24 December: FUN in the 'Peg over Christmas! (getting there was fun too)

So the flight from Phoenix (well, Mesa-Gateway airport, bit of a ways away from Phoenix) was at 6:30 AM.  I was late getting to the airport, about 5:45 - and they had already closed the baggage for the flight :-(  They re-opened it just for me, yay.  I got to the gate, they said to go to the last plane on the end.  I was literally the last person to get there.  As I walked out onto the tarmac (well, it is Phoenix, you don't really need a covered walkway... well not in the winter anyway, ha ha) and there were two planes there.  As I got to the second one, I saw four more.  It was the last plane on the end.  So a quarter mile jog was in order.  Oh well.

All of my winter clothes had been shipped to Phoenix (dumb but hey I just told them to "pack everything" and they did).  I vacuum packed two winter jackets and wore a third, one that I thought was a good balance between light, and warm.  My yellow jacket :-)

There were still people filing onto the plane, so no worries.  I got back to my seat - I had the window seat - and the other two were taken, ugh.  Oh well, in the back of the plane, you can sit anywhere you want, yay!  Hmm, very young child in front of me, around 1-1/2 to 2 years old.  Hmm.  The young mom apologized to me "in advance" as soon as I sat down.  Oh boy.

We set out on our 3 hour flight.  It was mostly uneventful...  and they offer you nothing to eat, nothing to drink.  Well, they gave me a bottle of water, which was nice.  I occupied myself by reading on my tablet, snoozing, and listening to some podcasts.

I was sitting in the 3rd last row on the McDonnell Douglas MD80.  This means that the engine was right beside my ear.  I used my noise cancelling headphones, that helped to alleviate the noise.  The child in the row in front made a fuss a few times, but it was no big deal.

When it was time to land, we were deep in the clouds, could not see a thing.  I could feel us turn, turn, turn, but that's no surprise, I've felt that before on the approach to Grand Forks.

The captain came on and said something incomprehensible.  With the engine noise, and apparently a problem with the P.A. system in our end of the plane, all I heard was "clearing snow", fuel" and "divert to Fargo".  Oh boy.  So we turned, climbed, broke out of the clouds, and dropped back in, landing in Fargo.

We sat on the apron (the road from runway to the airport terminal) for at least 3/4 hour, and finally they let us pull up to refuel.  The engines were running the whole time, and it was quite monotonous, oh well.  Wow was it windy and blustery.

Out the Window in Fargo

Refuelling took another 1/2 hour, followed by 1/2 hour of de-icing.  Many folks were grumbling about getting off there, but of course they weren't allowed to.  When the person behind me started to grumble, I reminded them that if they let us off, they would have to do the boarding process all over again, just to ensure that they got an accurate passenger manifest, and certainly they would not unload and reload all the luggage just to get the few folks theirs.

I was in touch with Eric by text, and he reminded me that there was a plane load of people waiting in Grand Forks to get on the plane and fly to Phoenix, so again, we were going to have to get to Grand Forks soon.

The young child was restless, threw a few tantrums, but mom and dad calmed her and all was well.

We took off from Fargo, and it was a difficult leg.  I know a little bit about flying - not much - but I could tell that they were struggling.  It was rough, turbulence and side to side, ugh.  We broke through the clouds and descended into Grand Forks.  The snow was swirling all right, and we were a-swingin' from side to side as we came down.

Here we had to sit on the tarmac for another hour because there are only two gates and a plane in each one.

The young child went ballistic.  The poor mom had a tantrum, cried, and the plane was just generally crazy.  Eric has since snagged Dad seemed to have some candy in his jacket pocket, and that was just enough to get us over the crisis.

Finally we got to the terminal.  I went to zip up my jacket and...  Oh crap, the zipper is not only damaged, the toggle is missing entirely!!!  Ha ha ha!  Eric had to go get the car and bring it to the front of the terminal. 

Not sure whether this jacket will get repaired, or just tossed

Eric said that the drive down in the morning was white knuckle in spots, but the drive back was fine.  My 3 hour plane ride took 6-1/2 hours.  Ugh.  We got to Winnipeg late, and I was beat.  Safe though, and that I am most certainly appreciative of.

Well, I was only back in the 'Peg for five days, but I got a good dose of winter.  For the first few days, it was relatively nice, perhaps -5 to -10C.  On Friday evening and through Saturday, we had a blizzard, then in the evening, the skies cleared off and we went into the deep freeze, an overnight low of -33C or something like that.  Eric drove me back to Grand Forks on Sunday, and I was quite happy to hand him my winter clothes and fly back to Arizona :-)

 I visited with a bunch of people, and it was good to see everybody.

