Sunday, December 30,2007

I spent most of the day worrying about whether or not we would sell the additional 50 tickets that we need to sell for the New Year's Eve party tomorrow night. As you might imagine, the worrying didn't accomplish anything. This afternoon several of us gathered to take sample pictures for the party. We are going to take pictures and sell them to the residents and we wanted to give them some examples. My camera will get a good work out tomorrow evening (hopefully). While we working on the project we had the opportunity to talk to many of the new residents who have arrived in the past couple of days. Hopefully they will all come to the party. You see, I have purchased enough food to feed an army so I need someone to come and eat it!! I also need someone to buy tickets and pay for all of that food! This evening we are enjoying The Sound of Music. Bruce has never seen the movie before tonight. He said he was always too busy.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

This is our resident burrowing owl. Isn't he cute. He was standing beside the cactus sunning himself this morning when Jack and Brandy went out for their morning walk. Jack was kind enough to come and get me so I could snap a picture.

We started our morning with pancakes at the Cantina with Jack and Cathy. We didn't work - we just ate. We took Jack and Cathy on a tour of the park so they could find their way around and back to the camper. Next was a trip to town to finish the shopping for the New Year's Eve party and to stock Jack and Cathy's new camper with food. After the trip we dropped off all the goodies and had a bite to lunch. Now we were off to Sky Dive Arizona at the Eloy airport to watch the collegiate skydiving championships. The sky was full of sky divers all afternoon. A big attraction was the "indoor skydiving" adventure. It is a wind tunnel that simulates a sky dive. After I watched that, I knew that sky diving was not for me. Bruce already knew he didn't want to ever jump out of a real airplane but he sure does want to try the wind tunnel.

Here's a shot of the airplane taking off for a big jump:

This is a shot of two people doing a tandem jump.

The duo made a safe landing.

It was hard to capture the true picture but you can see that the whole sky was full of divers.

Here's a guy packing his own chute.

Sky Dive Arizona -Indoor Skydiving.

The "wind" was blowing approximately 118 mph to keep this big guy up in the air. You can see in the first picture that he used his leg to stay away from the glass. He was just floating in the second picture.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Friday. This morning we worked in the office and were BUSY. Our intention was to go to the office for a few minutes and then go do all the shopping for the New Year's Eve party. Good intentions but they didn't work out. After many delays, we were on the way to Mesa about noon. We shopped at Sam's ($375 worth), Costco ($60 worth) and then Basha's ($60 worth). By now the poor little VW was overloaded AGAIN. We got back to the park at 6:00. We unload with the help of Bud and Shelley and then hurried home to find Jack and Cathy parked right behind us. They have a beautiful new fifth wheel. It is so good to have them here. We went to the golf course for seafood buffet. It's still cold here and we are ready for some warm weather!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

I woke up feeling great this morning and am so thankful for that. We both went to work and got started on our daily tasks. The "blue team" and I worked on New Year's Eve plans. Bruce updated the park tv channel to reflect all of our upcoming events. The White team set up for Bingo, ironed table clothes, collected aluminum cans, washed champagne glasses and did everything else they could do to prepare for New Year's Eve. At 2:00 Bruce and I left for town to get ice cream and root beer for tonight plus sausage and blueberries for pancake breakfast. Then I went and got my nails done. We brought the food back to the park and then met Vince and Shirley for Chinese food. Now Bruce is trying to balance the checkbook and I'm playing on the computer. We talked to Jack and Cathy tonight. They are in Las Cruces so they'll arrive tomorrow and plan to stay for three months. We've had two days of good living and are going to try to have three month months just like these last two days.

Wednesday, 12/26/07

I spent the entire day asleep on the couch. Bruce went to Casa Grande and did some shopping for his mother and a few other errands. Nothing exciting here today and for that we are very thankful!

Christmas Day 2007

Merry Christmas! We started the day with a Merry Christmas wish from Amy so we were off to a good start. A few minutes later we received a call from Joy, Alex and Michael. I didn't feel well so I spent the day in bed and on the couch. I think I might be making up for all the sleep I've missed over the past three months. Bruce spent the majority of the day with the other workampers preparing for Christmas dinner. He said the dinner went well and everyone had plenty of food. As always, I was worried that I didn't purchase enough meat but as always, I was wrong about that. Bruce and I were surprised by many nice gifts from the Activities workampers. Besides the gifts they gave us, they took a collection among themselves and gave us a very generous sum of money. We have a great bunch to work with. They would like us to use the money to get away for a weekend so we will do that! This afternoon I talked with my Mom and Dad, Shirley Henderson and Melissa. We missed calls from Barb Ollek and Donna Rinne. We are very blessed! Bruce is up at the cantina emptying the dishwasher. He has a hard time sitting still! We have a day off tomorrow. I almost feel guilty because I didn't do anything all day today but I think I can get over that!! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Eve 2007

