Thursday, August 1, 2013

August 1 - 3, 2013 - Back Home in Mesa

It feels good to be back home again, although it has been very emotional for me.  Reminders and memories are everywhere in my home - and then there are a few problems that I have had to deal with - they don't make it any better.

There is no hot water coming into my house.  Well, there is a trickling of hot water coming through the pipes but not enough to take a shower.  There is plenty of both hot and cold coming into the shed and there is cold water coming in to the house.  I had our maintenance guy, Dave, stop by on Tuesday to give me his opinion on who to call and he thought the problem could be at the water softener.  I started there and called Kinetico - they told me how to bypass the softener and that would tell me if the problem was there.  When I bypassed it, there is no change - so, the problem is elsewhere.  I'm thinking water line might be gunked up from the water heater to the house.  For now, I will do nothing, as I really don't have time to deal with this right now and I won't be here to use it anyway - I have been taking my showers at the clubhouse.

I discovered last week that my health insurance company deducted $392 from my checking account and my premium is supposed to be only $98.  I finally heard from them and they agreed that they made a mistake and I now have a credit balance and won't be making a payment for the next 3 months.  This is fine, although I wasn't expecting to spend an extra $300 this month.  They will be monitoring my account manually to prevent this from happening again - this is the 2nd time.

Good stuff - I had dinner with Nan, Dale, Monica, Dylan, and Haylee on Tuesday night.  I thought I would be meeting Monica's boyfriend, Loren, but he was called to work.  I did get to meet Dylan and Haylee's new puppy, an 8-month old Labradoodle named Wyatt.  He is so cute - but is in that stage where his interest is all about the anatomy and he wouldn't leave Frisco alone.  Dylan was not happy with his behavior, but it was just puppy stuff and learning to communicate.  By the end of the evening, they were wrestling together and having fun.

Other than getting my tires rotated on the car and a trip to the car wash, I spent most of Wednesday lounging around the house.  I finally finished reading a book that I had started before I left on my trip - just didn't have much time for reading and when I did, it wasn't that book.  A pair of pants got hemmed, and I managed to get a few things done in preparation for my next trip.

Connie stopped by in the evening and we had a nice chat, having to cut it short as Frisco was chomping at the bit to get out for his nightly walk.

Frisco got a pedicure this morning - and so did I.  Thanks to the Dremel sanding attachment (I used this method on Lucy) - it really makes the job easy and he doesn't mind it at all.  I was afraid that the sound of it would scare him and it has to generate some heat, but he rarely even flinches - not like when I would try to clip his nails with a clipper.  He really needed it because I only got around to it once while on our 6-week trip.  A bath for him is also on the agenda in the next couple of days.  He needs some grooming type TLC.

I met up with Nan and Dale for lunch at PJ's Brewhouse near the Chandler Mall on Thursday afternoon, since I had to go to The Body Shop (I recently bought a Groupon deal knowing that I was running low of moisturizer - the stuff that is supposed to make old skin look young - yeah right!) and Nan doesn't work too far from there.  My lunch of Chicken Noodle soup and salad was very tasty and many thanks to Nan and Dale for treating me - best of all was their company.  Thanks to the Groupon - I got my moisturizer for 1/2 price.

I started packing again on Friday - will head to Oxnard, CA (the halfway point between here and SF) on Sunday to visit with Mary and Lance for a couple of days before heading to SF.  Frisco knows that once again, his life will be "in transit".  He follows every move I make and is ever watchful.

Tonight (Friday), I went to TGIF to connect with my community friends that I always enjoy being with.  Dinner was chicken from the local Albertsons plus several homemade entrees that folks bring - all making for a very pleasant evening of conversation and plenty of laughter.  Again - this is a great place to live and it feels like one big, happy family.

Connie, Cathy, and I went to Scottscale on Saturday morning to a couple of estate sales and then we went to LoLo's for chicken and waffles.  Neither of them had been there before and both really liked it - they will be back.

I spent the rest of the day getting ready for my trip to SF.