The second half of November

This has been a relatively quiet two weeks.  My routine is to walk the dog in the morning, Patty and I alternate with who does the afternoon walk and she does the evening walk.  A couple of mornings, I noted that there was a surplus of water on the lawns at Carlyle Condos.  I passed this info on but was told that this is part of the normal process with the reseeding that was done this fall.

On Friday, Nov. 21, we went to the Hyatt in Scottsdale.  Liberty Wildlife Rehabilitation does a weekly show there each Friday at 4:00 p.m.  Meg had to cancel because of work and Jane was late, but Jane did join Patty and me for part of the show.

After the show, Jane, Patty and I had a light dinner and drinks at the Hyatt.

Mr. Shadow continues to do well.  Here he is before and after his afternoon walk.

On the day before Thanksgiving, I spent the morning volunteering at the Desert Botanical Garden helping with setting up all of the luminaria.  Each plastic container has sand, then a plastic cup and then a candle.  Then 5,000 of them were spread around the Garden.

Saturday afternoon, Patty and I were part of the shift of ten volunteers who lit the 5,000 candles.  Two other shifts of volunteers then came in to deal with the expected 4,000 visitors.  It is quite an event - more than ten groups providing live music along with food and drinks available for each night of Luminaria from 5:30 - 9:30.

Our vacuum from Vermont died, but we had a three year service contract from Sears covering from when we bought it on 3/3/13.  I called Sears, updated our address and was directed to bring the vacuum to the Sears repair facility at the Metro Center Mall.  Only problem was that when I got there, they had changed their procedures and after filling out paperwork there, I then took the vacuum back out to the car and drove to the nearby UPS store to send the vacuum off to Chattanooga, TN for repairs.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving, but did get out to walk several times.  And on Friday evening, we went out to dinner and to a live show by the Capitol Steps at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.  As usual, the Capitol Steps were quite good and they made fun of all politicians of all political stripes.

And now, I must get mentally prepared for jury duty at Phoenix Municipal Court on Monday, Dec. 1.

The first half of November

The first half of November has provided some interesting events.  While at the Desert Botanical Garden on Nov. 4, I noticed that some cacti were in bloom.  Many of us wondered if this was due to the massive rainfalls earlier this summer combined with the above average temps causing blooms now rather than the usual spring time blooms.

We discovered a new restaurant, Fuego Bistro:  http://fuegobistro.com/  Excellent food and drinks, live guitar music and vocals - loud enough to hear but not so loud to preclude discussion over dinner.  After dinner, we noticed that there was a beautiful full moon.

On Monday Nov. 10, we went to the monthly meeting of the VIG (Volunteers In the Garden) at the DBG.  Liberty Wildlife Rehabilitation gave a great presentation about what they do and they brought some of the rescued birds that cannot be released into the wild.  We learned about western screech owls, peregrine falcons, redtail hawks and golden eagles.  We will need to visit their facility some day, perhaps in February when Helen visits for a week.

 

I went back to New England Wednesday to Sunday, Nov. 12 - 16.  While driving to Vermont, I stopped at NH State rest area on I-89 and met Max the Moose.

After meeting at Vermont Technical College about teaching for them, I went to Vermont Law School for Moot Court.  I had a nice dinner and conversation with Bridgette and Wendy, then sat as a judge on Holt v Hobbs - the SCOTUS case about whether a beard must be allowed as a religious privilege for certain Muslims.

I attempted to give platelets at the Burlington Red Cross on Friday morning, but after two tries, there were still problems.  I did not feel any pain and the pheresis machine did not notice any anomaly - it was 20 minutes into the procedure when we noticed that the return line was leaking and not properly in the vein.  The donation was aborted, and I had an ice pack on my arm.  There was no pain since, but the bruises look bad - exactly as the Red Cross staff had predicted (they must know what they are talking about).  Trust me, as bad as it looks, there was and is no pain.

Helen had an unexpected call saying the carpet in their bedrooms could be installed on Saturday instead of later in the week - so all three of us worked hard moving things from the bedrooms to the living room.

The old carpet was removed and the new wall to wall carpet was installed in about four hours, and then everything was returned to the bedrooms, leaving the living room normal for a brief period of time.  We wanted to make sure that there was minimal stuff in the living and dining rooms so that the old carpet can be removed and the new wood laminate flooring can be installed later this week.

Sunday morning,  I headed back to the airport and flew on one of United's newly renovated Boeing 737-900s.  The new bathrooms are very small - less than 24 inches wide.

On Monday, Nov. 17, Patty and I hiked up and over Shaw Butte in the Phoenix North Mountain Preserve.  There is a gain of about 800 feet in elevation from the North Mountain Visitor Center where we had parked.  We went at a leisurely pace and spent about two and half hours making the trek.

Note the smog in the distance in front of the distant mountains

While walking the dog, I have noticed some vandalism and needed repairs at the Carlyle Condos - all reported so that our property managers can take care of the problems.

On Nov. 18, while doing my usual Docent Day, I gave a 40 minute talk about our trips to Peru and Bulgaria - our group often asks individual docents to give presentations during our lunch hour.

Many changes have been made at the DBG - here is a myrtillocactus (blue crested cactus) that was recently moved into a more visible spot.

A busy two weeks, but also a good two weeks.  Now it is time to go walk the dog again.