It’s not much

 

 

 

But once in a while it provides us with a fresh crunchy jalapeno!

 

 

Google maps

 

 

Every once in a while, google maps will offer to recap a trip for us or show us the places we’ve been recently.  Today, I saw an option for “see all”, so I pushed that button.  What I got was a map of all the places we’ve been since I got this phone.

 

 

I think it’s time for a new phone.

 

I had to make sure

 

 

I had to make sure there would be a reason for Judy to want to come home, so I got the puzzle this far and left it for her to finish.

 

It worked!

 

Home again.  It will be nice to spend some time together.

 

And

 

 

And the cotton is high.

 

 

At first it surprised me

 

…when people I didn’t know referred to me as “sir”.  I’m just Steve.  How did I get to be sir?  Over time, as it happens much more often, I’m comfortable that it’s just younger people recognizing my seniority, a term of respect.

 

But now, a new reality.  Out on the trail, old people I don’t know are starting to refer to me as “sir”.

 

 

Ralphie

 

 

His memorial was today in Long Beach, down in Belmont Shore.

 

A retired firefighter captain, there was a turnout of firemen, friends, and family.

 

 

A big sendoff.

 

Judy was there.  I was there on the computer livestream.

 

He was born in 1966, the year Judy and I got married.  The toddler I got to play with before we left for Colorado in 1968.  Spinning around in the front yard, Ralphie by the hands flying and giggling.  Me just 22.  Yeah.

 

And now

 

 

…the rest of the story.

 

The great tenting experiment.

 

Camping in Colorado was just right, as expected.  The day was warm, but the night was cool.  The cotton flannel sleeping bag on an air mattress was comfortable.  The sleeping bag is light, rated for 40 degrees, so I didn’t have overkill for warmth.  Pure comfort.

 

The Texas experiment was a little different.  I knew it was pretty hot for camping in a tent, but heck, I’ve slept in hot climates before and survived.  It would be a little warm when I went to bed, but how bad could it be?  Really?

 

It was 108 degrees that afternoon when I set up the tent.  I didn’t want the air mattress and sleeping bag to get too hot too soon, so I didn’t put them in the tent right then, I left them in the car.  With all the windows open, there was plenty of airflow in the tent, but the ambient temperature was too hot to go inside, or even stand around outside in the shade, so I got back in the air-conditioned car and killed a few hours driving around, enjoying the scenic canyon, getting out here and there to admire the view or watch some birds, but mostly I stayed air conditioned.  It didn’t drop below 100 degrees until after dark.  I didn’t really need to go to sleep until 10:00, so I stayed in the car until then.  It was 95 degrees.  Still pretty hot, but I didn’t have to cover up, I could just lie there in the open air, so I blew up the air mattress and spread out the sleeping bag.  It didn’t take long to realize that something special was going on.  The air mattress felt like it was radiating heat at about 4,000 degrees.  I thought I was going to have enough separation from it and the hot ground below with that nice cotton flannel sleeping bag, but not so.  Any part of me that was lying on it was burning up.  Any part of me that wasn’t, was sweating off the excess heat.  I pretended to be a rotisserie all night so every part of me got an equal share of abuse, and found if you’re really tired it’s possible to fall asleep when you’re way too hot, but not for very long.  I fell asleep and woke up about a thousand times!

 

So the results of my research reveal that yes, on hot days and warm nights, there is weather that is too hot for tent camping, not from the air temperature inside the tent, but from sleeping on a hot air mattress.  But wait!  There is such a thing as a camping cot.  That would get a person up off the heat of the ground with some ventilation underneath.  With a little different gear, this exercise might have to be repeated…

 

I’ll report back.

 

 

Another tiny little thing

 

 

 

Pretty yellow color.

 

I think it’s a goldenrod crab spider.

 

The Colorado Trip

 

 

Judy had a good time in Colorado with Christie and Becky.

 

They had a pedicure day.

 

Kyle and Cameron were there too.  The three boys joined a 5K run.  Kyle came in 1^st.  Cameron 3^rd.  And Conner 6^th (2^nd in his age group). 

 

 

Since Conner didn’t finish in the top three, he got some good-natured ribbing of course; teasing about finishing behind that woman pushing a stroller.  If she hadn’t had twins in it, he maintains, he could have come in 4^th!

 

Time for Judy to leave.  They all got up and saw her off bright and early.   (Then the boys went back to bed.)

 

And off she goes from Colorado to San Diego.

 

A lesson learned

 

 

It was late.  Jesse claimed her spot on the bed.  I didn’t want her to sleep on the bed.  She wiggles too much at night.  I told her to get down.  She resisted.  I insisted.  She complied, reluctantly, but when I closed the door, she was still standing right on the other side of it looking up at me.  I got to sleep by myself.

 

Next morning though, when I walked through the house, I discovered dog poop on the floor in the front room.  Dog poop on the floor doesn’t happen at our house.  They have a dog door and a yard.  I got a bag and picked it up.  It wasn’t soft and fresh like “I just woke up and tried to make it to the door, but I just couldn’t get there in time.”  No.  It was dried up dog poop that had been there all night.  I surmise that as soon as I kicked her out of the bedroom she walked into the front room and punished me.

