Time to Get Back to Work

Again, we have moved.  This time was not far either; still in the Phoenix area.  We are parked at Wesley Community Center, right between the 2 main runways of Phoenix’ Sky Harbor Airport, and about 2 miles to the west of the end of the runways.  We moved yesterday morning and got setup before the rest of our team arrived.  Saturday was the nicest day in about a week, since the rain finally quit.  The temperatures were warm enough to sit outside but the airplanes’ noise made it hard to chat.

We will have a little work here, but most of our time will be at Golden Gate Community Center, about 7 miles away.  The two facilities have come together only recently.  For an interesting history see: http://www.unitedmethodistwomen.org/news/flourishing-in-the-desert.   We came for an introduction last week and sat in on a staff meeting.  Since they have had Nomads many times previously (maybe about 20!), they are really looking forward to our help over the next 3 weeks.  Hope we live up to their expectations!

Our motorhome is a little smaller than normal, since one of the slide-outs tried to self-destruct.  It’s the one on the passenger side in the living room area – so one of the 2 bigger slides.  Replacement parts are on order, and the dealer has us scheduled for replacement in a little over 3 weeks.  We can live with it until then.  Thank goodness for an extended warranty.

Our team for this period is made up of 4 other couples, 3 of whom are new-to-us, and we’ve worked with the 4^th couple just once – last month.  Our family of Nomads friends just keeps getting larger.

Happy New Year

It was a little out of character for us, but we attended a New Years Eve party last night.  It wasn’t raucous, but it did get a little loud when the host started his player piano and we all sang “Roll Out the Barrel”.  The neighbors might have heard us.  Ten Nomads couples met at the home of a retired pastor who lives nearby in Surprise, maybe ½ hour away.  Like many Nomads gatherings, we met some people we have worked with in the past, and some we have never met before.  Since we are all retired Seniors, this was a New York New Years: the celebration peaked at midnight Eastern Time, or 10 PM here in Arizona.  By 1015 we were out the door, and home before 11:00.  Traffic was great because the drinkers were not on the streets yet. 

Pam and Ron were here for Christmas so the 3 Benson sisters were able to celebrate together on Christmas Day.  That was nice for us as we miss being with our kids.  We were able to talk to all the kids instead.  We got a very unique Cribbage board from Paula and Tom:

 Click on the photo to see a closeup - it is an etching of the Whiteface Reservoir, where the cabin is located.

Most of us had the chance to go to dinner; here is our group at a Japanese place:

 

The weather has been colder than normal here but, given what we’re hearing about the rest of the country with floods and problems, this isn’t too bad. 

We have a motor out on our front passenger-side slide.  This requires Bob to push one end while Paige works the In/Out buttons.  We are working on getting this repaired at a local Winnebago dealership soon. 

Looking forward to starting another project in a little over one week.  It will be nice to keep busy!

Time to Speak Up

per MSN as of today: "A Quinnipiac University poll out on Tuesday showed that six in 10 women say they would be “embarrassed” of a Trump presidency."

Sorry, but that ought to be 99,999 out of 100,000 of ALL Americans, regardless of gender!
As for the rest, there is no accounting for stupidity.

Back to the Compound

Our 3 weeks at UMOM ended last Thursday afternoon.  Most of the group chose to leave on Friday, but we had such a short commute to Paula and Tom’s place that we went to dinner with the group and departed for Glendale after rush hour was over that same evening.  This is a picture of the whole project group. 

While working at here, we learned about some of the issues affecting the homeless, particularly for the children.  It was a project we’ll remember!

Friday Bob had an appointment with his eye surgeon, who gave his repaired retina a passing grade.  The nitrogen bubble is now gone (after 65 days).  We now have no restrictions on altitude or air pressure.  He will need a new set of glasses soon, and may likely suffer from cataracts in the future.

On Saturday we met up with Paige’s other sister, Pam, and her friend Ron.  They have recently joined the “snowbirds” who escape part of Minnesota’s winters by coming south.  They just bought a house in Goodyear, a southwestern suburb about ½ hour from Paula and Tom’s. They will close on it in January, but have a rental to use through the end of December, so they will join us here for Christmas. 

 

Our next project is at another community center, back near the Phoenix airport.  It will start in 3 weeks.  We have contacted the director and made an appointment to review the work they would like us to do.  One of the couples who were with us at UMOM will be joining us there, but the other 3 couples will be new-to-us.  In the meantime we can relax and enjoy the holidays.

