I used to just post to this blog once a week or so when something of interest occurred…………..but this summer, I find myself writing almost every day with newsy ‘stuff’. Between the blog and all the emails I send to our house watch customers, my keyboard stays busy. Looking at the bright side…..at least that’s one part of my house that isn’t dusty!
Yes, we had ‘another’ dust storm last night. Some of you saw it on the news so thought I’d better confirm. No damage done that we know of…..just more dirt. NO RAIN. Here are some photos from my kitchen window and the hood of my car this morning.
Speaking of the MAJOR storm from July 5, Wayne and Gwen Black (site 917) sent me a link to a professional photographer from Phoenix who has some AWESOME photos as the storm hit. He also has a wonderful blog. Follow this link: Apocalyptic Dust Storm Swallows Phoenix
I forgot to mention that we had about a half hour power outage a couple days ago unrelated to any storm. The whole park suddenly went without power. All the neighbors came wandering outside to check if they were the only ones or to find out what happened. I called the Gate House but they didn’t know what happened either. Must have been a light pole down somewhere or maybe a squirrel ate through a transformer?? We’ll never know but LUCKILY our wonderful AC kicked back on and life came back to normal rather quickly. Didn’t see anything in the paper either but we know the signal lights were out too. Anyway………when you come back to your homes this fall, all your digital clocks will be blinking at you and will need to be reset. Thank goodness I have Don to do that kind of techy thing. I hate messing around with changing all those settings on the clocks, stove, microwave, TV, coffee pot, etc. etc. etc.
Last night’s wind and dust wasn’t enough to keep about 35 loyal bingo players at home though. We had a fun time at our monthly summer bingo party with soda and popcorn and good fellowship. I got to call the numbers again! Maybe I’ll see you at the big league games this coming season. Flo Fillipe, Loren, and I were up at the club house in the early afternoon to get the equipment set up and the Housekeeping staff was there dusting and sweeping for our gala event.
The lucky bingo winners each got a payout of $5 per game and the final blackout was a whopping $41 won by none other than Diane Gaines!
Sorry about the quality of these photos but I took them from way up on the stage while I was sitting at the caller’s station. Linda Berry plays a major role in bingo as a supervisor so helps sell tickets and figure the payouts. She said her family back home checks the blog frequently so I’m posting her picture so they can wave at her. Say HI Linda. It takes a lot of volunteers to make the bingo games a success and the games help to entertain many many of our residents. AND during the height of the season, some of those big jackpots of almost $1,000 give some folks a fatter wallet!
Our landscaping crews are hard at work at their next major project of weed control. That’s another subject that few of our winter residents understand or appreciate. Without proper control, our acres of gravel sites and golf course would be rampant with weeds. It is a never ending task to keep weeds under control and another huge expense I’m sure. This year we have an outside company here to spray the pre-emergent. Saw some of their trucks out this morning.
Meanwhile, our crews have to keep ahead of the sprayers to get rid of the weeds. I’ve seen them all over the park hacking away at the weeds to keep our park beautiful. Thank you to every one of them for their efforts!
We saw a crew of our guys over by the drainage ditch on number 6 actually moving every rock to pull up the spurge and weeds growing in that area so the pre-emergent can take effect when the area gets sprayed. Talk about a chore!
Spurge is that nasty persistent annoying weed that seems to grow everywhere. It loves the hot baking sun. Give it a little moisture and BOOM…you have a fresh garden of spurge. It is a tough pest to get rid of as it throws off its seeds and also grows more plants from its root system. Thus a pre-emergent spray is necessary to keep the weed from springing right back once you pull it up. That’s why the crew is taking such care to get rid of the old plants in this area….so the pre-emergent can get to the soil surface. There are many different kinds of spurge. Here are most common:
We have the urge to purge spurge!
(I learned this from my trusted Wikipedia reference source AND from chatting with Fernando. Fernando always finds time to answer my crazy questions when I find him out at a job site. Thank you, Fernando!)
Monday seems to be a big day for pickleball. I believe guests come from Mission Royale and Robson to challenge our residents. The courts were quite busy yesterday as we made our rounds. I don’t know if you can recognize anyone from my long distance photos through the fence. I certainly give these folks credit for getting out there so early before the temperatures rise. I think they start at 6:30 a.m. during summer hours.
Some of us prefer a quieter cooler sport. Meanwhile, back in the library: I can’t seem to catch these puzzle people at work but they’ve been busy!
Okay…..that’s enough news for today. My fingers are getting tired and my little mouse is overheating!
