I should be outside working, getting the trailer ready to move tomorrow morning but the temp is approaching 80F with not a cloud in site. I'll wait for a bit to pack up.
Friday night I went to the club house to see a young lady singer, Sarah Getto. She has been blind since birth and taught herself to play piano and fiddle. Lovely voice and quite a good entertainer as well. Saturday I went to the Street Fair at College of the Desert. I hadn't planned on going but another errand took me just a block away so decided to go. Got some new bungy cords and spent an hour or so just wandering around. Saturday evening was another entertainer at the club house, The Casual Cowboy. He seems to be getting pretty close to his best before date but it was still an hour and a half out of the trailer.
Got up early thus morning and did a laundry. Another lady came in about 7:15 and took the other two washers and at 7:30 a couple arrived and complained that they wanted to use all four machines at the same time even though the sign cleary states only two machines at a time. They seemed to blame us because we got up early and got the machines before them. Some people!!
For those familiar with this area, the highways dept has just granted contracts to expand the interchanges at I 10 and Gene Autry and I 10 and Ramon/Bob Hope. Work to start in February this year and carry on for two years. We regularly use both those interchanges so we will be dealing with some pretty gross traffic problems for a while.
That's about all for now. TTFN
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Lary is Batching it in Indio
Got Di on WestJet yesterday morning and she is now safely back in Nanaimo to help sister Sue celebrate her upcoming 60th birthday. Happy Birthday Sue.
After Di left yesterday I went to see the IMAX format Lewis and Clark film. Very interesting as we had spent some time last summer on the L&C trail in Montana and I had recently read a book about the Indian girl they took with them to act as translator, Sacagewaya. The film was only 45 minutes long but worth it.
Finally found out why we couldn't get WiFi in the park: the office gave me the wrong password. All seems to be fine now.
Moving Monday to a park model at Catalina Spa while the trailer goes in for some warranty work. TTFN
After Di left yesterday I went to see the IMAX format Lewis and Clark film. Very interesting as we had spent some time last summer on the L&C trail in Montana and I had recently read a book about the Indian girl they took with them to act as translator, Sacagewaya. The film was only 45 minutes long but worth it.
Finally found out why we couldn't get WiFi in the park: the office gave me the wrong password. All seems to be fine now.
Moving Monday to a park model at Catalina Spa while the trailer goes in for some warranty work. TTFN
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
No internet at Indian Waters park, Indio
Quite frustrating to pay for internet and not have it, but that's the case at the park where we are staying.
Di is coming home Jan. 7th til Jan 18th and will be staying in our own house together with the housesitter, Tara and her cat Pearl.
Talk to you all then hopefully.
Lary will take the trailer in for some warranty work on the kitchen floor while I am away, and he'll be staying in the park model rental trailers over at Catalina spa Resort in Desert Hot Springs.
Once the trailer is repaired, he'll be back at Catalina Spa Resort once again.
That's about all our news for now. We're both well, though Di is not looking forward to flying through the current aviation fiasco.
The weather has turned very nice here again, into the low 70s during the day and 40s overnight.
TTYS, I hope to be blogging from home on cable. What a relief.
Di is coming home Jan. 7th til Jan 18th and will be staying in our own house together with the housesitter, Tara and her cat Pearl.
Talk to you all then hopefully.
Lary will take the trailer in for some warranty work on the kitchen floor while I am away, and he'll be staying in the park model rental trailers over at Catalina spa Resort in Desert Hot Springs.
Once the trailer is repaired, he'll be back at Catalina Spa Resort once again.
That's about all our news for now. We're both well, though Di is not looking forward to flying through the current aviation fiasco.
The weather has turned very nice here again, into the low 70s during the day and 40s overnight.
TTYS, I hope to be blogging from home on cable. What a relief.
Friday, January 1, 2010
New Year's Eve at Indian Waters
Just a couple of words about that.
Dinner was delicious, chicken cordon bleu, veggies and green salad, ice cream for dessert.
Then we returned for the dance, the music which was supposed to be so great was unbearable, loud, so loud that you couldn't even tell what was being played, it seemed distorted. We sat with 3 other couples, but they gradually faded away so that it was one other couple and us, and some time after 10 PM and toasting New Years in Chicago we too drifted out the door.
