Post Christmas Post

Well. Christmas has come and gone. And it was fun. Kids came and went. There was lots of food, but mostly we snacked. Steven made it back to NYC. We thought his flight left at 12:50 and in fact it left at 12:15. We arrived at the airport at 12:18, walked to the front of the Delta line, and Christmas miracle or miracles, everyone was nice, helpful, and saw to it that Steven didn't miss his flight. We miss him, but were very glad he made it home.
Megan and Graham went up to Chandler and then Megan went on home to Flagg. Maren and Justin stayed for Christmas day.

I think I'll leave the tree up until January 6--Dia de los Reyes Magos--the day the Wise Men arrived.

Happy New Year. I hope 2009 is wonderful.
Do you think the Middle East will decide to try peace this coming year??? Oh well.

Hopkins 2008 year end report:

Well, as you all already know the financial report this year is in the toilet.
So let’s just skip right to the basics:
1. We wish you all a merry Christmas and a very Happy New year in 2009.
2. Bailouts are alive and well, but the Hopkins’ kids all appear to be solvent and self sufficient!! Miracles never cease.
3. Megan is finishing her last semester at Northern Arizona U, and is then planning to go on to Graduate school, although she still keeps in close contact with GE and with all her siblings. She is truly the surrogate mom. I guess that’s what being #1 is all about.
4. Ariane and Alon are busy running their own business and raising the two most beautiful granddaughters ever born. Alon will get his permanent green card finally in January after a record wait with the US Immigration Service. Nola is in kindergarten and Talia goes to the Hebrew preschool. It’s hard to believe how quickly they grow.
5. Michael and Becky are in Arkansas. Mike is working on his Master’s degree in Spanish and Becky is teaching art. Of course they are busy raising the most handsome grandson ever born.
6. Charlie bought a house this year and is remodeling the upstairs. It’s a do-it-yourself project and it looks great. He is nearly finished with his degree at ASU and continues working at GE having taken over from Megan there.
7. Maren still digs her work. She just uncovered the oldest prehistoric canal yet discovered in this area, and as she worked her way up through the levels she discovered pit houses that are the most recent prehistoric structures in the area. What a find.
8. Morris works for the Tibetan Buddhist Research Center in Manhattan, in charge of the digital library. He loves his work and he loves his girlfriend, Seung Hee, whom he is marrying on January 24. We couldn’t be happier for him! We are of course planning a trip to NYC toward the end of January!
9. Steven is living in Brooklyn working for Ari and Alon. He has discovered the big city and likes it. He is working hard, making money and planning to go to school in NYC next August.
10. Graham, our baby boy, is 18 and attending Pima College in Tucson. He comes home occasionally and keeps us entertained.
11. Finally: Mike and I are basking in the sunshine in Rio Rico. We invite you to come and visit whenever it strikes your fancy to travel this way. We keep busy with family history, with reading good books, taming the yard, and planning fabulous future vacations. We have had a few medical scares, but so far they have all turned out to be benign and we hope they remain that way! That closes out the year, so we will begin to Plan now for a prosperous and pleasant Next Year from our house to yours. (Don’t forget to plant a garden.)

Love,
The HOPKINS.
P.S. We love you more than words can say--beyond infinity!!

Christmas is coming. It was only 71* today here. I actually wore a sweater. We went up to Tucson with Steven and Graham and then came back without them. They'll be home tomorrow, Megan is coming down through the deep snows, and Maren and Justin will be here on Christmas day. We stopped to see Maren's newest work project along I-10. The canal system they are surveying is the OLDEST in all of North America. Cool. I think I got a little sun on my face today. Merry Christmas--we can't wait.

Moon shots

Speaking of the full moon, did you hear the conversation between the two blondes in Arizona? The first blonde asks, "What do you think is closer, Florida or the moon?"
The second blonde replies, "Hellooooooo, can you see Florida from here???" Duh!

Looking down on the little guys

A somewhat stilted pose:

First and foremost. For all of you who have been worrying about Martin and keeping us in your prayers, the biopsy reports were very positive. No malignacy. Now they just want him to keep an eye on his lymph nodes and see if anything changes. I am not exactly sure how one does that. Anyway, every six to eight weeks the doc will check him out and if nothing changes, we will continue as we were. But if things seems to be growing, moving . . .? then the doctor will do some "quick and easy" surgery. Oh my. Anyway, I think all of that news is good.

