As our dear friend, Linda, would say “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans”. And so it has been for us these past few months which is why these pages have remained blank for so long. Things are, we hope, back on track now and we can continue our odyssey more or less on schedule.
Finding something interesting to report on from a retirement community is pretty difficult. (At least interesting to other people – we find it endlessly fascinating.) We can’t imagine that you are remotely interested in hearing about our doctor or dentist appointments, craft projects started and/or abandoned, or home improvement expenditures. Okay, that was pretty interesting – we had a new roof put on the house thanks to a leak at a solar tube in the guest bathroom. The new roof eliminated the leak and the solar tube, leaving the bathroom dark enough now to serve as a bat cave. We are in the process of deciding whether or not to have another tube installed in a slightly different location. Facing this fairly major expense, we’ve come to realize that having a home, whether it rolls down the road or sits in one place, is a big pain in the wallet.
The Phoenix area has been blessed with good weather all winter. It got down near freezing one or two nights in December, but for the most part it has been warm and sunny. We recently got a nice soaking rain to keep things looking good. 
Of course it came at a time when the citrus trees were in bloom and now the yard is filled with orange blossom petals. The air smells heavenly and the back yard fairly hums with bee activity. We do have a mystery brewing with the grapefruit tree. Last year all the fruit was round and normal-looking but somewhat small; this year many are extremely large and lumpy, looking for all the world like a raging case of cellulite, more like pomelos than grapefruit. We have no idea why and need to pose the question to the master gardeners who regularly visit the local library.
Not long ago I took a bus trip into downtown Phoenix to attend the Quilt Show. The featured guests were members of the Tentmakers of Cairo, makers of hand-appliqued quilts with intricate patterns unique to the Middle East. Given the number of man hours required to make these minor works of art, they were very fairly priced.
One of the quilting challenge themes happened to be cows and it was great fun to see how each quilter interpreted the theme. Silliness prevailed, along with vivid imaginations. I’ve decided that bus tours are highly desirable, floating along in a big Prevost with traffic and parking someone else’s problem. I look forward to other trips in the near future.
Not long ago, Russ and Rochelle joined us at an afternoon concert at the rec center. The featured entertainers billed themselves as “O.K. Chorale”, a trio of singer/musicians who performed many old Western songs in barbershop harmony. It was a delightful show and a very pleasant way to spend a weekday afternoon. If you find yourselves in Arizona and they are performing nearby, we hope you’ll take the opportunity to hear them.
We’ve been so pleased to have a number of friends, mostly from our RVing circle, dropping by for visits when they found themselves “in the neighborhood”. One particularly pleasant weekend comes to mind when our faux in-laws, Gail and Ruthee, were able to squeeze in a brief visit on their way back to Casa Grande just as David and Shirley were enroute back to their digs in Mesa and Randy and Lonna were camped out at an RV resort very nearby. The house seemed dreadfully quiet after everyone had gone off in different directions.
Due to budget constraints, Luke Air Force Base has foregone it’s biennial open house and air show for several years running. Luke has been selected as the training headquarters for pilots of all services for the new (and controversial) F-35A jet fighters and so they wanted to introduce these new planes to the neighborhood. Thus the open house and air show was back on this year. Either more spectators showed up than expected or the powers-that-be forgot how to direct traffic, but getting to the Base was an exercise in patience and endurance. We sat in traffic for a couple of hours, traveling no more than half a mile an hour, to reach Parking Area B. Then we stood in line for nearly another hour to pass through the cursory inspection station before boarding a bus to be transported to the air field. All the while most of the air show was going on above us so we had something to divert our attention. By the time we reached the area where the static displays were parked, I was too leg-weary to do more than sit in the shade under the wing of a large military transport and people-watch.
The highlight of the program, aside from the chance to see the F-35A up close and personal, was a performance by the Air Force Thunderbirds scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. (more or less). Just as the team was assembling for take-off a strong wind galloped out of the West and set up a dust storm that threatened to put a halt to everything. Some of the tents set up for vendors were in danger of being blown over and we were ever more certain the performance would be scrubbed. Like so many cows in a blizzard, we all turned our backs to the wind, closed our eyes and tried not to get too sand-blasted. But before too long the wind died down enough so the Thunderbirds were able to get in their performance. We have no idea how much they might have had to modify their program due to the wind conditions but it is still a thrill-a-minute performance. You can check out the crew on their website, where we learned that the Thunderbirds had first formed as a performance group at Luke AFB in the 1950s.
The Sun Bowl concert season has started up again and Lonna and Randy were able to join us for the first one, an Eagle’s cover band known as “Take It To The Limit”. Never have we seen such a crowd at the Sun Bowl. Traffic moved along smartly (maybe the Posse should be invited to direct traffic at the next Luke open house) but, even with our early start, we found ourselves perched in the very last row and in danger of rolling backward down the hill to the parking lot. We couldn’t see much, not that there’s much to see, but the sound was fine and we bounced around to the music and enjoyed the cool, clear evening.
There may be more frequent updates. Or there may not. Just depends. Stay tuned to find out.
