Home Again, Home Again.....

It's good to be home. I forget, when we are traveling, how much I like our house here in Lake Havasu. While the house is not large, I enjoy the space. Even though, technically, we've lived here 5 years, we are still in the process of landscaping the yard and decorating the house.

It's expensive to be home--all these little touches that we don't have (or need) on the road, are "must haves" here. The large dirt area we have in the back now is covered in gravel, the patio area has been extended. When we travel, we are tickled to have a picnic table at our site. Now we "had to have" patio furniture on that extended patio area. And even though the old BBQ worked just fine, we "had to have" a new BBQ to go on that patio area. Now the plants we've lugged across the country, back and froth from Alaska, can not longer sit on the patio. No they "must have" a plant stand. Actually, those very plants are special, they are spider plant babies that are descendents of the mother plant that was given to us as a wedding present 28 years ago!

I like the town/city...a new shopping center is soon to open with a Super Wal-Mart, Penney's Dillards, Theaters, Michael's and a Pet Smart---what more could ya ask for? I like the lake and the walk there. I even like cleaning this house.

Most of all, I love our neighbors. They have 10 cats and two dogs. I just have to look over the fence and watch the kitties play. Sami likes to watch the cats too :).
I miss our Tera that traveled with us and gave us so much joy for 18 years.

We'll be here about 4 weeks before we do a mini trip. Not sure where all Dan intends to take us, but I know it will be fun.....

A Chance to Grow up Cowboy

These two little boys, being part of the "rodeo family" will have a chance to grow up to be real cowboys. There was a event for the little kids with stick horses--so very cute-all decked out from hat, western shirt, Wrangler jeans belted and complete with buckles, down to the boots. Some even had spurs. There was a steer head on a bale of hay for future ropers to practice on.

It was a beautiful day-hot, not a cloud in the sky--and even though we are bone tired, I'm kind of sad to see the end of the 83 Annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, February 16-24, 2008 It's 8:45 and all the horses, bulls, calfs, and sheep are gone from the pens. The arena is empty. The vendors have taken down thier displays, and most of the trash has been removed. All is quiet on this western front.

Chance Customers

As I was saying----I've never worked where the customers come up to my counter on horseback, but as you can see, it happens here at La Fiesta de los Vaqueros aka Tucson Rodeo. Now, of course, I have apples ready for when the horses and riders return. Glad I had my camera with me. This is a hoot.

Apparently Tucson is bursting at the seams with celebrity events going on: Tiger Woods is in town for a huge purse tournament. Championship riders from all over come to compete here. Tuscon has lots to offer.

I've observed that the "rodeo circuit" family is pretty close, which you don't see in many sports.

Always really nice folks at rodeos, mostly hardworking and honest.

Tomorrow Laila and her friend Hannah will get to see the rodeo, hope she wears her cowgirl outfit---think I'll have to visit one of the vendors who have real cowgirl hats.

You take a Chance....

When you start something like a blog, journal, diary, or log many things can happen to it. You can loose interest, you can't find anyone interested in it, you can find that you do not have time to do it, or you can have a computer glitch, which is what happened. After many months of perfect operation the computer gremlin decided not to allow this site, and that is why there have been several days without an entry Chris (Geeks on Tour) was willing to help me resolve this issue. How nice is that???

So to recap: The rain stopped, the sun came out, the lake receded (the pea gravel guy took pity on us and put some down in front of our trailer) and the shoppers, shopped!

Now, I've worked retail in several different venues, but never before have my customers come up to my counter on horseback. This has got to be the ultimate drive-through. What a hoot. Now I have apples with me, ready for my next encounter.

You Take a Chance When---

You start what should be a fun daily exercise to record your thoughts and activities of life as in my blog aptly named By Chance, when the computer gremlin that has been sleeping for many months rears up and causes a glitch which is why there have been no entries for several days.

OK then, to recap: The rain stopped, the sun came out, the lake receded (the peagravel guy came by and put some in front of our trailer), and the shoppers shopped!

