Under the heading of "It's always something!"

Gracie (the motorhome) has been in a storage lot for the season. She was not plugged in, but the solar panels were able to keep the batteries charged. But, the temperature inside the rig was not being controlled (no electrical hookup) so probably she got pretty warm inside at times.

We had left our two water jugs (7 gallon each) that we had filled for going to Quartzsite in January stored in the shower while Gracie was in storage. 

When Carl attempted to take some water out of one of the containers, the faucet broke off -- the picture doesn't show the broken off piece -- we took the picture to remind ourselves to see if we could find a replacement cap and faucet. The plastic piece just gave out -- the jug is probably 

Carl found that the newer containers have red caps, and he was able to find replacement caps at Sportsman Warehouse....

It looks pretty snazzy with the red caps, right?

We generally carry at least one of the water containers with us -- we keep potable water in it just in case we end up boondocking or without water unexpectedly (sometimes, in campgrounds, the water gets shut off without warning -- usually when a fellow camper accidentally runs over a water spigot). Technically, the water in our fresh tank is potable, but we prefer using RO water (processed by our on-board RO system) for drinking or cooking. Our plans for this summer have us staying in campgrounds with full hookups all summer, but, we never know when we might want to have an additional supply of potable water available.

No baby birds?

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a new and unwelcome tenant moving in on the patio of the casa (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/04/a-new-and-unwelcome-tenant.html).

While Kim and her girls were staying at the casa, 

...we noticed that there was no longer a parent bird on the nest.

Carl got up on a ladder and found that there were still 3 eggs in the nest.

We are debating whether we should remove the nest, or, if we leave it there, will that dissuade other birds from building there? However, if we leave it there, might it cause staining on the awning? Decisions, decisions...

Meanwhile, we've moved back to the motorhome in preparation for our summer travels, so are staying right next door to the casa. While going back and forth in the front yard of the casa, I suddenly noticed something different on the grass... 

A little baby bird?

Oh, my, yes, a baby bird. We didn't think that it was a dove, but there were no parent birds around (I figured I would get dive-bombed if the parent was around as close as I got to it). I did a google lens lookup and Google identified it as a fledgling house finch. It also said that fledglings are meant to be on the ground and that they are usually still being cared for by their parents, even if they appear abandoned.

We decided to leave it be. We drove over to our park model (house) to pick up some additional items to move to the motorhome, and when we returned, the fledgling was gone. Whether it found somewhere safe or was eaten by a predator, we figured it was okay with us! 

Goodbye for now...

After just a few short days of visiting, it was time for Kim and the girls to head back home...

A couple of last pictures before heading to the airport...

What a nice visit!

Scorpion hunting with the grands

Since Auntie Pamela had told about going scorpion hunting, the granddaughters were keen to try it. Carl and Kim and the girls went to the dog park with the black light...

Looking to see if anything was glowing...

There's one!

This one is interesting because you can see the scorpion on the tree, but then you can see that McKenna is taking a picture and has it zoomed in on her phone, so it looks huge!

Does this count as a science lesson?

Beating the heat with the grands

At the beginning of the week that Kim was here, it was cool and comfortable, but the heat started ratcheting up during the week. 

Since the pool is not open for younger people until after 11am, we decided to enjoy card playing inside in the morning. Carl thought that the girls were looking like they were serious card sharks, so he added some props in the middle of the table to make it look like we were participating in some really serious gaming! If you look closely, in addition to the cash on the table, a couple of credit cards and an AARP card have been pushed in for the bet!

The game we were playing is called "Sevens" -- and there is no betting involved... all of the girls quickly identified strategies that could improve their chances and possibly thwart other players.

Rules for Sevens as we learned it

Once the pool hours for kids opened up, Carl and Kim and the girls headed to the pool...

... they had quite a nice time and pretty much had the pool to themselves.

While there are two pools in our community, only one is available for children (under 18) to use, and the hours that they are allowed to use it are limited.

Mother's Day Video

At our church service here in Mesa, they showed a video "Becoming Your Mom Support Group" -- I thought our blog readers might enjoy it too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87NKcROF9Bc

Happy Mothers Day! 

Bocce with Kim and the girls

Carl had a dentist appointment, so Kim and the girls and I decided to try playing bocce. The girls had played before, but not on formal courts -- they were very good at it!

Kim and Lianna won by a wide margin!