Not sure if it was the hall, or the bass volume on the amps, or the people struggling to be heard over the "music" or what, but it was kind of a bust. We didn't dance til well into the first hour, the music just wasn't good to dance to, and then it was nearly impossible to hear what was being played, by the DJ and his assistant, so finally we returned to our trailer, and watched replays of New York city's New year celebrations, after watching the local news.
The locals outside the park seemed to be in fine form with their celebrating, for we could hear them all loud and clear, it was a Blue Moon, the second full moon in a month, and was nearly light outside when we walked home to the trailer from the clubhouse.
Happy New year friends. The very best to you in 2010.
Dinner was delicious, chicken cordon bleu, veggies and green salad, ice cream for dessert.
Then we returned for the dance, the music which was supposed to be so great was unbearable, loud, so loud that you couldn't even tell what was being played, it seemed distorted. We sat with 3 other couples, but they gradually faded away so that it was one other couple and us, and some time after 10 PM and toasting New Years in Chicago we too drifted out the door.
Not sure if it was the hall, or the bass volume on the amps, or the people struggling to be heard over the "music" or what, but it was kind of a bust. We didn't dance til well into the first hour, the music just wasn't good to dance to, and then it was nearly impossible to hear what was being played, by the DJ and his assistant, so finally we returned to our trailer, and watched replays of New York city's New year celebrations, after watching the local news.
The locals outside the park seemed to be in fine form with their celebrating, for we could hear them all loud and clear, it was a Blue Moon, the second full moon in a month, and was nearly light outside when we walked home to the trailer from the clubhouse.
Happy New year friends. The very best to you in 2010.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Lary is feeling just fine once again
Forgot to mention that Lary is feeling just fine once more, thank heavens.
Christmas lunch at Agua Caliente casino buffet
Well the buffet at Agua Caliente casino was good, a long lineup but well managed, and people in good spirits. Great food, we were somewhat restrained thankfully.
It was quite quiet at the timeshare place, but we spent Christmas night with them, in the cocktail lounge, it is lots of fun as several very talented people drop in and sing, or play instruments. One couple sings and plays the piano, there is another couple and she sings, great voice, and he plays a slide trombone. Another fellow plays a terrific clarinet, he's friends with the slide trombone player. There is a regular group trio of entertainers, Grant, a singer, and a lady singer, and Richard Bono the piano/organ player. They invite all their friends and visitors up to sing and play too.
And there was another blonde lady who sang very well, most of them are professionals I believe. There was another elderly man who sang very well too. Being Palm Springs there is a lot of talent and retired talent of a very high level here. You just never know who will walk into the lounge that night to visit, or enjoy the entertainment, camaraderie. They make you feel welcome, and almost part of their extended family. Frank Sinatra used to hang out at this lounge, it's now called Club Trinidad, and is on Hwy 111 at Smoke Tree Commons area.
The following day we went to see the new George Clooney film Up in the Air, it was good, very good. Just when he felt he wanted commitment, the lady he chose wasn't available. His profession was to fire people, and he was pretty bloodthirsty and cold about it, too. Somewhat like his life, his character had very few personal ties, and he spent his career flying all over the US to fire people from their jobs.
We had really enjoyed the movie Avatar, even though we didn't see it on the Imax size screen, or with 3D glasses. We saw it at Mary Pickford theatre, which has many movies showing inside it.
Most nights in the timeshare we joined the singers/group in the lounge as it became like a second family, you were greeted like family, and we really enjoyed their entertainment, it was like a musicians jam session.
One day I played my flutes out sitting by the pool, the acoustics were great as the pool was completely enclosed by the hotel 2 storey room block.
In truth the timeshare being a studio was too small for us, when the wallbed came down out of the wall, there was no floor left. And the TV on the wall was opposite the bed, not the sofa, so you kind of had to crane your neck around to watch TV. However it was a nice change to be right in Palm Springs, and we did some of the special stuff that was oriented to Christmas. Our room was on the second floor, and the sunshine hit our front door, so the light was good.
