Friends have reminded me that I have been a bit lax in my writing.  I am sorry.  Sometimes in winter I am hard pressed to keep up a cheerful attitude and my writing suffers.  I will try to do better than once a month, I promise!

On Valentine's Day we had an honest to God blizzard here on Saguaro Hill.  Huge snowflakes fell for about 2 hours.  Visibility was down to zero.  Trees, bushes and structures were covered in the white stuff.  The roads got slippery and muddy.  The dogs and grandson had a blast.  I froze my behind off while they played and threw snowballs.  Then at 3:30, the snow stopped, the sun popped out all the snow melted and you'd never know anything even happened!  That is Arizona for you.

I did not win the HGTV dream home although I faithfully entered the contest twice a day.  I have not sold my alpacas yet but there is one lady who may be interested in giving them a good home.  She wants me to get them tested for the Valley Fever  before she agrees to take them.  And she will not take them if they test positive.  We are working on getting all that taken care of.  I am praying that they will test negative for the disease because, truth be told, I have lost interest in being an alpaca farmer since Kardigan died.  I also realize that I will probably never have enough resources to make money in that business.  I am feeling a need to be free and start something new.

I am tired of it being cold and windy, although yesterday was a nearly perfect day.  Steve and a friend had the perfect day to play golf.  It was sunny, about 70 degrees and not windy at all.  My friend and I drove around Sierra Vista and looked at houses while the guys played.  We also went to a book store, where I spent a small fortune on magazines, books and a movie.  I am a hoarder of books.  I just love them.  If it is not a novel to take me away from reality, it is a reference book to use for research and writing in whatever field I am pursuing at the moment.  Today I started and finished one of Louis L'Amours classic works.  I also read through the newest Mary Jane's magazine and a copy of Arizona Highways.  I started a new journal on my new laptop and am studying the history of Tombstone and Arizona in general.  Fascinating stuff.  

We visited Tombstone yesterday as well before the guys golf tee time.  We had lunch in the Crystal Palace Saloon and I wondered how it was 150 years ago when the Earp brothers were there.  I bet a lot more people were toting guns.  We walked by the place where one of the Earp boys was shot in the back and lost his life.  And men walked around wearing the red sashes that were worn by the Cowboy Gang who fought with the Earps.  Today they invited us to the re-creation of a gunfight and tours of the old silver mine.  One of them tried to start a gunfight with Steve, teasing him about the "dumb yellow shirt" he wore.  My husband, knowing that discretion is the better part of valor and not wearing a gun, wisely let the comment slide.  

The waitresses in the saloon wore red and black tightly laced up corsets, their decolletage barely constrained above black lace.  They were friendly and lively but I felt fortunate that we women no longer have to wear such restrictive garments.  Tombstone's buildings and landscape seem much the same today as they were all those years ago.