The first few weeks back at our winter place in Arizona are always busy and this year has been no exception. Almost every kind of appointment we make is crammed into the calendar: doctors, dentists, groomers (human and canine), the vet, etc. We arrived back in the Valley of the Sun to an extended stretch of beautiful weather, so that makes up for the busy couple of weeks!
We started off on Wednesday, the 5th, getting an on-time start from Cottonwood. It’s almost exactly 100 miles to home from there, following AZ-260 south to I-17 to the Loop 101 west to Peoria. We arrived back at the “Cederholm Compound” a few minutes after noon, as planned.
It’s always interesting to see what we’ll find after being away for so long. As usual, we had a couple of minor plumbing issues that were easily addressed. The first was a leaky main shut-off valve. This house has two “main” valves, one buried in the yard by the water meter and the other on the side of the house where the main line enters. It’s the latter valve that has given us trouble twice now. A couple of years ago, it wouldn’t open. This year, it started a slow leak once the city turned the service on. We had a small puddle near the whole-house water filter that dried up quickly. Solution: ignore it for now and replace it with a proper ball valve “someday”.
The second issue was also relatively easy to fix, although it took a couple of days to get around to it. The o-ring for the whole-house filter stretched out and wouldn’t seat properly. I’m thinking that I caused this in the spring when I prepared for departure. I always remove the filter cartridge and replace the housing, specifically so we don't have a puddle in the garage. I’ll bet I buggered up the o-ring when I did.
This should be pretty simple, right? Just use the spare o-ring and replace the spare at your leisure. Um, gee, I don’t have a spare o-ring for some reason. Off to Home Depot, Lowe's, and Ace Hardware, none of which have an o-ring in the exact size needed. That’s what I get for buying a mongrel brand filter on the Internet. Back to Home Depot for a replacement filter assembly I go.
Of course, nothing can ever be simple. I thought I was really clever when I mounted the filter between the water softener and the garage shelving — until I needed to replace it! I cut the copper tubing (thank goodness there was enough clearance for the tubing cutter!), replaced the head, and reconnected the copper using compression fittings. Whoever invented these SharkBite fittings is right up there with the sliced bread and Post-It Note guys in my book.
None of this stopped us from getting the house back in working order quickly. When I installed the water softener several years ago, I included a bypass system for just this kind of circumstance. I had the water and gas back on quickly, the water heater filled and restarted (it’s gas-fired with a pilot light; how quaint), and the TV equipment moved back from the coach in a couple of hours. Most important, the Cable Internet modem fired up and connected without incident!
As is tradition, we headed off to the local Grimaldi’s Pizza restaurant for dinner. You can’t beat coal-fired New York-style pizza…
We had the coach unloaded by Thursday afternoon. I made arrangements for storage at our usual place, and it was all “tucked in” before dark. It was time to relax on the patio with a libation.
Before things got really busy, we had our friends, Ana & Larry, over for a simple Steak & Bake dinner. Did I mention that there was wine involved?
Things really got started on Monday, the 10th. We had things scheduled every business day, stretching all the way to the 19th. All of this was routine, except for Maya Lynn’s trip to the Vet. We could tell that the tumor on her rump had started to return, even after two surgeries and several different chemotherapy treatments over the past several years. We’ve decided not to put her through than again, so we’ll see what the future brings on that front. She still seems plenty feisty and happy, her diabetes is under control, and the Vet’s analysis of a sample puts it at a “stage 2” level so we’ll take it one step at a time.
We continue to eat and drink well, making several nice dinners and once again having access to the good wines we keep stored in the house. I’ve continued to practice the art of making fresh pasta, with reasonably good results if I do say so myself.
We finished up this season’s round of appointments over the past few days. Our teeth are clean, our prescriptions are refilled for another year, and we don’t look as shaggy as we did on the road. Now, we’ll switch gears and head into the “holiday season”, even though the store displays and Christmas music on the radio started weeks ago…
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