When I was leaving for the gym this morning a car came speeding up to our corner (I know that no one does the posted 25, but this woman was hauling ass!) She seemed certain to run the stop sign as I laid on the horn - and she braked hard.  Yes it was scary - and then to top it off she gave ME a look as if to say, "What's your problem?"

Was not the most productive upper body workout because my shoulder continues to balk at the lightest weights on the new machines.  As I was leaving afterward, I knew I wanted to swing by the bank and pick up cash, which meant a right turn out of the parking lot toward Bell.  But when I got to the parking lot exit, which way do you think I (almost) turned automatically?

At the library, dropping off and picking up, one of the display books (there's an upcoming lecture on women at the Grand Canyon) caught my eye.

Each chapter profiled a different woman, and flipping through it I was surprised at just how many of the names I recognized.  I did find it necessary <g> to skim the entire chapter on a Havasupai woman (who died in '77, the year before I started teaching in Supai), and will add the book to my Hold list for future reading.

Tom had asked me to pick up some milk, so I popped into Walmart.  It was worth the trip, because I captured this perfect bumper sticker in the parking lot.  Think I'd like one of these!

Tom got home shortly after I did, but with no pain meds from doc - though he is going to do a second round of steroids which I picked up for him after the pharmacy called.  They did draw blood to see what his actual level of uric acid is, and he may end up on Allopurinol.  Mary mentioned that med today, saying Jack started on it after his first bout of gout some years ago... and it was his last bout!

Brownie and I made another visit to Mary's, and he got rather excited when we pulled into her driveway.  He's obviously very happy to visit, though he may not be quite so happy when he's deposited there for an extended stay.  But I know he'll be well taken care of, and 'possibly' even spoiled a bit.

Spent a fair amount of time on the phone with Bianca, in Oklahoma, making a claim on our house insurance.  Yesterday I learned that our block wall, which is leaning seriously, falls (no pun intended) under the "separate structure" category.  Since repair estimates were about $5,000 it would be worthwhile paying the $1000 deductible.  While Brownie and I were at Mary's the local adjustor called the house, so he and I are played some phone tag.  We did finally connect, I took the requested photos to load onto their site (that took a bit of doing!) and also sent the copy of the estimate we got last summer.  So things are moving along on that score, though the afternoon is pretty much shot.  I need to start laying out clothes, and do a final load of laundry this evening.

And while I was at Mary's Alex called.  He's on his way to AZ
with a loaded Penske, arriving some time tonight.

Tomorrow morning he'll deliver that load and then drive the truck right back to CA - but we should be able to catch a glimpse of him in the morning.

Yesterday, working on my things-to-do list before I leave, I called Joy about picking up our mail after Tom leaves and before I get home - and of course she is fine with grabbing ours when she gets hers.  She then asked if we had heard the sirens at 2 am a couple of nights ago.  Happily we didn’t! 

She was up making her nightly trip, and looked out the window to see what was going on.  When she saw a police car was stopped on our corner right in front of our house, her first thought was that Tom had had another medical emergency - which of course was not the case.   Then the ambulance arrived and turned west onto Westcott, followed by a firetruck, and the police car tagged along behind them.

Last evening I got started on the current binding project. It was slower going than usual (black thread and binding on dark backing) but I did make progress before my eyes said “enough”.  Was hoping to be far enough along to finish it today, but that may not happen.

We saw serious puddles yesterday over by TOSQ (just 3 or 4 miles from here) though here at the house we didn’t get anything other than a few isolate sprinkles until last evening.  Before it really started coming down (with intense thunder and lightning) I took Brownie out back under the eave where the grass isn’t wet, and raindrops aren’t falling on our head. 

But he played the prima donna card, running right back to the door 

with no intention of taking care of business.  

No idea if he ended up making a trip outside during the night... 

but if he did, the dog door spits him out into unprotected territory.

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, and was heading into the kitchen to make coffee when I got a phone call from Alex.  Late last night he'd gotten an e-mail from work changing his plans.  He is considerably bummed that he is not flying home from Texas today after all.  Instead they're sending him to CA to do some things and then drive the Penske (to Phoenix?) 'at some point'.  He had only packed enough clothes for the Ubbi Dubbi festival - which got some serious rain, necessitating evacuation at one point, and muddying all his clothes.  In addition, he was finally going to have his initial hour-long visit at the chiropractor tomorrow (which I've already cancelled, and rescheduled for next week...hoping he'll actually be around!)  He had also relisted the BMW, letting people know he'd be around for a few days for test drives; it would be nice if he could get it sold before insurance comes due the end of May.  

