Owls and Slow Days

Last year we had an owl family raising a brood here at the park and it looks like one of the younger owls has returned.  There is also a larger one hanging around and that may be one of the parents of this owl.  There are large numbers of rabbits in the area and it looks like it will be good hunting for the owls.

I see you down there.

 We had some errands to run today and on the way downtown there was a truck pulling about 7-8 rail cars near the power plant.  I assume they were empty because the truck was moving fast down the track.  I've seen trucks on the tracks before, but never one pulling rail cars.

 We finished up the errands and decided to go for an early fish dinner at the Cattletown restaurant.  As we were being led to our table, our neighbor here at the park called out to us.  Frank, Jan and their son were sitting at a large table so we joined them.   It sure is a small world when you run into friends at one of the hundreds of restaurants in the area.  There wasn't a wait time at 4:15pm but by the time we left the lobby was full of people. 

We made a quick stop at a Family Dollar on our way home.  As we were leaving, the sun was beginning to set.  We also stopped by the Pima County Fairgrounds to see how busy they were and managed to get a few sunset pictures.  There were fewer RVs there than I thought.  I was somewhat surprised at the low turnout.  Next week it will be a lot different with the Escapee Rally set to start on March 7th.

Just another nice day out here in Tucson with the temperature running in the high 70s and bright sunshine. 

That was our day, how was yours?

Cactus Country Dog Show

The Cactus Country RV park is divided into three sections:  a) mobile homes, b) front section & c) down the hill.  We started out in the the front section and loved it there but they only have 30amp electric service.  Since we need 50amp service. we moved to the down the hill section.

When we first came here in 2006 RVs with children and pets were only allowed in the back section.  The park isn't a 55+ plus park and over the years the children in the park has varied from 3-5 to the present 19-25.  For the most part the children haven't been a problem except for one year when a real trouble maker was here.  His family was "asked" to leave and things settled down.  Each year the park seems to change from one way to another.

Now you might want to know what the above has to do with the subject of this blog.  It has all to do with the number of dogs in the park and the parade each morning and evening of dog owners and their pets.  I would estimate there are more than 40 dogs in the park at the present time.  For the most part this isn't a problem since they aren't allowed to run without being on a leash.  I see the parade all the time and decided to have a dog show here and judge the best of breed dog.  It was difficult since there are some beautiful bulldogs and pit bulls here, but I couldn't get a picture of them for this show.  Maybe later I will do another show if there is any interest.

I used my game camera to take a number of the photos and a regular camera for the others.  So here goes with the dog show.  Which is your favorite?

First dog in the show early in the morning.

Neighbor with her dog out early.

Poor dog must be embarrassed wearing pink.

Nice looking basset hound.

Small pooch and hard to see.

Hummm, it sure smells good here.

Go ahead, I won't look

The dog on the right was ready to go and let the owner know.

Where are we going?

Best of show!

  We call these two dogs "push me, pull me" since they each want to go in the opposite direction.  The dog on the left didn't want to go to the right and dug in his heels and refused to walk to the right.  Then the dog on the right decided he didn't want to go to the left and just sat down.  We watched them for 5 minutes and really got a good laugh out of them.  The owner was very patient and worked with both of them.  For this they get best of show.

We had to run an errand and wound up behind the little "doggie" so we included him/her at the "end" of the blog.

That's all folks, be sure to vote for your favorite dog or doggie.
 

Samsung S5 Smartphone Problem

As I mentioned last November we finally purchased a Samsung S5 smartphone and also a 30Gig data plan through Verizon.  We've gotten used to the phone and Gerry accuses me of hogging the phone all the time.  Probably true.

I do like to work with new computers, printers, phones, etc. to see how they work and what can be done with them.  It is easier to learn the ins and outs before you need a particular capability and I don't like to have to work under a deadline and pressure.  All in all we have been happy with the phone and Verizon service.

However, recently whenever I used the speaker function to talk to someone, they said they heard an echo and themselves talking.  At first I thought it may be the other person's phone since it hadn't happened before the last week or so.  Finally, it became obvious that the phone had a problem.  

I did what everyone else does when they have a problem.  I googled to learn if others had the same problem.  Yes, it was a fairly common one and getting a new phone didn't always solve the issue.  Oh Oh!  There were many solutions presented and I tried a few of them but decided the others were too complex to try.  Nothing worked and my friends got tired of me testing the solutions on them.  Sorry guys.

Then I decided to do an online chat with a Samsung tech person and managed to set up a session with the techie and work toward fixing the problem.  She suggested a number of solutions and nothing made any difference.  Finally, she said to remove the battery from the phone and leave it out for 30 seconds.  I was skeptical but tried her solution and it worked.  The sound is better and the speaker works fine now.

I thanked her and said I was glad I didn't have an airplane with a problem and the tech said to turn off the engine for a while to see if that helped.  She failed to see the humor in my comment and asked if I was satisfied with her service.  Yep!  I was and now if the problem comes up again I know what to do.

