Rock hunt
I started going to country music bars, I have always enjoyed country and really enjoyed new country, country clubs/bars in Arizona are nothing like the UK, the only thing was that it was mainly set dancing, most clubs had free dance lessons an hour or so beforehand the dance and so I attended dance lessons, I had no partner and therefore had to rely on there being free ladies, most times yes but sometimes no.
This meant that sometimes I was on the side-lines, I did learn the Arizona two step, I would join on line dancers where it was partner free I would also dance to songs I could do my own thing to, I was sitting at the bar on this occasion when a girl called Daisy came up to me and said you look like a two stepper, I had never saw her before and so I looked at her and said I can’t country dance, I said I’ve been taking lessons but I need a partner, she happily replied with a smile, I will be your partner… happy days I have a dance partner.
We had a chat and a bit of a dance with me improvising, there is nothing worse than a dancer having to sit on the side-lines when you’re in the groove and the foot is going, not knowing the dance is not an issue, the floor is calling, Daisy wanted to move on to another bar but she had been sitting with a group of people who she told me were her brothers and their wives, and so she went and told them, we left her car there and took off in my car.
We arrived and I parked in the light outside, I could see that she wanted to get up close and personal, but that had not been on my mind nor my intention, she had been forward in picking me up and getting personal was probably her intention, it just never dawned on me, I had a problem, I was backing away from women that I liked and yet I had one night stands with them that I didn’t, I don’t understand it but that’s how it was.
We walked into the bar I had realised we had been followed by someone from the last bar, he was not a part of her company however she also recognised him, was someone keeping an eye on me or on her? I paid no more notice we had a dance and I was getting to like her, I offered her a night cap back at mine but she was staying with her brother and so had to get back and so I took her back to her car.
We had not made arrangements to meet again, although she said she would be my partner I had not taken it seriously, I had told her whereabouts I lived, the next day there was a note under my wiper blade with her contact details she had tracked me down and found my car which with a damaged front end was not hard. I contacted her and we met up and became dance partners I was learning line dancing this is nothing like the UK line dancers that I have seen, there is no comparison.
Daisy told me that she had come back from Seattle where her two children still lived and that was why she was living with family and that her parents were living up at Tonto Basin it was her dads birthday and the family were going up for the weekend and would I go with her, I agreed and we made arrangements for her to pick me up.
Tonto Basin is approx. 80miles and the drive took about 1 and half hours, I enjoyed the ride and we passed Tonto Creek and the story of when the creek rises, we arrived at her parents’ home, I found them to be very nice people, I was made very welcome. Her two brothers and their wives arrived; I found them to be very nice friendly good people, we all went down to a restaurant, this was a grass roots community a place where everyone knew each other and the type of people I like to meet and I really enjoyed the people, being away from the city and meeting what I call real people, living the life of the earth. I was the new kid on the block and a brit at that.
During my weekend up there I played horseshoes for the first time ever, and I met up with some modern day cowboys living in trailers, it was a good weekend and I was to visit on more occasions, there is so much that city people miss, meeting the Native Americans on the reservation, along with all my other experiences, showed me life in other perspectives.
Daises dad had an old van for sale and I needed a van for my business and so Ross offered to buy my car he could do it up and make some money for himself, I was in no position to do it myself and so I let my car go and brought the van, my sister Rachel and her partner Ross had decided to buy another house and so I was offered the other house to rent with the option to buy, it was three bedroom with a long space at the side and a big back yard, it was perfect, it was on the edge of the dessert in Phoenix itself, I agreed, there was so much room for improvement, not to mention my foot on the property ladder.
The new house they had brought was on the west side of Phoenix and still had the old pipework, I was surprised that it was galvanised, I had never seen galvanised pipework used in residential property before, in the UK it used to be lead, but in Arizona it was galvanised which I was use to working with in commercial properties in the UK, and so it was decided the pipework had to go, and so I re-piped the three bed house in copper, it was bloody hot in the loft at 110 degrees outside, got it done, I re-piped there three bedroomed house, and they were happy campers.