Had a nice soak in the hot tub, and enjoyed a long chat with Patti.  They still haven't found a house, which is causing lot of aggravation and frustration.  Just isn't anything on the market there other than tiny houses (1000 sq feet) or too-large ones (over 3000 sq ft.), neither of which they are interested in.

Laptop gave me major headaches this morning.  

When I fired it up this morning, waiting on my coffee, it seemed fine, but in my morning fog instead of hitting the space bar I accidentally hit the power button, turning it off.  I waited the requisite 30 seconds before trying to turn it back on, but it was in a snit and no matter what I tried it wouldn't turn back on again.   

It was plugged in, so it was fully charged. and I tried EVERYTHING to get it to turn on.  Once Tom got up I asked for his input, and of course everything he suggested I had already tried.  But naturally that time it worked.  Frustrating, of course, but I'm understandably happy that it's happy again.

Tom, however, is not happy.  His gout flared up the last couple of days on his meds (!), he can barely walk again, and is getting no sleep due to the pain.  

On the plus side, once the pain resurfaced I had "suggested" he go back to the doctor, and he is later this morning.  Maybe this time the doc will prescribe some pain meds (he refused to do that last time!)

Since I couldn't play on the computer this morning I took advantage of last night's rain and did some weeding in the yard.  Had to use the shovel, but got rid of most of the high crop of dandelions around the pool.

Mom called this afternoon with excellent news.  

She's feeling much better (seems to be over her shingles) and her oxygen number is set all the way down to 1, from a possible 10, which means she hardly needs much of an assist.  In addition, she's back to using her rollator instead of the wheelchair.  Tomorrow the Home Health Aide is taking her over to her apartment for a check to see if there's anything that needs to be done there before she's released, though I'm pretty sure her place will pass muster easily.  While there's no date (yet) for her release, it is looking more and more imminent.  I did remind Mom that once I arrive the end of the week I'll be available to stay there with her, which may make the decision to send her home easier for everyone.

Dropped off my scrap quilt at Cindy's this morning.  I ended up choosing a bright pink thread; the turquoise thread just got lost, as did purple.  I look forward to seeing my finally finished quilt (it's been a WIP for many, many years) in all its glory when I get back from my trip, and of course will post pix then!

Errands after that included a trip to Target (got almost everything on my list), the insurance agency (Karen was a big help) and then Home Depot (for gate closures, and materials to build Brownie an agility jump bar.)  When I got home and headed out back to see about the fixing the gate, it was standing wide open!  (We did have quite the wind today.)  Relieved that Brownie didn't discover it, and take the opportunity to go exploring the neighborhood, and really hope that now the gate will stay latched.

Was deciding what to do next when Marcie called.   "Our" quilt was all put together (turned out great!) so we made a trip over to The Other Quilt Shop to select some backing, and then stopped back at Cindy's to drop them off.  We decided on a variegated thread, and a fun quilting pattern.   

It was a welcome diversion from all the things I still need to get done in the next couple of days.

Slept in until 6:30!

My back is achy (from yesterday's dirt relocation?) but can't start off my day with a soak because I'm not sure when the pool guy will be here.  Once the weather warms up everyone starts their work day earlier and earlier.

When I went out to water the new oleander, Brownie had a blast racing around the Back 40 at top speed.  I had fun, too - until he bonked me in the nose with his head.  OUCH!

Watered plants out back, hosed off the back porch to erase the last of Pokey's 'signatures', and topped off the pool before we went for our morning walk.  It's still a considerable hassle to get Brownie going... and not good when he flops down in the street when traffic is coming!  Since once we get going he does seem to enjoy all the sniffing opportunities, I'm hopeful that eventually he will figure out that the leash means a walk - and walks mean fun!

It's overcast this morning, and looks like we could get some weather. 

