A couple weeks ago I said I'd relate the saga of DirecTV when we finally got it. Well, it is on now (as I write this we're watching "Bucket List"). It was installed Wednesday. But the drama began May 5. Now let me see... that was 22 days before we actually got it. A company named Direct Sat TV advertised in "Trailer Life" and "Highways" magazines about getting a free RV kit (portable dish, tripod, cable) when you sign up for DirecTV with them. After a couple of phone calls asking information, I signed up. The dish for the house and the RV kit would arrive the next Monday or Tuesday and the install would be Wednesday the 13th. Friday evening I get an email saying the order had been canceled. Monday morning I started calling and finally in the afternoon I reached a live body. The order was canceled because they called my cell phone to confirm the order and got a busy signal. Why a busy signal? I have no idea. Any call should have gone to voice mail if I didn't answer. They didn't try again later -- just canceled the order, intercepted the UPS delivery and had the stuff returned. Okay, we got that straightened out and they set a new delivery date and installation would be Friday the 15th. But no equipment came. Friday I began calling the company again. Finally a warm body. It seems the equipment had been intercepted again because we don't have "line of sight" (for the dish to receive the satellite signal.) How did they know that since no one had been here to check it out? Nobody could answer that. Apparently they entered somebody else's information into my record. So.... we start the order over again. (Aren't I being patient? I had some strong words for the telephone personnel but I didn't get mad and I was kind). Well, the new order didn't ship until Monday and wouldn't arrive until Tuesday the 26th -- because of the Memorial Day weekend. Installation would be on Wednesday the 27th. Guess what? It arrived!!! And the install guy showed up -- three weeks after the original install date. Moral of the story: Don't call Direct Sat TV for satellite service.

Kind of interesting how much we missed TV. In Tucson we only received one station, but at least it was TV. I like to watch the news while I eat dinner and maybe a program or two in the evening -- usually while I'm on the computer or reading the paper. Kind of duel tasking.

Another interesting thing happened. When we got back from Arizona we knew we would need to buy a new TV. So we set off television shopping. We wanted to have it before the satellite installation so the guy could connect everything the proper way. After checking all the stores we finally ended up at Fred Meyer in Medford. They had one we wanted but it was a little bigger than we had planned. I'm embarrassed to say how big -- it is a 40 inch. It's almost too big for our living room. We got it because it had the features we wanted and the smaller size didn't. The price was okay so we packed it home and set it up. We also got a new DVD player because they were quite inexpensive. Then Joyce found the remote for the old DVD player so I tried it and it worked okay. This meant we could take the new one back and get a refund. While I was doing that I mentioned to the lady that the TV we bought was on sale for $100 less and she said, "Okay, we'll give you a refund on that, too." So it was like someone handing me $100. Kind of nice.

Last week was also taken up with appointments for heating and air conditioning companies to check out our house and give us bids for a complete installation. There were seven companies at the Home Show a couple weeks ago so I made appointments with all of them. Six showed up and right now I have bids from two of them. I imagine I'll get the others this week. I can tell now it is going to be more than I was counting on, but it needs to be done.

Coming up this week is jury duty -- or at least being on the list. Hope I don't have to serve. More about this later. Our weather has been hot and nice. We've worked in the yard and garden and finally have things under control -- I think. We can turn our attention to doing other things now. Today we drove to Roseburg and worshiped at the FM church there. We took the pastor his wife out to dinner. They are a great couple.

This coming week will be interesting. Hope yours is as well. Boredom is a drag.

Our Garden Is In

I'd love to but I just can't. I'd love to complain about the weather but it's just too great to complain about. We have had sunshine, in the 70s and 80s. Beautiful! And it's Memorial Day weekend. It's never nice on Memorial Day. I don't understand it but I'm not going to complain -- even though that is what a person is supposed to do regarding the weather.

