22 Nov 2007
Yuma, yet again
Wow, I just received an email from an old San Carlos friend, with a brief description of their recent travels - nothing exciting, unless you call a cruise from Rio to Barcelona such. Or, the one after that, the 14-day cruise of the eastern Mediterranean, including Istanbul, Rhodes, Delos, Mykonos, Santorini, Sicily, Montenegro, Croatia and Venice. Okay, so I was overwhelmed. What's really the killer is that all of that was leading up to the mention of a forth-coming voyage from Hong Kong to Athens. Oh, my.
Okay, so our upcoming week in San Felipe, Mexico on the Sea of Cortez isn't quite the same. But I can drive there from here, in my own little car and not have to mess with one airport nor security device. There are benefits. I've begged for copies of her edited videos. Sig is a world-class videographer and editor. She taught me all I used to know on the subject. We spent some really terrific hours together laboring over old non-user-friendly equipment, making them create beautiful objects.
Last week's blog from Mike 'n Dawn was about their fantastic journey to Lesotho and Bloemfontain, with a short stop-over again at the animal park for visits with lions and tigers and bears, oh, my. Or was that giraffe and water buffalo and elephants, oh, dear? His photos are coffee-table book quality, and he takes lots of them. It's so fun traveling vicariously with all these classy people. (Does going to the new James Bond flick this week and watching him have adventures in all those foreign countries count also?)
I borrowed one of Mike's photos.
Nancy and I went to Mesa for a few days and had a wonderful time learning about high-tech in genealogy research. A number of the Big Names in the industry were there and the educational sessions were terrific. I came home enthused and eager to do it right, this time. Maybe.
| From 11 Nov Yuma |
We also stopped by to check on the Elder Grandson Trevor - he was living just a few blocks from our hotel. He looked (and hugged) very well. He only has 6 months to go on his Mormon mission, and is trying to get all his little ducks in a row to get back into school. He's re-applying to the military academies - he was accepted at West Point last time, but they washed him out on medical because of asthma. Now perhaps they will have changed their minds? We'll see. All the paperwork is apparently in. It's just the waiting.
| From 11 Nov Yuma |
Elder Knowles broke his nose playing indoor soccer a couple of months ago. I was interested to see if the plastic surgeon had put him back together in the same format - apparently so. I recognized him.
I'm trying to begin a habit of stopping in a couple of days a week at the Senior Community Center to play with the old folks doing their arts and crafts. They put the gourd people back in one corner, but that's okay. All sorts of people are doing all sorts of things at least 3 days a week. Mostly they play well with others, even. No one seems to mind when you drop shavings on the floor. I've not yet signed up for the Senior Belly Dancing class.
And Chris let me order my Christmas present early - a Turbo Carver is on its way. This is the really high speed carver that cuts as easy as carving butter and does all kinds of fancy detail work. The warning with the okay to order was something about my now being required to carve gourds 18 hours a day... Hmmmm.
Bad news this week was about another friend, who was just diagnosed with a malignancy - a lump in the breast. But I have an optimistic attitude - they caught it early, it's not a nasty kind (who ever thought we would distinguish between bad and really bad?) and the doctors have every confidence she will have a Cancer Survivor story soon. I knew there must be some kind of problem when her blog entries suddenly quit. I'm so glad it isn't any worse. Joan is finally over the shock and ready to start the battles. All prayers and good wishes for her will be appreciated.
Quote for the day:
The definition of Hope: the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life.
I have hope for Joan.