Settling in, Settling down, Maybe a little mischief

Hello again, Dear Friends!  Noooo, thanks for asking, we did NOT fall off the face of the earth, nor have we gone underground again, so no worries...no stalkers, just been busy.  Doing what you ask?  I know, we're retired, and we really have nothing pressing, so what is it that keeps up so busy?  Honestly, darned if I know.  But we get up every morning, make the bed, get ready, and before you know it, it's lunchtime!  Then we do whatever chores and tasks we have on the agenda, and before you know it, it's dinnertime!  

Let's go shopping, shall we?  You may recall, we were headed all over tarnation, attending the Maricopa Independent Quilt Shops shop hop.  One county (I think), 8 shops, and about 200 miles!  Unreal!  The shops were demonstrating their favorite notions, from rulers (expensive!!) to pins, to magnets.  I did buy a new pair of scissors, specially developed for machine embroidery, and really not that pricey, at only $18.  They are made by Kai, and supposedly, guaranteed to stay sharp for life.  All the way to the very tippy tip.  We'll see, eh?  There was one other product, something you spray on the backs of your rulers to make them kinda tacky, so they don't slip around on the fabric.  It was $9 for a small spray can of it.  The product seemed kinda cool, and it appeared to work, but it was highly flammable, and even though we are a completely electric coach now, I just didn't think I wanted to keep that kind of explosive just laying around.  No telling how long it would take me to use it up, so it might be around a while.  The only other purchase I made was an itsy bitsy crochet-hook wire thingy, meant for pulling loose threads and loops to the back of the project.  Oh, and one piece of fabric.  But, the best thing of all - I *did* find a service tech for my machine, so that's quite a relief.  Last time it was serviced was about 3 years ago, so it was definitely due.  Probably overdue.  At one shop, waaaay out in the boonies, we did find these pillows, done in wools.  Cute, but very scratchy and heavy.  And sooo not our style!  But definitely cute!  That little quail, on the right, looks just like Squeak, the somewhat tame quail bird that lives a few doors down.  They've had him/raised him since he was no bigger than the palm of their hand, and he's a hoot.  It was a VERY long day, but we got 4 shops knocked out when we called it quits.  We saved the other 4 for another day.

The next day, Saturday, we gave the doggo another bath - these streets just crawl up her legs and make her all grimy, oily and gritty feeling, and then, of course, it all just comes right inside and makes dirty all over the camper!  Yeah, baths have become absolutely mandatory, weekly, at the very least.  Then, we decided to attend the Fiesta Grande that was scheduled to take place in Original Town Site, ya know how Jose loves his Mexican food...

And, of course, there was ice cream!  However, it was exorbitantly priced, and we had frozen yogurt at home, in the freezer, that promised to be every bit as good.  Plus, I could join him in a bowl of yogurt, and if he had purchased the ice cream, all I could do was sit and watch him eat it.  That wouldn't have been much fun at all.  Well, at least, not for ME.  

We wandered around for just a bit, to see what all was there; there were several food trucks and commercial booths and a mariachi band.  While the band was undoubtedly very good, they didn't really command (or hold) our attention.  Actually, they were very draggy and slow, so we lost interest after only one and a half songs, and we wandered back to the other end, where the kids were performing.  They weren't exactly professionals (yet?), but they were having fun!

If the video link below isn't available to you, click HERE to watch the kids dance.

This little hottie was full of personality!!  You could really tell she was gonna be hot stuff in a couple of years!

If you are reading this in email, and don't see the video link below, click right HERE to check out the little cutie-pie.

 There was the Chick-Fil-A cow there, and guess what!?  He (she?) had an attendant from North Carolina!  She said she knew I wasn't a local, 'cuz I sounded like her!  Hahaha.  They were passing out little "credit cards" with pictures of 3 of their sandwiches on 'em.  I asked what they were for, or would do (all the verbiage was in Spanish, go figure), and she told me they entitled us to a free dinner sandwich, all we had to do was present the cards!!  The catch - of course there's a catch! - was that the card is only valid at one location in town.  We don't know exactly WHERE that one location is, but you can bet we'll find it at some point.  Either that, or just give the cards to one of the neighbor ladies before we go.

