April 5 - 19, 2013

Friday April 5.

Spring has bloomed all over Prescott.  Every tree that can bloom has been doing it in style.  My fruit trees, peach and nectarine, are in full swing and if there is a piece of fruit for each flower, we will be overloaded for sure. However, the nectarine tree has been growing here now for 13 years and we have only seen one shriveled  nectarine on it.  I have fertilized it and taken care of it but it seems to be of no use. This year I put a different fertilizer on it and on very VERY close  inspection, I see miniscule nectarines poking through whatever is left of the ( now fading) flowers.  Hopefully we will see some fruit as a result of the different fertilizer.  Keeping these trees watered is the trick because I have no idea how much water they need and do not know if they are drought resistant.  The big problem is the wind.  The trees grow between our neighbor's home and ours and the wind just seems to roar between these two houses and blows everything into oblivion.  We do have a lot of wind 'storms' here and this year it has been particularly bad with trees being blown down onto houses and cars parked in driveways etc.  It also blew the blossoms off the trees and it looked like it was snowing blossoms on Rosser Sreet.

Our watering system has been broken for some time.  David came up to visit before we went on our mission to Maine, and he did his best to get it going for us.  It worked for a while but it is a very old system.  So Bill decided to have a man come to work on it.  He lives in Paulden and it is a distance to come but he used to work for the people who last trimmed our trees and so Bill asked him to be here to work on the system.  My friend Bobbie was here and we just talked instead of doing Paper boxes etc. while the man worked on the system.  He was able to get it going the right way round and now our sprinkler system works and the lawn has changed from dead brown grass to a bright spring green and the Robins are having a picnic every day with the worms providing their supper.  We also fixed the bare patches - but fixed them so that they will produce grass once more is another question.  Bill did not think it was necessary to purchase new grass seed, so we used the seed that has been in our garage for years and we do not know if it is viable or not.  Only time will tell.  My best guess is that it is not viable.

The High School put on the play "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat" and we went to see it.  The kids did a wonderful job.  When we lived in Mesa, we went over to Phoenix to see it performed at the Orpheum with Donny Osmond in the lead role.  I asked my neighbor if she went to see it and she said that she debated whether to go because she thought it might be to "Bible-ly" and that did not appeal to her but she went at the last moment and was very pleased to see the kids perform.

Saturday 6th April.

Today was General Conference from Salt Lake.  We stayed home and watched on our TV.  We had hoped that David would come up to visit us so that he would get to watch conference but he declined.  He gets no support for his church activities from the people he is living with right now.  When Bill went to Priesthood session, Margo Roberts and I went out to dinner at the Chipotle Grill.  When we lived in Johnstown, while the men went to the Priesthood session, Sara, David and I along with other women of the ward there went to Chi Chi's or to a Pizza place to eat.  It was a lot of fun for us to be out together.

Sunday 7th April

We watched Conference all day and at 4pm, we went to the Yavapai Community College for the Holocaust Remembrance program.  The speaker is from Phoenix, and is a survivor of the Holocaust.  He is 100 years old and funny.  He had us laughing at all the things he did to avoid being killed by the Germans.  He talked about Adolf Eichmann and other officers of the Reich who carried out the killing and the deplorable treatment the Jews received at the hands of these men.  He talked about Raoul Wallenberg who was instrumental in saving him and other Jews through shrewd maneuvers right under the noses of the Germans.

Monday 8th April.

I had an 8am appointment with the dental hygienist.  They have a new one down at Dr. Mangum's office and she did a good job for me.  I asked Dr. Mangum how much he would charge to do a bridge to put a tooth in where it has been missing for 38 years.  He was the one who suggested that I get the bridge put in and so he said $2,500. I went then to get a haircut.  I looked like a shaggy dog because it has been some time since the last haircut.  I missed Zumba class altogether due to the appointments but I went walking instead. 

Tuesday 9th April

The Lunch Bunch met at the Golden Corral and there were 4 of us there.  Georgia talked about her trials with Chemo for her breast Cancer.  Betty Anne has been taken off her meds and they are trying to decide if they want to put in a stent to help drain her dead kidney that is accumulating fluid and the recurrent infections that she suffers from as a result.  Jeannine talked about her  children and their trials and I told them about David and his new digs.  At 1.30pm I had an appointment with Dr. Gladhart.  Sometimes I think he just wants us to go in so that he can charge Medicare a bundle.   He read off the results of the last blood test and all the numbers came back normal.  In a recent phone call to Pam in Australia, she was sure that I suffer from Diabetes - it runs in the family.  The test results show that I do not have diabetes and I am glad that I dodged that bullet.

Wednesday 10th April

I ditched the water aerobics.  The Wednesday morning class leader is rather colorless in her exercises and I do not respond well to that, so I went walking instead.  Beading was at 1pm at Jeanine's house out in Prescott Valley.  That gave me the chance to go to Hobby Lobby and check out what they have in stock to help with the paper activities.  Found a couple of really cute rubber stamps.  There are two major chains in Prescott that serve the crafty population - Michaels and Hobby Lobby.  While they seem to have similar stuff, they are also quite different in many aspects.  Of course they are not cutting edge like the offerings on the internet, but wait a few months and they catch up.