Christmas Eve was a full day for us. Bruce worked in the office Monday morning. The activities workampers busily started preparations Christmas dinner. I went to ton for some last-minute shopping. While I was at the grocery store I decided we needed some Christmas cheer so I bought a bunch of food, called some friends and put together a party. Impromptu parties are usually the best. It would seem that several of our friends were having the same thoughts of missing family that we were having so all of us enjoyed the time together. The sun was out and we were able to enjoy our festivities outside. After our party we all attended the park's Christmas candlelight service. The Quail Run Ensemble provided music and Pastor Don Baker read the Christmas story. After the service we all enjoyed some goodies in the Cantina. I made quadruple batch of Jeff Sturgeon's hot cranberry punch and it was a huge success. There was not one drop left at the end of the evening. Jeff is our daughter-in-law's brother-in-law and he made the punch for us a couple years ago on Thanksgiving. Thanks Jeff!! When we got home Bruce and I exchanged our Christmas gifts and called it a day.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Sunday - a day of rest and for that we are VERY thankful. We awakened to a frozen outside water faucet so Bruce went out with the hair dryer and thawed it out so we would have running water. It was 29. BRRRR. After we got up I realized the cantina was almost out of coffee cups and we still needed to shop for Christmas dinner so we went to Sam's in Chandler. After lunch we went to Vince and Shirley Henderson's house in Coolidge for a wonderful day. They've got their place all decorated for Christmas and we really enjoyed some good Christmas spirit. This evening they fixed a tasty dinner for us and we ate by candlelight on the Christmas china. The day would have been better only if we had been joined by our family. Bruce talked to my brother Mark today and we both talked to Amy. They were enjoying a wonderful family Christmas in South Dakota. The girls are heading back to Kansas City tomorrow. We are both working and I'm going to do a little Christmas shopping for the love of my life!! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Val Champa, Organizer of AZ City Children's Christmas Party, Jean Borer and Jean Agnew, Quail Run Residents.

Children looking at their pictures

Santa and his elves

A very tired Santa after about 500 visitors

No snow for these snowmen

Sharon Grieves, Darlene Sutton & Arlene Duzy from Quail Run

Jean Agnew, Snookie Quinn, Nancy Reid & Carol Bowman from

Quail Run

The line to Santa

Santa and a couple of babies

A happy elf

Bruce trying to get a gift from Santa (Al Winters from Quail Run)

Today was another full day. At 6:30 a.m. I remembered that I had not taken the hamburger out of the freezer for the chili so we went for a walk to the cantina and did our first chores of the day. It was about 31 outside so it was a brisk walk. Too cold for Arizona for sure. We did something when we got back but can't remember what. Later in the morning Bruce called South Dakota to check on the Meester family Christmas. Everyone was having a good time and it would seems that my Mom and Dad were enjoying their new ceramic authentic German beer doxie. Bruce and Richard, one of the workampers, took the trailer and picked up 8 straw bales for the caroling party. I worked on the seating arrangement for Christmas dinner and puttered around the camper. By now it was time to get ready for the AZ City Children's Christmas party so we did that and headed to the golf course. There were 570 kids who got to see Santa Claus and receive their gift. During the party Bruce talked with his Aunt and then with his Mom. After that he was too sad to stay for the lunch and the rest of the party so we came home for a rest. We were delighted to find a package from Bruce and Michelle waiting for us at the post office. We needed a lift so we opened the box and all the packages inside. Michelle is so thoughtful. I know have a great pink cap from Shane's jewelery store, my own copy of Dr. Seuss' book, "Oh The Places You'll Go, a handcrafted, personalized version of "Oh The Places You'll Go" featuring photos of DeAnn and made by Michelle and our very own flip flop wine glass coasters. That ox definitely brightened our day! Thanks Michelle. After the gift opening, I slept and Bruce cleaned the RV. Val Champa, the organizer of the Christmas party, presented Quail Run RV Park with a very nice plaque in appreciation of all the residents did for the children and one of the residents brought the plaque over so we'll hang it up in the hall. George and Jo Becker called and invited us for some homemade Christmas cheer so we took them up on their offer. YUM YUM YUM. I've got the recipes! Soon we realized it was time to check on the caroling party and chili feed so off we went to the Cantina. Vince and Shirley Henderson were waiting for us. They helped us with final preparations and stayed for a bowl of chili. They got to experience first-hand what our lives are like. The workampers had everything under control and the cantina smelled great. The evening went off without a hitch and a good time was had by most. One of our workampers pointed out that about 80% of those in attendance were workampers. Hmmm. Let's see, workampers busy planning parties for other workampers. It just doesn't seem right but that's the story.