It got pretty dark after the kids performed, and there were lots of "dignitary" speeches that seemed to draaaaag on forever, then they brought in a live band.  Who promptly announced, in Spanish, that there was some sort of mixup and they weren't ready to perform, but they had a DJ lined up instead.  And they'd be back sometime after 6:30.  That was much later that we wanted or planned to stay, so moseyed on back to the shuttle bus pickup point.  Dinner was What-A-Burger, so it wasn't a total loss.

We must admit, we were getting a little bored with our day-to-day activities, and we needed a relief from all the stress of traffic (it's unreal!!  and not at all pleasant!)  Plus, we wanted John and Lora to know just how we felt about them being GONE when we got here!  Four rolls of crepe paper, some googly eyes, skeleton hands, and one tablecloth later, their site was sufficiently trashed.  We were careful not to tape anything to their rig or do anything permanent or damaging, 'cuz, well, that just wouldn't be cool.  We forgot to consider the HOA rules though....but no one seemed to mind too awful much.  Except for John and Lora, when they came home exhausted, and they couldn't even get their car in the driveway.  Which was exactly as we'd planned it!  HAHAHAHA!  That'll learn 'em, durn 'em!  Don't be taking off when we're scheduled to arrive!

So, some of you are wondering what were the results of all that testing I had done..  and if you weren't just close the window and go on with your bad selves!  MRI - shows that I have an "old fracture" in L4.  Exactly where it hurt back in July, and exactly where I showed them in the ER in Oklahoma City.  We are now playing phone tag with the Director of Emergency Medicine, at the hospital.  She wants to talk to me about what happened in the ER at the time of my visit.  We have an EOB for almost $4000, where they diagnosed me with a sprained muscle and sent me home with muscle relaxers and ibuprofen.  For a broken back.

The DEXA scan results are in too.  My hip is a T-score of -3.2, my lower back is -3.9 and I have a 21% chance of a fracture of some sort in the next 12 months.  Yippee.  So, I spent 3 hours, THREE HOURS trying to reach the rheumatologist's office, to get a follow up appointment for a Prolia shot.  Which, I believe I told them I needed, two weeks ago.  ARRGH, so annoying and frustrating.  No.  I have NOT gotten through to them - they kept me on hold, for 11 minutes, then after informing me that I was caller #1 in line, they auto-bumped me to the voice mail for the infusion department.  And the recording THEN informed me that the infusion department cannot accept voice mails. Click.  Yup, they HUNG UP ON ME.  This happened 4, count em, FOUR times.  You better believe I am going to address that if and when I get back in that doctor's office.  And Google Reviews will probably reflect that, as well as the original 51 minute wait time AND the failure of them calling their other office to tell 'em we were on the way.  But, in the meantime, I'm pretty much at their mercy, and I just hope and pray they can get their act together before we have to leave in December.

Tomorrow, we pack up and leave for Tucson, to get our floor repaired.  Yup, Doggo got another bath today, so she's all soft and fluffy for the trip.  AND, her feet are white again.  Today, anyway.  Tomorrow, after her morning walk, that may change.  We've been told (thanks Chuck!) that there are a couple of really good Mexican restaurants down there, a botanical garden/zoo (thanks Barbara), and Santa Cruz Chili and Spice Company, all not to be missed.  We'll see what's there, and I'm sure there will be pictures to share.  

Speaking of Barbara, on to the FL friends ---Barbara and Charles have received photos of their new rig.  You know, the 6th one!  The one they finalized the order on when we were all together up in Indiana and got to go into the "secret room" and scrutinize all the tile, flooring and countertop samples.  Oh gosh, that was fun.  Challenging, but fun.  The rig has arrived in Winter Garden, and if the weather cooperates, they can go down and pick it up very soon.  Like, in a couple of days!  We are sooo excited for them - it is simply gorgeous!!  We can't wait to see it (and THEM), in person, hopefully, sometime this spring, in Texas.  

So, not sure when the next post will be, I guess that'll depend on how complicated it is getting to the campground on base.  Maybe we had better go check out the directions, while we still have internet access.....and on THAT note, let me wish you all a good night!!