Thursday, December 3, 2020

I have been busy getting settled in once again. My apartment is very nice, about 200 sf smaller than the last one. The only negatives that I have found so far are that the kitchen cabinets are not as deep or wide as the last place and all of the shelving in the closets are too high for me.  The grounds are nice and walkable with two doggie stations for cleanup.

Last Sunday, I returned the rental car and Ben picked me up and drove me to Shakopee to get my car. It wouldn’t start, so we had to go to O’Reilly’s for jumper cables (not a bad thing to carry in the car) and got it started. All is well with my Zippy little RAV4.

I picked up the U-haul truck next door to the storage unit and Dustin and his helper met me there on Monday morning and committed to having the move completed in 2-hours. They had the truck loaded in half an hour, the drive to St Paul took half and hour, and they had everything moved in within an hour. Way to go, Dustin! The sad thing is that he knows me and my stuff pretty well after moving me for the fourth time.

I met with the manager, Lisa, to go over the lease and sign a few papers that didn’t get signed previously and gave me a tour of the building.

I then returned the truck and came home to start unpacking. And that is what I’ve been doing ever since.  As of last night, there are 3 boxes to empty in the kitchen (fancy dishes and stuff), 2 bins in the bedroom, and pictures to hang. All is well.

Sunday, November 29, 2020

I picked up a rental car on Monday, a Dodge Caravan (cost less than an economy car) and loaded it up with my stuff.  Connie stopped by for a short visit and it is always so nice to see her. We had some good conversation, as usual.

It was sad to say goodbye to Tom on Tuesday morning, but I have to keep moving forward, so Frisco and I headed off to the northeast for our 1,650 mile drive. Weather predications were good and I had the trip planned out with 8-9 hour drives, stopping for the night at Santa Rosa, NM, Salina, KS, and Clear Lake, IA.  All went as planned.  On Friday morning, I stopped at my storage unit and picked up a few things that would get my by until Monday when the movers are available. I grabbed the air bed, a camp chair and stool, and a few kitchen items and then headed to Ben’s house to get the keys to the apartment.  It was such a joy to see the girls come running out of the house to greet me - all masked up and full of air hugs.

I got to my new place and had some trouble with the key fobs, but helpful folks showed me how to properly use them and I got access to my new apartment. It is bright and all of the appliances are shiny and new. I proceeded to unload the stuff from my car and to get settled with my temporary furnishings. 

I got up bright and early yesterday morning and headed to the grocery store during senior hours to stock up on food. I plan to order my groceries for pickup in the future, hoping that if I stay away from public places, I may get to spend some time with the family at Christmas time. We shall see how that works out.

Monday, November 23, 2020

An exciting event of last week was watching the International Space Station go by, and we would have missed it if we hadn’t walked past a guy who was filming it.

Frisco did a strange thing last night. He has been waking me during the night to go out and pee. Last night I felt him nudge the mattress and I reached down to check on him and realized he was on the bedside table (built in) next to the bed. I tried to coax him down, but he came up on the bed and curled up where I sleep and I petted him and cuddled with him. Eventually, he got down and I took him outside. The strange thing about this is that he rarely gets on the furniture any more, especially the bed. There isn’t room for him to make a leap and the floor is slippery, but he made it onto the bedside table without me hearing him do it. I had the sad thought that he wanted to be close to me because he was dying.

I’m sad to say that the Tom and Rose roller coaster ride has come to an end once again. Three strikes and it’s over. We are great as friends but not as a couple. My mistake - I just kept thinking it could possibly work. The main reason is that there is not enough love between us - we are just going through the daily motions together, but apart. It is not a good situation as neither of us care enough to make the effort to make it work and it doesn’t come naturally.  

I am completely aware that it is not a good time to be traveling but I’ve decided to proceed with caution and head back to MN.  I have a car reserved and will head out tomorrow and should arrive in St Paul on Friday and will go straight to my new apartment in West St Paul - a brand new building, just finished construction and it was the first one I saw when I did my search, the stars must have been aligned and I believe it is the right thing to do.  

Tom and I don’t fight light cats and dogs and I could stay here but AZ is not the best place to be during the pandemic since the Governor has not even mandated masks in the state and there is no mandate in the county that I am in-the attitude is much like Trump (who needs a mask, it’s going to disappear) as the majority are loyal followers. It is hit or miss wherever you go. Hospitals do have room for patients though.

As far as the traveling, it isn’t a great choice right now but I will avoid situations that will put me at risk as much as possible.  I will just get there and get settled as quickly as possible, then quarantine for as long as is necessary. I tolerated the winter ok last year just fine and have to resolve to do so again.

So off I go again. Happy Thanksgiving (I will be on the road that day).