One of the things that I had to do while there, was check up on the B.U.T. (big ugly truck) that is stored out at the McRae homestead out in Warren, about 40 km or so out of town.  Eric was going to do that some time in the fall, but had not made it.  I was worried about the battery, most of all.

I drove out the Warren.  The snow was DEEP!  Good thing I brought my tall snow boots.  Fern had advised me to park in her driveway, which I did, and cut across through the deep snow.

Well, sure enough, the battery was so weak that it would not crank.  Sigh.  While I was fussing with it, and looking for tools in it, etc., I "kinda" locked the doors and closed the driver's door.  OOPS!!!!   I had no spare keys with me.  Mom has spare keys at her place, but I'm driving her car...  Curses.  Then, to make it worse, I closed the hood - and since the hood release is inside the cab, that's the end of the work on the B.U.T. for today.  Curses.  Now the battery will freeze, if the temperature drops much, since I drained out the last bit of juice from it, by trying to crank it over.  Argh!

Worse, that key ring was the set that I had brought from Phoenix, and it has some keys for Phoenix stuff on it.  Not that it's the end of the world or anything, but why would I want to have those keys hanging there until June, when I come back???

I checked on a few other things, like the shed full of stuff (looking for the battery for mom's cordless lawn mower that I have in Phoenix, for instance).  Then I sheepishly went back to mom's place.

I was supposed to go back to Warren on Saturday, but per above, there was a blizzard, couldn't attempt it.  On Sunday morning, it was absolutely frigid, but I dressed for the weather.  I zoomed out there and parked on the road rather than bother Fern.  With the spare set of keys and some tools,  I got my original keys, opened the hood, pulled the battery.  But now I had to trudge back about 300 ft through deep snow back to the car.  By the time I had got there, I was whipped!  But I was able to take the battery back to mom's and put it indoors.  It wouldn't freeze at least.

It turns out that I had pulled the flatdeck trailer winch battery and put it in mom's basement already.  Plus, my old '05 de Ville battery is down there - it was worth $300 and I don't think there was anything wrong with the old one - had replaced it because the repair shop told me to.  So now there are three of my batteries down there.  She's getting tired of running a battery storage facility.  At least they are each in battery boxes, so they aren't a hazard or anything.

Since that time, Eric needed a battery for his pickup truck, so he's snagged the flatdeck trailer winch battery.  Now only two in mom's basement.

24 November: Grey Cup woo hoo!

Yes, it's time for Canada's big party!  I had tickets to the 101st Grey Cup game in Regina, but about a month ago I decided that it was too expensive to travel back for the game.  Eric wasn't really interested in going (Regina was in the game, after all - and the Bombers this year were pathetic), and, well hey, it's cold up there and reasonably warm here!

Eric's girlfriend Terena bought my two all-party passes.  Check.

But I had Tickets to the Game!
A friend of a friend agreed to buy my Grey Cup game tickets.  Whoops, where are they?  They were sent to the apartment on Wilmot Place... at the end of October.  I have a year's redirect on the mail, what happened?  Well Xpresspost apparently is a parcel, and parcels get no redirect service of any kind.  Rather than returning it to Regina (in which case they would have contacted me) or sending a notice to my mother's address (where the redirect sends to), they did nothing!  For heaven's sake.  So here we are, 2 weeks to the game, trying to get them back.  Had I have known, I'd have asked Eric to go down to the post office at the Osborne Village Shopper's and get it, with a letter & ID of course.  But, no, they had to send them back to Regina, finally.  Well, that was over a week ago... and they have not arrived in Regina... still!

The person in charge of tickets in Regina was wonderful, and promised to overnight the tickets to my mother's place, when they arrived.  Well, Wednesday and they weren't in Regina yet... so she sent a pair of non-fancy simple printed tickets overnight.

They arrived, Eric made the connection, got a cheque, and all was well.

The fellow who bought the tickets would like the fancy originals for a Christmas collage / gift so I'm trying to track them down.  Sigh.

Watching Canadian Football in Phoenix
I have not been able to make the Bell ExpressVu dish work here in Phoenix.  It appears that all the doom sayers were right - Bell has switched to a new satellite whose signal does not show up here.  Sigh.