Remember when the kids went off to school/college/first job but came home and brought their dirty laundry? Well, that's what we did last night--took our dirty socks and stuff off to the kids house--sweetened the deal with thick steaks, and gifts for our almost 2 1/2 year old granddaughter, Laila. Do you know that there are "potty training kits" in the market place today? Seriously, they come with a DVD, a little bracelet thing that reminds the child every 2o minutes x 3 hours to visit the potty, a little plastic potty that makes a realistic flushing sound, a little plastic sink that makes the sound of water, and a plastic gadget that has 3 different reward sayings for a job well done--Yes, of course, we bought one for Laila!

We've had several retail jobs, but this is the only one where the customers come up to the counter on horseback to make their purchases--this is the ultimate drive through. What a hoot. I got a picture of this, but as yet have not uploaded it to the computer.

We met a little boy today whos first name is Chance, his dad noticed our name tags and pointed it out to him.

Tonight is the lunar eclipse. Don't recall how often this occurs. Kind of spooky to know that it is there, but you can see it.

Along with the computer glitch, was a new instillation of our email system with myrvspace.com and as a result all our email addresses were lost in cyberspace. So if you don't hear from me/us in a while, please send a note so we can get your address. Thanks, Patty

Chance of Rain

The weather site warned of a chance of rain, but how often is it right?? Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, it started. Rain sounds nice of the roof of our motorhome, but we are parked at the Tucson Rodeo grounds, the dirt rodeo grounds---dirt+rain=mud.

Sami, our Beagle, has short legs, her tummy is close to the ground. Ya see where I'm going with this?

So today we had inventory to count, and display cases to fill. Dispite the fact that it was freezing inside the trailer, we got that project done. Outside our trailer was a lake, a muddy lake. Hopefully Mother Nature will behave, the sun will shine, the lake will recede, and shoppers will shop. We have some really nice merchandise.

For the sake of the contestants and the participants of the parade , and all the folks who work so hard for this, I hope all will be well for the 84 Tucson Rodeo.

Valentines Day

St. Valentines Day. A serious day for florists and confectioners everywhere. A day for lovers everywhere. I spent the day with mine, as I do most days---

We left the rally in Casa Grande, AZ and drove the short distance to Tucson where we will work the rodeo. The parking accomadations and not exactly what we had hoped for--squeezed between two other motorhomes-not able to open the slides all the way. We are, however, in full view of the horses and steers/bulls that will be used for the rodeo. Also, in full view are four ugly pugs?? that will drive Sami absolutely wild. She will probably bark herself hoarse.....no pun intended. She will, at least, wear out a path on the dash.

Wish I knew how to put music into this, 'cause I'd play "when I'm 64", an old Beatles song.

Tera

Old cat, Tera. She seemed like a good subject for this old dogs' new tricks. I figured out how to put a photo in my blog, YES! This feat was after installing that new photo program--only took me an hour.

So far, so good

Got the blog address down now and will send it to my email buddies. Next projoct will be to install the Picasa Photo program which will manage my pictures and make them the proper size for sending in emails as well as here-it should be fairly easy.

What are the chances?

Here I am 3 hours later, still trying to figure out how others can view this blog. During this time, I've found some interesting things, but NOT what I was looking for.

Sooo, one of you dear friends will be chosen to give it a try for me. J & M may still be having difficulty with their system. The kids don't have time, My beloved neighbors M & T are under the weather, so that leaves L & E who I know are close by and may have the time to fool with this project---if I can get up the nerve to ask them.

So much for my pride at creating this :( old dogs can learn new tricks---it just takes longer.

My First Chance

This blog business just might be a hoot, and a lot of fun. It should be a chance to share pictures and tales of our travels. It can be a way for our "old" friends to know what we are up to, and can be a way to meet/make new friends.

Those of you who know me, will be suprised that I,me,myself created this blog. I must confess that I learned how to do this at a seminar taught by Jim and Chris Guld (Geeks on Tour) at the Gypsy Journal Rally in Casa Grande, AZ. I thought I remembered how to add pictures, but now I think I need to re-read that part.

So next, I need to figure out how to get you-those "old" and "new" friends to look at this blog----hmmm--=maybe e-mail. We will see. Please feel free to comment about this little project of mine. If we are lucky, we can get Dan to write some stuff--you know he has the gift. But for now, this is my first chance.