You might tire of me talking about Haboobs so frequently, but they truly are an awesome weather phenomenon. We had #3 for the month this afternoon and the monsoon season isn’t even here yet. Don and I were downtown running errands when we could see the western sky turn yellow with huge dust clouds. The weird part was that there was very little wind so it was hard to grasp that a haboob was truly on the way. About 15 minutes later, we arrived home when the winds came roaring in and the dust hit us. I have another photo, but pictures just don’t do it justice. I think the storms are so exciting…mysterious…and awesome to watch. There was zero rain with this one which is quite frequently the case. It is now a half hour later and the sun is shining, sky is clear, winds have eased. I’ll hop in the cart right after dinner and tour all the houses I’m watching to make sure there was no damage. I doubt there was because Don’s handy dandy professional weather station says winds only reached gusts of 26 mph and that’s not enough to do substantial damage. (Can’t begin to imagine what the 200+ mph winds were like during the storms in Kansas last week!!!) The thermometer hit 99 today so the triple digits won’t be far behind. 
This has been a lucky week for me!! Char and I went to the casino Sunday to play bingo and we BOTH bingo’d. How about that!! There were other lucky winners too so both Char and I had to share the jackpots we won. I won a $200 game, had to split three ways so won $67. Char hit a $1,000 pot and had to split three ways so still went home with over $300. Then we went across the street to the main casino where we scanned our player cards for potential instant winnings. Char won $5. I put $5 in a dollar slot machine and walked away with $60. We should have bought lottery tickets while we were at it cause we were sure on a lucky streak. So much fun!!!
I volunteered to be a librarian for the park library during this summer. I thought it would be easy since there weren’t very many people here, but evidently the ones who do stay are avid readers. The return and donated items shelves are filled each time I go up there. The fun part is that I get to pick through all the new books to see which one I want to read next.
Don cleaned out his closet this week (wonder of wonders!) and brought out a huge pile of computer “stuff” that he no longer wanted. He is such a gadget freak so always wants the latest and greatest computer gear. We put up a number of items on eBay and made out quite well. He sold a motherboard, two video cards, and a sound blaster. All the pieces looked the same to me so he had to sort it all out into individual bags so I would know what to send the auction winners. PayPal and eBay have really teamed up and do a wonderful job. They make buying and selling very easy. It’s really fun to watch an auction each day and see how many people bid. We sold tons of stuff when we got ready to sell our home in Ohio. In fact, we even sold a semi truck for $80,000. A guy from Pennsylvania showed up with a cashiers check and drove it away.
Summer season is obviously on the way. The landscaping crew pulled out all the pretty flowers at the front entrance and at the four way stop. It looks so barren now without the vibrant colorful flowers to greet us. Flowers are just too fragile to survive the summer temperatures though so it makes sense to pull them out and conserve the water.
I met Greg Barton the other day while I was working in the library. He’s the Special Projects person who authored the resident letter I posted last week. He seems very nice and explained that he is a friend of Ashton’s and accepted a job here to help out. He has been in the resort business for 30+ years….including stints at Disneyland and Encore parks. Since Greg and his wife have a 10 year old son, they bought a house in the family section at Mission Royale. He let me know that the Neighborhood Watch program will be meeting the first week of next month. The police officer in charge of the program is not available until then.
That’s my news for the day. Come back again for further updates.
This has been a lucky week for me!! Char and I went to the casino Sunday to play bingo and we BOTH bingo’d. How about that!! There were other lucky winners too so both Char and I had to share the jackpots we won. I won a $200 game, had to split three ways so won $67. Char hit a $1,000 pot and had to split three ways so still went home with over $300. Then we went across the street to the main casino where we scanned our player cards for potential instant winnings. Char won $5. I put $5 in a dollar slot machine and walked away with $60. We should have bought lottery tickets while we were at it cause we were sure on a lucky streak. So much fun!!!I volunteered to be a librarian for the park library during this summer. I thought it would be easy since there weren’t very many people here, but evidently the ones who do stay are avid readers. The return and donated items shelves are filled each time I go up there. The fun part is that I get to pick through all the new books to see which one I want to read next.
Don cleaned out his closet this week (wonder of wonders!) and brought out a huge pile of computer “stuff” that he no longer wanted. He is such a gadget freak so always wants the latest and greatest computer gear. We put up a number of items on eBay and made out quite well. He sold a motherboard, two video cards, and a sound blaster. All the pieces looked the same to me so he had to sort it all out into individual bags so I would know what to send the auction winners. PayPal and eBay have really teamed up and do a wonderful job. They make buying and selling very easy. It’s really fun to watch an auction each day and see how many people bid. We sold tons of stuff when we got ready to sell our home in Ohio. In fact, we even sold a semi truck for $80,000. A guy from Pennsylvania showed up with a cashiers check and drove it away.
Summer season is obviously on the way. The landscaping crew pulled out all the pretty flowers at the front entrance and at the four way stop. It looks so barren now without the vibrant colorful flowers to greet us. Flowers are just too fragile to survive the summer temperatures though so it makes sense to pull them out and conserve the water.
I met Greg Barton the other day while I was working in the library. He’s the Special Projects person who authored the resident letter I posted last week. He seems very nice and explained that he is a friend of Ashton’s and accepted a job here to help out. He has been in the resort business for 30+ years….including stints at Disneyland and Encore parks. Since Greg and his wife have a 10 year old son, they bought a house in the family section at Mission Royale. He let me know that the Neighborhood Watch program will be meeting the first week of next month. The police officer in charge of the program is not available until then.
That’s my news for the day. Come back again for further updates.
