Chillin’ before the Holidays

December 23, 2007
Peoria, AZ

Yesterday was a day for chilling out. We slept in. We made some lists of grocery items and things to do after Christmas, Geri did some laundry, and I watched some golf on TV. OK, I really took a nap while the golf was on; close enough. I did some planning for the next things to do around the house. Of course, it was all “mental planning”. I like to call it “rumination”. It doesn’t look like I’m doing anything, but I’m really working hard.

In the afternoon, I mixed up a small batch of sauce and we had pasta for dinner. Neither one of us was in a particularly sparkling mood, so it was a pretty low-key evening, although the 2003 Langhe Nebbiolo from Germano Ettore in Piedmont was drinking nicely. Generic nebbiolos are known as the "poor man's Barolo" and while 2003 wasn't a stunning vintage it was fine with some angel hair and a couple of pork cutlets a la parmigiana.

The big news has been on the weather front. Literally. While we haven’t had any more precipitation, temperatures have been running a touch below normal for well over a week now. Last night had the most legitimate freeze warning to date after a dry cold front blew through. Literally. Yesterday, we had a pretty stiff breeze all day, even though it warmed up nicely in the afternoon.

The only fly in the ointment is the coach. Last year, we had it parked in the expensive indoor space, so freeze warnings didn’t mean a thing. This year, not so much. Even though I drained the tanks when we returned from Alabama/Florida, I didn’t really winterize the water system. Accordingly, I got up just after dawn this morning and drove over to check things out. It was about 33°F outside, and warmer inside the coach. It was 38°F in the storage bay by the water pump and 42°F inside, so we were safe – this time.

This afternoon, we headed out for a short shopping trip, so I stopped in Home Depot and picked up a brass fitting that will allow me to connect the water line to the compressor so I can blow out the water lines just to be safe. It’s supposed to be a little warmer for the next few overnights, so I’ll wait until after Christmas before making another trip over there. We'll be heading out for California on January 5th, so we only have to get through the next week-and-a-half.

Today, we had an early dinner, mid-afternoon, because we’ve been eating dinner too late for the last week or so. We’ll have a salad or snack tonight.

Tomorrow should be fun, since one of Geri’s nieces, Cindy, will visit with her husband Mike and their daughter Jennifer. Mike has family in the Phoenix area, and they’re visiting for a few days, so it’ll be great to see them. We get to see them about every other time we visit Geri’s sister, Kathy, in Lompoc, CA. They live in Santa Barbara, about 75 miles east of Kathy, and we’ve caught up with them in SB a couple of times as well.