We’re in Yuma, Arizona

February 8/2015                                                                                                                       Lorraine’s report

Hello, and once again, thanks for stopping by.  We are still in Yuma, daytime high 88 degrees yesterday.  Such a hard life we are living…

So this week we had dentist appointments with our doctor and we have been visiting with friends.  Imagine going into the dentist, and have him tell you that you needed a root canal.  You have no time to even say no, you just go do it.  That is what happened to me.  We went into Mexico, not knowing what to expect, and being told you need a root canal, done that day.  Well, that is what Dr. Ramos said to me.  He called a specialist, they sent someone over for me, took me over to have it done, and brought me right back after it was done.  By then it was time to quit for the day, so I went home with nothing covering the newly removed root canal tooth.  What an experience. 

The last time the doctor said I needed a root canal, a few years ago here in Mexico, the lady dentist had a hard time, my tooth was dry and she had a hard time with  me.  We were in a circle in her office and another man heard what I had been through, and said when I finished, he was glad what happened to me hadn’t happened to him.  He said he was sorry for all I had been through and wished me well.

Hopefully. root canals aren’t in my future for a while, at least I hope not….  I’m sure glad we are almost through with the dentist.  So my mouth is sore from all the work that has been done.  We are taking anti-inflammatory, antibiotics, pain, and an oral rinse to help it heal.  This was tough!

This week we have visited a lot of our friends.  It has been so very nice to see, meet and greet everyone.  We enjoyed visiting all of them.  One time we went over we saw seen Barb, but not Dennis, Norma, but not Rob for he and Dennis had to take their rig back to Lake Havasu to order parts one day.  We saw Steve/Sandy, and Mark & Sue.  Then one different day, we went back to see the gang at Barbs’; she was having a get together and invited us to stay and eat with all of them.  And we got to visit with their friends, Ed and Linda.  Thank you for inviting us over, it was fun.  And of course, we have seen Brenda & Carl, and they came over here to our place too.  Yesterday we visited with Barb & Ray, and we got to see their new home, their new rig, and we all went to eat.  Something we all like to do.  

Not sure what the week holds for us.  But it will be exciting or not -- whatever…Anyhow, hope you all have a great week…

Hugs to all,

Lorraine

 

2/8/15                                                                                                                                     Chuck’s report

We’ve been busy this week and have managed to spend some time visiting with friends in the area too, a nice week for sure. 

Last Sunday we got ready to watch the Super Bowl and had a good time with just to the two of us.  Lorraine had fixed up lots of snacks and we were “ready for some football”.  I thought the Seahawks looked like they did against the Packers two weeks before, just not in sync for the first part of the game but got things going and it was turning out to be a good game.  I was pretty sure it was a done deal when they were up 10 points late in the third quarter but no, New England came back and scored two touchdowns to go up by 4 points and held Seattle scoreless for the fourth quarter.  But Seattle got the ball back with just over 2 minutes to play and made some good plays including an unbelievable catch at the 5 yard line. 

They were now first and goal with plenty of time of the clock but they did waste a timeout.  First down was a running play, got them to the one yard line.  They were letting the clock run down so when they scored a touchdown it would leave NE with little time remaining.  But wait, they went for a pass play over the middle and it was intercepted, game over.  I was sure they would run the ball again, their running game was looking good but guess the coaches wanted to try an unexpected play vs a running play.  I understand trying a pass at that time and place but would rather have seen it in the corner instead of over the middle when they were all lined up there to stop a probably running play.  Really disappointed but it was a good game, just didn’t turn out the way we were rooting.  A good season for them, hope they can make it back to the big game soon and win it.

Monday we headed over to the GMC dealer, where we bought our car last year, for an oil change.  We were given lifetime oil changes at the dealer so every time we are in town we can bring it in for a free oil change and service.  They got us right in and we while we were waiting we talked to our salesman from last year.  He, of course, wanted us to trade it in but that ain’t happening just yet, ha.  And yes, they did change the oil and rotate the tires and all it cost us was a signature, good deal. 

