Chilly AZ
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2012
1
Trip End
Jan 31, 2012
Mesa, Arizona
Thursday, February 2, 2012
January 2012
January 1, 2012-Sunday-We are in Provincetown MA at the Provincetown Inn, an old historic Inn west of town and located near the water. This body of land juts about 55 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean and is slowly eroding away. After last night celebrating I am up at 8 am to clear skies! Phil will eventually get up! And he did, in time to go downstairs for breakfast ,where we joined most of the same people we had seen last night. There was talk of a police incident here last night. As we understand it there was a 3 man altercation near one or two rooms where we had the food last night, cops called, broken door, other damage and lots of blood. That is all we know. I felt great when I got up, but after shower began to hurt again and I am actually sorer now that I have been with this bad back. I hobbled down the stairs and we took a couple hour drive around the Cape, enjoying the beautiful blue day with 52 degree weather that was not expected! Now back to relax till time to go to Napi’s for dinner. A good dinner as usual, and we were seated next to Bonnie, from the desk at our Inn, her friend Dan and an older lady who used to work there. Interesting to talk with them. After dinner back to the hotel where we helped the older lady into the building-she is 81 and uses a walker but not with her for the evening. Up to the room where we enjoyed some wine and talk and finally off to bed.
January 2nd-Monday-Down for a nice breakfast and back to the room to relax and pack up to leave. It rained a lot last night, at least over an inch but is just overcast today. We headed north and stopped in Plymouth to visit Phils cousin Dickie and wife Mary. She had food on the table as soon as we were in the door-(it’s an Italian thing) wonderful meatballs and pasta and a cake that melted in the mouth! A good visit-he has Parkinson’s and is doing better than the last time we saw them. Left there and headed home. Unpacked and relaxed till later when we dressed to meet Kevin and Carol at Sabatino’s for dinner. I’m glad we had reservations because the place was packed. Finally back home to relax, do a load of clothes, and off to bed
January 3rd Tuesday- A slow start to the cold morning (28 degrees) and a pancake breakfast. Now Phil is trying to get our reservation for our car rental in Kauai for April- All he was to do was call Hertz with some voucher numbers to confirm. Now on the phone for about an hour and no resolution - they want him to start over again, and again--this happened last year too-and go back to Marriott to get new numbers and start again! A couple of supervisors later we had it solved! He took his laundry in, went to bank, CVS, Cigar store, wine, Post office to stop mail and called newspaper to stop it. We both packed a bit and later out to Portcia Thai for dinner. We were the only ones there-they do a lot of take out. A very good meal-garlic shrimp for me and crispy duck for Phil. It was 17 degrees when we left there! Supposed to get down to 8 tonight!
January 4th-Wednesday-Up at 9 to temp of 10 - not sure how low it was last night but now at noon it is only 17! High today to be 24! The sky is clear and blue. Did more phoning to get all ready for Phil to be gone from here till mid May! That will be a lot of ‘togetherness’! No paper for him to read this morning so he is restless. We hung around here most of the day. Phil did get in a walk around Quanapowitt Lake and some shopping done. Later we headed North to NH to Kimberlys house for Pizza. Her husband works for the railroad as supervisor of plumbing(commuter trains) in Boston-(a job Phil got for him) and was called in at 3:30 this morning for a big broken pipe somewhere. He was still not home when we left at 10pm. Anyway we both really enjoyed having the time with just Kimberly and she related several childhood tales-that even Phil did not know about. Her friend brought Tommy back from hockey practice and we enjoyed her too. Robby was sleeping and did not even come down to say Good bye to his grand dad! He has taken to doing nothing and sleeping all day and up all night, eliminating talk with family and time to apply for a job. Finally we headed home to relax and go to bed. My back is NOT any better - It is more localized pain now but hurts most of the time. I was hoping for a quick mend before the flight home on Friday.