Lary bought me Julie and Julia, the DVD for Christmas, and once we got our various machines here in the trailer coordinated, we watched that last night. Very good indeed, I was glad we had bought it. Coordinating the sound with the TV and DVD player was a challenge to begin with, but Lary does very well with that. Also here we are using our trailer's TV antenna for the first time, but the TV signals must be pretty strong, and the TV good, as it searches for the channels, and brings them in once you sort out all the darned buttons/cables/knobs/blah blah.
We didn't really do anything for Lary's birthday, we were in the timeshare, but left it that day and returned very happily back to our trailer at Catalina Spa. In fact we did a laundry on Lary's birthday night, and got ready to move over to Indian Waters, Indio the following day. After having Christmas lunch and quite a few meals out, we didn't feel like eating out once more that birthday night of his.
Dec. 28th we moved the trailer about 1/2 hour away, down the Coachella Valley to the opposite end from Desert Hot Springs, to Indio and Indian Waters park. It is a Western Horizons Park. It seems very good, we stay in the newer part where there is no sewer or cable TV, but there is a honey wagon service 3 times a week, and it's free for members which we now are. It is coarse gravel underfoot and concrete pads and parking pads for the vehicles, so that works out just fine for us. The sites are relatively big, and we enjoy them more than the grassy areas, where the sprinklers work every night, and you have to be extra careful not to damage the grass or get wet from the sprinklers. Besides we need the exercise of walking to and from the office/pool/clubhouse areas. It's flat and wide open here in their newer part of the park.
Today a WHR lady arrived and offered to give us a tour of the new enhanced things that are available with our membership, that should be interesting to find out about. They now offer cabins at most of their WHR parks, for family visits.
Di is enjoying catching up with emails, for our last few timeshare days the computer hookup didn't work, and only being at CatSpa one day we didn't get it there either.
By the way, thanks to everybody who has sent us Christmas cards, christmas newsletters, and birthday cards, that is so appreciated while we are away travelling. Means a lot. And to those who have emailed us faithfully, even when we didn't email back right away. Thanks for it all.
There is also quite a lot to do here at Indian Waters, they offer some meals, more lunches than dinners, and lots of small courses. Di was delighted to find that there is somebody offering watercolor classes on Thursdays.
The weather seems to be marginally warmer, still below seasonal norms, but sunny, Lary cleaned the outside of the trailer with a bucket and a rag today, and he's outside sitting reading under the canopy. This seems to be another one of the parks where you sit outside or walk around, and most people are very friendly, greeting you as you pass them. It makes such a great impression. We don't enjoy the parks where this isn't the case.
Well I have gone on far too long, just wanted to catchup on the latest. I really enjoyed the Julie/Julia video where Julie posted her blog faithfully each day, and talked about the recent recipes that she had made out of Julia child's cook book. Her successes, and failures. It was such fun, I enjoyed the format of that movie, Nora Ephron sure has made a lot of great movies that really appeal to me.
We'll spend New Year's eve here in the park, we signed up for their dinner and dance, so that should be enjoyable to get together with other like minded folks. $20 total, hope they don't turn on the lights at 12:01 like they did over in Desert Pools another year we were there.
Bah humbug, that was brutal, you hadn't even finished toasting the New year in when they flashed on the florescent lights, at about 12:02 AM and announced that they had to set up for breakfast the following day.
It was quite quiet at the timeshare place, but we spent Christmas night with them, in the cocktail lounge, it is lots of fun as several very talented people drop in and sing, or play instruments. One couple sings and plays the piano, there is another couple and she sings, great voice, and he plays a slide trombone. Another fellow plays a terrific clarinet, he's friends with the slide trombone player. There is a regular group trio of entertainers, Grant, a singer, and a lady singer, and Richard Bono the piano/organ player. They invite all their friends and visitors up to sing and play too.
And there was another blonde lady who sang very well, most of them are professionals I believe. There was another elderly man who sang very well too. Being Palm Springs there is a lot of talent and retired talent of a very high level here. You just never know who will walk into the lounge that night to visit, or enjoy the entertainment, camaraderie. They make you feel welcome, and almost part of their extended family. Frank Sinatra used to hang out at this lounge, it's now called Club Trinidad, and is on Hwy 111 at Smoke Tree Commons area.
