Family visit!

I'm catching up on posting pictures -- niece Ginny, Josh, and Evan came for a short visit after they had watched the Disney on Ice performance in Phoenix...

It was a short but good visit!

We always appreciate family (and friends) coming to visit!

SKP Christian Fellowship - Quartzsite, 2025

We did not go out to camp with our friends at the SKP Christian Fellowship gathering (as we have in the past), but we did drive the Jeep out for one day to visit...

We went out for breakfast on the day that the Christian Fellowship gathering would normally host folks from the "Solo's" -- but the Solo's group changed their gathering dates this year, so only a few had yet arrived, but those who were there were still invited over for breakfast...

... and Bob and Nancy Balyeat and friends did a concert.

It was a beautiful morning, and thankfully, the winds had died down. Evidently, the campers in Quartzsite have had a lot of wind during the rally this year.

A video of part of their performance: https://youtu.be/KrYk1qcp44g

We stayed through the day, enjoying visiting with folks, and the afternoon devotions time, as well as "clean out the fridge" potluck in the evening.

This was the picture taken of the group after devotions in the afternoon. Carl and Patti are in the very back (third row), just right of center, Patti has a straw hat on, and Carl has a reddish-maroon cap on.

When we drove back through Quartzsite (the town) on our way back toward Mesa, we saw that the highway (I-10) was totally stopped heading east (the direction we needed to go). We pulled over to see if we could find an alternate route, and it looked like there *might* be a frontage-type road alongside the highway...

as we were on that road, we stopped to take a picture of the beautiful sunset that was happening behind us...

... another view of the sunset in our rearview mirror.

Unfortunately, the road deteriorated into a very rough single-track off-road surface, which for our Jeep was difficult,  as even though our Jeep says it is "Trail Rated", it really is not! We were making a speed of about 3MPH on the rough track, and we had 3 miles yet to go to the road which would take us back to I-10 (and hopefully beyond the traffic tie-up) -- it was getting dark, and we decided we had better turn around and head back to the highway entrance that we had passed in Quartzsite about 30 minutes before.

We got on I-10, and into the line of traffic. It was odd, traffic would start moving well, and then come to a complete stop for 10-15 minutes. The cause was re-paving, and the road construction had all traffic diverted onto the shoulder of the highway. We could only surmise that every once in a while, the construction vehicles would block the shoulder too, and that's when we'd come to a complete stop until they finished whatever they were doing and allowed us to continue onwards on the shoulder.

About 10-15 miles after we finished in the construction  area, we saw folks braking, and saw a bright light on the shoulder -- it was a tractor-trailer with the trailer fully engulfed in flames (the source of the very bright light). There were a couple of other tractor trailers stopped. We called 911 to make sure that they knew about it, and they did, and emergency vehicles were on the way. We continued on toward Mesa.

Our trip in the morning out to Quartzsite took us about 2.5 hours -- even though we hit a little rush hour traffic into Phoenix in the morning. The trip back took a little over 4 hours with our attempted bypass of the construction area and then our encounter with the construction. All in all, we were glad we went and enjoyed our visit with friends!

Western Jamboree

The Bocce Ball club hosted a Western Jamboree dinner and dance...

We enjoyed getting together with friends...

... and there was a backdrop for photos.

We enjoyed the band (Beeline Highway) and dancing too!

An Alaska caravan get-together

We arranged to get together for lunch with a few of the folks with whom we journeyed to Alaska...

It is nice to get together with these friends from last summer!

An interesting car

We went to a golf cart place to see about ordering a back seat for our golf cart. We got that accomplished, and as we were leaving, noticed an interesting car in the parking lot...

The side panel next to the engine was missing.

We could tell it was a Plymouth, but that's all we know.

My brother will probably know more about this car!

Recreation Open House

Almost two weeks ago, Venture Out had its annual "Recreation Open House" -- this provides an opportunity for clubs, classes, organizations and the recreation department to share about their activities.

I volunteered at the line dance table and told several folks about the schedule of our classes and how they could get started.

A look around the ballroom ... looking west...

... looking north ...

... looking east.

Looking south toward the stage -- different groups were scheduled on the stage -- this was the Green Committee, and they were demonstrating the need to flatten cardboard boxes (stomping on the boxes) before putting them into the recycling bins -- done to the music of "The Newfie Stomp" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCcae9x799o).

Erwin, member of the VO Ham Radio group, with information about Ham Radio in the park

One of the performance groups - this was the Tremble Clefs -- a music therapy group for Parkinson's patients and their caregivers. Music therapy helps to strengthen the voice of those with Parkinson's plus helps avoid depression.

A few of us line dancers also did a demonstration dance of one of our favorites (Glass of Wine).

The open house was well attended with people getting information about several groups all in a short time!

Helping out with another 5K

Our park is having a 5K walk/run each month, and the Ham radio club helps out at corners to make sure folks stay on route, and to help to ensure if folks are having any health issues, we can radio for help for them. Even though I'm not a ham (I call myself a "hamster" because I'm married to a ham), I help out at one of the corners...