For a few games in the summer, I was able to watch using my computer and ESPN 3.  But there were very few CFL games on ESPN 3 toward the end of the season, and no playoff games. 

It almost looked like I was hooped.  But El & Gail Hay, MCAAC members from Winnipeg, have a trailer in Mesa, and I stopped by for a visit with El on Saturday.  He mentioned that they were watching the game on Sunday, and I begged to be able to watch.  So I was able to.  It was great.  I ate too much potato chips, drank enough wine to give me a headache (whose fault is that?), and had a wonderful supper...  although, as usual, I probably ate too much. 

The Game Itself
It was great to see the game, but too bad that the score wasn't closer.  Those Roughriders were not going to be denied, so the Tiger Cats (well they seemed more like house cats on Sunday) are just going to have to try again next year.

Fixing The Bicycle?
...which leads me into why I had to fix the bike on Monday morning.  I got home, stuffed and with a headache (drink lots of water and take something for the headache... and it worked), just didn't feel like fixing the bike.  I left that for the morning... probably just as well, wouldn't have appreciated the frustration at trying to put those really stuff tires & tubes on the bike on Sunday night.

26 November: Riding again... oof!

I guess I was so traumatized that I didn't mention it before - had a flat tire on the way home on Thursday evening.  My seventh.  I've had about enough of this!

Fortunately (or not), it rained cats & dogs through Thursday night, all day Friday, and into Saturday.   My riding was over for the workweek anyway.

On Sunday, I finally got a chance to stop at a bike shop - appropriately named Bicycles of Phoenix - and had a chat with the folks there.  They claimed ignorance of said "solid foam" tube replacements, but told me that there was a granular filling that I could use - but it needs periodic replacing, and is very expensive, oy.  I bought a pair of wicked heavy duty tires (with Kevlar or something else layer that should stop speeding thorns), and a pair of ultra heavy duty tubes, again filled with Slime.

I put them on Monday morning before work.  Holy mackerel, what a fight to get them on - they are so heavy and thick that it was really difficult, and took forever.   When done, I was sore and tired, ugh.  And late!  Had to drive to work.  Grrr.  Oh well.

Oh yeah, they want 45 to 55 lbs. pressure in the tire.  Wow, what a fight!  The foot pump I bought back in early September to pump up my bike tires, has sprung a bad leak in the hose (cheap pump / cheap hose ugh), so had to use my hand pump.  Took a long, long time, and, as I said, very tired when done.

Today I rode on those new tubes & tires.  The tires have a much less aggressive tread than the old knobby mountain-bike type tires, so they ride much more smoothly.   However, there is also a lot more mass there, so I feel like I have to pedal harder. 

The craziest thing is, although there hasn't been rain for at least 36 hours, the "gravel" and "sand" along the side of the road, is soggy and soft - must be sand mixed with clay!  Oh boy, that 1 km stretch along 7th St., running past the Deer Valley Airport, was a mucky, heavy, strain-filled slog.  That chunk of off-road by the Fedex building was also mucky - leaving a coating on my tires - which flew off as I finished the last 1/2 km on the pavement. 

Later, when dry, of course that muck flew off of the tires like crazy this evening.  Most of the ride was in the dark, but fortunately the sand had dried that much more and was not as bad.  The only downside now is that it appears that some 4x4s have been tooling around back and forth across the shoulder, so there are very deep ruts in the sand & clay.  Almost dumped me on my butt - had to jump off of the bike, ha ha, yikes.

No matter, I made it.  I'm feeling better each day I ride :-)

25 October to 21 November: Cycling isn't Easy Here - the Vegetation is NOT Friendly

What's in a Bike?
The bicycle I have is actually Eric's old bike.  My original one was heavy and clunky and died a rattly death about ten years ago.  Eric did not use his bike, so I asked if I could use it, and now it is in use all the time :-)

While still in Winnipeg in the spring, I was riding to and from ERLPhase.  It was some 10 km or so through nice residential neighbourhoods, mostly - and mostly, a pleasant ride.  It was 45 to 50 minutes the first few days, and I had it down to about 35 minutes by the time I stopped riding in late May/early June, as I readied my "escape" to Phoenix.

Also, the back tire went flat and I didn't have a chance to fix it.  I left that for when I got here.

So, I've gained even more weight since leaving Manitoba, time to get back on the bike.

I didn't realize that they would take the bike to pieces, but I had to put it back together, which I did in late October.  I replaced the rear tire tube, and got moving.