What a great week we have had. Last Monday we drove to Salem for a MEG Board meeting and then do a little work on Ginger's house. So on Saturday (a week ago) I went to a gas station to fill the car with gas so we would be ready to leave early Monday. The attendant could only get about a gallon in the tank -- in one cup increments. (The gage read 1/4 full and the tank did not appear to be full). After discussing it and wondering if someone had stuffed a rag or something down the filler hole, I took it to the Ford dealer. The repair shop is not open on Saturday so I made an appointment for 6:45 a.m. Monday. Early Monday they started working on it and by a process of elimination the mechanic determined it was a carbon canister that was plugged (or otherwise not working). I didn't even know such things existed in my gas tank. He also talked about valves and all sorts of fancy stuff down there. I always thought it was just a tube connected to a tank. Shows what I know -- er, don't know. But anyway, he didn't have a carbon canister and couldn't get one until Tuesday. So I got a ride home and we took the pickup to Salem.

Good Board meeting Tuesday. Wednesday we did some yard work and I replaced a couple cheap metal posts holding up the deck cover. One buckled under the snow last winter. The 4x4 posts I put in won't buckle! And we reinstalled her window air conditioner in her bedroom, plus a few other things. Thursday we had breakfast with JoAnn, a friend from way back in Newberg days. Then she and Joyce planned "Grandma's Camp" for her 4 grandchildren and our two. That will be in July. Stay tuned. We made it back to Grants Pass in time to pick up the car before the shop closed.

Friday I rototilled our two raised garden beds plus Joyce's flower bed. We planted some tomatoes, beans, cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini (only one plant!), lettuce, beets, and carrots. Yesterday I put the automatic watering system in the garden and we are ready to eat veggies. Well, I guess we'll have to wait a few weeks.

Let me tell you about Boatnik. Memorial Day weekend is always Boatnik in Grants Pass. It goes back to 1959 when "nik" was a commonly used suffix. There are boat races on the river, a carnival in the park, and lots of vendors selling food and trinkets. And the BIG attraction: The Boatnik Parade. I hadn't seen it in quite a few years so I decided to go. Lots of traffic; found a place to park; walked to a viewing spot near the end of the parade; bought some coffee; waited. By the way, Joyce didn't go with me because she didn't want to walk that far. After awhile the parade came; two hours later it was over. In between were lots and lots of old cars, old tractors, groups of all sizes representing all sorts of things, lots of children, high school and middle school bands, politicians, boats (on trailers), and a few floats. It's a great small town parade. All the glitz and homeyness one would expect from a city of 30,000. Oh, but you must know... our high school marching band is really good and they have an invitation to march in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2010. I see lots of fundraisers coming.

Last Sunday we attended church at Allen Creek House of Worship. Yes, I admit it; I'm having trouble with that name change. Remember it used to be Allen Creek Neighborhood Church. It was a good service and there are a few people there we know (about 11 or 12!). But it just isn't home anymore. Today we went to Jerome Prairie Bible Church where we have gone many times. It is good and I like Pastor James and some of our old congregation are there, but.... I don't know, it's hard to look at it as "my home church." One of these days we'll have to settle down somewhere.

Well, have a good week. And be good to yourself.

The Weather

I'm not a great sage or philosopher but think I know why we have weather. It's so we have something to talk about and complain about. If it weren't for the weather we would talk and complain about our neighbors, or the way the guy in front of us drives, or maybe even the government. But we don't do that, do we? No! Of course not, because we have the weather on which to focus our lamentations.

Thus it is that one short month ago we were in Albuquerque, cold and freezing, standing in the rain amid drifting snow flakes muttering our wish to be anywhere but there. Too cold. A week before that we were sweeping snow off the pickup enabling our escape from the lofty altitudes of the Sandia Mountains. Too snowy. And a week before that we hunkered down in Alamogordo amidst a howling wind knowing better than to venture out onto the highway leading to peace and tranquility. Too windy.

Why, come to think of it, it was only two weeks ago that we thought we would drown in the heaviest rainfall of the winter which welcomed us back to southern Oregon. Too wet. Yesterday it was 90*; today it was 94*. Too hot. Just as well complain about that too. (Though I have to admit, it feels kinda nice.)

Since we've been home it has been days of pulling weeds, driving to Salem for a board meeting and spending Mother's Day with Ginger, and shopping for this and that. We are in the midst of getting DirecTV (I think). But the saga is ongoing so I'll save the whole intriguing episode for another time. And it's back to Salem this week. Maybe after that we can settle down. Naw, I don't think so. There are other things on the agenda to keep the wheels moving.

