March 29, 2008
Peoria, AZ
The last few days have been generally quiet and productive since Geri had her last round of dental work done on Tuesday. We’ve been trying to stick to foods that won’t disturb her mouth, and to get started preparing for our summer departure.
On Wednesday, Geri was still feeling the effects of the surgery pretty strongly. I spent time working on more items for eBay sales and took a ride in the afternoon to run some errands. I needed to drop off the roll of film I shot when Rick and Annette were here for processing, and the high-end lab is near downtown Phoenix. Since we’re more conscious of fuel economy (I know, a strange thing for people with an SUV), I wanted to pack as much as possible into the trip. I made additional stops at the storage place (check on the coach and let the manager know our departure date) and another competing storage place (planning ahead for the fall, I need as many numbers as possible to call around looking for a spot before we get home) before the photo lab. On the way back, I stopped at the local Detroit Diesel shop for fuel and air dryer filters and got a supply of the former; but no joy on the latter. Fortunately, the area south of I-10 west of downtown is “truck stop row”, so I was able to get what I needed at the Freightliner dealer closer to home. I’ve had pretty good luck getting stuff there, even though we don’t have a Freightliner chassis.
Thursday was a “coach day”. Geri was still feeling peaked, so I packed up a bunch of stuff and tools and headed for the storage place. I put in about 3 hours on various projects before heading home. I installed a supplemental OTA (“over the air”) antenna that should help pull in local HD broadcasts while we’re traveling, put on valve stem extenders that should make it easier to check and inflate the inner rear duals, measured for an additional fire suppression device around the refrigerator (Geri will be happy to know there isn’t enough room), and took care of a few cleaning “opportunities” inside.
I had planned to bring the coach to the house for more work on Friday, but the weather didn’t cooperate. It was supposed to cool off with high clouds, which would have helped with washing and sealing the roof and starting on the exterior cleaning that it needs before we leave. Since it’s remained in the upper 80s (I know, tough to take), I decided to put this off for a bit. Besides, it’ll only get filthy again in storage, so I’m better off waiting until just before we leave, right? I can rationalize almost anything when I want to…
Instead, Friday was spent doing more eBay selling (we’re at about 50% sold on the stuff I’ve posted so far) and salvaging files from the failed tower computer. I was able to get most of what I wanted, and the rest will wait until I rebuild that machine in the fall. Dave and I were trading notes, and the best guess is that it was built in late-2002 or early-2003, so it lived several lives in PC-years.
Today, we did some shopping for things we need over the next few days, but also for things we’ll plan to take with us. It’s easier to stock up on toiletries, vitamins, etc. now so we don’t have to search for stuff we need in strange places. We’ve got enough stuff to hold us until summer, so we’ll probably stock up on these types of things when we’re in Connecticut (when Costco is about 5 miles away). It’s a little early to start loading this stuff in the coach (don’t want to run out at home), but we’ll start that process during the second week in April. I have 1-2 days allocated each week for trip preparation to spread it out so we’re not caught with a rush at the end.
There’s nothing special to report on the food and wine front, since we’re focusing on things that won’t cause Geri too much discomfort. She did make an exceptionally good take on “mac and cheese” with several different kinds of gourmet cheese and a Paive/Panko topping. We had a 1997 Frescobaldi Chianti Riserva with that – yum!
Tonight, we’re hanging out on the patio enjoying the iPod and the nice evening, at least until we observe “Earth Hour” at 8:00 PM when the electrical devices go off. We’ll probably light the “fire ring” and sip some more wine. It’ll be interesting to see how many people observe it in this area. No matter what anyone personally believes about economics, government, and the issue of global warming, there’s little reason to not take part in a conservation effort, even if it’s to save a buck. Buys more wine! :-)
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