I was doing a variety of work, awnings in Apache Junction, I had a call from someone in California to do Mexican tile in a home in Phoenix, I had work to do on restaurants one called me that had failed inspection and they were to be closed if there kitchen was not brought up to spec, I did the job, and they passed inspection, I had Daisy and her sister with a friend help me paint the outside of a large house, it was so hot the girls jumped in the pool to cool off. In the eves was a hornet nest and that was a challenge because they are very aggressive, for example I was about to get under a house to run cable when two hornets from a nearby tree fly down and stung me on the back of my shoulder, they attack without cause, and so a nest was a concern however I did manage to spray them and get the job done.
I was looking for an employee who knew there stuff I didn’t care if it was man or woman so long as they could do the work, I was not specialised in one field, I was across the board in whatever you can think of, I did it.
I had not forgot about my import/export plans Daises sister Petal could make dream catchers, and she agreed to make them for me, while Daisy and I along with her nephew went out on rock hunts for Apache Tears and Geodes, I loved the crystal formation in them, but the tears were the main subject of the hunt, they grow inside another stone which made them harder to find, and I was going to tumble them and mount them on rings or necklace or simply sell them as is, here is the story behind them and there uses.
Apache Tears
A large cavalry unit was sent out to hunt down the Apache warriors. A warrior party of seventyfive Apache galloped to the top of a pink-hued mountain, chased closely behind by the cavalry. The warriors wheeled their horses around, realizing they were trapped. In front of them hundreds of cavalry officers circled, guns in hand.
Behind them, the sheer face of the mountain plummeted hundreds of feet to the desert floor. At a signal from their leader, the officers fired. In the first round of shots, fifty Apache died.
The remaining twenty five warriors were trapped and faced death at the hands of their enemies. These men knew there was no way out. Rather than be killed by the enemy, the remaining Apache warriors spun their horses around and leaped over the edge of the mountain.
When the Apache women and children discovered their fathers, husbands, and sons dead at the bottom of the cliff, their tears fell. Each tear drop, as it hit the hard, dry earth, turned to black stone. They mourned the death of their warriors. They mourned the loss of their fighting spirit. They mourned the life they had carved in the Arizona desert. Soon the ground at the bottom of the mountain, once bleached white from the searing sun, was blackened by Apache tears.
“The Holy Stone” Crystal healers assert that apache tears detoxify and fortify the physical body, calm muscle spasms, and enhance the immune system and vitamin absorption. They may also provide benefits for those suffering from clinical depression and ailments of the intestines, stomach and finger- or toenails.
Apache Tears is best known for its ability to help one overcome depression. Its vibration is soft and gentle to allow one to come to a state of self-realization. The energy within it grounds and protects, which aids its already powerful healing abilities.
Apache Tears are powerful stones to use for psychic protection.
They will raise your ability to recognize the approach of menacing situations, where you may be at risk. This is extremely useful if you are a healer, as they will aid your work by ensuring you are kept safe. Like other types of Black Obsidian, they will absorb negative energy. This makes Apache Tears powerful tools to cleanse your auric field of negativity.
Their historical meaning is interesting, as these stones are powerful to heal you, if you are feeling grief and emotional distress.
I was intending to export the tears and dream catchers and other items, this was the early 1990s and so the prospects were very good at that time.
My country dancing had much improved now, I could do the Achy Breaky Heart, Boot Scootin Boogie, the Arizona two-step, ETC, we seen a notice about the biggest line dance in the world was coming up and they wanted contestants, I was up for it, me being me and so was Daisy we had to go through dance competitions, everyone would do the dance and if you got a tap on your shoulder it meant you were selected and then you would go to the table and give them your details, even though it’s line dance you do your own swagger and I could swagger, I got picked, I was dumfounded…I was chosen to appear with Billy Ray Cyrus who would be performing.
Daisy had not been chosen on that occasion but there was another competition being held and so we went to that and she made it, and so we were both in it.
The event was the half time entertainment between the Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears at Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, we had to go out to the stadium for rehearsals so we knew where to stand on the pitch and arrange the line-up in the tunnel as we would run out onto the pitch in order and get to the right spot and look like we knew what we were doing 
Game day arrives time of the event I had practised my twirls, and was ready to go, it was a good game and the 2 minute warning came, it was time to go in the tunnel, we all had to wear Achy Breaky Heart tee-shirts, two minutes of game play can take 15 minutes on the clock, the half time whistle finally blew and we ran out on to the pitch got our positions and then Billy Ray starts up and we do our thing and everything went to plan, after the game he did a concert while we were at the side of the stage he referred to us as his achy breakers, it was a good day.