Friday, December 21, 2007

The newsletter went to print and was distributed to all the residents. The workampers were busy planning the New Year's Eve party. Final preparations were made for the caroling party and the chili feed. The minutes from the resident meeting were typed and delivered to the manager for approval. The main office staff were scurrying around preparing for their annual Christmas open house. Many chocolate rum balls were consumed and life was good. Then all of a sudden I remembered that we were taking dinner to friends and the meat had not been marinated. I ran home and threw the food together and stuffed it in the oven. We were only 20 minutes late and dinner was good enough. The girls arrived safely in Watertown for Christmas with the Meester family. Alex and his family traveled safely to Iowa for Christmas with his Mother's family. Winter arrived in Arizona and it is COLD outside.

Thursday, December 20, 2008

Here are the pictures from Arizona Opry. One guy played everything you see. Look at this contra bass saxophone. It weighs 90 pounds!! I bet it takes a lot of wind too.

This is some kind of an alp horn. The guy could hardly talk when he was finished playing.

Very tired love birds!!

DeAnn and LaVon Baker. LaVon is the chaplain's wife and is just a hoot.

Another day in paradise! The sky was blue and the sun shined all day and was around 70. Today Bruce worked on the newsletter all day and is still over there working on it. I went to town and retrieved 6 turkeys and another whole car load of "stuff". Other than that I didn't accomplish much of anything. I enjoyed a fun conversation with my sister-in-law, Lori, this afternoon. That was a treat for me. It's hard to believe it is almost Christmas. You would never know it by our actions this year. Today we received a package from Bev Henning, my parents and the Whites. Now we have something to put under our tree, well ok, now we have something to put around our tree!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

This day started at 6:00 a.m. We got ourselves ready for the day and headed over to the kitchen to get the breakfast in the oven. I had visions of the egg casserole being spilled in the fridge or green from the pan so I needed to see it for myself. Of course, everything looked great. I put the egg casseroles in the oven and got everything else ready for the volunteer breakfast. From 6:30 to 8:30 we enjoyed the conversation of the "regulars" in the cantina. The same six guys come to the cantina every morning for coffee at 6:00 a.m. I'm sure they solve all world problems on a daily basis. Four of our workampers joined us to help serve. The breakfast was very well received. We made good brownie points this morning!! After the serving was finished I went over and opened the office and the guys cleaned the kitchen. That was a perfect set-up for me. Everything was going along nicely when the manager called and said she needed to talk to us and that she was coming over. It turned out that one of our workampers didn't want to be a workamper any longer because she wanted to become a regular paying resident. OK with us. We went back to working on the park newspaper. I came home about 3:00 and Bruce stayed at the office to work on the newspaper until 6:15 when I went over and got him. Now we are working on some paperwork of our own and are going to relax for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

