Day Two of ‘PERFECT’, More Pool Laps and Sunbathing, Reading, Food and Fun

Saturday, Feb. 25^th was another one of those great weather days. My oh my, we did something right! Oh yah, we came to the southwest! I was up early today, by 6:15 and got lucky enough to catch the morning sunrise.

6:15 am

7:05 am

Unfortunately, I got lazy soon after. It wasn’t quite 50F outside but that was no excuse. Today we weren’t going to get into too much. Bill had a job to do, one that we’d talked about since before Borrego Springs.

A picture of these beautiful bushes because they smell much nicer than Bill's job today

Our valve for the black water tank was very stiff and difficult to pull. He had helped Rob at Imperial Dam fix a similar issue so the two of them set to work this morning just after 9.

I can't recall what these are besides being beautiful

I took this opportunity to wander up to the clubhouse and see if there were any crafts out for sale. Nope, I guess people haven’t been into their crafts, no one had anything to sell. Look at the money I just saved!

From there I decided to sit in at the jigsaw puzzle for a little while. There were two on the go with one lady working on the newer one so I settled down at the other and put in a few pieces over the next half hour. By the time I returned home, Bill and Rob were diligently working on the valve. The problem was the cable which is used to open and close the valve. This cable is so long that in the small area it is housed in, a kink prevented the valve from opening and closing easily. 

They work well together and can usually figure out the problems. Luckily, this time was no exception. Two heads, you know. When I got back around 11 I realized that other than the banana I ate at 6:30 I hadn’t eaten anything. I soon remedied that by eating an early lunch. Hmm, some cottage cheese, black olives and a chicken leg. Very tasty and hit the spot quite nicely.

After Bill made himself something to eat, I changed and went up to the pool for a swim. I like the peace and quiet at the pool and sometimes that is interrupted, not necessarily in a bad way, when you meet someone else who likes to chatter. Today was okay, no one there when I arrived.

While I was cutting up the ribs, Bill was outside with the electric clippers
trying to give Clemson a trim


I got a few laps in and then hopped in the hot tub to get warmed up before stretching
out on my towel. I delved into my book and got a few more chapters read so didn't pay too much attention when two other ladies arrived. By 2:15 I recognized George as he came in for a quick swim too. The water felt refreshing and the sun warm on my skin.

When I got back I cut up the spare ribs we bought at Costco and simmered enough for supper for an hour. I’m following my sister, Donna’s, instructions as for some reason I haven’t had ribs turn out very well lately. If I had sauerkraut, I would cook them on the bbq using George’s recipe. It is a good one and has worked for me in the past. Check it out under Recipes on his blog here.

After making sure the ribs were cooked I poured myself a drink and joined Bill and the gang at Rob and Pat’s for our last big Happy Hour. They are pulling out tomorrow along with their friends and now our friends, George and Rose. They are heading in different directions.

Safe travels everyone!

Pat provided a lovely little (that’s little?) snack for all of us to celebrate Rose’s birthday today. George and Rose brought a contribution as well. Me? I told you I was lazy. Actually, I never knew it would be a joint effort so didn’t give it a second thought.

There is a lot of food here!

When we got back to the Suite we decided that we weren’t hungry enough for ribs tonight after all. Lordy oh Lordy. We’ll blame Pat but at the same time, thank her for providing us with enough food to fill our tummies. It will be sad to see them leave tomorrow as it means we won’t see them again until we meet back in Durham, Ontario in April.

And looking east at the entrance of the park

Pretty sitting area at the library

Bill settled into reading and I decided to take a walk around the park. Of course, the little bum was ready for a walk so Clemson took me! I grabbed my camera so I could catch the western sky while he was doing all his sniffing and piddling. Like most dogs, he has a reserve tank in his little body. You think after 3 piddle stops he’d be done. Nope, always a few drops left in reserve for that rock over there and this one here.

So, when he’d done his thing (a number of times) I headed back for home, dropped him off and went out again. The sky was doing some pretty cool stuff so I snapped a couple of photos (well, more like 5 or 6) and went in to see about putting some more pieces in the puzzle. 

Bill was content with his book “Gone” by Lisa Gardiner and waved me off.

It was 6:30 and still light out when I entered the library. No one was there and I noticed that the puzzle I worked on this morning was finished. Nice work folks! The one thing I believe in when doing a puzzle is first pull out border pieces, turn them over then begin. Once the border was finished you started on the remaining pieces. 

Because in these parks, there isn’t enough room to have two 1000 pc. puzzles on the go at the same time, displaying all pieces is impossible, so they tend to keep some in the box and only pull out certain ones to do a certain area.

See the border unfinished? Well, it is now.

The one I worked on this morning, nicely done when I arrived tonight

Needless to say, someone had ignored the fact that the bottom of this puzzle did not have a complete border and began putting pieces of the sky in. Breaking rule number 2, Daddy would have a fit! Anyway, my job (obviously) was to finish the border before I could add any body pieces. Tsk tsk, can you spell anal?

Well, I’m proud to say that once I noticed that many of the pcs were put together incorrectly, I realized the problem and soon corrected it. Voila! The border is done, now I can move on and work on the puzzle. I worked away for probably 30 min. when 2 couples came in and started moving chairs around to play cards. Okay, that is my sign to leave. The serenity of working on a puzzle was gone.

No worries, I was ready to head out anyway. I was surprised that it was now dark outside, only half hour later. I walked back, made up a chicken sandwich and finished this post.

So, that was my day. It was a lazy day in winter and I feel that we made the best of it. I hope you had an enjoyable one as well.

And still beautiful before the sunset!

Thank you for reading along. I love reading your comments.