Tucson Bound!

Tuesday - The trip started out a little rocky from OKC airport because the plane coming from Dallas was about 2 hours late. We got into Tucson about 4:30 pm with a 2 hr time change.

View from the plane

Reading material on the plane (didn't get far)

We were going to go to Green Valley where Paula(Don's sister) has a condo.

Monday, Don has started getting sick. Lots of coughing, drainage & stuffiness. We went to an Urgent Care as soon as we got to Green Valley and he got some antibiotics and cough medicine.  After visiting for a while we drove through Tucson to Oro Valley to the Worldmark in Rancho Vistoso. This is about an hour drive from Green Valley to where we were staying.

Wednesday - Don was not feeling well at all. His nose was constantly running and he was coughing lots.  But that didn't keep him from doing most things.

Ricki called and said Abby had blood in her poop and thought she should take her to the Vet. We called the vet for an appointment and he gave her some antibiotics.  Abby was acting OK and Ricki didn't see anymore blood.

I went and worked out without Don which is very unusual.

Paula and Raymond were coming our way to do some geocaching.  We drove to the NE towards a new Ritz-Carlton and did some short hikes and found several caches.

Paula is also a birdwatcher and has her binoculars ready!

Signing a cache

Thursday - Don got up still feeling bad not much better today.

We drove to Green Valley and after picking Paula & Raymond up we went to the Mission San Jose de Tumacacori.

 

After a tour of the mission we took a 4 mile hike to Tubac, AZ.

It is a little artist community with lots of shops.  We didn't take much time to shop and had a great lunch.

We headed back to town and stopped in at McDonald's for a sundae, found a few caches in town and then went back to the condo to watch the U of AZ basketball game in the elite eight.  I asked Don to use his phone and he couldn't find his billfold with the phone in it. We all searched for it & felt like he had left it at the restaurant in Tubac. They were closed now.  We decided to go to some of the caches we had found and McDonald's and Paula went the other direction to the caches we had gone to that way. We were hunting for his billfold and phone.  Don and I went to two of the caches & no luck. Don went in to McDonald's & someone had turned it in. Wah Woo!!!  Called the search off, felt a lot better and went to Paula's to watch the game. They won!!

Friday - We went back to Green Valley to go to the Titan Missile Museum. We went on a guided tour with a very knowledgeable retired navy man.  Above my head most of the time.  Toured the actual bunker.

We watched for these everywhere ( rattlesnakes) but didn't see one.  Thank goodness!

Saturday - We met Paula and Raymond at the Desert Museum just east of Tucson. Great day for it and lots of people.  We had a 2 hr walking tour with a great guide.

Tiny hummingbird in it's nest.

We both went home to watch the U of AZ play again in the elite eight.  They lost!!

Sunday - We went back to Green Valley on Sunday for me to play pickleball with Gary & Gay Beatty. He is the one that got pickleball started in Ruidoso. Don didn't play because he still wasn't feeling well.  He went hiking with Paula while I played pickleball.  More caching in the afternoon.

Monday - Paula & Raymond came over our way to do a couple of short  hikes and hunt caches. We drove all around Oro Valley a very new planned community. Very impressed with their new walmart.

 We had a great week with Paula and Raymond. Weather was great and we found 49 caches while we were there.  Don was doing a little better by the time we were heading home.

Tuesday - Ready to get back home and check on Abby and Mom.  Weather was warm when we left Tucson and 51 when we got to OKC. 

Spring Break Week

Even though I'm not teaching anymore, I still think of Spring Break as the start of spring. All the schools around here were out this week.  That meant my teacher friends were off work.  Ann was going to San Diego and I had planned to see Connie E. several times during the week.  Plus Don & I were working on mother's new computer.  Ricki and Chris had taken their motor home to Guthrie to camp out at Cedar Valley and Chris was going to play golf all week.  Mac & his family went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the week with several other families. I'm not sure what Kenna was doing.

This was my schedule for the week:

Monday - Workout, Lunch & shopping with Connie E.

Tuesday - Pickelball, Copy files to mom's new computer, Deliver new computer to mother(forgot her mouse)

Wednesday- Deliver computer mouse to Mother, Lunch & movie with Connie O. & Connie E.

Thursday - Pickelball, Drove to Guthrie to geocache with Chris & Ricki, Dinner out with ladies in neighborhood

Friday - Workout, Weight Watchers(needed this with all the eatting out),Played Mah Jongg with neighbors in afternoon, Played Hand & Foot with neighbors at night

I had a great week having fun & eating!!

Next Tuesday we are heading to Tucson!

Never quit learning!!

How hard is it to learn something new? 

For most of us their is a learning curve on most things but after some struggle we can catch on.

That is what I loved about teaching and what I love about computers. I love new programs, new patterns, new challenges. But what about when I get to be 90 years old?  