It's been almost a week since I've had time to write. We haven't had a moment's rest since we "acted like real people" last Wednesday. Thursday we were working along nicely in the office when we had a visit from the manager. She was VERY angry at us and voiced her displeasure. I voiced my displeasure with her in a really loud voice. Things have been great between us since then. Thursday night we were scheduled to go to a new steak house but we didn't go. Friday morning I worked in the office. Bruce and one of the workampers went to town to retrieve the Christmas tree for the Children's Christmas party. Two other workampers were over in the hall getting ready for the preschool children to arrive. The manager told them that we were supposed to be feeding the kids cookies and hot chocolate after the performance. We didn't know that until then. Luckily Bruce had taken his cell phone with him to town so I called him. He raced to Fry's and grabbed 60 cookies. The workampers made hot chocolate. The kids sang. Bruce and Oscar arrived just in time to throw the cookies on a plate and serve the children. Whew. We survived that one. The kids spilled the hot chocolate all over their pretty Christmas clothes and I would imagine that their mommies were not very happy about that but oh well, the manager got her way. Bruce, Bud and I went to the golf course for a nice lunch and to set up the Christmas tree. After lunch we worked in the office without any incidents. After work we drove to Sun City West with Bud and Shelley for Evita. The singing and dancing was good but not as good as we had hoped. It was a nice diversion though. Saturday morning Bruce cleaned the carpets and I did something but can't remember what. After lunch we went to Coolidge to see Aunt Delores and Uncle Roger. We enjoyed a good visit. That evening we enjoyed the Country and Western dance at the park. I got to practice my line dancing and Bruce and I practiced the two-step, waltz and the rumba. We had a good time. Sunday morning we visited the Lutheran church up the road from us. Nice church. After church we had breakfast with two current park residents and two former park residents. They are both from Rochester, MN and they both invited us to stay with them on our next visit to Mayo Clinic. Nice people. Sunday afternoon we cleaned the RV and did way too many loads of laundry. Sunday evening we attended the workamper Christmas party hosted by the manager and her husband. We again danced all night. Bruce asked me if I was the energizer bunny or what because he was worn out from all the dancing. Poor thing. Monday we both worked in the office all day. At 3:30 we headed off to the Arizona Opry. We arrived was too early so we got to sit in the parking lot for a few minutes. It was all worth it because the show was GREAT. One gentleman played 18 different instruments. One of my favorites was the 90 pound contra bass saxophone. He also played a Bavarian alp horn, one of Herb Alpert's trumpets, one of Doc Severance's trumpets, one of Boots Randolph's saxophones and many many more We enjoyed every minute of the show and arrived home about midnight. This morning we were off to facilitate the resident meeting. One of the residents told us they thought the meeting would be a blood bathe. Several residents wished us luck. Well, luck was with us. Bruce set the ground rules. The manager made a few remarks. I made several announcements concerning upcoming activities and we waited for the Sheriff's deputy to arrive as he was to be the main event. Well, he never showed up. When we got that call, the manager started taking questions from the floor. People were very business-like. The meeting went off without a hitch and the manager has suggested that we do it again every month. I stayed after the meeting and attended line dancing. Bruce worked in the office. After lunch I prepared egg casseroles for tomorrow's volunteer recognition breakfast. At 3:00 we tried to head to Coolidge to see Vince and Shirley who arrived today. I got caught by the manager and we talked until 3:45. At last we were off to Coolidge. We had a good reunion with Vince and Shirley. We all went to KFC for dinner and then to Safeway so we could get the food we need for the chili supper on Saturday. I've got pictures to post but I'm going to bed so I can get up early and get ready for the breakfast.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Wow. We acted like real people Wednesday. I stayed in bed until 9:00 a.m. Bruce was so sweet, he got up and sneaked off to work so I could sleep. When I got up I cleaned the RV and did a few loads of laundry. I even fixed Bruce a decent lunch and that hasn't happened in a while. After lunch we both went up to the office for a few minutes and then about 1:15 we both took off the rest of the day. We had a few errands to do so we did those and also purchased a couple of the hams for Christmas dinner. Spiral cut hams are on sale at Safeway for $1.48 per pound but you can only buy 2 at a time so I started the process yesterday. Thursday night we met several other workampers at the golf course club house for a little Christmas party. We had a white elephant exchange and had a great time. By 9:15 Bruce was on the computer and I was in bed! Great day.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Another big day in the RV park! Today Bruce and 12 other people from Quail Run wrapped 479 toys for the Arizona City Children's Christmas party. The residents of our park donated 55 toys and $529! Bruce and Richard (one of the workampers) will deliver the Christmas tree for the party tomorrow or as soon as it stops raining. I worked in the office while Bruce took the gang to wrap gifts. He is a much better wrapper than I am. This evening we had a surprise birthday party for two of the workampers. Buddy and Shelley downloaded a bunch of music Sunday so we had tunes all night long. We ate, drank, talked, laughed, danced and had a good time.

Monday, December 11, 2007

Today was a day of another first. Bruce is now singing in the Quail Run RV choir. He says he has never sung in a choir before today. When he got back from practice this evening I asked him if he had fun. He replies, "Yes but only because I get to stand beside Darryl". Darryl and Bruce would very likely have fun together even if they were walking through a fire. Bruce spent quite a bit of the morning conversing with different people at the nursing home about his mother. She continues to not eat and she continues to lose weight. She is now at 90 pounds so they've moved her back to the dining room where she is fed by a nurse instead of being expected to feed herself. The staff at the nursing home is doing whatever they can to get her to eat. The nursing home insurance has finally agreed that they will pay the majority of her bill so Bruce was happy to get that settled. Our day in the office was fun. We brainstormed about the New Year's Eve party. We've had a hard time getting residents to purchase tickets in advance. We need advance purchase because the only money we have for events is money we collect for admission. We decided to put a note on the park tv channel saying that seats were limited so they need to get their ticket right away. It worked. Several people came in and said they didn't want to miss the party. We sold all kinds of tickets. We also decided that we were going to make every workamper responsible for selling at least 10 tickets - kind of like we had to do for kid events. I don't think I've written about the smell in our office. Well, it seems that someone didn't do something right and raw sewage was leaking and spreading through the floor. The poor maintenance guys worked all day Saturday and part of today but all the soiled boards have been removed and we can breath now without getting sick. Always fun. After work this afternoon we drove into town to make a bank deposit and buy paper goods for a party. Now we are going to make goodie bags for our workampers. We've got an all hands meeting in the morning and we are going to distribute the bags. They will resemble the bags we got in church on Christmas Eve when we were children.

