Another busy and fun-filled week has flown by. Saturday morning Donna had her final rehearsal with the Viewpoint Concert Band. When she came home, Mike and Jodi Hall picked us up and we headed out to Apache Junction for the Superstition Blues and Brews festival. The festival was in a park at the junction where Apache Trail heads northeast toward Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flat.

We found parking in a dirt lot across from the park and checked in at will-call – we’d purchased our tickets in advance. They had a large crowd – more than expected. It was a beautiful day -clear blue skies and the temperature reached the upper 70s. We unexpectedly ran into our friends, Kelly and Frank Burk there. We sat on the grass in camp chairs we brought and enjoyed an afternoon of music and craft beers in the sun.

It was a good time. After the concerts – there were a number of good bands performing, we went to Frank and Kelly’s place. They ordered take-out Chinese from J&M and we had an impromptu dinner.

Last Sunday, we drove out to Buckeye to visit my daughter, Jamie, and brought her a couple of goodies. She’s in a back brace and her mobility is somewhat limited. One of the items we brought her was a “reacher” – a mechanical picker-type device so she could pick things up from the floor without bending over or reach things above her on a shelf or cabinet. We picked up take-out from Jersey Mike’s and had lunch together with her and Francisco and I was glad to find her in good spirits.

Sunday was Donna’s concert day – it was actually in the evening. The concert band performed from 7pm to a little past 8pm and put on a good show. The seating arrangement of the band changed and now Donna was in the front row alongside the other two clarinets and I could hear her better. I was put in charge of a crew that collected donations for the band near the end of the show. The donations go into the music fund for the band – with a large concert band, sheet music for all of the instruments adds up. They typically pay over $800 for their music folio.

The rest of the week was mostly typical – pickleball, tennis and great weather. Of course, yesterday we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, where everyone pretends to be Irish. I played pickleball in the morning. When I left the courts, vehicles – mostly decorated golf carts – we’re queuing up for the park’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. There were a couple of old green hot rod cars in the parade. I thought, “Midget-San is green, why not?”

I came home and wiped the dust off of the car and fired it up to join the parade.

There were about 100 vehicles in the parade. The route took us around the park and people were lined up everywhere to watch and collect candy thrown from some of the carts.

It was fun and something different to do. Donna was out getting groceries, but said she wants to be in the parade next year to throw out candy.

Last week, Donna picked up a cat perch from a woman in the park. She’d bought it for her cat, but her cat never used it. Donna set it up in the Arizona room and Ozark has put it to good use. She likes to get on the top platform and nap or go inside a little cubby a couple of feet off of the floor.

After months of living in our home, I wonder how Ozark will react to life in the motorhome this summer.

As usual, we had some interesting dinner plates last week. On Thursday, Donna grilled a pork tenderloin with bourbon brown sugar sauce. She served it with brown rice and broccoli.

On Sunday, she cooked chicken thighs in the slow cooker with bacon, fennel and onions in white wine and chicken broth with a little tomato paste. She shredded the meat and served it over mashed potatoes with fennel fronds.

Of course, yesterday was the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal. She had corned beef with carrots and onions in the slow cooker all day and added cabbage in the afternoon. She made sides of champ – mashed potato with sliced green onions steeped in hot butter and heavy cream – and freshly baked Irish soda bread. We had our St. Patrick’s Day meal out on the back deck before sunset.

The weather has been fantastic – most days have been in the low 80s except for Tuesday when we hit 87 degrees. We should be in the low 80s today and tomorrow before the temperature dips to the low 70s on Sunday and Monday – then we’ll be back in the 80s. I need to sign off now and go buy an oil filter for the Nissan truck – it’s oil change time.

*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!