Sunday, May 31, 2009

Visiting my friends

May 29th
Met my friend, Red E at her new house Friday evening. What a gorgeous place she has. It is about ½ the size of her other house. She has gotten rid of all of the non-necessary items and is doing great. It is a really well laid out floor plan and she has it decorated really beautifully. She has completely re-vamped her lifestyle and it fits her really well, just like her new house.

May 30th
Red came over to the TT in the afternoon on Saturday and while we were visiting, I suggested we recreate – so we fixed some solar window shields for cars, to fit the windows here in my TT. The Arizona sun can bake you right through the glass. So I not only have the heat stopped from coming through the windows and right on through the levelors, but I also have ‘blackout’ shades. I had been putting towels over the windows when it got too ‘bright’ at night, so I could get to sleep. Well these guys do the trick! They need a little refinement, but I can do that later – or not! What a great friend she is.

I went to my friend, Kathy D’s house for a visit and dinner Saturday night. Kathy has also moved into a different house. It is also quite gorgeous. Very high ceilings, lots of yard space, big trees and sooo open. It is a beauty. But she really misses her old house. She had it remodeled to fit her and it was right on, but the neighborhood and neighbors were just a little much. The HOA was a real PITA and though the house was “perfect” she was so unhappy living in that environment. She is now getting used to the new place. What a powerful woman she is. But I think she may not totally recognize her own power and greatness. She has been and done so much and is capable of great things – you can see that time and again as she does great things. Perhaps one day she will recognize those items as being just that – great things done by a great woman! Well we talked (make that I talked) until 10:00 p.m. Way past my bed time! She just does that to you. Took me about 30 minutes to get home, but it was a nice drive and not a great amount of traffic. Hope to see her again before I take off.

May 31st
This evening I will have dinner with Red E, Pat D and Arlene H. Ladies that I hold in very high esteem and for whom I have a great deal of respect. Each of them and Kathy D, have experienced life like to it’s fullest. Each has had to fight the gender battle and have come through it winners. Each has probably had sticks, and stones and rotten eggs thrown at them, but they still have come through it like champs. I am looking forward to the evening.

Tomorrow, June 1st, I will be going birding. Down to the Gulch, California Gulch that is. This will be the first time for 2009. I was last down there in July of last year. It will be interesting to see how much it is the same, but has changed. We will be looking for the Five-stripped Sparrow and the Buff-Collared Night Jar. Forward to the exciting life of retirement birding.

Paradise, AZ

Arrived in Paradise, Arizona on Thursday, May 21st. Stayed in a slot at the "George Walker House Bed and build your breakfast" parking lot. Was there for a week visiting with my friend, Jackie Lewis. We did a little birding, a little yard work, and a little house work and I did a lot of sitting and watching birds. It was a great week. I may have to make a return trip in August. Got some good pictures while I was there.

What a great bunch of Mags every night each feeder would have 8 or 10 mags around them feeding before their night torpor. The Black-Chinned and Broad-tailed would have to get in there and fight with the big ones to get a sip. Three or four Blue-Throated came in to feed too. We would get the Juniper Titmouse in the afternoon sometime between 2 p.m to 6 p.m. Of course the clowns, Acord WP, were great. We got the Az feeding too. Orioles, Scotts, Bullocks and Hooded both males and females were in after jelly, peanut butter and bark butter and would rob some of the HB feeders if they would get the spot Jackie had set for them (the holes without the yellow flowers). Elf Owls singing out the kazoo. Gorgeous view of the Whiskered SO in the hole. Male Elegant Trogons trying to get the females to try the holes for nesting. Painted Red Start on the nest in South Fork and the Canyon Wren playing hid-n-seek at the bridge at South Fork. Head Red-Faces Warblers, Sulphur-Bellied, Dusky and Ashthroated Flycatchers, but didn't track them down. Cassins Kingbirds waking me up every morning as they were nesting across from Jackie's place.

Tucson, AZ

Well, here it is May 31st. So I guess I can assume (in all of its ways) that I will not keep this up-to-date. Guess I will add as I go along and have time to do so.

Arrived in Tucson, Arizona Thursday p.m., May 28th, and got in place with a 'guide' from the Voyager RV Park. The gal at the front desk had to really look hard to find a good spot for me (her words). Well, in the front area near the road of my spot, on the left is a 3' tall fire hydrant, on the right is a sign, in the road is a big speed bump. I look to the left and there are 7 empty spots and to the right 11, facing South, and facing North there is not a spot taken so that is about 20 empty and much of the park is that way. (Ah, this is a good spot?!)Now if I was running this place and someone came in for one month that had never been here before and we were as empty as this is, I would give that person a premium spot and tell them that I was doing that because I would want them to return at a later time. No shade to speak of here but some of the spots have palm trees and I saw one mesquite tree and it was large. Lots of weeds not a clean landscape in the park areas. And being desert they are sticky plants. Enough complaining about this RV Park. It certainly is large about 1500 spots, but many of them have park models on them. I wandered over to the housing area where there are real houses and a 2-2-1 was priced at $229,500. No mention of HOA fees but I am sure they are in there somewhere. Unless the price includes lifetime maintainance. That is high even for this area. But then when you consider some class A's are over 500k then that is nothing.

Left Paradise on Thursday, May 28th headed to Tucson. The ride from Paradise to San Simon, I thought would be easy, was actually very rough and shook a lot of stuff around in the TT. The gravel road was very wash-boardy and it was a long way, 16 miles. Oh, well, live and learn in this world.