A Typewriter Tale

Remember my quest for an old typewriter? I think I told you after hunting for years in antique stores, my mother finally showed me this old one she had in the hall linen closet. My grandmother kept an old typewriter like this sitting on the end of the dining room table, but I'm not sure if this one was hers, or one from my great uncle's house in Stillwater, Oklahoma. (He taught business subjects at OSU and had his own little museum in his basement.) Anyway, it's finally home!

The Fun Never Stops!

Someone told me he wanted to do this while he could still climb up the slide.

Retirement obviously reset his clock!

Mini-Jerome Tour

Fake flowers, but I love the paint job.

East meets West.

Minor settling problem?

That's always been my philosophy?

The historic Hotel Connor.

Love this old Safeway sign!

This store was mainly for bikers, but I bought some cool stone beads for a bracelet!

Vintage aprons line the ceiling at the The Jerome General Store.

Lazy

Lazy like Saby? Well, not really lazy. I got up this morning and paid bills, cleaned, washed clothes, and now I'm ready for water aerobics. I guess what I mean is that Craig and I are settling into retirement and it feels like we're having too much fun? It must be some weird type of guilt kicking in.

Earlier this week, we took the roadtrip to Cottonwood and Jerome. Craig's into antique tools right now, so he's actually eager to follow me into antique stores. Old Town Cottonwood has a couple of really good antique malls, so we stopped by there on the way to Jerome.

Yesterday, I talked Craig into a movie. Bridesmaids. And we practically rolled in the aisle laughing. I'd describe it as the female answer to The Hangover. And by the way, on the way out of the theater, I saw two couples who appeared to be in their 80's coming out of The Hangover 2! It struck me funny at the time, but hopefully, when we're in our 80's, our raunchy senses of humor will still be intact.

Craig thinks we should reward ourselves for our (???) big house cleaning with a trip to Rigatoni's for a late lunch today. I guess I could handle that!

Maybe I can make an ordeal out of packing for the upcoming trip to Isla. Or I guess I could busy myself with cleaning out closets? Hmmmmmm. (I'll pass on the closets.)

P.S. Somebody's working around here! Craig just came in and told me to wait a little bit before I don the swimsuit and get in the pool. There's a Mexican guy up in the palo verde tree right behind our wall. He's thinning it out and we now have a perfect view of the San Tan mountains behind us! We'd been thinking about petitioning the HOA to have that done. It's a miracle! We didn't even have to fight with them!

Mile High Gardens

Since the weather in Phoenix was supposed to be toasty today, Craig and I took a little roadtrip to a spot two hours from home that has approximately the same elevation as Denver. The flowers were amazing. I'll have more posts later about today's adventure, but here's a sneak peak of the flora.

Unimaginable

As one of my Facebook friends from my hometown put it -- Well for some of us the crazy guy who predicted the end of the world yesterday wasn't too far off. The hospital where I work is gone and our world as we knew it is gone.

Growing up in little Oswego, Kansas, Joplin, Missouri was the place. We went there for Saturday shopping, trips to the optometrist, movies, restaurants, and Sunday drives. And since I've left, St. John's has become the regional medical center family and friends have relied on for life-saving heart surgery and other serious medical needs. And as trivial as it seems now, even last year when I made my July Kansas trip, friends and I made our pilgrimage to Joplin to shop our favorite antique malls and have lunch at a downtown restaurant.

I grew up in what the rest of the country calls Tornado Alley. Over the years, we've had a few close calls where we crouched in basements or cellars, but we were always fortunate enough to never witness the type of devastation I'm watching this morning on CNN.

My heart goes out to Joplin. It's just unimaginable.

Itchin' for Isla!

Craig and I are in a holding pattern now. We're back from the roadtrip and just waiting for our next adventure. I find myself humming this song again, and maybe it's not to the end of the world, but the departure date for Isla can't arrive soon enough! The weather's actually beautiful here right now with a reprieve from the usual 90 to 100 degree temps of May. We haven't had the A/C on in three days and we're sleeping with the windows open. But that in no way diminishes our anticipation of our June 14th trip to that familiar little island in the Caribe.

Some of these photos could be repeats, but since I never completely finished posting my pics from January of this year, I'm just guessing. And I'm too lazy to go back and pick through all of those posts.

I'm already making plans. Craig and I battle over going to the beach. Since we'll be staying in town the first four nights, I vow to put my a$$ in the sand -- actually, that would be a lounger with an umbrella -- on Playa Norte daily during that time period. After that, it's up for grabs!

25 days until we climb the stairway to paradise. (Actually, before some local sees this and panics, that's not where we're staying. Ha!)











Wanna pack your bags, Something small
Take what you need and we disappear
Without a trace we'll be gone, gone
The moon and the stars can follow the car
and then when we get to the ocean
We gonna take a boat to the end of the world
All the way to the end of the world . . .

