FALL and WINTER: 2025-2026
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to "Spring/Summer" 2025 |
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Saturday, November 8, 2025:
Today the Arizona Wildcats play the Kansas Jayhawks as
one of their final home games. In fact, this was their
"Homecoming" game. Gwen and I have seats facing the sun on
the 50 yard line. It is a warm day so after the halftime
show from the Pride of Arizona Marching Band, we bail to
recover at Cheddars a few miles away. They have fairly
good food and monitors so we can finish watching the game.
Click both these photos for more views. I also took a video of the marching band. |
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Saturday, November 1, 2025: Gwen and I
went to the afternoon session of the Arizona Band Day. It began
this morning with 1A high schools. Band Day ended at 9 pm with the
5A high schools. We watched all nine of the 3A high schools. Four
are pictured above, click on the photos to see the other two. You
can see they have close to the same number of students. I didn't
stay for the presentation of the awards so I don't know which got
awards. They were all good and I know how much work it took for
these bands to achieve such a good performance. I believe they all
should get awards. I did make a
short video of the band I thought did the best although
several were tied in my view. Here is a link
to high schools in the schedule.
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Friday, October 31, 2025: This was a busy
Halloween Day. We first dressed up Abby with a Cookie Monster
costume to be in the pet parade. The pet parade followed the golf
cart parade. Abby was getting hot so we only did the first portion
of the parade but she always enjoys being in the parade following
the golf carts. Behind the center photo is a Bearded Dragon
dressed up like a bat. Gwen and I wanted to hear the band so we
went to the Halloween party. Gwen did a great job dressing for the
Munster family. I was a cowboy with pillow stuffing as hair. Click
all photos for another view. Here is a short video
of the golf cart parade after Abby and I had left. |
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Wednesday, October 29, 2025: I
purchased a cheese pizza from Costco then added black
olives, spinach, mushrooms and squash. I thought it was
great. Gwen didn't care for the squash. |
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Monday, October 27, 2025: I took a bike
ride today to the Coffee XChange just to get some photographs.
Next Monday I will lead the park cycling group and this is a
popular short ride for us. It turns out to be 14 miles round trip.
I picked from their lunch menu and got a Greek Salad. The pastries
were very tempting but expensive.
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| Friday, October 24, 2025:
My day began very early. Abby had a spa appointment at
7:30 this morning. While she was at the spa, I took myself
to First Watch for breakfast. When I arrived home I signed
up for Rouvy cycling APP to learn how it compares to
Zwift. However, I was only on Rouvy for 15 minutes when I
got the call Abby was ready to be picked up. When we got
home, Amazon had delivered the replacement parts for our
Shark Robot vacuum. I quickly learned we have been
very poor at maintaining our robot. The photo at the right
shows just one of the many filters which were clogged. I
have no idea how the robot has been working. This filter,
when I pulled it apart dumped a half cup of dust from the
inside of the filter more than what you see on the
outside. I was able to replace all the filters, the roller
(brush) and the sweeping brushes too. I also blew
out the inside using compressed air. I'm sure the robot
will do its job like new again. Later, I watched Toronto
beat the Dodgers in the first game of the World Series. I
also watched the Nevada and Boise State Football game. |
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Thursday,
October 16, 2025: I got to drive a long distance
today in the Prius. We have been dog-sitting
Joe's dog Casey since Sunday while Joe is working in
Phoenix. Today was the day to return Casey to Joe so I
drove to meet him in Chandler which is 110 miles. I
got to use the "Adaptive Cruise Control" and I loved
it. I set the speed at 77 mph, where the speed limit
was 75. If a car was in front of me, it would slow to
match that car's speed. When we got close to Chandler
the traffic was stop/go. The car would slow then stop.
When the traffic began to move, so did the car. The
car was doing the thinking for me. The 60 mpg was when
Gwen was driving at 60 mph behind me when I was
pulling the trailer.
When I returned home I had two bicycle wheels to take
care of. Front had a flat, rear needed to be replace.
I almost gave up trying to remove the tires from the
rim then I remembered the trick to make it easy. I'm
making both wheels tubeless. |
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Tuesday, October 14,
2025: I began my morning with another Zwift ride.
After the ride I learned of Cleo living in our park.
Cleo's master has decided he can't keep such an energetic,
one year old Golden and must rehome her. We would love to
help out but we have just enough energy to be good masters
to Abby. I wanted to make sure Cleo's master knew of the
Southern Arizona Golden Retriever Rescue (SAGRR). It is an
organization which will carefully rehome Goldens in a
situation just like this. |
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Monday,
October 13, 2025: Two days ago, on Saturday, I
measured a wind gust of 56 mph plus rain of almost 3
inches. That was enough to rip the aluminum awning off
a neighbor's park model about ten spaces away from us.
This park model was the only one damaged in our park.
We were standing on our deck watching the storm which
was very violent. The 56 mph wind gust was the most my
weather station has ever measured. I watching the
action of the tree behind our park model, I would not
be surprised if this was not a small tornado. We got
more rain today but the forecast calls for clear skies
tomorrow. |
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| Sunday, October 12, 2025: While
my son, Joe was visiting, we decided to take a tour south
of Tucson toward the tiny area of Sonoita and Patagonia.
Joe wanted to visit a couple of distilleries and Gwen
wanted to see the Patagonia Fall Festival. We dodged
the rain and even got to walk the Patagonia Festival
without getting wet. We ended up at the Copper Brothel
Brewery in Sonoita where we enjoyed a good late lunch.
Click all photos for more views. |
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Saturday, October 11, 2025: Joe
and I went to the Arizona Stadium to watch the Arizona
Wildcats take on the BYU Cougars. Our seats ended up in
the middle of a large group of BYU fans all dressed in
their blue jerseys. The weather was a big factor and the
game was put on weather hold at the beginning of the
second quarter. Joe and I decided to try to escape the
weather but got caught in our walk back to the car. We
were soaked. The game resumed after more than an hour then
went into double overtime after three more quarters. We
were able to finish watching on TV. BYU won. Click both
photos for more views. |
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Tuesday,
October 7, 2025: Gwen and I have decided to try new
things here in Tucson. We'll start with a new cafe for
us, the Eclectic Cafe. I spotted this ad in a Tucson
Guide magazine, showed it to Gwen and she agreed to
give it a try. I ordered 1/2 Corned Beef sandwich with
a green side salad. It came with poppy seed dressing.
Click my meal to see Gwen's order of a Strawberry and
chicken salad also with poppy seed dressing. We were
both very happy with our meals and will visit again.
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Sunday, October 5, 2025:
I sent most of my day completing the installation of our
security camera's around the perimeter of our park model.
However, this was one of the better NFL games today with
the Denver Broncos pulling out a win in the end. |
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Saturday,
October 4, 2025: Gwen and I were hopeful for the
Arizona Wildcats against the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
The Oregon Ducks walked all over the Cowboys so we
thought that might give the Wildcats a chance. In
spite of two interceptions thrown by the Wildcat
quarterback, the Wildcats beat the Cowboys, 41-13. Of
course the band always wins so here is a video
of the Arizona marching band. Click on both
photos for another view.
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Friday, October 3, 2025:
This morning I saw the AD at the left. Gwen agreed to go
with me and we learned this was the Cinnaholic store
only four miles from our park model. This was a new
experience for us. We learned their "Old Skool Rolls"
regular price is $5.75 so this was a good deal. Click on
both photos for another view. Once we returned home I
checked out their presentation
on Shark Tank and learned more about the business.
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