April 9-30: Getting Ready To Roll

April 30, 2013

Cederholm Compound, Peoria, AZ

Yes, the “Cederholm Compound” exists, if only on Foursquare so we can check in. And yes, we’re about to “blow this clambake”, as we used to say back in the day.

Our travel route for the next few weeks is set, the coach is loaded and fueled up, Geri has her dental work completed, and the house is about as stabilized as it’s going to get. We’ve put all the yard stuff away, the bikes are stored upside down (prevents damage to the tires over the summer), and everything’s locked up or down, depending. I’ve drained the hot water heater (we have hot water in the coach if needed) and applied sunscreens to key windows and plastic wrap to the loo bowls (amazingly, there is always still water in there when we get back in the fall).

We used to say “and not a moment too soon” in years past, but we have been here just long enough to feel a lick of the fire they call “summer” in these parts. It’s actually been a pretty temperate month, or at least it was up until last Friday.

Temperatures zoomed up into and through the 90s and the past three days have been at or over 100°F. Yep, just in time for our final loading and preparation. Fortunately, we were ready and did our outside activities early in the day or after dark.

I washed the Rover the other night around 8:30 PM, walking that fine line between having it cool off and starting complaints from the neighbors who retire at dusk.

In other news, we’re still worried about Maya Lynn, as her tumor hasn’t responded well to the oral chemotherapy. We visited the oncologist mid-month and they changed the medication, but we’re not sure what’s going on. We have an appointment with a clinic in Connecticut in mid-May, so we’ll be able to have her blood tested and see if there has been any “shrinkage”. Fortunately, she continues to tolerate the medication well with no discernable side effects.

And, spending extra time to get ready for travel hasn’t kept us from eating well and managing the wine box contents. Our neighbors, Robert and Christine, invited us over for a traditional “Family Style” meal, Boulli Québécois, which was awesome. We will definitely try our own take on this one when we’re visiting friends and family.

The next 9-10 travel days are the part of this whole year’s adventure that we’re approaching with a little trepidation. As we’ve gotten more comfortable with our travels, we’ve grown less interested in having to be somewhere at a specific time, especially if there’s some distance involved. This summer was shaping up to be a leisurely cross-country trip until our departure was delayed. But, we’ll persevere!

It looks like the best route for us to take is one we’ve used before: north out of Phoenix to Flagstaff, then east on I-40 all the way to Memphis. We’ll make a detour to visit friends and family in Alabama for a few days (we wanted to stay longer), so we’ll take US-78 (which could now be I-22 according to some maps) to Birmingham.

Departing Alabama, we’ll head northeast on I-59, take I-24 around Chattanooga, and pick up I-75 back to I-40, then I-81 all the way to the Northeast. We’ll shift to I-84 from Scranton to Hartford, then I-91 north. We should be in Alabama May 4-7 and get to Connecticut on May 9^th.

After that? We’ll be back to “normal”, figuring it out as we go…

And finally, we’re remembering Mom, who would have been 87 this week…

Wrapping up another season in AZ

April 8, 2013

Cederholm Compound, Peoria, AZ

Well, we’re getting ready to wrap up another winter here in Arizona and hit the road for the “summer season”. It’s gotten hot already, although we haven’t hit the magical 100°F mark yet. Life has thrown some unexpected curves our way this spring, which will unfortunately impact both our travel schedule and budget. But, we’ve learned to roll with the punches and we’ll persevere as always. No whining!

The weather has turned warmer – much warmer! We’ve had several spells with temperatures well up into the 90s.  The highest I’ve seen so far on our little home weather station is 97°F.

We’ve continued to eat and drink well, using a combination of newly discovered recipes and old favorites. I won’t bore you with the food porn pictures; there are enough on our Facebook pages!

Our new neighbors, Robert and Christine, have returned from their home near Ottawa (brrrr…), and the pups have been having fun with their Bichon, Shakira.

On the medical front, Maya continues to tolerate the chemotherapy for her small tumor well, but the tumor itself may not be responding as initially expected. We’re scheduled for a return visit to the oncologist next week, and there may be a change of medications in the cards.

On the other hand, the dental community is definitely feeling our support this year. That’s driving much of the budgetary overage and keeping us here a little longer than originally contemplated. In prior posts, I’d mentioned that I had a 4-tooth bridge replaced early in the year and that Geri had survived “pocket reduction surgery” in February.

