The dogs woke me up at 6:00 Friday morning, and we began another routine day. On their morning walk, I met our next door neighbor Jim (on his morning walk) for the first time. He had already met Becky, Ramsey, and Kelsey. After the three of us had breakfast, I started on the day's work schedule---which included another trip to Flagstaff for parts and supplies, and a Jiffy Lube. Very productive.
Before heading home, I stopped at the Chinese restaurant for hot and sour soup, which I brought home for lunch. Delicious, as usual. I spent the rest of the day utilizing the stuff I had just bought. I thawed some shrimp for dinner. Yum!
Becky had a good visit to Los Angeles. She visited her father in Pasadena on Friday. He looked good but said that he was not feeling well. It was only a 25 minute visit. The Jonathan Beach Club was the venue for lunch on Saturday with Paula Browne and Shelley Gibson. It was a belated celebration of Paula's milestone birthday. It was the first time the three of them had been together since 1996!
Saturday was home projects, again. The major project (taking three hours) was hanging a new Venetian blind in one of the bedrooms. I am too cheap to have a custom one made for me, so I had to shorten by 18 inches the vertical length of the one I had bought at Home Depot.
Saturday night I watched the Arizona lose to USC. Arizona could have easily won it at the end, but a very makeable field goal went awry. So sad.
I set the alarm for 3:00AM so I could meet the 3:50 Amtrak train from Los Angeles. I had arranged to pick up Becky at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, where the shuttle drops off all Amtrak passengers, but I got to the hotel in time to ride along on the shuttle to the "station" (which is not really a station, just a clearing in the middle of the forest). Becky got on the shuttle, not expecting to see me. It would have been cuter if it had not been 3:50 in the morning.
Sunday was basically a day of relaxation for all four of us.
Monday and Tuesday were more of our current routine---projects, sorting stuff, hanging pictures, etc. One diversion on Tuesday had to do with flags. Many years ago, we started collecting tiny flags of countries we visited. We did not always get a flag, so Tuesday it was my job to inventory our flag collection to see which ones we were missing. It turns out we have 27 flags, but there are 27 we don't have. It amazed me to realize we have actually been in 54 countries. I had no idea.
The Tuesday redbox movie was God's Not Dead, starring Kevin Sorbo (of Hercules fame). For a film promoting religion, which are usually very stilted, it was actually quite well done.
Wednesday we headed back to Flagstaff to have lunch (at Pato Thai, our favorite) with Patrice Giordano and her husband, Bruce Bourne. Patrice is the aunt of Jim Giordano, a former co-worker with Becky at Union Bank, with whom Becky has kept up an active communication. Patrice and Bruce are originally from southern California, but have lived in Flagstaff for more than 20 years. They are interesting people and we had a good time with them.
Before and after lunch, we ran some errands and ultimately ended up at Goodwill, where we picked up a few more goodies for the house.
Since the installation of the new Venetian blind, I have been looking for a place to get rid of the old one. It's 6 feet long so it doesn't fit in the usual trash bins. I hit on a sneaky idea: Donate it to Goodwill, and let them figure out whether to fix it or trash it. It was in the back of the truck. Mission accomplished!
The Thursday redbox movie was The Fault in our Stars, starring this year's new sensation, Shailene Woodley. She really is quite good, and the movie, though too long and containing the unnecessary and confusing involvement of Willem Dafoe, was actually very well done.
We are scheduled to leave on Tuesday, the 21st, for California---for the winter. So, all day, every day, except when we’re watching redbox movies and Fox News (and a little football), we are now making final changes to the house and starting to take stuff back to the rig. It’s amazing how much we transported into the house and now have to return to the rig. Part of the preparation to leave was arranging for Carmen Rice, a local woman, to come into the house periodically to see if anything is out of place. We know she can’t prevent any damage, but it’s comforting to know someone is at least on the lookout.
On Monday, I went to the post office to verify that our mail
forwarding order had been received and processed. I also stopped at the police department to
alert them to our leaving. They actually
have a “watch list” of homes where the snowbirds have left for the winter. We also set the thermostats at 55, to prevent
any freezing inside the house. We will
turn off the water at the street before we leave, and drain what we can from
the pipes, but you never know. Having
stripped all of the beds and moved everything of immediate use out of the
house, we spent Monday night in the rig. Our last night in Williams was not very
exciting. We were exhausted.
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