A Warm December

On into December!  Ho, Ho, Ho!  However, before I get ahead of myself I realized I forgot to mention Thanksgiving...  On Thanksgiving Day we had a dual celebration, my sister Brooke's 40th.. yes I said 40th.. did you hear me say 40th?  birthday as well as the annual Thanksgiving Day feast.  Brooke got to open her presents alongside the turkey carcass, and pumpkin and apple pie crumbs.  We had a very good time... as usual.  

My grandson Donovan ran around like a wild chicken and we all visited and ate a delicious meal.  Mom and Dad had worked on the turkey... and the sides.  Brooke, Jeff, Ella, and Ave brought some fantastic appetizers (prosciutto wrapped, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, balsamic jobbers) sort of like these but bigger with rich and tasty olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a dipping bowl:

and of course we broke into one (or two) of Dad's home cured/canned jars of green olives.  Near the end of the visit we pick names for Christmas presents...  except for Donovan we all put our names into a hat and draw the name of the intended victim.. er.. recipient of our gift.  We started doing this several years ago... and it really cuts down on the holiday shopping madness and makes it all so much more enjoyable.  

We made a couple of big strides at the house since I last posted...  we are 3/4 of the way through our bathroom!   Yayyy for the toilet!  Yayyy for the shower!   and as soon as David finishes fine tuning the plumbing in the sink... Yayyy for the sink!  

You may remember the before shots of the bathroom:

  

Well, we both jumped in the shower (relax folks...  this is not that kinda blog!) and with hammers, pry bars, and some colorful language we smashed out the old tile, and knocked down that weird upper box tiled thing. (Which was empty by the way.. there were no bodies stuffed up in there, or old treasure maps, or buckets filled with gold doubloons.) That box thing merely covered up more of the scary painted redwood tongue an groove beadboard.  Dang.

Anyway, David dropped in the shower floor, fixed the drain pipe under the house, and then we started tiling.  I say we... it was mostly David I just got in the way and wiped off the grout once in awhile when he told me to.  But we tiled the floor, the shower, and then tossed up some greenboard... er.. sheetrock/drywall.  I HATE drywall already.   We almost had an international incident as we put up our first sheet of greenboard on the ceiling.  David was at one end working his way up the ladder while I was on the other end already on the ladder trying to hold it in place... and my ladder slipped.  Just a touch but enough for a flash picture of me crashing down from the ladder, drywall dust everywhere, and David and I being found days later under the shards of broken greenboard.  It was just a little slip though and we ended up doing just fine.

Greenboard / drywall is a necessary evil however, and once it was all up and primed the bathroom renovation moved quickly.  The toilet was returned, as was the sink, and shower.  David also rewired and added in a new spiffy light. 

We still have to paint, trim, get a pretty new shower curtain and rug... oh yeah and replace that wonky window.... but we are getting there.  Here are the 3/4 of the way done shots:

Another big step was getting the Regency wood stove installed.  David and I had previously cleared a spot in the living room, drywalled, and then David built a hearth all in anticipation for the stove's imminent arrival. Here is another shot of David building the hearth... (We will be trimming out the edges after the floor is stripped, sanded, and stained so keep your eyes peeled for that near the end of the project.)

Well, the stove appeared after Thanksgiving and it truly is a great little stove!  We are very happy with it!  The stove came with a fan that turns on and off automatically.  It helps to blow the heat up behind and over the top of the stove into the room.  The black thing behind the stove is a heat shield. It allows the stove to be closer to the wall which was very attractive to us in such a small living space and protects the wall from heat.  You can put your hand down between the stove and that shield while the fire is rockin' and there is nothing but cool air there. It really does the job well!

This little stove heats our whole little house with very little effort.  David and I enjoy woodstoves and this one works well enough to heat the entire house and keep it heated throughout the day.  It seems to just make the bones of the house warmer as well our our bones!  Delta has moved her sleeping spot from behind our chairs on her bed... to right in front of the stove with her head up near the hearth! 