(You and Me, Dave Matthews Band)

Whimsical Wednesday

Frolicking friar!

Tuesday Troubles

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.


Remember this poem by John Masefield? I was forced to memorize it in fifth grade and it still sticks in my head. Edna Miller (the teacher) who made me stutter through that in front of a laughing class of 10-year old's must have been prophetic in realizing the ocean would turn out to be one of the loves of my life.

Currently, my brain is throbbing right above the spot where the dental hygienist numbed me and did one of those deep cleanings yesterday. She must have accidentally hit on my last nerve with that needle full of novacaine. And the back. Oh the back. It was a mess before the roadtrip and I'm still strapping on an icy hot patch everyday to keep the ache manageable. And then there's the weird flu bug I acquired on Saturday . . . .

If only I could soak in some warm saltwater! We have a beach countdown that's less than a month. The weather in Phoenix is unseasonably wonderful this week with highs in the 70's and 80's for a few days, but I know by mid-June, I won't feel guilty leaving!

Just dreaming of spending a day right in this spot! Maybe I could throw the ache out with the seawater!

And then there's that annoying dead Bug that's once again extorting us for an amount equal to a plane ticket to paradise. We received the ransom note yesterday. Hmmmmmm. A Bug in the garage or a ride to heaven? Caribe take me away!

Santa Fe Style

New Mexico Car Window Travelogue

I know. We vowed this trip to take time to stop and smell the roses since Craig is retired and we now have unlimited time, but we still whizzed along I-40 in New Mexico rarely stopping for anything other than gas (which always varied between $3.79and $3.89 a gallon).

Most people think of New Mexico in terms of the historic artsy streets of Santa Fe and Indian pueblos, or if they're like me -- Jackalope! Since we've driven the width of the state multiple times in the past few years on our way to and from Kansas, we see the state as a hard scrabble land full of volcanic rock, old car graveyards, and colorful billboards.

This area along the New Mexico/Arizona border is called Painted Cliffs.

I always marvel at how beautiful the color of the box cars look against the surrounding New Mexico cliffs. Color coordinated!

The uneducated eye might think you're traveling in the real Mexico and the road builders have just scooped up and abandoned the old asphalt alongside the interstate. But then you'll notice the volcano below in the distance and the reason for the roadside rubble becomes clear.

Bandera Volcano might be something to investigate if we ever do get off I-40. I have less than fond memories of visiting what was referred to as an extinct volcano outside Raton, New Mexico as a child. My dad suddenly left my mom with us as we were hiking up the path and returned to the car to have what was later identified as his first heart attack. He was only in his 30's at the time, which shows the detrimental effect that free cigarettes and stress from WWII can have on a body.

New Mexico -- the land of tourist trap billboards.

I-40 through New Mexico is also blanketed with Route 66 museums and memorials. This old car museum in Santa Rosa was just down the road from our hotel. We stopped by after our dinner at the Santa Fe Grill, but I snapped the photos quickly because it was cold and windy! Actually, being from Phoenix, I would say it was frickin' freezing! When we were in Santa Fe on the way to Kansas, it snowed. It wasn't much warmer 10 days later on the return trip.

This family truckster's seen better days.

An old cemetery and church in the town of Santa Rosa.

We may take a little trip to New Mexico later this summer in July to get out of the Arizona oven. I promise we'll get off the interstate and see the sights next trip!

Reward Stop for Two Days of Travel!

The one reward that gets me through the two-day roadtrip from Kansas back to Phoenix is my stop at Southwest Antiques in Weatherford, Oklahoma. We just happened across it several years ago, and now it's a must do on our list. It breaks up the tedious monotony.

We spent an hour and a half in the building this trip, and while we were there, the place was robbed! Not the stick 'em up type of robbery you're probably envisioning, but a sneaky covert event. Two middle-aged women came in to shop. One took a small jewelry case to a booth in the back of the store and smashed the glass out of it, pocketing all the jewelry. Evidently, the other woman created a distraction by getting a clerk to haul a heavy item up front for her, then announced they'd both be back to purchase the item after getting some money from the ATM. They never returned, and it took a little while for the clerks to notice the missing jewelry case. Long story short, now I know why a lot of antique stores want customers to check their bags and large purses up front.

I noticed a number of trends in country antiques. Old bingo and kid's flash cards are popular items. Old coffee cans are very overpriced in Oklahoma. Decapitated and dismembered dolls are a popular item, especially when placed under glass. Shabby chic is still very chic, so I won't throw out my can of white paint.

The Pilot was already loaded, so I only made a few small purchases. One of them was an old Kitty Clover Potato Chip tub. Remember Kitty Clover? We sang the advertising jingle the rest of the trip home.

By the way, I appear to be a very lazy blogger lately, but Blogger's been out-of-service off and on for the past few days. At least that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it!

This old sign brought back so many memories!