Weekend

Friday was a very busy day in the office. First we had our monthly park meeting with free coffee and donuts sponsored by Beaudry RV. Bruce opened the meeting by welcoming everyone that has joined us since the last meeting on 11/16. Then he recognized those with birthdays and anniversaries. From there I took over and went through the calendar. After that meeting we had our first meeting of the park "welcome committee". The committee is comprised of park residents representing the rest of the residents. Typically the park manager and the activities coordinator sits in on the meeting to hear all the complaints. The park manager forgot to come to the meeting so I chaired the meeting. The residents were very complimentary toward the activities staff but not so complimentary toward the owners. After the meeting we grabbed a quick bite of lunch and ran back to the office where there were 6 people waiting for us. Bruce had some personal paperwork he had to take care of right away so I sorted through the people wanting help. At 2:45 we sped into town so I could get my nails done FINALLY. What a treat that was. Now if I can get a haircut and a pedicure I'll feel like a real human being again. Then we were off to the grocery store to get the meat and buns for Saturday's luncheon. We treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Mimi's Cafe and came home and crashed. Saturday started at 5:00 a.m. It poured rain in the night but it let up early in the morning. We opened up the hall and started getting ready for the craft sale about 5:45. We had sold all of our tables for the craft fair and all the vendors showed up - in spite of the fact that it was pouring at 7:00 a.m. when they were trying to set up. I think most of the vendors did ok. We made $92 at our bake sale table, $92 on the raffle and sold $92 worth of tickets to the luncheon. What do you suppose were the chances of that? The luncheon started immediately following the craft fair. The men took down the craft tables and set up the chairs for the evening concert. The kitchen was cleaned and dishwasher was running by about 1:30. Then Bruce and I went to the office and did all the money paperwork. We were home at 3:30. I cleaned the motor home and made dinner because we were having Charles and Myrna over for dinner before the concert. Dinner went well and we were off to the hall for the concert. Buddy and Shelley, workampers, turned all the lights on and sold tickets for the concert so all we had to do was walk in and count heads so we'd know how much to pay the entertainers - Ron and Opal Erickson from Branson. They entertain at the Roy Rogers theatre in Branson during the summer. The concert was very enjoyable and we home again by 9:30. Eight of us gathered over here for dessert after the concert. At 12:45 we dropped into bed. The great news is that I slept straight through until 7:00 a.m. What a blessing that was! This morning we were back at the hall by 9:00 to open up the hall for the morning gospel service. Two workampers volunteered to serve soup after the concert so we opened up the cabinets etc and helped them get set up. After the gospel service we ate the yummy soup. They had the kitchen cleaned up by 12:15 so Bruce locked up and we came home. I laid down on the couch and slept until 4:00. I was exhausted. Bruce did some work outside and went to Bud and Shelley's to visit for a few minutes. We had leftovers for dinner and now we are ready for some television. Even the dog is exhausted from this weekend! We are hoping for a very quiet week at Quail Run RV park. We have no major work events all week. Tuesday we are going to help wrap 3o0 toys for the Arizona City Children's Christmas party and Friday the preschool kids are coming to sing for us. Our person calendar is full every night this week so it's a good thing work is going to be slow. We'll see!

