October

Looking up my street.  

• Today's high was 46 degrees and it is supposed to get down to 26 degrees tonight.
• I wore a sweater & a coat to work today (I could have easily worn gloves too.)
• I've had my heat on for three days straight.
• I'm getting ready to make some soup & tea for supper.

...winter is marching toward us!

 

 

You have established all the boundaries of the earth;
You have made summer and winter.
Psalm 74:17

A little giggle ...

 Aww, what a sweet chunk of kitty-cat...

This is what the sweetie does while I'm vacuuming...

...peek-a-boo I see you... 

Moment in time

We finally have snow cover...hard to believe the beginning of this week started at 50 degrees...

So much better

So last weekend--when it was hotter than Hades--I turned on my a/c (just enough to take out the humidity and cool down a bit) and yanked up the last of the carpet in the house*.

If you have had the courage, fortitude and perseverance to read this blog from the beginning you may remember photos of the carpet that used to be in the house:

• From the room known as the Pit (yet hoping to overcome this unfortunate moniker to become the office/guest room). The carpet in here was olive green with fluorescent green flowers--YUMMY!
  
• From the entire rest of the house (less the kitchen & bathroom which were renovated just prior to me moving in and the basement which is entirely concrete). Here is the bedroom (sort of) & the living room. I couldn't find any photos of the dining room with carpet still in it--that room's was the first to go.  It looked exactly like the living & bedroom carpet.

Tada!

Ignore the little brown splotches on the floor in the second photo.  I have no idea what they are. They are not actually on the floor.  I took this photo seconds after the first so I don't think it is the lens...

The junk, behind the chair and on the piano in the background, however is another story.  That is actually there. Not an illusion despite my utmost desire for it to be.  The stuff behind the chair is actually a disassembled futon waiting for a mattress. And the other stuff is waiting for me to clean out the Pit...again.

*This excludes the 4 foot by 4 foot patch in my entry/closet area that is currently being held down by a ton of books I have yet to process from the church library (literally...well, okay, almost a TON).

A lovely weekend

Last night I slept on wonderfully fresh sheets courtesy the laundry line.  It was beautiful yesterday.  Warm enough to hang out my laundry -- the first time this year!

Nothing compares to sheets dried by the wind and sun.

Let me introduce you to . . .

Isn't she beautiful?  We've been getting acquainted . . .

Walking home from church

That time of year

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love the reason for the season. I love the smells, the sounds, the decorations. I especially love the memories. 

I finished decorating this week.

Also this week -- the first measurable snowfall of the season (and there is more on the way!):

 

And look -- I already got a Christmas present!

1st Day of Christmas

Day 9

On day 9 we stopped here. It was a free stop with a gigantic cross -- you can see it miles away. There are sculpture from the life of Christ. Also a very nice bookstore and gift shop.

We drove a long time this day -- all the way through Oklahoma and into Kansas.  We stayed at a motel in Salinas, KS, ate at Red Lobster, and went swimming in the pool.

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Day 8

On day 8 we drove to the Four Corners -- this is the only place in the United States where the corners of four states converge. The land is owned by Native Americans and surrounded by reservation.


My self-portrait . . .


The monument that we saw is not the original survey -- it has been redone several times. The photo below is from the south looking north. (I have know idea who the woman is in the photo.) :-)

We were at the Four Corners about noon -- there were Native Americans selling crafts and jewelry all around the monument and there was even a live band! It was quite a nice stop.

There really isn't much to see in this area but the beauty of the landscape.

Shiprock, NM:



We drove through Albuquerque, NM. There was an accident on the Interstate so we sat downtown in traffic for about an hour -- this was the only time I have ever read while in the driver seat!

We camped outside of Amarillo, TX this evening.

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Day 7: Hoover Dam

My quick tips for visiting Hoover Dam:

If you are looking to save some money at Hoover Dam:

*Park at the top of the hill on the Arizona side of the dam. Parking is free there but you do have to walk a ways. To the dam is easy -- downhill -- but at the end of the day you have to walk back up.

*The main museum is fairly inexpensive, is interesting and has great interactive exhibits for kids and adults.

*Mom and I didn't take the either of the two longer tours of the power house & the guided dam tour. Both are added expenses and involve a lot of walking & and more time than we were willing to devote to this attraction.


The photo above was taken from the observation deck available with museum admission. But there are other photo opportunities along the dam that do not require any expense.

One of the things I found most interesting about the dam was the construction. If you look in the above photo you can see sections -- each of these are individually poured sections of concrete. It was poured in section and allowed to dry. Because of the inherent properties of concrete, if the dam was completely poured it would take 125 years to cure.


These are the intake towers -- they take water into the power plant to create the energy. One of the other interesting things I learned was that the Hoover Dam powers much of the western United States. It was really amazing to me how far the power was distributed.

