Wednesday, January 29, through Tuesday, February 11, 2014: Into February:

This entire entry was erased somehow.  The following is a reconstruction from various information sources.

On Wednesday, I had my second session with Joanne Hurvitz, in the mini-gym at the RV park.  Not so good.  That night we watched “The Butler” from the redbox.  It was only so-so, notwithstanding the hype.

Becky went to visit her dad on Thursday.  All the brothers and sisters had dinner brought into Bill’s home that evening.   

 

On Friday, we dropped off the dogs at The Grand Paw for the weekend, and Becky took the truck to the Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes for her annual spa weekend with the gang from the Organization of Women Executives.

I bided my time until Sunday, which was the day set aside for the Super Bowl and its attendant debauchery---which I did all by myself.  It wasn’t that much fun as a result.  Becky saved me from myself by arriving back home Sunday evening. 

Monday and Wednesday were more workouts with Joanne.  I did a little better, although I’m not feeling all that great. 

Wednesday was also a day for the dogs.  Becky and I took them for a long walk across the open desert adjacent to the RV park, then we took Ramsey to the vet because he was limping.  Becky first drugged him (Ramsey, not the vet) so he would cooperate.  It turned out he had injured one of his paws.  Apparently, there’s little a vet can do under the circumstances but hope we can avoid having Ramsey walk on rough surfaces. 

During one of the dog walks around the RV park, Becky noticed that our old rig was parked in one of the spaces. 

On investigation, we learned that, as we had suspected when we first saw the rig, connected up, at the rear of the dealership long after we had traded it in, it had been bought by the service manager at the dealership and he had moved it into the park for a while since there was no longer any room for it at the dealership.  We confirmed with him that the rig was doing well and he and his wife were very comfortable living in it.

On Friday afternoon, we attended the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, an institution in the desert that is in its final year---after 24 years.  It was a terrific show, hosted by its founder, Riff Markowitz. 

The Follies was a Ziegfield Follies-style dance and musical revue show that played seasonally from November to mid-May at the Plaza Theater in Palm Springs and had as cast members only performers who were 55 and over.  

 I love Jewish humor and this was full of it.  Before the show, we had lunch at the Italian restaurant adjacent to the theater.

On Saturday, we watched Rush from the redbox.  It was a very interesting film, starring Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad, and I started another novel---Tick Tock by James Patterson, having just finished The Appeal by John Grisham..

On Sunday, we went to the Marriott Desert Springs Hotel for a drink.  We had first (and last) been there more than 30 years ago, before we were married.  It’s still an impressive place. 

After that, we stopped at the College of the Desert’s weekly street fair to have a piece of Becky’s jewelry repaired.

On Monday, we returned to the usual daily routine of pickleball, walking the dogs, and reading.     

Wednesday, January 15, through Tuesday, January 28, 2014: Two More Weeks:

I went to Caruso's Top Shop & Auto Upholstery place Wednesday morning to show him pictures of our recliner that is having some problems with the vinyl's separating.  Bill Caruso's ultimate suggestion was to talk to the manufacturer of our trailer to determine if we could get some material to match.  I called Gary Mast, the parts manager at Coachmen, and left a message.  Wednesday night we watched Prisoners, a strange but fascinating independent (Redbox) film with a terrific cast---headed by Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. 

Gary returned my call on Thursday and put me onto a contact person at Lippert, the chair manaufacturer.  He also gave me the Lippert part number Lippert had assigned to our recliners.  I left a message for the Lippert lady.  We watched the end of Prisoners again, to make sure we hadn't missed anything.  On Friday, the Lippert lady's assistant called to redirect me to Marie Barry, someone in their After-Market Division to help me.  Ms. Barry promised to chase down the cost and availability of both a new (matching) chair and the material itself.  We'll see what it all means in a few days.  Meanwhile, I finished Chasing The Dime, a Michael Connolly novel while Becky watched The Butler from the Redbox.  She didn't like it, saying the Oscars and Golden Globes didn't snub it---they justly decided it was not award-worthy.     

 

Late on Friday, Becky's sister Carrie and her husband, Brent, and daughter Devon arrived in the desert for the weekend.  They stayed at a huge Marriott condo complex in Palm Desert.  At about 9:30 Saturday morning, they came to our RV park.  They had expressed some interest in learning to play pickleball.  We integrated them into the rotation.  Carrie and I played one game; Brent played three. 

