Back from Korea

Jessie's youngest son Rob has left his duty station in Korea and is now home here with us for a few day. Needless to say we are very happy to have some time with him before he reports to his new post at Fort Riley, Kansas. Fort Riley is the home of the First Infantry Division, also known as "The Big Red One." Rob volunteered for this assignment knowing full well he will get deployed to Afghanistan. April 1st he will receive his promotion to Specialist which he received for winning the Company challenge over all his and the other companies at his post in Korea. Most soldiers don't get this promotion this fast.
Well Rob's friend RJ is here for 5 days and on Saturday about 5 more are coming and the neighbors too as we are doing a BBQ. Should be fun times. Tomorrow we will either fish on the River, or go to the range and shoot some boxes dead. Neither Rob nor RJ have fired a pistol before. Should be fun!
I've got some red sauce cookin' for dinner tonight and had better get to it.

We Did It

This morning at 10:00 a.m. I paid in full the last SallieMae student loan on my daughter. Only took 8 years and it's done early. I am now happy to say that we are Debt Free! Well except for the house, and with any luck it will be paid off early too. It is sure a good feeling to be rid of that financial cancer. There are better ways to finance our children's education and young parents need to know that information before it's too late. Now we are on to 'Baby step 6'. You have to know Dave Ramsey to know what the Baby steps are.

Spring Begins

It's 6:23 a.m., Jessie just left for work and here I sit with my dog by my side. The birds are singing outside the window as they wait for the sun to rise over the the Gila mountains. I will get hot today though the moon is shrouded by a thin sheet of cloud. So, those butterflies will be on their way north again and the birds will feast. Guinness and I will leave soon to great the sun as it climbs into the desert sky. With luck we will meet up with Mike and his dog Gracie and she and Guinness will have a play time running and chasing each other. We will get home and fix a breakfast, then I'll be off on my bike ride. Not too far yet as the traffic is just thinning as snowbirds find 90 to much to take. Brian said he broke a sweat yesterday just opening a beer. The golf greens are drying out and they say they can't play like that. "Hard as asphalt" is what he called them. And it is true.
Still it's spring today and I'm glad to be able to enjoy it again. I enjoy every day now more than I use to. It's from getting old I guess. I know my days are numbered and they are running out. We all need to make sure we enjoy each day we get here as we never know which one will be our last.

Another Tree

The back yard is still a work in progress. We bought a Texas Laurel tree the other day. I saw one in full bloom and liked it. I drove Jessie to see it well, we found one. Now having said that, it was 90 and I was digging a hole. Yeah, it sure was hot. Jess stopped me and I finished it after the sun had crawled below the horizon. Jess has been on a real planting gig and the place is looking very bright and full of color. The lime tree is covered in blossoms and you can see tiny little green bubbles coming to life. These are Mexican Limes and shouldn't be too big, bottle size you might say. I have a couple of limes in the fridge that I'm going to hang in the tree later because Jessie checks the limes every night when she gets home. Should be funny!
This morning at 6;30 she called me from work and said she forgot her key to her desk. Soooo, off to town I drove. The poor dog didn't know what was up. And it was a rush to get him to the desert for his morning pooh when I got home. After that, I made him and I some breakfast and then I was off to the grocery store. Not too much, bread, eggs, you know. After that was the big bike ride. Beautiful day for a ride. Most days are here. The butterflies are migrating north and as I road I was surrounded by hundreds of them. Much better than the bee swarms we saw last weekend. The desert has bloomed big time this year with the nice winter rain we got. We took some pictures of some ocotilla the other day.

Spring in the Air

Saturday, Jessie has that day off, we went to the Ray Kroc sports center here in Yuma for our first time visit to Midnight at the Oasis. That is what they call the annual old custom car show. Four baseball fields full of restored classics. The even had a 1969 Camero at raffle. Yes we bought a ticket and WE WON! Not really, but I did that to Jessie too and she was excited ...for a minute. It was a beautiful day and a lot of walking. We didn't spend too much time there, but it's only $3 per to get in. Not a bad deal at all. I'm going to post some photos I took there on myspace as soon as I get the camera from Jessie's purse.

I had to order some replacement parts for my old Marlin Model 60 .22 semi-auto long rifle. I think Mark loved that weapon, as I remember him not giving it up on a desert trip we hand back when we lived in Blythe. I took it apart to clean it the other day and well, it needs parts now. Got a new scope on it and zeroed it in, still shoots well.