Into every life a little rain must fall, but really.....

The Smiths have landed

When it comes to things I’m good at, and trying to be honest, there are quite a few things that I am good or even maybe very good at. But remaining honest there are a number of things that I am simply not very good, or even dismal at.

I’m not going to list the things I feel I am good at, but the one thing I am really not good at is being a handyman when it comes to plumbing and electricity. Plumbing jobs, or basically anything to do with the movement of water, forget it. Same with electricity, I am good only at making a phone call to a friend or professional who knows what they are doing.

I have a great admiration for people, like my brother-in-law Denny, who is not just good, but great at diagnosing and fixing household and vehicle problems. It’s a gift. One I do not possess.

This was a brief break from El Nino

In the past I have called the RV repairman for things that I am sure he has left our mobile residence shaking his head at how completely inept I am. In previous years, we called him to find out what was wrong with our hot water heater and he showed up and found that the outdoor shower was left open and by turning off the hot valve we suddenly had hot water.

There were other things that I should have been able to figure out for myself, but didn’t. Dick, the RV repairman in the park, has been merciful and not charged me for those quick fixes as we have also spent some money with him on hail damage repairs and a new toilet a couple years ago.

This year, on our first morning here, we suddenly found ourselves without power in the trailer. We had lights because they work off the battery (until it runs dead) but it was clear that nothing else worked. I called park maintenance over to check the electrical connection from the resort and it was working fine, so the problem was with us.

The snow-capped Catalinas

In the past I have spent time laying on the floor looking at the fuse box and trying to determine if a blown fuse was the issue and it never was. It didn’t even occur to me to try the fuse box for a complete electrical failure. So eventually we called Dick. He drove over made some cursory checks, opened the fuse box, flipped the main breaker and, voila!, power was restored. I felt pretty stupid, but Dick again took pity on me and spared me a service call charge for that.

Since our arrival in Tucson the weather has been marginal at best and pretty bad at worst. The temperatures are cold (50s in the day and 30s at night) and plenty of rain. In fact, when I went to Bible study on Thursday I fully expected a lesson on Noah and the Flood.

We’ve stayed inside much of the first few days, getting things organized and avoiding rain drops. So imagine my frustration on Friday night when we decided to watch a DVD instead of regular television and found that our entertainment unit was not working. Dead. Dead as a doornail. So no DVD and a night of considering whether to bother Dick again.

Catalinas with snow from the resort

Instead, on Saturday morning I took out my drill driver, removed the unit from the cabinet and started playing with the connections and fuses behind the unit. Suddenly I pulled and replaced a fuse and the unit barked back to life.  You will excuse me for going into my happy dance with the actual satisfaction of fixing something that was electrical. Joan walked in coming back from the shower just as I fixed the unit and saw the extreme happiness I was enjoying.

So Dick got to sleep in this morning.

We spent much of Wednesday putting things away, going shopping and then attended our first concert – The Class of 66 – which included many of the top hits of that year. The Lonely Street Productions are very good and when I went to get tickets on Wednesday morning there were only five tickets left and only two that were together. They turned out to be front row tickets and why they were still available became clear when we arrived at the show. We were directly in front of a large speaker at the stage and I immediately removed my hearing aids as it was apparent that I would have no issues in hearing the music. It was a wonderful concert.

We went back Thursday and purchased tickets to all the concerts we want to attend as they are selling out very quickly and since we purchased our tickets many have sold out.

On Thursday morning I attended my first Men’s Bible study class which is a continuation of the Book of James, which we began in the park in March last year. It was great to reconnect with so many friends and to catch up with what is going on in their lives.

Puffy clouds on a cool Tucson day

After Bible study I headed to a local hardware store to have trailer keys made for Joan, who, if I haven’t mentioned it before left HERS in Michigan while only I remembered mine. I am totally gloating on this. After I returned to the trailer we went for a nice walk in the park together. Still plenty of spaces here, but they will begin to rapidly fill in the next week or so.

