Tuesday was a day of errands. Tom and I decided to take a day off from pickleball. The first order of business for me was to go to Flagstaff and talk to Steve the Upholstery guy. The five leather cushions of my couch and love seat are getting very worn. I talked to Steve about recovering them.
Ah, the challenge of finding a matching color! I brought home a sample book to compare with the rest
of the couch and love seat. Maybe I will postpone this project for now.
Our front porch has a nightly visitor --- a bat enjoying insects! This bat leaves bat scat on the porch. Tom googled the problem and he decided to put up moth balls in each corner of the porch. We'll see if that deters our little visitor.
Fortunately, Amazon quickly reimbursed me for the damaged goods. I think next time I will use an eBay provider.
Wednesday morning, only five of us showed up for pickleball. It was a solid group of players, so we had a lot of fun and worked on our skills.
Once a year, I have to get an MRI of my brain. In 2004, it was discovered that I have an acoustic neuroma --- a very small benign tumor between my brain and my inner ear. It has not changed in size over the years, but my ENT doctor likes to monitor it with MRIs. Dr. Alex Lund's office set up a Televisit appointment. The ENT office sent me a link --- and with the use of my computer camera --- the patient and doctor have a face-to-face conference.
My niece Molly delivered the first "grandchild" in the Shelton family. Molly and her husband Matt took little Sophie up to Santa Barbara for a weekend getaway.
Matt just completed his doctorate dissertation from Princeton University. He is now Dr. Kumar. Matt was hired as a professor at California State University Bakersfield. His first class was on Monday, August 24 --- all virtual.
Friday morning, I walked the dogs over to Cataract Lake. There were beautiful wet cloud formations.
Later that evening was a gorgeous sunset.
Saturday morning, a small group of us played pickleball.
Once again, an out-of-town couple joined us for several days in a row. Sandy and Bob Mills are from Surprise, Arizona.
They have a park model home at the CalAm Sunflower RV Resort. They were full-time RVers for some years. We coincidentally know some mutual friends.
Later in the afternoon, I had Tom drop me off at Holden Lake. I wanted to walk from there home. There were some beautiful clouds.
Before I was able to get home, the clouds turned dark and it began to rain. I called Tom for a pick-up. He jumped into his Subaru and headed to where I was. Thank you, Tom!
My home is 19 years old. Slate rock is a decorative feature on the front of my house. It needs to be replaced or repaired. I called a company that does decorative rock. We are in a housing boom, so many contractors are too busy to look at smaller jobs. I spoke to Matias of Ortiz Custom Stone Masonry. We'll see what happens, if anything.
The Williams Pickleball Group is starting to focus on the Rodeo Barn for pickleball play. I ordered some sport tape to be used on the concrete floor. It arrived and now it is time to tape court lines. So Tom, Jon, Gus, and I went to the Rodeo Barn on Wednesday, September 2. I re-taped one of the original courts.
Tom, Jon, and Gus worked on creating a new court. We are no longer able to move the Rodeo Barn bar, so we had to move the second court.
The final lines looked really good.
On Thursday, I played pickleball on the tennis courts. We had another "drop in" couple. This time, it was Lisa and Wayne from Wickenburg.
Friday afternoon was my scheduled MRI at the North Star Medical Offices. Covid-19 has had some positives. Most medical appointments are on-time, with little waiting. This was true of my MRI appointment.
On the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, Tom and I walked the dogs at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. We were hoping to see the "first Saturday of the month" steam engine. However, it was not running. I asked an employee why there was no steam engine. Since Covid-19, they stopped running that engine. Too bad. I love steam engines!
After our walk with the dogs, I joined Tom and Jon in a car ride out Williamson Valley Road. We started in the town of Seligman and drove 45 miles on a primitive road to Prescott. Jon was interested in looking at a "For Sale by Owner" property. The owner was out of town, but the property had too many close neighbors for Jon's liking. We went back to Williams on a different primitive road and joined the paved Perkinsville Road, Highway 73.
On Sunday, we played pickleball on the tennis courts. A friend of mine from my 2007 El Tovar Hotel front desk life was coming to Williams for one night. Laura Dillon wanted to escape the heat of Scottsdale and she wanted learn pickleball. That afternoon, Tom and I took Laura to the tennis courts and showed her the game.