The Route
The ride is not that long, but very stressful.   I ride a moderately busy street north for about 3 km (32nd St), then a reasonable cycling trail along the "Central Arizona Project" canal for about 3 km, cross a busy street (Cave Creek Rd), then follow the "Central Arizona Project" another km or so, but this time, it's on top of an embankment up about 20 ft or so, with rough gravel and a lot of stones.  Then back down, following another very busy street west for 2 km (Deer Valley Rd).  Ride the very ugly rough sandy/loose gravel shoulder north along 7th St. for about a km, then a nice rarely used back entrance road into the airport west for about a km.  I go off road to get from there into the Fedex Ground depot parking lot, a bit more off road to get to the frontage road to the office, and I am there.

Flats, Flats, Everywhere There are Flats
Within the first week, I had a flat rear tire.  Hmm.  Replaced the tube.  Must have been a dud.  I put heavy duty goo-filled self-sealing "Slime" inner tubes front and back.

Then, on Monday, 04 November, I had a completely flat rear tire on the way home, in the Fedex Ground parking lot, only about 1/2 km from work.  It was a nice night, so I decided to walk.  Oof!  Big mistake!  It took almost 2-1/2 hours to walk the bike home.  By the time I got home, I thought my feet were going to fall off!  Those were terrible sneakers, almost worn out, should have been discarded long ago.  I didn't care, I wasn't walking in them, I was riding a bike!  Oh boy, they went into the garbage immediately.  It took me a full day to recover from that fiasco.

I patched the tube.  There was an ugly little furniture nail or something in it!  I fixed it, and continued to ride.

Then one day, I had a front tire flat.  I pulled the tube to patch it.  I found 3 holes in the tube.  One patch covered all three.  I checked again before putting it back into the tire.  Whoa, two more holes!  Upon inspection of the tire (which is pretty well shot by the way), I found half a dozen or so more "nails" - but these were not nails - they were thorns!  Yes, the desert was striking out at me.

Jim Blake, my boss, had told me about foam core tubes that don't run flat.  I went to get some, but the salesman convinced me that an "armour strip" would be just as good.  This strip goes into the tire before the tube, has Kevlar or something like that on the outside, and can stop whatever might stick into the tube.  Sounds good.

However, I had another flat on the front tire just the other day.  I replaced the tube.  Then, today, 21 November, the rear tire ran flat as I rode.  I pumped it up, and it was soft again by the time I got home.  Time to get those foam core tubes.  I've been avoiding it because cash was tight.  Now I should be able to afford it.  New tires and new foam core tubes.

By my count, I've had seven fully flat tires, so far.  That doesn't count once or twice when I came out to find a tire flat unexpectedly, just pumped it up and appeared to be fine.  I thought that my jealous co-workers were letting the air out during the day maybe (well it wasn't a likely explanation but it was an explanation), but, nope, would have been a leak that the Slime actually did seal up.  Yikes.

Nasty Vegetation
The vegetation here is not friendly.  In Winnipeg, if you brush up against a shrub, or a small bush, or a plant in the garden, it will likely tickle, or maybe scratch just a bit.  Here, it will bite you.  Or stick you with thorns that are practically hypodermic needles!  Wow.  What a place.

But I am Getting Stronger
The upside of all this: cycling is getting easier.  Yesterday on my way in, I had the feeling that I was going to have "something left in the tank" when I got to work - that is, before the front tire went flat and I had to walk the last 2 km :-)

Modified Route
It turns out if I just go down Cave Creek Road (busiest road in the area) and my own street E Utopia Road, it's quicker and shorter.  A lot scarier, but I'm getting used to the fear of fast traffic.  Maybe I should check into how good of a life insurance policy I have, hey?  :-)

12 October: Elizabeth makes Landfall on Utopia Rd.

I had visited Elizabeth in late September in her outdoor storage spot.  Argh, the car cover had completely disintegrated in the hot August sun, and was laying in flaky bits all around her!  And the hot sun had damaged her (up until now) like-new and pristine dash pad.  She needs to get indoors, and now!  But there is just too much junk in the garage.  Answer: build a shed for some of the junk, and get the rest sorted & sifted and put away.

Well, from the other post, you see that I built a shed, and that opened up one side of the garage.  Elizabeth went into the other side.  That is the "modern" car's side of the garage, but, no matter, it has to be put in the garage.  The "modern" can sit outdoors for a few weeks.

09 to 12 October: Need Storage!