Love to you all,

Rose

Monday, November 16, 2020

Well, I really have nothing to write about the last week, but maybe if I start typing, something will come to mind. How about the weather - it has been beautiful. We even got a bit of rain one night - enough that there were puddles of water in the street. It has a way of cleaning the air and making everything smell fresh again.  Temps have gone from lows in the 50s early in the week to 80 degrees yesterday and we took advantage of the cool by taking long walks and of the warmth by visiting the pool.

Our neighbor, Harriet, is a solo RVer who arrived here a few days after we did. She is here for two months while she goes through breast cancer treatment at MD Anderson hospital, and her friends are here to help her through the journey.  She had a double mastectomy a week ago and appears to be doing quite well in her recovery - slowly but surely she is healing and feeling better. I feel that she is in good hands and hope the best for her. She’s a brave lady and has lots of interesting stories to tell about her life and travels.

Once again, the COVID-19 cases in our country are skyrocketing and many states are starting to mandate shutdowns, some with curfews at night and most with very strict limits on numbers of people allowed indoors.  The news media is discouraging people from large gatherings for 

Thanksgiving and asking folks to stay at home. I learned that my granddaughters will be starting remote learning again today.

The political news is all about Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the election and he has not yet conceded to President-elect Joe Biden and is refusing to allow access to information that will help with the transition. He has encouraged people to rally and held a Million MAGA March in Washington DC on Saturday, where less than 10,000 people showed up and, of course, few wearing masks or distancing. Along with that, there were several “Stop The Steal” rallies held in towns throughout the country. They refuse to give up, although he clearly lost the election and all of the lawsuits that he has filed have shown that there was no election fraud. He is such a bully.

This was taken on one of our walks this week - a spot where we had a clear view 

of the Superstition Mountains.

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Veteran’s Day - Thanks to all who have served our Country!

Tom and I decided to take a road trip yesterday, so after breakfast and dog walks, we headed up the hill toward Payton.  It was so sad to see the acres and acres of damage from forest fires - much of the 50 miles was covered with burned trees, shrubs and the stately Saguaro cactus. 

We found snow in the ground as we got closer to Young Road where Tom wanted to explore some campsites in the Sitgreaves National Forest for future reference.  One of the roads that we took came to an end when we met up with a logging crew and a downed tree.  We stopped close to the rim and checked out the views.  That wasn’t the road that we were looking for, so headed back in the direction we had come and tried another. Forest road 171 was just what we were looking for - campsites were marked all along the road and it ended up at a Ranger and Visitors Center.

Monday, November 9, 2020

Last week, after Election Day on Tuesday, we anxiously awaited the final ballot counts until it was announced that Joe Biden was elected on Saturday. There are still a few states that haven’t completed the ballot count, but he has won both the popular and electoral college votes. Of course, Donald Trump will not concede and has filed lawsuit after lawsuit alleging voter fraud. He also is blocking Joe Biden from using the means that should be available to him for the transition. I only hope that at some point this country can come together and work toward a United country that respects all people with from all walks of life - not only the privileged few. I am so sick and tired of the Trump administration’s nastiness and lack of cooperation on anything that doesn’t benefit them personally. They are supposed to be working for all of the citizens of America and to protect the natural resources that we have available to us.

We haven’t done much other than frequent walks and visits to the pool on every afternoon that we could. The weather has gone from 90s last week to low 60s this week and we’ve gone from running the AC to running a small heater.

Sunday, November 1, 2020

I guess I’m on a weekly writing routine. There were actually two highlights this week - I met up with Connie last Monday at Gilbert Riparian and we walked and talked for two and a half hours. It was so good to see her again - I sure miss our road trips, local adventures, and friendship, but we caught up on the last couple of years. It was great!

Tom bought a shed from Millie this week. We had looked at several that were for sale and there was a lot of shed activity going on in this park this week. We were offered one that sat next door to us in site 50 ($50) but it was old and rough and would need some paint and repairs, so the offer was turned down and management hauled it away. Then the wheeling and dealing started when we learned that Willie and Ed were buying Mike and Dallas’s 8x10 ($700-complete with AC) so their 8x8 would be for sale ($200). Millie bought Willie and Ed’s, so her 6x8 came up for sale and we bought it for $100. 

Tom enlisted Bruce to help him get it to our site and the process was pretty cool.  The required tools were concrete blocks, a long pry bar, and an old single bed frame with heavy duty wheels, a rope for pulling, and a golf cart. One guy makes a fulcrum and pries the base of the shed to raise it and the other guy places concrete blocks under the corners until it is high enough to get the bed frame underneath. Then, the corners are raised to remove the concrete blocks so the shed sits on the bed frame. The rope is attached to the golf cart and it is rolled to its next home and the process is repeated. It only took an hour until it was positioned and 

The Halloween Street Dance that was scheduled for Saturday night was canceled because there weren’t enough people who signed up. They were hoping to have a distanced event but people are still being cautious. This Halloween was also a Blue Moon and the end of daylight savings time.