MOVIE DAY AND BIG WHITE COTTON BALL CLOUDS

HERE COMES DOGGY JUST A RUNNING

First thing I looked for in the dark early morning Sunday sky was stars and by golly there they were.  Our storm clouds had finally exited the area taking with them Saturday's all day rainy drizzle.  Ok Al I thought to myself let's make this a better day and don't get yourself all bogged down and out of sorts with computer stuff again.

A FEW PICS ON OUR MORNING WALK FOR YOU GORD:))

Of course everything outside was pretty well soaked so I moved our chairs, tables and mat from the shady side of the coach out into the drying sun ahead of the coach.  It was 8:40 a.m. when Kelly and I climbed into the Jeep and headed for Harkins Theater in the Yuma Palms Mall.  Being Sunday morning it was a nice drive in with very little traffic.  Showtime was 9:30 and we were in our seats early with popcorn in hand.

HEADING INTO YUMA

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD OUT HERE ON OGILBY ROAD

BIG WHITE COTTON BALL CLOUDS

CAN YOU SEE THE WHITE POODLES PROFILE IN THE CLOUDS LOOKING FROM RIGHT TO LEFT

'Lion' was probably not a movie I would have chosen to see but compared to the other 13 movie choices Kelly figured it would be the best one.  She was right of course and although the movie had some dark moments I did enjoy it.  Any movie based on a true story is always a plus for me.  Well acted by the main character I thought and although the true story had a happy ending it still tugged at one's heart strings.

HEADING INTO THE MOVIE THEATER AT LEFT

KELLY BUTTERS UP SOME POPCORN

OUR THEATER IS DOWN THAT HALL ON THE RIGHT

I SO MUCH LOVE THIS YUMA PALMS MALL HERE IN FRONT OF THE THEATER

APPARENTLY THEY HAVE OPEN AIR FREE JASS CONCERTS HERE ON THURSDAY NIGHTS

In-N-Out Burger was basically right around the corner so that's where we headed after the movie.  Very crowded as usual but it's easy to see why.  Best bang for your buck for sure.  And good burgs too.

PHOTOS MAY BE A BIT GRAINY BECAUSE I AM USING MY 'POINT AND SHOOT' CAMERA

A YOUNG FELLOW SITTING OUTSIDE ON THE PATIO ENJOYING HIS SUNDAY MORNING BURGER

BURGS ARE SO BIG THEY COME CONTAINED IN A BAG

We were home by 1 o'clock.  Unusual for me to have an afternoon nap but that is exactly what I did today.  Having a few energy problems and for some unknown reason neither Kelly or I felt up to par this afternoon.

BIG SHADOWY CLOUD MONSTERS GALLUP ACROSS THE CARGO MUCHACHO MOUNTAINS

AFTERNOON VIEW OF OUR SIDE YARD

Kelly received a reply from a Scott Lovegrove who we believe is one of the 'Open Live Writer' people.  In regards to the ongoing Picasa/Open Live Writer Scott writes, "Hi, this is an issue we're aware of and are trying to reproduce it ourselves so we can get a fix in place".  Well that is a hopeful sign that maybe this problem will be solved soon.  I sure hope so.  Although I have been able to use Blogger this past week and it does have some things about it I do like I think I will quickly return to Live Writer if things get straightened out over there.  Much easier to size and space photos for me.

KIND OF A LAZY CLOUD SORT OF DAY

Sitting outside talking this afternoon both Kelly and I agreed we are both so much looking forward to heading home to Bayfield next month and maybe even earlier than usual if the weather's good there.  A few medical things have cropped up requiring attention and we both seem to be very tired.  I'm not looking forward to the long drive this year.  Need to get home and re-charge our batteries over the summer months for next winter's trip.  Hate to admit it but I think our age is beginning to catch up with us a bit.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A drunk guy in Alaska decides to go ice fishing so he packs up his stuff and goes out onto the ice. He starts sawing a hole in the ice, and a loud booming voice says, "YOU WILL FIND NO FISH UNDER THAT ICE."  The drunk looks up, ignores it, and continues on.  The voice repeats, "YOU WILL FIND NO FISH  The drunk looks up and says, "Is this God trying to warn me?"  The voice says "NO, I'M THE MANAGER OF THIS ICE SKATING RINK."

Q: How do you get a lawyer out of a tree?
A: Cut the rope.

