A lazy AZ Christmas

Ah, Christmas in Arizona. What’s not to like? I’m saying this now, sitting in the sun on the couch at our Fifth Wheel (trailer) wrapped up in my fuzzy sweater that I just bought.

But I have to say that starting our life as temporary snowbirds (or intermittent turtles as I like to refer to us) got off to a rocky start.

First of all, leaving town when you have to line up care for two old dogs, “X” number of house cats, store cats and the store – this is nothing to sniff at. And getting all the Christmas stuff sent out ahead of time, plus packing some of it for the folks we are seeing en route. Bah!

The first part of the trip actually went quite well – we left on Friday and drove to Belleville to visit my Mom and drop off our last home-child, Elaine.

Green Valley, Arizona chocolate-covered pecans purchased in October on our first trip south were a hit for all. And then off to Pearson airport and the flight to Tucson – very straightforward, even for an aerophobe.

We picked up the rented car at the airport with no problem, but it was at the 24 hour Wal-Mart that things went a bit further south. After two nights of fretful sleep and a long day of travel I could not figure out what kind of brown sugar we wanted for our oatmeal and which frozen burritos to have for supper at 10 p.m. Gah! (Good problem to have, I know.)

Fortunately, our trailer was in great shape when we arrived – thanks to our friends Elvie and Ian, who set it up for us in October. Move over Delta Chelsea! Laur was able to find the outside receptacle to plug our giant electrical hook-up into. Yay! We were beyond hungry by this point. We just tossed everything from the car into the living room of the trailer.

Big problem, the wall receptacles didn’t work. No microwave, no kettle. No supper, no tea. We frantically looked around the trailer – inside and out – for the magical switch that would give us the power we craved. No such luck. We started chiselling off – I am not kidding – portions of frozen burrito. We had hot tap water, but that would have made for some crappy tea.

Then I had my “great idea” which is my answer to every mechanical problem. Turn it off and turn it on again. Laur went out to do this and found, hidden (he says...) just above the plug-in slot, breaker switches – turned off! Who knew!? Tra da! Electricity. The second burrito we had heated. Infinitely preferable to frozen, let me tell you. Too tired for tea at this point.

The next challenge. We assumed it would be fairly warm in Arizona, and being thick-blooded Canucks, we would not need any heat in our trailer. We were wrong. It goes down to 2 C here in the wintertime.

We turned on the furnace. Lots of air blowing, and all of it cold. And, of course, we left all our winter wear in Sudbury. We put on as many layers of clothing as we could find, and dug under our two blankets – hoping we weren’t replaying Scott’s Antarctic expedition.

Come morning, my fearless husband decided he could not brave the cold any longer. He was willing to face the risk of playing around with the propane tanks. (You have to know that we don’t even have a gas BBQ at home; so we’re propane-challenged.)

I stood further away on the street, waiting for the big boom. Nothing. We went into our trailer – streams of delicious warmth were pouring out of the heat vents. Yes!

We weren’t in the clear yet. There were two remaining challenges (at least of the ones we know about).

The stove and oven didn’t work – not that I plan to do much cooking, but... And our Fifth Wheel has a fair bit of bounce in it. Bounce means that when Laur is writing a comment on one of the papers he is marking, you can feel it as far as the bedroom.

It’s not that Laur’s marks are that powerful – it’s just that we need a few more jacks under our trailer to stabilize it.

Bring in Dan – the Green Valley RV Park handyman. He turned the gas on for our burners, lit a match and poof! Flame! Laur and I were standing as close to the door as possible. Problem – no automatic ignition. Solution — a firelighter from Walmart. That we can do. The jacks we are off to buy after lunch and Dan will install them later this afternoon.

After that a swim in the pool, a soak in the bubbly hot tub and some authentic Chinese food from Mei Hon’s in Tucson (www.mei-hon.com). And then back to my good read which is A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Crosse.

Among many other wonderful features, it’s a book about two people who start up a bookstore that only features good books (as opposed to popular), and it’s got me thinking.

In the New Year, Small Things (CATS and Books) has to move again, and our new location at 235 Hazel has much more of a salon feel to it.

And while I confess to ordering popular literature from Chapters, I would love to have a space that offers good reads by lesser known but excellent Canadian authors. Margaret Atwood had to start somewhere and it sure wasn’t with McClelland and Stewart. And just as some folks want vinyl records, I want paper books. If Cosmic Dave can run a vinyl emporium, why can’t Small Things feature a small press Canuck Book Nook?

What’s funny in such a project is that whereas most book stores are funded by book sales and have cats, Small Things is funded by cat adoptions and cat food sales.
Our motto should be, “What’s a cat store without books?”

Jan Carrie Steven is a volunteer with Cat Adoption Trust Sudbury (CATS) and the co-ordinator of Small Things: Cats & Books. For more information, go to www.smallthings.ca.