Second and foremost. Graham and Megan were here for the weekend. Megan for 4 days, Graham for just a day and a half. We had big plans to build fires, play scrabble, make many delicious Christmas treats. We did manage to decorate the tree and eat plenty of Costco pumpkin pie.

Megan and I went to a Relief Society breakfast this morning. She got to meet dozens of my friends who analyzed her carefully--the consensus? She got her dimples from her dad. Also her nose, and her blue eyes definitely. But she looks alot like her mother too??? Hmmm. Maybe dad and I actually look alike? What do you think?

Well the lights are on the tree, Christmas carols are playing softly in the background and this is the biggest full moon of 2008. Go outside and enjoy it!

Thirty Four Years!!

My how time flies when you're having fun!
We had such a fun Thanksgiving weekend at Charlie's house in Chandler. Lots of good food, lots of laughter, lots of incredible video chases and races. Even managed to slip in a movie--Transporter 3. If you liked the first Transporter you'll love this one.
Now we're back home. Today is our 35th Anniversary. Wow. Actually, today is our 34th anniversary. I guess I had time flying a little faster than warp speed for a second there.
Yesterday was Michael's 30th birthday. For those who know and love him, he does not have long distance, and they canceled their cell phones. So just keep calling and eventually someone will answer. Happy B'day Miguel!
It always feels nice to be home. I am going to lay back and put my feet up. I slipped and slid across the wet floor at a Panda Express on the way home today. Now my ankle is swollen and black and blue. Oh well. Have a wonderful week. Hasta luego!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! I hope you had a wonderful day and plenty of turkey. We spent Thanksgiving with Charlie, Megan, and Graham and with Charlie's girlfriend Leslie. A fun time was had for all. More later. We love you all.

This is not the crown!

Hmmm. Dad got up early and was dressed before I woke up this morning. But, despite my surprise I hopped right up and we went over to the dentist for his crown, and then they did a prep for another tooth that broke yesterday. Came back to the USA and went shopping at Walmart. Isn't that just about as American as apple pie? (Should I say pumpkin pie in November??)

Then went to see the new James Bond movie. I will only say this--if you miss the first 5 minutes you will have to stay and watch it over again to know what is going on. But like any good Bond movie it is full of non-stop action and exotic locations. I liked it both times. And our movie theater sells Finitos. I think it is probably the only theater in America that does. Finitos are Mexican fruit icies with sweetened condensed milk stirred in. They are even more delicious than that sounds.

Congrats to Alon who will finally soon have his permanent residency!! We are so glad. And happy birthday to Nola, Ari, Michael and Charlie whose birthdays have either just passed or are just approaching. What a great time of year!!

We went across the line this morning to the dentist. What a beautiful day. Mike got a temporary crown. Next week he'll get his real crown and you will have to address him as King Martin the Brave. We went and visited a friend who owns a beautiful little shop on Calle Elias. She hadn't been working since the death of her husband, but her doctor told her she had to come back to work. She was getting depressed sitting around the house. She looked better than the last time we saw her. We paid a boy 50 cents to watch our car for ten minutes. An hour later when we got back he was till there, so I gave him 2 dollars--cheap parking!! Coming back the car in line in front of us broke down and people in other cars got out and pushed it to the crossing. The custom's agent immediately closed her booth with us sitting there next in line. But on such a lovely day who could complain. An hour later we crossed back into the good ol USA and bought McDonald's sandwiches for lunch.

Happy Veteran's Day to one and all.

A Change of direction

The following quotes are from a survey of civilizations titled Prehistoric Germanic Europe.

"From the material evidence surveyed, culture appears to be a collective attempt at providing answers to the questions posed by man."

And what are these questions?

". . . a collective attempt to provide answers to the questions about his position in this life and the next life."

Then, what happens to our culture when the answers to these all important questions are no longer clear? Culture falters. Civilization falters.

"As long as a distinct set of answers was satisfactory, the distinctive aspects of the culture remained constant and offered that degree of continuity which made for stability."

"It appears on the other hand, that experiment, innovation, and change are a response to inadequacy in some sector of the culture's general view of the world."

When people lose their faith, when they have no particular plan (concerning the big questions), then they wander and stray off in all possible directions.

It's the answer to the questions of why we are here and where we are going after this life that keep us as a society functional. Otherwise there is only the seeking of power, gain, and influence, or whatever it is that we can get at the moment.