Unfortunately, her follow-up perio-cleaning identified a tooth with decay. As an “anchor tooth” for a 4-tooth bridge, this was not good. We asked for a miracle (“Sure, I can inject some medicated bonding in there and it’ll be as good as new”) or a reprieve (“OK, I can make it hold until you get back in the fall”) and got neither. Instead, it’s the “We can expedite a root canal and a new 5-tooth bridge and get it done by the end of the month” plan. We can’t complain too much since we both feel like we have top-notch dental professionals (prosthodontist and periodontist), but there went this year’s budget for diesel fuel and RV parks. Selling the old bridgework at the Cash-For-Gold place probably won’t help much. C’est la vie; that’s life on a retiree’s income. It’s amazing how your perspective on investments changes after retirement. Sure, we have a tidy nest egg and will never hurt for money, but knowing it has to last you the rest of your life makes things different…

Anyway, none of this compares to the real excitement on the medical front in mid-March. Fortunately (or unfortunately; you get to choose) for you, Dear Reader, I can’t/won’t go into a lot of detail because Geri would kill me and, frankly, it’s icky. Suffice it to say that she had complications after a routine screening procedure that everyone is supposed to have once they’re over 50 and ended up with a trip to the ER that turned into a 3-day hospital stay when a blood vessel burst. Scariest thing I’ve seen outside the movies. But, all’s well that ends well, and she’s almost back to normal. The funniest part was the look on Geri’s face when the gastroenterologist recommended a repeat in one year. “Yeah, right”!

So, now our attention turns to wrapping things up and getting ready to hit the road. The house is pretty well set, as we have the shutdown activities well cataloged at this point. I have a couple of things to do with the coach but they are either regular maintenance (like wash it inside and out and check all the fluids) or small projects (an improved locking mechanism to help the new freezer not open during a left turn, upgrading some of the storage spaces to fit more junk stuff).

The key things on the to-do list have been addressed. The batteries that feed all the inside functions were replaced back in January, and the isolator that keeps both banks of batteries charged has been replaced after it failed.  The small air leak in the leveling system has been fixed (knock on wood) and the bad brake caliper that has been bothering me for the past several years was replaced. Although I’m still a do-it-yourself kind of guy, it really helped to have a local shop with a lift for the air leak rather than having to try to find and fix it lying on the ground with the suspension sinking toward me.

Our travel plans are still pretty fluid at this point. We expect that Geri’s new choppers will be delivered on April 30^th and that we’ll essentially be ready to go at that point, so an early start on May 1^st looks likely. We’ll head east, doing a drive-by with friends and family in Alabama before turning north to Connecticut to watch Britt graduate from UCONN (“Go, Lady Huskies”) on Mother’s Day. After that, it’s all undefined other than “be back in Arizona in November”. We’ll connect with family and friends by Memorial Day and have a plan that gets us home!

Ahhhh, Spring!

March 10, 2013

Cederholm Compound, Peoria, AZ

Well, the calendar might disagree, but spring is definitely in the air. Ahhhh-Choo!!! Yep, it’s pollen season in the desert. All of us have begun sneezing and itching, and the neighborhood yards are filling up with weeds. We did have some chilly weather in February, but temperatures are definitely on the rise. Woo-Hoo!

So, what’s been going on here at Cederholm West? Well, things are going well, all things considered. I got a batch of things sold on eBay and cleared enough for a tank of diesel for the coach. I have two more batches to go; maybe we’ll have enough to make our way east this summer!

I mentioned the weather, and it’s actually been reasonably decent this winter. We did have one really cold (for here) snap, which caused quite a bit of freeze damage to foliage around the ‘hood. We’ve had a couple of storms roll through, providing just enough moisture to drive those weeds. We even had some frozen precipitation! No, not snow, although there was some of that dangerously close to us at higher elevations. There’s this kind of sloppy hail that’s called “graupel” that is more prevalent here. It’s like a Slurpee fell from the sky, and it’s enough to get excited about. At least the local news people seemed to be living on the edge of sanity.

It’s been interesting to watch the temperatures rise, as they seem to gather up momentum before breaking through various levels. We had a few days of 50s before a run of days in the 70s, then a few days in the 60s before a good stretch with highs right around 80°F. We’re in a bit of a dip in temperatures for the past two days, so I’m guessing we’ll have our first 90° day by the end of next week!

We’ve started getting the coach ready for travel. I’ve done a few maintenance tasks, verifying that the new batteries I installed in January are set up to maintain the proper electrolyte levels and doing a few fix-up tasks. I had it in the shop to fix a sticking brake caliper and fix a small air leak in the suspension system (Geri nicknamed the coach “Eileen” because it settled to one side after a few days), except that the shop didn’t quite fix the leak. I ordered the right parts myself and they should be here in a few days, so it’ll go back later this month. It’s probably something I could fix myself, except I don’t want to crawl under with deflated air bags.

