A trip to Urgent Care highlights first full week in Arizona

One week in and we’ve already made our first trip to Urgent Care, but this time it was for Joan and not me. A couple years ago it was my ticker and shortness of breath that ate up a couple days in the hospital – for nothing as it turned out, but this time Joan has caught a nasty eye infection.

Eating out, Arizona style

Not sure where she contracted it, but she looks miserable with her swollen and red eyes. After a trip to the urgent care we made separate trips to two Walgreen’s until we found one that had the prescription salve she needed to clear up her eyes. The issue will keep her out of the pool for a couple days anyway.

Before Joan’s eyes went all crimson on us we enjoyed the Wednesday concert in the ballroom – To Ella With Love – a tribute to the talented Ella Fitzgerald. Crystal Stark – a popular local singer and American Idol finalist was the star of the show. The band wasn’t bad either.

Here’s a little story about Ella Fitzgerald – and me – that y’all probably didn’t know. Back in my days with the Atherton Police Department I used to work special details and one of the more memorable ones (I actually had a few memorable ones, including Shirley Temple Black, Mayor John Lindsay, Senator Ted Kennedy, to name drop a few) was an afterglow for a Boston Pops concert at Stanford University.

Joan's newest creations

Arthur Fiedler, the incomparable leader of the Boston Pops, brought his show to Stanford and Ella Fitzgerald with him. At the close of the show he and Ella were to come to a party at a mansion in Atherton where I worked. The host of the party gave specific instructions to only let the cars bringing Ella and Arthur into the driveway.

“Everyone else parks on the street,” were the instructions. So me, and two other officers providing security waited at the driveway entrance directing cars to on street parking. Finally a large black limousine came down the road and it was the vehicle carrying Ella Fitzgerald and it was directed into the driveway. At some point a small Toyota must have pulled up and without recognizing its very famous passenger it was sent to park down the road with the rest of the party goers.

A few minutes later here came the driver and his famous passenger, Arthur Fiedler, walking up the street. We were very apologetic, but Fiedler was gracious and understanding and told us he enjoyed the walk. That’s my one and only brush with Ella Fitzgerald – and Arthur Fiedler.

On Thursday, I had my first Men’s Bible study, Joan went to her Aquacize class (pre-eye infection) and then she walked the park. We were supposed to get a propane delivery, but when the truck arrived he declined to put gas in our tanks because they “expired” in July 2017. Fortunately we had gas in reserve, but now I had to deal with “expired” tanks. More on that later.

We went shopping at the newly remodeled and expanded Walmart near our park. They have all the sugar free items we need for our diet so we will likely be shopping there in the future. I also got the car washed and the gas tank filled. Plus, we returned a Christmas present I bought for Joan – an accessory for her Kitchen Aide blender – at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I purchased the item (which was too large for her Kitchen Aide) for a small one and they made the exchange even though I purchased the item in Flint, Michigan.

Cannabis Doctor sign spinner

We also passed a truly energetic sign spinner on our way home. The guy – a Frank Zappa lookalike – and obviously a refugee from the Haight Ashbury district of 1968 was wildly spinning and throwing a sign that advertised “Cannabis Doctor.” It appeared he had been testing some of the doctor’s medicine. Unfortunately a van blocked my attempt at a photo of him, but I did capture the sign.

So lots of chores completed on Thursday. Because of the very nice weather we ate outside on our picnic table.

Friday dawned with me heading to O’Reilly Chevrolet to check on why my “check engine” light keeps coming on in the Tahoe. Turns out it is a minor issue with some government mandated emission device and nothing I need to deal with during my time here. I did have them do an oil change so the trip wasn’t entirely worthless.

I stopped to price new propane tanks for the trailer, but before purchasing two $85 tanks I went to the Internet and discovered that a local company will recertify old tanks for an additional 5 years for $12.50 a tank. A $25 recertification sounded so much better than a $170 tank purchase, so while Joan went to her polymer clay jewelry class I made a short trip to Barnett’s Propane and got my tanks recertified and topped off.

Joan’s eye continued to get worse so after dinner we made the trip to Urgent Care so she could get medicine for her eye.

On Saturday morning I was up early to help set up tables and chairs for the donut and coffee gathering in the ballroom and then I worked out for an hour in the fitness center before returning to the ballroom to clean up the tables and chairs.

For dogs that can read

The head of security at the resort pointed out that the biggest area of concern in the park right now is dogs – both the noise and emissions they make. Apparently dog owners have not all been complying with rules about noise and emissions.

At least one owner believes that dogs can read as you can see by the accompanying photo.

“What we have here right now is a dog park that includes humans,” the security man said. Now you are up to date….