In the evening we watched a program on Nova - PBS that talked about the early rock formations etc. in Australia.  Seems like Australia possesses the oldest rocks in the world.  They were searching out in Western Australia.  The program was quite interesting and it showed just how desolate the landscape is in Australia - a lot like Arizona.

Thursday 11th April

Went to Golden Corral for Breakfast with Andrea and Juli was supposed to be there too, but she said she slept in.  That is so unusual for her to sleep in.  We had a great breakfast and a good conversation.  Andrea and I used to go walking together before I went to Maine, but now she has Plantar Fasciitis and cannot walk any distance at all.  I miss not walking with her.  After breakfast I went to Zumba Class and had a great time there.  Had to go to the "Love it Again" fabric store.  This is a store where people take in their "not so loved any more " fabric and the owner buys it for a small amount and then sells the fabrics at a small margin - and I do not mind paying $5 per yard there whereas fabric off the bolt is now up to $10 or $12 per yard.  OUCH!  And I thought it was highway robbery when we had to pay $6 per yard in the 1980's.

In the afternoon we went to the Family History Center for our shift.  Bill came home late from work and so we were late for the FHC.  I have tried to tell him that it is not funny or even amusing to be late for FHC but it falls on deaf ears.  I am glad that he even goes but he sits with his computer and does not yet help the patrons.  He has to learn a lot more about the sites on the internet and how to mine the 'net for information.

Friday 12th April

Bill worked the afternoon shift at Prescott Valley.  I went to water exercise.  Tiger does the Water Zumba class on Fridays and she keeps us moving.  Of the three instructors she is the best.  When Bill left for work, I went over to Georgia's home to help her with her genealogy.  She does not know how to use Roots Magic and so I spent the afternoon helping her.  She was not wearing her wig and her hair is just starting to grow in and it looks weird to see her bald.  We talked a lot and laughed a lot about how her genealogy needs help.  Her son has been married 3 times and she wanted to get that straight on the program.  I think we were successful.

Monday 15th April.

Today was the fun day at Mt. Top Quilters.  I was on the agenda to try to get the rest of the positions filled for the incoming board.  I held a bunch of 50% off coupons from JoAnn Fabrics as an incentive to get people to be on the board but no one rose to the bait.  They all have a fist full of JoAnn coupons that they have been hoarding............but managed to get the positions filled and so everyone is happy.  The program today at guild was the bi-annual garage sale.  Cleaned out a lot of stuff from my sewing room and took it over to guild to have people buy it ..............saw the Granny Nanny paper piecing papers that I took two years ago to the garage sale - someone had brought them back - they got purchased again.  It made me laugh to see them re-surface.

I was slated to be at Kitty's house at 1.30pm and went over there only to find her in a dither and really worried over what was on the TV.  Someone had set off two bombs at the Boston Marathon.  People were killed and maimed and it was a national tragedy.  All afternoon and well into the evening the TV showed the video's of the event over and over and the talking heads on CNN and other channels were putting forth their theories of who did it and questioned why.  some even wondered if we were looking at an event of the same scope and proportions as the World Trade Towers in New York in 2001.

Tuesday 16th April

Still no one found who was to blame for the bombing in Boston....but the news is filled with stories of the wounded and dead.

It was the MTQG Fun day and I had signed up to be a part of it.  We made a mystery quilt top and because they got such a wonderful deal on the fabrics, we each received a gift card for $25 as a refund on the money we paid back in October last year.  I lost my 1/4 inch machine foot at the class.

Kathy Dunn, the sitting president of the guild asked me a lot about genealogy and asked if I could help her.  I told her to come to the FHC on Thursdays between 2 and 6pm and I would help her.

Lee called up and said that he was sick and could not be at the Roots Magic Users Group.  I was really worried about this class because I was to do a presentation on what I learned at Rootstech conference in Salt Lake City.  I sent out the notices by email to all the people on our list and worried about the event.  When I got to the FHC at 6pm we set up the chairs and the projector and waited.  only two people showed up other than the director. I was really disappointed.  The end result is that due to lack of support from the FHC and from the Northern Arizona Genealogical Society membership, and the community at large, we have decided to quit the Prescott branch of the Roots Magic Users group.  It makes me sad, but we do not get support and it is futile to show up each month , prepared to share tips etc about Roots Magic and no one shows up. We gave it two and a half years.  Lee wrote to the Roots Magic people and asked them to take our users group off their list and I wrote to the FHC director and the newspaper and announced that we were quitting.  It is a sad day.  However, the Family Search website has been updated and changed and now they want us to put pictures up on the site as well as write family history stories about our ancestors on the site and because it does not cost to do so, many people are opting to go this route.  They do not understand that it is more efficient to have a program like Roots Magic to keep track of their genealogy information and research notes etc. than to have boxes full of papers here and there through the house and no place on Familysearch Family Tree to keep such pieces of information.  It is very frustrating to see this happen.  It is ironic to note that people think nothing of paying thousands for a boat and water ski's or hunting paraphernalia or buying a newer and bigger home or car but cannot see their way clear to purchase a genealogy program for $29.95 so that they can keep track of their research and family information.  It just boggles my mind - but then I guess they have their reasons but to not have your family history and family information corrected and in a orderly manner will have eternal consequences and that seems to have been lost in the scramble of life.

