What happened to Monday?

I don't know what happened to me yesterday, but here I am today! Here is one of our Tucson trees blooming madly: And here are 2 shots from the Pima County Fair. I went there with Jack on Saturday:

Yesterday, I spent the morning staying by my phone waiting for a call from the "Investments for the Greater Good" people. They are supposed to tell me what I need to do to get the investment money coming to me, instead of going to Michael.

I have basically two things that make me anxious. One is phone calls. I really dislike talking on the phone and can really get myself worked into a lather over this.

The second is financial matters. If you want to get me crying, let's talk about money! When Michael was alive, he handled all the phone calls, and particularly the ones regarding financial matters. He sort of grooved on the whole scene, reserving part of his Friday afternoon for these pursuits. But now, it's me. :/

So this investment phone call that I've been trying to get made for months now (phone tag, she's in and I'm not, I'm in and she's not, her father has died in another state, someone else ie handling her calls....) is sort of a perfect storm of anxiety for me. Now we have an appointment that we each have on our calendars for Thursday morning. I'll keep you posted.

Today was hiking day and 5 of us braved snowdrifts to hike the Butterfly Trail at Mile 23 up on the Mt. Lemmon Highway. While it was lovely, we got off the trail somehow, couldn't find it, and so decided to go back. Jack and I did go on up to Summerhaven afterwards, went to the Cookie Shack, and feasted on pizza and cookies! :) What a gorgeous day this was for hiking, too. Although there is still snow up there, it's soft and slushy and melting pretty fast, creating little rills of water that stream across the trail. The sky was seriously blue and the air was probably 65°.

My New Sink!

Here's the new sink that Jack installed for me day-before-yesterday:

Yesterday was so full that I had no awake time to blog. I just couldn't bring myself to stay up another 15 minutes.

So what'd I do? I slept in, for one thing. It was about 7:20 when I got onto the Wii Fit Plus. Then Jack and I had planned to go together to the Pima county Fair. I KNOW that it sounds VERY early to those of you who are in the east, but.. things are different here!

On the way down Old Spanish Trail, we passed by the Farmers' Market, and so had to stop for a stroll through the vegetables, paintings, and hand-made furniture. That's always fun for us.

Then we headed off down the road and saw a sign for model homes. Oooh! Let's stop! So we did. We looked through all the models at Rancho Del Lago, down in Vail, just southwest of town. Lovely place, and the homes start at a mere $142K for a very liveable house in a beautiful community. The clubhouse, grounds, pools, courts.. it was all immaculately kept. The development is new, but it's going to be very nice when it's all occupied. I'm not quite ready to buy *another* new house, though.

So... next we were truly off to the fair, and what a fine fair it is! I believe that this was the largest fair midway that I've ever seen, and that includes the Indiana State Fair. Food was in abundance, of course, and all my favorite fair fare was included. I feasted on an ear of corn (roasted, no butter-like substance), a corn dog which I split with Jack, a small-sized funnel cake with strawberries and chocolate, half a small popcorn, and the water that we'd brought with us. Yum! I won't soon forget that delicious funnel cake, and the corn was really excellent, too.

We enjoyed walking around the midway, watching kids lose $5 a pop at the games, and having fun on the rides. There was a bungee-jumping rigging with a crane, and we watched several fear-seekers do that.

The exhibits were quite different from those to which I've become accustomed in the midwest. We never see posters about roping cattle or posters on how to keep from being bitten by a rattlesnake. In the woodworking, photography, and fine art, there were many more pieces that were "southwestern," with cactus motifs, quail, and wolves, for example.

But fairs are fairs, and this one was not very different from the Indiana ones. It was certainly lots of fun for us!

We got to our respective homes in time to get cleaned up to go to the Desert Voices concert, and it was splendid. Our friend Julie really shone as one of the participants and as a part of a small ensemble. It was such *fun* music that we didn't catch ourselves looking at watches or yawning, despite the hour. The cookies at intermission were even especially good! Note to self: try making meringues while I'm here in the desert! They were simply perfect.

Blooms

These flowers are some of the lovelies that grace the roadway beside our friends David & Linda's cottage: Today began at oh-dark-thirty for me. I was up at 5:30 am -- and I had not been really sure that there WAS a 5:30 in the MORNING! I did my Wii, got ready, had a nice breakfast, and was there to take Jack to his PT appointment by 7:40. We got into some traffic, but still made it on time.

Next, I went to Walgreens to see about filling the prescription for Asmanex, a drug prescribed by my doc here. $158 for a month. Wha- wha- wha? I walked. I'll see if I can't find another way to control this stupid disease. I can't believe that. Of course, when I used to have insurance that would pay for my medicines, I just went ahead and got whatever it was, happily paid my $15 or $30 co-pay and didn't even read that top line where it told how much the stuff really was. Sheesh.

Next, we went to Jack's house to wait for the guys from St. Vincent DePaul to come to pick up the nice sleeper sofa that he had, which he wanted to donate. Waited and waited. They did finally come and the place is much bigger now.

