No Damage……Just more DIRT

Drove all around the park this morning in wonderfully cool 74 degree weather.  Awesome!  Haven’t been in the 70s for several months.  It felt great.  Don and I had a couple cups of coffee out on the patio just to bask in the cool air.  Of course, we had to take folding chairs from the shed because the ones on our patio are covered in half inch of dirt from the storm.  Will spend the afternoon cleaning AGAIN.

 

No sign of any damage from last night’s storm.  Just dirt, dirt, and more dirt.  Wherever there was a little wet spot from the rain, the dust stuck like glue.  Looks weird.

Uh Oh……………….aaccckkkk!!!  My wonderful camera seems to have bit the dust….literally.  After taking pictures in the last dust storm, the camera won’t focus anymore. 

Wednesday, Sept 14

Okay……I’m done crying over my camera and managed to somehow fix it.  A can of compressed air, a soft cloth, and some tender loving care seems to have brought the lens back to life.  I can always use the camera in my new smart phone (that’s another story) but I MUCH prefer my little pocket camera for those quick action photos with a nice zoom lens.  Guess I’ll be more careful in the next dust storm.  I had some (thought I had some) nice dust photos but due to camera issue, I quit that posting.  Will continue here.

We had a wonderful thunderstorm last night and some much needed precious rain!  Mother Nature showed off her talents with a brilliant display across the sky and the rain smelled so sweet.  The air just feels cleaner today!  We actually had the windows open last night as it was down in the 70s.  What a wonderful relief from the heat. 

I would love to learn more about all the types of equipment that get used on the golf course.  The machines seem to come in all shapes and sizes.  I saw this one from a far distance due to the huge dust cloud following him.

We got a couple nice photos as we were out on our rounds this morning.  These are taken from the back patio of a couple homes we watch.  They’re really fortunate to have such a nice view!

We spotted Jim Dawson and Fernando out at work this morning probably planning their next ‘to do’ list.  They’ve certainly done a wonderful job for the park this year!!  They make a great team.

We saw another new park model put in place.  This one is going in on Half Moon Lane, Site 1716.

We’re getting new carpeting in several rooms/buildings up front.  This week I saw installers busy in the Bistro and Pro Shop.  Any time we spot a vendor truck, we can usually find a picture for the blog. 

And….there are all the miscellaneous jobs that we never think about.  Here I saw Office Manager, Gary Lambert, checking on a recent delivery to the pop machines.  There are so many ‘behind the scenes’ tasks that go into making our resort so nice.

Another tell tale sign that the season is changing for us………the hummingbirds are coming back.  A few stay with us year round but this time of year we see more and more of them at our feeder.  Now that we can sit out on the patio again, we enjoy their antics and 2 or 3 will chase each other around as they line up for a drink.

We have some fantastic stories to tell about hummingbirds but the favorite one is when we were camp hosts at a small campground in Utah.  Without exaggeration, there would be upwards of 50 of the little critters flying around our camp.  We refilled three feeders every day.  The little winged fairies would alight on our hands as we tried to hang up the full feeders.  AWESOME!

Some rain, some wind, and LOTS of DIRT (again)

As I write this (7:15 p.m. Saturday), the wind is blowing like crazy and so is the good ole Arizona desert dirt.  About an hour ago we were treated to a wonderful thunderstorm with about five minutes of beautiful precious rain.  Too bad it didn’t last for about an hour like that.  Then it all dried up.  I was reading in my comfy chair when I went out to the kitchen to get a drink……..looked out the window…….and WOW…..we’re in the middle of another haboob.  The street lights were on by this time but we could only see down the street far enough to see four lights…..then in the thick of things we could only see two because the dust was flying.  I tried to take a picture but the flash was on and all I got was THIS:

That’s how thick the dirt was flying through the air.  I turned off the flash and tried again.

That’s the best my poor little camera could do in that much wind and dirt.  Looks like we’ll have to rise early tomorrow and tour through the park to check for damages…and Sunday is supposed to be our day off!

New Homes

So many holes are being dug for new homes!  Neighborhoods will have a new look.

Looks like Desert Wind Lane will have 3-4 new houses on the street.  Sites 1325-1327??  I don’t know if they’re sold or if they’re new spec homes, but there is plenty of activity.

Across Cole Circle is another one going in at 1335?  I may be off a house number or two but it’s close to that general area.

Oasis Drive is getting longer by adding two more houses on the north end.  (1909-1910??)

