Monday, January 21, 2019

Early this morning we awoke to gusting winds that were at least hurricane force at 50-60 MPH.  It continued for hours until we finally gave up on sleeping and just got out of bed.

After we got showered and ready this morning we were headed over to Catalina Spa to pick up Phil and Joyce to go for Breakfast at the Cottage Too.  On the way over we saw a hi-line motorhome with its awning ripped off.  The whole gang would be there this morning.  Me, Sharon, Phil, Joyce, Terry, JoAnne, Henry and Arlene.  This was the first time this year that we all managed to get together.  We’ll all see each other again on Wednesday when we go for Taco Wednesday, at the VFW.

The conversation started today discussing the wind last night or rather early this morning.  After we exhausted that topic we got around to more normal conversation.  We had a lovely Breakfast everybody got the right order and the right food, which is pretty good when you’ve got 8 people at the table.  It’s not really a problem here cause the service is always excellent.

After Breakfast we got in the car and Phil told me that he wouldn’t MIND if I stopped at the Chinese Bakery for Fritters.  And because we didn’t have anything sweet at home, I swung into the parking lot at Stater Brothers grocery store.  Sharon was wondering where I was going, but she soon found out.  Leaving the parking lot, with fritters in hand, we finally headed toward home.  We always stop for these fritters because they’re huge and loaded with apples.

We dropped Phil and Joyce at home and then headed back to our campground.   It’s funny that although Phil and Joyce are the only members that stayed with Catalina, we all met there when we were members.  Now we Just retain our long-term friendships and fraternize with each other at every opportunity.

Sharon and I opted out of the pool today because of the wind, and Sharon fell into bed for a “short winter’s nap.”  I stayed up and watched a little Telly.

We fended for ourselves for Supper again tonight since we had a “Big Breakfast” this morning.  I had a Bratwurst in a bun with Potato Salad and Sharon had the leftover Chicken and Rice dish we had last week.

We settled in front of the tube tonight with the wind still blowing.  It rocked the motorhome at times but seemed to settle some before we headed to bed at 10.

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

The wind was still blowing again this morning, and the temp was actually a little cooler also.

We didn’t have anyplace to go today or anything to do.  It was going to be a day to sit around and just do as little as possible.

Sharon went on her walk today and by the time she got back she sat down to read a book.  She quickly got bored and decided she wanted to take a nap.  When I told her to go ahead and take one, she responded by saying she was just waiting for permission.  Yeah right.

I just watched the Telly this afternoon as I formatted the next issue of the Newsletter.  It took quite a while to decide exactly what I was going to do this month.  It took me most of the afternoon to figure it out and then format it.

We took a different tach this evening for Dinner.  After Sharon got up I suggested we have French Toast and Sausage for Supper.  She surprisingly agreed it would be a nice change of pace.

Afterwards we just positioned ourselves in front of the Telly for the night.  Unfortunately they cancelled NCIS for some stupid reality show.  They’ve got so many crappy shows on this year they could have cancelled the Prime Time show on any other night.

In any event we had enough other shows that we still made it to 10:30 before we gave it all up for the night.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

We were up for another Taco Wednesday today.  This one would be different than the previous ones, however.  The whole gang would be at this one today.  It would be Phil and Joyce’s last one for awhile.  They’ll head for home in Martinez tomorrow for at least a month while they catch up on mail and other affairs. But in the meantime they picked us up and we headed for the VFW.  The rest of us will be staying here and going out to eat with each other for the month.  It all evens out somewhat.

The VFW Clubhouse was crowded today but it’s still not up to full capacity.  When you can still find a place for 8 people to sit together, it hasn’t reached full capacity.

The service today was almost ridiculous.  The waitresses had no idea who to deliver the food to.  One person took all of our orders and nobody knew where the food was supposed to be delivered to.  It was almost like they threw all the orders into a hat and then tried to figure out where they went.  We’ve never had this happen before.  It was absolutely ridiculous.

But eventually we all got our food and the conversation and the lunch were very good.

After Phil and Joyce dropped us off at home Sharon decided that it was time for a nap.  I think she just wanted to sleep off the extra pitcher of beer that she ordered that she didn’t need.  In fact if it hadn’t been for the rest of the people at our table, the pitcher would have stayed, almost full, still on the table.

I got in my recliner and also got a little nap for awhile which was a good thing for me.  By the time I woke up my back felt immensely better.  I could hardly get out of bed this morning my back hurt so much.  And hopefully when I wake up tomorrow it will feel this good again.

We rounded out the night with our in-house entertainment again tonight.  We still aren’t receiving Jeopardy in its entirety but the rest of the networks aren’t having any problem.  We stayed up until just after 10 tonight before we both headed for the feathers.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

We woke this morning to what was going to be a very lovely day indeed.  The Sun was shining and it was already warm this morning.

We would be having our Breakfast at home and heading out to do some shopping at the Wal-Mart in Rancho Mirage for a change.  We’ve been to the one in Cathedral City and it was so crowded that none of the electric carts were available for the handicapped.  So my ride was unavailable and I had to wait for one at the entrance. Not too much difference than what we experienced today.  There were no carts available and I had to wait for one.  I only waited for a couple of minutes before one showed up.

After shopping we googled for the nearest Taco Bell to have lunch.  And the nearest one was the one on Date Palm Drive that we had been to the other day.  We didn’t feel like driving back to that one so we just started toward home.  As we drove past the exit for Bob Hope Road there was an ad for Taco Bell on a Marquis.  We exited and lo and behold there was a new shopping center going up in Cathedral City with a new Taco Bell in it that had just opened a month ago.  And by the look of the number of parking lots there are several other stores going up in the future.