This photo is part the monument erected across the road from the visiter center. I love the art deco!

Day 6 La-la & Vegas

We woke up to haze on Day 6. After checking out of the motel in San Diego, CA, we drove up the coast towards Los Angeles.

We took I-5 and Highway 1 which are both along the coast line.

We were heading to Hawthorne, CA -- a suburb of Los Angeles. This is one of the places that mom grew up.

They didn't live on a base here so I got to see the house she lived in, the schools she attended, and even the building Grampy worked at.

After Los Angeles, we started heading east again. We crossed California and reached Los Vegas, NV around 5 pm.

This is a photo of "The Strip" as we came in from the south.

Very, very flat. Very, very dry.

We stayed at the Orleans -- not on "The Strip." (Our room looked exactly like the room on the homepage of the website--except it had two queens instead of a king and I think the coverlet on the bed was maroon.)

We ate at a TGI Fridays in the hotel and went to the movie Julie & Julia (excellent movie!) at the 18 screen theater, also in the hotel.

The hotel was humongous -- over 1,800 rooms. at least 20 stories tall. The decor was French inspired by New Orleans.


Las Vegas is really a unique place. I have had my fill. Enough said.



These are photos of "The Strip" from the north -- out our hotel room windows.




Mom's pictures were better but . . .

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Day 5: Spanish Village Art Center & Museum of Natural History

After we spent half the day at the zoo, we walked to the Spanish Village Art Center. There were close to 40 artists there--glass blowers, painters, and any variety of artisans.

We continued on to the Natural History Museum and viewed the Body Worlds Exhibition. This is an exhibit of the human body that has been traveling around the world. It was truly fascinating -- I learned quite a bit about the human body.

The basic premise is that bodies of people who have left their bodies to research and education after their deaths go through process called plastination.

After the plastination process the bodies have been arranged into exhibits that display the awesome creation that is the human body.

The exhibit in San Diego also had a focus on the brain. We watched a film "The Human Body: Pushing the Limits - Brain Power." This is an excellent documentary on the brain and how it function.

I have to say I walked away from this museum with a greater appreciation for our amazing bodies!

Despite being tired after a full day of walking, we stopped at Mission Bay.


We went back to the motel and had supper at a great little Mexican restaurant next door. We ate outside and finished off the meal with churros.

Day 5: San Diego Zoo

The morning we went to the zoo was beautiful -- sunny and mild. We got to the zoo a little before 10 am. The first thing we saw were the flamingoes.



My favorite: the polar bears . . .

We were lucky and got to see the panda active; pandas are usually either sleeping or eating. The Panda enclosure was bizarre. Because pandas are easily frightened, it was the quietest area of the zoo. Everyone spoke in hushed tones.


The giraffes . . .


This little guy visited us while we had lunch.

Our last stop at the zoo was to see the koalas.

Day 3: Part 1

After spending a pleasant evening with friends in El Paso, TX and a delicious breakfast at IHOP, we headed to up to Alamogordo, NM. Mom lived on the Air Force Base there but we were unable to get on it due to security.

We then headed over to White Sands.




It had rained the night before so the sand was slightly damp.


My self portrait. :-)


I thought this looked like a frozen lake & ice fishing huts -- what can I say I have lived in the upper Midwest my entire life! BTW - that is our car at the bottom of the sand dune.



Mom at the top of the sand dune.

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Day 2: Cloudcroft, NM

One of the purposes of this road trip out west was to visit some of the homes that mom lived in when she was a child. Grampy was in the Air Force so my mom's family moved around a lot.

When they first moved to New Mexico they lived in a cottage at Cloudcroft, NM. As the name implies, Cloudcroft is up in the mountains and as we drove up the mountains it started pouring. It poured so hard I had to pull over because I couldn't see far enough ahead of the car to drive safely.

This is the the view while we waited for the rain to abate.



The tunnel we drove through to get up to Cloudcroft.



The view on the way back down.



Posing in the rain . . .

There was so much water these waterfalls formed along the roadside.

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I'm home!

We actually arrived home last night. I spent the day doing laundry, making lists, and pulling my mind away from its vacation mindset.

My plan for the next couple days is to recount our vacation. So here goes . . . Day 1.

Honestly, Day 1 was mostly driving. We did stop just outside of Oklahoma City (on Route 66) at Pops.

Pops is a gas station, gift shop, diner and ultimate "soda ranch." They have delicious chili burgers.


And over 500 soda flavors . . . I had a Nehi Peach. It was YUMMY!


We picked up a six pack of a variety of flavors to bring home with us.

After supper, we traveled on to Canute, Oklahoma (just outside of Elk City) and camped at a KOA.

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