Hello again. Our last episode
concluded on Thursday, December 2nd while we were still in
Pahrump on our lot at the Escapees Co-op RV park. Friday we went to
a late lunch at Terrible's Roadhouse. After lunch we went to the
local golf cart dealer, the only one in Pahrump, to look at some of
the used golf carts they had. They have dozens and dozens of new
carts, but the prices on new carts can be anywhere from $7,000 to
$14,000 and there is no way we need one that bad. We are looking for
a decent used cart in the $3,000 or less range. They only had three
used carts in stock and none of them lit my fire, so we left and
headed home. Now and then a cart comes up for sale at the park, so
we will just wait. At 4:00 we went to happy hour at the clubhouse,
then we went back at 6:00 for a trivia night party. This is the
first time for a trivia contest here and was the result of one of the
newer members stepping up with new things to do. There were a couple
dozen people there and we split up into teams. Ours was us, Millie,
and three other park members who we know. Our team won the first
match, came in second in the second match, and won the third match,
so I would say we won the night. Yea us! After trivia we went back
to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.
Saturday, December 4
th, I
went over to the clubhouse at 10:00 to help with a cleanup project.
After I was done with that I went on a run to the UPS store to pick
up mail, actually a few packages from Amazon. After I got back we
had lunch then I spent some time hanging up some new outside bistro
lights on the side of our shed. They turned out really nice. They
are LED, so low power, and can be both soft and daylight white, as
well as a variety of colors. We went to the clubhouse for happy
hour, but skipped karaoke again because my voice is still not
completely back. We went home and watched TV the rest of the
evening.
Sunday we left the coach a little
before 11:00 to go to the nail salon so Jackie could get a pedi and I
got my toenails cut. We were surprised when they took an appointment
for a Sunday, but it was nice because we got in and out quick. After
we got home we had lunch then I spent several hours decorating the
outside yard and patio for Christmas. Since we know we will be here
at least until early January we decided to get our Christmas
decorations up early. They are also having a contest here at the
park for best outside decorations, so I went all out. We spent the
rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach just relaxing with the
TV. Monday was a stay at home day. Jackie went out in the morning
to work with the Appraisal Committee to appraise a couple of lots
coming up for release. I finished up most of the Christmas
decorations and then just did a few chores. Around 1:00 we had a
Nurse Practitioner from United Healthcare arrive to do a home
wellness visit. This is a service of our new health insurance and
not only do we get a checkup, but we both get $50 gift cards for
having it done. He did a lot of background stuff, did the usual
vitals and even did a quick A1C blood sugar test on both of us.
There were no surprises, we are both in decent shape, just a little
overweight and a tad high on the blood sugar test. Nothing we can't
fix. After the NP left we just relaxed for the rest of the day. We
went to the clubhouse for happy hour, then came home, had dinner and
watched TV until it was time for bed.
Tuesday, December 7th, Pearl
Harbor Day. We left the park around noon and went out to lunch and
to run a few errands. We had lunch at China Restaurant which is a
menu place, not a buffet. The food was excellent. After lunch we
picked up mail and then did a Walmart run. After Walmart we went
back home and put everything away. We spent the rest of the
afternoon and evening relaxing. Wednesday we left the coach about
9:30 and started over the hill to Las Vegas for Jackie's appointment
with the surgical center. She was referred to them last month by the
nurse practitioner she saw about the intermittent pain in her lower
abdomen. The CT scan showed a stone in her gallbladder which the NP
thought might need surgical intervention. We got to the doctor's
office and Dr. Patel, a very nice guy for a surgeon, came in talked
to us. I say that because many times surgeons kind of come across as
arrogant and not willing to discuss things. Dr. Patel asked Jackie
about the pain and then explained in understandable terms that the
stone in her gallbladder wasn't a problem, and in fact, he wasn't
even sure there was a stone because the imaging that they used in
Pahrump wasn't the best for that kind of diagnosis. In any event, he
said that even if there was a stone it could not be the issue causing
the pain because it wasn't anywhere near where the pain was
occurring. After talking to Jackie a while he surmised that it was
probably scar tissue from her 35 year old hysterectomy that was
causing the pain. He said that it tends to grow and adhere to bits
and pieces and that it may have attached to the bowel. He said that
there isn't any surgical remedy to that kind of problem unless it is
causing an obstruction. He basically told Jackie there wasn't much
they could do about the pain and that she had nothing to worry about.