Isn't this fun? It is of you don't weaken.
Life is exciting.
Life is grand.
But it all falls down
If it's built on sand.
(think I read something about that somewhere)!

Some Pictures to Enjoy (from past weeks)

Friends Dennis, Sandy, Vern and Pam. We loved having time with them in Albuquerque and with Dennis & Sandy in Mesa.

One row of the many rows of RV's we were in at the RV rally.

Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. For all our "eastern" friends who have seldom ventured west of the Mississippi, "come on out, there is a great wide open western United States to explore."

White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Hundred of acres of white gypsum sand washed down from the surrounding mountains. Looks a lot like the beach except there is no ocean.

The natural entrance to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. The walkway zig-zags into the entrance and then on down to the Big Room hundreds of feet below.

The Rio Grande gorge near Taos, New Mexico. That is the Rio Grange River waaaaaay down there.

That is Albuquerque down there as seen from the top the Sandia Mountains.

The cactus were in bloom! What a gorgeous sight! We took lots and lots of pictures but not room here for all of them. There are prickly pear cactus.

Trivial Tuesday

It's been awhile since I've put up any trivia on Tuesday. But then, it's been awhile since we've had a Wordless Wednesday or a Macro Monday (hint, hint). Well here is some stuff that has to qualify as trivia. But maybe you'll find it interesting.

4 months, 22 days -- the length of time we were gone.
7,350 -- the total miles we traveled.
1,924 -- the miles traveled while we were in Tucson.

15.1 -- the mpg we got traveling solo (no trailer, as in Tucson).
11.2 -- the mpg we got pulling the trailer.
12.5 -- the mpg we got overall on the trip.
$2.49.9 -- the most we paid for diesel (in Santa Barbara & Needles, CA) (When we went through Needles on the way home it was $2.99.9 -- didn't buy any).
$1.96.9 -- the least we paid for diesel (in Tucson. The next time I went there he had raised his price).

13 -- the number of different churches we attended.
39 -- the number of days we worked at the SIL Center in Catalina.
3 -- the number of days we got snowed on!!!

We're Home

We arrived home about 3:45 this afternoon (Friday). It's raining and I'm cold again! That is sort of an overstatement. It IS raining lightly and it IS NOT very warm -- in the low 60s. I guess the weather had to give us a "welcome home" by being so typically Oregon. According to the weather guy, it is supposed to rain all weekend and then get nice and warm next week. Pretty soon I'll probably complain about the heat. I called Dennis a few minutes ago to tell him we were safely home and he informed me it was in the 80s in Mesa and they had just gone swimming. I think he rubbed it in a little.

We left Mesa very reluctantly about 10:00 Wednesday morning. I didn't drive hard but we made it all the way to Barstow that evening. We stayed among the trucks in the Flying J parking lot. They sure make a lot noise! But it lulls a person to sleep. If any one is interested, our route was west on I-10, to the Vickburg Junction (a little east of Quartzsite), jog up to Highway 72 through Bouse and Parker and onto highway 62 in California. Then north on 95 to I-40 at Needles and west on I-40 to Barstow. At Barstow we abandoned the interstate for awhile and took 58 to Bakersfield; then 99 north to a little south of Stockton where we jogged over to I-5 and north to home. This sounds complicated but it is good road (well, 99 isn't so great!) and takes quite a few miles off simply following I-10 into LA and onto I-5.

Last night we stayed at an inexpensive little mom and pop RV park in Williams. They only have about 7 pull throughts for overnighters but this isn't the season for RV travel so they had about 6 vacancies. On the way home we sort of bounced from one Flying J to the next -- Barstow to Bakersfield to Corning. Fuel and food at each one.

I was pleased to find that no pipes froze and burst while we were gone. The car battery was dead but a jump start fixed that. Boy, the house sure seems big. So now the tasks and adventure change. One adventure facing us is attacking the weeds that have sprung up in places they are not supposed to. Oh well, we'll get to it. Eventually. Come and help if you want to.