 

Our streets are really getting a make over this year!  Lots of tar trucks out there beautifying the place.  I don’t imagine this carries a very small price tag.

Gil was out watching the action after his trip to the work out room.

Smaller areas get done by hand.

And…..this man continues with debarking the palm trees.  Tree by tree by tree.

I bet he wishes he had a dollar for every scorpion he chased away.

While all this hard labor continues……someone has to take the time to enjoy the golf course.  Jerry and Sue Logaman were doing just that!

 

We’re ‘supposed’ to get some rain this weekend.  Keep your fingers crossed as we could certainly use it! 

Labor Day

Our Labor Day celebration was a potluck dinner.  We certainly have some awesome cooks at this park!  All the dishes were just scrumptious. 

That was the last of the summer time events.  We finally packed up the tables and chairs in preparation for the season to begin.  Summer events are easier because we can just leave up the tables and chairs so they’re set for the next dinner. 

Outdoor work continues getting the park ready for your return.  Today we saw the pavement crews out patching the blacktop on the streets.  The first trucks have real high pressure blowers that blow the dust away.  Then a different crew follows behind with a man who puts the tar across the crack….followed by two guys with some special brushes that smooth the fresh tar. 

I noticed that they removed all the rose bushes from the ‘rose garden’.  I don’t know what is planned for that area but I’m guessing it will be something other than roses.  Roses are soooooo hard to grow in the desert.

Maintenance crews are staying busy with all the repairs that need to be completed before your return.  We found Jake and Eddie repairing another water riser where they had to freeze the line to make the replacement.

I saw Bill Wrightson out on his daily golf course rounds this morning.  It looks like he played about 8 shots to the green.  He said after the third shot, they finally start getting close. 

He has a special golf tool he carries along to repair ball marks on the greens.  I’d never seen it before so stopped for a close up.

Ball with ball mark

 

Place the repair tool over the mark and presto.

No more ball mark.  If not repaired, it can take up to 10 days for the mark to heal.

When pressed down against the ground, these little teeth come out and pull the grass back up again.  Very clever device and it sure beats all that bending over to repair the mark by hand.  Thank you, Bill, for helping to take such good care of our course.

 

Weather Report:  Good news!  The weatherman predicts that we are done with the 110 temperatures for the rest of the summer!  Hallelujah!!  There is a HUGE difference between 103 and 113.  Some of it may be psychological, but over 110 is really hard to take.  We set an official all time historical record as we had 33 days of temps over 110 this summer.  We had some rain last week for about 20 minutes.  It was a lovely thunderstorm with some locally strong winds but nothing worth commenting about.  It was some PRECIOUS rain, however.  Every drop is welcome after this long drought of a HOT summer.  After watching the national news, I think I’m grateful to be here in spite of our heat.  At least we didn’t have horrible fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, flash floods, mud slides, high heat with ugly humidity, that the rest of the country suffered through these past months.

 

Pickleball Video

I am very remiss about checking on the other Palm Creek blogs that are available at:  www.palmcreek.blogspot.com

 

I was just surfing over there and saw this video from the March 2011 tournament.  It is awesome!  Congrats to whoever did the video and editing.  Check it out at:  Pickleball Tournament    Actually, I saw Rosemary Reese this morning as we were both in the Activities Room to get our new cookbooks and she asked if I had seen the video.

Once the season gets in full swing, I won’t be writing very often because I’ll finally be OUTSIDE playing instead of hibernating indoors in my AC.  Be sure to watch the blogs from all the active clubs because that is where the action will be.  If there are any clubs that want to start a blog on that site, I’ll be glad to help you get set up.    

 

Lots of Pickle People

Another Monday morning brings the pickleball people onto the courts.  Their numbers seem to be growing even in this hot weather.  Eight courts were filled with activity!

Meanwhile, Eddie from the maintenance staff is driving the water truck along Cole Circle to flush all the sewer lines.  I think we could call him ‘Sweaty Eddie” today because he looked like he was sweltering in the heat.  Palm Creek is still working closely with the city to monitor sewer odor along Henness Road and Sandy Desert Drive. 

Now that the village home area has expanded to the north and more homes are added, they’ve also extended the sprinkler system down that way.  Looks like a rather extensive project.

We’re still under an excessive heat warning according to the weatherman and the local police.  Temps will remain over 110 for a couple days yet making this the hottest month of August in history.  Ugh.  With a little luck, they say we may cool down to 103 by the weekend.  Never thought I’d look forward to a COOL 103.  It keeps life interesting.