A “Good” Tired

We’ve had a couple of busy weeks here at the area’s largest homeless shelter near the Phoenix airport.  Our first week here was all Christmas-related: digging their decorations out of storage, setting up trees (about 30 or them) and hanging lights all over the campus, both indoors and outside.  The second week (which just ended) was spent creating a new storage space for the decorations after the holidays and painting doors, stairs, and a hallway in one of the residence buildings.  We finish the day and week tired, but with a feeling of helping in some small way. 

The pastor who serves here gave us a presentation about homelessness.  One fact that really stood out is that the average age of the typical homeless person is just 7 years old!  He also gave a couple of common examples where families, who had been doing OK, found their situations drastically changed when illness or job loss struck.  As the middle class gets smaller, this problem only gets larger.   

The staff here at UMOM works really hard to eliminate the root causes of their clients’ situations.  They help with education, job training, and interviewing skills as needed.  Their success rate is better than average.  We have had a number of encounters with clients; some of them are graduating to their own places.

We have 6 RV’s on this project; a total of 12 individuals.  It’s a large group but we’ve still managed to have several social events.  Aside from attending Sunday church and then lunch, we’ve attended a concert at ASU with multiple choral groups and an orchestra, a choral concert at a church and Friday breakfasts at the café on site.  We have never worked with any of these folks before so it’s been great to meet new Nomads.

 

 

We’ve Moved!!

After nearly 7 weeks at Paula and Tom’s place in Glendale, we moved on Saturday to our next project site near Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport.  For the next three weeks, we will be working at UMOM New Day Centers (see http://www.umom.org/ ).  This is the largest shelter for homeless families in this area.  We have come here for meetings in the past but have not worked here yet.

Since the eye problems prevented us for working at the camp in Indiana, this will be our first project in quite some time.  It is also the first time in awhile that we will be working with other new-to-us couples.  Our family of Nomads friends keeps getting larger all the time.  By late afternoon all 6 rigs were parked and we had brief hellos as we got settled.  We will all go to church services, have lunch together, and begin to get to know one another soon. 

The weekend prior to Thanksgiving was spent putting up outside lights at Paula’s.  She “recruited” us to help.  It took us two days!  Here is Bob doing surgery on a broken Santa.

Last weekend was Thanksgiving and our niece, Tomie, was home for the long weekend.  There were 7 of us at Paula’s for the holiday, and enough food for the whole neighborhood.  Some of Tom’s kids and grandkids stopped for a visit later in the day.   

Glendale has a festival in the original downtown area at this time of year which they call “Glendale Glitters”.  Many decorative lights are hung throughout a park near city hall and the park is filled with food and craft tents.  Many dance schools perform there as well, including one that one of Tom’s granddaughters is part of.  One of the activities was an area set up to play in the snow for $2.  Food for thought you Minnesotans!

  

A Week of Ups and Downs

We know that a number of our regular blog readers are involved with medical aid in some respect or another (EMT, First Responders, etc).  For you, what’s your response to a green wristband like this:

Bob has been wearing one for over a month and last week we learned, at an Urgent Care and at a hospital ER, that a lot of medical people were not familiar with this warning.  At the Opthomologist appointment earlier this week we learned that it is intended to warn against air transport, like helicopters and airplanes, and also to restrict some anesthesiology procedures.

The eye exam went well.  The recuperation is very slow, but everything is about on schedule.  The gas bubble in Bob’s eye is slowly getting smaller; to the point now where he is comfortable driving (giving Paige a break).  The bubble sits high in the eyeball, which is low in his line of sight.  Now that it is less than half, he can see distance and TV pretty well, but newspapers and books have to be held high.  He will remain restricted from flying until the bubble is all gone, so we are not planning a return to Minnesota for the holidays.  Maybe in January or February, instead.

Also last week, there was a horrible traffic accident about 2 blocks from here.  Two single-occupant vehicles met nearly head-on.  One driver died at the hospital later, and the other (who is Paula and Tom’s estimator and office manager) was taken into custody and charged with manslaughter due to a high blood alcohol level.  He has been in jail since then and went for arraignment today.  So many lives were changed by one stupid decision!

On a lighter note, Thanksgiving is coming soon and we got busy making the family’s recipe for lefse – about 10 lb of potatoes yielded enough to last through New Year’s. 

 

We’ll spend Thanksgiving here at the Shaw Compound with Uncle Phil and Elsie.  Tomie will also be home from LA.  We’ll miss the Minnesota family but enjoy being here with Paula and gang.

On Tuesday nights one of our favorite restaurants, Valle Luna, has a special for seniors.  It’s very busy but we like to go then.  Here’s the Shaw Compound folks having dinner there last week.