The house I had rented had a swamp cooler for cooling it down, this was my introduction to airconditioning in an earlier form, swamp coolers will only work in non humid conditions or dry heat as in Arizona, there was a problem with my cooler and so I fixed it.
Swamp coolers are an open system, they rely on the flow of air through the building to direct the cool air, and since they always need hot, dry air to evaporate the water, it needs to displace the air already in the house; air from the swamp cooler needs a way out, opening and closing windows and doors controls the air flow from the swamp cooler to different parts of the house, while central air conditioners use ducts to direct the flow. Swamp coolers can also use ducts in some cases, but they need to be larger than traditional air conditioner ducts to account for a greater flow of air from the swamp cooler.
Daises brother was a contractor, he needed help with a job and so I sub-contracted for him, it was a difficult job but he was willing to pay my price, I knew I could do the job it would be a challenge, I had to get a couple of hard working Mexicans for a few days to do some digging for me.
I had to turn a bedroom closet into an en-suite bathroom, this is ground floor and so I had to figure out where the waste would be running in order to tap into the sewer, this meant digging a concrete floor up, digging down and safely tying into the existing waste pipe.
The closest connection point ran under the hallway and so I had them dig there, I could make the connection with a suitable fall to safely carry the waste underground, I got all the pipes in and completed the job, and the customer was very pleased with the result.
I had found a great guy to work for me he was married with three kids living on food stamps, so I paid him under the table cash in hand, I met his wife and kids, lovely people I paid him well, and he was worth every penny.
When I see someone willing to work with a family to support I had no problem with paying him cash in hand and paying him good, I would not exploit anyone, your skill level depicts your pay whatever your gender or situation. I had a fire damaged house to do out at Superstition half the roof was totally gone my job was to rebuild the roof, and I had the perfect guy to work for me, he knew how to do shingles and timber, I never had to teach him a thing, we were out there rebuilding the roof, the house itself was all boarded up and we had some roofing boards on the roof when just as I got down off the ladder a dust devil appeared.
A dust devil is a strong, well-formed, and relatively short-lived whirlwind, ranging from small (half a metre wide and a few metres tall) to large (more than 10 metres wide and more than 1000 metres tall). The primary vertical motion is upward. Dust devils are usually harmless, but can on rare occasions grow large enough to pose a threat to both people and property. A dust devil looks like a tornado they are comparable to tornadoes in that both are a weather phenomenon involving a vertically oriented rotating column of wind, dust devils form as a swirling updraft under sunny conditions during fair weather, rarely coming close to the intensity of a tornado.
I was just stepping down the ladder when it hit and took all the boards up in the air, then it was gone, they just come and go, we got the new roof done and that was all I was contracted to do, all nicely re-shingled.
Things were looking good… too good.
As I have said Daisy had been living in Seattle where her two children still lived prior to her coming to Arizona, she had been staying at her brothers but things were not working out and so I offered her to come and live with me, I had three bedrooms, we were now in a relationship.
She was working as a helper on the school bus and she wanted to be a driver and so I paid for her lessons, and paid the insurance on her car she became a driver, I also paid to insure her car for her so she could get to work.
Her son was getting married at the Little White Chapel in Vegas, the famous chapel where celebrities such as Liz Taylor had got married, so we were off for a weekend in Las Vegas, we decided to drive up with her parents, however I had booked us into a different hotel than her parents, we were just off the strip, we didn’t need to drive once we were there, I was doing the strip, and so was her son, I get on well with the youngsters cause I’m cool, spontaneous and totally nuts.
I did like her son and his future wife her daughter was also delightful we all got on very well. We had a good weekend then we drove back.