 

Daughter Kim visit

Daughter Kim and granddaughters came to visit -- they were scheduled to come for spring break, but flights did not cooperate (and that turned out being the week that Carl found out he had pneumonia and ended up in the hospital, so maybe it was for the best). They had said that they may be able to come after their school was out for the summer, and were able to get flights, so they came the first week of May.

We headed to Usery Mountain Regional Park to go hiking. It was a beautiful cool morning. 

The girls studying information provided on the signboard.

Climbing up on a rock

Near the summit of Vista Trail

We saw these soybean-like pods on the Palo Verde trees...

... it turns out (according to Google) that they are edible and, when green, similar to edamame (aka green soybeans) and a good source of protein.

Granddaughter checking whether the barrel cactus is thorny!

We had had a cold front move through so had a couple of really gorgeous days while they were visiting.

Golf rules for seniors

We saw this posted in the bulletin board area at the post office:

I thought that a couple of friends/readers of this blog who are golfers or married to golfers might get a chuckle out of it!

Another century plant

I had posted about century plants blooming in our community a couple of months ago (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/02/century-plants-about-to-bloom.html) -- one sent up a flower stalk a few weeks ago on the block where our RV lot is located...

Since this one is right in front of our friends' house, you can possibly better see how tall that flower stalk is -- probably 20' tall (it extends up into the fronds of the coconut tree). Doc (the owner of the house) said that it grew in about 4-5 days.

This stalk is much later than the others to appear -- the blooms have not yet fully appeared. On the ones that I posted pictures of earlier, the stalks have bloomed and died and the host plants are dying, but there are "pup" plants in the same area of ground.

Miss Kitty on the hunt

Carl has stopped showing mouse videos to Miss Kitty because she became so demanding for them. But a few days ago, he put up a second monitor on his computer and put a mouse video up on it for her to see...

... once I got her to focus on the computer monitor, she was quite energetic going after the mouse...

... at this point, she had actually stepped on the computer mouse so it brought up a grey box with selection items on the screen, but she was still going after the mouse on the video...

... her paw looks small here because it was in motion and blurred.

She enjoyed the video for a while, though she went to the edge of the monitor and looked behind it as the mouse hole in the video makes it appear that the mouse is escaping behind the monitor. She couldn't find the mouse behind the monitor and so got bored.

Wildlife exploration

While Pamela and Dylan were here, Carl asked if they would like to go scorpion hunting. We had never done this, but had heard that it was possible to see scorpions along the back walls of our community, especially at the dog park. Carl had gotten a black light several years ago because that is supposed to be the way that you can see them, but then he decided he really didn't want to know if there were scorpions around -- if you don't see them, they don't exist, right?

Anyway, we decided it would be interesting to go look for them, so we drove the golf cart over to the back wall -- we didn't find any along the back wall, so we went to the dog park. There, we also were not having success, but we asked another resident (who was there with his dog), and he indicated that the part of the wall that would have been facing the sun as it was setting (and therefore warm) was thought to be the most reliable place to see them.

We went to that part of the wall... our black light flashlight seemed to be getting weaker and we were sorry we hadn't brought more batteries when suddenly...

... there one was!

We had been told to look in the cracks, and near this one we saw another one between the blocks.

This video is when it was first moving:  https://youtube.com/shorts/eNeHLB7CVwk?feature=share

Then it came to a stop and was like a fake florescent model of a scorpion stuck on the wall (as in the picture above).

Dylan found a short stick and encouraged it to move:  https://youtube.com/shorts/1lMNR60wccA

You'll see that it goes into the crack between the wall and column.

 

Since we saw them at the dog park, and since that is all the way on the other side of our community (about 1/2 mile away from our lots!), we're going to pretend that there are none around where we live... and we're not going to be going out with the black light flashlight to prove or disprove that opinion! 

Daughter Pamela visit

Daughter Pamela contacted Carl about a week ago and said that she and Dylan could come to visit if it was okay with us. We have the casa available for guests to use so they came for a few days...

They had work and school that kept them busy during the day, but had evenings that we could do things together, including a trip to Organ Stop Pizza.

Pamela and Dylan had come near the end of the season (they were here for the end-of-year concert). They stayed outside the park and came in and drove our golf cart around the community a lot. This time, they stayed in our casa, and were surprised at how empty the park was compared to just a few weeks ago. It was gorgeous weather while they were here which made it really nice too. And, they got to use the golf cart as much as they wanted!

