National Weather Service Presentation

Dr. Larry Hopper is the Senior Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Phoenix.

We heard a lot of explanations about how our weather is formed and how his department is responsible for determining when to send out weather alerts and warnings.  

Larry presented maps and graphs showing that Casa Grande is truly the heart of dust storm country and how nearly impossible it is to accurately predict a dust storm.

Here is my current thermometer as I post this.  This dry heat isn't so bad but once the rains come, the humidity will rise and that's when the air gets "thick".  No rain at all so far this summer.

We had to stop and wait for the ducks to cross the road this morning.  You'd think they'd walk a little faster on that hot pavement.

New General Manager & New Laundry Rooms

Congratulations to Gabrielle Gonzales as she has recently been promoted to Assistant General Manager for Palm Creek!!  Most of us know Gabby's familiar face from her past four years of service at the front desk.  We look forward to having her in this new position.

Gabby came to visit with us in the card room today and announced that the new laundry facilities are open and ready for business.  ALL the laundry rooms have been completely outfitted with new washers and dryers and the whole operation has been outsourced to an outside firm that will be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the machines.

The machines will work with quarters OR even better, technology has advanced so you can download an app on your phone to operate the machines.  If you download and use this app, it will even send you a message when your load is finished!!!

I just downloaded and installed the app on my phone without any problem.  Looks easy to use and will certainly be convenient.  Just go to the Play Store or your Apple store and download the app called PayRange.

All the new machines are installed in the four laundry rooms.  The app will be available for use by Wednesday of next week.  Quarters can be used now.  

Sun State Pest Control

Many many residents in Palm Creek have used Wade Paupst from Sun State Pest Control to spray our properties for bugs on a monthly basis.  Wade (along with wife Nancy from our sales department) is retiring.  The bug spray business has been turned over to Mark Hall of Enterprise Pest and Weed Services.

Left:  Wade Paupst
Right:  Mark Hall

Wade's customers will now find a full page invoice tucked in their door each month after Mark services their house.

Enterprise Pest and Weed Services

PO Box 11530

Casa Grande, AZ 85130

Phone:  520-836-0400

Enterprise Web Site

Email:  enterprisepestservices@gmail.com

We wish Wade fond best wishes for happiness on his retirement and congrats to Mark for his new venture.  

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The Arizona triple temps are now upon us.  We welcome the newly added "hot pad" door handles at the pool. 

Thank you for the nice new timer for the hot tub at the north pool.  The old one was so well used that all the print was completely worn away.   Now we know which buttons to push.  Yahoo!!

Here's a special thank you and acknowledgement to Bob Herinck for his devoted efforts and painting and stenciling bricks for all the RV sites!!!  I'm sure the whole staff of rangers will truly appreciate the new bricks so they can easily identify the parking spots for RVs.  

To Bob:  "Atta Boy!!"

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His food dish is full but the new bag of food found in the closed cupboard must taste better.

Mouse's morning agenda:

Open cupboard

Pull out big heavy bag

Tear open thick bag

Munch away

Nancy is going to retire!!

Nancy Paupst

Nancy Paupst, head of our Sales Staff, is retiring from Palm Creek.  This Friday, July 12, will be her last day.  Nancy has been working in the sales department for 10 seasons and says she has had an amazing career.  She loved being here and enjoyed her job very much.

She and her hubby, Wade, are heading for the mountains of Arizona.  Looks like they will escape the rest of our hot summer temps.  Wade has withdrawn from his job with Sun State Pest Control so the two of them will have future happy times together.  Congratulations to both and BEST WISHES!!

Email:  npaupst@suncommunities.com

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MORE big news!!

All the laundry equipment will be replaced this summer!  The laundry vendor arrived this morning and is beginning the task of replacing all of our laundry machines with new equipment. They are installing machines in the new Cottonwood Activities Center first, and will be doing the south laundry next. They will provide Gary Lambert with a schedule and then signs will be posted at the other laundries alerting folks as to when the rooms will be closed.

Beautiful morning

We awoke to a wonderful cool 72 degree morning.  Awesome!  I don't mind triple digits during the day when it cools down and gives us a fantastic morning like today.  Golfers and pickleball players rejoice.

Stopped by to see Ricki Persing while she is at work attending the north gate.

She too was excited about such a pretty morning.

This was an unusual palm trim.  He put branches in the basket instead of throwing them to the ground.  I'll have to investigate that one.

Just a couple pictures as we did our rounds.  I'm trying to show the pretty sky.

This section of the park has had its trim already.

He's not here now but we spotted another coyote at this corner this morning.  He quickly turned and headed toward the golf course when he saw us.  Sightings are quite frequent this summer.

This was on Nextdoor this week.

Kent Evans snapped this photo last week.  He said he was on his patio reading a good book when he looked up, saw the sunset, and ran for his camera.  What a GREAT shot.  Thanks, Kent.

photo by Kent Evans

Still over 40 people at the Saturday night card bingo event.

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My cats are NOT allowed on the counters!!  Occasionally Mouse forgets that fact.

July 4 Celebration

 Over 100 people attended our July 4 celebration!!

Thank you to Natalie and Lori for setting up.

Hats were required for attendance.

After dinner, those hats were important for the musical hats game.

Sometimes you wound up with two hats....

Photo by Jeff Vaughn

and sometimes you tried to share!

Photo by Jeff Vaughn

 I'm including a lot of photos so you can zoom in to see which of your neighbors and friends are still here.  AND....the family back home can see how much fun we're having.

Jeff Vaughn at work

Natalie lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  

Bob Debonville was in charge of calling us to the chow line.  Instead of the usual call by table numbers, he started us off by calling for retired veterans and then by branches of the military followed by first responders.  It was a nice way to honor those who have actively served our country.

 Here's a couple more photos from fellow resident Jeff Vaughn, Photography.

Photo by Jeff Vaughn

Photo by Jeff Vaughn

Photo by Jeff Vaughn

Photo by Jeff Vaughn

Photo by Jeff Vaughn

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Back at home, I'm wondering if I need to invest in childproof locks for the cupboards.

Motel Construction

The drone flew over to take a look at the motel construction site over in front of the park.

While Don was out flying the drone, I was in the card room.  We started the day with two tables playing 5-card Omaha.

The second hand of the day was a wild one.  Sandy Schoonover hit a full house with aces over 10s.  It was a beautiful hand until Day Schendzielos turned over his cards with a royal flush!!

Dale grinned and Sandy cried.  LOL  Lots of wow in that hand!

While we played in cool comfort,  the landscapers are still out in the hot sun trimming hedges.  So much work to do.