Friday, May 01, 2009

Welcome to Off Season


Since moving to Arizona, I can no longer detect four distinct seasons. For me life goes on as either “in season” or “off season”….depending on the frequency of activities and the number of people here in the resort. Based on the view from my patio this morning, this is definitely the beginning of “off season” as I have a full open view, traffic is definitely reduced, and the singing of birds is louder than any human voices I can hear. April is my favorite month of the entire year as far as weather is concerned. Beautiful sunny skies, warm daytime temperatures, and lovely cool nights. Awesome!

I went up to the Activities Office yesterday and picked up my free tickets for upcoming events. We have a Cinco De Mayo party May 5. Bring your favorite Mexican dish. May 10 is a Mother’s Day banana split party..just bring a banana. May 19 is movie night and May 25 is a big Memorial Day BBQ potluck. I LOVE having all these summer activities to keep us entertained. It’s also a great opportunity to meet new people because the crowd size is smaller.

The local Casa Grande Dispatch has had some interesting news this past week. Of course, the biggest controversy is with the upcoming election to determine if the County will raise the sales tax to pay for a possible baseball stadium. The editorial page is filled daily with comments from both sides. I’ll refrain from posting my opinion but I bet you can guess how I feel about increasing my taxes to support a stadium for multi-million dollar baseball players and team owners when they refuse to pay any part of the construction.

Big headlines yesterday: “Nursing home to bring 120 jobs”. This is a facility desperately needed in the Casa Grande area as families in this part of the state have to travel to Phoenix or Tucson to visit hospitalized family members. The article also announces that the facility (Oasis Pavilion Nursing and Rehabilitation Center) will start taking job applications in September for average pay of $20 to $25 per hour. They anticipate opening in January. Construction is at 161 W. Rodeo Road just east of Pinal Avenue with roughly 50,000 square feet and 134 beds. Sounds really nice.


Remember our favorite band….the Keepsakes? Christine Deaton is on today’s front page announcing that her family is taking over the Paramount Theater in old town Casa Grande. Daughters Emily and Ashley will be teaching several dance classes and our friendly Elizabeth that used to work at the front desk here will be keeping up the website. It sounds like Chris has many plans to bring culture and entertainment to town. Visit their website at http://www.historicparamount.homestead.com/.

We have a new restaurant downtown! I’m excited about this one because they’ll be serving fresh sandwiches and they’re located in the building right next to where I work at Print and Pack. We won’t have to cross the street any more to get to a restaurant for lunch. Crossing Florence Boulevard on foot is like playing the arcade game “Frogger” to see if you can cross without getting splattered on the road. The place is called Wild West Hotdogs & Grill. Their specialty will be New York style hot dogs, Chicago-style hot dogs, Polish hot dogs, deep fried hot dogs (yuck??), chili dogs, and Italian sausage. They’ll also sell numerous hot and cold sandwiches. Sounds like they’ll have quite a varied menu.

Red Brick Pizza is now open out at the Promenade Mall. Haven’t eaten there yet so will report more after visiting the place.

My own personal news is that I’ve cut back my working hours at the Print Shop and LOVE having my mornings here at home to do fun stuff. Perhaps you’ll see the results on my blog this summer. Adios for now….and have a GREAT day!!


Asbestos Cancer
Asbestos Cancer