Yes, as it turns out, houses here have no basements.  None.  So this house has very little to no storage.  And, you may recall, I have a lot of "stuff" that needs to be stored.  Especially in the short term - what, with all the tote bins filled with knick knacks, books, etc.

I purchased a Rubbermaid shed just like the one I purchased in Markham, Ontario, two years ago.  It was delivered on Wednesday, 09 October.  Two big boxes.  Yay.

On Saturday, 12 October, I started to assemble it, and finished it on Sunday.  It took all the tools and much of the stuff from the garage.

Why the rush?   Because I want someplace for the 1957 Cadillac to go, in the garage!

09 October: Adios to "Friendly Manitoba" - Hello to "Grand Canyon State"

Yup, so there it is.  Got my Arizona driver's licence, and rear plates for the 1957 Cadillac (BCT2613) and 2005 Cadillac (BCT2614).  Sigh.

Getting them was a bit of fun.  I had to do a computer based multiple choice test of the rules of the road (some were difficult, about distance to follow an emergency vehicle etc), get an eye test, explain my right eye being blind.  Then, get the cars titled, show all the import documentation, then had to actually present the car for inspection to see the "safety and emissions decal" which, oops, wasn't there, after waiting 1/2 hour for someone to look.  They needed the "attestation letter" from GM that I paid $110 for, before leaving.  Sigh.

The first clerk insisted that I had to bring down the 1957 for inspection as well.  Fortunately, the second one dismissed that with a wave of the hand, because for heaven's sake, it's from before there were emissions and safety stickers.

Anyway, there it is - the new plates and the driver's licence.  It's official now.

Arizona Licence Plates and Arizona Driver's Licence

It turns out that they do not use a front licence plate on their vehicles here in Arizona.  I don't have anything to put on there, for now.  Hmm...

04 to 06 October: Men's Camp, Southwest United Methodist Style

I've been attending Mission Bell United Methodist Church since I arrived here.  I identified this church and attended it once while here in March.  I like the church, it's very welcoming, and I enjoy the music.  The pastor and I hit it off well, right from the first time I attended - there were no seats except right up beside him in the front row - so I marched up and took that seat.

Anyway, in early September, there was a notice in the bulletin about a men's retreat in early October, up in Prescott, about an hour's drive to the north and west in the mountains.  I planned to go, but didn't register until the last minute - didn't have enough cash left over from the house foibles to float the check!  Oh well.

I went, and wow did it feel familiar.  A lot like our Riding Mountain Conference of Churchmen (Men's Camp) in Manitoba.  The accommodations were similar, the food was similar.  Even the feeling of the discussions was similar.

Cold!
It turns out that Prescott gets cold at night, down to freezing at that particular time!  I was watching the temperature back in Winnipeg, and it was about the same, day and night.  The difference is, Prescott might get a bit colder, and even get snow... but Winnipeg is going to go into the deep freeze.

The Camp Grounds

Prescott
On Saturday afternoon, we had a couple of free hours.  I wandered into town and checked out the main square.  An old western town, kind of modernized.  I say "kind of"... they have Whiskey Row, where there are several old style saloons along the main drag... and a bunch of folks in there drinking and having a good ol' time.

The centre of the square has the courthouse, with beautiful grounds... very busy on that particular Saturday.

14 to 17 September: Then the Possessions Arrive

So as of Thursday evening, 12 September, I'm in my house... my empty house.  Hmm, I see a lot of cleaning to be done.  The previous owner had a dog, and she made an effort to clean up, but... let's just say that there was a modicum of dog hair around... and things just plain needed cleaning.

I ordered a cleaning company to do a "move in" cleaning (8 hours) on Tuesday, 17 September.

I had to live in a very empty house... eat out every meal... for two days or so.

Incoming...
On Saturday, the moving company delivered all my stuff.  My stuff was in three large crates on the back of a flat deck.  The two guys put a ramp to the flat deck, dropped the side of the first crate, and started wheeling stuff down into the garage and (optionally) into the house.

3 crates of all my worldly possessions

Selected Junque in the corner of the garage

Entrance from garage into house

Junque in garage is piling up

One down, two to go!

So they distributed most of the stuff into the house.  Great.  I started to unpack, yay!!!

I was still able to park in the garage, but had most of my stuff on the other side, piled up.

Outgoing...
Oops, remembered that I had a cleaning! Curses.

On Monday night, I was up until something like 2 AM, basically packing the house back up and moving as much as I could back out into the garage.  I was exhausted!!!