Medical update for Carl

I've written about Carl having various tests and procedures... I think the last update was that Carl was scheduled to have a biopsy done. He also had a chest CT scan done (in the place with all the empty chairs). His oncologist had scheduled a telehealth appointment on Friday at 1pm to go over the results of the biopsy. We had read the pathology report, and it appeared to be a benign growth to us. Carl had pulled up the CT scan from his visit to the ER last year in Provo, Utah, and we could see what looked like the exact same view that the oncologist had shown us in a printed picture -- and the same enlarged lymph node was there a year ago. Although we were sure that there would not be any concerns, we were looking forward to getting the appointment over with. 

The oncologist actually called Carl 25 minutes early (he had gone out to walk around the block to try to chill out so I didn't get to hear it). The doctor said that the enlarged lymph node was benign. He also said that Carl's chest CT scan was clear from any signs of pneumonia, though there were a couple of nodules noted in his lungs (Carl's pulmonary care doctor had communicated the same via messages on the Banner Health site). The oncologist indicated that there was nothing to be concerned about at this time, though he would like to follow up with additional CT scans of chest, abdomen, and pelvic area in 6 months and 1 year from now. 

We are very thankful to get this good report. Carl does have an additional appointment with his pulmonary care doctor in about 10 days -- she has indicated that she also wants to continue to monitor the nodules in the lungs. She doesn't yet seem to be completely convinced that Carl has not had Valley Fever, even though multiple tests have indicated that he has not.

Although we both thought that the results were not anything to be concerned about, we both felt very relieved at having our thoughts confirmed, and now we're looking forward to our summer plans!

Getting hearing checks

Early in the season here at Venture Out, one of our neighbors mentioned that she had gotten a free hearing test at Costco. We made appointments to get our hearing checked, in fact, we had made the appointments on Monday of Thanksgiving week (the lady booking appointments asked me if I was sure I wanted to come in to Costco on that day as it would be filled with the craziness that is Costco! We decided to brave it.). I got my hearing checked that day, but the technician who was to test Carl said that he had too much wax in his right ear so he had to reschedule.

After a trip to the doctor to have his ear cleared out, 

 ...Carl had his appointment a few days ago.

I requested that they print out a copy of my report and when Carl's testing was completed, his technician called me into the testing room to review Carl's report.

The two reports were laid out to print a little differently; my report is on the left, and Carl's is on the right. Carl's results for right and left ear are overlaid onto the same graph; mine has right ear on the right and left ear on the left. The line charts up near the top of the report show the decibel levels at which different frequencies could be heard -- the frequencies are increasing moving left to right, and decibel levels are increasing moving top to bottom. Both of our charts indicated that our hearing capability reduced at higher frequency levels. At the lower frequencies (the vocal range of men's voices), both of us could hear at an acceptable decibel level (20-25dB). As we were tested in higher frequencies, our ability to hear required higher volume (decibel levels).

It may be hard to see, but our results are pretty similar.

However, the technicians approached the results differently. 

My technician indicated that my hearing was degraded, but she did not recommend that I consider hearing aids at this time. She suggested I get my hearing checked again in 1-2 years.

Carl's technician also indicated that his hearing was degraded, but recommended that he consider getting hearing aids at this time. She indicated that the longer you go without having your hearing corrected, your brain gets used to not hearing sounds in a particular range, and can cause you to have permanent impairment in that range. She fitted him with a pair of aids tuned for his hearing loss and sent us out into the Costco warehouse for a few minutes to see how they worked for him. She cautioned him that he would be hearing things that he had not be accustomed to hearing, and it might be disconcerting at first.

Sure enough, he immediately heard squeaking wheels on shopping carts and about jumped out of his skin when a fork lift unexpectedly blew its horn in a nearby aisle. On the positive side, he could hear what I was saying without me needing to speak loudly or get his attention before I spoke.

Carl had thought that hearing aids would cost in the range of several thousand dollars ($5000+). The hearing aids that they have are in the range of $1700-$2000. Regardless, Carl decided that he did not want to get hearing aids at this time.

We are not sure why the recommendations from the two technicians varied. I wish we had had the same technician for both of us; we had to wonder if Carl's technician was more interested in making a sale than doing what was best for the customer. Or maybe my technician had learned that people with a mild-to-moderate hearing loss weren't likely to purchase and she just doesn't go forward to fitting the product for those folks. It could be, because Carl is a little older than I am, that his technician was more concerned that his brain may be getting used to not hearing sounds in specific ranges and he needed the correction to keep his brain active in that range.

At any rate, it was interesting to get tested and to see the results... at least we have a baseline if/when we get tested in the future. 

