Wednesday, February 19, 2020

The Pumpkin Cheesecake Diaries: 2-19-2020


FAKE NEWS
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Laundry day...again. The laundromat was packed. There were more driers out of order than working. One family had 6 or 8 - 30 gallon garden trash bags full of laundry and consumed all but two dryers. A line of angry, impatient people with baskets of wet laundry waited to pounce on those two dryers the second they were free. I can think of more important things worth wrestling over than a large capacity Maytag.


I fired up my Kindle and downloaded the pre-release book I purchased in January titled: “Fake News” by friend and author, Jerry Hatchett..Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Purely coincidental, Jerry? You may need to work on your subtly. When sniper, Bruce Berringer dropped “MBC anchor Chad Scott” in front of the New York building I almost stood up and cheered! To hell with drying my basket of clothes – that right there was worth hanging out in the laundromat for a week.

A lady emptying one of the free dryers took pity on me and saved it until I could wheel my basket of wet clothes over before somebody cut in. I shoved everything I had in that one dryer...fed the machine $2.00 in quarters and went back to the adventures of Black Ops agent: Sam Flatt.

Perfect timing. I was folding the last of the clothes when Patty and Cindy pulled in to pick me up on their way to Cave Creek for a mini road trip. I moved my truck to the far end of the parking lot and jumped in with the girls.

Cindy drove us to Lake Pleasant for lunch at Dillon's Bayou on the harbor. Parking is a considerable distance from the restaurant. A shuttle takes you part way to the harbor where you jump on a pontoon boat to be shuttled the rest of the way in. I wasn't too sure how that was all going to go with my tendency toward motion sickness and water phobia. I stayed centered on the dock best I could and tried not to think too much on the sea faring abilities of “Captain Ron the volunteer” piloting the boat.

After we paid our bill, it was back across the harbor with Captain Ron and into the shuttle driven by the same driver that brought us in. His name was John. He was a kick in the butt. A sign hanging on his rear view mirror read: Gratuity appreciated. A button on his back let you know John, like Captain Ron, is also a volunteer. How much does one tip a shuttle driver? I stuffed a $5.00 in the tip jar and called it good.


I imagine Cave Creek looks a lot different now than it did just a few years ago. Construction is booming across the State it seems. Beautiful big houses going up everywhere from the valley floor to the tops of rocky peaks. The town, like most of the others I've visited, caters to Snowbirds and tourist.

We shopped the “Southwest Bedazzle Boutique.” As the name implies...we were adequately bedazzled by the contents. You couldn't put a pin on an empty spot in that place. From wall to ceiling inside and out...every square inch covered in colorful metal art, sculptures, rock art, clothing, trinkets and more. We each found something we couldn't live without before heading to the Dairy Queen across the street.

Cindy pointed the Dodge toward home. I was just talking about how I would like to see a wild burrow when I spotted a group of them off the side of the road. It was a quick glimpse...but at least I can say I saw them. Next on my list of sightings is the elusive Javelina. My adventure isn't over yet – I remain hopeful.


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