New Years Eve

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE

 It's another beautiful morning in Arizona.  I know, I've been hoping for sun every day too, but sometimes that just doesn't happen.  It was windy as all get out for most of the day, and quite chilly.  It's a different kind of year for sure.  No worries, it will get warmer come January ... or maybe February.

Mr. Cooper spent a good part of the morning napping, which nailed me to the couch.  You know how it is ... you can't move and wake them up, right??  He's been doing great on this trip and hasn't lost one ounce of his appetite OR one ounce of weight.   

I started the morning with a nice cup of cocoa.  Those little miniature marshmallows don't even last 30 seconds.  But who can turn down COCOA!!! 

Some let's-get-out ideas were thrown around, but Dan had a dentist appointment early in the morning, and made a grocery run.  I suggested Patty and I take the BAT truck out for a run, but better judgement prevailed.  I watched another episode of Landman instead.  

Hey ... let's order stuff from Amazon.  Since there's a huge facility very close by, they get delivery the next day.  If that happens, I'll be microwaving rice and sitting by my new QUIET electric heater.  Time will tell.

Later, Cooper and I took a walk out back and watched the trains go by .  I finally figured out why they can sleep through the trains and I never could.  Right here, the train goes behind a big hill.  MUCH less noise.

When Dan returned, we hacked and chopped up parts and pieces of roasted chicken, then more pieces for an awesome broccoli chicken casserole.  Cooper was in Seventh Heaven when he got a bite or two of that chicken.  I think he could eat the whole thing.

Before dinner, we watched another funny movie about a cowboy on a TV show like the Bachelor.  That brought about big laughs from me!!  

After dinner, the wind would not let up as the clouds returned.  They say it's supposed to rain for the next two days.  Booooo!

Tonight us old folks will probably be celebrating the BALL DROP at 8:00.  So here's my toast, wishing you a very happy New Year's Eve.   Here's to 2026 coming in like gangbusters and NOT bringing snow with it!!

The Vail Gale

Owweeee, Vail Gale is alive and well with 20-25 mph winds all night long.  We were rocking and rolling like Elvis lived next door.  My heater is definitely getting a workout.  My plan to hike over to Arizona Pizza Company went right out the window.  

Mr. Cooper and I stayed snuggled up for most of the morning.  This was after snack time, but before breakfast.  The magic nose woke up as I began to cook the bacon.

So here's the thing ... I've purchased this bacon before and it was precooked.  That's what I thought I was buying, even if the package felt rather heavy.  Wasn't I surprised when I pulled this out of the box.  What is this?  

I read the directions.  Place the plastic package (unopened) in the microwave for two to three minutes.  Remove perfectly cooked bacon and enjoy.  

Okay then, in it went.  When I heard a big pop I opened the door, expecting to see it exploded all over the microwave.  It was still intact, but definitely not cooked.  This is crazy.  I cut open the bag, not realizing the stuff underneath the bacon which was supposed to sop up all the grease, didn't work much at all.   Grease ran everywhere.  This was supposed to be PRECOOKED.

I put it on a paper plate and stuck it back in the microwave.  It would have been easier to just get a regular package of bacon and cook it on paper towels.  What a mess I had to clean up.  On the other hand, the bacon was delicious!!  Even Cooper thought so.

As for those Lays chips, here's the bag.  Made with REAL POTATOES.  Who would have thought potato chips in a bag would be anything else but potatoes.  

Just to be sure, I read the list of ingredients.  I guess I can eat them now.

We watched another two sessions of Landman, when Dan sent me down a dangerous path.  Have you ever had these pretzels?  Good grief ... just one and I was hooked.  These things are not your mother's pretzels.  I was afraid to look at the ingredients ... so maybe I'll check tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon, Cooper and I went out to walk the property.  This is their wonderful greenhouse.  Home to lots of cactus and house plants.  It's the perfect spot to be when it's cold and windy outside.  

Though the landscape is not covered with flowers like in the spring, rain has brought out these pretty yellow ones that dot the landscape.  It was just too cold to stay outside and look for more.  

For dinner we finished up those wonderful turkey sandwiches.  I'm definitely eating WAY too much.  Everything just tastes better in Arizona.  

Here's hoping it warms up a bit today, but I'm not holding my breath.  Gale in Vail is very happy and wants everyone to know it!!

SUNDAY FOOTBALL!!!!!

 Good Morning from sunny Arizona.  Don't be fooled ... it may be sunny, but it's still COLD!  My phone said 43 degrees this morning, and I believe it.  My heater ran all night.  At this rate, I may have to go get another load of propane.

Mr. Cooper, as usual, is up early.  If only he could sleep just an hour more in the morning!

Well yes he did .... AFTER I'm awake and he's had his trip outside, followed by a snack for being a good boy.  He goes right back to sleep!  There's something wrong with this picture!!  If only I could do the same!!