Thursday, December 6, 2008

This morning Bruce and some of the male workampers moved the 10 foot, fully decorated Christmas tree in the main hall. The owners were here yesterday and didn't like the placement of the tree so being the dutiful little workampers that we are, the guys moved the tree. They lost only one bulb so I think they did a great job. Then they hung more Christmas lights - also requested by the owners. One of the workampers sewed new seat cushions for the chairs in the hall and I worked in the office. The days of nothing to do have passed and every one is busy now. A friend of mine, Barbara, invited me to lunch today so we left the compound like real human beings and enjoyed a really nice hour of talking and eating. This evening Bruce is going to go help get BINGO started and I am going to do some paperwork here at home. Here is an interesting tidbit. Bruce is printing our own financial reports. He printed a report showing everything we have spent for campground rental since we bought this camper in August 2004 - $9032.89. Wow. Can you believe that?? That is a lot of $20 and $30 nightly charges. I can't wait to see the diesel fuel charges. Look at the money we would have had if we had stayed home doing nothing! It is fun looking at the report though because it takes me on all of our journeys all over again. I wouldn't trade 5 minutes of our travels for the entire $9000. Back in high school when my Dad called me Ramblin' Rose - I'm sure he had no idea how accurate he would be 30+ years later!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Today we went to Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, AZ. They have a huge Wurlitzer organ that was used in silent movies. Here is the story of the organ: "During the early silent film era, motion picture theatres throughout the country engaged pit orchestras and pianists to provide the background music for their stage shows and silent movies. With the escalating costs of musician labor, not every performance could afford the expense of an orchestra. This monetary constraint was the inspiration for the concept of a "unit orchestra," where one musician could do the work of many. The unit orchestra, later known as the theatre pipe organ, was designed with imitative orchestral tones in mind, rather than the customary liturgical sounds found in church instruments. The theatre organ has been described as part military band, part symphony orchestra and part theatrical sound effects. During the late teens and early twenties, nearly every theatre, large and small installed theatre pipe organs. Though they were manufactured by many companies, the Wurlitzer product was considered by far the best. The "Mighty Wurlitzer" enjoyed familiarity with such names as Frigidaire, Victrola, and Kodak. Organ Stop's Wurlitzer theatre organ was built for the Denver Theatre and was installed in 1927. The organ was used regularly until the early 1930s. With the advent of the talking picture and the 1930s depression, the organ was rarely heard. It was silenced when a fire in the auditorium caused extensive damage to the organ's relay. In the theatre, the organ was a style 260, having a three-manual console and 15 ranks/sets of pipes. Organ Stop purchased the instrument in the early 1970s and undertook the mammoth task of rebuilding the instrument. Several additions were made to the instrument by acquiring parts from other ill-fated Wurlitzers. The resulting 23 rank organ was installed in our original facility in 1975. The enlargement and improvement of this instrument has been an ongoing project... In 1997, a larger four manual console was added to the instrument. The new console is an exact replica of a "Fox Special" French case, ornamented to match the famous Brooklyn Paramount Wurlitzer. This is the largest console type ever designed and built by Wurlitzer. Through the years, several rare sets of pipes have been added to the organ, including a massive set of 32' wood diaphones (visible from the front of the building). As of 2006, the organ boasts nearly 6000 pipes. The massive quantities of wind required for operation are provided by four huge turbine blowers (visible from the outside of the building in the blower complex). The resulting instrument is the largest Wurlitzer theatre organ in the world! The building's design is expressly for the enjoyment of patrons, with the organ installed in four chambers at one end of the restaurant.. Forty-three foot ceilings provide unparalleled acoustics. The console is "presented" on an 8000 pound rotating hydraulic elevator. Many of the percussions (such as the xylophones, glockenspiels, drums, etc.) are installed in the dining room for greater audience appeal." Bruce loves to see and hear the organ because of all the mechanical parts. He's like a little b oy in a toy store. Anyway, we enjoyed the music and the pizza. From there we went to see the dermatologist. She froze the pre-cancerous spot above my lip and we talked about the MOHS surgeon. She thinks he's great. She says he an outstanding human being, an outstanding surgeon and very timely. I really like the timely part!! Oh yes, and he's very good looking. I am scheduled to have my MOHS surgery on January 4, 2008 at 8:00 a.m. in Mesa, AZ. That will work great because Melissa is flying in to Phoenix that evening. We'll have my surgery, do whatever we want and then pick her up. After the doctor visit we did the shopping for Saturday's luncheon. This eveing we've been working on paperwork and are about to watch some good tv.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Monday and Tuesday were simple work days at the park. The workampers did an awesome job of decorating the outisde of the buildings. They've even lit up the buffalo. Tuesday I went to line dance, worked in the office a few minutes and came home and slept on the couch. That felt great. Bruce cleaned up the office and did some reorganizaing while I was at home. Tonight we went out for Pizza. This afternoon I found out that of the four biopsies I had taken on my face, two are non-events, one is a basal cell carcinoma and one is pre-cancerous. The pre-cancerous spot will be frozen and I'll have MOHS surgery on the basal cell. It is right on the bridge of my nose so it won't bother my eating or talking this time but I'll be a real sight for sore eyes again. I guess this must be a lesson in humility and I didn't learn it the first time so I get another go at it. The surgeon comes to Mesa from Palm Springs, CA. If he is as good as the internet says he is, I'll be in good hands again. The surgery will be sometime the first week of January. I should get a firm date tomorrow. The good news is that Mesa is only about an hour from here so it won't be as big a deal getting there as it was last year when we went to Houston. I'm thankful we have good health insurance and thankful their are good MOHS surgeons all over the country.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

I can't believe it's been so long since I have written. We've been busy having fun so I haven't had time to write anything. Thursday I wrote the blog and forgot to post it so I posted it just now. Friday I worked in the office and Bruce helped decorate the park some more. The hall and the rooms all look nice. Friday evening several of us went out for margaritas and Mexican food. We had a great time. Saturday we went to Charles and Myrna's house in Coolidge for lunch with them and then we all went to Tucson shopping. All four of us had things we wanted to find and we did find everything we wanted. Bruce and I both came home with new shoes and a whole load of stuff from Trader Joe's. We got home at 12:30 this morning. We haven't done that in a long long time. This morning our doorbell rang while we were still in bed. It was the housekeeping people telling us that no one had set up for worship service this morning. We threw on some clothes and ran over to the hall. It didn't take long and we had everything set up. It reminded me a lot of the hundreds of times we set up the sanctuary at Beautiful Savior. The memories were good! By now it was time to grab a quick shower and run back to the hall for worship. The day just flew past. We got invited to the neighbors' house for a delicious spaghetti lunch. Bruce worked on eliminating our peculiar odor as soon as we got home from lunch. Every time it gets humid (it rained here yesterday) we get a smell that was not pleasant. Bruce figured out where it was coming from and he eliminated it this afternoon. YEAH BRUCE!! When we finished that we went for a walk because it was just gorgeous outside today. We got as far as the hall and discovered that line dancing was starting so I line danced for 90 minutes and Bruce came home and worked some more. At 5:00 we went for happy hour by the pool. It was a little cool for that so we all moved into the cantina. We've been home a few minutes. Now Bruce is returning phone calls and I'm doing this. We are looking forward to a good week!!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

