Finally! Trip Pics!

Despite the date on this picture, this was actually day 2 of the trip. I woke up cranky and not feeling well. A 2 hour nap fixed that! What you can't see is Marley on my lap.
As you can see out the window, I wasn't missing much. Flat, flat, flat. I think this is West Panhandle Texas/New Mexico.





Route 66! We stopped somewhere in New Mexico for lunch.....as in a town in the middle of nowhere. Good Mexican food though.

Anyhow, there was this great mural of Route 66. This was one secion of it. We basically paralleled

Route 66 most of the way West.

This is Meteor Crater. This is where a falling star crashed into planet earth, and left a really big hole in the ground.

Here's the funny part (well, sort of): There's a goat trapped in there somewhere. While we were there, one of the employees "spotted" it. We never did see it. Apparently, it's been down there quite awhile. The men in the gift shop voiced surprise that a coyote hadn't gotten it yet. They also weren't sure what the thing was eating or drinking!

So I put these pics together for a reason. The picture above is me (duh) with Sunset Crater in the background. Sunset Crater is an extinct volcano. Not just quiet, not just dormant. Dead. Ok, now look at the pic on the left. This was a pueblo. A tribe lived here. Population probably around 100 give or take a few. Very interesting how a society with no computers, no drafting paper, not even a ruler were able to build.....well, home. Not only that, but there were other pueblo's "near" by. Somehow, these people managed to build their homes in perfect alignment to other people's homes. Don't ask me how. Even the "experts" aren't sure how they did this.

So, what does this have to do with the volcano? This tribe was setting up camp so to speak, about the time that Sunset crater blew her top for the last known time. The scientists best guess is that Sunset erupted for the last time around 1180 (that's A.D. by the way). Understand, this volcano is around 15-25 miles from this pueblo. Even more mind boggling, at least to me, is this last eruption was a mere 300 years before Columbus landed. THREE HUNDRED YEARS!!!! This is NOTHING in the universe's time line. This is nothing in the planet's time line!

Well, that's all blogger will let me post for now. I'll do more tomorrow.

A Sunday observation

I have finished my first week at my new assignment. So far, so good. The only thing so far is that instead of their week running Sunday thru Saturday.....they go Friday to Thursday. It's already really throwing me off! Other than that, nice co-workers, funny, talented. Should be ok. Better than my Oakland assignment!

So, today being Sunday, and today being I had a day off.....I went to church. Found one that has about 400 members. Which is pretty good since I am *WAY* outside the bible-belt. But here's why I'm bringing up my church attendance. This is kind of long.....sorry.

After the sermon, there's always an opportunity for people to come forward. For prayers, to be baptised, or to come forward to confess (usually paired with a request for prayers from the congregation.). For those of you who are not regular chuch-goers.....this is not meant to be a way for others to judge you. Rather a time to confess you're wrong-doing, and to ask for help.
Anyhow, today a woman came forward (didn't know her, so I don't remember her name. Wouldn't have shared it anyhow since it's not important to the posting.). Apparently, she is separated from her husband (he's living in Oregon). While here, she made poor choices, had an affair, and is now pregnant with a baby that is not her husband's. I tell you all this, not because of the juicyness of the story, but because I knew something was up before the preacher read her confession/prayer request. I knew this because when she went up there, 5 or 6 women came up after she did and sat next to her and behind her.

What a Steel Magnolia's moment. They are pretty rare (the last one for me was at my grandmother's funeral. I broke down crying during the viewing, and within SECONDS there were half a dozen women around me.). Anyhow, here was this woman, facing her choices, seemingly alone. All she had to do was make that difficult and terrifying walk to the front of the church to find out she really wasn't alone.
My other observation today (about this same event), was how brave she was in this decision making process. She very easily could have gone off quietly and privately, assured that no one would know about the choices she had made. Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not promoting pregnancy termination. But I'm always amazed when women (and sometimes girls), face up to what will become a very visible reminder to the choices she's made. Amazing.

Anyhow....a very Steele Magnolia's moment in church today. What a wonderful gender we are. Men have their male bonding. Some of them do it well. But they have nothing on the bonds of sisterhood. We can be catty, bitchy, and downright mean. But only to those who dare to harm one of our own. For such a male dominated world (not slamming that fact by the way), think of all the feminine-related sayings we have: hell hath no fury like a woman scorned; if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy; the Motherland; ships are referred to as "she". How strong is the bond of women? My best friend in high school was Tanya. We met in PE class in the 8th grade (or maybe it was 7th?). We lost touch many years ago. We just refound each other last year. The friendship is still there. We really are an amazing breed.

Ok, enough musings. So long friends. Check back soon. I'll write again.

Go west young woman

So, as many of you know, my next assignment is in California. And as some of you know, dear old dad planned to make the trip with me. We left Monday, January 2nd (with me trying to finish up my recovery from new year's eve!!), bright and sort of early. We drove. And drove. Then we drove some more. We finally ended up Wednesday afternoon in Arizona at the Grand Canyon. Words cannot even begin to describe this big hole in the ground. It is absolutely, without a doubt, amazing. You'll have to wait for pictures though, since we're using Dad's camera (because it's WAY better than mine), and he has to get home, download, copy to disk, then mail it to me. There's no telling how long this will take.
We took off this morning at 0840 Central time. The reason I mention this is because we were supposed to leave at 0700-ish Central time. My dad, who hasn't used an alarm clock in I don't know how long actually overslept! Guess we wore ourselves out stomping around the desert!
We made it to Fresno today and will travel the rest of the way tomorrow. My crazy cats seem to be tolerating the trip well. We had a rough start at the beginning.....they both threw up, (while in their carrier, so at least it was contained.) but once they did that....perfect travel companions. They spend most of the day in the carrier sleeping, then we get them into the hotel room where they eat, pee, and then sleep some more. Ahhh.....the rough and traumatic life of a cat.
Good night friends. I'll post again soon once I'm settled, and have internet access.

This is Bill Gentry. Wild Bill's was named after this guy. He's actually one of the owners. This place is HUGE!! It used to be a Service Merchadise and can hold over 3,000 people.

This is Kyle's friend Dink. I know that here in the south, we give our children some pretty freaky names sometimes; but I really hope that's not his real name.

This was Kyle, who, if you can't tell here, is in a wheelchair. I got nosey and asked him what happened. All he would tell me was that he got stupid and tripped over his feet. He was very nice.

I got brave and told this guy that I thought he was too cute for words. Then I told him to smile for the camera,

This is Brian. Brian was sent away not too long after this was taken because he was getting a little too handsey. Bubba thought he was going to get lucky later that night. Boy was he wrong!

Here's Rachael being....well.....silly. We hadn't been there 5 minutes yet!

This is my friend Rachael. Here we are at the beginning of the evening. Basically, this is the "before" picture. But there isn't an "after" picture because the camera batteries died!