Kind of good news bad news. After the doctor we went to lunch, then
did a very expensive Costco run. Once we were done at Costco we
headed back over the hill, getting home a little after 3:00. We went
to happy hour at the clubhouse, then came back home and watched TV
until bedtime.
Thursday December 9th, was,
for the most part, a stay at home day. We did go out after lunch to
Walgreens where both of us got our Covid booster shots. After the
shots we stopped at the Pahrump Nugget and gamed for an hour or so
before heading back to the coach. We spent the rest of the afternoon
and evening doing chores and relaxing with the TV. Friday was a stay
at home day. Unfortunately Jackie woke up feeling really bad, body
aches, headache, and she hadn't slept well. This was pretty much the
same reaction she got when she had the second Covid shot back in
March. That time she was down for a day and a half. She stayed in
bed, mostly sleeping, until about 5:00 when she started feeling a
little better and got up. She gradually got to feeling better as the
evening wore on. By bedtime most of the symptoms had passed and she
just had a sore arm. My reaction to the shot was a sore arm.
Saturday, December 11
th, was
kind of exciting. As I mentioned earlier in the blog we have been
watching for a golf cart to buy to use around the park. Earlier in
the week I had found a really nice golf being sold in Las Vegas on
the Offer-up app. The cart was a Western Elegante model, very
similar to one that our good friend Barry Cohen had back in Indio.
Western is a high end cart manufacturer that is located in Desert Hot
Springs, in the Coachella Valley of California. They are considered
the “Cadillac” of golf carts. I made contact with the seller and
told him we would be in Las Vegas on Wednesday and would like to come
by and look at the cart. He messaged back and said that would be OK,
but to call him first. On Wednesday, after we got done with the
doctor I had called, but got no answer. I called two more times with
no response, so we just gave up, did our shopping and came home.
After we got home I sent another message on the app and on Thursday
morning I got a reply apologizing for missing us. We chatted back
and forth a bit and he agreed to come up to Pahrump on Saturday, with
the cart, and let us check it out. I was still interested in the
cart, so I agreed. Today he showed up about 2:00 with the
cart on a
trailer. I checked it out, drove it around, talked to him about the
history, and had Jackie look at it. After negotiating the price we
settled on $4,000, which was about a grand more than we had planned
on, but it is a really nice, fancy cart. So, now we have a golf cart
and I have to say it is the coolest one in the park. After buying
the cart I did some work in the yard putting the final touches on our
Christmas decorations. About 4:30 our friends Max and Nancy Schmidt
came over for dinner. We had cocktails and Jackie made a chili
relleno casserole with rice and beans. We have known Max and Nancy
since we started coming to Pahrump in 2007 or so. They used to run
the poker game at the RV park we stayed at. They have been in the
Escapees park for about four years now and we have become pretty good
friends. We had a very nice dinner and they stayed and visited until
about 8:00. After they left we watched some TV and went to bed.
Sunday, December 12
th, we
had a stay at home day. I did go out early in the morning to get a
newspaper. In late morning I started cooking my pot of chili for the
park's chili contest late this afternoon. After I had the chili put
together and simmering on the stove I did some chores around the
coach. About 3:00 I took the chili over to the clubhouse to be put
in the kitchen for later judging. About 4:00 Jackie and I went over
to the clubhouse for the chili contest. I didn't finish in the
money, but we had a good time. Tasted lots of chili's, some similar
to mine, some very unique. The winner had cinnamon in it, which gave
it a very sweet taste. We finished up and were back home by about
7:00, after which we watched TV and then went to bed. Monday was
laundry day. We left the coach about noon and went to Denny's for
lunch. After lunch we went to the laundromat and did our laundry.
After we were done we went back home. We went to the 4:00 happy hour
at the clubhouse, then went home and spent the rest of the evening
with the TV.