Then Jack installed my new kitchen sink and faucet! I got a beautiful stainless steel sink and faucet with a sprayer and .. I love it! It was a huge job and Jack doesn't like being under sinks, but he did fine work!

Tax Day

This is a Bottle Brush tree that grows outside our clubhouse here at Far Horizons. It blooms for just a couple of weeks every spring: Today is Tax Day for Americans, but I got mine all done and e-filed and I'm happy about that! I'm also getting refunds from one of my states and from the Feds, and I'm happy about that, too, even though it means that I paid too much.

Today I slept in for a bit, and I think my body needed it. I did my Wii Fit, not even feeling up to any aerobics this morning. I contented my body with strength, yoga, and balance exercises and even made myself a bit out of breath from those!

After breakfast, I got Jack and we went over to visit his Mom. She wanted us to work a bit on some carpet spots, visit the cemetary with her, and we all went out to lunch at one of her favorite places -- the Chinese buffet! We all had a very nice visit.

This afternoon has been sort of lazy. It's hot today -- 88° right now -- and, dry or not, the sun here makes me run for shade! Ahh! The A/C just kicked back on. :)

Flower Hunting

A common pastime in the park these days is taking off with a camera and hunting flowers. We don't have to look very hard, though, to find some real beauties! Ths is one that I shot right by the clubhouse: Today, Jack and I went to visit the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Cameras in hand, we found many good images to capture. I'll be featuring some of these in my photo of the day in this blog.

I'm feeling a bit better, though I now have a really deep cough and I'm pretty tired. A woman in my church choir has come down with Valley Fever, and, being the curious sort that I am, I looked it up and .. I am hopeful that I don't have this. It seems that anyone who lives in a desert climate, or even *visits* a desert climate, is susceptable. It sort of seems like the Arizona equivalent of Indiana's histoplasmosis, which Michael had, and which I likely have.

Lessee... what else did I do exciting today? I made myself dinner! :) I had chicken salad, rice, and a cucumber, to complement some blueberry buckle which Carol had made and shared.

Jack has just one more PT appointment, and this makes me happy, since I'm driving him to them. Today's was at 8am and I'm not particularly fond of 8 am. ;)

New CAR

I don't have a photo for today, and it's late and my day's been very busy and so .. how many excuses do you need?

Sunlaker, you commented on my ydy's posting about my scale. Don't worry about my becoming over-obsessed with it. I've been trying to lose the last 8 lbs for .. months now. Having the scale there just gives me a bit of accountability. During the winter, my goal is more maintenance than weight loss, because, with the social thing here, we're always eating, it seems. I think that I'm able to maintain well, because of all the exercise I am doing. :)

I got my new Fit today and it's in my driveway right now. I so loved the CRV. I would have to say that the 2007 CRV was the best car I've ever had and probably the best car anyone's ever had. ;) But the Fit will ... fit... my new lifestyle, including towing it behind the RV.

Jack was over here this morning, getting his taxes filed, and, after a few bumps in the e-filing road, he finally got the deed done.

We made more progress toward getting Jack's place stocked, and mine too. I decided to go on and buy more Portmeirion Botanic Garden dishes for my Tucson cottage, since the TJ Maxx had some really good prices on them, and I liked the styles and flowers. These are different types of dishes from the ones I have in MI, so, should I ever combine the two households, I will have just one very complete set of dishes. (At home, I have dinner plates and cereal bowls; here, I have luncheon plates and soup bowls.) And so Jack gets my "old" dishes. :)

After a lunch of pizza from AJ's at La Encantada (YUMMY!), we went to the Honda dealership to finish the car deal. I really like the dealership. They took a long time getting it all put together, but I suppose that they were just being really careful.

We had supper by the pool, with a small and fun group of folks who were trying to get rid of food before leaving for the summer.

This evening, I did some Wii dancing, with a program that is probably engineered for teenagers, but I like it anyway. It provides a good workout and it's fun, for a change.

My asthma is a bit better today. I've kept my house closed with the A/C on for last night and all day today, and I think that'll help. This cough just sounds awful, but I do feel that I'm going to survive!

Unaltered Blue Sky

Yes.. this is the actual color of the sky on the day we did the Bear Canyon hike to Seven Falls. Have I mentioned lately how much I love the desert? Well, I'd been puzzling over what to do about the car situation. The problem is that I will need a car when I get back to MI. I will want a car to tow behind the RV for when I travel back and forth. It just makes it handier to go out on errands and to do sightseeing.

But the CRV is at the top of the weight limit for the RV to tow, and I am already running pretty heavy, so I have not wanted to tow all that weight. And, to outfit a car to tow runs about $1300, including wiring for the brake lights and installing the plate in the grill. Did I want to invest all that money into the CRV, when it's really too heavy?

So.. I looked online today to see how much I could expect to get for my CRV in a trade and the answer was... lots! Those things don't lose their value as fast as most cars. Chapman Honda ended up selling me a brand new, fresh-off-the-boat, white Honda Fit, for my car + 1600 + taxes and licensing. Of course, they're getting a great deal, with my sweet li'l car having only 22,800 miles, in new condition. They've probably already sold it! But that's what they need to do to stay in business, and I'm happy for them.