On the medical front, Geri survived the “pocket reduction surgery” by the periodontist with no lingering effects other than confirmation that she can’t tolerate Tramadol for pain. And, Maya Lynn is doing extremely well with her chemotherapy, tolerating the oral medication we give her three times a week well (no, dogs don’t lose their hair on chemo). We had our first follow-up appointment and her blood tests (primarily white blood cell count) were fine. We go back to the oncologist in about ten days for the next check in.

On the fun side, we had a little surprise party for Geri’s birthday last month. Our friends Ana and Larry (and their pups, Molly and Tsunami) came over for dinner, and we were able to pull it off without Geri knowing, other than she was wondering about a few weird things I’d said/done. As good time was had by all, and some fine wine was consumed.

We’ve continued to eat well. I know; what a surprise! We’ve gotten back into our habit of scanning or downloading interesting recipes from magazines and TV shows, and trying them out a few nights a week. Once we identify a “keeper”, then we’ll try to personalize and perfect it. Of course, we also throw in a few favorite recipes as well, like Pasta Marinara and Rack of Lamb. Just because…

We’ve also been experimenting with various bread recipes. I’ve pretty much got the Ciabetta bread/rolls down now and we’ve added a nice loaf for toasting, rolls for sandwiches, and English Muffins. Mmmm…

And, finally, it’s the time of year when thoughts start to drift toward travel, once again looking to avoid the oven that the Valley of the Sun can become in the summer. We’ve started generating some ideas, so watch this space for updates!

December 29-January 31: A New Year and Winter Chills

January 31, 2013

Cederholm Compound, Peoria, AZ

Well, it’s another of those “where did the month go” moments for me. I have no idea what happened to January, except to say that it wasn’t spent doing most of the things in my last post!

Picking up where we left off, I suppose the first thing to mention was New Years. As is our custom, we had a quiet evening since our “party ‘til you drop” days are way behind us.

We decided to go back to our old standby, lobster, for our New Years Eve feast, having found Maine lobsters for a reasonable (accounting for the fact that we’re in a desert 2,300 miles from Maine) price. We got three small ones, which I steamed and Geri picked. I got the better end of that deal. We made Lobster Three Ways: Bisque, Tortellini, and Risotto. I even made fresh pasta for the tortellini, which came out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. Geri’s Lobster Bisque won top honors of the night, though. Paired with a nice sparkling wine we picked up in Northern California (Scharffenberger), we had a delectable meal. Oh, and there was that ball dropping in Times Square on TV. Whatever…

It was a good thing we had softer food over the holiday, because my troublesome bridge came loose right before the holiday, and I was off to the Dentist right away once they were back in business. So, I’m in the process of having a two-tooth bridge replaced with a four-tooth bridge. At least I didn’t need to go down the implant path, although that’s the fallback if this doesn’t work. Ugh.

Moving into January, things got a little off the rails a bit with the project plans. I did change out the “house” batteries in the coach, which was a good workout (8 batteries out; 8 batteries in) and all went well. I got a good price at the Sam’s Club in Surprise, which is closer to the coach in storage to here at the “stick house”. I thought about replacing them in two batches of 4 each to spread out the cost, but decided to bite the bullet all at once because we needed the furnace on.

What? Furnace? Yes, we had a cold spell here in the desert. Temperatures went down into the low-20s overnight for several nights in a row. While that’s normal in a lot of places, it causes issues here. Since we don’t bother to winterize the coach, the protocol is to turn the furnace on low, which warms up the interior and plumbing enough to prevent any freezing. Of course, that requires that the batteries be working, so my replacement project took on an added priority.

We also had some concerns around the house due to the cold. Since it’s not routine here, builders take shortcuts that they couldn’t get away with elsewhere. Our water feed simply comes up out of the ground and enters the unheated/non-insulated garage through the wall. Both outside hose connections are designed without a cold-weather drain and separate shut-off valve. So, to avoid risk of freezing, a lot of us wrap those outside pipes with a little insulation during these cold snaps. Of course, not everyone does and we didn’t see anyone with broken pipes, but why take a chance? Being retired, it’s not like we have something more important to do…

Once the cold eased, we had a rain system move in from the Pacific. Yes, Pacific storms do sometimes blow into and across Southern California and hit the desert. And, it’s a big deal here when there’s rain in the forecast. TV news shows start tracking storms about a week in advance, and “live shots” become more common as one approaches. One local station even sent a reporter to San Diego to report that it was raining there! In any event, we had five straight days with some precipitation, which is apparently some kind of 30-year record. Who knew? Only one day was a complete washout, but rain is rain and they measure it here in hundredths of an inch. And once the storm system passed, we had another few chilly days. Yuck.