The following day we went to see the new George Clooney film Up in the Air, it was good, very good. Just when he felt he wanted commitment, the lady he chose wasn't available. His profession was to fire people, and he was pretty bloodthirsty and cold about it, too. Somewhat like his life, his character had very few personal ties, and he spent his career flying all over the US to fire people from their jobs.
We had really enjoyed the movie Avatar, even though we didn't see it on the Imax size screen, or with 3D glasses. We saw it at Mary Pickford theatre, which has many movies showing inside it.
Most nights in the timeshare we joined the singers/group in the lounge as it became like a second family, you were greeted like family, and we really enjoyed their entertainment, it was like a musicians jam session.
One day I played my flutes out sitting by the pool, the acoustics were great as the pool was completely enclosed by the hotel 2 storey room block.
In truth the timeshare being a studio was too small for us, when the wallbed came down out of the wall, there was no floor left. And the TV on the wall was opposite the bed, not the sofa, so you kind of had to crane your neck around to watch TV. However it was a nice change to be right in Palm Springs, and we did some of the special stuff that was oriented to Christmas. Our room was on the second floor, and the sunshine hit our front door, so the light was good.
Lary bought me Julie and Julia, the DVD for Christmas, and once we got our various machines here in the trailer coordinated, we watched that last night. Very good indeed, I was glad we had bought it. Coordinating the sound with the TV and DVD player was a challenge to begin with, but Lary does very well with that. Also here we are using our trailer's TV antenna for the first time, but the TV signals must be pretty strong, and the TV good, as it searches for the channels, and brings them in once you sort out all the darned buttons/cables/knobs/blah blah.
We didn't really do anything for Lary's birthday, we were in the timeshare, but left it that day and returned very happily back to our trailer at Catalina Spa. In fact we did a laundry on Lary's birthday night, and got ready to move over to Indian Waters, Indio the following day. After having Christmas lunch and quite a few meals out, we didn't feel like eating out once more that birthday night of his.
Dec. 28th we moved the trailer about 1/2 hour away, down the Coachella Valley to the opposite end from Desert Hot Springs, to Indio and Indian Waters park. It is a Western Horizons Park. It seems very good, we stay in the newer part where there is no sewer or cable TV, but there is a honey wagon service 3 times a week, and it's free for members which we now are. It is coarse gravel underfoot and concrete pads and parking pads for the vehicles, so that works out just fine for us. The sites are relatively big, and we enjoy them more than the grassy areas, where the sprinklers work every night, and you have to be extra careful not to damage the grass or get wet from the sprinklers. Besides we need the exercise of walking to and from the office/pool/clubhouse areas. It's flat and wide open here in their newer part of the park.
Today a WHR lady arrived and offered to give us a tour of the new enhanced things that are available with our membership, that should be interesting to find out about. They now offer cabins at most of their WHR parks, for family visits.
Di is enjoying catching up with emails, for our last few timeshare days the computer hookup didn't work, and only being at CatSpa one day we didn't get it there either.
By the way, thanks to everybody who has sent us Christmas cards, christmas newsletters, and birthday cards, that is so appreciated while we are away travelling. Means a lot. And to those who have emailed us faithfully, even when we didn't email back right away. Thanks for it all.
There is also quite a lot to do here at Indian Waters, they offer some meals, more lunches than dinners, and lots of small courses. Di was delighted to find that there is somebody offering watercolor classes on Thursdays.
The weather seems to be marginally warmer, still below seasonal norms, but sunny, Lary cleaned the outside of the trailer with a bucket and a rag today, and he's outside sitting reading under the canopy. This seems to be another one of the parks where you sit outside or walk around, and most people are very friendly, greeting you as you pass them. It makes such a great impression. We don't enjoy the parks where this isn't the case.
Well I have gone on far too long, just wanted to catchup on the latest. I really enjoyed the Julie/Julia video where Julie posted her blog faithfully each day, and talked about the recent recipes that she had made out of Julia child's cook book. Her successes, and failures. It was such fun, I enjoyed the format of that movie, Nora Ephron sure has made a lot of great movies that really appeal to me.
We'll spend New Year's eve here in the park, we signed up for their dinner and dance, so that should be enjoyable to get together with other like minded folks. $20 total, hope they don't turn on the lights at 12:01 like they did over in Desert Pools another year we were there.
