OUR FIRST REALLY HOT DAY

WEDNESDAY DEC. 5/07
I even ended up putting my shorts on to-day so you know the temperatures got up there for Al to put his shorts on. Even by 9:15 as we were out walking in the desert we were beginning to sweat. By 11 we had to retreat inside out of the hot sun but luckily we have a single Palo Verde tree right beside us which gives us some shade. We can't use our awning because it was torn out by a big Kansas wind last month on I-70.

It was so nice this morning to be out walking among the giant Saguaro cactus again & the desert is much greener this year than last. The prickly TeddyBear cactus presents a bit of a problem for the dogs because of their needle like prickers. We had to stop twice & use the tweezers to pull them out of Cora's little paws. You can see Kelly carrying her in a couple of the web album pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy The two photos of the sunrise were taken from inside the motorhome looking out the door across the desert to the south. I took a bicycle ride back through there late in the afternoon. The desert floor is excellent for bicycles because of it's hard, finely graveled surface. Gotta make sure not to crash into one of those prickly cactus guys though or it would be much big time pain for sure!!

We tried again this afternoon to get our Star Choice television signal from the satellite dish system working but no luck again. We sure do have our troubles. We finally gave up in frustration. Our internet & television are on the same satellite & the internet has been working perfect but we just can't seem to hone in the television signal. I suspect a hardware problem on the dish itself.

I had hoisted up our Canadian flag yesterday when we got here but took it down to-day after receiving two negative comments. I'm not going to say anymore about this other than there seems to be a BIG code of ethics here in America about flying another country's flag. We figured by flying the Canadian flag it might be noticed by fellow Canadians passing by but it obviously got some noses out of joint so rather than risking an international incident I took it down & put up an ordinary wind sock. Enough said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To-night I sat outside under the stars with my binoculars again watching the American Air Force put on another great show high above the desert floor. I'm assuming they are doing night air to air combat "dogfight" missions. Each jet has a double flashing strobe light & some of the jets have solid red lights. Can't actually see the planes, only the lights. They fly mainly in pairs with one gaining quickly on the other sometimes. At one point I saw a bright yellow flare in the dark sky which I presume was released by a jet maybe signifying a kill. I've counted as many as 8 planes at a time going different directions with some of them doing wide sweeping turns. It's really interesting to watch these flashing lights & Red Baron pilots swooping & turning in the inky black sky against a background of endless stars.

No idea what we're doing to-morrow but I'm sure we'll think of something.......maybe:))