Felines, Friends, and Physicians

 

                                            Another great site at McDowell Mountain

Things have been busy these last couple weeks of 2016, taking care of annual and other medical appointments, hanging with friends, hiking and biking, and spending time at Fearless Kitty Rescue.

Some of the feathered and furry friends at our site.

 

 

First for the medical. Jim had his annual visits with the hematologist and dermatologist, and an emergency visit to the ophthalmologist. He started having flashing lights and floaters in the left eye, but luckily it was just another vitreous detachment, which he has had before. Nothing to be done, just another one of those aging issues.

When I saw the primary care PA last week she said I was overdue for a colonoscopy. I really didn’t want to get it done, but they scheduled me for February, after we plan to leave here. I called to cancel and see if they had an earlier appointment, and the only thing available before February was for December 23. Since my call took place on the 20th, I decided to just get it over with. Of course the prep was unpleasant, but I survived and had the procedure with no problems, other than the doctor found a very small (2 mm) polyp. Much to my surprise, the biopsy report showed it was precancerous, and I am to have a repeat colonoscopy in three years. I am certainly glad I didn’t put this off.

Friends Alex and Ellen have been over several times for bike riding. Maikel and Susan stayed for 2 weeks, their first time here. And we met Tim and Florence, Lazy Daze owners from California who were here last week. On Christmas Day, after we returned from our shift at Fearless Kitty, we all took a 7 mile hike on the Scenic trail, a great way to spend the day. Barely 50 degrees outside and snow from the previous day on the mountains.

                                    Maikel, Susan, Ellen, Tim, Jim, Alex, and Florence

                                                         Same except I’m in this one

We’ve been spending quite a bit of time at Fearless Kitty Rescue, helping them get moved into the new building, and filling in for some extra shifts caring for the cats. What an amazing feat to move a rescue over the week of the Christmas/New Year holiday, all with just the help of volunteers.

                                                                         Shasta, one of our favorites

We don’t normally go out on New Year’s Eve, but today we are stopping to do laundry on our way to meet friends at the movies this afternoon. Plan to stop for a drink on the way home, but will be back long before the serious New Years Eve party crowd gets on the road.

Wishing a great 2017 to our friends, family, and blog readers! See you next year…

Passing Time

 

Hard to believe another couple of weeks have passed here at McDowell Mountain Park. Been keeping busy with biking and Fearless Kitty. We helped set up for the annual Holiday Pet Festival in Scottsdale on the 3rd, spent a day taking down shelves in the old building and rearranging things in the new building in preparation for the tile being installed this week. That along with our usual days of caring for the cats. Here are just a few of the cuties awaiting a new home. And no, that new home won’t be ours!

It was time to move sites again last week. Our last site had a great view of sunset over the McDowell Mountains.

Our current site gives us a view of sunrise over Arizona’s Four Peaks and the Mazatzal Mountain Range.

And our very own coyote.

I put up two hummingbird feeders and they are getting lots of use. I’ve been trying to get some good photos of their color, but maybe one in fifty turns out halfway decent. This beautiful Anna’s hummingbird was sitting in the tree where one of the feeders is hanging. He just sat there on a branch and let me take as many shots as I wanted. They are gorgeous when the sunlight catches them just right.

Couldn’t leave out the finches.

Friends Alex and Ellen left the park but moved nearby to Eagle View RV Park for a couple months to work on some RV projects with their friend Scott. They are close enough that we’ve been by their place for happy hour, and they’ve come and ridden bikes with us a couple times.

We should know better than to hang around people like them who have big class As, since that got us looking at RVs again. Took a drive to Surprise to check out a 32’ Tiffin, which we both really liked. The owners were very nice and let us drive it. I only went round and round the huge (4,000 unit!) storage lot, but Jim drove down Bell Road and on the 101 for several miles. There is way too much traffic in that part of town so he was not very comfortable, although it is only two feet longer (and taller) and one inch wider than our Lazy Daze. Sitting up so high with that giant windshield was a bit intimidating for the first time. As usual, we will probably do nothing, but it’s something we would enjoy having as we sit for awhile in one place, and I imagine we could get used to driving it eventually.

We would really miss our big windows, though, especially since we got them de-fogged.

One day we were eating lunch and noticed a car with bicycles on the back slowly going by our site. They stopped and Jim walked out to see if it was someone we knew. Turned out to be Mike and Deb, from Trekking With The Bs. They are staying at an RV park in Mesa, as she is still working part time, but they’ll be here at McDowell for a few days in January before we leave. Look forward to visiting more with them then.

Last Thursday we took a drive to Mesa to do laundry, and then met Debbie for lunch at San Tan Brewery in Chandler, which is halfway between McDowell and Casa Grande, where she is staying. Always fun to catch up, and we even took a couple photos for her mom!

Jim went back to the Mayo Clinic for blood tests, which were all normal. He and Alex are the same age, and they were complaining about lack of stamina and being tired. Their standing joke now is “Remember, you’re not 66 any more”. Ellen and I, who are both soon to be 62, joked that we should have married younger men.

If I don’t get around to posting again before Christmas. hope everyone enjoys the holiday season, no matter how you celebrate it!