This has been a "Good Bye" Party in our neighborhood. It was hard to hug and say "See you around" when we do not know if that will ever happen.....
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Our itinerary for summer and winter is done, please, go the the main tabs of the home page and mouse over the big tab "Travel Blog". The itinerary page will show up and has to be clicked in order to be opened.
Our neighbors Dick and Myrtl are ailing and one of their daughters came over from Florida for one week to take care of them. We shared meals either she or I had made. It also has been the week for celebrations. Dieter had his 81. birthday on March 23rd and we had our 57th wedding anniversary on March 25th. We had a lot of fun on our last shared meal together, which I had prepared. The following two pictures of Dieter and me show that clearly. You probably start to laugh too........... We knew that we were not "lawfully" parked on our rented lot when we arrived here beginning of last August. Hardly anybody was here because it was hot, hot, hot....but we had it leased for one year up to the end of May 2014. We hoped that we could use our former lot anyway as we did several times before.
Members of the boards of the Home Owners Association ( HOA) started to "trickle in" when it got cooler. At that time Dieter got dangerously sick and was unable to to anything outside. Board members approached our landlord and told him that we had to move on the lot in order to stay away 3' from the border to the neighboring lot, 5' from the front (road) and 3' from the back . We were 1,5' away from our neighbor to the west. Two days ago our landlord and friend Dick presented us with a letter of the HOA, which was telling us to move more to the side of the shed in order to comply with the law, otherwise he would have to pay fines, which would be greater every month we stay here. Dieter feels good since quite a while now, and we had already made our travel itinerary for the summer because once more being here in the hot months made us realize that we have to go elsewhere. So we agreed to move - that day was yesterday.....Dick and Myrtle did not like the entire situation, you can imagine.... Even though we have only 2,5 months more to stay here before we leave, nobody suggested to us that they would make an exception and we would not have to move around in place... oh well..... Dieter had to pick up one row of red patio stone in order to move more to the east. I had to secure some things inside, roll up the carpets etc. And we brought the 2 slide-outs in from downstairs. The one in the bedroom we left outside. Finally he hooked the trailer up to the truck hitch. Of course, it took us a while this time to go to the back and back to the front in order to get our 40' trailer 1,5 ' farther toward the shed - - without hitting anything or damaging the patio stones. The truck has an 8' bed and our street has just normal size. You can imagine that this action takes up a little bit of nerve power.... Now we cannot pull out the big awning, which is absolutely necessary to have open in the summer. And the window awnings reach too far to the border of the neighboring lot. At noon we were completely finished and had all things put back in its place inside. Our cat Ellie stayed inside and was sitting underneath the dinner table while we were driving the slide-outs out. She was very brave, but it took her a while to get over that "moving shock"... We will never come back to this place. That decision has other reasons as well. We want to stay in a place where the sommers are bearable and winter locations are easy to reach without driving thousand plus miles. We are getting too old for that. I took 3 pictures this morning to show you our location situation. We wish all friends, relatives and visitors of this site a good 2014 !
May you be healthy and happy. Dieter is back to feeling very well and so do I - and we both hope that our good status continues. Even the travel bug made its way back into our minds. We will inform you about our plans when the time is right. Cheers! Prosit! Now we can relax and enjoy this season in sunny Arizona...
Relax from what - you ask? Dieter got very sick in the last October week, high fever, heavy nightsweats, no appetite, fast weightloss. We tried to keep it in check, but we had to give up and get an appointment on Nov.1. with the family doctor here in Florence, AZ. He recommended to drive to the ER. Our friends and neighbors Dick and Myrtle Lowater drove us to Mesa. Dieter was admitted later that night after some tests were done. On the 4. of Nov. I could pick him up again because the hospital was done by then with other tests and Dieter was rehydrated enough to recover at home. He looked by then like he would die pretty soon. ...He was very weak and could not really eat anything. The hospital had prescribed iron tablets because he was anemic. Those pills bothered his stomach. The diagnosis was "infection of urinary tract". But we both were thinking that his primary Amyloidosis was catching up with him again. The family doctor had that feeling, too, and connected us with a Nephrologist. Meanwhile Dieter was asking me to cook or prepare meals according to his wishes and he started to eat again - little, but he ate...and gained some weight back. The kidney specialist wanted us to retrieve all lab results available from the time Dieter got diagnosed with the deadly blood disorder in 2004. On the 16. of this month we had another appointment with him and after he had compared data concerning the kidneys he told us that he does not see the urgency to contact an oncologist at this time. We were pretty happy and still are. Dieter does light work in and around the trailer again and gets stronger, little by little. And he looks like his old self again.... We will celebrate Christmas Day all by ourselves, and we will be thankful that we can look forward to the New Year with joy. This picture was taken by me in the late afternoon on Oct. 09.,2013
There was a storm predicted with high winds and rain for the upcoming night and the next day. Dieter rolled the main awning in, just in case, but it would have not been necessary. We had some winds and light rain. Our clubhouse in Tierra Del Sol RV Resort, Florence, AZ, is decorated by 2 resident ladies in the spirit of upcoming Halloween. The following pictures show their nice work.