Making use of the collected chairs

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the chairs lined up in the hallway outside medical offices (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/04/weve-invited-you-here.html)... we returned there for Carl to get a CT scan to confirm that the pneumonia was gone, and once again the chairs in the hallway there were all empty...

Carl decided to sit in one of the chairs just so it would feel useful!

Don't you imagine that the chairs feel neglected and/or un-needed with no one sitting in them?

"Project Hail Mary"

We had heard good reviews on the movie "Project Hail Mary". The book from which the movie's script was taken was written by Andy Weir, who also wrote "The Martian". One of Carl's favorite books and movies is "The Martian", and we figured that we would enjoy the movie.

Movie poster

In the theater -- the theater had reclining chairs... which were comfortable, almost too comfortable for a movie in mid-afternoon, prime napping time! But the movie was engaging enough that we did not nap!

This is a picture of the display on the closed-captioning device that I borrowed from the theater - it is displaying words during the ads before the movie began. Since we put closed captions onto the TV for almost everything we watch, I get a lot more from a movie if I can read as well as hear the dialog.

We enjoyed the movie... Carl even leaned over to read my closed captioning device to catch the dialog in some parts when the background sound was loud and dialog hard to hear.

A purricane

Miss Kitty was giving her impression of a purricane:

She doesn't usually have her hind legs pointed straight out like that; however, she does often have her nose covered up as this picture shows. I think her coloring does a good job of camouflaging where her head is to protect it from predators! 

Gracie in her spot

We wanted pictures of our RV lot to send to potential renters, so Carl took a couple of pictures of it with Gracie parked there:

We have renters signed up for both the RV lot and the casa next door to the RV lot for January-March next season. Anyone want to sign up for October-December or April-May?

An interesting clock

We met a friend who lives in a neighboring community (Sunland Village) at the restaurant (Rochester's) in her community. There was an "interesting" clock on the wall...

It might be hard to see due to the glare... it was 11:15am when we looked at it. I was trying to figure out how it would indicate "sixteen" and "seventeen", etc. but it didn't change again until it was twenty minutes past eleven.

In case you want one, I found a listing on Walmart.com: link to clock on walmart site

Trying out different culinary options

We've tried out a few different cuisines in the past few weeks...

YC's Mongolian grill -- a little pricey, but we can eat there and have enough to take home for another meal too! We also get to make our own mixture of proteins and veggies and sauces to go onto the grill.

On another day, we went out with friend, Lesa, for Indian buffet.

We had a taste for Chick-Fil-A, so went to the one that was closest. It turns out that it is take-out only, though they have a few tables for outdoor seating. The outdoor seating is under an awning and has fans and heaters mounted under the awning. At this time of year, it was comfortable, but in a few weeks, I think it might be uncomfortably warm.

We're enjoying having a little less to do in our community and having more time to do things outside of our community.

Different interpretations of signs

When we were at Banner Gateway a few days ago for Carl's biopsy, we had been asked to arrive early so they could get him all prepped, so we had a bit of time to wait until they were ready to do the procedure (don't want to keep the medical professionals waiting, but it is okay to keep the patients waiting). 

We noticed the labels on the small set of drawers in the room...

Just looking at the labels on the left side of the top drawer, it appears that they keep curious caps (though they seem to spell it differently) in there, along with butterflies (and their needles), and I don't know how they get Christmas trees in there, it seems too small, and I guess spare change goes in that drawer too! 

We shared our interpretations of the labels with the nurse, and she proceeded to show us the medical items identified by each of those labels... nowhere near as exciting as what we were supposing to be in there!

Sunday afternoon Music Jam

Throughout the season, we'd heard that the Sunday afternoon music jams (held each 2nd Tuesday during the season) were good country-western dance music, and that people were welcome to come and enjoy listening and / or dancing to the music. 

We finally made it to their last get-together for this season, in April,

...there was quite a group of performers ready to play and sing.

Similar to the Tuesday afternoon on the Terrace jam, each brought their own instruments and made a suggestion down the line of what to sing next. They went through the group twice allowing each to select his or her own song to sing, and the others joined in with the music.

A sampling of one of the songs: https://youtu.be/-GMihx1J40A 

The fellow singing that song on the recording seemed to be the organizer/leader of the event. I think that most, if not all, of the performers are fellow-residents of ours here in the park.

We enjoyed listening to the music and working on our Arizona two-step dancing.

