Awesome Storm

We had an AWESOME storm Monday night!! I am continually amazed at how fast storms can appear here in Arizona. It was quite cloudy and overcast last night but nothing serious. Then out of nowhere comes this gushing wind and DUST! This was by far the most ominous dust storm we’ve seen this past year. The wind switched dramatically from east to west and blew thick yellow clouds of dust into giant dust devils. WOW! It was phenomenal to watch. Just can’t capture it on film though. Then came the rain. What a blessing to this area as we sure haven’t had much this year. Too bad it all has to fall at once though. This morning the streets are dry with just an occasional puddle here and there. The park is really constructed well for water runoff. The little rivers rush down the streets straight to the golf course where it can be pumped away. With the nice big pumps the park utilizes, we’ll be back golfing in no time. See the attached pictures of golf course hole #7 contributed by Verna Shepherd. Hey Verna…thanks for the photos!

Palm Trees

I just came back from a nice morning bike ride and watched the landscape crew in action trimming the palm trees again. I've told the story before, but it sure is fascinating to watch so I'm attaching a few more photos so we can all appreciate how much work is involved in the process. Pictures are as follows: 1) Approaching the nice full tree, 2&3) Trim away with the saw, 4) The fronds just fall to the ground in a heap....but look closely at the barbs along each leaf stem. These branches are vicious! 5) Another crew follows along behind neatly stacking the fronds so they can be easily and efficiently picked up by the truck later. 6) The freshly trimmed street looks a little bare but they always seem to fill out nicely.

Park & Community News

It looks like it’s the annual tree trimming time here at Palm Creek. Our landscaping crews are hard at work trimming all the lower limbs and dead fronds from the palm trees…and there are a LOT of palm trees. They do a couple blocks each day so the project will last a while.

In the meantime, construction continues on park model and village homes throughout the park. We see the Perry Concrete trucks come and go most every day as they pour more and more patios and driveways. You’ll all be amazed at how many new homes we have when you return this fall. It would surely be exciting to be one of the new home owners and come down to see your lovely new home all ready and waiting for you to move in. I haven’t seen any new “model” village homes come in yet, but rumor has it that there are a couple on order.

The weather has been surprisingly mild the last few weeks. Temps are down at a tolerable level…mid to upper 90s or at most below 105. That’s not so bad. The humidity is up to 40-50% though so that makes a big difference. We’ll still keep the air conditioning going, thank you. Reports I hear from family and friends back east or even up Oregon way have been worse than here. When other parts of the country reach the triple digits they really suffer because of the humidity. It seems to be an even trade off, but I’ll still take this dry heat as the best choice.

Despite the national weather reports broadcasting news about the flooding in Tucson and surrounding area, we remain quite dry. We’ve only had 2-3 days of rain with no flooding to report. It was quite a shock, however, to drive up to Phoenix last week and actually see water in the Gila River. Sure don’t see that very often.

The new Lowe’s store is progressing rapidly. Looks like they’re putting up a nice decorative brick wall around the perimeter. The Golden Corral is still doing well. We ate there a couple times and the food has always been very good. The Extended Stay America hotel across from the park is now getting its outside coat. I read in the paper this morning that Casa Grande will have 2400 new residential homes this year. The community is definitely growing.


Here's a picture of the new hotel. Looks huge!

I also saw this blurb in the Phoenix paper this week regarding the Wild Horse Pass Casino. “The Gila River Indian Community is relocating its largest casino closer to Interstate 10 and plans to turn it into a "casino resort" with a 250-room hotel, 2,300-seat entertainment hall and a parking garage. Construction is scheduled to begin next spring. The new resort casino is scheduled to open in summer 2008 and will include a 100,000-square-foot gaming floor, 10-story hotel, entertainment venue, conference facilities, stores, nightclub, multiple restaurants, lounge, and pool, spa and health club.”

Storm and a Movie

WOW!!! We actually had a real thunderstorm last night with real rain and quite a bit of it. I planned on attaching a picture of a true rain puddle but slept in till 8:00 this morning and the puddles are gone. That’s surprising too because we had a lot of rain last night. There was a small river running down our street so I thought surely the golf course would be flooded. I guess it’s been so dry that everything soaked in immediately. That’s the first significant rainfall we’ve had since last September. I bet those saguaros out there in the desert are soaking it in for all they’re worth. There’s a nice breeze this morning and its not even 90 yet. The forecast says we’ll have a couple days below 100 this week. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Desert storms are quite magnificent. Don and I sat on the patio for a long time to watch the sky full of lightning. It was like a giant strobe light with lightning all around us. It was distant because we couldn't hear thunder at first. Then came the strong wind which brought the storm directly overhead along with the loud crashes of thunder. Awesome, but downright scary at times.