The big room is used as breakfast and dining room, for playing TV Games, Library, Cards, Board Games, Jigsaw Puzzles, for Crafting ( like knitting and quilting), for little "get-togethers" and meetings. Our friends since 2004 in Tierra Del Sol RV Resort are Richard (Dick) and Myrtl.
You will hear their names more often in the next time, and I thought I introduce them to you..... As I must have mentioned before, they bought our lot in 2005 when Dieter was very sick. After we had collected ourselves and Dieter had the firm resolve to live instead of die, as oncologists had foreseen, we wanted to go back from Florida to Arizona. (Here a link about Dieter's ordeal: http://karinbartschwhitehair.blogspot.com/2013/01/our-happiness-was-challenged-in-2005.html ) Dick said: Please, come back, you can rent your old lot. We would be glad if you come. Since then we had parked there on and off. We are parked back to back, meaning that we are divided by a common way only, their entrance from a parallel street of our street. Pictures follow...... We have been parked at their property up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin for the summers of 2006 and 2012. The layout of the properties makes it easy for us to see each other when we are outside....we talk a lot and have a drink together in the evening or share a meal. We are there for each other in cases of sickness and we share fun and joy also. Here are the pictures. The first one is taken from the back of our trailer and shows one of their properties, where they live in the winter, the adjacent lot is theirs, too. The second picture is taken from across their street and shows the entrance side. They own a Alfa Gold Fifth Wheel as we do. When we exchanged our motorhome against a Fifth Wheel in Mesa in 2007, we were offered the one we have...I had to convince Dieter to buy a one-ton truck to pull it.....I love my house on wheels..... The third picture is of Dick and Myrt. During the last days we washed our trailer and the car, the shed and the patio stones were hosed down, we went shopping to Coolidge and did other regular maintenance......
This morning Dieter noticed a water leak at our water connections, he investigated...... He lifted the lid of the water meter box and it was under water entirely. I wondered yesterday already about the water pressure and delayed doing laundry with my washer. Dieter found out this morning that the entire pipe system underground was corroded and very brittle. He dug it all out and drove to ACE in town to buy the material for replacement. My concern was the sun when Dieter worked outside, it has been about 104 degr.F or 40 Grad Celsius ( in deep shade..), in the sun it would have been almost 130 degr.F. I frequently investigated about his state of well-being, brought him water to drink and tried to help him a little. At noon he was finished. Everything worked again - and I could switch our internal water pump off and do laundry after lunch.... Having a husband who is a construction engineer and had a building company in Pennsylvania is a real "Plus" when technical happenings occur. I think there is nothing which Dieter could not fix or deal with - in any circumstances.... He also lowered our awning arms to the ground and fastened them by nailing them into the ground. It is easier to pass by the trailer without having to duck..We do not want any visitor's head harmed, either. Following are 2 pictures, the first one showing the awning arms down and the second one shows Dieter relaxing after all his work by doing a crossword puzzle..... We arrived yesterday on our former lot in Tierra Del Sol RV Resort, a 55+ community of "Snow Birds" ( living here in winter and going home up north...). The lots are all deeded. We once owned the lot where we are parked as renters now. Thanks to the absolute "friendship price" of our neighbors and friends Richard Lowater and his wife Myrtl we can afford to enjoy our "old lot" here.
We keep all our current memberships up and running, which guarantee us a place to stay elsewhere for affordable prices - in case we have to leave here - or do want to leave. Underneath I will post some pictures I took yesterday....until next time! |
AuthorMy name is Karin Bartsch. Archives
July 2015
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