It's Winter in Arizona

Brrr! It's furnace time in the Arizona Paradise Valley! Nights are down in the 40's - that makes me shiver. But I can be thankful to know that it isn't going to last more than a month and the days do warm up pretty good. Northern Arizona really got dumped on Monday night. We got WIND & RAIN. The rain was welcome, but the wind. Wow! I was a little nervous about this "tin can" trailer staying upright! I don't think I went to sleep until after the wind died down around 12:30AM; then I kept wondering what damage we had outside & where things might have blown to & didn't really go to sleep until around 3AM. I had to read to get to sleep. The trailer sure did a lot of shaking. Thankfully we lost 1 foam snowflake off our orange tree, the garbage container blew over but didn't spill, the chair & little tables were on the ground & that was about it. Thankfully that was all. The neighbor lost a window & there were some patios throughout the park with some damage, so we were lucky.

Well, that was Monday. Then Tuesday night we ran out of LP gas in our big tank during the wee hours of the morning. I got up to look at the thermometer & it read 53 deg. inside. That's not my idea of a cozy, warm home. So I turned on the fireplace heater, went back to bed & woke Bill up to tell him we had no heat. He said what do you want me to do, get up & go hook up the other tank. I said no. Under the covers was warm & a couple more hours wouldn't be that bad. The fireplace keeps it pretty warm in here. So when he got up around 5:30 he went out & hooked up our 30 lb. tank.

But then.........he opened the refrigerator & those little "battery" lights inside started blinking again! I turned on the bathroom "battery" lights & yup, sure enough, they were blinking too. I called our friend Jay where we bought the trailer & explained the situation. Sure enough, he said if we checked the converter & it was below 13-14 volts, we needed a new converter. Yup again. So we took a little trip to Camping World. Our friends Roger & Camilla went with us, then we went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. When we got back, Roger came & put the new converter in for us. Things are in Tip-Top shape again. Thank you Roger!!! See.........it's just like owning a permanent house on a basement only we are sitting on tires & jacks! Always something. So now that we have bought our own Christmas present, we are all set. Santa does come early in the west, he really doesn't need snow!

Tonight I had to do laundry since I couldn't get it done during the day. Bill & I played pool while the clothes were washing & drying. No, I didn't win. I can't beat him unless he gives me the game by sinking the 8 ball. He wondered why he couldn't play like that when he plays with the guys & I said because they weren't the lousy player that I was! I lost both shuffleboard games today too. I guess it wasn't my day, but I sure had a good time. Some of those guys we play with are such a treat. One guy, Don, is so much fun to play with. He's 89 & we tease each other a lot.

It has been Bill's week to clean the shuffleboard courts & after the Monday night wind/rain storm they had a big mess. He said they had to clean them 3 times. It about did him in as it was cold & taxing on his breathing. I told him to just do what he could do & tell the other guys he couldn't finish. I don't want him getting down from this cold air.

Speaking of being sick, Renee, our daughter went to the doctor yesterday & she was one step away from pneumonia. He said her symptoms were similar to H1N1, so I hope she takes her medication & gets well soon. She could hard talk or breathe last night. I tried to call her a little while ago & got no answer, so I'm hoping she was sleeping. I told the boys they had to be good for Mommy while she was sick so she wouldn't have to go to the hospital. Told Tom he would have to clean good with Lysol before we got there so we wouldn't get it!

Well, I guess since I have no interesting pictures to post, I'll quit the rambling & just tell everyone to have a great couple of days & I'll check back in in a few days.

So, until next time............The Traveling Cardinal's