This And That

One of our readers, Jody Rhode, left the following comment:

Son was UPS Driver for years..UPS delivers thousands of packages all over the world everyday. One little mistake on the wording on the label and whoops your package goes to the wrong place. I think it is amazing that you finally got it at all. Just saying...

In this day and age of internet shopping and instant gratification it’s amazing most packages reach their destination on time.  Amazon Prime with its promised two day delivery has stressed the capabilities of shipping companies.  Then add in Wal Mart who ships for free if you purchase $35 or more—Wal Mart disbanded its membership program and is refunding money to those all ready enrolled.  The company also reduced the free shipping limit from $50 to $35.  And then there is Zappos—one of my favorite shoe stores—they ship next day delivery and also have free shipping for returns.  Yep, it’s amazing anything reaches its destination on time!

A walk in the morning desert—“come on Mom, enough with the photo taking!”

A very noisy cactus wren.

During the last month or so Michael has been painting the trim on our house—the house is a non-descript beige/yellow and the new trim paint really helps the appearance.

I know you guys don’t want to read another haircut story so let’s just say this young woman who cut my hair the last two times needs to find a new profession.

Guess who blew in today—Sarge—on his motorcycle which he stores in Nevada flying down from Montana on occasion to enjoy some warmth and sunshine.  He treated us to lunch at Nichols West—my green chile burge was delicious!

And, here’s a sneak peak at the little quilt which has given me more gray hairs--

The pattern is called It’s A Dogs Life—the quilt is finally going together as it should—only one more border. 

Oranges—sour little buggers!

The lemon tree is loaded with fruit again.

Back Home

After our little road trip we are back home just dealing with the mundane daily chores—you know the ones—laundry, dog bathing, etc.  We enjoyed happy hour with the gang this afternoon—Tom and Sandy, Joe and Kathy, Mike minus Cathy—at Larry and Geri’s house/garage. 

Back in Montana the cute little cowgirl is riding her horse.  Lora along with her mom and dad will be heading to Germany soon—it’s sure gonna be quiet around that house when they go!

Here’s an Amazon story for you.  I ordered from Amazon a new cover for my iPad—it was to be delivered via our two day shipping Prime membership.  The cover didn’t arrive on the designated day and when I would “track” the package I received this message both from Amazon and UPS: we are unable to estimate a delivery day at this time.”  HUH???  So, a week after the package should have been delivered and I was still getting the above message I emailed Amazon.  Explaining the situation I said, “I don’t want you to refund my money, I just want you to explain why I pay $100 per year for Prime that doesn’t work.” 

Almost immediately I received an email—apologies, a refund for the cost of the item ($10) and a $10 gift card.  The person assured me they had contacted the shipping company (UPS) and told them to deliver my item the next day which would have been Wednesday—the iPad cover didn’t come until the next Monday!  I don’t know what UPS was doing with the package—taking it for a ride around the country??

I think an ATV ride is on the agenda for tomorrow—it’s warming up again—thank goodness!

An Adventure

The cowboy, Emmi and I are off on an adventure—we are actually staying in a hotel and after the night we had—we realize why we drive that big pink motorhome all over the United States!  Our room was so blessed hot last night I could have sworn they were trying to roast us and we even had the heat off!  At some time during the night Michael tried to open a window with no success—his handy wife figured out how to open it this morning.

We are out looking at properties and our realtor received a lesson in what not to do with your car fob—don’t leave the fob in the car with the windows rolled up if a certain little black dog has been left in the car!!!  Oops!!  Thanks goodness the realtor who had the listing showed up—he was kind enough to drive Michael and Pam back to our truck.  The two of them went to Pam’s house to retrieve another fob.  And at least it was a really cold day and Emmi wasn’t locked in the car in 90 degree heat!!

It’s a nice hotel and I used Marriott points to pay for our room—free is good—I should receive something for sitting in those aluminum tubes breathing germs!  It’s a suite hotel so we have a little kitchenette.  I had to laugh when I showered this morning—the shower head is so high up on the wall the jolly green giant or my brother Ross could stand under it! 

We will be in this area for another day or two then head back to North Ranch.  