Don took me to dinner and a movie to celebrate my birthday. We didn’t want to travel all the way to Chandler so stayed in town and went to the mall cinema to see Pirates of the Caribbean. I wasn’t expecting much out of the show, but we surprisingly really enjoyed it. Thought it was very entertaining with incredible special effects and costumes. Captain Sparrow is a real hoot. Those of you who have been to the Casa Grande theater can understand when I say its even in worse shape than it was before. Oh my gosh. I felt like I needed a disinfectant shower by the time we left. The sad news is that there’s still no ground breaking or signs of a new theater coming our way. We still had a good time and just laughed when we had to peel our shoes off the sticky floor to depart.

Arizona Weather

Welcome to Arizona summer temps. It's 2:30 in the afternoon so we have two more hours to reach our high for the day. Our thermometer reads 114. To quote a well known saying: "But it's a dry heat." Our handy dandy weather machine reads 3% humidity today.



Our bobber club still gathers at the pool every night around 7:00 to discuss the day's events. One night last week, we commented about the temperature of the water coming from our faucets at home. The cold water faucet feels the same as the hot water. It never does get cool because the pipes are so warm even under ground. To take advantage of that, I experimented by shutting off our hot water heater. Thought I'd give it a try and only turn it on when I wanted to shower. Three days later, I realized that I hadn't given the hot water heater a thought in several days. It was turned off and we didn't even realize it. Dishwater, wash machine, and showers are very comfortable without a water heater! See? I knew this heat was good for something.

We had a dandy dust storm this week. As many as I've seen, I still am amazed to watch them. There can be strong winds, lightning, thunder, storm clouds, and.........dirt. No rain. Just dirt. The dust storms come and go with little warning. The one this week came late in the afternoon so the sunset was utterly spectacular. Look at the red sky!! It was awesome!

Another Indoor Activity

Here's another Palm Creek indoor activity very worthy of note. Frank and Joanie Cichon (Site 1705) spend lots of time in the woodworking shop creating beautiful masterpiece bowls. I am in awe of their talent and finished products. Their hobby starts by choosing just the right kind of wood for their project, then cutting it into the precise sized pieces, gluing it together into rings, and then grinding it down into their finished bowl. Take a close look at the workmanship involved in the process. Congratulations Joan and Frank!



Speaking of hobbies....I'm afraid BJ really has me hooked on her bead making stuff. I spent a couple hours at the kitchen table last night. Look at my pretty creations!! Thank you, BJ for being such a great instructor. I look forward to more lessons!


I keep talking about all the pretty cactus plants found here in the park. I hope Pauline and Len have had a chance to see theirs in bloom.

Hot Weather Activity

Whew! Is it hot! 113 again today and no relief in sight. The good news is that we still manage to have fun.

Today I attended a beading class conducted by BJ. BJ has been in the beading business for mega years so has a vast collection of beads and all the trinkets and dodads it takes to make jewelry and anything else associated with beads. She loves to teach classes and despite my hesitation at jewelry making, I'm afraid she has me hooked. I don't even wear much jewelry so didn't think I'd be interested, but she has me hooked and I find it very entertaining and just plain fun. The comraderie of getting together with a group and learning together adds to the enjoyment. We're all hoping that BJ will teach classes this coming season here at Palm Creek. My bet is that she'd have a waiting list of students eager to attend. Then we could all go downtown to Ruthie's store called the Gingerbread House to get our beads and supplies.


BJ & Sue Sally, Karen, me, Stella, and Pat

Look at our pretty new necklaces and earrings!

About 7:00 every night, you can find our "bobber club" at the pool for a refreshing respite from the heat. We're called the bobber club because we basically just bob around with our styrofoam noodles and converse about the latest news.

Here's Stella, Verna, Mike, Peggy, Jan, me....and that's Aldo under the surface. He always brings along his floating jug filled with his secret potion. Thank you, Bruce, for taking our photo.

Home Again

We're back home after visiting our kids in Ohio. What a wonderful time we had! Our new RV was perfect for this kind of trip and all went better than expected for the 16 days we were gone. (Details of the trip are posted in the Hepler Journal. See link on right edge of this blog page.)