A trip to MD Anderson

Back a few weeks ago, when Carl was in the ER for his pneumonia diagnosis, they found an enlarged lymph node that they recommended that Carl follow up with his primary care doctor to get a biopsy. His primary care doctor referred him to MD Anderson for their recommendations of what to do next. MD Anderson called us on a Tuesday a couple of weeks ago and got us in for Carl's first appointment on Friday. 

MD Anderson in Arizona is affiliated with the Banner system. When we returned to Mesa this season, we set about to get doctors within the Banner system instead of independent practitioners. It has turned out to be very helpful to have all our records in one place, and since MD Anderson is also affiliated, their records are integrated in as well.

The first appointment was with a nurse practitioner. When she came in, she told us upfront that she was not an oncologist, but rather was a nurse practitioner in family medicine, but that she had worked with oncology for 20+ years. Her goal was to get the appropriate tests scheduled and to get Carl in to see the correct oncology doctor. She said that, prior to using this intake method, the schedulers would try to get patients scheduled with the right specialty area, but sometimes there was a wait to get an appointment (6+ weeks) and then it would turn out to be the wrong specialty area and the patient would again need to wait to get an appointment with the correct specialist. In addition, the first appointment with the specialist would just schedule tests so it would seem that nothing would get accomplished for many weeks. Suzanne identified the tests that she thought would be necessary and got those scheduled. Carl had bloodwork drawn, a sonogram done, and then an MRI scheduled. An appointment with a genitourinary specialist (urologist) was also scheduled.

In the meantime, Carl's primary care doctor had also scheduled bloodwork to rule out Valley Fever (it has to be tested 3+ weeks from onset of systems for the antibodies to be detectable in the bloodstream) and tuberculosis. He also had a follow-up x-ray ordered by his pulmonary care doctor to ensure that the pneumonia was gone.

Through the Banner online records, we could see the results from all of the tests -- nothing abnormal seemed to be indicated. His white blood count was normal (it had still been elevated when he was discharged from the hospital). He didn't have Valley Fever and the TB test was negative. One of the tests indicated that he was not pregnant (whew!). We couldn't see the results of the MRI but were hopeful that we would see the oncologist and he would say, "No worries, go on your way and have a great summer!"

Well, that didn't happen... as we thought, none of the tests indicated anything abnormal, but the enlarged lymph node was still there. So, the doctor referred Carl to have a biopsy via Interventional Radiology (from wikipedia: Interventional radiology is a medical specialty that performs various minimally-invasive procedures using medical imaging guidance, such as x-ray fluoroscopy, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or ultrasound.). In this case, they will use CT scanning to direct the biopsy. After the biopsy, there will be 1-1.5 week wait for biopsy results before we meet with the oncologist again.

As we were walking out of MD Anderson, Carl said, "So, in the ER they said I had an enlarged lymph node. The oncologist just said that I have an enlarged lymph node. Have we made any progress in the past 4 weeks?"

I guess another way to look at it is:

The good news is that there is no bad news.

The bad news is that there is no good news. 

We're thankful to have a nice house to stay in while we await the go-ahead that we can head out on our travels! 

Refrigerator saga - part 4

As I indicated in previous posts, after moving into the "new" park model, we weren't real pleased with the refrigerator that was already in there (a side-by-side model). We swapped it out for a new French door model and are happy with that in our home. We had partially justified this swap by knowing that the refrigerator in the casa was older and did not seal well, so we could upgrade the refrigerator in the casa by moving the side-by-side one to the casa. We waited until the tenants moved out, and then our friend, Ervin, helped us move the side-by-side refrigerator to the casa. 

Before installing the side-by-side refrigerator into the space in the casa, we wanted to run a water line so the built-in water dispenser and ice maker would work.

The refrigerator opening in the casa

Water line coming up from underneath the park model

Access to water line under the house

The kitchen sink is on the opposite side of the house (and where we want to hook into the water supply), so we need to run the water line under the casa -- this is the opening under the kitchen sink. We eventually got the water line fished across.

Getting the water line hooked up behind the refrigerator before pushing the refrigerator into place

Refrigerator in the middle of the floor while we got the water line hooked up

Closing up under the casa

Carl still needed to hook the water line up to the water under the sink.

Refrigerator pushed back into its space

The water worked well through the dispenser and the refrigerator seemed to be cooling well. It is a bigger unit than the one that was there, but I think it is probably a better refrigerator. Carl will put a water filter in under the kitchen sink before the next tenant arrives.