January 5th Thursday- Up before 9. I had to print our tickets at 9:50 - now we are officially ready to go. Just a bit more packing and we will be gone! Our pick-up is at 7 am tomorrow! Phil did some last minute things, and then somehow managed to injure his back also - -now we are quite a pair-both hobbling around. Mine is better but not good! Finally all packed and ready to go so out to see Melissa and have dinner. Walked in and Melissa not there and one of her waiters has her mother and 2 small children at the bar eating. This is not good practice in an upscale adult bistro! Noisy and all over the room little girls! Mom and gram just let them go! One pounded on the bathroom door while Phil was in it! Paul, the bartender was surly and we can see why. At last they left and things were better. This really should not be encouraged! Back home where we saw Doris, who called Karole over and we had wine and snacks, but both of us were hurting and tired so soon left and off to bed. By 11 we were sound asleep!
January 6th-Friday-Up at 5 am and ate, showered and did all the last minute things before our limo driver arrived at 7am. A fast trip to the airport-we had anticipated work hour rush, so we were plenty early and had 2 hours to wait. We met and talked with a 2nd generation Chinese in the waiting room and the 3 of us sat together and really enjoyed the flight. Her mom lives in Brookline MA and she lives in San Diego. We talked about everything and even a lesson in Chinese writing and making the symbols into words and sentences. Very interesting. She was interested in Phils life and especially in the book, and had him do an autograph for her that she will paste into the book after she buys it! He was excited too, his first autograph for the book, before it was printed! We arrived in Phoenix and said good-bye to Catherine who was continuing onto SD. Retrieved our luggage and as we went out the door there was Red pulling up to get us! So off in the nice warm weather to home. All is well here and the front patio is all painted and done! Looks good - Paint , labor and all came to $300 - not bad for what he did, and now I asked for an estimate on painting the house. Phils back is really getting bad, but we headed to Waldo’s for our usual ‘back home dinner’ and found that our pal Daniel is no longer there--Strange as his dad is founder and now ½ owner of the place. Some said he was fired, some said he quit to work real estate with his brother and another that he quit and went to Hawaii! So what is the real truth?? Back home where I poured Phil a small wine and he sat on the couch to drink it and two sips later he was OUT! Finally woke him, to get him into bed--I think he was asleep before his body even hit the mattress! So a long day for us and with the backs hurting it seemed even longer!
January 7th-Saturday. I was up early, did some more putting things away, back to bed, can’t sleep, up to read a book, and finally Phil decided to join the living. I think he is better, but won’t know till he is up a while. Took his coffee to the front patio and there was Jerry, who had done the porch! He was taking the blue tape off the walls. He said he had another job so wanted to be done here early--and now, about an hour later, he and Phil are still talking out there! Eventually we headed out for groceries, with a stop at the bank first. We really didn’t get a lot of things but hard to think what we will need. But should be ok for a few days! Not much else for the day- Beans and ‘dogs’ for dinner and watched Fox for a bit. Going to bed early again as backs are not really well yet.
January 8th-Sunday-Will our backs ever get back to normal?? Tired of this! We did a bit of work on the book, fixing a couple of mistakes and adding a bit for the hard book dust cover. Finally showered and headed west to Mesa Community College for a gem and mineral show. I had expected something small and it was huge, covering an entire outdoors block! We had ‘rock’ overlaod by the time we left! Our earth has so many hidden treasures---I can imagine the joy of
finding any of the rocks we saw! Phil bought a few small ones for the grandkids. It was short shirtsleeve weather, though a bit of a breeze. Next stop was World Market and our Nuvi took bypassed the one on our way home and took us 5 miles south of Power! All of the Bogle wine, except the cab, was on sale! But I did get my 10 discount. On home where I an computing and Phil has started reading ‘Travels with Charlie’ by Steinbeck. Out to dinner at Red Lobster - it was OK but probably won’t go there often. Brought wrong drink, wrong soup and dinner was very oily - all edible but just not that great. Back home to relax before bed.
January 9th - Monday--Phil had a really painful night - his back was in extreme pain! He took several pills, maybe more than he should have but finally went to sleep! I turned once and started mine hurting again, but by morning it was almost back to normal. We are both soooo tired of this pain. Had breakfast and did nothing all day. He finally found a comfortable way to lay on the couch and spent the day there with a book. I cooked us a pork chop dinner and he is back on the couch. It was a bit cooler today so we stayed in. I really need to get outside and take in my Christmas lights. I have the rest of Christmas put away.