And I'm happy for ME, too! This little car is what Michael and I actually wanted, when we bought the 2007 white CRV, but we opted for the CRV because it had room for the dog crate and the wheelchair, neither of which I need to carry now.

Tomorrow, after hiking, we'll go and finish up the paperwork and pick up the new baby! Jack and I went to Claim Jumper to celebrate, and I ate too much, but it was great.

Other stuff: Jack and I went shopping and got him a couple of nightstands and a lamp, for a total of $40. And he bought some more kitchen gadgets at Bed Bath & Beyond. That guy loves his kitchen gadgets!

Eddie's doing great, loves the new digs, and is eating and carrying on all other bodily functions normally, so I would have to say that his move was a success. I'm having some trouble with my asthma, am taking more meds, and am still not under fantastic control. I think that it's a combination of the dust of moving and the pollen from all the rain-enhanced beautiful flowers we have blooming here. I guess we have to take that cloud along with the silver lining!

Splish! Splash!

This is the sight at the Seven Falls, when we reached the end of the trail. I think that there were at least 100 hikers on the trail altogether. This group includes our hikers. Jack and Eddie did very well together last night for their first night together in their new house, according to Jack's reports. Me? I did great, too, though I did miss the mewing of the cat to awaken me this morning. Instead, I counted on my alarm clock, which I'd set to 7pm instead of 7am. Ah well, I was awake at 6:30, anyway.

I did my Wii Fit Plus, showered, and had breakfast, before heading off to pick Jack up for church. We'd bought flowers to put on the altar in remembrance of Jack's Dad, who died 2 years ago today. Flowers were lovely, service was good, and we left there spirited.

Next we drove up to Casa Grande, to the outlet mall, where I was set to buy some new Corelle. I wanted to check out the patterns and pick out something that'll go with my new living room colors. (I *know* that buying dishes to match one's living room is not the normal procedure, but these *are* small cottages!)

But the Corning store isn't there anymore! And the Kitchen Collection store doesn't have Corelle. Jack picked out a few other things there, though, and I got some workout shorts, so the day wasn't a total waste.

We arrived back just in time to get ready for Adrienne and Dick's party. And what fun that was! While there were a few people from church, there were other friends of theirs from other walks of life and it was just a blast meeting and talking with new folks. The party was catered by My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, and it was very good!

Bathers at Seven Falls

If you look very closely in the clicked-on larger version of this photo, you'll see that that pool is full of bathers! This is the most water that I've ever seen in this area called Seven Falls at the north end of Bear Canyon. In fact, many times that I've hiked this, the "falls" are bone-dry! This evening, I'm exhausted. I worked with Jack all day on cleaning his place, lining shelves, washing new dishes, putting things away, packing up things from here, going out and buying new things at a rummage sale, an estate sale, and Wal*Mart, driving to the warehouse to pick up my new loveseat (thank you, Richard, for letting us borrow your truck!), carrying it into my house, carrying the "old" loveseat out and loading it into the truck, and then getting it settled into Jack's new place, collecting all of Eddie's things and moving him into his new digs, and finally going out to get flowers for church tomorrow, before taking Jack back to his place.

Both Jack and Eddie seem to be well-satisfied with the new house, and I'm so far enjoying the idea of having more freedom and space to spread out. These 400 sq ft cottages are suitable for two compact individuals, who like living a simple sort of life, unencumbered by lots of extras.

The day was very warm, with a reading on one of the bank thermometers of 89°. And, when it's warm here, the sun feels like its rays are actually sharply pointed, piercing your skin. It's a different sort of heat; that's for sure.

This is a shot along the Bear Canyon / Seven Falls trail from our hike on Tuesday, the 6th of April. The hillsides were streaked in yellow with the poppies. What a wonderful sight!

Today I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Lowenstein, here in Tucson. All is well with me, as I had expected, but the real surprise was how promptly I was seen. I arrived on time for my 10:30 appointment, to find the waiting room full. But I waited all of maybe 5 minutes, before I was called back.

Called to wait in another magazine-lined, too-cold room for another half hour? Nope! I was taken into the doctor's office and, no sooner had I taken my seat, but he came in! How often does *that* happen? I wish that every doctor could be so mindful of his patients' time and so diligent about keeping their schedules running well. And, of course, while emergencies do come up, I do wish that more offices were better at handling them.

So I found out that, while my total cholesterol is a little high - 236, my LDL at 148 is evidently high enough to counteract the evils of the high total cholesterol. I have a small nodule in my lung, which showed on chest X-ray, and they think that it's a granulating histoplasmosis, which is the same thing for which Michael had that surgery on his lung, back in 2005 or so. Doc says that mine's calcified, or seems to be so, so he's not concerned. He said that we can repeat the X-Ray in a year.

He told me to keep up the good work with my exercise and that my weight is really perfect. And he said that the Mediterranean Diet would be a good one to follow for heart health and for keeping control of the weight, as well. Sounds like all good stuff -- easy diet to follow!