The 500 Mile Toilet Caper

    The other day, I told Pa that I wanted an old people toilet (the ones that sit higher) for Christmas. Pretty romantic gift, huh? We were in Lowe's on the 2nd of the month and lo and behold, they had some Jacuzzi brand on close out sale. Pa knew we would have to get a longer water line so the salesman found us one. (120 mile round trip). A couple days later, Pa decided to install the toilet ( does commode sound better?) Anyway, he discovered the water line was the wrong one! My feelings were "oh well, it will have to wait till we make another grocery shopping trip to Show Low. The next day, Pa said he didn't want to wait so he decided to go to Springerville to the hardware store there. I decided to go along to pick up a few things at the grocery store that were on sale. NOT that we really needed anything except milk but darn it all, when something is on sale, and we live so far away, may as well take advantage of it, right? (110 mile round trip).
Oops! wrong water line! Next day Pa goes to Show Low back to Lowe's. They don't have the right one but Home Depot did. (120 mile round trip). Back home and we proceed to take the toilet out of the box. Are you ready for this? The stupid toilet is broken!!!!!! A big chunk is broken off the base. About this time, I am ready to forget the whole thing.  The old john is already sitting in the front yard. ( Should I plant flowers in it?)I called Lowe's and explained my problem to Bernie/Sonny/(turns out his real name is Tony) Of course all the toilets are sold out and they aren't getting any more. I told him I'd be happy to take the floor display but that's not possible because they glue it together so no one will steal parts. After a bit of conversation, he said he could get the base apart and if we wanted, we could exchange it. Or he would give us a similar one for their cost. Off we go again to Show Low (120 mile round trip) . We ended up buying the other commode for cost which was $88.00 ( Ah Ha, now we know how much they mark up stuff). At check out, Pa asked if  they would take his VA discount which they did so we got an extra 10% off an already great deal. 
  Today was the day! The toilet/commode/john is now installed and works like a dream. There are two flush buttons, one for liquid and one for solids. The most it uses is 1.5 gallons of water. But it's best feature is that it is easy to get off of. The old john was only 13 inches tall plus the seat. Good grief, you felt like you were squatting behind a bush using that short thing. The new one is 16 1/2 inches tall, plus the seat. I love it!

Isn't that just a thing of beauty! I will have to admit, it is a strange Christmas present. Maybe I'll put a big red bow on it for Christmas day so our guests will know what I received from Pa.
    We've had some strange weather the last couple of weeks. We had three days of fog which is unusual for this part of the country.

 You know how I feel with out a bright sunny day! Give me a pillow and a blankie and I'll sleep till it's over. Pa said Tom was going on and on that no one told him we would get fog here. Maybe he wouldn't have bought his property if he had known.

 Then we got 1 1/2 inches of snow. At least the snow is bright and doesn't last long.

 It was gone the next day.

   We've been having issues with our instant hot water heater. For the first two years, it worked perfectly. Now we have water pressure everywhere but the showers! It takes forever to rinse shampoo out of my hair and in the guest bath where I take my shower in the winter, I have to dash all over the place to get the water to hit my body. Pa thought the impeller might have gone bad in the water pump so he installed a new one. Made no difference. The other problem is, you have to set the water heater to the temperature you want to be using. If you even think of adding cold water to the mix, the water turns icy cold. Pa has to have hot water running in the sink and shower both to keep the water from getting cold while he takes his shower. I keep suggesting he call the company and talk to the technician to see if they can figure out what's going on. So far, he hasn't done that. I guess he needs a few more cold showers.
    Every year, the Coronado Power Plant hosts a Christmas dinner for the senior citizens of Apache County. We've never heard of it but Wayne's girlfriend told us about it and invited us to join them. We only knew 4 people out of 200 but we had a great time. One of the vice presidents and his wife sat with us. The dinner was really good! They had a raffle with about 80 or so gifts to hand out. Wayne's girlfriend won some slippers and cash. I kept saying I wasn't lucky and never win anything. After coming close a couple of times it was time for the last draw. Lo and behold they called my number. I was so surprised that I whooped out loud. I won a $25.00 gift certificate to our local IGA super market. I also got to take home the poinsettia plant sitting at our table because Wayne had no place for it and the vice prez and his wife flew in for the dinner and had no room in the plane.
 

 I brought a bunch of plants inside for the winter. This had a tiny bit of green when I brought it in. After I started watering it, all the petunia seeds that the mother plants had thrown off started to come up. There used to be more babies but I drowned them when I watered them. Our neighbor Nancy said she had no idea that petunias reseeded themselves. Before the freeze, I had a huge row of them under the window. All grown from seeds from the hanging basket. Too cool!

   The blue birds are back. They seem to like cold winter baths. You should see the Robins take a bath. There is water every where! Our Red Shafted Flicker has stopped by a few times. They are so beautiful! We also have Juncos, house finches, sparrows so far this winter. The Ravens never stop by for a drink but they do stop by if they see rabbit remains.
   My poor BFF injured her knee at work. She hasn't told me the details yet but she is on crutches and wears a knee brace. Just as I decided to go to the Dr. about my knee, it stopped hurting! Mind over matter? It's still tender and I have to be sure not to let it twist. So we shall see how it goes.
   For Thanksgiving we had Tom and our neighbors Don and Nancy over for dinner. Pa was such a big help with condiment trays, slicing the turkey, mashing the potatoes. Tom stirred the gravy. We all had such a good time. We are doing it again for Christmas. I'm the only one who has a kitchen. Tom lives in a 5th wheel and Don and Nancy live in one room in a Quonset hut and cooks on one burner of a camping stove. She has done that for 7 years! They are building a house inside one of their huts. It's been slow going due to health issues. I told Nancy, I'd hook up a 5 gallon propane tank to the big stove and cook there. Pa has helped them quite a bit, putting in gas pipes and doing what he can to move them forward.
  I'm working on some Christmas gifts and am trying to think of something for Pa and my mom. My mind is coming up blank for the both of them.
  Well, I've run out of pictures to share so I've run out of stories to tell. I hope you all have a blessed Christmas season and if I don't chat with ya soon, have a safe and Happy New Year!