What did the Yogi say when he walked into the Zen Pizza Parlor? "Make me one with everything on it." When the Yogi got the pizza, he gave the proprietor a $20 bill. The proprietor pocketed the bill. The Yogi said "Don't I get change?" The proprietor said, "Change must come from within."

BIG BAD WINDS ARE GONE BUT NOW THE RAINS ARE UPON US

THIS PHOTO PRETTY MUCH SUMS UP OUR ENTIRE DAY

We sure did get the predicted high winds that were called for  here in southern California Thursday and the rain as well.  We experienced some of the heaviest wind gust of ever and finally had to pull our main slide in.  According to TV's nightly news southern California really got clobbered with 5 people losing their lives.  All the rain made it very mucky outside and we now have muddy little doggy paw tracks all over the place.  With morning rains not letting up we were in no hurry to climb out of our jammies.  Couldn't go outside anyway.  Ended up raining the entire day and tonight as I am writing this it is still raining.  At least I got a couple photos of water running in the wash beside us.

I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO STEP OUT FOR SOME BETTER PHOTO ANGLES ON THE RUNNING WATER BUT IT WAS POURING RAIN

Cathie and Gord came over for afternoon tea and we all had us another good chat about things.  They are heading out for Borrego Springs in the morning.  They did invite us to drop around to their country place near Flesherton Ontario this summer and we just might hop into our Motorhome and take us for a drive up to their neck of the woods.  Thought to myself later, 'Holy Smokes' I must have been on my best behavior for us to get a nice invite like that.  Could it be my groucherisms didn't show through??  Nawwwww, couldn't be.

IT'S NOT EVERYONE WHO HAS THEIR VERY OWN FURRY LITTLE COUCH POTATO BUT WE DO:))

Had myself all frazzled today trying to get my Friday post from February 10th posted.  It's the first post that would not publish with the recent Live Writer/Picasa fiasco.  I want to get that post published because it was the day we drove up to Temecula California and stopped into JoJoba Hills on the way.  I've been trying to get it transferred from my Toshiba's Open Live Writer to my Dell's Blogger format and what a nasty time of it I have been having.  That post and all it's photo transfers has been fighting me every inch of the way and this very finicky and unpredictable Blogger format is certainly not making things any easier.  In fact it's been driving me Bonkers!!  Despite almost having it put together I reached a point tonight where I simply had to stop before one of my 2 computers went flying out the door.  Maybe I'll try to finish that troublesome post off once and for all Sunday.  In the meantime I'm going to take my frazzled nerves and put em to bed with a sleeping pill............

OH NO MY DAD'S HAVING ANOTHER BAD COMPUTER DAY

Rain or shine we may do us a movie Sunday morning.  Kinda got us some cabin fever going on here and I'm definitely needing my attention diverted to something else rather than frazzling computer stuff.  It's about got me half drove crazy................

IN THIS THURSDAY NIGHT PHOTO FACING WEST THE THIN SOLID WHITE LIGHT ENTERING FROM THE LEFT IS A TRUCKS HEADLIGHTS DRIVING BY ON OGILBY ROAD AND THE THIN ORANGE LINE LEAVING ON THE RIGHT IS THE TRUCKS TRAILER LIGHTS......IN FACT IF YOU LOOK VERY, VERY, CLOSELY ABOVE THAT WHITE LINE YOU CAN SEE A THIN ORANGE LINE WHICH IS THE TOP LIGHTS ON THE TRAILER

GLOW AT BOTTOM RIGHT IS YUMA, DOTTED LIGHTS BELOW ARE FELLOW RV BOONDOCKERS AND SHORT LINE IN THE SKY IS AN AIRPLANE'S BLINKING LIGHT

GLOW ON THE WESTERN HORIZON IS EL CENTRO CALIFORNIA PLUS THE PLANETS VENUS AND MARS ARE VISIBLE WITH VENUS BEING THE BRIGHTER ONE

A COMMUNICATION TOWER ON THE HORIZON WITH LIGHTS FROM EL CENTRO BEHIND IT

VENUS AND MARS ON THE RIGHT AIRPLANE LIGHTS ON THE LEFT

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The pastoral associate, the associate pastor, and the pastor are taking a shortcut to a meeting. As they walk through a vacant lot, the trio stumbles on an ancient oil lamp. On a lark they rub it, and to their amazement a genie appears and offers to grant them each one wish.The pastoral associate cries out, “I want to be on an island paradise, lolling in the sun without a care!” The genie waves his hand and she disappears in a puff of smoke.  The associate pastor jumps up and says, “I want to be walking through the halls of the Vatican, marveling at all the artwork and never have to go to another meeting as long as I live.” He too disappears.  Scowling, the pastor says to the genie,” I want those two back in time for the meeting.”  