Kinda reminds me of the old "up the hill, down the hill" drill that my dad had me do when I was about 10 to 15 yrs old - moving a pile of lumpy dirty old boards around the back yard, first down the hill near the river so out of sight, then back up when he was going to use them, then back down when he didn't... and so on.  Ugh.

Clean!!!
Oh wow, did they ever do a great job, what a difference!  Now, where I was a little leary to put stuff, it felt completely comfortable.

I had them back once since, in late October, and that was nice, a bit of a maintenance visit.  They were struggling to fill their time though.  I think I can manage from here on.  Hmm though, need to mop those tile floors and vacuum the carpets...

Ha ha, another time, I'm busy writing a blog :-)

Spartan
I don't have much furniture, so yes, it is pretty bare.  I bought some of the furniture of the previous owner, otherwise it would be even more so.  I got the bed from the 2nd bedroom, some end tables, an entertainment stand, dining room table & chairs (hmm, table is uneven, rocks a bit, argh), a small organizer/bookshelf inthe bedroom, and four barstools for the kitchen.  Lastly, a 60 inch LCD flatscreen TV, an older unit with big halogen lamps, gotta love those large TV sets :-)  More on the TV later (hint: ugh).

Oh yes, also all the outdoor patio furniture and the poolside chaise loungers.  Wanna come sit poolside and soak up the rays?  Heh heh.  I'm too busy to pause much to enjoy the sunshine.  Sigh.

01 to 12 September: House purchase

Wow, it took me a while to get back to it, but, yes, I am now lord of the minor fiefdom called 3017 E Utopia Rd.   There were shenanigans right down to the final signing of all the papers...  but finally the deal was done, and I had the keys as of early evening of Thursday, 12 September.  It was pretty empty, but it was mine!

Is that All Your Own Cash, Boy???
So you may recall that I had quite a time getting together the closing costs for the house.  I cashed in some RRSPs, brought most of it across into the USA, then did multiple cash advances using the Visa option on my Debit card, to get the money into a local Wells Fargo bank.  I also put my first paycheque completely in there too.  Then, oops, had to service debt back in Canada, including some unexpected expenses (more on that later), so had to move money back, forth, sideways.

The mortgage people had to have me account for every dollar, to make sure that I didn't have organized crime funds or something, I guess.  They raised a few eyebrows at the money flowing back & forth across the border.  They gave me a rough time about the value of my major asset, my remaining RRSPs - would not believe me (or CNN.com or whatever) that the Canadian/US exchange rate was around 0.95 - I had to get a signed paper from a Canadian Bank saying that so-and-so much Canuck bucks in RRSPs would be worth about so much USA bucks, given today's exchange rate, etc.  Yikes.

Shenanigans?  Par for the Course
I went down to sign all the papers (ugh, about 200 places to sign & initial, they are really tightened down after the craziness of a few years ago), and the sheaf was over an inch thick!  Anyway, finally we had the total that I had to come up with as a cashier's check (see, I can write "check" and not "cheque" :-) ), so I trundled over to the Wells Fargo and got the exact amount.  By the time I arrived back to the office, they had come up with another $110 that I had to pay, so I had to write a personal check to cover the balance.  I did it (not like I had much choice), but I made sure that I let them know that I was not amused.

Funny thing?  A month later they sent me a refund of $80 because they double charged me for something else.  Sheesh.

Well I thought it was bad, but I'm told that this is the way it goes.  My colleague, Carl, tells me that he generally puts an extra $200 on the cashier's check, and lets them refund his money a month later - they have to account for every penny, so they will - I guess that's what I should have done, and what I'll do next time.  If there is a next time!

Parking Indoors... and Splashing Outdoors
Yup, a two car garage and a pool!  Here are the pre-purchase pictures of the place.  It doesn't look quite as good now - the flowers along the sides of the house had to be removed to treat for TERMITES (turns out there are two kinds of houses here - those that have 'em and those that will have 'em).  Plus of course, now my sparse furniture is in here...  Well, I bought some of what was here, so new pictures might show some familiar scenes.

Well, and it turns out, that this is a desert, after all... and I neglected to lavish enough water on the lawn (not grass mind you) for a few weeks, and it's kind patchy now too... trying to correct that issue.

Pre-Purchase Pictures

Me, in my Minor Fiefdom!
Someone asked who took these pictures for me.  Tripod, with timer.  There were a few out-takes that didn't look so good, too :-)