 

 

Carrie was pretty good for a newbie, I was awful, and Brent was amazing.  We met up again for dinner Saturday night at Cork & Fork, a restaurant in La Quinta we had never visited previously.  What a wonderful place.  The menu was varied, the food very tasty, and the service excellent.  We will definitely return. 

 

 

Sunday was football day---the NFL conference championships.  Becky and I watched the Broncos handle the Patriots to make it to the Super Bowl.  We then went to the condo where her sister was, and we had dinner there.  Carrie had made a delicious enchilada casserole, which we ate while the Seahawks beat the 49ers to get to the Super Bowl.  It promises to be an interesting matchup.

 

 

On Monday we recuperated from the weekend.  On Tuesday, Becky headed to Pasadena to see her father again, while I read and walked the dogs---several times.  Becky arrived with dinner from the Panda Express again.  That's becoming a weekly ritual, every time she returns from Pasadena  I'm not complaining; I love the stuff from Panda Express.  She also hit the Redbox and brought home Captain Phillips, with Tom Hanks.  Terrific movie. 

 

 

 On Wednesday, Becky went to lunch at The Elephant Bar with a bunch of women from the RV park.  Again, I read, and walked the dogs.  I finished The Narrows, another novel by Michael Connelly.  I really enjoy his work.

 

Thursday involved another movie by way of the Redbox---this time it was Blue Jasmine.  I'm not a big fan of most Woody Allen films, but this one was terrific.  And Cate Blanchett was spectacular.

 

 

Friday morning we met with Joanne Hurvitz, a personal trainer, and her manager, Tony Clerc, to set up a schedule for getting me in some sort of shape (other than ovoid).  One can hope.

 

Saturday morning, Becky went to Cahuilla Park with Larry Vogler to play pickleball with some higher-level players than abound on our park.  She held her own, though apparently wasn't a smash. 

 

 

 Saturday evening we met with Aileen Garrigues and Michael Penfield, two people Becky worked with (directly or indirectly) during her many years in the banking biz.  The two have been a couple for seven years.  He lives in Portland; she lives in Marina del Rey.  We had cocktails (actually, wine) with them at the La Quinta Resort, where they are staying for the weekend. 

 

 

 

Then we moved on to La Brasserie, a (Surprise!) French restaurant in La Quinta.  We’d never been there before.  I had onion soup and mussels, of course.  Everything was delicious.  We had a great time with Aileen and Mike.  Interesting people.

 

Sunday we shopped a bit at Costco and Wal-Mart, but otherwise just relaxed.

 

On Monday, Becky played pickleball at our own park while I had my first session with Joanne.  She didn't hurt me, and it felt good to do some exercises for a change.  The easiest part was doing pushups against the wall.

 

 

 

After the workout, I finished Breathless, my first Dean Koontz novel.  It was weird, but held my attention very well.

 

On Tuesday, Becky returned to Cahuilla Park to play pickleball with the big boys again, while I started The Appeal, a John Grisham novel..                 

Wednesday, January 1, through Tuesday, January 14, 2104: The New Year, Two Weeks at a Time:

We rung in 2014 in the usual way---Ebbert Fizzes in the morning, football in the afternoon and beyond.  I was only a little sad that Stanford lost to Michigan State in the Rose Bowl.  It was a great game, and, along with many of the other games this bowl season, proved that it's easy to be overrated in college fooball.

Thursday was the day to start honoring Resolutions for the new year.  We'll see how long that will last.  On Friday, I stopped at McMahons for the umptenth time to check on the progress in solving our hydraulic problem.  As usual, Tom, the Service Manager, was flummoxed.  He called for Luis. the tech who has now looked at our problem twice, beginning a month ago.  Luis took me aside and explained that he had given the information to Tom at least twice, and nothing had happened.  Tom then dispatched him to our site to look again. 

This time, Luis promised to give the information to Tom's boss (Kim) and, as well, to send a tech with more knowledge of our system to our rig next Monday for further evaluation.  We'll see.