It was pretty much a sleepy-kid day.  Patty and Dan still have their very old kitties too.  This is Snoopy, with built in wiring just for Patty.  This baby cries if Patty goes out of the room for any length of time, and she spends most of her time sleeping on Patty's lap.  I think they are attached at the hip.  They adopted her many years ago, and like Cooper, she looks like a spring chicken!  

Kitters wanted in the pictures too, so here she is with her fascinating eyes.  I've been checking my cameras every day to see if she is still hanging out on my patio.  Yesterday she came out of her little warm house for breakfast, so she hasn't run off to greener pastures yet.  

We watched a couple more episodes of Landman and I wonder if this is based on a true story.  If you are interested, be forewarned, it has lots of bad language and sex.  I wandered in and out to give Mr. Cooper some attention.  When the subject of FOOTBALL came up, I was all over it, having watched a couple of morning games.  

Even BETTER, when Patty said she was thinking about what to have for dinner, Dan said PIZZA.  The vote was 2-1 ... and pizza it was!!  I got my very own "small" because it's easy to stuff the leftovers in my freezer.  

I have to admit, it's a little more fun watching football in California, only because it gets over an hour earlier, meaning I don't stay up TWO hours later watching the very end.  This was one of the best games EVER!!  Did you watch it?  

The San Francisco 49ers played the Chicago Bears.  The 49ers were missing two of their best players, yet they answered every Chicago touchdown with one of their own.  It just went back and forth all night long.  It was an edge of your seat game that the 49ers finally won 42-38.  That Brock Purdy is a magician with a football!!  

I did actually accomplish one thing ... I filled my fresh water tank today.  Woohoo!!!  The best part about traveling in such a small rig is there is little to put away ... and very little to dust!!  I'm still struggling with the streaming movies on TV ... but I'll figure that out eventually.  

Here's to Funday Monday!!!

Song Sung Blue

 Good morning once again from rainy Arizona.  Mr. Cooper says no big deal, he would rather sleep the morning away anyway.  We are down to the mid 40's and my heater is working overtime.  It's okay because I'm not really cold until we get into the 30's, and I doubt that will happen.  

Though our plans used to include long drives to Ghost Towns, Mr. Cooper doesn't last quite last that long any more, so we just hung out until the rain stopped.  I kept checking my cameras to see if Kitters was still around, and I'm happy to report she is at least is coming in to eat.  I feel bad leaving her for so long.  

SO ... let's go see a movie!!  Who ever thought Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) could sing.  Certainly not me.  His co-star Kate Hudson (daughter of Goldie Hawn) played his wife in Song Sung Blue.  

But FIRST ..... movie tickets for 3 ... $31.00.  Medium popcorn for 2 with 2 small cokes ... $29.00.  It's not cheap to go to the movies any more.  Though this wasn't a movie I would probably pick, it certainly kept us interested and enthralled for the entire show.  

If that title sounds familiar, it's a Neil Diamond song.  This was a true story about a couple who became famous singing Neil Diamond songs on stage ... and even opened for Pearl Jam.  Anyone remember them? There are lots of ups and downs and a lot of singing.  I can't say it was my all time favorite movie, but it was excellently done and had us sitting on the edge of our seats.  I won't give the ending away, you'll have to watch the movie.

I hung out with Cooper for a couple of hours before heading inside for dinner.  THIS is that turkey sandwich I had the other day.  Walmart will be my best friend from now on.  This is their sourdough bread that is soft and perfect for sandwiches.  I swear, there is nothing better!  I even had a few bites of Walmart deviled egg potato salad.  I have never EVER bought a pre-made salad that I liked .... until now.  I'll be going back to buy more before I leave for Yuma after New Years.

If the weather would straighten up and fly right, I would head out for a hike.  I am however, allergic to water falling on my head.  Maybe today will bring out the sun.

Song sung blue, everybody knows one ..... it's going to be a week before I get that song out of my head!!

Technology Is A Bad Word

 It was a gorgeous warm day, filled with sunshine.  So what do I do?  I go to the Tucson fairgrounds and dump my tanks.  You know the feeling ... you drive very carefully when you are full to the brim!!!  Lucky for me, there was no one at the gate, so I just drove to the far back end of the grounds.  

So here's my question ... would a little grease on those things help them go together or even better COME APART when you are done?  The end cap will not fit in the long side tube, so it must be removed, washed and kept in a big zip lok bag.  Maybe a silicone spray??  Inquiring minds need to know.

It didn't take but 25 minutes and I was back on the road.  

If the long line of drivers would have been nicer, I might have made it to Walmart.  They refused to let me in, so I went the opposite direction to Safeway $$$$$.  There were no roast chickens on the deck, so I bought a chunk of turkey instead, and my favorite broccoli salad.  The bag of Lays just jumped into my cart all by itself.  

