While we were out . . .

Ah, yes. We have been here a week now. And I have not been keeping up. "Languid" is the word I would use. The days are Languid. Just kinda hanging out. Hot. Pool time. The first few days we just pinched each other and said, "We're here!" But we're definitely trying to put a little more class into our act. Get going. Do things. But for now, Languid is winning.

"I think a lemonade this time,  darling. Lots of ice."

On day three we did manage to connect with an actual person from Time-Warner -- well, a contractor who is not actually an employee of Time-Warner -- who installed our wifi. (One of the remaining problems with this park is that the wifi is terrible. We've been to tiny low-rent RV parks where the wifi was terrific. We've been to public parks in small towns in Mexico where the wifi was terrific. But here we are in a very nice resort in Palm Springs and the wifi sucks. So we pay a company to come and install wifi for us for a month -- and it takes us three days to get the company on the phone.  Everyone complains about it. But the problem remains. Ah well.  Languid. ) The installer is an interesting guy who had nothing good to say about TW, so right away we knew we were simpatico. He'd been in the service -- enlisted one month before 911 -- "So guess where that landed me," he said. Iraq, of course. And had an interesting comment on his time there. "When you need it, your training kicks in," he said, "but other than that it was boring." Hadn't heard that before. Nice fella. Born and raised here and can't seem to leave. Besides doing this installation work for a small mom and pop firm, he'd serviced the tall wind turbines -- the very BIG ones -- climbed all the way to the top -- loved it. "All I know is TVs and turbines," he said, "and I'm really good at both." Don't know about the turbines, but the wifi & cable work really well! But Time-Warner -- not so much. Even he, the installation contractor, gets put on hold for two hours. Oh, America.

A has taken H to a couple of parks and reports they're swell. H is loving the pool and his swimming is progressing. Golf is yet to come for all of us -- this week  -- sometime. Two courses here (the first tee for one of them is at our door) and dozens more in the area. No shortage of opportunities, although I'd get laughed off most of them.

H and friends at Palm Desert Civic Park

Pool ready.

And we have been geocaching. H remains very keen. We went up to Big Morongo Canyon a couple of days ago and found three along the route, although one of them had been destroyed, so we were guessing there. That was the location with the great bird's eye view of the canyon itself, so that was neat, even though the cache itself "needed attention" as they say in the parlance -- if you can call bits and pieces strewn over the landscape as "needing attention". I think "total rebuild" would be more in order.

(For those who don't know, and it was recently pointed out to me that there are people reading this who are puzzled, geocaching is a kind of scavenger hunt, open to everyone, where you find objects hidden at various locations around the world -- including one on Mars, apparently.  You find them by using a GPS to pinpoint the latitude and longitude of a hide, all of which are listed on a website. It can as advanced or as simple as you want, the caches are easy or hard to find, located in easy or difficult terrain. Lots of variations. The website is www.geocaching.com. And it's lots of fun. For the whole family.)

Our birdwalk at Morongo was a bit disapointing. It is reportedly a great birding area, although we were there a couple of years ago and didn't see many birds. It was windy and cold that day, so we thought the weather provided an explanation. But when we went this time it was sunny with just a teensy breeze and we saw even fewer birds than the first time! Ah, well. It was a lovely walk. And the enthusiasm of the four-year-old may have had something to do with the lack of birds. We did see a verdin, a scrub jay, some sparrows and some crows. So that's something. Oh, and several signs posted warnings of mountain lions and rattlesnakes. We didn't see any of those either. . .

We're finding Outdoor Resort Palm Springs much friendlier than the other times we've stayed here. We note a lot of For Sale listings and think maybe the survivors are realizing if they're not nice to the renters, there may be trouble ahead. It is a beautiful park, well kept, and our site is right across from one of the two main clubhouses, so we have easy access to the pool and related amenities. And it is a resort so there are lots of activities and classes, should we wish to join in. But right now we're waiting for the guy to come and wash the RV, which is VERY dirty from the two weeks of travel. And then it's probably off to the pool. It's actually HOT today. Up to 23 or something. But we're not complaining . . .