My Andy Rooney Impression

October 17, 2007
Peoria, AZ


[Andy Rooney voice]

Did you ever notice how sometimes you make a list of things to do, or things to bring somewhere, and then you forget to do them or get where you're going only to realize that you didn't bother to look at the list before you left? Why is that? People will say it's because you're getting older and old people forget things, but I'm not sure. Maybe it's because it's easier to make the list than do the things on it. Or maybe, you just didn't want to do those things in the first place, but felt better writing them down so you could say "See, I really meant to..." later. Either way, I'd like to see someone invent a machine that wouldn't let you leave the house if you were forgetting to bring something you needed. Maybe Apple could do it; they seem to have more gadgets than anyone else. They could call it the "iList" or something like that.

[End of Andy]

So, yesterday was a "coach day". I'd made a list of stuff to bring (tire covers to cut down on sun, batteries for various detectors). Needless to say, I neglected to check the list before we headed to the coach! I remembered, of course, when we got there. Oh, well; we'll make another trip soon enough. I did collect most of the remaining stuff that needed to head for home from the coach, so I'll be able to lube the garage door to keep it from stopping 1 foot short of completely open. Unfortunately, that didn't stop me from missing the fact that it wasn't completely open today; I put a dent in it but it seems to operate OK at this point.

I forgot to mention a couple of things about where we've parked the coach this time. First, it's much farther than I thought, taking about 1/2 hour to get there. The city of Peoria is very oddly shaped. It's about 3 miles wide where it's developed, but extends about 20+ miles to the north with roughly half completely undeveloped. It'd be great to buy a few acres and let development catch up. Better said, it would have been great to buy a few acres 10-15 years ago!

The second thing I forgot to mention was about the last time we went up there. As we were driving up Lake Pleasant Road (the only road through the norhern end of own), we came across an animal carcass. It wasn't the normal mule deer or the odd coyote. It was a longhorn steer dead on the side of the road. I have no idea where it came from, as the nearest range land is miles away, but it was as big as a small car. Whatever hit it must have sustained a lot of damage. After we passed the carcass, about a mile away there was a Peoria Police SUV heading the other way, and when we returned home it was gone. I wonder if someone got a whole load of hamburg out of the deal!

Last night, we made a recipe that we've had for a while: Linguine with Shrimp and Chorizo. The last time I made it, I used waaay too much sausage, and it was too spicy. This time, I gravitated back toward the proportions in the recipe, and it was better. It went well with a simple 2006 Chianti.

Today, we had a few things scheduled. Geri had been looking for a place to get a flu shot, and I noticed a sign in the Doctor's Office that they were giving them Wednesday and Friday from 9-11 AM. Since I needed to stop in to get blood drawn for tests, it made sense to combine both in one trip. After we were done therre, we did a little shopping at Wally-World and AJ's, the local gourmet grocery. We had a slice of pizza for lunch while we were at AJ's, and then headed home to drop off the groceries. In the afternoon, we were out again, stopping to pick up Geri's films from her mammogram (everything OK) and order some tires for the Range Rover (I found a local shop that won't destroy the tire sensors AND will match tirerack.com's price). We picked up the resto f the things on the shopping list, and were home by 4:30 PM.

Tonight, Geri had selected Seared Ahi Tuna for dinner. I found out later that we were also having mushroom risotto, so I had a lot of work to do! With Geri's sauteed Snow Peas and some horseradish cream sauce (because I didn't think to make a wasabi sauce), it went very nicely with a Rosemount Shiraz.

Tomorrow, I'll finally get around to fixing the garage door, and we'll take the pups to the vet for a check-up and their needed shots.