Our kitchen cabinets might not be done until January so we are shifting our order of jobs around.  We have lately been eyeballing the living room, and the dining/office area, as well as some more of the finish work in the areas we have already been working on.  One job that might get moved up much quicker is sanding, stripping, staining the floors.  It is a house size job and it is going to be a messy one but some of our finish work can not get done until the floors are finished. 

Holidays

I hope your holiday celebrations were filled with happiness, friends, and family. Our was very nice although David and I did not spend it together this year. I believe it is the first Christmas we have spent apart since we have been together... for geez... what is it now 7ish years or so?  Sumthin‘ like that.  We have the golf course right now and that is traditionally an active day on golf courses if the weather holds out.

People are off of work, out of school, and have family visiting.  So David could not leave it. 

 At the same time, I was so close to my family I could not pass up the trip to see them this holiday season since I have missed the last few years... and in particular I wanted to see my daughter and wily Grandson.

I had a wonderful visit with the family.  Everyone is doing great. As for the gift giving part of the celebration we draw names around Thanksgiving to narrow down our shopping lists and then exchanged our gifts Christmas morning.  

My brother-in-law Jeff drew my name and with a bit of detective work he found a necklace on Etsy that I had my eye on and that was his gift to me and I love it.









I had my Mom’s name and picked her up a few things and a book she has been waiting for... she was especially pleased with the book and has already finished it. 









There was almost an international incident as the Xmas tree tried two or three times to tumble over onto the party but Grandpa and Ave saved the day!  They just propped it back up and we simply laughed about it, and partied on.  TIMBER!

 Donovan is a busy bee.  He ran all over the house and is learning to bite. I know because he bit me... he has some pretty nice chompers that he uses on me... his Mama,  and of course on chocolate raisins.  He also climbed the Christmas decorating ladder and let us all know about it ...

and had a great time opening his presents even though his favorite toy was the wrapping paper tube! 


He got some full on Jedi Knight action with that thing until it fell apart and he started eating it. 

 His mother got him a little truck that plays music and/or honks when you push buttons on the top.  Best of all one of the button plays the song... “Funky Town”  and he REALLY enjoyed that and would do the baby dance whenever he could get it going good. The baby dance at this age consists of shifting and bouncing back and forth on his feet and then once in awhile throwing in a shoulder/back twist.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 The drives down to California, and back home again were (thank goodness) uneventful and I decided to travel down Hwy 101 instead of I-5 because of the snow in the mountains.  On the recommendation of my sister and brother-in-law Jeff I also decided to try a couple of audio books.  I downloaded one off of Amazon (via audible.com) and the other from the iTunes store and found I really enjoyed listening to them on the trips.  It was super simple. I downloaded them and then burned them onto discs. 

Then for the very first time I learned just WHO committed the Murder on the Orient Express as I was driving through the Emerald Triangle.  Very exciting!

I was very glad to be home... David missed me and I missed him.  He just about overdosed on frozen burritos and Delta was starting to not be interested in eating her food.

Turns out though, Delta was not moping.... we found out after the fact but she had snuck a dead salmon out of the creek.  In case you did not know... eating dead salmon can kill dogs and is a big issue here in the pacific northwest.  She got sicker and sicker and it was getting hard to get her to eat. We did not know what was wrong at first but when she just stopped eating all together we said enough... there is something really wrong.. and took her to the vet.  Turns out she had salmon poisoning.  Very treatable if caught in time... but if not 90% of dogs will die from it.  Apparently, domestic dogs are the only critters who have an issue with salmon poisoning. Not wolves, foxes, coyotes, cats, raccoons, bears... only domestic dogs and the story is that once they get it and if they are cured they supposedly won’t get it again. 

The salmon eat a snail, the snail has these fluke egg things in them... so the dog eats the salmon and the flukes hatch inside the dogs.  And she was pretty sick.  IV fluids, antibiotics, floppy like a rag doll sick.