BINGO!! Tonight was the first bingo session of the season. A volunteer runs BINGO and our staff is responsible for setting up the hall and selling refreshments. This morning before we went shopping Bruce and some of the workampers learned how to make popcorn in the big time popper. YUM YUM. He now has another skill to add to his next resume. Bruce and I went to BINGO so we could learn what really goes on there. Neither of us won anything but we ate plenty of popcorn, drank sodas and Bruce had a float. We also learned what a dauber is. Our shopping trip for the park was a success in a couple of ways. We got back with everything we went for AND everything fit in the VW. We are just a hoot when we come back from Sam's because there is not room in that car for one more thing. Today we took the dog and she was not happy about having to share my lap with a big box of Christmas lights. She just did not understand that. There wasn't time to go shopping for my shoes but I'll try that again on Saturday. We did stop at a Ticketmaster outlet and purchase 8 tickets to see Evita on December 14. While we were gone today the workampers put up more Christmas decorations and did a great job. The park is looking very festive. That project should be finished up tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Today was a much better day and for that I am so very thankful. Before I went to sleep last night I decided I needed to start reading a book that my friend Jane Porr recommended to me, "The Little Book of Letting Go" by Hugh Prather. The first few pages of the book really spoke to me. I slept like a baby and went to work this morning with a whole new attitude. Bruce and the workampers worked in the hall all day putting up Christmas decorations. I worked by myself in the office. I accomplished everything on my task list including my end-of-month financial reports. One of our workampers read my blog last night and felt my frustration. She came in today and offered to be my sounding board. What a sweetheart she is! She might be sorry for that offer. We feel really fortunate to have such a great bunch of workampers. This evening we had a pizza outing which the majority of the residents boycotted. We had a great time. Tomorrow morning Bruce is going to teach some of the workampers how to use the popcorn machine and then we are going to go to Phoenix. We've got shopping to do for the park and I NEED some shoes. Tomorrow will be a great day as well!!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

m I still here??? If I am, then why am I still here?? Am I stupid? Am I stubborn? Have I been bad? If you figure it out will you let me know, please?? Sunday was another good day. Monday started off with a bang. The park got robbed overnight so everyone was really in a tizzy. The dirty devils even stole our coffee money box. We showed them though because we found the box in the dumpster. I guess they were mad because there was no money in the box. We had just emptied it to buy more coffee. Several bikes were stolen and the Catina was broken into. On top of that, the owners discovered that their identity had been stolen so all the park bank accounts were frozen which changed the way we could take payments. The Sheriff's Department came to investigate. That was a REAL joke. The Activities Office did not get robbed so we just hid in our own little building. The workampers started putting up all the Christmas decorations. I worked in the office with one of our new workampers. She is a real joy to work with and I am so thankful for her help. I wore my Santa hat all afternoon in an attempt to spread a little cheer. Tuesday I went back to line dancing. We worked on the honey, the electric slide, and candida. By the end of the hour I knew what I was doing but by the time I go back next week I'll likely get to start all over from the beginning. The only dilemma that confronted me in line dancing was a missing pot holder. I couldn't solve that one. After line dancing I went over to the office. I walked into about 10 questions plus Bruce telling me how some woman crabbed at him in the parking lot because we were collecting for the Arizona Opry way too early and she's on a fixed income. That just hit me wrong. I looked up her site number and marched right over to her house. She was really surprised to see me. I was sure I could win her over with kindness but I didn't do it. She ended the conversation by saying that I just need to understand that "WE DON'T WANT CHANGE AND WE DON'T LIKE CHANGE". I left there and ran home to get the food I had made for the ladies Bible study. I ran to the office just in time to be 5 minutes late for the Bible study. The Bible study hour was a wonderful distraction. We worked the rest of the afternoon without incident. At 5:00 we came home. Bruce started the engine for its monthly exercise. People were all looking out the windows. One called and wanted to know if we got fired. Several others just had to ask what was going on. They all thought we were leaving for sure. I do have to admit that when I heard that wonderful sound I just wanted to jump in and take off. We gobbled down some dinner and ran back to the hall for the lighting of the Christmas tree. Now we are hiding from the world in the comfort of our home sweet home. We haven't left yet because we are tough cookies and we want to prove to ourselves that we can do this. Bruce and I have decided that the underlying problem here is that right now the only people that are here are the residents that have been here for years plus the workampers. The residents are all mad at the park owners and the park manager. They take their anger out on anyone that remotely represents management. I believe that none of their griping is really aimed at us personally - just management in general but we get the brunt of their anger. I think things will be a lot better when some transients get here that aren't deep into park politics. I hope we are still here to find out!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Another great day off work! Seems like years since we've been to the office. Ha. We went to a couple little flea markets around here and then went to the big Mesa Mart, Camping World and Costco. We did get a new outdoor rug at Camping World and that was the goal for the day so we accomplished our goal. We met several park friends at the Big Wa for Chinese food and ate way too much. Saturday night I watched movies and talked with Robin, one of our workampers. Bruce and the dog got to watch the KU-MU football game by themselves. This was a no drama day and we are thankful for that!