We ate our “Mexican” food and then headed toward home.  We intended to stop over to Terry and JoAnne’s to see if they wanted to go to the Sunshine Café for Breakfast in the morning.  After we unloaded our groceries we headed over to Catalina ,

Spa & RV Resort to see Terry and JoAnne.  Unfortunately they weren’t home so we left a note on their door.

Later on in the evening they called us back and agreed to go to the restaurant in the morning.  We decided on a time that we would meet them there, since the café was across the valley somewhat.  The Sunshine Café is the restaurant where we first saw the Gay Phone Book complete with all the advertising of the Gay Yellow Pages.  It’s an interesting place to say the least.

We finished up the rest of the night surviving only on a bowl of cereal since we had a late lunch today.  It did, however take us all the way to the slumber portion of our evening.

Friday, January 25, 2019

We were up and off to the Sunshine Café this morning to meet Terry and JoAnne to have our Breakfast out.  The Sunshine is somewhat across the valley into Cathedral City.  It took us a little longer to get there than we anticipated and we were about 4 minutes late this morning.  The special at the Sunshine isn’t as cheap as at the Cottage but it’s still a fun place to eat.

After we got home Sharon took off with the laundry while I dumped our holding tanks.  By the time she got back from the laundry it was time to go to the pool.  We got ourselves ready and walked over to the pool.  There were a few people in there this afternoon with a bunch more coming.  In fact there were more people in the pool this afternoon than we had seen in there ever.

We stayed for a couple of hours trying to meet all the people who were there.  We didn’t of course but we did meet quite a few.

After the pool we came home and Sharon whipped up Chicken Fried Steak and Mashed Potatoes and Corn.  It was all quite good even though the Chicken Fried Steak was frozen out of a box.  We don’t usually do that because those prepared entrees are usually not up to par with the real thing.  But the steak in this one was quite good except for the meat to be a little thin.

We got ready for our usual entertainment in front of the Telly for the night.  We even got to watch Jeopardy in its entirety tonight.  What a surprise, since we haven’t been able to do that since we left home with the problems we’ve been having.  In any event we stayed up until 10 tonight before we finally caved.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

We were up and off this morning to the rummage sales in this park and a couple of other nearby parks.  We weren’t too hopeful that we were going to find any treasures that we couldn’t live without, but we went anyway.  I got on my scooter and did this park before Sharon even got dressed.  It took me about twenty minutes to get through the whole park even though there were about 10-11 sales in the park.  I figured that Bob next door might have something I may be interested in, but at 7:30 in the morning I couldn’t find a thing I wanted.  He had already been picked clean.

After Sharon got back from checking out this park we got in the car and headed down the road toward Wagner RV Resort which is down the road about 5 blocks or so.  We had the same luck there after perusing the goods that were exhibited outside on the lawn in front of the clubhouse.  We couldn’t take the car into Wagner so they had a golf cart delivering people to the sale.  But alas no deals for us.

We came back home and I took my scooter over to the park next door.  All the sales were in the front of the park but you couldn’t get a car near the park for all the cars that were parked outside.  We ran into Terry and JoAnne right at the entrance of the park.  Terry was having coffee at one of the tables and JoAnne was delivering stuff to their car by golf car.  I went over and sat with Terry even though I didn’t have any coffee.  Shortly afterward Al and Judy Hartman, from Iowa, stopped over just to say hello.  They were disappointed at the situation at Catalina also and may not be back next year.  They were talking about possibly going to Yuma.

After we got back home we I just sat around for awhile while Sharon took a little snooze.  By the time she got up it was time to go to the pool.  We left to go over there and found several people enjoying themselves in the warm water.  We stayed for about 2 hours before we headed back home again.

Tonight we were having an experiment for Supper.  We were using our Chicken and Rice recipe to have Kielbasa and Rice with a Mexican twist.  We would be using Cream of Cheese soup in the Rice with Taco seasoning in the rice.  We also would be having a salad to go along with it.  It turned out perfectly excellent and we would be having that again with maybe a tweak or two.

We settled in tonight in front of the tube for the evening.  It was Saturday so we were surfing for most of the night tonight to find something worthwhile to watch.  We managed to find programs that took us up to 10:30 tonight.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Sharon was off to church early this morning not knowing if we were going out for Breakfast this morning or not.  I got a call before she went into church saying that the “Tamale Ladies” were at the church this morning.  I told her that we probably would not want to have the Tamales this morning.

The second time she called after church I was in the shower and leaning out to answer the phone on the sink.  I was trying hard not to get any of the mechanism wet.   I told her that we were going out today to Denny’s to have the Salted Caramel Banana Cream Pancakes.  Every time we’ve been to Denny’s on this trip she’s ordered them and they looked so good.  So today the “big guy” is gettin’ the pancakes.  Unfortunately the pancake order comes in a combo with Bacon, Eggs and Hash Browns for just over $10.  I ordered the Combo, and was sorry I did, right after it was delivered to the table.  Sharon had never ordered the Combo, only the pancakes, and this was going to be load of food to eat.  By the time I was done it had been more food than I’ve eaten at a sitting in at least 5 years.  That won’t happen again.  We decided in that moment that we could get one $10 order and split it in two.

On the way back home we chided ourselves on the amount of food we had to put way.  I managed to finish all of my Breakfast but Sharon fell a little short.

By the time we got back home she was ready for a nap.  She went to the bedroom but emerged about a half hour later saying she couldn’t sleep.  HaHa!

We didn’t go to the pool today even though it was a perfect day for it.  I think both of us thought we’d sink to the bottom of the 5 foot pool.

So we just sat around all afternoon watching nature shows that we had taped the other day.  That led us right into the evening since we took out no time to have anything to eat for Supper.  Our tapes took us right up to Bedtime at 10:30.