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.
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