A Day Off from Retirement

We have been so busy this week that Larry declared that tomorrow would be his day off from retirement. I may follow his lead. We both have been trying to forge connections in the community here. Larry has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, has started going to a bridge club, and has joined me in shopping for new televisions. I have attended ASG meetings, started taking line dancing lessons and yoga at the recreation center, have attended volunteer tutor training, and have done some serious sewing. I just checked out a novel from the library and think I'll join Larry and sit and read most of the day.

I have read about the Technology Sabbath movement, where people go off line, turn off cell phones, and televisions for one day a week. I know that could be good for me, but I'm not quite there yet. I have lived far more days without computers and cell phones than with them and remember what it was like. I played music, cooked, and read books more. Maybe I'll try TS next week.

What Were They Thinking of!!

Our house in Tucson has a romantic sounding street address: Placita de la Intriga, or "place of intrigue." When it was likely that we would want to buy our house, I was thankful that we didn't have young children who would have to learn how to spell the address, but didn't think much more of it. Now I am ready to petition for a change of street name! Here's the trouble. It turns out that not only Kindergarteners and first graders have trouble with the spelling. I often have to spell out the street when giving out my address. It's spelled like it sounds, except the Spanish worries people. It's not as easy as 3433 119th to spell out, by any means.

The real problem with our street name has just become obvious to us. Our street address is about 25 characters long in a text field in a computer program. We just tried to order something from Costco.com and couldn't because their program would not accept such a long address. Our credit card company was worried that we were victims of fraud when they noticed our attempt to place our order to our AZ address. It took multiple phone calls and a couple of hours to get the business straightened out. At the end, a Costco.com employee told me just to place my orders over the phone because nothing could be done to correct the problem with our long address!

Tucson vs. Vitamix?

I've been filling up my psychic space with trivial decisions. I've been missing certain things from Seattle, and have been trying to obtain the equivalencies here. I have missed having a good blender for making sauces and smoothies. Smoothies taste great when it's hot out. Our old blender here in Tucson just doesn't perform like our Vita-mix in Seattle. I started my shopping for a new blender with the energy I used to put into writing a research paper for school. Now the difference is that I have the internet available with many, many resources. There is quite a thread on-line on Vita-mix vs. Blendtec, with no clear winner that I could see. My favorite place to buy appliances and most non consumables is Costco. So, naturally, I started looking at what Costco had. The first day I looked at our local warehouse, they did not have a super blender, meaning a Vita-mix or Blendtec. I went home and did some research about road shows for both brands and found that Blendtec was going to be at the Tucson Costco starting Nov. 5. I went there expecting to watch a demonstration and found that they had both blenders for the same price. I decided to try the Blendtec and have been happily making smoothies and soup ever since. Time will tell which blender I'll prefer.

This experience of Vita-mix vs. Blendtec makes me think of Tucson vs. Seattle. We are slowly trying to evaluate whether we want to live in one place or the other or continue as snowbirds. We won't make such a decision for at least a couple of years, but are doing our research. We have nice, but modest homes in both places. In fact, the square footage is equivalent. Both neighborhoods are walkable, although Wallingford is a little more urban. Shopping is easy. There are good recreational opportunities in both places. Seattle has Greenlake to walk around. Tucson has Sabino Canyon. Seattle has more restaurants that interest me, but Tucson has some that make us happy. Seattle's opera house is much nicer than Tucson's venue for opera,but Tucson does have a respectable opera season. Both places have good opportunities for volunteer work. Both have ASG and bridge clubs. One has lots of sunshine, the other has 4 seasons with fairly moderate temperatures. Seattle has our old friends and family. Tucson has potential for new friends and our family members and friends often come to visit. I'm glad that Larry and I are in agreement that we don't have to make any decisions about living arrangements any time soon!

Something Old, Something New

Today I was busy, but satisfying. I attended an ASG Neighborhood Group sit-and-sew session, where I enjoyed the company of 4 women I met last year. They made me feel welcome and reminded me of my sewing friends in Seattle. I worked on a shrug and managed to complete it. The group liked it enough to suggest that I teach a session on it. I may be on the program for April! I will get together with the group again in less than 2 weeks when we have a more traditional NG meeting.

Tonight I went to a yoga class at Udall Regional Park. I was pleasantly surprised. I suppose I was expecting more of an exercise class like I took there a couple of years ago. This teacher, Cheryl, was a more classic yoga teacher in the Hatha tradition. Her focus was on body awareness, not exercise. I can practice Iyengar style at home, then participate in her class for a new experience and to meet some new people.

Double Day

Life's little pleasures come along now and then. I'm still learning about shopping here and discovered Sunshine Market. I went there to replenish our old spices and bulk foods as well as to try their produce. Their specials overlap on Wednesdays, so I did pretty well cost wise. The quality seems to be pretty good. It isn't PCC, which now has beautiful stores, but it will do in Tucson. I found another double pleasure. I had a massage at Cortiva Institute. They asked for volunteers for a second session. I stayed and had two hours of massage therapy--I felt loose the rest of the day!

Pinging

Larry and I have been in Tucson for a week now and are feeling more settled. We are sticking to our plan to check out volunteer opportunities early on. Larry went to an orientation for Habitat for Humanity this afternoon. I'm going to an orientation session for a tutoring program for schools next week. I also have a sit-and-sew session to attend this week, along with a yoga class at the recreation center that I signed up for. We want to make some connections here and hope that these things will help.

I've been trying to take care of some little things around the house and find that my mind is pinging away. I keep thinking of one more thing to do while I'm working on something else. I wonder if modern technology has made it more likely for this to happen. I keep looking up one thing, then another on the internet. I think once I'm settled in more and down to a routine that I'll become more focused.

We are trying to sell our big TV that we are replacing in the living room. A potential buyer came today and left a deposit. I hope he'll come back. We are going to have our faithful handyman reconstruct our entertainment center to accommodate our new equipment. It should be nice when it's finished.

Our big news, though, is that we discovered a new resident on our property, a snake! It apparently lives in holes in the ground in front of the house. We've seen it a few times. It is small and does not have rattles. I would like to know for sure if it is poisonous but figure it probably isn't. In the mean time, we watch our step as we walk on the path out front.