Ladies Day Out

Early this morning Geri, Sandy, Kathy and I left North Ranch heading for the outlet mall at Anthem just north of Phoenix.  It was a great day of talking, shopping and lunch!  I hit the mother lode—I found jeans which actually fit—amazing!!!  I was so excited I think the sales person thought I had lost my mind—I could just see her thinking, “who gets that excited over jeans???”  Well—someone who intensely dislikes today’s low rise jeans—I want jeans which reach my waist or almost to my waist and they are hard to find!  The selection of jeans in stores gives me an instant headache—super skinny/not so skinny/straight/low rise/super low rise(not going there)/boot cut—and the list goes on and on. 

I found a helpful sales person who pointed me in the right direction and I purchased three pair of Levi 314 jeans—almost to my waist, fitted in the thighs and straight legs—not skinny!  I was almost giddy to find jeans which fit—the cowboy approved when I modeled the jeans for him!

And in the Columbia store I found the cowboy a vest he actually liked—very much—he hasn’t removed it since I came home!

Another rainy/cool day yesterday and very cool/partly sunny today.  Michael did a little carpenter work Monday, installing the floor trim in the kitchen/dining area.  After taking apart the little art quilt on Sunday I managed to get the main blocks and sashing re-done—much, much better! 

Mr. Brooks

Lora with Aunt Katie and Parker the horse.

Snow On The Arizona Mountains

We received over an inch and a half of rain—the mountains around us received the white stuff!

Saturday evening we had another wonderful gathering of friends—Sandy and Tom, Joe and Kathy, Geri and Larry plus Washington Mike who came down to Arizona for a quick visit.  I cooked a brisket in the oven for most of the day making the house smell divine.  The gang made sure there was not a shortage of food, providing the rest of the fixings. 

Today was another one of those chilly, deary January days and I spent the day fighting that irregular quilt.  Finally gave up and took out every seam—late this afternoon I seemed to be making progress.  The cowboy has been watching football—an unusual event—he’s not a sports fan and I’m glad!  He’s also been painting—trying a new technique--

My dear sister Ann celebrates her birthday on January 22—happy, happy birthday Ann!

CPR Class

Up the Boulder at the former Boulder River Ranch which was owned by our dear friends Jeane and Steve.  Jeane and Steve used to have some wild New Years Eve ice skating parties on that pond—and you can see the Boulder River to the left of the pond.   Photo by Dale Oberly.

On Wednesday Geri, Tom, Sandy and I joined lots of other North Ranchers for a CPR class taught by the Congress Volunteer Fire Department.  It was a different kind of CPR class than the ones I took in my former life—modified to fit our circumstances. 

Thursday Larry and Geri kept the Emmi girl while we made a Costco run—we also enjoyed a great lunch at the Haymaker restaurant in Peoria.  If you can believe it—the desert is getting soggy and our high temperature today was 46 degrees!  It started raining yesterday and has really rained hard most of the afternoon.   I went into Wickenburg this afternoon to check out the new yoga studio opening on Monday—nice young woman who owns the studio—sure wish her success! 

Our grapefruit are ripe and delicious this year.

The North Ranch resident owls are prone to perch on the TV antennas—folks complain their signal changes when the owls take off sending the antenna in another direction.

Took this photo with the camera I purchased from Mike McFall.

It Couldn’t Have Happened In A Better Place

North Ranch is about to experience some “winter” weather this week—maybe even a sprinkling of snow!  The ATV gang decided we might better take a ride before it got really cold!  Tuesday even though it was “cold” at 45 degrees we all bundled up in our heavy clothes and took off on the ATVs.  First stop was in Congress at the clinic for me to receive a TB skin test—for my little nursing job.

Geri is our fearless leader usually and we spent the morning crawling up hills and over rocks in a forest of saguaros.  We stopped on top of a steep hill to enjoy lunch with a view—we could see the town of Agilla. 

After lunch we came down off the mountains and started out across a more flat area—and thank goodness!  We went around a corner and it felt as if we had run over a very big rock—except there were no big rocks—Michael looked back about the same time I realized we were tilting and said a few choice words.

Our wheel and tire fell off!!  The tire was on the ground behind the CanAm!  The rig was not driveable—we were at least close to Highway 71 which leads to Congress.  Our friend Mike had just arrived the night before from Washington minus Cathy who stayed behind—the cowboy and Mike made a quick run back to North Ranch retrieving the jeep and trailer.  The rest of the gang waited with me.  We were just dang lucky to be in a spot where we could get the jeep to the CanAm!!

My Mike had the spare parts and repaired the outside rear axle bearing today—the yellow rig is ready to go again!

Today I took a class—more on that experience in the next blog!