Tuesday, December 14th, we
went out to a late lunch at Lakeside Casino cafe. Today was a very
cold and gloomy day and it was supposed to rain on and off all day
and evening. After lunch we went back home for a while and did a few
chores. About 4:30 we left again and drove to the Elks Lodge for the
Lodge meeting. The reason we were going to the Lodge despite the
cold and rain was that three of our friends her at the park were
being initiated into the Lodge. We like to believe that we have had
some responsibility for the recent influx of park residents into the
Elks, since Jackie and I talk about it all the time. In addition, we
took a number of our park friends to the Kingman, Arizona Lodge a
couple months ago when we went on a camp out with the group. We
picked up one of the initiates, Charlene, on the way since she didn't
want to drive in the bad weather. The reason we were going so early,
the meeting wasn't until 7:00, was because the initiates had to be
there early to do some paperwork.
I dropped Jackie and Charlene off at
the lodge and then I left to go check on the tires on the car. On
the drive over the “low tire” warning light came on. I suspected
that it was just the cold weather dropping the pressure in one or
more tires that caused the problem. I had trouble finding a service
station that had a functioning air hose and eventually ended up at
the Walmart car service center. They were just closing up, but one
of the guys in the shop checked my tires and found that all were
slightly low, likely causing the problem. Since they were all the
same, just low, I didn't think I had a puncture or other leak. He
aired up all the tires to the recommended pressure and the light went
out. Yea! I went back to the Lodge and sat at the bar with Jackie
playing the slots and having a cocktail while we waited for the
meeting to start. The group getting initiated was 25 people, one of
the largest initiation classes I have seen. We sat through the
initiation, which is always a good thing for an Elk as it reminds us
of what it means to be an Elk. By the time the initiation was done,
along with the regular business meeting that followed, it was a
little after 9:00. When we went outside we saw that it had actually
snowed a little here in Pahrump. There wasn't anything on the
ground, but all the cars and other colder surfaces had a light
sprinkling of snow. We headed back to the park, dropped Charlene off
at her place, and went home. We watched a little TV, then went to
bed.
Wednesday, December 15
th,
Jackie went over to the clubhouse at 1:00 to play Pokeno while I
worked on a project for one of the committees I am on, trying to
revise some of the governing documents of the park. After Jackie got
done we went done with Pokeno we went out to run some errands. We
did a Walmart run and then went back to the park. We had an early
dinner then went to the clubhouse again at 6:00 for the annual “ugly
sweater” contest. I don't even own a sweater, so I didn't
participate and Jackie couldn't find her one winter sweater. We
still had a good time with the people who did wear sweaters, some of
which were truly bizarre and ugly. They also had a band, Ear Candy,
which was the same one that played a few weeks ago at an event. They
were pretty good, although their play list was pretty much the same
as it was previously. The party was over at 8:00, after which we
went back to the coach and relaxed with the TV until bedtime.
Thursday, December 16th, we
were up early for a 9:00 meeting of the park's Board of Directors.
It was a pretty routine meeting until they got to the point were they
needed to approve some requests from the Clubhouse Committee to get
rid of some items from the clubhouse. They had a old piano, an old
commercial style glass cabinet, an old pool table and a homemade
podium that the committee wanted to get rid of. They told the board
that they took up too much space, and were old and not needed any
more. All of the items had been donated by members years ago, but
because they are assets of the park, only the Board can approve their
disposal. For whatever reason the president of the board agreed to
take a “straw poll” of the members present and for all the items
except the pool table, the response was overwhelmingly in favor of
getting rid of the items. However, when the board voted on the items
they voted to keep all of the items except the piano. Things got a
little testy for a bit between audience members and the board for a
while. Ultimately they voted to get rid of everything except the
pool table and the meeting was concluded. One of the more
interesting Board meetings since we have been here. After the
meeting we went home and I did a few chores around the coach. I went
to the happy hour at 4:00, Jackie didn't want to go out in the cold,
and we had dinner. We then spent the rest of the evening with the
TV.
