 9 of us attending Terry and JoAnn’s Anniversay Party. Everybody else arrived at the same time and together.  We went in and got seated right away with our reservations.

We knew everybody at the party even though we were all from different parks.  There were only 3 Canadians and the rest were from the U.S.  We all seemed to converse and socialize very easily with each other.  A surprise at the conclusion was that Terry picked up the entire check.  We had no idea he had intended to do that.  We both thanked him profusely and got ready to head home.

Another half hour on the road and we rolled into Catalina Spa for the night.  We had tons to watch on TV tonight with the regular shows and the stuff we had on tape.  We’ll never catch up tonight so we’ll probably have shows to watch over the weekend.  We stayed the course tonight until 11 before we found ourselves to tired to go on.

Friday, February 12, 2016

We got up this morning with not much on our agenda and Sharon was off on her walk today.  I, as usual, stayed close to the hacienda and guarded the coffee pot.  She decided to stop at a couple of rummage sales that she found on her way back home again.  She couldn’t find anything she couldn’t live without, however, so she ca me back empty handed.

By noon neither of us had eaten lunch yet and Sharon suggested we go into town for a burger or something.  So I was completely in accordance with her suggestion and volunteered McD’s since earlier in the week we had In-n-Out Burger.  So we left for town which is about 6-7 miles from the campground.  We stopped at McDonald’s first so we could satisfy our hunger.  The next stop was next door at Von’s Grocery to get some fish for Supper tonight.

After finishing up at the Grocery Store we headed home with still plenty of time to head for the pool for a couple of hours.  We stayed at the pool until we headed home at about 4 PM.

Unfortunately now that we shopped for our Supper tonight neither of us was hungry enough to eat anything.  So we just put that stuff on hold and decided we’d just fend for ourselves.  Eventually we both opted for a Peanut Butter and Banana sandwich to hold us for the night.  We’ll probably snack later on, but there won’t be a meal tonight.

As usual we’ll settle in front of the TV for the rest of the night and surf through the channels and watch some regular channels in the meantime.  We were up til 11 before we spiraled down and crashed in the bed.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

We were up and off this morning headed to Two Springs RV Resort for our regular Saturday Buffet Breakfast.  Henry and Arlene opted out this morning but we will still be meeting Terry and JoAnn at the resort.  As usual they were there and waiting for us when we arrived.  The Dining Room was no way as busy as it was last week.  While it was standing room only last week, we had plenty of places to sit this week.  There were relatively no lines waiting for food to be cooked today.  And so we did have a very nice relaxing Breakfast this morning.

After we got home we were intending to go to the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Cathedral City today.  We put my scooter in the car and headed out.  The Festival is about a half hour from our campground and it’s on from 10-6 today. We got there about 10:30 and there were only two balloons on the flight grounds.  We went around among the vendors for about a half hour and stopped for an Italian Ice.  It was Orange Vanilla with condensed milk poured over the top.  It was quite good indeed but I wasn’t impressed with it.  I did however, confuse the Ice with Gelato and that was the problem.  I had heard it was so much better than Ice Cream but this was just like a snow cone, but good never-the-less.

Not seeing any further balloons on the grounds we decided to inquire as to whether they would be here or not.  We were informed that they’d be back for the nite glow at 6 but there wouldn’t be any flights today because of the heat.  It was only in the 80's and we didn’t understand the restrictions in flying because of the heat.  Oh well, they weren’t going up so we left.

By the time we got home it was time for the pool so we left and went over there for a couple of hours.  There was quite a few people in the pool today and we knew most of them from recent days.  We only stayed for a couple of hours because we had to go to Henry and Arlenes for a “Good Bye Happy Hour.”  They will be leaving tomorrow on their meandering way home.  They’ll get home by the 1st of March.

We changed our clothes and drove over to the Leduc’s for the Happy Hour celebrating the end of the season for them.  We were there until well after dark and it started getting a little chilly out.  After we said our good-byes we headed back home about a block and a half down the road.

We seasoned up a rack of ribs tonight that we would be having tomorrow night for Dinner.  We put them in the fridge to marinate overnight.

We were in for another night of tube-gazing.  We had a bunch of stuff on tape from the last couple of days that we played all night.  Sharon took off for bed early and I stayed up for a couple of more hours.  She was gone by 9:30 and I finally went about 11.

Sunday, February 14, 2016VALENTINE’S DAY

We woke up to a very nice sunshiny day today that was supposed to get up into the 80's by this afternoon.

We were both up “early” this morning and Sharon was off to church and I was off to my Sunday morning Shows.  We were both doing what we were supposed to do this morning.

I actually got a phone call at 10 AM, after church, from Sharon who said, “Guess what I got?”  Having no idea I just took a wild guess at “Syphilis.”  Well, she laughed and finally told me Tamales.  That was a pleasant surprise since this was not the Sunday for Tamales. She also stopped at Von’s Grocery and picked up what she thought was my favorite salsa.  She also stopped at the Chinese Bakery and picked up some donuts.  She was definitely hitting on all the right cylinders today.  I was anxious to see the salsa she had picked up, and as it turned out, it was exactly the right stuff.

We got down to eating our lunch as soon as she got back home.  The Tamales from the church, were still warm so dug right into them.  They were exceptionally good today.  The meat was tinged a little red and we wondered if it was some kind of BBQ sauce on them.  In any event they were very good.

After lunch we had a little time to rest our meal before we headed out to the pool.  By the time we got there all of the familiar faces were there already.  The pool seemed a couple of degrees cooler today which nobody was complaining about.  When it gets hot outside we even prefer it a little cooler.

We had put our ribs in the oven around 2 o’clock so by the time we got back from the pool, the aroma in the motorhome was quite appetizing.  We usually remove them from the oven, cover them with sauce and place em on the grill to caramelize the sauce.  While I was operating the grill, Sharon was inside frying up some potatoes, and making some garlic bread.  She had already assembled the Whiskey Old Fashioneds and served them.

We finally sat down to a lovely Dinner of BBQed Ribs, Fried Potatoes and Garlic Bread.  It was a lovely Valentine’s Dinner chased down by a few Adult Beverages.

After Dinner it was time to relax and catch a few programs on the TV.  We finished off our night with a couple of recorded programs and then a swift retreat to the padded room about 10:30.