Our second visit to the Sonoran Glass School featured Jason Christian. He made a glass dragon, using local glass blowers to round out his team. It took two hours to make the dragon, but this is misleading. Earlier in the day, he had spent six hours making the head, scales, and other pieces he used in his demonstration. Here you see the glass used to make the body. The actual glass blowing was a very small part of the work. Danita and I finagled seats in the front row. The hot glass was pointed straight at me, which caused a moment’s discomfort. Throughout the process, I was amazed at how precise, careful, and quick the movements were. The smallest mis-step could destroy the work.

Here Jason rolled small cylinders of glass to add texture to the body.

Jason and the team are adding a small piece to the dragon, Torches are used to make. the glass where the piece will be placed quite hot so the piece will join the body. The rest of the body must be cooler so it retains its shape.

Jason is making adjustments to the body. Note that the smallest error by the helper (on the left) will break the glass and destroy the dragon.

The most difficult step is joining the head to the body.

This is the final adjustment and the best picture of the finished dragon. As soon as this was complete, the dragon was immediately rushed into an annealing oven. The dragon is slowly brought to room temperature over a 6 hour cooling period.

This is one of Jason’s dragons. It’s a little smaller. I found it on the internet for just $5,000. Jason’s 5-year-old son names the dragons. He thinks it’s cool that his dad makes dragons.

We had a week full of activity. One of my favorites is the Zoppe Family One-ring Circuits. Danita wisely purchased the expensive seats — folding chairs with backs — so we didn’t have to sit in the bleacher. Its under a real tent and it’s a lot of fun. It’s filled with amazing acts of balance and skill, and kids, and cotton candy, and more!

We re-visited the Presidio Museum. Last year we arrived in the middle of a school tour. They let us wonder around and hear what the reenactors had to say. This time we got an excellent tour by this docent. The dome is the bread furnace. They actually bake bread for the kids to eat.

Tucson has a glass blowing studio (natch). Anybody who wants to try their hand can attend classes. This week Kazuki Takizawa gave a short presentation and made a piece. Kazuki suffered from mental health issues. Making glass is a big help in overcoming his problem.

The sleeper this week was Dillinger Days. Dillinger was captured and arraigned here. Every year they have Dillinger Days. Last year we went in the evening and saw people dressed in period clothing, listened to Jazz, and watched them drink alcohol. This year we went to the morning reenactment of Dillon’s downfall. It was much better than I expected. It was a very well done 2-hour play. Dillinger’s gang was recognized when they evacuated hotel guests past a fire in the Hotel Congress. Here’s the fire truck that came to put out the fire. We also saw this truck in the “Rolling Thru Time” museum. It looked much more impressive sitting outside the Congress Hotel.

They also had a showing of period antique Ford vehicles. This snazzy car was at the hotel, but not in the antique Ford show because it wasn’t a model A.

The Model A club put on quite a show. Here is one of the 4 rows of vehicles on display.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Dani and Gayle joined us for a few days. We packed the days full of excitement. Here’s less than half of all we did. We started with the Fox Theater, where the Tucson Symphony played music to go with Charlie Chapman movies. The man was a genius. His movies are funny and kind. The theater was recently restored. Locals call the decor “Western Art Deco”. We did a food tour — 7 stops in 4 hours. All the food we had was very good. Some was extraordinary. “Old Tucson” is a tourist destination and it is also a working movie set. Think of “Little House on the Prairie” and countless cowboy movies. Only the tour was running. The actors were still practicing their shows. Watching the practice was a bonus. One doesn’t have to explicitly stop to see amazing scenery, but we did. Saguaro Park is incredible. As a topper, we experienced an unusual day of dramatic clouds. My favorite was the Gaslight Theater. Admission includes a large bag of popcorn. You don’t have to order food, but if you do, it will be perfectly good. From singing along to booing the bad guy, audience participation is encourage. The Gaslight is very popular with the locals.

Enjoy the pics on the website.

We decided to weather over in Tucson. We flew out on New Year’s day, returning the end of February. This was a downer for our construction company. The last payment is due when the punch-down items are complete. They damaged one of our blinds and had to order new. When they went to pick them up, the found the blind company was closed between Christmas and January 5. There was no way that anybody could get into the warehouse. With our house locked up, they will have to wait a couple of months for their last payment.

Getting to Tucson took all day. We took two flights which connected in Las Vegas. Both flights were delayed because clouds in Los Vegas were under 1,000 feet. They had to put more time between each takeoff and landing. By the time we got into our room, it was after 9 PM local time.

Our room is a lot like a casita. It has two bedrooms, two baths, and a living area / kitchen. It’s ideal for parents with two kids. The second bedroom has two twin beds. We have a bright light just outside the main bedroom’s window. I was so tired our first night that the light didn’t bother me a bit. On our first full day I covered the window with some aluminum foil.

On day one, our first task was getting the rental car, which went perfectly. The next task was food. We went to the local Walmart. We had so many items we needed two carts to to get it out to the car. We had one miss. I wanted to buy two 5 pound weights for my daily exercise. We put them in the bottom of the cart. Our check out clerk didn’t notice them. The guard checking folks as the leave didn’t notice them. We didn’t notice them. The two weights were left in the cart on the Walmart parking lot. Hopefully somebody returned them to the store.

Today I found out that the bike rental wasn’t anywhere near what I thought it would be. The other bike shops that rent bikes want $30 per day, which is almost as expensive as the rental car. With this being a university town, the ride share bikes look promising. I put my credit card on file.

