A Taste of Tucson - Fall 2010

We are now a week into our “taste of Tucson” so it is appropriate to share some highlights. It’s just so amazing how quickly we can slide into the routine here upon arrival.

Of course the first order of business was to clean the place and make room for the “stuff” we brought along this year in the car. Arriving at 130 pm really helped get that done by supper time.

We went to Resurrection Luth. on Wed. evening for their Grace meal, Matins, and choir practice. We didn’t know what to expect at choir. Their plan for Sunday was to sing at both services, 745 and 915, with the other choir. The song was one we had never seen before, but we limped along and used the music publisher’s website to practice over the next couple of days, so by Sunday we were okay with the song. They had trumpets to accompany and so it was a peppy number and really sounded good, even at 745am. It was so nice to receive greetings from all the folks in the choir down here. We really feel like we belong here when we are here.

On Thursday we went to Wayne Vierick’s Bible class. They are studying the resurrection accounts as they appear in the Bible. He is so good at organizing and presenting his insights. Wayne is a retired pastor who was in Chicago, Rockford, and Fox Point, WI.

We were invited to a Halloween party at Mueller’s and Wunrow’s (Jan and Keith) on Sunday night. Cheryl and Dave really got into the whole thing with elaborate decorations, costumes, and even jack’o lantern pizza. It was a lot of fun. Keith and Jan entertained with fancy cupcake desserts.

We’ve been to the pool a couple of times, the weather is unusally warm in the eighties and sunny each day, just like March here. So flip flops, tee shirts, and shorts are the order of the day.

Tennis is back in our resume’ too. The guys are playing M,W, F and the ladies met F to talk about playing some tennis. After an hour of “table time” they actually hit the balls a few times. Oh yeah, and we chuckled together as we prepared on Friday for tennis; Daryl planned to shower and shave after he returned from tennis and Bonnie spent a hour showering, primping and getting “ready” to “play”. It was another chance to renew friendships.

Of course Sat. and Sun. featured football games. Bonnie issued a warning after the last game on Sunday, “no more sports” for the rest of the weekend. Glad she waited until Sunday late. How about those Badgers, Packers, UofA Wildcats, Nebraska Cornhuskers, and Iowa beating Michigan State? Wow, that was some weekend for us.

On Friday we also went to see the latest UofA Reperatory Theatre offering, Dracula. It was a superb production, albeit on the gross and scary side.

On Sat. morning we went to the Tucson Mus. of Art for the opening of a new show featuring paintings related to the Lewis and Clark expedition. The main feature was a set of 100 paintings by Chas. Fritz. The collector and artist talked about the collection and the research that went into the project. It was an impressive program that will be here until mid January.

Bonnie is busily preparing for the first artists and crafters show and sale set for this coming Saturday. They have about 12 residents who are participating. Bonnie and neighbor Carol are showing their purse organizers. They also have some cute Christmas stockings filled with doggie treats, too. And Bonnie brought along some table runners she has been creating this fall.

Our WIFI in our unit is working fine so Bonnie has her Apple IPAD and Daryl has his Captivate Android working overtime. We are really getting pretty good at it. But the learning curve is steep and long, so patience continues to be a valued commodity.

Tonight is the UofA women’s basketball team’s first game, an exhibition, so we will head to the campus for that. Also women’s volleyball is still in season as they play Oregon and Oregon St. this coming weekend.

We are planning a Skype wedcam session with the Schweitzers this afternoon at 430pm. If you skype and want to schedule something let us know when.

So that is the latest from La Cholla Hills, just northwest of Tucson.