Assignments around the park -- we were at corners 6 & 7 - up near the top of the map, left of center.

Carl manning his corner

We are the last corners the participants pass on their first time around, and then we direct them to the finish line on their second loop. We bring a speaker out and practice some line dancing while we wait for participants to show up -- the runners finish in about 15 minutes, and the last walkers in about and hour and 15 minutes. Some of the runners pass us for their second time before all the walkers get to us their first time around. We enjoy being out in the sun and encouraging the folks on their way!

And then there's comedy!

Our friends, Linda and Don, were not able to use their concert series tickets so offered them to us. The "concert" was a comedian this particular night. They told us that they had seen the comedian who was performing and that he did good, clean comedy. We went and they had great tickets!

Well, it turned out that the scheduled comedian was sick, so the Activity Office director, Kimberly, had called another comedian who lives about 3 hours away. The replacement related that he and his wife were at the Department of Motor Vehicles in a line of about 20 people. They had made it to #3 when Kimberly called. He went outside to take the call and committed to Kimberly that he would come. He went back in, and his wife had made it to #2 in line -- he told her they needed to leave and come back another time! So, they left, he went home and got ready to come, and was here to entertain.

Mark Cordes, comedian

If you'd like a sample of his act, here is a sample from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiHbXbQSTPg

We enjoyed the show, but since I looked him up online, I realize that he did about the same jokes in the performance we saw, so I'm not sure it would be worthwhile to see him more than once!

An interesting golf cart

I had seen this golf cart driving around our community, but saw it parked at the center so got a couple of pictures...

I think it is a body that can be placed over the frame (not originally built this way)...

...with a rumble seat in the back!

We notice that we are seeing more variations on golf carts since we got one -- that we really never paid attention to before!

January Line Dance Social

I had mentioned that there was a line dance social back in December (on the same day as the Ham radio club's Christmas Party). We had another line dance social in January, a week ago Saturday.

This was the plan of music and dances for the social. Note that sometimes there is a "Split Floor" dance -- in that case, the more advanced dancers were doing the dance named in the first column, while the absolute beginners did the dance named in the second column.

There was a good turnout!

A video of part of "Rockin' the Wagon Wheel":  https://youtu.be/QtM1398Cvls 

I was acting as one of the "floor angels" - being at the back (or side) of the room so when the dancers turn from the front, they have someone to watch (there is an instructor up in front on the stage). I was the "floor angel" for the absolute beginner dancers at the back of the room.

Most of the time, I danced with the absolute beginners, but for a couple of dances I went to the more advanced dance group (for dance steps that I particularly enjoy doing!).

Alaska presentation

When we got back to the park this season and we told people about our Alaska trip, some friends in the Ham radio group asked if we could do a presentation on it. So, I put a presentation together (I learned a LOT of new things to do in Powerpoint!). A week ago Saturday I was scheduled to do the presentation for the group in Venture Out.

"Alaska Journey"

Presenting

Does the audience look like they are rapt?!?!?!?

I had a lot more content than I could present in the time allotted, so I had decided to start the presentation and just stop when it was time for the meeting to come to an end. That got us as far as the Alaska border (caravan start, Calgary, Banff, Alaska Highway, Signpost forest in Watson Lake, Whitehorse, Dawson City). The other Ham radio group that Carl belongs to has me scheduled to present for one of their meetings in February, so I'll do the initial slides, and then continue the presentation from the Alaska border.

I had used Powerpoint to create the course materials that I did in my teaching with IBM. In my learning about additional features of Powerpoint, I added a lot of animation and included lots of pictures and videos. Several folks came up afterwards and asked how I had put the presentation together so I think they found the presentation to be interesting.

Bocce ball league

A week ago last Friday, we started in our Winter/Spring Bocce ball league.

I posted about us taking lessons back in November, but we were not able to join a fall league as we didn't get signed up early enough. For the winter/spring league, we found a team on Friday afternoons that had two open positions so we could be on the same team. It turns out that the other couple on the team are friends of one of our neighbors (and, in fact, our neighbors used to be on the team with them, but our neighbors needed to cut back this year). Though we took lessons, we are still learning, and the other folks are very helpful.

One fellow from the other team and I were examining the locations of our balls and those of the other team to determine the score for that "end" (or round? I'm not sure what it is called).

This picture was from just last Friday -- multiple balls very close to the pallina.

As it turns out, we have won our first two matches -- not due to any skill on our part. At least for me, I will try to throw the ball to hit a particular point on the side board, miss it entirely, but sometimes the ball still gets close to the pallina. Other times, someone on the other team will end up accidentally knocking their own ball out of contention, or knocking one of our balls closer. So far, I'm not seeing that it is a game of skill, but who knows?!?!?!?

Dance lessons

Sorry for the lack of posts -- we've been so busy that I haven't written blog entries! I'm going to try to get caught up...

We started Arizona Two-Step lessons on Friday a week ago...