January 10th-Tuesday--Phil was in misery last night but this morning his back is somewhat better-only pain once in a while. I moved the recliner back to the patio-it was behind the house while the floor was being painted. Now he can relax comfortably on the front patio. Talked with Red for a while, then while he and Phil talked I picked up the Christmas lights from the front yard - so Christmas is finally over. Phil spent most of the day laying on the couch or on the porch in the recliner. We both read a lot today. At last he put on a pair of shorts and we walked to the park library for new books. The walk was good for him and did it with no pain. I fixed a turkey dinner with the works. Now we are watching Romney winning NH. The book is leaving the initial ‘make ready’ and they will be formatting it for printing, and the cover will be in works very soon. At last some progress we can see.
January 11th-Wednesday--Phil still hurting so we didn’t do much again. We did walk to the clubhouse to the Wed sing along and eat snacks thing. Not too good of music but we had a good time. Back home and headed to AJ for dinner at a little Italian place we had seen last year. Finally found, it-Scuttlebutts- and it is good. Wed is spaghetti night and it was $5.99 each - the wine was $20! We met the owners- He is a big fat Italian and she is a delightful lady! It was a fun place and talked with 2 couples that want us to come back next week and join then for dinner!
Jan 12th-Thur- Got up late and a slow start to the day. Finally made it to the grocery store mid afternoon. It is overcast and cool out. Tonight Black Angus for dinner. And tonight we had a great dinner there-last year we had a so-so meal and were not going to go back-but tonight the food was great-the waiter was lousy, but we had a good time.
January Friday the 13th- I couldn’t sleep last night so only got 2 hours last night. Finally up and fixed breakfast - a beautiful blue day. Eventually went for a walk and stopped at the clubhouse to get some answers and Phil needed to fill out a few papers to allow him to stay here over the 2 week visitor limit. They were having a Jam Session in the clubhouse and we listened in on that for a while, then more walk and ended up at Trish and Vinnies where we had a long visit before walking home. We had all the leftovers in the refrig for a dinner and then decided to watch a movie- A Walk in the Clouds-Keanu Reeves. A very good choice- a good plot and great photography! Made popcorn. Phil had filled out the papers for the park and then got into a huff about them wanting his SS number to do a credit check. He is insisting he will not give it to them and just being a big pain tonight! Not sure what the outcome will be! They may ask him to leave--Finally off to bed with him still spouting his opinions on this!
Jan 14th-Saturday- Our usual lazy start. Phil is going to baby his back for a few more days-maybe it will heal this time!! He has been on the phone for at least 3 hours today! He was getting advise from his friends on what to do about the SS number issue and they all advised him to just do it! Lots of nice comments back on the back page cover to the book that I sent out. Temp was 9 in Boston last night. I fixed a sweet potato casserole that was great--and I don’t even like sweet potatoes,-with ham and green beans tonight, and later we watched Tom Hanks in ‘The ‘Burbs’.
Jan 15th-Sunday-- Another lazy morning-do you see a pattern here? It was a pancake-with blueberries-morning and we stayed home. His back is slowly improving and I want it to continue and it is hard to keep him resting! We had a rerun of last nights supper and some wine and another movie- Tonight is Jack London’s’ Call of the Wild. A good movie but did not follow the book at all!
Jan 16th-Monday-Up early as I have an eye appt at 10. I am amazed at my eyes! I can read most everything with no glasses! In the shade or small type is not as possible but computer, reading most books, street signs and TV are best without glasses! I love it! We arrived early so did some shopping then my appt. I do need my glasses changed, but, now my doctor tells me he does not take Medicare!!!! The cost here today is well over $300--something I did not count on! Now I have to figure out how to bill Medicare and my secondary Insurance- A real pain in the neck and a frustration I should not have! He knew Medicare was taking care of the eye surgery and he would do the follow-up but did he happen to mention this to me!! NO! and now I have to deal with this-not a happy camper. Then Phil re-hurt his back and can hardly get around so all the shopping I had lined up today is off! Back home to try to recuperate. Gave him an icepack and all it did was give him more pain. He is not a happy camper either! Today we both received the books we had ordered--our friend, John W Stillwell, has written a science fiction book titled ‘The Xetonian Trades’ and I think it will be good. We walked to the clubhouse for some exercise and I got a couple of puzzles and a couple of movies to watch tonight. Then dinner at Dirtwater Springs in AJ and home.