I would still see Paul and Mary, Paul was self-employed doing blueprint machines covering Arizona and we would meet up in the mornings before work, he and other guys would be grabbing a coffee or breakfast at Denny’s and then we all went on our separate ways, I also met up with him and Mary for something to eat, I was surprised at how Mary had changed, she wanted to mix mayonnaise with ketchup and spoke about their white gravy, something had changed because that was all new, the colour red and white stands for blood and fire to me which is the motto of the Salvation Army, also the colour of my hackle when I was in the Fusiliers, personally I don’t think mayonnaise and ketchup works, there was a noticeable change in Mary and even Paul to a degree, but me being me paid no notice.
Daisy and I went out on a rock hunt and things were not right quite right, a man friend of Daises who had been coming on the hunts with us, this time he came out wearing a side arm, he looked at me flipped it up in his holster and said “I’m going to do some shooting today”, and I said “that’s fine” his attitude was intimidating and I will not be intimidated, I don’t know why men showing their guns is supposed to impress, they seem to act more macho, I think they are insecure and they feel a sense of power holding there weapon in there hand, whatever there reason I got the message but it never bothered me and I showed it.
We went on the hunt and he was doing his shooting and Daisy was on the hood of the car the situation was obvious only no-one had the balls to tell me, so when we returned home me and daisy needed to talk, he didn’t worry me in the least and he knew it, but it was Daisy I needed to talk too.
When we got home she told me he was her boyfriend, I should have just kicked her out, there is no way I could blame him having seen how she had picked me up she was not a vulnerable woman she knew what she was doing, she had worked with him on the school buses, and ended up doing their thing together and it had been an on-going thing.
Her family wouldn’t have her back to stay with them, she wanted to go back to Seattle to be with her kids, however the transmission went in her car so it was stuck in my drive, she had to get a ride to work, I had moved into a different bedroom nobody wanted her, had I kicked her out she would be on the streets, and I could not do that, Ross and Rachel were telling me it was not my problem and that I should tell her to leave, Ross told me she was doing my head in, and she was, I was going out by myself again and I was drinking.
I agreed that she belonged with her kids in Seattle and she could stay rent free on condition she got her car fixed and then left, I had been insuring her car for her which I would not continue, I had paid for her driving lessons so she could past her driving test for school bus driving so she had a better income, I gave her a roof over her head bill free and that was it.
The rear-end of my van collapsed now which had put me off the road however there was a van for sale with a good body but scrap engine my engine would fit and so I went to see it in the guy’s garage and I liked it, now the main worry was black widow spiders, I don’t like spiders in general there was a possibility there could be some in the van due to where it was kept and so I got a water pipe and hosed down the underside I don’t think it would make any difference to black widows it just made me feel better.
I had to sit in the van while it was towed back to my place; I was looking at the road and also looking for spiders in the van, so I was on bricks the whole way but made it safe and sound, I put the van in the backyard, my plan was to take the engine from my van and install it in the this van something I could have done no problem in the UK, however this meant working outside in extremely hot conditions everything was too hot to touch even the ground, not to mention crawlies such as scorpions and rattle snakes.
I was not really kitted out for it tool wise and I really needed a garage to work in, but was sure I could get by, I had a big job to do, it was a major remodelling job for the want of a better word, I was turning a vacant building into a restaurant, I had already been paid a deposit which I used to order the materials and they were being delivered to the site and my employee was standing by to start, he had no transport and so was totally dependent on me, then the worst possible thing happened, I busted my right hand, I never sort medical treatment so I don’t know if it was broken, my situation was work or starve because I’m not the type to go running to my family, this was my problem and I couldn’t afford medical treatment and so I just strapped it up.
The point was I was still unable to work regardless and there was no way of hiding it, my sister Rachel came to see me, she was panicking virtually begging me to go to Texas, I was done I was unable to work or live, credit was not an option, my rating was crap, I could see no way around it, I wanted to stay in Arizona but seeing my sister panicking like she was made my decision for me, it was best for everyone if I left.
I arranged to leave my tools with her and Ross; however I left my geodes and Apache tears along with the dream catchers at the house along with ladders which I had stored in the back of the van in the backyard so everything would be there for a later date, it was really sad, there was so much potential there, if I only had time and the finance I could have erected a garage, workshop, I had plenty of land and would have brought it. I told Daisy that I would keep my word and continue to pay the bills from Texas and to get her arse home to her kids; I got the flight to Texas to start all over again.