Arizona Days are Dwindling

It has been over two weeks since our last posting.  A lot got done during that time. The right/front slideout has been repaired – not without a little drama.  It took two trips to the service bay, but the main thing is that it is no longer an issue. 

While Pam and Ron were here, they bought a winter home about ½ hour southwest of here with the intention of avoiding the worst of Minnesota’s winters.  Pam is now retired so that is easier for her, but Ron is still working and he will have to commute when he can get away.  We helped Pam a little bit by assembling a desk and hanging a mirror, plus a couple of other minor items.  The home is very nice and she’s having fun (most of the time) getting everything needed to live in it.

Paige, Pam, and Paula’s mother, Joyce, was also visiting Arizona during the last three weeks or so. She had an opportunity to stay at Pam’s new house for a few days.  The four of us returned to Minnesota last Thursday, all on the same flight to Minneapolis, with Joyce making a rushed connection for a flight continuing to Duluth.

We chose mid-February for this trip since the schools have Presidents’ Day off and the granddaughters had the extra free time.  While there, we got to see 2 of Anna’s hockey games – very exciting, with lots of skating and passing.  David and LaJoy joined us for Valentine’s Day with Brayden and Kaelyn, so we had most of the Riewe’s together.

While we were on our Minnesota “winter vacation” we got word that Bob’s youngest uncle had passed away.  We tried to delay our return, but Delta Airlines wanted nearly $1,000 to reschedule our flights.  This was way too much so we kept our original tickets and got back last last night.

Today, Wednesday, we are preparing for departure.  Our next service project begins next week in LaVerne California.  Today, we are packing, doing laundry, checking tire pressures, loading the motorcycle – all of the things needed to hit the road in the morning.  Here is where we’ve been since early October.

 

Sunny day photo of what we are leaving

 

Our Work Here is Done

Our hosts at Wesley Community Center had provided us with an initial list of projects they wanted done while we were here.  As things were completed, more were added.  At the end of three weeks the “completed” list was longer than they had expected.  Josh and Betty, from Wesley Center, provided an end-of-project dinner for us last Wednesday at a local Mexican restaurant, and we had our own little “going away” dinner on Thursday.  We met two new-to-us couples on this project and had a great time with everyone! 

 

Friday morning we moved back to Paula and Tom’s place in Glendale.  Since Paige’s mother and sister, Pam, are both in town it is like Benson-Central here for the next week.  Tomie also came home for the weekend to see her Grandma.  We went out last night to celebrate an early birthday for Paula.  Good to see everyone! 

 

The coming week, we will be busy with having our slideout repaired, meeting with a number of other friends, and preparing for our “winter vacation”.  We missed Christmas with our sons and their families, so we will fly to Minnesota for a belated Holiday in mid-February.  We are all looking forward to that.

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.