Friday, December 17
th, we
left the coach about 1:00 and went to the Roadhouse Casino for a late
lunch. Both of us had the liver and onions because the Roadhouse has
the best we have ever had. After lunch we ran some errands, going to
the UPS store, Smiths grocery and then the Dollar Store. After our
errands we went back to the coach. About 5:30 we went over to the
clubhouse for the monthly Bingo game. Jackie won one round, but had
to split the pot, so she got $8, exactly what the buy in was. So,
she broke even. Bingo was over about 7:30 and we went back to the
coach and spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Saturday I went
over to the clubhouse about 11:30 and started setting up my sound
equipment for a jam session which we had scheduled in conjunction
with the Christmas cookie exchange put on by the Silver Seekers club
at the park. The event started at 1:00 but Scott Pleasants, the only
other person to come to play at the jam, had been practicing and
rehearsing for a half hour. Although we are friends, we had never
played music together before. Despite that, I thought we did pretty
well and played and sang until about 2:30. After the event I packed
up the equipment, took it home and put it away. We relaxed for a
bit, then went down to the Elks for karaoke. Since Christmas and New
Years are the next two Saturdays, this will be the last time I get to
do karaoke here until we get back in April. Not only were our
friends Tom and Phyllis at karaoke, our friends from the Escapees
park, Max and Nancy Schmitt, and Linda Sullivan also came and stayed
most of the night. Both Max and Linda have recently been initiated
as Elks. The singing was over just before 9:00, after which we went
home and watched a little TV before going to bed.
Sunday, December 19
th, was
mostly a stay at home day. I went out in the morning to get a Sunday
paper and had to sit in the car for five minutes defrosting the
window before I could start driving. Thank goodness for heated
seats. I spent most of the day alternating between doing chores and
office work and relaxing with the computer and TV. We went to the
clubhouse at 2:00 for the monthly birthday party. Normally Sundays
are root beer float days, but the third Sunday of the month is cake
and ice cream for those who have a birthday that month. After our
treat we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the afternoon
and evening relaxing in the coach. I did have to go out about 6:00
when our propane ran out. For the last week we have been running of
the small 20 pound propane bottles, the type used for BBQs, because
our main tank is nearly empty. The propane truck should be here on
Wednesday but until then we have to use the smaller tanks, which only
last a few days. I learned that Sunday is the wrong day to try to
get an exchange bottle as I had to go to six different stores before
I found one that had some full cylinders, and they only had two left.
I got the propane, went home and hooked it up and we relaxed the
rest of the night.
Monday, December 20th, was a
stay at home day. I spent several hours working on a proposed
revision to the park's by laws that I had told the committee at the
last meeting I would submit before the January meeting. I finally
got it finished and emailed to the chair of the By Laws and Rules
Committee. Although we won't be here in January I hope to be able to
participate in the Committee meeting by Zoom or at least conference
call. At 4:00 we went over to the clubhouse for happy hour and then
at 5:00 stayed for the Clubhouse Committee's “stuffed baked potato”
dinner. They served a small salad and a really big baked potato and
then provided all kinds of stuff to put inside, like chili, cheese,
onions, sour cream, all the usual stuff. It was pretty well attended
and a lot of fun. About 7:00 the festivities were over and we went
back to the coach and relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening.
Tuesday, December 21
st, the
first full day of winter. And it felt like it, with temps in the
high twenties in the mornings. My son Roy Jr. texted me about 10:00
or so to let me know that he had left Quartzsite where he had been
working and was on his way to Pahrump. He has a new job in Death
Valley and Pahrump is on his route there, so he said he would stop by
for a visit. We didn't have anything to do until 2:00 when we went
to the clubhouse in our new golf cart for a Christmas parade and
caroling event. There were about seven golf carts, most decorated
for Christmas and probably 18 people to sing. We spent an hour
driving around the park, stopping at various lots to sing carols.
Most of the stops were selected because the people living in them
were pretty much older, shut-in types who didn't get out much. We
had a good time and just about the time we were done, around 3:00,
Roy came into the park in his coach. We met him and chatted a bit,
then he went in and registered and went to his spot, just down the
street from ours. About a half hour later he came over to our place
and we sat and talked for a couple of hours. Around 6:00 we left and
drove to the Terrible's Roadhouse Casino cafe for dinner. The wait
was about a half hour because the special tonight was baby back ribs.
While we were waiting Roy gamed a bit and won $75! Yea! We had a
nice dinner and afterwards we went back to the park. Roy was tired
from the trip today so we dropped him off at his place and went back
to ours where we watched TV until bedtime. Because of time
constraints Roy is only spending one night here, but we will see him
in the morning.
