Weekly Update 12/20-12/26

 Christmas week!

House update - framing is done, electrical main is in. HVAC and plumbing this week?

The crew went for a night mountain bike ride again. Didn't get started until 8:30 didn't get home until after 12 am again. 16 Miles.  These guys are a bad influence on me. 

Not much after that other than picking Joel up from the airport and then eating and drinking too much as usual when we get together. The whole family in the Casita for 3 days. Talk about close.

We had a nice Christmas and I forced the family to go on a hike.

Another easy week of work and then 2021.  

Weekly Update 12/13-12/19

Another week in the books and as of 12/20 we have been in the Casita for 50 days. Not that we are counting.

Last Sunday we visited the house and they had started the framing. We are very excited to see real progress. It feel much more tangible.

Front

Back

Kitchen through living room to backyard

Which then brings us to the "Design Center". Where we pick out all the electrical, finishes, countertops cabinets, carpeting, tile...you name it. We finally had our appointment on Friday. Started at 9 AM and ended at 4:45 PM with an hour for lunch. Mentally exhausting. We ended up with a complete departure from the old house with all the wood and oak trim.

Another fun thing Mackenzie and I did this week was view the Geminids meteor shower. Sunday night we drove to the Alta Loma trail head and hiked 2 miles in on the Hope Camp trail to a small hilltop. Much of the area is designated dark sky in the Tucson area but, this just helped get any city glare to be gone. The additional benefit was it was a new moon so the sky would never be darker. We sat and watched the show of quite some time. Into Monday morning. We did not get home until almost 2:00 AM. Nothing like hiking in the dark in a national park at 1 in the morning. It also made for a very tired workday. But it was worth the time with my daughter. I took a ton of pictures but have not had time to put them all together like I want.  Here is some fun we had with some light painting.

Also here is the link to my Mount Lemmon Motorcycle ride from last week. 

The edit got screwed up, so the sound is off and even though it was shot in 4K it rendered in not quite HD. I would redo it, but the internet in the Casita is so bad, it took 36 hours to upload this. I don't have the patience for it.

Weekly Update 12/6-12/12

 Not too much new here. The house wasn't framed as of Thursday, but even though more lumber was delivered.

On Tuesday the crew called me up for another night bike ride. It was the most aggressive ride to date. almost 10 miles. Starr Pass Loop. Listed as Intermediate/Difficult. At night it was definitely difficult. Didn't crash or anything, I did have to slow down and even walk in a few places. Overall it was still a good time.

We got quite a bit of rain on Wednesday and the temps cooled down considerably. The water does not really soak in here, but just puddles and run of. Still standing water in many places 4 days later.

Oh yeah, Tracy had to do some work Saturday, so I took the opportunity to take my cycle up to Summerhaven. 25 mile ride on the Catalina Highway topping out at over 8,000' in elevation.  It was a blast. Except traffic slowed me down a lot. It was very pleasant 65 decrees when I started and at the top it was 41 when I stopped at Mt Lemmon cookie cabin. I had my normal riding gear and layers underneath, but it was very chilly in spots. Still snow on the road and in the forest at that elevation. Thank goodness this old bike has handgrip warmers. That helped a lot.  I will be putting a video up the mountain ride out in the next week and will link to it. 

That's all for this week.

 

Weekly Updates 11/29-12/5

Hard to believe it is December already. 

We have been here 1 month and a few days now. The vacation vibe has worn off. The cuteness of the casita is gone. Now it's just a stepping stone to other, better things. I did make some bigger meals this week. although it isn't easy. Swedish meatballs and a Pork Tenderloin were both made. Stuff easily made will no longer be taken for granted in a kitchen with 3 square feet of counter top space.

Which brings me to the house update. We have a slab now and lumber is also onsite.

We expect it to be framed next week. It's it starting to feel more real. We have our design center meeting in 2 weeks and only thing I know what I want is lighting, fans and outlets.  

I also did two bike rides. One on the mountain bike. They crew assembled for a Tuesday night ride. I had my cheap-o bike light from Amazon. Highly rated! Um no. not for the riding I was doing. Luckily we were able to get a different light before hitting more trails. There are no shortage of trails around. This particular set is called Fantasy Island. In a very populated area, infact you bike past peoples houses on occasion. There are a ton of trails an loops from easy to hard, including the bunny loop. The crew assessed my skills on the last ride and said lets do all the hard ones. Ok fine, how hard can they be? It was way more technical than the last ride, tighter, looser, way more up and down. I  think I handled it just fine, only a few spots were what I would deem code brown. Maybe it helps going at night? Can't be afraid of what you can't see?  

I had the go pro on but it was set for more daylight shots so they didn't turn out that well.  Plus my bike mount was not made for this and would often point at the ground or the sky based on the bump.

over 11 miles!

My second bike ride was on the motorcycle. After many attempts I was finally able to title the bike. I have an Arizona Drivers License and now my first vehicle titled. (I am holding off on the cars, registration is not cheap down here) Also, after a few Amazon screw ups I had all the parts I needed to fix a few things. With that done in the morning I did  bunch or errands. All gastronomical in nature. 

First up. Tucson Coffee Roasters. Ran out of the stuff from Collectivo and Stone Creek so I figured it was time to try local. By the way, if anyone wants to send me some Collectivo, let me know I will give you my punch card app info. I have around $180.00 of credit on that including a free birthday bag. They won't let you use it for online orders, unfortunately. Anyway, from there I went looking for Roma Imports. Closest thing I could find like a Gloriosos. Not quite a market but close with a full deli/take out and lots of frozen meals (lasagna, ravioli etc.), sauces, and importantly Italian sausage. I grabbed 5 links of the hot and mild, put it in my insulated bag in the top case of the bike. Last stop was Penzy's. Not that I needed much, but just to find where things are in my new city and it is good to see something familiar. From there I took the longest, hilliest, curviest way back home. Riding a motorcycle on December 4th, mid 60's. Perfect weather. Not cold, not hot, just right. 

Came home and grilled up those sausages. What's the verdict? The grind is much like what I like, coarse, not the over processed grind of some supermarket brands. The spicy were pretty good, missing something. The mild were very much the same good, but again missing something. my guess is fennel. 

Maybe I take up sausage making when we get into the new house? Ha, only half joking.