It has taken a couple days and we have had to become tricky with her medicine  (hiding it in a spoonful of ice cream) but she is much better and is slowly starting to eat again.  It broke our hearts to see her so sick she is really a tender sweetheart of a girl.  She gives us a lot of love.

Beautiful artwork by Artist & Author Jackie Morris

We are so glad to have her back on track now and feeling better each day that is passes.

Just one more additional story that made the holidays... oh so special.  I went to go get some supplies from the store because we had a small tournament lined up for Jan 1.  The supplies included a few cases of beer.  I set them up on the counter and with my head down I was continuing to unload the cart.  The woman behind the counter grabbed the beer, scanned it, then said “I am going to have to see your...” and I turned my head to listen to what she was going to say.  She looked into my face and said, “oh... never mind.”

OUCH! 

I wailed, “OH MAN!  The timing of that!  You could have finished the sentence... Geez!”  She said “oh no.. no.. no... that's not what I meant.  Um... you just seemed to be in a hurry so I was not going to have you get your i.d. out.” 

Not a convincing recovery but I will take what I can get. 

Day in the life...

That is 5 AM.
Good morning.

It is going to be a sunny day so people will be coming early.  We eat an egg or two and then start our morning.  David, of course, has mowing to do. Like 5 different kinds of mowing on 5 different machines or some crazy thing.  Much of this has to be done before the golfers arrive.  Most every day.  So... he leaves before we do.

I sit and enjoy my chocolate hazelnut agave half and half with a little coffee in it.  That is.. I enjoy it until we get a call that there are large bird type creatures floating willy nilly up and down the creek... completely disregarding our rules about no geese.

Delta and I are the 'No Geese Allowed Enforcers.'  I pull my hair into a pony tail, toss on a cap, put the sig in the holster (kidding) and get Delta.  It is time for our part of the morning to begin.  We head out of our little trailer home to one of the shops to get one of the work club carts.

I get updated via radio (nextel walkie talkie cell phone thing) where these intruders are located.  Delta hops in the back of the club cart and off we go.

As we get close we hear them... the foolish creatures are silly enough to be going for a stroll on land.  Land is Delta the Predator's domain.  I stop the cart and Delta takes off like a shot.  She really is magnificent looking when she runs full bore across the fairways and greens like that.

Anyway... the geese run as fast as their webby toes can carry them and into the water they go.  Then into the water Delta goes.

HONK HONK HONK.

 You can hear it all over the course.

I stop the cart and jump out running up and down the bank keeping an eye on Delta and giving her encouragement.  "Get 'em outa here Del!  Get 'em out! Good girl!"

She is swimming like a fiend... but swimming like a dog fiend.  Her feet are not as webbed as theirs. She has the Lab swimming instinct from her bio-dad ;)  but from her bio-mom she has the German Shepherd ... 'must eat must eat' instinct.   

The parents swim in the opposite direction of the babies... and the babies DIVE DIVE DIVE.  They disappear and Delta swims right passed them.  Behind her they pop up... boink boink boink.. but she does not see them as she is focused on the parents. Who says prey are not smart?  They were totally messing with her.  The parents continue to swim slowly just out of her reach leading her astray.  Behind her the babies then gather back together and swim to the side and hide under grass.

When the parents feel like they are far enough away they take to the air and head back to the babies.  Delta turns in her path... swimming upstream now and making really no headway at all.  She will never catch them. Water is their domain... as is of course the air for the parents.  She really can not compete very well with that.   This goes on for ages and then I pull her out.. literally and we head towards another batch down by another hole.  And the same thing happens all over again. 

We are just trying to be rude hosts really.  They can go live somewhere else.

Delta runs down the banks looking for more geese and.. "oh wait!  Look! A squirrel!  I like squirrels too I ate a squirrel once I bet I can climb this tree watch me..."  She has a touch of OCD I guess.

But she sure is pretty.

Back to the geese.  This goes on until I get tired and I think it might be too much for her and it is not necessarily a scene golfers want to hear.   Honking and yelling and splashing might prove too much of a distraction.

