Dec 27th to 29th - Mesa

Dec 27^th – Thurs

We had a restless night, finally fell back to sleep and woke up at 8:45!  Oh well, we had nothing pressing to do but it was a good day to sort through accumulated paperwork and clean it up.  I even put captions on pictures in Picasa.

At 3 we made hot chocolate and went to listen to music in the courtyard.  When we got there we found it had been moved inside as it was raining a bit when the band was setting up and of course they don’t want their equipment to get wet.  It was nice having it inside as a group did quite a bit of line dancing and we joined in on the ones we knew.  Then we had a quiet dinner and watched TV.

Dec 28^th – Fri

We had a pretty lazy morning before we went to pick up Ron & Terri at the airport at 11:30.  Terry had tried to turn on their power and start the fridge but the electricity would not come on.  He checked the power post with our plug and it worked OK so he left it until Ron got back.

Once we dropped them off, we went out for lunch and then picked up some groceries.  We had invited Ron & Terri for dinner so I put baby backs on to boil.  A new neighbor arrived about 2 and Ron asked Terry if he would help him park.  Don & Debbie had to wait 45 minutes for a ranger to lead them to their spot and it took a LONG time for Terry & Jamie to help Don park across the street from us.  We were going to listen to music but it was 4 o’clock before things settled down so Terry cooked the ribs in the daylight and I put them in the crock pot to keep warm.

At 5 Ron & Terri arrived with a big bottle of wine and we proceeded to have a very nice dinner and evening.  It is so nice to have some friends back on the street!

Dec 29^th – Sat

We were having coffee and thinking about actually doing something when Dennis & Gloria stopped by to chat.  They had their laundry in the washers and Gloria left to put everything in dryers and came back.  They were just leaving when Stephanie knocked on the door.  She stayed to tell us about their trip over Christmas to Tucson.  We had suggested some places for them to go and she told us all about their great trip.

Next we headed to the Mesa Marketplace and stopped for a burger on the way.  I needed a shoe horn which I got along with a couple of other items.  It was a nice day for a walk all around the market.  We stopped at a flea market on Main Street where I found a couple of small plates to replace one I broke a couple of weeks ago.  OK, I bought a spare!!

When we got back to the park, a new neighbor was parking beside us so we pulled our truck into another spot until they were done.  We hadn’t seen Larry & Julie for a while so we got on our bikes and went to see them.  Julie’s friend Nancy was there so we had a drink and visited with them for a while.  We stopped to see Jerry & Becky and discovered that Becky got sick and was in bed all day today.  They were going to leave tomorrow but extended their stay until Jan 6^th.

Back at our rig, I had just made a drink and some snacks when my sister Marg called to say that my Dad passed away late this afternoon.  He had been going seriously downhill for a few days and went into the hospital on Thursday.  Luckily the admitting doctor had treated him several times and agreed with my sister’s request for no aggressive life support measures.  Dad has lived with my sister for 10 years which is not in the town where we grew up.  We will not have a service until the spring when we will bury his ashes beside my Mom in Pemberton B.C.