Travels in 2008, and 2007

I'm a Porsche 911!

I'm a Porsche 911!

You have a classic style, but you're up-to-date with the latest technology. You're ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you're one of the elite,and you know it.

Okay, so perhaps not... It's a great thought! But... maybe...

I'm a Ferrari 360 Modena!

You've got it all. Power, passion, precision, and style. You're sensuous, exotic, and temperamental. Sure, you're expensive and high-maintenance, but you're worth it.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Or, as we say in our household, "Si, Pepe..."

Flowers and sun

19 Oct 2008
Yuma

     The high heat has mellowed into very comfortable warmness - we're seldom above 95 degrees now (I can hear my mother screaming from the grave that 95 would be unbearable!!! But she was a wuss on heat.) Chris loves it, and I've gradually acclimated to where it's not bad at all. We've had just one little rain cloud since we returned to Yuma, at the end of the monsoon season, so almost every day is just... warm and sunny. Think how to make that sound interesting on the nightly news... every night.

     This week I nested - I bought some plants and pots and dressed up the place a little. Robert & Faye came to dinner last Sunday; Chris had to clean all the spider webs off the patio and furniture in their honor, so I had a clean slate to start with.

     You'll notice I tucked in one little patio tomato plant also. I haven't tried growing them in previous years - this is definitely an experiment. I also stuck a beefsteak tomato plant into the flower bed at Deane's house across the road. She hasn't returned to the warm country yet, but we're keeping an eye on her watering system - which totally failed this summer - and trying to rescue one or two of her plants. The cactus may be all that survive.

     After I finished the planting, I started to water them all - oops, the hose had been lying in the sun. The water temperature was about 300 degrees coming out of it. The next honey-do completed was hanging a hose rack on the north side of the house.

     The town is starting to fill up with Snowbirds (sorry, PC people, "Winter Visitors") - the RV sales lots are bringing in lots of big rigs in an attempt to entice new buyers; the RV parks have more rigs in the storage area and more warm bodies wandering around their park models; the traffic at the corner near Fry's grocery store and the freeway is backed up; the flea market opened for business this weekend; the local news had a feature story on the beginnings of the migration season and the boon it is for local businesses...

     Another neighbor stopped over for a visit and a cold drink last evening as we were trying to install a new screen to keep the bird(s) in the house. You'll recall Tex escaped through the last model. Alan is single and has lived across the street for a couple of years, but never socialized with anyone much. Now he tells us he'll be leaving in the spring. He teaches a program at AWC on water treatment plant technology; he'll move to Farmington, NM to head up the same program there. [BTW, people familiar with the location of our house will laugh at this connection - we live 500 feet from one of the most obnoxious water treatment plant lifting stations in the world! For years the smell has often permeated our entire neighborhood. It appears the $25,000 per day fines we've heard rumors of are finally bringing some closure to the problem.]

     I found a new website that has used up hours and hours of my time. NewspaperArchives.com has full page pdf files of gazillions of old newspapers. I found the obituary for Nancy's great-grandfather in it - the site is totally searchable by individual name/word. Which means you not only don't have to go to a library and squint at a microfilm you don't even have to read the whole page when you find something - it highlights your search inquiry. It's a Wow. It would be even better if any of my ancestors ever made the newspapers. Or if they had my neighborhoods of interest in their databank. I did call up the San Mateo Times for October 1929, just to see what our old neighborhood paper had to say about the Wall Street Crash. One day, one huge headline and story. The next day was back to usual.

Quote for the day:

The mockingbird can change its tune 37 times in 7 minutes. Politicians regard this ability with awe.

 

So we are boring, but...

8 Oct 2008
Yuma, AZ

So we're sitting around playing genealogy on the computer, burning a gourd or two, screaming at the financial markets on the other computer, teasing Emily the Budgie... But what are our friends and family doing?

Lynda and Howard are wandering around New Mexico - some of the same places we visited a month or so ago - El Paso, White Sands, Cloudcroft, and now heading for the Balloons in Albuquerque, methinks. Happy belated birthday to Howard, my only recognized Berkeley-grad friend. Okay, so I'm a right-wing conservative ding-a-ling and get rabid around bleeding-heart liberals, usually. They [Howard & Lynda, not the liberals] have been full-timing for years and years and have it down so well - lots of solar panels, conservative uses of water, etc - and they dry camp much of the time. Unlike some wusses we know, who want full hook-ups, please.