I admit, I'm a little "deflated" that the bag isn't even half full when opened.  I laughed when I read on the front of the package ... made with REAL potatoes.  Are there fake potatoes out there??

Back home with my 1/3 full three tiny bags for $73.00 (no one ever said Safeway was cheap) I put everything away and got out Dan's latest project he made for me.  Any idea what this might be?  

It's a deck to set on my uneven dash to hold the Starlink antenna.  It works like a charm.  

That started the marathon effort to connect my TV to the Wi-Fi.  Good grief ... after an hour I gave up and went to talk to Dan.  We spent another 30 minutes trying to figure it out on HIS television, which resulted in nada.  

I don't get it.  Why do I have to turn my phone Wi-Fi and hotspot ON to get StarLink to work before I can hook the TV up to Starlink?  In fact, StarLink doesn't work unless my phone is connected to Wi-Fi.  I thought that's why I got StarLink ... to connect to the internet!!  Obviously I'm confused.

I should have asked Dan's son, the technical professional, but he was on his lunch hour when he and his wife Chandra came over for an awesome turkey sandwich lunch.  Here's my tip of the day via Dan.  Buy a Butterball turkey BREAST ONLY, bone in, and roast it in the oven.  BEST TURKEY EVER!!

Back outside, I spent another TWO hours trying to hook up Starlink through my phone, then hook up the TV to the StarLink Wi-Fi.  This is all in an effort to download Paramount Plus to my smart TV in the rig so I can watch Landman and other movies.  I'm new to this streaming stuff ... and now I'm frustrated. 

Though I finally got as far as Paramount Plus and tried to download the movie, it just kept opening up YouTube TV and said I had to make a new account.  I'm already paying for the Paramount account!!  Now I need YouTube to have Paramount????  Technology is a BAD WORD!  Now I'm MAD!!

I finally gave up.  It's just way too complicated to go from my phone, to Wi-Fi, to StarLink, to TV, to TV Wi-Fi and it STILL doesn't work.  Maybe it will be easier when I get back home, but then I have to buy a new smart TV for the house.  I give up ... I'm crying UNCLE!!

This finally made me smile.  Patty came outside to check out the rig and we found this stick bug hanging on the wall.  They take on the color of what they are clinging to.  Pretty cool dude!!

Mr. Cooper tried to make it all better with his smiling face.  What a kid this guy is ... and yes, he made me smile, as he does every day!!!

I don't know what's up for today, but I'm hoping it includes a nap.  I've been up since 3:00 because SOMEONE forgot to turn the heater on last night.

The forecast for today?  Rain and cold temps down to the low 60's.  What happened to the SUN??  

CHRISTMAS MORNING

 A very Merry Christmas morning to everyone.  Did Santa come to your house?  Did you give a drum set to your grandson?  We have just been hanging out INSIDE due to the rain.  It gave me lots of time to be thankful for all my fabulous friends.

It started in the early morning when I heard a few drops on the skylight.  Drip drip is always an eye opener in an RV.

And it kept getting worse as the morning went on.  We celebrated by having waffles and bacon for breakfast,  smothered in REAL maple syrup.  I ate it so fast I didn't even get a picture!!

I walked Cooper, we watched movies, I walked Cooper, we watched movies and I walked Cooper again.  In between we reminisced over old times.

In the meantime, my black tank is full to the brim.  RATS!!  A trip is required to the fairgrounds today to dump.  

This picture is to show you the green thumbs that live here.  That first plant on the right?  It's the relative of the one Patty and Dan got when they married so many years ago.  There are still versions growing in their greenhouse.  As you can see, the flowers are all very happy campers.

The last trip out with Cooper is when I spotted this.  These are carpenter ant hills I think?  They make huge craters all over this area.  Oh and by the way, trains still go chugging by.  Luckily they pass behind a big hill back of the house, so they are not very noisy.

Next, I got an education in streaming.  Dan has Paramount+, the one with the movie 1883, and Landman.  It was a mistake to watch one episode of that.  It's addicting.  I'm not sure if I can watch much on my Starlink low gigabyte usage limit, but I might be able to use it at home.  That of course requires a Smart TV.  Mine is about 20 years old and pretty dumb.  We'll see where this goes.

In the meantime, I'm cuddling with this guy ... a bit sleepy after his nap.

It wasn't too long before the sun came out and it warmed up.  More walks, more movies and more of that tasty beef stew.  

Not much going on during this lovely Christmas Day, but it's been wonderful hanging out with my friends and their two sweet kitties.  Speaking of kitties, Kitters disappeared, having me very worried.  She didn't show up on my camera for breakfast or dinner.  Finally at 6:30 last night, she was on the table eating.  Truly, I hope she hangs around until I get back and doesn't take up with anyone else.  I guess time will tell.  