Gas Station for Lunch - Papa Locos

Yes, we went to a gas station for a late lunch today.  It is a combination market, gas station, restaurant & barber shop.  We had heard about this place last year and thought we would check it out today since we had a taste for Mexican food.  They don't have a liquor license but you can walk next door and get a beer to go and sit outside with your food and drink.  We felt like we were back in Costa Rica for a while today.

Papa Locos Tacos and Burgers lived up to the recommendations and we each enjoyed our meals.  The only problem was that we weren't aware they had a condiments bar that had a lid over it.  We didn't notice it.  I finally saw another diner preparing his meal at the bar and walked over to check it out.  They had hot, hotter & ouch hot salsa there along with jalapeno peppers.  Nothing there for me, but they did also have some mild salsa and other goodies.  No sour cream though.  Next time we will load up our meals with the goodies.

You have to order at a counter and they bring your meal to you.  Service was very fast and the meals were good.

Gerry has a computer program that will create jigsaw puzzles on her computer and she can pick how large the pieces are, with small ones making the puzzle very hard.  She noticed the following posters on the wall and wanted a picture of them.  How would you like to put a 400 piece puzzle together with these posters?

She is getting ready to sink her teeth in the bottom one now and that should keep her out of bars for a while.  Don't tell her I said that.

This is what the jigsaw puzzle looks like in the beginning with all the 200 pieces ready to be assembled.  Do you want to help her with this one?  The program cost $20 over ten years ago and is one of the best bargains she has on her computer.  The vendor who sold it originally has supplied free updates over the years as Gerry went from Win 97, XP, Vista, Win 7.  Great support.

Earlier in the day we went for coffee and donuts at the recreation center in the park and donated our $2.00 to the lucky buck drawing.  Since I only had a $20 bill and the ticket seller only had $1.00 bills for change, I wound up with $18.00 in one dollar bills and I felt rich.  Actually, I wanted to get rid of them quickly and paid our lunch bill with them since the restaurant needed $1.00 bills.  Win, win situation for me except I didn't win the lucky buck drawing.  

The attendance was quite low this time since a number of people in the park are ill with the flu or something.  I think it is what Gerry and I had a month or so ago and I hope we don't catch it again.  Two people went to the hospital today and I don't know if it is related to the flu bug or not.

Gerry went to the quilting group after the coffee and was working on a child's quilt for Project Linus.  The project gives the quilts to children who are in the hospital.  In the past the group has made and donated over 150 quilts a year, but this year it will be less.

That was our day, how was yours?   Linda, don't tell me about yours since I will be depressed to hear about all the cold and snow in Maine.  Stay warm!

Bread & Butter Cafe - Geocaching Again

We recently heard about a great restaurant for breakfast/lunch & decided to try it this morning.  It's called Bread & Butter Cafe and they seem to have a thriving business.  We managed to snag the last table available and within 3 minutes had a full cup of coffee in front of us.  The breakfasts were good but we both still prefer the TTT restaurant which is a truck stop.  The food is tastier at TTT, however the coffee is not as good.  In either case, we won't starve eating at either place.  The Bread and Butter Cafe serves great cinnamon roles and we shared one for dessert.

After breakfast we decided to pick up a few more geocaches in the area around the restaurant.  All in all, we managed to find 7 caches in a short time. A couple were interesting.  One was special in that it was hidden in Pat's labyrinth.  Pat has planted a Christmas tree around the labyrinth for the past 26 years.  We met Pat and she said she built the labyrinth in 1996 and it is a peaceful place to relax.

Pat's labyrinth

I backed into a cactus taking this picture.  Ouch!

How do I get out of here?

There is a small replica of stonehenge next to the labyrinth and sort of complements the area.  The cache was easy to find and we hung around a little to enjoy the place. 

Just FYI:  A labyrinth is not a maze but a meditative device with a single winding path that leads to a center or end. A maze has many different paths and dead ends to choose from. Walking the labyrinth is a meditative practice which leads to greater power of focus and sense of control in one’s life. Dr. Herbert Benson at Harvard Medical School's Mind/Body Medical Institute has found focused walking meditations are highly efficient at reducing anxiety and has significant long term health benefits, including lower blood pressure and breathing rates, reduced incidents of chronic pain, reduction of insomnia and many other benefits.

I managed to avoid any more cacti on the rest of the cache search and we had a great time.  The weather was perfect for caching and we managed to walk enough to tire us out.  

We joined friends Ron & Dee for dinner at Cattletown for a great fish dinner.  You have to arrive early there or wait an hour or so to be seated.  4:45pm wasn't early enough and we had a 15-20 minute wait to be seated.  It was worth it since the beer was cold and the fish good.  We sat around and chatted after dinner and finished off our pitchers of beer.

That was our day, how was yours?