Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
With COVID-19 keeping us from traveling much in our first years of retirement, we have been doing more renovations on our home with the money that would have been spent on travel.
We had our pool resurfaced in January. The original surface had lasted 26 years, which is very good for Pebble Tec. With a warm spring, we were able to start swimming on March 31st. A new master bedroom French door is supposed to be installed before the house is painted the week after Christmas. But, like many delivery issues, we doubt it will happen.
We added a battery system to our solar generation. The 12kWh battery can supply the entire home during the on-peak hours. The payback is from avoidance of a high-demand charge during on-peak hours and low-cost energy to re-charge the battery during off-peak hours. Re-charge during daylight hours is aided by solar generation. Another benefit of the battery system is powering the kitchen, bathroom, garage, den, and master bedroom circuits during a grid outage. A power outage occurred while Kathy and I were participating in a Zoom meeting and we did not even realize the grid power had been lost until we left the den!
Kathy and I have been participating in the choir for the St. Mary's Saturday 4:30 pm and/or Sunday 11:00 am Mass all year. We continue to participate in a Patriotic Rosary at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Queen Creek at 6:00 pm Arizona time on the last Sunday of the month (December 19th due to Christmas). https://www.facebook.com/groups/2646390702294836
Doro and I never went back to Weinberg Elementary grade school this past year, but we will start serving at Sanborn Elementary in January 2022. We began visiting patients in their rooms at Mercy-Gilbert Hospital in mid-May. Only three or four Therapy Dog teams have returned to visit.
Kathy and I continue hosting Grandma & Grandpa Grade School in our home for Olivia every Wednesday afternoon.
My volunteer jobs have continued to expand as Programs Chair for the IEEE Phoenix Section of the Life Member Affinity Group (LMAG), Knights of Columbus Assembly 2536 Faithful Comptroller and Council 3121 Treasurer, and president of our HOA.