And so I'm off to take care of the most fun of RV jobs ... dumping the tanks.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2025

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! 

It was a rough ride for Santa with all the rain and snow, but I think he made it around the world in record time.  I'm sure I saw him flying over last night, saluting the flag along the way.  The weather wasn't exactly celebrating his arrival here in Arizona.

Christmas Eve started off with rain ... in the desert ... when it's supposed to be sunny and gorgeous.  It's even heading down to the 40's at night.  BRRRRR ... it's a good thing I have a small house and a big heater!!

Mr. Chance came out to the rig for a new project that will fit right here on the dash.  Hopefully it will be dry and cured today.  I'll show you that one later.

Cooper wanted to wish everyone Merry Christmas, so I whipped up this card for him.  My first try, so maybe I'll get better at it over time.  He's been doing very well, spending most of his time smelling the bunny rabbit trails and wanting to crawl under the bush and leap down the cliff to where they hide.  

We watched a few movies last night, testing our investigation and deductive skills on Lincoln Lawyer and catching up on Land Man.  

That was followed up by Dan's famous beef stew ... of which I ate WAY too much ... and Chef Patty's biscuits!!  I'm going to weigh a ton when I leave here.  

Today will be a quiet one while we hunker down and stay warm.  I timed it perfectly ... 6 days of clouds and two big days of rain!!  I'm making up my Walmart list and checking it twice, but the crowds are keeping me at bay.  After Christmas returns and sales are not my thing.

And so I will wish you all a very Merry Christmas with family and friends, and thank you for reading about my crazy days.  Nothing brightens up my day more than reading your responses.  

One last thought ..... remember the Reason for the Season!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!

Merry Christmas Eve from lovely WARM Arizona.  On the OTHER hand, I woke up to rain this morning.    It's not one of their crazy storms, just nice quiet rain, the kind that makes you want to stay in bed. This was yesterday's sunrise.  I just love the pink skies.

I did have a bit of a problem yesterday however.  This is Control Panel 101.  There are FOUR different panels to navigate.  You might think this would be easy ... just tap the icon to start up the heater.  There are at least two or three things you need to do BEORE you tap.  On this morning, no matter what I did, I could not get either the heater OR the hot water heater to work.  

Oh Joy!!!  Instead of calling on Dan, I called on Canada.  When I purchased this rig, I received the phone number of my personal representative who resides in Canada where this thing was built.  No matter when you call, they answer.  Ryan is his name and he's a Saint.  After listening to me describe the problem, he said "easy peasy".  Turn the main control screen off ... count to 3 ... turn it back on.  It resets everything.  TA-DA!!   It worked.  

When I turned the heater on before the gas, it went into lockdown mode.  Reset the main control screen and it resets the mode.  Heater works .... hot water heater works.  Easy peasy is right.

A bit later, I set Cooper up for a few hours and we were off to the top of Mount Lemon ski resort.  Yessiree ... in the middle of the desert is a mountain with a ski resort at the top.  

It being the week of Christmas, everyone was off work and on their bikes riding up the hill.  No WAY said I, it's WAY too steep for bicycle riding.  But climbing ... I could do that.  This guy climbed to the top while the guy/gal at the bottom belayed him.  Lots of picture taking followed.

The higher you go, the farther you can see.  It's interesting, because as you drive along, you think you are in the desert ... when really, you are in a big valley.

I should have been a geologist because the rock formations fascinate me.  Layer upon layer, then this piece falling off the top of the hoodoo.

SURPRISE!!  We even ran into a little snow from the last rain.  Maybe this rain will bring a little snow for Christmas.

Though there were quite a few people up there, the ski lifts were not running.  You may remember me talking about this little town almost burning down a few years ago, but you can barely tell it happened now.  There is a new hotel with lots of rentable cabins, and road work all through town.  Too bad for us, the restaurant we came to for lunch, was closed for Christmas.

BUT WAIT ... there is a place called the Divine Bovine in Tucson.  Burger Central!!  Believe it or not, Habit Burger closed down.  This humongous burger and a bowl full of French fries is a suitable replacement.  They are so big, Patty and I got the "kids" burger and fries.  It was double what I can eat, but I ate it all!!!

Back home, Mr. Cooper was still sleeping.  He's waiting for Santa to come by.  So if you see this guy, please tell him Cooper is in ARIZONA!!!

This was my view last night before bed.  What looks like a full moon, is only at one quarter.  As you can see by the flag, it was a tad bit windy as this storm came blowing in.

I hope everyone is having a great time with family and friends.  Remember the reason for the season!!!  And be good, because Santa Clause is coming to town TONIGHT!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE TO EVERYONE!!