February 26, 2005
Cleaned trailer. Chris and Jim arrived. Went to rec hall for estate planning talk and free pizza. Listened to presentation. Guy may have been good with small groups but didn’t have materials that he was comfortable within size that could be viewed by large group. His slides didn’t fit with his presentation/he wasn’t comfortable with them. $40 was won as doorprize. Leftover pizza was brought home for later snack/meal
February 27, 2005
Went up to Carefree with Chris and Jim. Marveled at the saguaros. Purchased turtle. Ate at Satisfied Frog. On the way back we toured some of the streets with amazing homes on them. Spent some time in the pool. Discovered that I don’t sink, despite some effort to. Founded that the plastic pool noodles are nice for support in the pool and allow non swimmers to swim. The pool does nice to take all the bad effects of gravity off of bad backs too.
February 28, 2005
Took Chris and Jim to see Mariners’ spring training. Got to see Ichiro, Ibanez, Spiezio, and Strong bat. Again everyone, including coaches was busy. Heard coach tell the players to get a drink and not leave the field until the airhorn sounded, as they had finished their drill a minute or two early. Took some nice shots of the pitchers. The sunblocking screen that was on the fence prohibited simple sticking the lens through the chain link to take a picture. However, I noticed that the bottom twelve inches of fence didn’t have the cloth over it...so I got some interesting angled shots. Discovered that the players have numbers on the backs of their batting helmets, which helps with identification.
Chris and Jim cooked elk burgers for dinner. They were delicious.
March 1, 2005
Jim and Chris left around 11 am. Did up a collage of Mariners’ pictures to put on postcard and took it over to Costco. Have noted that Costco’s 4" x 6" prints are not quite 6" long thus some cropping occurred. Will remember to leave ample space around the edges.
March 2, 2005
Went over to the Mariners’ spring training. They were playing against the Padres on the Padres’ practice field. Got all sorts of pictures, most of whom I know who was in them. Getting good at catching the ball after it has left the pitcher’s hand, but before it reaches the catcher’s glove. Beginning to recognize some of the players by face, not by number on their back. Noticed that the Padres had the names as well as the numbers on the back of their uniforms....wonder why the Mariners don’t have the names.
March 3, 2005
Went to Wickenburg. Beautiful old cactus can be seen on the way. Saw the Hassyampa River. It apparently is named because the water usually flows underground. This year with all the rains it was flowing above ground. A half buried car could be seen from the bridge. Suspect it floated down the river with the recent rains. Saw the jail tree, where prisoners were chained before they had a jail in town. Enjoyed looking at the tourist shops. Went to the post office to get postcard stamps where one didn’t have to take a number. The post office is just a space in a shopping complex. Visited a discount store and found a western shirt with flashlight buttons at a reasonable price. Came back a different way....think one would call it a short cut. Spent some time in the pool and hot tub. The noodles help with the inability to swim and the inability to swim well...but while in the pool with the noodles, there’s a tendency to want to envision that one is part of soup.
March 4, 2005
They have a dog washing area here at the park complete with specialized tub with stairs. Gave Keiko a bath today. Sad they didn’t have better means to keep the hair from clogging the drain. The hair from the previous dog started it all. She wasn’t sure about the blow drier. Went to Smart and Final, found good buy on fast food serving trays. Found a reasonably priced knuckle bone at Trader Joes and delighted Keiko.
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