But the forecast is for brighter days ahead, so we’re putting all this weather stuff behind us…

So, what did get done? Well, I’m happy to say that, for the first time since we’ve been wintering here, I started to feel like a “retiree”. Without the “I’ve got to get this done” things hanging over us, we were able to take each day as it came and not get too hung up on specifics. Yes, some things still have a schedule (like paying bills), but I’ve learned to not feel too badly about not painting and eBaying. Those things will get done.

In the meantime, we upgraded our phones (finally met the “magic date” from Verizon) and spent some time converting apps from Android to Apple. We did some “rainy day projects”, because we actually had rainy days! I’ve been working through all the photo albums and scanning old pictures. Geri’s been busy shredding a lot of old records and receipts that have been piling up. I upgraded our network file server to a new 6TB version so we’ll have plenty of space for a few years.

Unfortunately, we’re ending the month on a bit of a downer. Geri has a sore spot on her leg that defies explanation and treatment, so that was biopsied yesterday. And, her last visit to the periodontist yielded a recommendation for “pocket reduction surgery”, which is apparently a new and improved way of saying “gingivectomy”. She had that done this morning, so it’s soft foods and pain meds for her for the next few days. And, Maya seems to have so reappearance of a tumor she had removed a year ago on her rear flank, so she’s scheduled to see the doggie oncologist next week. With all this plus completion of my bridge, February is shaping up to be a busy month as well!

But, no matter what, we always remember…

December 10-28: Yes, There Is A Santa Claus

December 28. 2012

Cederholm Compound, Peoria, AZ

Yes, it’s the “holiday season”.  We decorated.  We ate (and wined).  We mailed and received packages.  And Geri was a good girl and got a couple of neat gifts.

I finally got around to getting the camera gear out and shooting a few pictures of the Christmas decorations for this year.  It was probably a good idea, since we did a few things differently and would probably not remember next year what goes where!

In addition to the MacBook Air she got early, Geri got a replacement iPad, as her original iPad 2 developed a “bad spot” in the touch screen.  It wasn’t fatal; it just wouldn’t always register a “touch”.  She was able to get around this by turning the screen around, but it was annoying.  And, since somebody (aka, me) didn’t spring for the Apple Care plan when we bought these iPads about 18 months ago, fixing it was going to be $250 (that’s the flat rate for anything at Apple).  So, I got her a new iPad 4, which was going to happen after the New Year anyway since we’ll be updating our phones in January and the newest “i” devices have a different cable connector.  We “needed” to upgrade the iPads to be consistent.  How’s that for twisted logic?

The other thing that we’ve been talking about is upgrading the blender we use for smoothies (and other things, of course) to a Vitamix.  Costco started carrying them, so it was a natural that there would be one of those under the tree as well.

What did George get?  Well, there was a set of brake pads and rotors for the Rover that he’s needed, and I’m happy to say that we can now stop without squeaks or that annoying grinding noise that caused us to turn the radio up louder.  Oh, and there was another iPad 4 under the tree with his name on it; we have to maintain parity on the “His & Hers” things, right?  Oh, and there were a couple of Home Depot Gift Cards that will come in very handy when we get started painting the Master Suite next year.

The pups made out well, too, with a nice blanket boasting a picture of their buddy Tanner and some interesting travel accessories from their friends in Alabama, Jackson & CJ (whose gifts will be personally delivered next spring).

Otherwise, things have been calm and quiet, and even a little chilly.  After having above-normal temperatures through mid-December or so, we’ve had a couple of weeks of below-normal days and even a few raindrops.  We’ll likely end the year with just over four inches of rain!  Now that, too, is below normal (of something near 8”), so people are still saying, “we need the rain”.  I’ll take a little rain as long as the temperatures stay in the upper-60s or better.

And, yes, we’re starting to think through the “spring projects”.  I’ve got a batch of stuff that’ll go on eBay in January, both from the house and the coach (stuff we don’t use any longer).  And, we’ll finally paint the master bedroom and bathroom.  On the coach front, I’ll be replacing the “house batteries”, the ones that power all the inside lights and devices (as opposed to the ones that start the engine).  They’re just about 7 years old and starting to fail, so they’ll get swapped out in January as well.

That should hold us for a while, at least until March, when we’ll take in a Cactus League game or two and get started thinking about a summer “on the road”…