April 20, 2002
It's Saturday and we're still in Phoenix with the SOWERS volunteer group. Barb has just finished the laundry, and I've been fussing around with the new "Toughbook" Panasonic computer trying to get it to recognize the CD in the media player slot when I replace the 3 1/5" floppy drive with the CD drive. Sigh. Even the Panasonic help desk (which surprised me with less than a 2 minute wait to get to a live person) couldn't help much. "Reload" was the final recommendation. Aaarrrgghh! I hate that word! Only good thing I can say about Microsoft at the moment is that their stock continues to perform. Hrumpfh! At least I'll be able to reload everything on the larger HDD that got delivered right on time. Of course, I was hoping to be able to simply use the E-Z Gig transfer gadget I've used in the past. Does anybody else out there have as much fun with their computers as I do? What keeps this industry going if everybody is always struggling with the darn things? One of our co-workers on this project, Mary, had her computer crash while she was here. Poor lady nearly went nuts because she'd planned to use some of her free time to get some "work" of some sort done while they were here.
And speaking of Mary, there she is. Office worker, one of the many possible jobs for SOWERS. She and Bonnie were the office workers, Sally was in the daycare center with all the little kids (and what stories she had to tell), and Barb was the painter. I didn't manage to catch Sally with the kids, or Bonnie in the office because they worked the same hours as us fellows worked. On the right is a shot of our rig from the second story of the facility.
I did, however, manage to sneak off early from a morning coffee break and catch Barb doing her thing. The rooms are sparse, with this being the closet and dresser space. Barb has some horror stories about the condition of some of the rooms when they've been vacated. Basic housekeeping skills are one of the things the residents have the chance to learn if they stick with the program.
I took advantage of the second story room Barb was painting to give a perspective of the place. On the left is the center courtyard. At one time there was a swimming pool (when it was the Sands Hotel), of course, but for all the right reasons it's been filled in and is now part of the playground. And then over the fence to the neighborhood. Today there was a bunch of sorority girls doing painting. The graffiti on the wall is gone leaving only the pretty rainbow picture that was in the last posting.
This is to prove that the Cheesecake Factory serves things other than cheesecake. Gene had an apple dumpling, Burke had mud pie, I had an apple crisp, and Barb had a Dutch apple caramel cheesecake. And if I could ever remember about the parallax problem with my camera, you'd have seen her smiling face rather than just her name badge. The SOWERS make a practice of wearing their badges out to functions when we're all together and the comments from the public are always welcome. Gives us a chance to explain a little about some of the volunteer work going on in their community.
A good shot of the desert party (Emery missed out because of a prior commitment) and then on the right is the lean-to we'd framed. The people working on it in this picture are from Boeing. They're roofing it, and I understand they'll be putting the sheeting up on the shed as well.
And there's the shed we framed, and the gazebo. The people working on the gazebo have painted the framing, and are in the process of putting that plastic lattice work up. Should be nice when it's finished.
We're leaving here Monday and, after the work is done on the trailer, we're planning on being at Valle Del Oro RV Resort in Mesa for the rest of the week. Hope we can get to a phone line while we're there. If so, you'll see what it's like to get new axles and tires on our Road Abode.