It’s been over a week since I wrote my last post. Time keeps getting away from me. We’ve settled into a routine here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona and it’s keeping us busy. Donna is managing to practice clarinet daily and has a two-hour weekly session with the Viewpoint Concert Band along with tennis lessons and pickleball. Last week, she also volunteered to sit in on presentations by employees of a local company and critique them. The ladies pickleball tournament that was cancelled due to weather will be held this Saturday and Donna is in it.

I play pickleball on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and sometimes on the weekend. Wednesdays are long days for me. I play in the 3.0+ group in the morning, then I coach the Refined Skills class from noon to 2pm. Sometimes I’ll play another game or two after giving the lesson. Wednesdays are also Concert on the Green day here at Viewpoint. Musicians come to the park and set up in the pavilion between the golf practice green and the pickleball courts from 3pm to 5pm. Lots of people here watch and listen from their golf carts, others spread blankets on the grass and sit or dance. Donna used to hoop dance there, but now she has band practice from 3pm to 5pm on Wednesdays.

We expect to continue our daily routines – meanwhile the routines for most people are about to be disrupted. Daylight Saving Time will begin this weekend – it’s correctly called Daylight Saving Time, not savings. As the clocks “spring forward” it will mean getting up an hour earlier – at least that’s what the clocks will tell them.

By law, each state in the USA can choose to participate in Daylight Saving Time or not. Currently, Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that don’t change their clocks. However, the territory of the Navajo Nation in the northeast portion of Arizona does observe Daylight Saving Time, which can be confusing when traveling through the area. Parts of Indiana didn’t observe Daylight Saving Time but that changed in 2006 – Indiana already has two time zones, so counties that didn’t change the clock made time very confusing there.

Daylight Saving Time is longer now than it was before 2007. It runs from March to November – it used to be April to October. What do you think about resetting clocks? I think there’s some truth to the old adage, “Only the government would believe that cutting one foot off the top of a blanket and sewing it onto the bottom makes the blanket longer.”

With the lack of Daylight Saving Time in Arizona, our clocks are equal to Mountain Standard Time from November to March. Then, when everyone else changes their clocks, Arizona is the same as Pacific Daylight Time.

On Sunday morning, I went to Costco. Getting there at opening time, 10am, on Sunday usually means no crowds and easy shopping and checkout. Not this time! I arrived just before 10am and found the parking lot nearly full. There was a line of people stretching over 100 yards with shopping carts waiting to enter the store. It took me over five minutes just to get in! I couldn’t figure it out. Then one of the store employees told me people were panicking over the Wuhan coronavirus and stocking up like the apocalypse was imminent. Seems a little extreme to me, but there’s definitely fear among the general public.

The weather for the past week has been mostly agreeable. The daily highs hit the upper 60s to low 70s and we only had a few raindrops last Monday. Otherwise, it’s been mostly clear to partly cloudy. Today we expect to reach the lower 80s and the warm temperature will continue through Saturday. I think we’re near the end of wintry weather in central Arizona. The weather forecast looks favorable although the weather guessers say we may have a few raindrops by the middle of next week .

I’ll close this post with a couple of dinner plates from the past week. First up was walnut-crusted tilapia with southern fried cabbage – with bacon. Everything is better with bacon!

Donna also grilled shrimp – she’s become quite the grill master. The shrimp were seasoned with adobo and grilled on skewers. She served the shrimp with a side of curried cauliflower, zucchini, onion and tomato (and brown rice for me).

*Just so you know, if you use this  link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!