 

So, yes.  Lesson learned.  “Don’t disappoint Jesse!”

 

 

The hummingbird feeder and the Texas firebush

 

 

We had this dwarf firebush.  It’s a hummingbird attractor.  We thought “Hey. Let’s hang the hummingbird feeder right over the hummingbird attractor and make it easy for them.”  So we stuck a big shepherd’s hook in the ground and hung a feeder from it.

 

Well, we can’t convince the dwarf firebush that it’s a dwarf.  We gave up trimming it down to keep it below the hummingbird feeder.  Now we just keep it trimmed back around the feeder so the birds can still find it.

 

 

 

Can’t we all just get along?

 

 

Left unsupervised, I spent a fair amount of last night refereeing a disagreement between the Frank’s Hot Sauce I had on my grilled wings for dinner, and the leftover vanilla buttercream frosting I found in the fridge afterwards.

 

We might not be able to resolve the fundamental differences between these two protagonists, but we’ll make every effort to keep them well separated tonight in hopes of a more peaceful sleep.

 

 

Weather

 

 

During the winter, we have to pay attention to the weather.  A front comes through once or twice a week, and the weather is all over the place.  It could be hot, cold, rainy, clear, windy, calm, and different every day.

 

During the summer, it’s different.  One weather pattern locks in and nothing much changes for weeks at a time.  It might be clear or cloudy, there might be a rain shower or two, but overall it just settles in on hot and the forecast looks like this.

 

I wonder why that is; why the weather is so variable in the winter and so stable in the summer.

 

On a jet plane

 

 

Judy is off to Colorado for a visit with the girls.

 

Two suitcases.  The little one for the quick trip to Colorado.  One more in case she diverts to California instead of coming back home right away.

 

Judy landed in Denver at about the same time as Christie and the boys.

 

 

The rhythm of Freddy

 

Yes.  He has a name now.

 

We’ve already described the daily routine.  Freddy lives in the fountain pond all day long.

 

In the evenings he gets out of the water and hangs out on the deck.

 

When the lights go out, he goes off to forage, and is back in his pond by morning.

 

But there is a new routine.  After he gets out of the water, and before we turn out the lights, he sits outside the sliding glass door and looks inside for 20 minutes, before he goes off to eat. 

 

 

 

Maybe he’s waiting for us to throw him some bugs or grubs?

 

A yard beetle

 

 

Big and shiny.

 

It might be an ox beetle.

 

 

Twists and turns

 

 

You think you know what’s going on and suddenly out of left field comes the phone call that Judy’s nephew Ralph in California just died.  He’s the guy in the middle of everything making sure everybody is getting what they need.  He joined the fire department in Anaheim as the youngest guy they ever hired.  He said for years he would be the youngest person ever promoted to captain there, and he was.  He had just retired.  He and wife Jill had sold their house and moved in with Judy’s sister (his mom) Susie to help.  A good guy doing right by everybody.

 

He just turned 56 years old.  Working on the house at the river in Parker, AZ, he was set to return to Long Beach this afternoon, but no-showed.  They called a neighbor there in Parker to check on him.  He had just dropped while doing the breakfast dishes.

 

Sometimes we see it coming.  Sometimes we don’t.  Nobody even thought to look for this one.

 

 

Walking in an open space

 

 

A light plane flies overhead; flying low on approach to the airport.  I don’t look up; I see it by the shadow that passes close to me.  My mind gets to going.  Were the situation reversed, and I at the controls of that light plane, might I have shifted my path slightly left or right to make sure my shadow passed exactly over that person on the ground?

 

And would I be keeping score?

 

 

I was just thinking

 

 

…about Judy’s ectopic pregnancy; the fertilized egg that attached in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus all those years ago.  It happened between Becky and Matt.  Of course, it wasn’t an issue then, but I’m now glad it happened at a time and place that the decision about how to deal with such a critical reproductive issue could be made by Judy in consultation with health professionals, and not as prescribed by politicians.

 

 

Home again

 

 

Got home yesterday.

 

That circuitous route on the second day driving…

 

 

 

…resulted in from this…

 

…to this.

 

It took a few years, but now we have been in every county in Texas.  254 altogether.

 

It’s good to be home.

 

Monday

 

 

South and east through Matdor, Dickens, Jayton, Haskell, Throckmorton, Albany, and Baird.  Ended up at Junction on the edge of the Hill Country.

 

Driveabout trip map

 

 

Found a scrub-jay.

 

And friend.

 

 

 

The trip home

 

Plan A.  Drive up Poudre Canyon to Walden, Craig, Meeker, and camp out for the night at Rifle Falls State Park.  From there, work my way south through Western Colorado, Ouray, Silverton, Durango, then southeast back through Texas.  Probably six days.

 

Plan B.  Drive straight home.

 

We’re on plan B.  I can make it in three days.  Stopped for the night at Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

 

 

Driveabout trip map