So I then take her back and we hang around a bit until David needs help with something else.  I am not needed in the clubhouse yet, so today I drive a little Daihatsu dump thing full of gravel for him to shovel.  "We" are filling the holes in the cart path.  

Look what pretty flowers and pretty trees! Oh that one has purple flowers and is called either an elephant ear tree or an empress tree.  Someone else gets distracted easily too. Hmph.

Oh yeah...   there is David shoveling again. 

Then after the mowing is done David has been learning how to fix the machines he has driven all morning. 

At the end of the day we have supper and fall asleep at like 8 only to wake up and do it all again.

We are having the best time!

Oh my gosh! Fore!

So I don't golf.

Well, I have hit the occasional royal blue golf ball into a clowns mouth... or over the castle moat but other than that I just have never played.  Of course now I run into people and they assume I golf and are quite surprised when I tell them, "Nope. Never golfed a game in my life."  They stop talking to me.

Well, that is not going to cut it any longer, people will have questions, want advice, want to talk in golf lingo like 'slice', 'shankopotomus', 'divot',  and stuff.  I will need to know how to respond.  So David has been teaching me.  Starting from the basics... my swing

The first time I wound up, swung the club up and back, stepped out of the batters box with my left foot forward,  and SWOOSH!  Missed completely.  Hmm.  Kinda embarrassing.  I put my hand up shadowing my eyes pretending to see where the ball went.  I tried to joke it away.

"Ok... lets start from the real beginning. We will start with your grip." David said patiently.  So we did.  Eventually, I hit numerous balls into the net in the driving range and then we went out along side of the course to actually get  a little distance.  It never did go very far... at first.  We hit away from the driving range and then back towards it.  David kept saying "good.. good.. you are doing better. Don't worry, you will not even get it close to the net."  Well... one swing connected just right and it went over the net, over the driving range, off the roof, and bounced over into the putting area near the 1st and 9th holes!  I yelled, "Oh my gosh! I am so sorry!"  David smiled and said "Baby?  It's 'FORE!'"   I probably narrowly missed bouncing it off of some retirees head.  Good grief just what we need.

It is supposed to be a peaceful game and the fairways and greens of nearly any course make it seem so idyllic.  However, there is sometimes incidents of not so hidden violence and danger at golf courses. There are a couple of holes here where you can not see at the other end so there are large bells rigged up.  People ring the bell and count to 30 before they hit it. That gives people warning to cover their noggins.  We just love hearing that bell ringing off and on all day long.  But still there is an undercurrent of rage floating around out there.

People can get very frustrated either with their game...

their clubs,

the weather, 

or the course. 

I am thinking that last guy might have had to replace some kind of divot thingy 

after he was done with this tantrum.

Ranch Hills is no exception.  We have already had a little fight here on this course and I am embarrassed to say I know one of the participants very well.   I managed to catch a picture of these two pugelists and I think when you see them you can probably guess the outcome of this struggle.

   

It wasn't pretty.

Enough of the call of the wild.  She had a job and she did it.  Geese can not be on golf courses and dogs need jobs.   Just ask my hero Cesar Milan and those New Skete Monks. (They look kinda Jedi Knight-like don't they?)

They ROCK!  And they pretty much say the same things.  I dunno what they think about goslings but I am sure they would understand the whole animal behavior thing about allowing geese to remain in an area.  They tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on and so on.  Like those old shampoo commercials...  speaking of commercials.  This is still one of my favorite golf commercials:

POST SCRIPT:

I found this when I was looking for that commercial with Tiger above... just could not pass it up and had to add it here:

Where is Waldo?!

Well... Where are David and Rebecca?

Hmmm... I bet with a few hints you can guess.