Jan 17th-Tuesday- Didn’t do much today but Phil did decide to go for a walk. Up to the office area where we picked up a package for us, then took it home. But a bit of excitement while getting it! We walked behind some cars, a big pickup first and as we were directly behind it the vehicle began to move! I was directly behind and less than 2 feet from it and Phil was first to notice it was moving and jerked me away from it--thus preventing a very bad accident. The guy admitted he did not see either of us as he began backing out--lots of people around so hard to believe --but Phil absolutely saved me from injury! But in doing so, reinsured his back! After taking the package home we walked around the back part of the park and he felt OK, but after sitting down at home he was in pain again. This just never gets better! I fixed us leftovers for dinner and we just hung around here.
Jan 18th-Wednesday--I have tickets for ‘My mother is Italian, My father is Jewish and I’m in Therapy’ downtown Phoenix at the Hershberger Theater. We were up a bit earlier than usual and have to leave here around noon. We did get started at about 11:45-got as far as Sossaman street when he discovered he had left his phone home, so back and as I went around a c
urve in the park met another car so jerked the car a bit to get onto my side of street. And did his back in again. At home he could not get out of car easily and when he did was in a lot of pain and tried to walk it off, in between complaints of my driving, which kept up for the rest of the day. Once in town I missed a turn and that started him off again, and finally could not see the entrance to the parking structure and had to go around the block and now he is being impossible! Tempting to just drive home, but we did find a parking space. Walked to the theater, about 2 blocks and picked up our tickets. We are about 40 minutes early so sat and people watched. Finally seated and we did have good seats - 6th row back, and in the middle. We didn’t know what to expect, but found it to be a one man show! And the guy is really good-laughed through the entire thing! This is written by Steve Solomon and performed by Ron Tobin. We sat by an entertaining older Jewish lady visiting from Florida. Back to our van and headed out of town--at 4:15--and our car GPS failed us and we had to recover from a confused maze of roads to go east instead of north! Then we were in the ‘going home from work’ traffic all the way to hwy 60. It was a mess and Phil was out of patience! Eventually arrived home to relax a bit before heading out to dinner in AJ at Scuttlebutts. A good dinner and have made friends there with a waitress. And finally back home where we had a long talk about our relationship---and I hope cleared up a few things..Off to bed and about 6 this morning I heard all kinds of moaning and hurting sounds, and his back was as bad, or worse than it has been. Then he could not find his walking stick, and I searched the house and car and--no stick. I am guessing he left it at dinner last night. I got mine for him and got him settled back down.
January 19th- Thur- I am up at 10:30 and Phil is still sleeping. I again searched for his walking stick and no luck so went to the shed and found the cane that Jim used to use. I just walked into his bathroom and there his is-leaning into a corner that we overlooked! Hurrah! He was finally up around noon and we had oatmeal for ‘lunch! Worked on the book again looking for errors and are amazed at the amount we are finding. He is reading it out loud and I am following with my eyes and we wonder how some of these could have been missed. The will cost us $100 per each 25 corrections!! Outrageous but that is the way they charge! I don’t know why I can’t just make the changes but that is not allowed!! We need to talk to them also as the $ amount they have assigned to purchasing the book seems way too high, in our opinions! Red was over several times during the day and we did lots of talking. We gave him a 12 pack of beers from around the world that he is already enjoying! Finally took a break- we are on page 184 out of almost 500 pages so will take a bit yet! Off to dinner. We had seen a seafood place on Baseline road last week, so hunted for it and finally, after some false starts, found it. It is a shopping center -Dana Shopping Center-that is very hard to get into off of Baseline unless you know exactly where you want to end up. It is Seafood Market at 3406 E Baseline in Mesa (Val Vista and Baseline). Food was very good, not up to Boston standards of course, but very good. Back home where we decided not to do anymore on the book tonight.