AJ and Irene have finally deserted their Tahoe area campground where they/he learned how to really, really clean toilets - was that why you shaved your head? to keep your hair clean? They've spent the last month trying to catch (and release) all the fish in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. Currently they are heading for St. George, Utah to the Senior Games. These are killer Pickleball players! We'll see them in February at Casa Grande when we go over to play with gourds.

Nicki is planning her Halloween party - and she is one Party Girl! You might want to enter the contest for their costumes... See the Oct 6th entry. She and hubby have 3 cute boys under 6 that tend to make life interesting.

Mike & Dawn are working diligently in South Africa (and Ethiopia, and Uganda, and other such exotic regions) as regional security consultants for the Mormon Church in that area. They are having some eye-opening experiences - both positive and less-than - like fantastic wildlife safaris into the bush, and visiting church members in the ghetto. I'm not only very proud of what they are doing, but that they are doing it! (You have to know how sheltered Dawn has been from the outside world to really appreciate the lifestyle change.) Mike's blog this week talks of some of the truly impressive humanitarian things the LDS Church does world-wide.

Joan is sitting in SoCal, sad because her Angels lost the playoff games. At least they aren't also Raider fans. She plays with Evan, her g-grandson (NO, tell me we and our friends aren't old enough for great grandkids, please!) Joan doesn't even have blue hair. See the Sep 27th entry for the cute kid - we've watched him grow up on Joan's blogs.

Jen & Alex are in the Seattle area and loving it. He's one of my favorite nephews - he likes genealogy and family history. But Jen is the blogger and scrapper in the family - their blog is definitely child-centered. Love it!

Mmm-yoso is my food blog addiction. These guys like to photograph before they eat! And they like all kinds of food - every ethnic variety (so of course we like their choices!) and this is the blog that introduced me to the "haute cuisine" of Taco Trucks in Yuma! I've even learned to take a photo of a good looking plate of food - I always have a little camera in my purse.

Geeks on Tour is our computer/internet help source site. Chris & Jim are really cool people that make a business out of wandering around the country in their Class C motorhome, teaching computer classes, installing DataStorm dishes and having fun. They have marvellous websites on "how-to"s - everything from blogs to Picasa photos, from beginning computing to great upgrading and tweaking suggestions. We've actually met them around the country a time or two - the last time was accidentally in the Iowa Welcome Center this summer. 'Oh, I know who you are!' Fun.

There are also a bunch of blogs I read on a hit or miss basis - some are in my google reader, some just bookmarked. One of the fun ones is genealogy-related: The Genealogue. Another blog, or collection, actually, is from young mothers mostly with multiple children - they are so funny sometimes, and so heartbreaking at others. I feel like I'm window peeping as I read through them. They give support and suggestions and occasional shape-up lectures. Isn't it amazing how we can pour our hearts out to friends we might never have even met in person. 

I really, really, really wish I could talk my kids into blogging. Just little short daily life notes, not big long edited dissertations; not daily, but weekly at least; not necessarily from parents, but also from kids. It's so easy these days. When I was young and married and had kids at home we used to actually write letters. My parents were big on letter writing - after their deaths we found hundreds of them both "from" and "to". It was such a kick to read back over what I was doing when the kids were little. Now I seldom hear from the kids, nor the grandkids, and have no idea what their lives are like - who is in the hospital/doctor's office this week? how did the lacrosse game go? when is the next piano recital? how are the birds? how are the cats? is the baby walking yet? how is the senior year of high school going? how are classes this year? how are the students this year? and what fell apart at home this week?  Is it my job to call them once a week and demand an update? Is it their job to feel 'obligated' to let Grammy Beth know what's going on?

My brother had a comment on his blog last week - yes! I'm not the only one in the family in our generation!!! - about how far away they are and how important little messages from home are. They are in South Africa for a couple of years, and that's really far away! But we only see the kids a couple of times a year, at most, so I guess in many ways we are also just that far away. Oh, well. Life is tough. Quit whining.

'Cause most of the time, life is good!

Happy trails.

Quote for the day:
Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people. -James Russell Lowell