Whew! Is it ever hot here. Temps are in the triple digits every day and the humidity is up to 30-40%. It wasn't so bad in the spring because it still cooled down at night but that cooling down stuff seems to be over. We're on full air conditioning now. We're officially in the monsoon season as the dewpoint was above 55 for three consecutive days. That is the official start of the season. I hear from the neighbors that we had two significant storms these past two weeks. It was mostly just dirt and dust but there was actually enough rain to get the street wet...about 1/4 inch. Welcome home to the dirt on our patio. Yuck. I just took a hose and washed everything down to make it livable again. The whole house needs a thorough washing, but it can surely wait till September when this storm season is over. Thank you, Ralph and Peggy, for keeping an eye on the homestead while we were away.

We were only gone two weeks but it’s amazing to see how much construction was done. There are new park models all over the place! There are six new village homes and I understand there are at least six more on the way. There are quite a few holes dug for upcoming homes so the area looks like giant gophers at work.

New village homes on Mountain Mirage Lane, Sites 1310, 1311, and 1312.

More home sites being prepared.

This is the view from the north end of the golf course. Thse sites were all empty in the spring. Almost all the golf course lots are filled.

This one looks like a new style of park model with the big bay window on the front.

We're Taking Off

The new weather station that Don installed on our roof says it was 115 here today. Whew. That's hot. The weather man says he predicts the monsoon season will start next week. Don and I both enjoy summers here as its really interesting....but....opportunity beckons so we're departing tomorrow on a little adventure.

If you go to the Hepler Journal website located to the right on this page, you'll see that we are the proud owners of a new 2007 Forest River Lexington 29ft Class C. We traded in our 2001 Itasca motor home. In other words, we downsized since we have no intentions of full timing any more. Our new coach is perfect for getting us from Point A to Point B and be very comfortable along the way. The unit even has THREE slides. It's really nice. Pictures posted on the Hepler Journal site.

Anyway....we're off to Ohio to visit our two sons and our brand new precious daughter-in-law. We're not looking forward to the 2000 mile journey to get there, but I want to see the kids and Don usually let's me have my way. He sure groans and moans a lot, but he gives in eventually. That's quite a trek to break in a new unit but we'll enjoy the adventure.

I will probably be off line for a few weeks so won't be able to update the blog on a regular basis but do check back occasionally.

There's so much going on here at Palm Creek this week!! New homes are springing up everywhere. They dug out two ground sets for village homes at 1310 and 1309. There are quite a few concrete slabs that are marked for removal which means more homes are on the way. There are four village home sections parked out there waiting for their final destination. Sites 1285 through 1289 are being dug up for village homes too. Lots of digging and moving gravel. I am sorry to miss the action but will update you as soon as we return.

Ken & Rosemary--This second picture is yours!

Also wanted to post this picture of Everette. He's a true fellow Wisconsin fan. Go Packers! He and his little buddy Gizmo stop by to see us while we sit on the patio for coffee in the mornings. Hey Everette....keep an eye on the place. Our neighbors, Ralph and Peggy Cooper, are caretakers for us while we'll be gone.

Well....adios Amigos. Hope you're all enjoying your summer. I'm off to see my kids!! Yahoo!!

A new village home has arrived...well, at least half of one. This is parked way over on the west side of the park near the wall and has no name on it so we're not sure whose it is yet.


Congratulations to Ken and Rosemary! They dug the hole today for Site 1310...is that your house half waiting for you?? I assured Ken I would be here to take lots of pictures for him as his new home gets moved in. The concrete slab at 1309 is marked as "remove". I imagine that means another home is on the way. How exciting! I heard a rumor yesterday that the park has sold 84 park models since September of 05. How about that! The joint is jumping!



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Don is such a Gadget Freak. He likes all kinds of electronic toys, computers, and gizmos. His latest acquisition is a complete professional weather monitoring system so we can track the Arizona summer temps and the monsoon winds and rain. This gizmo he mounted on the roof measures wind direction and velocity, temperatures, humidity, and rainfall (ha). It has been fun watching the temperature go up and down during the day....mostly up. As I type this at 5:40 p.m., the temp is 114 with 4 degree humidity. Like they say, "Its a DRY heat".


If you haven't checked my Journal lately, you may want to click on the link in the right panel of this page that takes you to the Hepler Journal. I posted some info there about our new rig.