Wednesday 17th April.

I went walking while Bill went to the YMCA.  I just did not want to put my body in cool water for class today.

At 11am I went to see Jane Kohner and this is my second meeting with her. She changed some of my supplements but was very pleased with the results of my trying to keep to the regimen she set up at our first meeting.  The supplements are expensive, but I can see results.  I  no longer cough incessantly, (have been coughing for 13 or more years), do not have post nasal drip, (that has been a constant and also had a stuffy nose most of the time)did not suffer with  allergies this spring,(sometimes I had to just keep kleenex tissues stuffed in my nose to mop up the fluid that was coming out of it due to allergies), can use regular shampoo on my hair and do not suffer with constant itchy scalp (I have had to use medicated shampoo to counteract the itching and if I ever used regular shampoo, I was so itchy that I tore the scalp scratching).

The news is still full of stories about the bombing in Boston.  They now have put pictures of the suspects that they caught on surveillance cameras on the front of buildings that lined the route.

I went visiting teaching at 5.30pm till 7.30pm.  today was a crazy day with all the activities.

Thursday 18th April

Juli did not come to breakfast.  We set this up specifically for her benefit but she has not kept the appointment we set up to eat together.  I went from breakfast to Dr. Mangum to have a tooth filling repaired.  I asked again for a quote for getting my bridge put in and Dr. Mangum looked at it and said, oh around $2,700 or $2,800.  I asked him if he would mind if I got a second opinion and he said that was ok and he gave me a copy of the full mouth xray that they took in October last year.  There is a dental group down in the Phoenix valley who have set fees and the bridge is quoted there as being $1,500.  We are going down there next week to get the second opinion....but $1,500 beats almost $3,000 any day.  I have a second bridge that needs to be put in and can get both done for around $3,000 whereas with Dr. Mangum I am looking at the best part of $6,000.  I guess he wants new snow tires on his vehicles this year and a trip round the world or something on my dime.

On the news, there was a shootout between police and the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing and one of them is dead and the other on the run.

We filled our shift at the FHC.  A man came in who claims to be an American Indian or Native American whichever is the most politically correct these days.  He comes in regularly and has a real story to tell but I do not know the veracity of his tales.

Friday 19th April

I went to Water Exercise and it was pretty good.  There was a lot of things to keep us busy.  One thing that helped ease the anxiety over the Boston Bombing, was the sight of the Swifts as they flew in and out of their nests in the eaves of the YMCA.  It reminded me that no matter what crazy things are going on in the world, these birds were obedient to their natural instincts and they were taking care of their young in the mud nests that they had built in the eaves high up and away from cats and other predators.

Nature has a way of bringing us back to ground and helping allay fears and anxieties.  Constancy amid the chaos has a calming effect.  The birds were scrambling to get up to their nests and then all of a sudden they flew out of the nests in unison and it looked like a feathery waterfall as they swooped down to gather more bugs to  take back to their young.  I was waiting for their wings to get tangled together but that never happened.  They navigate well.

Jeannine from the beading group had sold us tickets to the Lydia Circle Luncheon at the Methodist Church in town.  It was a very nice affair.  I have been to it before and they had a program today of a couple who sang songs for us.  It was a very elegant affair.  They had two quilts that they auctioned off.  One of them was not well done or interesting and was also sun damaged and faded but it sold for $350.  The other quilt was a Texas Star that someone said they had purchased in Amish Country in Pennsylvania.  It was a much more interesting quilt than the strip pieced one but I looked closely and a lot of the points did not match and so I wondered if it was an authentic Amish produced quilt.  They are very precise with their piecing but the quilting was not so close as the Amish usually do so I really wondered if it was a bona fide Amish Quilt.  Perhaps it was one they knocked out for the tourist trade.  I have seen wonderful Amish Quilts when I lived in Pa. that were spectacular in workmanship and color choice.  This one was not in traditional Amish colors either.

After the luncheon I went up to the Prescott Resort to the bead show there.  They have this event at least twice a year and I like to go.  Oh yes, the beads are a little more expensive than most places, but they are all in one place and I do not have to drive from store to store to get to look at what is offering.

On the news tonight they caught the other suspect in the Boston Marathon Bombing.  He had eluded the authorities and had cut his way into a boat cover in someone's back yard and had crawled into the boat to hide and was too weak from loss of blood to fight any more.  I was interested to see the plastic boat cover that the owner of the boat had used to winterize his boat. Saw a lot of this kind of practice in Maine where people put this shrink wrap plastic thingy over boats to protect them from collecting snowfall over the winter.

We are still living in a Blender - stuff never stops happening.