How Did We Get HERE?!

Our youngest daughter reminded us the other day about the greatness of living in a small town.  Her daughter was at an away track meet, it was a chilly, spring afternoon and she was without an extra layer of clothes.  Angela wasn't able to make the meet but sent out several texts to other moms who might be there to "rescue" my granddaughter!  No luck!  One of her co-workers overheard her dilemma and told her to wait while she contacted her own daughter that lived in the town where the meet was being held.  She probably had something Camille could borrow.  Sure enough, within a few minutes and another quick phone call, there was a sweatshirt waiting at the gate for one very chilly sophomore long jumper.  Angela and I laughed later about the simple joy of us living so many years in small towns and being able to connect with just about anyone at anytime.  

And yet here her parents have landed in the midst of 4.5 million people - living in the 12th largest metropolitan area according to the 2015 census - and the next county west of us (Maricopa) gains 222 people everyday!!  This Valley of the Sun that encompasses the Phoenix area is really only two counties, Maricopa and Pinal, but together they total over 14,600 square miles of land.  That's alot of land but most of it really isn't fit for habitation so we're all squeezed in fairly closetogether!  From our side of the valley, which is just about as far east as one can go with the exception of Gold Canyon about 5 miles farther east, to the west side of the valley at Buckeye, the farthest community, it takes us at least 90 minutes of travel time - provided the traffic is light through the city!  It's a good 90 miles across the city.  The first time we took that trip I thought our odometer was broken!  

But you know with all that goes on with city life - crime, traffic, sometimes the chaos - it's a great place to live.  We can get to the grocery store, church, hardware store, doctor's office, the movies, the mall or the lumberyard in a few minutes.  Sometimes we take the freeway and sometimes we take the backroads and enjoy the stoplights along the way.  That way we can see what's new along the way.  Pretty soon the traffic will die down as all the winter visitors will be gone and it will be like a ghost town around here.  We'll get right in at any restaurant and the lines will be much shorter at any store.  But Dave will still be at the Fry's Grocery Store helping us regulars find what we need and Karie and Nancy will be at the doctor's offices answering the phone when I call to make appointments.  Maybe we've found our own version of a small town out here livin' in the valley.  It makes for a great day in our corner of the world. 

Tap Tap - Drum Drum

We are all familiar with having to wait in traffic and how the seemingly endless seconds go on and on.  We find ourselves tapping our foot on the floor or drumming fingers on the console getting a bit more impatient as time drags on.  This past week, each time Dean and I have been in the car I have heard those sounds and a few more but they aren't coming from my side of the car since I'm not the passenger right now!  Since Dean's surgery, he has to put up with my chauffeuring him around and those sounds are his way of letting me know he's not impatient with the slow traffic but with my driving skills!

Any of you ladies that have had to step up to Driver #1 know what I'm talking about and also know that we often do this only under duress!  If it weren't for illness I wouldn't drive Dean anywhere!  But - he's stuck with me behind the wheel until Tuesday and lucky for him that appointment is with his cardiologist - we might kill two birds with one stone that day - get his stitches out and make sure his heart is strong enough to withstand more adventures on the highway if I have to drive him around for another week!  Tap - Tap - Drum - Drum!  I can only pray the doctor relents and allows him behind the wheel soon.  I've already given him my ugly "knock it off" like I used to do to Angela when she'd misbehave in the car (about 30 years ago!!)  Much more tapping or drumming and I may tell him that I'll stop the car right where we are and make him walk home from there!

On a much happier theme we have been having some great weather here and enjoying walking the park each day.  We live amongst approximately 280 other mobile homes so we have quite a nice little community here.  Nice wide paved streets, a library, community center, pool and hot tub, exercise room, shuffleboard, horseshoe pit, bocce ball and pickle ball areas and a great place for outdoor gatherings with 2 grills.  We walk the outer perimeter each day and that's about a mile.  When Dean is really back on his feet we will go up and down each street and that will add another 1 1/2 miles.  This time of the year many are heading home and we are saying good-bye more each day.  It is a beautiful time of the year in the East Valley with the base of the mountain very green and much of the cacti beginning to bloom.  

This bougenvilla has really been beautiful all winter. 

Across the street from this house are 4 smaller bushes in 

this rose color and 1 in gold.  The gold one is the only one of it's kind that

we have in the park that I know of.

This is our ocotillo off our back patio.  It is taller than the

patio roof with orange blooms.  

Once the stalks die some people make walking

sticks out of the thicker branches.

Sorry but I don't know the name of this one!  

I do have the same one in my yard but it hasn't bloomed yet!  

Mine will be pink instead of orange.  

We found this one on our walk yesterday. 

Of course all of these lovely blooms have caused lots of sneezing and stuffiness for lots of us and that has not been the fun part of spring!  But I would rather keep that box of tissues close by than be anywhere else right now.  Besides - to be anywhere else, I would have to drive and that means more of that Tap - Tap - Drum - Drum and I'm not sure I'm up to that!  I'm running out of 30 year old threats!

Have a great day in your part of the world - we're having a wonderful time livin' on valley time!

    

We're Back!

It's been a long dry spell for us and I decided to go at this writing from another angle.  Since we have officially settled in one spot and are no longer "on the road" for any length of time I thought it would be fun to simply write about the happenings and the folks we see and know here in the East Valley.

We've had quite a year or so since our last voyage in our little camper - it is now long gone as is the pick-up that pulled it! No surprise there!  We are now on vehicle #115 - a Hyundai Tuscan.  Dean told me I could pick this vehicle out since I had so much trouble driving and parking the truck!    I like my little red buggy - it gets me where I want to go and I can park it at the grocery store without fear of running over someone with the cow-catcher on the front!  It can only pull a small 4 x 8 trailer but that's OK.  It's working out fine for small runs to Home Depot or Lowe's for projects that now seem to consume our thoughts!

As we decided to stop the traveling and settle down, the big dilemma was what to do with the 5th wheel.  It still is - and currently sits on a consignment lot waiting for the right buyer to come along.  It is a constant source of prayer for not only us but many people who know the financial drain this is becoming.  As we found our home in the mobile home resort where we now live and were in the process of moving, Dean had a stroke and at the end of that week, the day he was released from the hospital, the consignment company came and hauled the rig away.  It has now been there a year with less than sterling results.  But we still continue to pray and hope.  

In the meantime, Dean has recovered from his stroke, gone through lots of therapy, had more surgeries and is currently recovering from the insertion of a pacemaker/defibrillator just this past weekend.  This was always a fall-back procedure that he was to have but his condition had to get just so before he could have it done.  Stitches will come out next week and slowly he will begin to be able to get back to doing what he wants.  No golf for a time but that's a small price to pay for a healthy husband.

We anticipate a return to Iowa in time for Mother's Day and a high school graduation for one of the granddaughters!  It will be wonderful to see family again.  Many of our friends here are beginning to pack up and begin their journeys home - some will not return as they feel it time to stay close to family due to health concerns.  I'm sure our family has had that same thought in the past 12 months.  But at this time we can only reassure them we are getting great care here and feel safe and content in our new home.  

Our park is full of fun activities and fine, caring people.  Many do stay for the whole year so we do have friends we see all year round.  And we are as active as we can be in our church here.  My brother now lives just about 5 minutes away in a group home so I keep an eye on him and we see each other at least once a week.  

It is a good life here and we feel very blessed to have this time to enjoy the weather, our friends and each other.  As one of my Facebook friends is fond of saying - it's a good day in my corner of the world.  I pray it is in yours as well!

 Welcome to our New Home !