Life is Slower in late June

With the daily temperatures steadily over 100 degrees, life gets a little slower here in Arizona. There's still plenty of activity in the early morning as the die-hard pickleball players start at 6:30 and there's always at least one tennis court in play. The remote control airplane guys are busy flying their planes in the still morning air, but by noon things are really quiet as we all retreat indoors to our air conditioning.

The doves don't seem to mind though. They're out in great force regardless of the temps. As plentiful as they are, they're still cute to watch as they raise their young. Some people go to great lengths to discourage doves from visiting their patio while others build nesting places for them. This picture shows is a cute platform that was built just for mama dove and she really appreciates it by the looks of her two chicks.



Our friends (George and Jan) win the award for hosting the most devoted dove mama of them all. We've watched this poor dove build her nest in the same spot for the last two years. She devotedly sits on her nest to hatch her young even in the most blistering heat. What wins her the award is that her nest is on top of a hot tin roof. I couldn't get close enough for a great photo, but at least you get the idea of what she endures. Maybe she is the source of the term "bird brain"???



BJ and Len recently resurfaced their driveway which greatly enhanced the appearance of their Palm Creek home. The color of the new surface nicely blends in with their pretty brick wall and patio. Congratulations on a very pretty home!

DUST STORM

Wow! We had a monsoon-type storm this afternoon and it's not even monsoon season yet. Typical of these storms, it came out of nowhere without warning. We went from a hot sunny 106 degrees to a thick stormy 82 within 15 minutes. The huge yellow dust clouds came barreling through and completely blocked the sun. This storm made the evening news as they had to immediately close all the airports and wait for things to clear. The storms pass as fast as they come so within the hour we were in the clear again. We actually had some rain with this storm. Granted, it wasn't much, but at least there was some. That's the first time in months and months and months. It was quite something to watch the rain drops hit the hot pavement as they evaporated almost the moment they touched ground. This is an awesome state. You never know what the weather will throw at you next. Love it here!

These photos were taken within 5-10 minutes of each other. You can get a feel for how quickly the dust storms pass. There are still huge clouds of dirt passing over but at least the sun can shine through again.

This next photo is phenomenal. At first I thought my lens was broken or something but then I realized that all the "crystals" you see are actually the reflection of the camera flash against all the dirt that was blowing through the air. If you look closely at the center of the photo, you can make out the headlights of a car that was coming down the street. Wonder if I could win a photo contest with this one!
Of course, tomorrow morning you'll see me and the neighbors out sweeping and vacuuming and washing all our outside furniture, golf carts, and cars as everything gets covered with grit. Oh well....it gives us something to do.

More Palm Creek news! This double-wide village home was put in place yesterday afternoon. This is the new home for Roger (Yogie) and Linda Balzan at Site 1310. I'm sure they'll be watching and monitoring its progress.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LARRY KRAFT!!

Some folks may think Larry is calm, cool, and somewhat sophisticated as he is past president of the Lawn Bowls Association and is quite well known in the Palm Creek community. Bah Humbug. Gotcha Larry.

Here's the scoop: There was a drive-by shooting at our house...and guess who was responsible! It was the sly expert sharp shooter, Larry Kraft. As Don and I were resting peacefully on our patio, Larry went speeding by on his bicycle and hit poor innocent Don with rapid fire projectiles from his homemade blow gun. Okay...so the projectiles were miniature marshmallows, but none the same, it was a direct hit. And then...he drove by and got him again!


As word spreads, I foresee the future where Larry may be asked to mass produce these blowguns for sale in our "retirement" community. Some folks may want the guns for their grandchildren...but knowing the mindset of some of us "retired folks" we may want weapons of our own for self-defense.

Be sure to see Larry this fall when you return and rib him about his devious antics. Until then, we make plans for sweet revenge.

Have a GREAT day Larry. We miss you. Honest we do. And Donna....you get a gold star for staying with the guy!

fSummer seems to be a tad early this year as we had a HOT one today and temps are predicted to be in the triple digits all week with near record breaking highs. Thank goodness for air conditioning! I'll gladly accept donations from anyone wishing to assist with our electric bill. :) All kidding aside, I'd still rather endure this than go back to 20 below back East.

Hot as it may be, the cactus and flowering shrubs are in their glory. I took a couple pictures today of some of the prettiest ones I came across. That new section north on Cole Circle really looks nice. These pretty flowering trees appear down there. Even the lantana in our front yard are full of blossoms.

Early mornings are still very pleasant. There were six of us at pickleball this morning and several of the guys are still out flying their remote control planes in the cool air.