Bah humbug, that was brutal, you hadn't even finished toasting the New year in when they flashed on the florescent lights, at about 12:02 AM and announced that they had to set up for breakfast the following day.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Living Desert Outdoor Museum-illuminated tonight
Tonight we went up to the Living Desert, an outdoor wildlife park with native desert animals that live there. As it was night we didn't see them except the ones in a small show they organized, but the whole park was illuminated with 300,000 Christmas lights, there was also a carousel for the children and their parents to ride, and cocoa and other hot drinks.
It was a great site, very pretty, it had huge train sets on tracks that wound up and down small hills, little villages, and various activities for kids to do, such as art projects like makings rubbings of the local animals in the park. Lots of the things illuminated were the desert animals outlined in lights. And many of the bushes and trees were covered with lights. Lovely.
Earlier that day we went to see Avatar the movie, it was really good. We had no idea what to expect, but the story was interesting, and the special effects incredible. Sigourney Weaver was one of the main actors, together with a young man we didn't know. The large blue Navi's were a neat concept. It was very long but the time flew by. Another James Cameron success, block buster.
In the morning Lary and I went back to the RV park and he did his wood carving. His kildeer bird is coming right along.
The day before we had gone back so I could do my watercolor painting class, we did a cactus desert scene.
Forgot to say that a few days before we had gone to Eisenhower Hospital for a 2 hour harp concert, it was lovely. Both harps and flutes are thought to be very therapeutic. The harp players were all past cancer patients. Our class leader Annie Mathias and Fran a student of hers did a duet on their flutes. The concert was held in the lobby of Eisenhower Hospital and it was lovely.
The new computer is up and going, and fast. Staples sold it to us, and loaded everything in it. We now need to dispose of the old one, they wiped it clean.
Our cousin from the coast isn't coming to Palm Springs now, it's too cold for them to swim and sun, so we'll see her another time in the spring.
So many places are lit up here, the Christmas lights are very pretty when you go out at night.
Yesterday there were very high winds, and the sand gets kicked up in the wind, driving in the blowing sand is next to impossible, you can't see a foot ahead of yourself, and today 3 major roads were closed due to sand drifts, but they were opened later on today.
We plan to go out to a botanical garden tomorrow if it's open, and on Christmas Day we will likely go to one of the casinos for a buffet lunch or dinner. Many of the restaurants will be closed for Christmas day.
It was a great site, very pretty, it had huge train sets on tracks that wound up and down small hills, little villages, and various activities for kids to do, such as art projects like makings rubbings of the local animals in the park. Lots of the things illuminated were the desert animals outlined in lights. And many of the bushes and trees were covered with lights. Lovely.
Earlier that day we went to see Avatar the movie, it was really good. We had no idea what to expect, but the story was interesting, and the special effects incredible. Sigourney Weaver was one of the main actors, together with a young man we didn't know. The large blue Navi's were a neat concept. It was very long but the time flew by. Another James Cameron success, block buster.
In the morning Lary and I went back to the RV park and he did his wood carving. His kildeer bird is coming right along.
The day before we had gone back so I could do my watercolor painting class, we did a cactus desert scene.
Forgot to say that a few days before we had gone to Eisenhower Hospital for a 2 hour harp concert, it was lovely. Both harps and flutes are thought to be very therapeutic. The harp players were all past cancer patients. Our class leader Annie Mathias and Fran a student of hers did a duet on their flutes. The concert was held in the lobby of Eisenhower Hospital and it was lovely.
The new computer is up and going, and fast. Staples sold it to us, and loaded everything in it. We now need to dispose of the old one, they wiped it clean.
Our cousin from the coast isn't coming to Palm Springs now, it's too cold for them to swim and sun, so we'll see her another time in the spring.
So many places are lit up here, the Christmas lights are very pretty when you go out at night.
Yesterday there were very high winds, and the sand gets kicked up in the wind, driving in the blowing sand is next to impossible, you can't see a foot ahead of yourself, and today 3 major roads were closed due to sand drifts, but they were opened later on today.
We plan to go out to a botanical garden tomorrow if it's open, and on Christmas Day we will likely go to one of the casinos for a buffet lunch or dinner. Many of the restaurants will be closed for Christmas day.
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