Merry Christmas! (I feel like it's okay again to say that)

8:18 am - Mountain Time - Saturday - 40 F degrees, humidity 39%, wind 10 mph out of west....CLEAR BLUE SKIES.......forecast high today is 57 F degrees!  In fact, we only have one forecast day of the next 15 to be in the 70's.....every other day will be in the 60's now.  It was windy all night, and has only just calmed somewhat as I sit to type my blog this morning.  

Friday continued with heavy cloud cover, and eventually a rising wind.   I had planned to work on polishing the driver's side wheels, but it looked like rain so I hung out inside for most of the morning.  Around noon time I took a ride with Tom into Phoenix to pick up some custom metal pieces he had made for his 1940 Ford project to replace some rusted pieces in the trunk.  On the way we stopped off for lunch at 'Wild Horse West' for a hamburger, which is their specialty.  'Wild Horse' is a kind of dive bar, but far, far from a dump......

......I had the Cheeseburger and added bacon......I didn't take a picture of my burger, but to give you an idea of how big they are here is one of their regular burgers from their Yelp page for 'Wild Horse'.......Yelp gives them a solid 4 stars on 50 reviews, and I would agree......

Just add cheese and bacon and you've got my burger

......they don't have French Fries, but you can get a bag of chips with your burger.....soft drinks (we had Cokes) are bottomless served in very large red cups.  The food and service were great and I am definitely down for a return engagement!  'Wild Horse' only accepts cash in payment for your food, so bring cash, or if you forget there is an ATM on site for your convenience.

From 'Wild Horse' we picked up I-17 southbound and drove into North Phoenix to the 'MetzFab' (they have, among other machines, Waterjet cutting machines) to pick up the custom metal pieces Tom ordered, and they, ironically, are in the same complex as Heitek Automation where I bought replacement MAC air valves for my Newell 4 years ago!  Tom picked up his order and we were on our way back home arriving back in Wittmann just before 4:30 pm to this beautiful horizon......

.......it wasn't long until we began to feel the wind rising, and it was time to head inside for the evening.  The wind, as I reported above, continued unabated all night....there were several times when I was on the verge of going out side, with TLE's help, and stowing the patio awning, but each time the wind relented enough that I went back to sleep.  With the passing of this storm front it feels as if we have turned a seasonal corner in Arizona.....it's starting to feel a lot like an Arizona winter.

Only 8 days until Christmas, so MERRY CHRISTMAS and thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - there has been a significant, sustained increased in my readership over the last 6 weeks during which said readership has increased about four fold.  I am humbled, and grateful for your support.  If you are enjoying my daily blog posts please become a 'follower'.....to the far right of each daily blog post there is a subheading called, appropriately, 'FOLLOWERS'....just click on the link below the pictures of my followers to follow! Thanks!

P.P.S. - Each Saturday I will answer any questions you might have about our fulltime lifestlye, and related topics, so if you do have a question(s), or there are topics you would like to see discussed, please leave a message at the bottom of any blog post and I will attempt to respond each Saturday to as many as I am able.