Had to wait until 8:00 for PetSmart to open, at which point Brownie and I pretty much had the place to ourselves.  So we were in and out in just a couple of minutes, and with two still-unopened bags could be set for his food until it's time to leave for Colorado in July.  

Not long after we got home we drove up to Mike & Marcie's to collect a couple of 5-gallon buckets of dirt before their pile is gone.  (Later this week that pile is slated to be spread around in some of their low-lying areas.)  I ended up making a second trip to fill the buckets again, and while 4 buckets-ful filled in a fair amount of the holes around our irrigation box, I really could have used 2 more - but it was getting warm, plus I didn't want to over-do with my back.

We laid out the 35 blocks on Marcie's design wall, and decided it would be too large so we got rid of one row.  This pic was taken before we moved some of the blocks around.  I expect she'll have it all sewn together in no time and I can post another pic of the final arrangement.

I spent the afternoon vegging on the couch, binging on ER and hoping to drift off for a nap.  That didn't happen, but maybe I'll get a good night's sleep tonight?

It didn't take long yesterday to sew the four corners once I did the necessary frog-stitching.  Then after Marcie worked her magic on it with the iron and sizing it looked incredibly better!  Monday I'll take it over to Cindy's to choose the thread color (leaning towards turquoise) to go with this bubble pattern.

Later in the afternoon I delivered the last six batches of squares so Marcie can make up the final  blocks.  As speedy as she is we may be able to play with them on the design wall today, always a fun step in the process.

Up WAY too early this morning, around 3...  :-(
 though I did remain in bed for almost another hour, hoping to fall back asleep.

Once it was light out I did some work in the Back 40 (trying to fill in the holes around the irrigation blocks so at some point we'll be able to mow around it them) which is when I lost Brownie.  He had been staying pretty close, walking back and forth with me, until my final bucket.  That's when I turned around and discovered he was MIA.  When calling and whistling did no good, I checked the entire property (sometimes he's nearby, but 'hiding' in the shade) and was just about to get the leash and go looking in the neighborhood when I spotted him across the horse pasture, visiting John's pack of greyhounds.  This time he came bounding back when I called.

At 6:30 we took his pre-breakfast walk.  He still has a serious aversion to having the leash attached to his harness (he consistently starts with a flop-and-roll-over) though once we get going he does well.  I'm going to try to acclimate him to his leash, leaving it by his food and water dishes with treats on it throughout the day.  It could work, right?

We took an early morning walk, though despite the hour it was still quite warm and I found myself looking for shade.  Brownie took a bit more encouragement to get going, but was then fine.  

In other good news, he did well when we came across other dogs out on their walk.  First, the white one that he had lunged at and barked at furiously during one of our original walks.  Today I was surprised to discover that dog is a female, and happily the two dogs visited peacefully with each other while the adults chatted.  Then when we were almost home we met Buster, an older dog, but Brownie was fine with him also.  This bodes well for all the pooches we will be running into at the hot springs later this summer!

Now that Brownie has had his breakfast it's time for a soak (I'm thinking about turning down the temp a notch or two...) and then I'll get to work on the final corners of the quilt!

Not sure if I'm dragging because of the gym, or the heat (we did reach 100 today) but I ended up taking a nap this afternoon.  Did finally turn on the A/C; the family room gets very toasty with the afternoon sun blasting through the shade.

Took Brownie for a walk this evening after dark when it "cooled" down (that's a relative term!) and he's doing better and better.  Except for trying to hide when he saw the leash come out he behaved quite well.  And he's no longer freaking out when he comes to the end of his leash and feels a little pressure; just takes it in stride. 

After the gym I had headed to ACE Hardware on 35th & Deer Valley to see about finding a new clasp for the gate - but it wasn't there any more!  Do remember seeing something about it closing, but had forgotten.  That's a bummer, partly because it was so close, and partly because it seems to be the only place whose key machine made keys that worked.

Forgot to mention that yesterday afternoon Laura and I went to see the Disney Penguin movie.  Wonderful photography, of course, so while it didn't include a whole lot of "new" information it was delightful to watch.  With temps expected to breach 100 today it was 'refreshing' to see all that ice and snow - though I did not envy the underwater photographers!

On average Phoenix usually reaches its first 100 degree day of the year on May 11, and the earliest century mark happened on March 26, 1988.