In the meantime, Becky went to Pasadena for the day to check on her dad.  She brought back a copy of the Outlook, a Pasadena paper, in which appeared a picture of her and our friend Carlos Solis, taken at the luncheon thrown by Bill Ukropina on December 13. 

I managed to keep the dogs alive while she was gone.  Friday night was more football.  I had no dogs in the hunt, so I rooted for the underdogs---Clemson and Oklahoma State.  Clemson won and OSU lost.

Over the weekend, we simply did more of the same---focusing mostly on the plethora of football games---many of which were very exciting.  On Saturday, though, we left the reservation long enough to have sushi at Sam's Sushi, a favorite of ours.  It was yummy, of course.

And on Sunday, Becky decided to let Kelsey off-leash in the desert---to see how she reacted.  The thought was that she seemed so homebound that she could be relied on to stay close.  It turned out that she was a hoot---running around in circles, joining in hide-and-seek, digging in the sand, and generally staying very manageable.  Becky was quite pleased.  She tried again on Monday, and the result was a little less exuberant, but equally acceptable.   

On Monday, I finished Charles Krauthammer's new book, Things That Matter, which I received as a Christmas gift from Becky's sister Kim.  It's an excellent read.  It took me so long to finish because it is so deep it takes a lot of thought to get through it.  Charles is a terrific thinker and writer.

The highlight of Monday night was, of course, the BCS National Championship game between Florida State and Auburn.  Since I dislike all sports teams based in Florida, I rooted for Auburn.  Also, I like Auburn's uniforms.  I was naturally disappointed that FSU won, although it was a great game and Auburn acquitted itself quite well, beating the point spread easily and coming within 13 seconds of winning.  Now it's on to the serious NFL playoff games.

On Tuesday, Luis from McMahons returned, this time with Mike, the supposed guru of the Lippert Hydraulic system---and in the next hour-plus they tracked down and fixed several problems with the system, leaving a few left that require parts that need to be ordered.  I was impressed.

Thursday was Becky's day to return to Pasadena to visit with her father.  Her sisters Kim and Carrie joined her.  Carrie said that she and Brent are planning to visit us in the desert soon.  That will be fun.  Becky returned in the late afternoon with a delicious dinner from Panda Express again. 
 
There is a Family Motor Coach Association (to which we don't belong because we are fifth-wheelers, not motor coach people) rally going on at the Riverside County Fairgrounds in Indio.  Accompanying the rally is a group of large tents with a contingent of vendors selling stuff to RVers.  Fellow RVers would call it "Quartzsite Lite." 

We decided to see what they had on Friday, hoping to discover the next must-have goodie for our lifestyle.  It turned out to be a bust, and we licked our wounds by having Mexican food and margaritas at Pueblo Viejo in Indio.  It's a small place with a terrific reputation on Trip Advisor, and it lived up to its reputation.

That afternoon, Becky decided to see what Ramsey would do off-leash in the desert.  He seemed a bit disoriented, and just stuck next to Becky with his tail between his legs.        

The vinyl cover over the pickleball assembly area had deteriorated to the point that it was thrown away before the end of last season.  One of the players, Norby, volunteered to buy a new one and it was installed a couple of days ago---without a serious attempt to secure it.  At Becky's request, I dug into my inventory on Friday and retrieved enough rope to do a professional job---which Becky and I did that afternoon.

Saturday, Becky tried Ramsey off-leash again, and this time he was much friskier---and had Becky worried that he might take off.  But he returned without a serious problem.  That afternoon, I watched The Internship, from the Redbox.  It was a typical Vince Vaughan/Owen Wilson romp; mostly predictable, but funny enough.  Later, we had cocktails at the site of Travis, a pickleball-playing RVer from Tennessee, who is leaving on Sunday for the Wilderness Lakes Thousand Trails preserve in Menifee, California, 60+ miles away.  Bill and Gloria Hayden joined us. 

Dinner was a delicious pizza from Mario's. 

Sunday was mostly NFL playoff football (both the 49ers and the Brocos won---hooray) followed by my making mussels for dinner.  Yum!  I finished Company Man, a pretty good novel by Joseph Finder Monday morning, while Becky went to the doctor to check on a recent rise in her blood pressure.  In other words, Monday and Tuesday were rather ordinary.