Later we stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond, Lorraine had a few items she wanted.  Afterward we went over to see Barb, Norma, Steve and Sandy at their park.  Rob and Dennis had taken Rob’s rig to Lake Havasu for maintenance so they weren’t there.  But we had a good visit anyway.  After leaving them, we stopped by Brenda and Carl’s sites for a short visit with them too, they are all in the same park. 

Tuesday we decided to do some exploring in the Foothill area across the freeway from where we are staying.  This is the area where we have stayed at TJ and Sharon’s lot and we wanted to just drive around and see what was for sale or rent.  But before we had gone very far, we decided to find where Mark and Sue were staying.  They were at home so we made an unannounced stop for a nice visit with them.  After that, we drove around the Foothill a bit but didn’t find anything we had to have although we did write down a few phone numbers in case we wanted more info.  The only one we called ended up as a bust anyway so guess we didn’t find what we were looking for, whatever that is.

Wednesday we had dentist appointments in Mexico, Lorraine’s at 2 and mine at 3.  I was waiting outside when the dental assistant escorted me to the room where Lorraine was in the chair.  Seems the dentist had found a cavity under one of her caps and wanted us to decide if it should be pulled or have a root canal and new crown.  After talking over the options and prices, we decided to go with the root canal and crown. 

Last time Lorraine had a root canal down here it was pretty rough for her.  This time I told him we wanted a different dentist and he sent us to the “best in town”.  They set it up so she could go right over and get it done while I was doing my time in the chair.  So off she went to this other office and I went into the chair.

Last week I had my broken tooth prepped for a crown so he removed that temporary crown and installed the finished one.  Then he started prepping a different tooth for a crown, this is the one he found last time that had a large filling and was cracked.  As he was working on it, he found the one in front of it had a large cavity so we went through the deciding process of pulling or root canal/crown for me, damn. 

We made the decision to go with the root canal for me (can’t have Lorraine have all the fun).  We made a schedule for the first visit the next morning for Lorraine to finish up her prep for a new crown on the tooth that just had it’s root drilled out.  Meanwhile, I would go to the other dentist and have a root canal then return for my crown prep.  Don’t think we could have had all this work scheduled this quick back home.

So Thursday morning it was back to Mexico and the dentist.  We were finished by 11:15 then headed back to our rig, both of us sore and tired but glad to have it done.  Just one more visit, we hope, to install the new crowns  and we’re done with them for another year. 

Our front air conditioner has been making some rubbing noises, something I’ve repaired before so I sort of knew what I needed to do.  If it was like last time, I needed to get up on the roof, take things apart and raise the squirrel cage fan to stop the rubbing, at least I hoped it was the same as last time I had this issue. 

Just after we got back from the dentist and before I got started, Carl and Brenda happened to drive by looking for us.  I had just finished walking Misty and they spotted me walking back to our rig so they came in for a visit.  It was pretty warm inside with only one air conditioner running and Carl offered to help so we tackled the repair. 

It was hot up there, temperature was probably about 80, but once we got everything apart it was obvious that all we had to do was move the fan back up the shaft and put everything back together.  It sure is easier to do this with two people, I didn’t have to hold things out of the way and try to remove the screws/bolts by myself.  Things went pretty smooth and soon enough we had both air conditioners running once again.  Thanks for your help Carl, sure appreciate it!

After we finished up, cleaned up and rested for a bit, we headed out for an early dinner.  We ended up at Cracker Barrel and yes, Lorraine did order the breakfast “Uncle Hershel’s” as usual.  Brenda also ordered a breakfast while Carl and I had a regular dinner meal, meat loaf and hamburger steak.  We sure had a good visit but both of us were tried after our dentist visit so it was a quiet evening with nothing much going on after they left us. 

Friday we called Norma to see if we could stop by for a visit with them again and they said sure, come on over.  They had plans to have some Canadian friends over later so we only planned to stay for an hour.  Let’s see, by now Rob/Norma, Dennis/Barb, Steve/Sandy and Mark/Sue were all there at this park and were all getting together with the other friends and they invited us to stay for dinner if we wanted.  We agreed even though we didn’t have anything to add to the pot but everyone said it didn’t matter, we should stay.