As I mentioned in my last blog post we were in and (frankly much to my relief) we were leaving Texas. Now before anyone gets all mad I should probably clarify that statement.  I was relieved to be leaving Surfside Texas. I am sure there are very nice places in Texas somewhere.  Heaven knows it is a big enough land mass there probably are a few very nice places... but in any case... we actually left our spot several days early. While David and Delta were really enjoying the beach the foul weather was on its way so it turns out we seem to have left just in time. They would not have gotten to enjoy much of the beach anyway during the rain and snow so my guilt at wanting to go early was minimized a tad.

We headed west.... west.. and gee whiz... west again. Texas is friggen’ huge! I thought California was a long drive (north to south) but Texas is big any which way you cut it. We decided the path we would cut would be a little diagonal one up through the Marfa, Alpine, Marathon areas. Those areas were much recommended in the travel section of a Southern Living magazine that I happen to read but while there were a couple quirky shops in the area it really was not much to see.  Sorry... harsh maybe but true.  We kept right on driving.

 

We ended up stopping for the night at the Seminole Canyon State Park. Pretty little state park and at night you could see stars forever. David built a fire and we watched the sunset over the mountains.  



Snow and freezing temperatures were on the way that very next night so we only stayed one night. It seems we were on the run from the weather again.

We headed west again and yes we were STILL in Texas. It took forever it seemed to get to El Paso. Now I had visions of a sleepy little town... just like the one Marty Robbins sung about back in the day. My sisters are big fans of Marty Robbins... I'll have to share that story one of these times. I am sure it will be much appreciated.

But El Paso today is not the El Paso of John Wayne days.  It is not sleepy and it is not a town. It is a sprawling, groping, grasping, stretching city right on the border.  




However, if you thought some of the areas in El Paso appeared depressed all you had to do was look over the freeway southward to see a fence. 


It is a rather tall fence that literally was “The Border”.  If you want to see a real depressed area all you had to do was look on the other side of that fence. 

That is Juarez. We did not travel into Mexico (yet) on this trip.  Instead we kept going just a little further, took a deep breath, and said goodbye to Texas.  We then crossed into New Mexico.

We turned off of I-10 and instead hugged the border road (hwy 9) until our next stop.  This road was so close to the border we could see a fence and plenty of these guys wandering around. (Border Patrol) 

We saw one fellow out checking out tracks in one area and there were many places where people had stacked rocks in some sort of signal to each other for one reason or another.   This is a pretty tough game to play... the shrubs MIGHT be hip high and there is no water for miles nor trees to hide under or in.  If you are going to get over the fence, past the lights, past the snakes, scorpions etc and then make it miles to a road where someone MIGHT pick you up after you have given them untold amount of savings that you and your family members have literally slaved for... you are pretty desperate to get to where you are going. Which makes it a tough game for the guys and gals in the white trucks.  Desperate people are sometimes dangerous people.

When we got to our destination in the town of Columbus, New Mexico, we stayed at the Pancho Villa State Park. While the town is a very sleepy little town, it was actually a great little park! 

The area has a very  interesting history.  In 1916 Pancho Villa launched an attack from Mexico on the little town of Columbus, New Mexico, USA, killing 18 people.  This was the only ground invasion of the continental U.S. since 1812 and apparently the only once since.  Supposedly Villa's reasons for the attack was unknown... there were several rumors  of why he invaded but the rumor I favor is this one:


When Villa’s men came busting into town they  seemed to be looking for one fellow in particular. The rumor is that fellow promised to sell them a bunch of arms... he took the money but did not deliver the guns/ammo. When you consider Villas men rode several miles crossing the border into the United States, near an army base, and chose to attack a sleepy little town (that was not much of a town then either) there had to be a good reason.  Double crossing them on an arms deal seems like a pretty good reason to invade a little town.

As a result of this invasion and attack the US Government launched the great "Punative" attack against Pancho Villa and his army.  Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing launched 10,000 troops on an 11-month, 500-mile pursuit of Villa into Mexico.  It worked real well...  Villa and his men would ride their horses into the wilds... camp.. and after pouring out their coffee and picking up their bedrolls they hopped on their horses and left in the morning.  It took them only a few minutes to be riding again... where the army took ages.