That is what I asked mom to do today.  She had mentioned the last few times I had been over there that her genealogy program was running really slow, it wouldn't save right & the fonts were hard to see.

Don had checked out the computer and couldn't get it to work any better.  The laptop that she used had been mine and she had been using it for 2 yrs.  After we checked it out we figured out it was 8 years old.  Do you realize how far computers have come in 8 yrs?  I have had two in that time. Didn't realize hers was that old.

Each time mother has changed computers, she says "This is my last computer, I am not going to learn how to use another one."

On Sunday, when I went over to mom's I asked her about getting a new computer.  I told her I thought she needed a bigger screen and not a laptop.  Easier to see. 

She likes her laptop because it doesn't take up much space. Which in her little apartment is a good thing.  But I thought a large screen monitor and a slimline cpu unit wouldn't take up much space.  I told her she could buy it with her tax return money. Don finished those this past week and got it sent in. Of course, we had talked about buying several things with that tax return money. LOL   She finally agreed. Her hesitation was mainly because she didn't want to start over again. 

Don had it at home out of the box when I got home from Mom's.  We were going to have everything set up before we took it to her house.  I brought home her laptop to transfer all the files.

We took it to her today.  Don had everything loaded.

She was excited to get on it and figure it out.  She likes to learn, just tired of learning.

She also has SKYPE now(see the webcam) so if anyone reading this has skype give her a call when you see her on line.  I hope she will know how to answer when you call.

Dirty Job but someone has to do it!! But not me!

Don & I had noticed for a while that our shower corners had cracks in the grout. We had talked about fixing them and I told Don that I didn't want to do it but he could if he wanted.  We never got around to it.

When Don was out walking Abby last week he saw a truck at one of the houses in our neighborhood that was a tile company and he talked to the guy and had him come over to give us an estimate. They also acid washed the tile and grout and then sealed the grout.  We thought maybe a couple of hundred dollars.
Our grout was really dirty and had never been sealed.

BEFORE

The tile guys(3 of them) showed up on Monday to start cleaning.  Two workers and 1 boss.  I stayed home from workout to keep an eye on them.  They were really hard workers, polite and cleaned up their mess.

They acid washed the floors & showers in the kitchen & master bath on Monday.

The boss cleaned a spot in front of the fan to show me the difference the acid wash could do on the grout. Can you see the difference? I was impressed. He was sure to tell me that he couldn't guarantee it to come out all the same color. He really wanted to regrout with a new color for another $500. We opted out of that and just wanted to have it cleaned and then sealed. They recaulked the showers and fixed the cracks. 

Tuesday they showed up early to work on the entryway, hallway, guest bath & utility room.  Don & I went to play pickleball and got back home about noon.  After lunch the boss started the sealing of the grout and he suggested we leave because of the smell.  Don went to the clubhouse and I went shopping.  When I returned about 5:00 they had finished pretty much and Don had paid them.

They came back today and did some touch-ups.  They have 2 more jobs in the neighborhood already.

I love my clean floor.

AFTER ( the dark grout on the right is wet)

The job was a lot more than $200!!!

Saying Goodbye to Kauai

These were the pictures of the huge succulent garden in Poipu and Don is watching the Spouting Horn blow with a couple of other tourist. Can't find the pictures I took of that.

Like I said on Friday we drove to Weimea Canyon. First going to the Kauai Coffee Company and Don sampled the coffee.

Next stop was the small town of Hanapepe with its Swinging footbridge. A cache was bringing us here.

This town is pretty run down but it is trying to turn into an artist town with lots of art galleries.

One thing you might not know about Kauai is that their are roosters and chickens everywhere. The story is that one of the hurricanes tore up all the chicken coops and they just continue to increase in population.  They are everywhere.  Here are some examples.

View of some of the chicken coops built again. 

Here are some of the views of the canyon. It was a mini grand canyon but greener.

We headed back to Waimea for a treat of Shaved Ice at Jo Jo's.  We ate here last time we were in Kauai and they were excellent. It was like a snow cone with ice cream on the bottom. I had a pina colada with macadamian ice cream and Don had Banana Split with vanilla ice cream I think.  Yum Yum!!

 

Our plan was to spend the day at the pool and beach on Saturday & Sunday since we had geocached everyday so far & no time to lounge by the water.  Of course we don't lay in the sun.  We try to find a tree or something to shade the sun from us. Saturday we got out too late to get a chair in the shade but we managed to lay on our towels in the shade and read our books.  Fun to beach watch. 

This was a far in the water as we got!!

This was about 5:00 in the afternoon and everyone had headed in for the evening.

We had a great week in Kauai but we don't enjoy the plane ride home. We left at 11:00 pm on Sunday night and got home at 3:30 pm on Monday. Long ride and we didn't like US Airways at all.