Saturday, December 14, 2013

Mesa, AZ - First Leak

I’m betting that you might think that Gary and I have done nothing over the last 8 or 9 days since I haven’t written anything about it. Actually, you’d be wrong, but much of what we’ve done is not blog worthy and I’ve been too busy to write about the rest. We’ve done Christmas shopping, taken a tour of Scottsdale (we’ve been there but only in the mountains), shopped at the Pueblo Grande Indian Market, met some high school friends who now live in AZ for breakfast and a tour of the Desert Botanical Garden where there is a large installation of Chihuly glass sculptures and, here’s the big part, we’ve gotten our RV back and have found some problems which Gary the Handy-man needed to take care of while I Washed-and-Waxed-All the RV and the Jeep.

Where to start, where to start? How about with getting our ‘home’ back.

We stayed in the park model in our resort for 5 days, from Monday morning when we took our RV in for some work to Saturday morning when we picked it up. We appreciated being able to rent the little house since it meant that we would be close to the RV and its renovations, we’d have a kitchen to cook and avoid restaurant food, a living ‘room’ to relax in and a nice dining ‘room’ to eat in and work at the table in. Pretty comfy and for a fraction of what it would have cost in a hotel and restaurant.

Saturday came and it was time to pick up the RV - and pay for it. Before we left the house, I checked around but couldn’t find our checkbook so thought I must have left it in the RV by mistake. We got to RV Renovators, looked over the work and I looked for the checks. Nope, not there. I jumped in the car to hurry back to the park to check my there again. I got to the house and realized that Gary still had the house keys. I jumped in the car to hurry back to RV Renovators to get the keys. Then I hurried back to the house, checked, found the checks and hurried back to RV Renovator. Was I hurried and harried? Is Phoenix hot in the summer?

We paid, drove the RV back to our spot in the resort and began to clean. Not that it was really dirty but there had been some sawing and gluing in it and the usual residue was left. But, remember, we bought flooring that would be easy to clean. Then, time to move everything in the house back in. We love the warmth of the new floor and the ease of cleaning. Gary has his own desk so we’re not so cramped. Nice.
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2 days later, we notice a small leak around the shower, where they had moved it a little to get the flooring under it. We knew we had a little seepage under the shower but now it is a leak. Seepage we can postpone, leakage, we cannot. Looks like the caulk seal had gotten had broken. However, now we have a full-scale leak. Sounds like a day project: take off the shower doors, use a plastic putty knife and vinegar to remove the lime deposits, re-caulk the shower, put the shower doors back on and cross ones fingers. No, when Gary does a project, he looks at all the angles, he studies the work involved, he does it slowly and he does it right. I did not have to cross my fingers - I knew that Big Gar was on the job. He’s not just a sexy stud muffin.

Here is one door in our driveway, carefully placed on two trash containers so it would be safely out of the way while Gary worked on the shower. Gary brought the other out after I had taken this picture.
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So that’s how Gary spent his day. And how did I spend mine? Well, I met some friends from high school and we went out for breakfast and then to the Desert Botanical Garden where we saw some absolutely beautiful glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly from Washington state. Mary and Sherron come down to Phoenix for shopping and sight seeing during December each year and since Gary and I have been in the area, I’ve been able to join them - well, not for the shopping which is not my thing but for the sight seeing. Last year we saw the Christmas lights at the Phoenix Zoo and this year we planned the Desert Botanical Garden. The Garden itself is beautiful but the glass sculptures, carefully placed among all the desert flora at the Garden were exquisite. Sometimes it was easy to see where his sculptures were but sometimes they blended in and we had to scout them out.
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And here we three are, reflected in one of his other pieces.
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Possibly you’ve seen some of his sculptures in your travels. We had seen one in the San Antonio Public Library several years ago when we were there. We saw this humongous glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling of the atrium and when each glass piece caught the rays of the sun, it glistened. We were intrigued and walked all around under it to catch each view.
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We're planning to stop in Seattle this summer and one of the things we want to do is visit some of the Chiluly installations there.

When I got home, I found Gary just beginning to install the shower doors. Doesn’t he look like a happy guy?
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Is the leak fixed? Does Phoenix get hot in the summer? Sho nuf. No more leak and no more seepage.

I think I chose a better way to spend my day than Gary. What do you think?

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