In addition to all of her usual activities, Donna had a busy week as we had visitors. On Monday, Martha and John Bergquist came by at noon. I had just returned from a couple of hours of pickleball when they arrived. Donna knew Martha from our time in Michigan and they were visiting Arizona, staying down in Tucson. Their home is in Wisconsin now.

Martha really wanted to see wild horses, so Donna invited them to come up and hike at Coon Bluff to see if they could locate some horses. They lucked out and found a herd of about 30 horses along the Salt River. I was beat from pickleball and wasn’t up for the hike. They went for a late lunch at Saguaro Lake. It was after 5pm before Donna made it back home.

Yesterday we met up with more friends from Michigan. Gary and Cheryl Bida were out here visiting their son in Scottsdale. It was a rainy day yesterday when we met up with them for lunch at Fat Willy’s. Lunch on the patio was out of the question with the cold, windy and rainy weather, so we dined indoors. We had a good time talking and visiting for a couple of hours. It’s been at least 10 years since we last saw them. I neglected to take any photos.

My last post rambled on about my stereo system. I have to say, we’re really enjoying it and have music on for hours every day now. It has rekindled my interest and love of music. I’ve always had an eclectic mix of recordings – everything from Mozart to Miles Davis to Jimi Hendrix. Lately, I’ve been expanding my CD collection with new material that I’ve largely ignored over the years.

I’ve added three discs by Diana Krall. Diana is a Canadian jazz singer and pianist and I love her voice, even when she’s singing some sappy song. Her piano playing is exquisite – she started studying piano at the age of four! He parents were musically inclined too. Her husband is none other than British recording artist Elvis Costello.

I recently “discovered” Tom Waits. I don’t know how he flew under my radar all of these years. Tom is from southern California and was a regular in the San Diego folk music scene in the 1960s. I wasn’t into folk music at all back then, so maybe that’s how I missed him. He moved to Los Angeles in 1972 and was already established as a singer/songwriter by then. I didn’t know it until recently, but he penned the Eagles hit Ol’ 55. You might remember their version of this song:

Well, my time went so quickly
I went lickety-splitly
Out to my ol’ 55
As I pulled away slowly
Feeling so holy
God knows I was feeling alive

Now, the sun’s coming up
I’m riding with Lady Luck
Freeway, cars and trucks
Stars beginning to fade
And I lead the parade
Just a-wishin’ I’d stayed a little longer
Oh Lord, let me tell ya that the feeling getting stronger…

Tom Waits is quite a character. He spent a lot of time in San DIego and LA hanging out in diners and dive bars with his notebook, picking up snippets of conversations around him to inspire his song writing. His early recordings in the late 60s and early 70s reveal a soft voice. By 1980, years of cigarettes and whiskey changed his voice to a gravelly rasp.

I’ve also added a couple of discs recorded by John Mayer. I knew of John, but didn’t have any of his recordings until now. He attended the Berklee College of Music and is probably the most famous student of guitar great Tomo Fujita. I like his songwriting and singing as well as his excellent guitar playing.

I also found a CD called On Every Street. Recorded in 1999, it’s the last album Mark Knopfler recorded as Dire Straits – by then, only he and the bass player remained from the original band. All of his work since then is under his name as a solo artist – he is an absolute guitar god.

I mentioned in my last post that Donna is back to following the Bright Line Eating plan. This doesn’t mean we have to curtail fine dining. She just has to be selective in the mix of protein, carbs and fats she eats and she weighs everything she cooks.

Last week, she made a lentil soup with duck sausage and it was delicious.

Saturday she grilled a wild caught Alaskan salmon and served it with a citrus-chile topping. Another hit.

The citrus-chile sauce was so tasty, she used again on Monday over grilled chicken thighs and wings. It works as well on chicken as it does on salmon.

We’ve had a strange weather pattern over the last couple of weeks. Last week, it was cold and wet on Wednesday but warmed back up to the upper 70s by the weekend. This week, the temperature only reached 66 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday was rainy and only 52 degrees! Average highs at this time of year are 72 degrees. The overnight low last night was down to 33 degrees and we had overnight showers. This left snow on the Superstition Mountains east of us here at Viewpoint – we can see them out our front window.

We can expect another cold night with the low in the mid-30s, but we should warm up to the 70s for highs this weekend. The forecast calls for highs in the 80s by next Tuesday.

*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!