After Ed/Linda showed up everyone had a good visit and dinner.  All the gals had brought something for the table and there was plenty to go around, glad we stayed and really enjoyed ourselves.  Thanks everyone. 

We been experiencing some heavy frost buildup inside our freezer so yesterday morning I decided to defrost it before we got on with our day.  After I got the food out I could see where the ice maker, which is inside the freezer of course, has been letting water leak into the bucket and some had even made it to the bottom of the freezer itself and created a big ice chunk.  So it took awhile longer to get all the ice and frost cleaned up than what I’d originally expected.

Everything was going just great until I plugged it back in, it didn’t have any display showing on the “eyebrow” control except for one flashing light.  I tried all the normal things, unplugging it again, pushing different buttons to reset it, even when so far as to find a manual online to see if it had any advice but no luck there.  So I ended up calling Samsung’s help line for assistance. 

I was pleased that it only took a few different menu options until I got to talk to a real person who spoke good English and was in the States somewhere.  I could tell she was reading from a troubleshooting guide whenever she offered suggestions but whatever, at least we could try different things than what I had been doing. 

After about the fourth attempt, she suggested it was in “display mode”, this is what it should be set when on the display floor, the lights work but it doesn’t attempt to cool.  She had me push two buttons at the same time (I had already attempted this on my own) and hold them down for ~ 5 seconds.  Still no luck so I went outside and unplugged/plugged back in the thing again and when I came back in it was working.  Still not sure what the issue was but after trying the different fixes it is now working, yea. 

We had made plans to meet our friends Ray and Barb at their house on the other side of Yuma at noon and would have made it on time except for the fridge not turning on.  Lorraine called and let them know we would head out ASAP but would not be there by noon for sure.  I think it was about 12:45 when we got to their house.

They welcomed us into their house, showed us around inside and out.  I didn’t know they had a swimming pool plus they’ve done a lot of work cleaning up the front and back yards too, looks really good.  They also showed us their new motorhome, nice and they are getting it ready for travel.  Seems they are getting really set up, a home here, one in Washington and a nice motorhome for their travels, sweet. They’ve sure firmed up their retirement lifestyle to what they want, we still haven’t decided what, where or when for us. 

We hopped in their car and headed out for lunch, we went to  a place called Yummy Yummy Chinese, a small place inside a strip mall a little ways from their place.  They said they had about 20 items for $5 and sure enough, there it was on the menu.  We all ordered #4, rice, either white or fried, almond chicken and sweet/sour chicken.  The portions were large too, we all had two plates in front of us.  And best of all, it was tasty too.  Not a bad choice for sure.

Later we returned to their house and continued our visit until it was time for us to head back to our place.  We had a good time, thanks for carving time out of your busy schedules for us. 

And when we got back to our place and checked the freezer, everything was good and cold although the fridge isn’t as cold as normal.  May need to have that looked at when we get back to Susy’s place later this month but it’s good for now. 

The weather this week has been really nice, it’s getting into the low/mid 80s almost everyday now and only dropping to the low/mid 50s at night.  I think we could really become used to these temperatures plus the humidity has been low too. Ah, this is one of the reasons we like heading South for the winter.

I’ve been neglecting trying to firm up our travel plans, still not sure where we will go after here.  We signed up for a second week at this park, our time is up on Thursday.  We are thinking of heading over to Fortuna for three days then we’ll go up to Bullhead City or Laughlin for a week.  We had been trying to work in a visit with Dave and Sandy at their place but don’t look like we will make it due to timing of the dentist visits.  Sure glad we had the short visit with you two in Quartzsite a couple weeks ago. 

I know Lorraine didn’t take too many pictures with our camera this week but once again, I’ll probably find a few to add here then get this posted. 

Another nice sunset one evening. 

  

 

Carl and I working on the air conditioner.  Oops, caught me laying down on the job on the right. 

 

Thanks   Chuck

 

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