Sunday, December 7, 2014

Farmer's Market at Quartzsite


I visited the new Farmer's Market here in Quartzsite a week or so ago - it's held every Wednesday morning from 8 am till noon.



I bought some great fresh fruits and veggies - a huge bag of chard, cauliflower, broccoli, yams, Fuji apples and beefsteak tomatoes:


I've eaten all the chard, one apple, one tomato and one yam.  Everything else is still in the fridge, and in very good shape.  This was all really fresh when I bought it and has lasted over a week so far.  I usually eat lots of veggies, but I guess not so much lately.  I'll eat them before they go bad, though.  Maybe time for New York Pie - the layered rice, veggie, spaghetti sauce, cheese and sour cream dinner again.  (I haven't made this in a while, but it's a great way to use broccoli and cauliflower.)


If you are interested in seeing what's available there, it's at the east end of the showgrounds property at the west end of Kuehn Blvd.  Just past the Exit 17 off ramp corner.

I also went all over town to various stores looking for new wheel covers, a new coat for Katie, candy - I have such a sweet tooth sometimes - all kinds of things.  I was gone forever and spent a fortune!

I'm always re-arranging and making little changes to The Palms - this week I hung a vase with a little twig from a desert tree - sometimes I'll put a flower in this vase.  I move it around.  Here it is over the couch, and right now it's in the kitchen.


I got some inexpensive Christmas decorations last week at one of the Dollar Stores - this is my snowman:




It's been very quiet around here, the weather has been cloudy and we've even had a couple of days of rain.  Today we have a little cloud cover and it's breezy, but mostly sunny.  I haven't been doing much - shopping for MY Christmas presents.  I had to get a new smart phone - my old 3G Droid2 won't download anything anymore, or do the updates.  I went to the library where the free Wi-Fi is really good, but it still couldn't download the programs I wanted. 

So - I guess it's time, but I bought an older phone - it's actually new, but not a new version.  I called Verizon to make sure I was switching from the old 3G to the new 4G the right way, and wouldn't loose my unlimited data plan.  I'm okay there, but the first Customer Service woman seemed to know less than I do.  She had me remove my SIM card - which she said was under the battery.  I was concerned that removing the battery would disconnect us, and she said it was okay.  So, wondering if there was enough power in the phone for a period of time without the battery, I took it out, and of course the call was disconnected.  But I did take out the card and insert it into the new phone.  I did more research on-line, and finally called Verizon Customer Service again and got a different person.  She was really good.  I told her I tried to put my SIM card into the new phone and it didn't work. 

Get this:  She said the older smart phones don't have SIM cards.  What the first woman was trying to get me to remove was a MicroSD card.  Luckily it seemed to be the same size and I was able to remove it from the new phone.

 So...   I don't have a SIM card and the new phone didn't come with one.  Verizon is sending me one - for free with free 2-day Fed-Ex shipping.  That was nice, and it should be here Monday, and then I'll call again to be sure I do it right.  According to the second woman, when I took out the SD card from my current phone, there was a procedure to follow so the card isn't ruined.  Obviously that procedure wasn't followed since the first woman thought it was my SIM card.  I'm sure they have lots of new employees because of the holidays and all the sales of electronics this time of year.  They must be super busy and training will take some time.  And probably most calls to their call center don't involve a phone this old.  LOL

It will be nice to have a 4G phone, where hopefully my speeds won't be throttled back by Verizon as they sometimes are with the 3G.  And I'll be able to download apps again.  Ever since John told me about his MayMyWalk app (and I see it all the time on his blog), I've tried to download it, and it's just not happening with my current phone.  He walks a lot and keeps track with this app.  I've found if I have something like that, I tend to walk more.


From me and Katie, have a great Sunday, everyone!  :)