Our first fun activity was “Rolling Thru Time”, a huge museum of old cars, fire engines, etc. The biggest part of their vehicles are Model T and Model A Fords. This museum focuses on returning the cars to drivability with the original drive train. Almost every vehicle in the museum could drive out of the door.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

One word describes this week — Christmas! The main event was Christmas Eve dinner. Mark and family came on Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd). They were flying back from a vacation in Mexico and stopped for a couple of days. Ryn drove down from NY and stayed overnight. Ed and Lynne drove down for dinner. I picked up Mom so she could join the dinner and festivities. Danita prepared some of her signature dishes. There was much more food than we could eat.

On Christmas morning Ryn and JaMMM had a gift opening, primarily for the kids. We had a great time doing family things and opening presents. A new family member joined the photo-bug club. Here is the very first picture Mira took with her brand new camera. (Maia was off doing something much more important.) Then it was time for everyone to go home.,

I hope all had a great Christmas.

There are a few small things to do, but we are basically done. We have full use of our kitchen. We’ve moved back into our bedroom. We can use toilets and sinks on all floors without restriction. The new shower is great. Woo Hoo! It’s all just in time for visits from Kathryn and Mark & family. There are some pics on the website.

The builder did an amazing job of protecting floors & furniture. They hung plastic to minimize the construction debris. hey did a wonderful job of cleaning up every day. But sanding walls creates a lot of dust. We have been through a cleaning cycle twice. We are declaring ourselves dust-free. Many pictures are rehung. The place looks and feels like home.

The backsplash for the kitchen sink was installed Friday. I would like to say how great it works, but they left it covered with protective plastic and to us to keep our hands to ourselves. The electrician will be here tomorrow. Next is the plumber. At that point, we should have a working bathroom and a working kitchen. We aren’t sure we will get everything done this year, but once we have plumbing, we’ll have what we want most.

We had double entertainment with Mom today. The first was music and lunch for all assisted living families. The music group did a nice job. The lunch was plenty of good food. After that, we went to a concert given by he Suspicious Cheese Lords. I wrote about this group last year. They are a group of 10 men singing a cappella. The concert is in the beautiful chapel. It’s old style architecture offer perfect acoustics for this kind of music. And if they want to use an organ for one or two pieces, there’s a nifty one on hand.

That’s it for us. Cross your fingers for a stove and a toilet. I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Danita did a brilliant job of cooking ahead so we could eat home-cooked dinners during construction. Her cooking plus a few restaurant dinners took us up to Friday, which was the original estimated completion date. Unfortunately, it looks like we will have two more weeks of construction, which is currently at a standstill. We are waiting for the kitchen backsplash to be fabricated and installed. The biggest excitement was the party to decorate the clubhouse. Danita normally goes to this annual event and I usually stay home. This year, I attended so I could share in the pizza and cookies available to those who decorated. I even found a job I could do to help out.

Our biggest excitement was the delivery of shelf liners. There were two boxes. One was delivered to us Friday afternoon. The second was delivered to our neighbor about 10 PM Friday. In the delivery instructions, we ask the delivery persons to ring our doorbell, so we know the package is on our doorstep. They did not ring our doorbell for the afternoon delivery, but they did ring our neighbor’s doorbell Friday evening. Our neighbor was startled.

My other project last week was to switch our clubhouse internet service from Comcast to Verizon. The switch was triggered when Verizon notified us that they no longer support land line telephone service. We now have all our phones lines provided as part of the FIOS internet service. As a bonus, we saved money on the new arrangement.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. We went to Ed & Lynne’s. Jul, Pete, and their kids joined with us. All the traditional foods were there. Nobody went home hungry. We weren’t able to give Jul shelter, due to the construction, so they stayed in a hotel overnight. Friday as a service project, we made 50 bag lunches. These go downtown for the poor & homeless. Then we all went to Charlestown and had a very nice lunch with Mom.

The house construction is in a lull. The took the measurements required for the countertop. It takes a week to get that fabricated. Then there is another measure/fabricate for the backsplash. But we are seeing serious progress. All the tile is in place for the bathroom. Cabinets are in place. Once the backsplash is in place, it should be a quick job to finish everything up. We’re scheduled to be done on December 19. If that fails, we have been promised a working kitchen.

With the house looking pretty good, my attention was drawn to the grouting in the loft bathroom. It was once white. Now it was dark and looking gnarly. My weekly cleaning never helped. I tried having it steamed cleaned. No improvement. Most cleaning tips are based on chemicals that I don’t even want in the house — you know, like this:

Safety tip: Be sure to use heavy duty rubber gloves. It is suggested that you not inhale while losing this product. You might also want to close your eyes.

Hitting the internet with renewed focus, I decided to try using bleach powder coupled with a seriously heavy duty brush. Here’s something I learned. Bleach powder is much safer than the more common liquid chlorine bleach, and it is very effective. I’m pleased with the result. Nobody is going to confuse this floor with a new one, but there is significantly less “gnarl” in the house.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The construction crew went back to work. This time they fixed, sanded, and painted the walls in the kitchen. It didn’t look like all that much work, but the dust generated is huge. It’s not just one crew that does the work. So far there are painters/wall fixers, electricians, plumbers, and tile guys. The painters wanted to install a shower liner Friday, but we had to say no. This work involves glue. Danita’s allergic to that. We have a hotel lined up, but our reservation starts Monday. So the tile guys will install the liner as well as the tile, starting Monday morning. We hope to be back in the house Friday.

We had an unusual lineup of dinners this week. Friday we had a neighborhood dinner party. Saturday we had the volunteer dinner. Today (Sunday) we have a pot luck dinner just for our home owners association. And just for fun, I also will enjoy Monday morning Men’s club, which comes with bagels and coffee. After that, we’ll be on our own for food until Friday, when the potato food truck comes. You have to be sharp to keep up in this neighborhood.

That’s all for us. Here’s hoping everybody is doing well.