A Little More Information

The fact of the matter is the picture in the previous post was what our house looked like before SWAM had the opportunity to apply a little love to it. These 3 pics show a front and back view. We have friends that have purchased the lot next door and the one 3 doors down. It will be fun.

Our back yard is HUGE and we have attempted to meet all criteria in order to get it landscaped properly. SWAM spent all day yesterday going from engineering company to Home Owner's Association trying to get approval for what we want to do. (Mostly front yard stuff.) There is a neighborhood swimming pool that is sparklingly new. In fact, it will open next week. We are minutes from shopping, close to the Mesa Market, Superstition Springs Shopping Center, close to the where the new Gilbert temple will be built and 15 minutes from the Mesa airport. We look forward to spending some time down there and hope to have a means to pay for it figured out soon.

Later

Ironwood Crossing

We are exhausted. The past week has been a marathon of Ginormous proportions, however, we have acquired a little home in AZ and tomorrow the trucks start to arrive with the STUFF that will furnish said residence. Living with SWAM has its moments, mostly good. Having to go to every furniture store in Phoenix and surrounding burbs might not be counted among the good ones. Some people (insert my name here) could buy everything by looking at pictures, reading a few reviews and moving onward. Not her!!! We had to touch, sit on, in and over all the STUFF.

Late yesterday in what I consider to be a coup d'etat, we agreed on almost everything. Of course by then I had long realized that my opinion meant as much as it has regarding the various wedding plans we have made for our children. My role was to drive, feed and soothe my mate. Her asking me my opinion was really only courtesy or perhaps the opportunity to bounce ideas of an inanimate object. We found most of our STUFF at funky places and it will be interesting to see it pull together tomorrow.

When we did the walk through with the builder the other day there were a number of issues still to be resolved, most paint related but they made it and today, when we picked up the keys, the place was spotlessly clean, holes had been filled, lines caulked and ready for the next stage of its existence.

Negotiation with landscapers, window covering experts (I decided I wouldn't say blind people in that I didn't want any misunderstandings to take place) are well underway. Desert landscaping is the common theme and we will gladly submit to maintenance free rocks and cacti. My opinion on blinds, don't ask, just get the check book.

More later.

Some More Ravings of a Loonietic

It was perhaps the shortest summer ever and I am tired of lousy weather. We are fighting monsoon winds, cold temperatures and snow every day. WHY???? There is a lake out in front of our house that isn't supposed to be there. It is el cinco de Mayo and I still have to clear snow off the truck before I go out. WHY????

I suppose I could clear out the garage and make room for the truck but all those boxes look so comfortable, particularly because there is so much room between each box. As we wean our way through the stuff, we slowly eliminate the need for some of it and find some new places for much of it. Our new home is roomy and comfortable, we are very happy with the functionality of it and pat ourselves on the back for the good job. (Somebody has to do it.)

HOW'S THIS FOR A FISH STORY?

Our son-in-law has eclectic tastes in athletic pursuits. What that really means is that he does different kinds of stuff. He proposed to Kristy and then jumped out of an airplane, he considers a 25 km. walk on a Saturday to be a stroll, in spite of bogs, muskeg and mountainous terrain. Those who follow the blog will remember his experience with the monk seal in Hawaii. Anyway...

His great passion outside of medicine is the sport of "Free Diving". He has thankfully gotten past the need to test his endurance by swimming straight down a rope until he knows that he has past his ability to return to the surface, then doing so. He practices holding his breath in the house, in the car, while reading. You get the picture. He can hold his breath for close to 5 minutes and will sit at the bottom of a pool just to prove it.

For the past 2 or 3 years he has partnered up with a group of like-minded (read that loose minded) guys and they have ventured off to Baja, Mexico to spear fish. The spears are lethal in their appearance and, if I were a fish, they would simply scare me to death. The adventure is only complete if, as they camp on the rocky beach, a hellish thunder storm rains down, turning the beach into a light show as lightning and thunder arrive simultaneously to hammer the whole area. Of course, he sleeps in a tent, enjoying nature's beauty.

This past week was the 2010 edition and it was exciting to say the least. Lee is a principled individual and doesn't fish on Sundays. His mates respect that and let him take that day for meditation and enjoyment as well as doing a little of the preparation for the next days. On the Monday of the trip, the group decided that it was only fair that Lee have the first dive as he had kept to his principles of the previous day.

As he made his way to the bottom, approximately 80 feet away as this is the best place to hunt from, he spied a fish checking him out. The fish was a number of feet away and it was not easy to determine size but he could tell it was BIG. As the fish came close, obviously hunting Lee, he turned sideways giving Lee a shot, which he took.

These spears are huge, they are lethal in the look and could easily pierce big game. The spear went into the target and the fish took off; down and into a cave. Only after going down to the cave did Lee determine the size of the quarry. HUGE!!

The fish was big enough to be a threat to great harm with the wave of a muscular tail. It took 3 spears, 2 hours and every ounce of ability and energy, to land the Grouper. Now the world record for this type of fish, taken by a spear is 148 pounds. Lee's weighed in at 205 pounds, unfortunately only weighed on the boat as an official scale was not nearby. A world record and by Lee's admission, no need to repeat. Well done Lee. Now back to radiology.

No need to mention the shark that caused a flurry of

activity to get this monster on board.