January 20th -Friday. We hung around here and worked on the book most of the day. It seems we both missed a LOT of little things and a few big things so going to cost us for this many corrections! Later we headed to Barro’s Pizza, in there new location on Power Road near the freeway. Had a very good pizza and an ale. Back home to talk till bedtime.
Jan 21st-Saturday. First thing this morning we did a Birthday card for Kristin and then in PJs drove it up to the mailbox so she will get it on Monday, her Birthday. Back home and after breakfast started in on the book, again! Managed to do about 100 pages today leaving only about 120 to go. The book is going to be a big one- 482 pages total! But I think it is very interesting, even after reading it at least a dozen times so far! Next I have to start writing up and explaining all the corrections! Going to be time consuming! I fixed pork chops, sweet potato, spinach and cranberry sauce for supper and then worked on my jigsaw puzzle instead of the book!
January 22 Sunday--Didn’t do much- Did go to Yen Chung for dinner and Phil likes it so it will probably visit it often.
Jan 23- Monday- Happy Birthday to Kristin Vitti. Home and not doing much again.
Jan 24th-Tue-Another day at home. We have actually eaten a home the last 2 nights.
Jan 25th-Wed. The manuscript is going to have to do a redo on it as we have found lots of mistakes-well-I know what I will be doing for the next few days. The book is just short of 500 pages! A redo is going to cost $275, and WE have to make the corrections, BUT, I believe that is better than them trying to make them and possible not seeing it as we did! but doing it by counting the errors was going to cost much more! Dinner tonight at Scuttlebutt-Spaghetti night! Also did some grocery shopping today, and picked up my glasses, then home as Phil pulled his back out again, and it was nicely healing too!
January 26th Thursday. Happy Birthday to my cousin Jill in WDC. Spent the day glued to the computer and worked on the corrections. This is taking a long time! Had a chicken dinner at home. My neighbor, Red, went to clinic for a throat culture/scraping and a barium test. Something is wrong and he is VERY concerned, and sore and needs to know what the problem is. The clinic just told him there was a problem and he had to talk to his doctor--and he can’t see him until next Wednesday!
Jan 27th-Friday. I am working on the book, but soooo many interruptions--will I ever get it done!! We had to shop today-Cigars, money at the bank and Wine. A bit more book and then out to Barro’s for Pizza and home where I am at it again! Almost done! Maybe tomorrow
January 28th-Saturday-Phil did his back in again and is in pain today--will this ever end. We had planned to do several things today but did none. I am almost done with the book, again!
Jan 29th-Sunday-Another day at home and I did finish the book and sent a note of to the publisher asking how and where they want it sent. This will be our last chance to make any changes!! Does anyone know how to make a fade on the side of a photo? We are not happy with the cover yet. Headed to the Bonefish for dinner but did not find it-after running all around, and arrived at another place as it was closing we finally stopped at TGI Fridays for an inexpensive and good enough for the price. Then home to do some wrap up on the book and close the file--I am uneasy about sending it in now-I am soo afraid there will be some changes we missed!
Jan 30 Monday- Phil had another bad night- His back is just not getting better. I had planned some shopping but did not happen. We did finally take a walk in the park. Visited Vinnie and Trish (Italians from New York. ) She gave me a huge lemon! From her tree. BTW I am eating oranges from my own orange tree! I cooked dinner here and we watched a movie, One flew over the Cuckoo Nest. Nurse Ricci, in Phil’s book, looks like and acted sooo much like nurse Rachett!
Jam 31st Tue- I was up early for a doctor appt. Not really sure what it was for but went- I need a few tests that are due and will get them set up. Nothing really wrong with me. Phil stayed home in bed trying to get better and I thought he was. I stopped for groceries and at the bank and home before 1pm, when Red needed the van for a doctor appt to find out the results of his throat test. Appears it is just badly irritated and dr hopes it will get better if he eats soft food for a couple of weeks. Phil had more back problems today, and just does not seem to be getting any better. I fixed a meatloaf dinner and he ate almost the whole meatloaf--I guess he liked it!