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the driver, he was astounded to see that the woman behind the wheel was knitting!  Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn, and yelled, PULLOVER!"  "NO," the woman yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!"

BIG BAD WINDS AND FRIDAY AFTERNOON COMPANY

LIGHTS OF MEXICO ON OUR SOUTHERN HORIZON

With night's becoming warmer now it is much nicer being outside under a great canopy of stars.  Took a few photos and the thought occurred to me how nice with no mosquitos in the air.  Just another one of the many fine perks here in the south-west during these winter months.   In my books no bugs is good bugs:))

YUMA'S GLOW OVER THE HORIZON WITH THE RV LIGHTS OF FELLOW BOONDOCKERS VISBLE IN THE FOREGROUND

THREE VIEWS OF THE CONSTELLATION ORION FOR MY AUNT JEAN IN FLORIDA

THE BIG DIPPER STANDING ON IT'S HANDLE

IF YOU LOOK VERY CLOSELY TO THE EXTREME LEFT YOU CAN SEE GORD AND CATHIES 'UN-LIT' RIG

Had us big wind advisory going on for today so this morning I anchored our satellite dish down real darn good and positioned the Jeep as a windbreak.  Winds howled and barreled in from the south-east and by noon there was no keeping a hat on anymore while outside.  Surrounding horizon lines disappeared into clouds of blowing sand.  Had we stepped out we would have had our socks blowed right off.

OUR UNSEEN SATELLITE DISH IS SANDWICHED BETWEEN THE JEEP AND THE MOTORHOME

HEY WANDERING WILLY I HAVE TWO OF THOSE LEGS TIED DOWN LIKE YOU SAID, A 900 POUND ROCK ON THE OTHER LEG AND THE CENTER TIED DOWN TO A SPIKED IN YELLOW DEVICE ON THE GROUND PLUS A  SUSPENDED WATER  JUG......OH YA THEN I WELDED EVERYTHING IN PLACE 

On the leeward side of the coach before the winds reached their worst potential for the day Kelly was able to barbecue a steak.  Would you believe neither one of us could even remotely remember the last time we had barbecued while traveling.  We're guessing almost 5 years ago about the time we bought our Congress house in late February of 2012.  Of course our orange barbecue was used a lot while at the house but even on our short winter side trips we never bothered taking it along.

HEY THIS IS GONNA GET AWESOME GEORGE SALIVATING

 Here's an on-line semi-monthly newsletter/magazine I recommend for fellow South-West RV travelers.  It's called Desert USA . Always interesting articles focusing on the southwest with much to be learned about history and things to do and see in these vast deserts and mountain lands.  Articles are not lengthy and I often get a kick out of how many of the places it features we have already been to.  And while I'm at it check out Desert Magazine and be sure to have a look at the archives from as far back as the 1930's.  This magazine is chocked full of western history for all you old history buffs out there.

A RELAXING MORNING AT OUR HOUSE

And here's another example of where my memory is at these days.  Looking for something in a cupboard above the dash on the drivers side this morning I noticed a brown case tucked down in the back.  Pulling it out I realized it was my 15x70 Celestron binoculars I had bought several years ago for star gazing.  I had completely forgotten I had them and the last time I remember using them was one night at our Congress house 2 years ago.  Makes me wonder what other little treasures I have sitting around somewhere I have forgotten about.  On Thursday I completely forgot to email Cathie and Gord directions to where we were parked on Ogilby Road.  When Kelly came home she asked me if I had remembered to email Gord and Cathie............nope I hadn't.  Kelly quickly dashed them off an email with directions and they wandered in a short time later after driving around for miles upon desert miles looking for us.  Like I've said before, it's not easy being me:((

LOOKS LIKE I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GET BUSY AND DUST THOSE BINOS OFF

Cathie and Gord headed off into Yuma this morning to have themselves a look around and I replied to an email they sent inviting them over for coffee when they returned so we had us a nice afternoon here in the rig chatting.  Gord's very savvy with technical things so we learned a lot of cell/smart phone stuff.  Well Kelly learned a lot of stuff.  I was lost right from the get-go but did manage to throw a few chirps in here and there whenever I thought I was familiar with something.  'Thought' was the operating word there. 