Thursday night I attended another mixed group Bible study headed by the pastor and his wife here at the park and we will be doing a program called “Experiencing God” which some of our church members at home have already done.

On Friday, I went to the fitness center got in my first workout since leaving Michigan and then hit the showers. Joan spotted an announcement for a “Home Show” at the Tucson Convention Center and Friday was senior day which included free parking and 2-for-1 tickets for seniors. Being good seniors we would never pass up a special deal like that.

We probably should have. The show was more a place for people to sell time shares, unusual cooking gadgets and very little home improvement items. There was a section that included some new travel trailers and fifth wheels so we did enjoy touring those.



The water's warm but the air is cool for aquacise today

Joan also attended the Women’s Bible Study on Friday and ironically met a woman who was attending Keuka College in the Finger Lakes part of New York the same time that she was. Joan spotted her Keuka class ring (she graduated a year before Joan) and struck up a conversation with her and now we have more new friends here at the park. The Women’s Bible Study is titled “Growing Older and Wiser.” She is looking forward to doing both. That is looking forward to growing older and wiser. She also wants to see if this would be a good study for our Wednesday night Bible study at Taecken’s Terrace back home. We miss our folks there.

On the way home from the “Home Show” we went to Poco & Mom’s for dinner. Poco & Mom’s is a Mexican restaurant that has very good food for very reasonable prices. We arrived home in time to find out that the entertainment unit wasn’t working, but of course I fixed it on Saturday.

People here at the resort are in full open throat complaining about the weather, but Saturday the sun was out, temperatures were in the high 50s, so no complaints from us. El Nino was in full effect for the past week, but is supposed to let up for some good weather this week.

Sunday morning started with a quick workout at the gym and then both of us head to the people wash and got ready for church. Church was wonderful and the highlight for me was that Roger, a member of our Thursday Men’s Bible Study, led the choir in the singing of his own musical composition “Come Meet My Friend, Jesus.”



The obligatory bonnet picture

Roger is a retired physicist from New York and the music was very moving. What a great thing that someone, at any age, can pursue something so totally apart from what they did as a “young” person and make an impact. It gives me hope.

After church we returned to our home on wheels and enjoyed a quick lunch, a quick watch of playoff NFL football and then we headed to two stores for shopping. As is our routine here, on my way back from my Sunday workout (it is so great to be able to walk to my work out here) I stop at the store and buy a newspaper.

Joan found sale items that we wanted and or needed at Fry’s (the Tucson version of Kroger’s) and Walmart. Fry’s had an unbelievable sale on T-bone steaks and soda pop and Walmart had the usual collection of stuff we needed at reasonable prices.

Once back at the trailer we settled in for an afternoon of football watching and then we planned to watch our new “Mad Men” DVDs after the games were over. We polished off our spaghetti (so you know this was a great day for me) and then I prepared the now fixed entertainment center for the DVDs.


Our winter home

Well, we encountered a problem that neither of us was capable of fixing. We have a regular DVD player and the Mad Men DVDs are Blu-Ray and there’s no way to play them. So I spent the evening productively by studying for next week’s Bible class.

We also heard from Mahlon, a member of Riverside Tabernacle Church in Flint, who is down here with his wife for two weeks. I gave them a quick rundown on our favorite things here and we are making plans to accompany them on a few adventures and Mahlon and I are going to tackle a couple of my favorite hikes. It is always fun to have friends from back home come and visit. In fact, that’s pretty much the only time we do any touristy things now as we have done many of the local attractions. It is fun to show them to visitors, however.

We are expecting more visitors this year and you all know who you are.

Monday morning I did a really good workout, Joan went to her aquacize class and we are going to the resort doctor this afternoon to get our allergy shots and then tonight is our return to “Meet Me at Maynard’s” in downtown Tucson. We will likely catch a little football as well.