Laura used to play competitive tennis, so she caught on fairly quickly. She also played one pickleball game the next morning --- before driving back to Scottsdale. Since it was Labor Day, I picked up some steaks at Safeway. Tom and I enjoyed a nice barbecued steak and corn on the cob dinner.
On Tuesday, I went to Flagstaff with Tom. He had an appointment with Rotech, getting a better fitting mask for his bi-pap machine and an evaluation of the added oxygen machine. The oxygen machine was right next to our bed --- making too much noise. Garrett, the technician, gave us 50 feet of extra tubing and suggested that the machine be placed in an adjacent room. Done!
My annual pass to Bearizona expired over the weekend. So, on the way home from Flagstaff, we stopped at Bearizona to renew the pass and to see the wildlife. We did the drive-through portion of the park.
And we also did some of the walk-through part of the park. We were eager to see the three Grizzly cubs. My how they have grown!
I invited Tom to join me for an adult beverage at the Canyonlands Restaurant at Bearizona.
It has almost been a year since we lost sweet Libby. I decided that it was appropriate to lay to rest most of her ashes. So, the dogs and I left Libby's ashes at Cataract Lake, one of her favorite neighborhood walks. I'm holding Libby's remaining ashes for Kaibab Lake, when we camp there later this month.
Later that afternoon, Tom dropped me off at the dry Holden Lake and I walked home. This time, there was no rain!
When I arrived home, the FedEx truck had just delivered Jon's pickleball machine. This machine throws pickleball balls for drills and practice. The Simon X is a beast of a machine! Jon carefully separated the packaging from the machine.
On Thursday, I drove to Flagstaff for two doctor appointments. The first appointment was with my audiologist, Kerry Beasley. Kerry has one child who is still a toddler. Her office wall had a cute collage of little Ellie. And, Kerry is expecting daughter #2 early next year.
The second appointment was with my ENT doctor. Good news! The MRI showed no growth in the acoustic neuroma tumor. In fact, Dr. Lund recommended that I get an MRI every other year, not annually.
On Friday, Jon brought his Simon X pickleball machine to the tennis courts. We spent some time practicing drills and techniques.
Saturday, our town of Williams had its First Annual Patriot Day Parade. It began at 11:00 a.m. We adorned red handkerchiefs on Kelsey and Jamie.
The parade was very nice and very patriotic. There was a Marine Color Guard team from Barstow, California.
There were over 30 entries.
And, there were many, many Trump flags and banners 😀😀😀
After the parade, our American Legion Post 13 held a "Back Our Blue BBQ." The BBQ was to honor our local Law Enforcement and the proceeds were donated to the Williams Police Department.
While walking the dogs on Sunday, I ran across several deer in the neighborhood.
Since there are homes near our house with barking dogs, we haven't recently had deer pass through the empty lot next door.
The Petco Foundation has a contest to award monies to various Pet Rescue organizations. Dalmatian Rescue of Colorado asked me to submit my story of how Jamie has made a positive impact on my life. I drafted the story and incorporated many photos. Hopefully my contribution will be beneficial!
It was fun catching up with the ladies. Later that afternoon, I took a walk from my house to the east end of Cataract Lake and back.
On a walk around the block with the dogs, I saw a pest control truck. I talked to the driver about their service. We have been having issues with spiders this year. I took a photo of the truck.
When I got back to the house, I phoned the company and set up an appointment the next week.
Thursday morning, I took a long early walk in the neighborhood. I left the dogs to sleep. The sun was rising by the time I got to the "north forty" area of Highland Meadows.
Friday morning, there was no pickleball. So, I had Tom drop me off at the dry Holden Lake. I was going to walk home.
For variety, I decided to walk out of the forest a different way. I was a nice hike, but I ended up in a small residential area and had to crawl under a barbed wire fence to get back on a road!
Saturday night, Tom and I had a date night. We went to the Best Western Plus for dinner and music by Omar. With the Covid-19 situation, Omar only plays three nights a week.
My neighbor, Jim Ramsey, has been wanting to get a new driveway and porch for four months. On Monday morning, the local cement company, Mechtly Concrete Construction, attacked the project.
The first phase was to tear up the existing concrete. Then, to pour new concrete.
Tom and I had reservations at the Kaibab Lake Campground for three nights. The rest of Monday's activities was pulling out the trailer and loading it up.