CATHIE GORD AND KELLY ARE ALL BLACKBERRY USERS SO THEY HAD LOTS TO TALK ABOUT.....NOBODY SEEMED TOO INTERESTED IN HEARING ABOUT MY PEN AND SHIRT POCKET NOTE BOOK

With Kelly's help I am very much enjoying setting up this new computer of mine.  I've transferred via thumb drive and email links most of the stuff from my Toshiba already.  Photos and music especially.  Took a bit of searching but Kelly was able to find a download for Picasa 3.9 so I am a happy camper for now.  Of course the writing is on the wall for Picasa and I really should begin learning myself another photo editing program.  Compared to Picasa Googles photo editing program is a joke.  It's obviously geared to 'snap-n-go' cell phone users and not people with any kind of a photography interest who take some pride in having their photos look as good as they can be.

JUST BECAUSE THIS IS A TOUCH SCREEN  MACHINE IT DOESN'T MEAN I WILL BE TOUCHING IT AND GETTING MY GREASY LITTLE FINGER PRINTS ALL OVER IT.....I MUCH PREFER MY TRUSTY MOUSE THANK YOU VERY MUCH

I'M GUESSING THIS  NOTEBOOK/TABLET CONFIGURATION WOULD BE BEST FOR TOUCH SCREENING.....NOT GONNA HAPPEN

At the time of publishing this tonight some of the wind gusts have really picked up.  Saw 2 Marine military helicopters earlier making their way back to their Yuma base from manoeuvers in the Chocolate Mountains and they were hugging the ground pretty close in the wind.  They were partly obscured by blowing sand at times.

CAN'T EVEN SEE THE CARGO MUCHACHO MOUNTAINS ON THE HORIZON

Weather people say we have a huge rain front accompanied by thunder and lightning headed our way and due to arrive in a couple hours.  Said some of the dry washes may even be running from all the water coming down off the mountains.  I've always wanted to see water running in these washes.  Maybe I can get a few photos in the morning because we are right beside one.............. Come on rain let er rip:))

THESE NIGHT PHOTOS WERE TAKEN IN MUCH CALMER AIR THURSDAY NIGHT

GROANER'S CORNER:((
Three Little Pigs went out to dinner one night.. The waiter came and took their drink order.
'I would like a Sprite,' said the first little piggy.
'I would like a Coke,' said the second little piggy.
'I want beer, lots and lots of beer,' said the third little piggy.
The drinks were brought out and the waiter took their orders for dinner
'I want a nice big steak,' said the first piggy..
'I would like the salad plate,' said the second piggy.
'I want beer, lots and lots of beer,' said the third little piggy.
The meals were brought out and a while later the waiter approached the table and asked if the piggies would like any dessert.
'I want a banana split,' said the first piggy.
'I want a cheesecake,' said the second piggy.
'I want beer, lots and lots of beer,' exclaimed the third little piggy.
'Pardon me for asking,' said the waiter to the third little piggy,'
But why have you only ordered beer all evening?'
The third piggy says -
'Well, somebody has to go 'Wee, wee, wee, all the way home!!

I AM ABLE TO ENLARGE THE PRINTING OF SOME JOKES I COPY AND PASTE BUT NOT ALL...........

A man lost two buttons from his shirt and put them in his pants pocket. But the pocket had a hole, so the buttons fell into his shoe. Unfortunately, the shoe sole also had a hole, so he lost the buttons. As pockets with holes, holes without buttons, and shoe soles with holes are useless, the man ripped the buttonholes out of his shirt and the pocked from his pants and tossed them in the trash along with the soles of his shoes.A police officer who was observing the man asked him for some identification. The man gave the officer a document that shoed he was an ordained minister of the gospel. When the officer began to escort him to a mental institution, the minister protested violently, asking why he was receiving such unjust treatment.“Look, we both know it’s the best place for you now,” the officer replied. “Anyone claiming to be a preacher who doesn’t save souls or wear holy clothes has probably lost his buttons.”