Saturday, December 06, 2014

Dec 1st to 5th - Mesa

Dec 1st – Mon
In between computer games this morning, I took time to catch up the blog and Terry helped the guys take down tarps from the Grey Cup party. After breakfast we took the bike to Fry's for a few groceries. While I was putting away and doing a little dinner prep, Terry rode over to welcome Don & Susan who just arrived today.
A new musician in the courtyard – Paul Taylor – was very good and we got our usual work out on the dance floor. Susan was mobbed with huggers when she arrived.
Dennis & Gloria were coming over at 7:30 to print Chris' boarding pass for tomorrow so I went to few neighbors and suggested that if Chris came over also that we have a little farewell gathering. We ended up with Terri, Gail, Brad & Clare and Joe & Stella joining us for drinks, multiple conversations at once & lots of laughs.

Dec 2nd – Tues
Gloria called fairly early to say that Chris (with help from Mom?) had the toy hauler all cleaned up and ready to go back to storage. We had lots of help to finish closing it up – dump tanks, get the satellite dish off the roof, put away loose items in the kitchen – and Terry backed into the storage slot in one go. After locking it up, we spent some time across the street with a guy who had a swivel wheel “trailer” for sale.
Now it was time to have a very late breakfast at Wild Berry. I finally drove the motorcycle around the park with Terry on the back doing a bit of coaching – like how to start the darn thing! We stopped and had a nice chat with Ralph & Elsie.
Music at the courtyard was good – Midnight Moon – and we didn't let too many songs go by without line dancing especially since Bobbie (line dance teacher) was there to suggest different dances. I had enough leftovers from yesterday for my dinner so Terry got the Tuesday special (meatloaf) at the courtyard – great solution for both of us!
There were a lot of people at line dance lessons. We learned 3 new dances – actually only one of them was new to people who took lessons last year – and had newbies turning every which way. Tons of fun. It was raining when we finished so Terry pulled the motorcycle under the awning and wiped it off. Yes, I did suggest putting the cover on earlier!

Dec 3rd – Wed
Terry moved the motorcycle back out before taking the truck to pick up other golfers this morning. I eventually took a big bag of books to Susan and stayed to talk with her & Don for a long time. Don made me feel guilty for not posting pictures regularly so I worked on captions & deleting similar pictures and actually uploaded one album and started compiling another.
Rockafella provided good music for dancing in the courtyard. Then we went to Dennis & Gloria's for dinner along with Duane & Sue. After dinner the women allowed the men to beat us in a close game of Ponytail Canasta. It was sprinkling when we walked back.

Dec 4th – Thurs
It poured rain most of last night so I put on my rubber boots to walk with Terri to coffee & doughnuts. Before I left, I took coffee to Terry in bed as he decided he would rather stay there & watch TV than going to the weekly meeting. The Camping World ambassadors sponsored coffee & doughnuts again and the rain actually kept the ballroom from being totally packed. We were shocked to hear that a bar of soap was thrown in each pool and someone felt they needed to take an extension cord from a light over the jigsaw puzzles. Manager Kerry said they are very committed to stopping this sort of thing and promised a “rent adjustment” for information that helps identify the perpetrators.
A Christmas parade in the park was planned for today but was canceled due to rain so we had time to goof off before and after a late breakfast for lunch. Once the rain stopped and the sun came out it warmed up nicely.
MCY was also canceled today so HH at Joe & Stella's (they are going home for 6 weeks) started slightly before the planned time of 4:00. At 5:00, we and Ron & Terri moved to Bob & Sandi's for dinner.
We sat outside – in a screen gazebo – for drinks & appies before moving inside for a nice dinner. We stayed later than Ron & Terri and crashed as soon as we got home.

Dec 5th – Fri
We took Joe & Stella to the airport at 8:30 and stopped for groceries at Fry's on the way back. Groceries included doughnuts & a bagel for breakfast which we haven't had for a long time.
After putting everything away, I mixed computer games with food prep for Sunday and some light cleaning. Reese stopped by to show us his new CanAm Spyder which he bought yesterday.
Just after 2 we went to the courtyard and had lunch. The singer – Michael Ewing aka the AZ Cowboy – started early so we were soon settling our lunch with line dancing.
We came back to drop off our drink glasses and took the motorcycle to the Fiesta Community Center for a happy hour put on by the sales office for “Rvers and Renters”. It was already packed when we got there but there was room for a couple of chairs at a table with some friends. Ron & Terri and Brian & Bev arrived after some people left so they sat next to us. We ended up being the last group to leave. We helped put chairs away and sales rep Debra said we could take home part boxes of wine if we folded tables so we did that too.
We toured around a bit on the way back to look at Christmas lights in the park and ended up stopped to see Phyllis. We were just in time to help her change a light bulb in a fixture over her bed. She called her friend MaryEllen to join us so we had a nice chat and shared the wine with them.

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