Friday, November 23, 2007

A day off was enjoyed by all - especially Bruce and DeAnn! Oh how we enjoyed this day off. We didn't do one bit of "work" all morning. After lunch we went up to the Cantina. I did all of our laundry and Bruce worked at getting the plastic out of the roasters. The laundromat here is top notch. There are even some Maytag large capacity washers just like I have at home. If doing laundry can be a pleasant experience - I had one. We enjoyed some homemade beef stroganoff for dinner, watch Men in Trees and balanced the Activities Department bank account. I am happy to report, "That's all folks".

Thanksgiving Pictures

Here's a little look at what happened at Quail Run RV on Thanksgiving Day!!

The picture just to the left is Bruce working on the sound system with Jeannie, the manager and Bud supervising!

Pictures from Donut Day with Beaudry RV

Pictures from Veterans Day

This is DeAnn and Buddy, one of our favorite workampers. He's always got a smile and he's always willing to do whatever needs to be done! Here's the line up for food on Veteran's Day. It is supposed to be two lines down the center of the room with food being served in each direction. Here we are serving Veteran's Day lunch.

Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving Day 2007 was a busy day for us but in the end most everyone was happy. We started our day with a 9:00 a.m. all activities workamper meeting. Next we put the table linens on all the tables and started putting the turkeys in the roasters. That's when the fun started. I've used our roaster to cook turkeys for 17 years now and have never had a problem. This time the cooking bags started melting to the sides of the roasters. I think the problem was that someone preheated all the roasters so when the cold bags hit the hot roasters the bags melted. No problem. We cut the bags apart, dumped the turkeys into the roasters and started cooking. It wasn't long and I could smell hot turkey. They had the roasters turned up too high and no water in the pans. DUH. I came home to cook my mashed potatoes and just couldn't stand it so I went back to the kitchen to check on the turkeys. I turned them down again and was standing there talking to the cook while she basted a turkey. The baster got wild and hot turkey drippings shot down my leg. THAT WAS HOT. I grabbed my jean shorts and pulled them off my leg so I didn't get burned badly. After that everything went along great. At 3:00 all the workampers returned to the kitchen and we carved our turkeys. They were moist, tasty and nicely arranged on the platters covered with tin foil. The turkey platters were all sitting on top of the roasters with the roaster lids covering them. The appropriate people dished up the gravy and cranberries and we were ready to serve. I heard one of the workampers say, "OH NO". After the turkey was placed on top of the roasters, Bruce got the hair brained idea to plug in all the roasters and add a little heat. What he didn't consider was that would melt the plastic platters. One platter full of turkey melted and dropped into the roaster so when the appropriate server opened her lid, she found a mess and yelled. The cook and I both ran over there, grabbed the turkey off the melted platter and threw it on another platter and sent the server to the table. Good grief. At the time I didn't know it was Bruce that had plugged in all the roasters and didn't learn that until about 2:00 this morning. I had unplugged all the roasters earlier and never considered that someone would plug them back in. Oh well. The meal went off without a hitch. There was more than enough food and everyone seemed reasonably happy. We had only one minor injury and that was my head. I sat down in Bruce's chair and tipped my head back and smacked it right into the steel beam that was supporting the room. Oh man that hurt. I folded over and cried. I've got a good lump on the back of my head this morning. You should have seen the people gathering up the leftover turkey. You would have thought they were never going to get another bite of food. They were taking big containers full of turkey home with them. There wasn't even enough left for one turkey sandwich. I guess I'll go buy a turkey and cook it at home so we can have a sandwich. After the residents all left, we started cleaning up. We opened some wine and went to cleaning. Four hours later, the mess was cleaned up, the linens were clean and we were ready for some fun. Several workampers came to our camper and continued the fun. Everyone except Bruce drank too much wine and Kahlua . We were going to go shopping this morning but I didn't get up until 9:30. I woke up at 1:30 a.m. and laid there until at least 3:30 so I needed some sleep. At one point Bruce said, "OK magpie, shut up!" We are really thankful to have three days in a row off work. One thing is for sure, if I ever to get a real paying job, I will be much more appreciative than I was in the past. It's just too bad I've always got to learn the hard way.