Wednesday, December 22
nd, I
was up early because I had some chores to do this morning. The first
thing was to wait for the propane truck to arrive because we were
running low and certainly didn't have enough to get us to Yuma next
month. The truck arrived at 8:30 and put nearly 20 gallons in the
RV's tank. Yea! I took a quick shower then picked up Roy to run
some errands. He wanted to get a haircut before he reported to his
new job this afternoon, so I drove him to the barber shop where he
got a real haircut. I told him I would take him to run errands
because he doesn't yet have a tow car and would have had to take his
RV. After the haircut we went to Walmart because he needed a new 12
volt battery for his RV. After we got back I dropped him off to
install the new battery and I went home. A little later he stopped
by the coach and sat and chatted with us for a while. He left about
noon and started his trek to Death Valley, making it there by about
2:00. Jackie went to the clubhouse for Pokeno about 1:00 and I
stayed home and did some chores. After Jackie got out at 3:00 we did
a quick Walmart run, then came back home and relaxed for the rest of
the evening.
Thursday, December 23rd, we
had a light rain most of the night and it was still sprinkling on and
off when we got up. This would persist for rest of the day and
evening. We had a 9:00 Town hall meeting at the clubhouse which we
went to. It was supposed to be a meeting to promote more civility
and cooperation between the membership and the Board, but got off to
a rocky start when one of the old time members, a grouchy curmudgeon,
made a comment to one of the newer members telling him to “shut
up.” A couple people walked out of the meeting, but eventually
they got it back under control and the meeting ended on a positive
note. After lunch we picked up our friends Jen and Nicole, who are
members of the park, new this year, and part of the group of younger
Escapers that are coming into the park recently. Escapers is a
subset group of the Escapees which caters to younger people, many of
which are still working. Nicole had expressed an interest in joining
the Elks and Jackie told her we would take she and Jen to the Lodge
this afternoon so they could look around. Luckily, when we got there
the Exalted Ruler was working the bar, so they got a chance to talk
to her as well as look around. They seemed really excited and I
think the Nicole is going to join when they get back to Pahrump in
March. We had a drink and gamed a little at the bar, then went back
home. At 4:00 we went to the clubhouse happy hour, then about 5:30
we were back at the coach. We had a light dinner then watched TV
until bedtime.
Friday, December 24
th,
Christmas Eve. We went out about 1:00 for a late lunch and took
Millie with us. We went to the Indian restaurant because Jackie had
a hankering for Indian food. I always get the pizza, which is the
best in Pahrump, and Millie did the same. We had a very nice lunch
and both Millie and I had leftover pizza for future lunches. We went
back to the coach and relaxed until about 3:30 when I packed up my
sound equipment and took it over to the
clubhouse. We are having a
Christmas get together and gift exchange and then some karaoke. I
had everything up and working by 4:30 and went back to the coach
until we went over for the party about 5:30. There were probably 30
or more people there and everyone brought snacks. There was no meal
tonight. About 6:30 they did the gift exchange which was similar to
the “Chinese Auction” gift swapping, but in this iteration the
hostess directed you as to who to swap gifts with. Bottom line is
that you likely didn't end up with the first gift you picked out. I
ended up with a nice knife set and a pair of men's slippers that a
single woman ended up with and didn't need. Jackie ended up with a
similar pair of women's slippers. The karaoke started after and I
was surprised that we had several people and couples that sang and we
had a really good time. We went until 9:00, which is when Security
comes around and closes up the clubhouse and had a great time. After
the party I left the sound gear in place to pick up tomorrow and we
went back to the coach and watched some TV until bedtime.
Saturday, December 25
th,
Merry Christmas! I went over to the clubhouse about 9:00 to pack up
my equipment and found several people there taking down the Christmas
table decorations in preparation for this afternoon's Christmas
dinner. I took the equipment back to the coach and put everything
away then relaxed for most of the day. Jackie and I just exchange
cards for holidays, but we did consider our golf cart our Christmas
present to us this year. About 2:00 we went over to the clubhouse
for dinner. Like Thanksgiving it was hosted tables and ours was our
friend Charlene. At 3:00 we started dinner, our table had ham, sweet
potatoes, brussel sprouts and veggies. We also had a nice cake for
dessert. We learned that there were 54 people at the dinner, which
is a good turnout for the park. We stayed and ate, then visited
until about 5:30, after which we went back to the coach and relaxed
for the rest of the evening.
We are now a little over three weeks
since our last posting. I wanted to run this one through Christmas
before I closed it out. We have a little over a week here in Pahrump
before we head South to Yuma for a couple of months. Until next
time, remember the timeless words of Mark Twain, “The best way to
cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.” See ya
soon.