Villa was quite a horseman (and showman) apparently... I love this picture:

Anyway, as I mentioned to try and catch Villa and his men,  General Pershing marched thousands of men, a new fangled tank machine, and new fangled automobiles into the desert of Mexico.   Imagine a Model-T driving in sand.


Mules had to be brought in to carry the fuel to refill the gas for the tanks and the automobiles.

There were supply wagons.... and ancient trucks... etc.  It took hours just to get the whole operation moving.

Additionally, the first US Air base was set up right across the street from where the old fort stands which is now the state park. This plane is in the museum at the State Park:

They used these linen skinned biplanes in their hunt for Pancho Villa and his men. 

However, the planes apparently had great difficulty flying over the soaring Alps- ike mountains in the desert of Mexico.  I am being sarcastic... there are no soaring mountains.   Several planes crashed.

After nearly a year General Pershing was finally called away and the "Punative" campaign was ended because the US entered WWI.   It was a fun park and we really enjoyed the museum that is at the park.

Just as a side note... Villa was a rather popular general during the Mexican Revolutionary Period.  Many different factions were trying to depose the corrupt leader of Mexico at that time...  earlier on the US Government was trying to stay out of the fights (as of course they usually do) within Mexico and did not want to show favoritism to one faction or another.

However, times have not changed much.  

Just like photos come back to haunt current politicians now... here is an early photo op.

This is a pre-Pancho Villa invasion of America photo of
General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing with General Pancho Villa.  

Pretty friendly eh?  Hamming it up for the paparazzi.

By the way...  that tall thin fellow on the left behind Pershing?  

That is a very young George Patton.

The outcome of that military campaign?  

They never caught Pancho Villa, he was assassinated many years later.

Then we headed.. guess where?  

West. 

Sensing a pattern yet?

Into Arizona we went for another one night stay at a gorgeous park right off of Interstate 10. The Picacho Peak State Park is filled filled with Saguaro cactus which stand all over the area, even up on top of the small mountainous outcropping near the park. 

 Here is the inside of a saguaro... we chopped one apart to see the innards:

I am totally kidding...  they send that wild Arizona lawman sheriff that is always in the news  for punishing prisoners after you if you mess with Arizona's saguaros.  Seriously... leave their cactuseseses.. cacti... alone.  Anyway, it is a great little park and were many travelers there and I particularly loved this little customized trailer.   
 


This is a great bit of work someone did.  These little trailers are so much cheaper than regular ones and if you know what you are doing you can really set it up nice. 

The surroundings were great... I loved the many different types of cactus and rocks etc. 


 



 I was half expecting to see the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote come zipping past at any moment... but no such luck. 









We stayed only one night and westward we went. We drove past Phoenix but would never have known it. It was pretty foggy but our GPS unit (Named Jill) took us on a side route which took us completely around Phoenix, through the Gila River Reservation and back on to the interstate. It was a well traveled fantastic road but like I said... due to the fog and the route we never got a glimpse of the city.

And then... here is a big hint to our current location... 
we cruised into Palm Springs. 

We stopped by an old friends house.. or his old house.. and then wandered into the city for food and drink. We did not set up camp in Palm Springs as there was no room at the Inn...  (Rv Park) so we actually stayed at a KOA just up the road in Banning.

From Banning the next morning we headed northwards. We stopped for one last night on the road at a hidden state park... well actually McConnell State Recreation Area but it was a very pretty little place and eerily empty. It was not far off the road but you have to drive off the interstate and through a few farmland plots to get there.  The little camping area was nice and the picnic spot on the river was very peaceful and pretty.  We never even unhitched the trailer so at O’Dark thirty the next morning we left and headed up to I-5 and then rolled on into the family homestead with happy hearts and weary minds. 

Quite the welcoming committee! 

My Grandson Donovan and Delta were fascinated with each other.

and now the final hints for where is Waldo David and Rebecca are?