... they started the lessons with the men on one side of the ballroom and the ladies on the other while the instructors taught us our respective steps.

Then they taught us the appropriate hold...

... and some different cues or leads for the man to lead the woman into spins.

We are enjoying it -- we have been wanting to learn some "couple dancing" and think that this will get us started on that process.

Golf cart work

While we have some upgrades that we would like to get done to our golf cart, our neighbor, Barb, had an upgrade done this week that we anticipate in our future... 

When she got back at the end of December, she checked the water in her lead acid batteries, and I worked with her to fill them with distilled water (we have a handy-dandy battery water filler that we tried out on her batteries). (what we got is something like this: amazon link)  Then she charged it for a while, but the batteries were not taking a charge.

So, she decided that she needed to get new batteries (batteries seem to last 2-3 years in the golf carts here due to the heat). She sought counsel and decided to replace the lead acid batteries with lithium. 

The guys from Golf Cart Farm came in a couple of days to collect her cart -- Carl took a picture of their truck so he'd have their contact info in case we want to use them to do some of the service on our cart...

...and two days later, they returned her golf cart with a beautiful new lithium battery! I went over to oooh and aaah over her new battery.

We want to replace our lead acid batteries with lithium, but will probably wait until the batteries need to be replaced -- possibly next season (fall of this year). No need to replace while the current ones are still working!

Getting tickets for another event

I posted about getting to the Activity Office on Tuesday morning to find a line for people getting Murder Mystery tickets.

On Thursday morning, the Valentine's Day Dinner and Dance tickets were going on sale. We went last year and enjoyed it. We knew that they had assigned table seating, so checked with some friends to see if they also wanted to go -- ended up with 4 couples so we could get a whole table. I volunteered to go "early" to the Activity Office to get the table - when I got there 15 minutes before the office opened, the office had already opened and the line was out the door. I thought, "uh oh!" but joined the back of the line.

I had checked the day before, and for this event, I only needed a single badge to purchase a whole table. By the time I got to the front of the line, several tables had already been sold out:

... the highlights mark sold tables. I was able to get table 34 (marked off on this copy as this was after I purchased) which is near the dance floor and the stage.

Another friend was a few behind me in line and she got table 35, just behind us. We might have a column that could interrupt our view of the band, but... many of us in our group are there to dance, so we won't worry about that too much!

Busy days!

Sorry for the lack of posts -- we seem to be busy, busy, busy. We are still recovering strength from our colds/flu, but the main "season" here at Venture Out has started in earnest.

When I went in to volunteer at the Activity Office on Tuesday, I noticed there was a line of people extending out the door!

Inside, the line snaked around the open area in front of the counter.

It was the first day for sales for a new "event" here at the park, a Murder Mystery evening. From the marketing blurb:

Join us for a night of intrigue and mystery from the prohibition era. Will you be the murderer, the silent witness, or the victim? Come for the Mystery, stay for the "Bucket Draw" and dessert!

As I have mentioned before, these kinds of things are brought to us and sponsored by one of the "clubs" -- in this case, the VO Splashers Volleyball Club (pool volleyball). So, but club uses it as a fundraiser to help provide funds for things they want to purchase or to help out the community as a whole.

Because of all the interest, once the line died down, I contacted Carl and we decided we would get tickets too (the line was because people wanted to sit at a table with their friends and so many people were in there with the badges from their friends and were purchasing a number of tickets). We found a table that had two empty seats, so we're looking forward to meeting up with some folks that maybe we don't know yet -- but it isn't until February 3, so it will be a while before I blog about the event itself.

Interesting maps

I've posted before about how the maps that we normally see of the world can give misconceptions -- I found this website recently and thought it gave some good insights: https://www.traveller365.com/articles/AfterSeeingThese15MapsYoullNeverLookAtTheWorldTheSame?fbclid=IwAR0rh6hoAEwFX923S-nlHk7JB6iZbRuiGgkvovSF11QuuvlJF-xkiP8CglY

To do your own comparisons, go to the referenced website, type in a country or continent name, and try moving it around: https://www.thetruesize.com

Uh oh...

After I went to the Eye Institute last week for my 1 week checkup, I stopped at PetSmart to get some food for Miss Kitty...

I sent Carl this picture from the front of the store.

 Uh oh!!! 

They weren't actually set up with the kitties at the time I was there, so we were safe, this time!

Another interesting car

It seems that we often see "interesting" cars when we're out-and-about in Mesa. We have been staying close to home for a couple of weeks as we "gave" each other colds/flu for Christmas, but we did make it out to the grocery store this past week.

We saw this car in the parking lot...

Carl said that this was the type of car that his family had when he was a kid...

... except that theirs was teal (he thinks it was all teal, not two-tone as this one is).

Carl said that his father traded in their Bel Air in 1962 to get a station wagon.

It is fun to observe things as we're out and about.

Contronyms

Contronyms are words which are their own opposites. I recently saw an article that tells about 25 of these interesting creatures:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/57032/25-words-are-their-own-opposites 

These kind of words must make learning English such a challenge!