A day with only one thing planned in it turned into a long, crazy day! As I mentioned earlier, our swamp cooler hasn't been working properly. Last night about ten o'clock at night, two guys in their early twenties showed up to look at the swamp cooler. Yes, they came in the dark! Apparently, they decided to remove the pads to the swamp cooler and let them dry overnight. Then they said that they would be back in the morning to cauk something and hopefully it would work.
We had a reservation to do the Glen Canyon Dam tour at ten, and no one had showed up by then to fix anything. By now the sun was starting to make everything hot, and we had all the fans going in the house. We went to the dam tour (don't say that out loud!) and it was informational and very interesting. The boys received a great history and geography lesson today even though they didn't realize it. :) Did you know that the Glen Canyon Dam is only sixteen feet shorter than the Hoover dam? The Glen Canyon dam creates Lake Powell which is the second largest man-made lake. It also took 4.9 million cubic feet of cement! It's an amazing structure and it was well worth the five dollars to go on the tour.
After the tour, everyone was hot and thirsty, so we passed out water bottles. We drove back to our house which was like a five minute ride from the dam to see if anything had been worked on! No, our sauna was functioning just fine! :) It was way too hot to eat lunch at home, so we ended up eating out at a fast food place. At least everyone was able to get a little refreshed. After lunch we visited the library, but the boys were disappointed that we couldn't check out books. I have to have a piece of mail with my name on it in order to get a library card. So, I asked my friend, Jenna, to mail me a piece of mail. Once we have that we can sign up for a card and the summer reading program.
Once again, we drove back to our house to see if it was any better. Unfortunately, it was not! I'll admit I was a little irritated. In Wisconsin, it's illegal to turn off the heat on tenants in the winter time. In Arizona, it should be illegal to have dysfunctioning air conditioning! Emma had fallen asleep in the car, so we decided to take a ride to see some of the beautiful creation around us. We ended up on a gravel road in Utah that wandered through some back country. (We are only six miles from the Utah border.) While the scenery was beautiful, Chandler and I both ended up with motion sickness which put a damper on the sight seeing tour!
We arrived back around four, and it was an oven inside. Our thermometer inside maxes out at ninety and it was all the way at ninety. Roger made several phone calls to different people in the company to see who he should contact. No one seemed to be overly helpful, and we were all a little frustrated. It's not like back in Wisconsin where we could go to any number of places for an afternoon. Our options were running out, so Roger called over to the other pilot house to see if we could go there while he tried to figure out what to do about the swamp cooler. It definitely wasn't an ideal situation, but it was way better than cooking in the Arizona sunshine! Myself and the kids stayed at the other pilot house, while Roger and his pilot friend, Jon, went to see about fixing the swamp cooler themselves. It was a long afternoon, but I think it will start to cool off inside now.
About 9:30 tonight, some one who is supposed to keep an eye on the trailer as a rental property came by. They came back to caulk where it was leaking up on the roof. Roger told them that he thought he had fixed the problem, but they insisted on climbing up on the roof to caulk something. Whatever...I don't care as long as it stays cooler on the inside than on the outside!
God also sent a very special couple to encourage us today. I received a Facebook message from some friends of ours in Florida. They said that God had laid it upon their hearts to give us $100.00. That was a special blessing at the end of a long day!
All things considered, God protected us, provided for us, and helped us make it though the day. We have some tired, irritated chicken, so I'm off to help put them to bed!
Saturday, June 28
The heat here can really do a number on you if you aren't used to it! Chandler and I have both been struggling with headaches in spite of the fact that we are drinking lots and lots of water. I think it's just going to take a few weeks for our bodies to adjust to the heat and elevation levels.
Roger had only two flights today, and he almost wasn't able to do the second flight because of the heat. The company has a policy that they will not fly on days when the temperature is above 106 degrees. The airplanes do not perform well in temperatures above that level. The flight in the morning wasn't so bad, but by the time he arrived home the temperatures were starting to climb. The temperature in our house was also starting to climb. I had tried to do a work out dvd, but the temperature in the trailer was 83 degrees. The air blowing through the vents was warm and not cold, and I thought we were in for another long day! Roger came back from his morning flight, and climbed up on the roof. Roger discovered that the people that had come over to caulk on the roof last night had also turned off the water on the roof! This is a big deal because a swamp cooler runs on water. It takes the warm water and pushes it through these pad things and cools down the water to cool down the house. When they turned off the water, the pads didn't have any water to push through it so the air coming through the vents was just warm air from the outside...no wonder it was getting hotter inside!
After Roger fixed that fiasco, the trailer started to cool down again. Yay! The boys have been a little bummed because it's been so hot that they can't play outside during the day. So we've been playing lots of games together as a family. We've played monopoly junior, sequence, Trouble, and a whole bunch of other games. It's been fun, but the lower level of activity is making the boys antsy. So, we've been going down to the lake in the evenings so that everyone can get a chance to cool off.
During Rogers afternoon flight, Garett, Wyatt and Travis went along with him to the airport. There is a room that they can stay in while Roger flies and watch airplanes take off and land. Chandler, Emma, and I went grocery shopping. Our budget is tight, but there is a Safeway grocery store here and a Walmart. Safeway can have a few good deals if you shop the sale items, so I made a list, gathered my coupons, and off we went. It was a little challenging navigating through a new grocery store, but we did it and saved 56%. That's not too shabby for our first time in a new place!
One thing that is hard to get used to is the amount of people around here! Because of the dam and the canyon, Page hosts over 3 million visitors every year. It makes shopping interesting because at certain times, the stores are crowded with people. I'm used to being the visitor that comes through a place on a visit; I'm not used to trying to be the one who avoids the droves of people!
The boys have not been able to ride their bikes because we are struggling with flat tires. There are a lot of these super sharp tiny thorns that are called 'goat heads'. They wedge themselves into the bike tires and puncture the tubes. They also get in shoes, in carpet, and in feet if you aren't careful! The boys are learning to keep their shoes on even in the house, which is a change. Somehow we have to figure out how to fix our bike issues and find out what other people do about goat heads.
Tomorrow is our first church hunting experience. I'm sure that will be interesting!
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