From Summer to Winter, what happened to Fall?

I must be one of the most inconsistent bloggers on the net. Good luck to me should I choose to tweet on the twitter! Here it is, only 4 days until Christmas, and I'm posting my first entry since Summer. Oh well, better now than not at all I guess?

In September we loaded up the boat and went out to the Okanogan area of British Columbia for some visiting, boating, and some golfing, staying at the Swan Lake Rec. Resort near Vernon, B.C. We returned to Alberta after a couple of weeks.

We pulled out of Carefree Resort on Gleniffer Lake about a week earlier than planned. The critical services in the resort are considered "shallow" services (water and sewer), and thus are buried well above the winter frost level and must be shut down and drained every fall. The tentative plan is to winterize the lines just after the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend (mid-October), but the weather took a nasty turn for the worst about a week in front of Thanksgiving, so we packed up quick and headed for warmer climates on October 7. We travelled south through Alberta in the wind and wet snow / rain mixture, got covered in 2" of wet snow that froze solid overnight in Lethbridge Alberta, woke up to below freezing temperatures, but nice and sunny, and then made our way south through Montana only hours ahead of the really cold, snowy weather. Two days later we were basking in the sunshine and warm temperatures of Las Vegas.

We stayed in Vegas for a week or so, then made our way to Mesa Arizona where we stayed until December 16.

Our plan was to purchase a house somewhere in the Valley area here in Arizona so our time here has been focused on that task. Several factors influenced our decision to purchase real estate here.

1. Need for an investment





2. The market conditions here being close to, if not at the bottom of a huge down-cycle.





3. The Canadian dollar close to par with the American dollar.





4. A nice intermediate place to call home, and to be able to have family and friends come to visit us, or to use for a nice place to escape the cold Canadian winters back home.

So when we got here, we hooked up with a local Realtor (Kristy) who had been faithfully sending us listings matching our search criteria for several months prior to our serious searching. We looked in Glendale, Mesa, Maricopa, Phoenix, and finally ended up making two unsuccessful offers on homes in Queen Creek, but 3rd time was a charm! We ended up very happy with the house we found in an area now known as "San Tan Valley", near Queen Creek Arizona. We got possession about the 8th of December, and our time has been filled with shopping, unpacking, and setting up all that is required to make a house a home.

Other activities have included two NHL hockey games (Phoenix Coyotes vs. Montreal Canadians, and Coyotes vs. my beloved Calgary Flames), my first NFL game with the Arizona Cardinals taking on the Seattle Seahawks, a trip back to Calgary Alberta for the CFL Grey Cup activities, golfing, visiting, tennis, jogging, hiking, etc.

Looking back I guess I can see why blog entries have taken a back seat. I have to find a way to make time more entries (said Terry, again).

Check out our new house and get a bit more up to speed on our travels on Sandy's canusamex travel blog, at http://canusamextravels.blogspot.com/

As far as the website goes, we did manage to shoot the raw footage for another "video short" that should be ready soon. The project involves the installation of some additional electrical in my trailer / garage using electrical metallic tubing (EMT). This video feature should be ready in the near future.

To all my family, relatives, friends, and website clients, have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! (or have a good, great, or happy whatever you might celebrate this time of year)!

Until next time..................

Terry.