So what is the 'drug culture'? for example, or the culture of 'change'? Why in the last few decades have we collectively (not necessarily individually) begun to accept abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, secularism etc, etc.--abrupt changes from centuries of accepted and acceptable behavior.

I believe that as a culture there are many changes that could and should be made in our ways of thinking and acting. But these changes have to be based on a firm foundation if we are to survive as a viable, stable culture.

I guess what I am wondering is have we as a culture lost our foundation? Are we wondering off, traveling in a leaky boat? And is a change in direction necessarily a good thing if we don't know have any idea where we're headed.

Manana land

Well Mexico is no longer putting off until tomorrow the things that can be done today. Sunday the chief of police in Nogales, Sonora was killed. Tuesday the equivalent of Mexico's vice president died when his Lear Jet crashed into rush hour traffic on Ave Reforma in downtown Mexico City. . . What is happening to our friendly neighbor to the South??

Drug cartels have changed the face of the nation:
Mexican distribution rings supply about 90 percent of the cocaine, 80 percent of the methamphetamine and half of the marijuana used in the United States, and drug cartels are fighting viciously over that trade.

Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, head of the Pacific-coast Sinaloa cartel, has declared war on the local drug baron, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, and sent his foot soldiers to drive out the Juarez cartel. The Gulf cartel based around the Gulf of Mexico coast has joined the fight.

Last we heard Shorty was settling in down in Chihuahua.

The continuing waves of violence have "put the country at the top of some of the most infamous lists in the world: the country with the most kidnappings, the most violent crimes, the most journalists killed in the Western Hemisphere."

Vamos a Mexico? Not this winter. Thanks anyway.

Today's the day

The removal of the Jesuists from Mexico, late 1700's: Politics of course, both the Pope and the King agreed that the Jesuits had too much power. The Jesuits had done a great work in the Pimeria--Northern Mexico and Southern Arizona. But, their missions were abandoned, their converts left to their own resources until the Franciscans (with a completely different attitude toward the Indians) came in 40 years later. In the background is the church at Matape, gathering place for the Jesuits who were sent on to Guaymas, then to San Blas and across Mexico to Veracruz. I think about half survived.

Do you think the Democrats and Republicans will be any kinder toward one another??

Today's the day; today is the election. Finally. We voted a couple of weeks ago. So I have tried not to spend 24 hours a day watching pre-election coverage. Which means that there is almost nothing to watch on TV. Not a bad thing. Last night a friend called me to tell her how to fill out her ballot. So much for the secret ballot. All I can give are my opinions. Which are dead on of course.

Meanwhile, I keep watering the garden. I have to plant my apricot tree in the ground today. I am moving my pepper plant inside. I think it will give us bell peppers all winter--too late for the tomatoes. We had a cold windy spell about a month ago and the wild mesquite lost all their leaves. Since then it has been so unseasonably nice and warm that everything is putting out new shoots.

So, what do you think? Do you have a favorite candidate!!!??

Wish us luck here in Amereeka.

The border was closed on Sunday. Apparently the cartel retaliated for the deaths of 10 of its members by killing a number of police officers. There is no end.

On that cheery note, Have a good day!!

Oh deer!

Untrimmed mesquites vs trimmed mesquites. Kind of hard to make a case for the bushy look when you can see the difference right in front of your eyes. It does require some weed pulling too. Hi Ho Hi Ho. . .

Anyone can see that a blue fountain is much nicer than a regular old stone insides fountain. Note the pruned pomegranate bush growing into a tree on the right side.

I went out to trim Mesquites this morning and I came face to face with a deer--a doe actually. Unfortunately I had a saw and a pair of clippers in my hands rather than a camera, so no picture. But, on the other hand, fortunately for me, those were just the tools I needed to trim up the mesquites which are constantly trying to grow into bushes, and which I am constantly trying to reshape into trees. Kind of like life isn't it. I can just get so comfortable in my little bushy world, but no--we have to keep growing up into something bigger and better. Enough tree philosophy. Chao, chao.

Painting

I started painting the fountain this morning. Whew! That's a job. Well not horrible, but hot and sweaty. (I had to let all the cool water out to even get started!) Don't worry--I am not painting the entire beautiful cantera stone fountain blue--just the cement floor and the walls on the inside up to the water line, swimming pool paint blue. I think it will help preserve the stone and it will look nice too. I have to go out and paint the sides in awhile. That must be why I am sitting here blogging!

Tender Mercies

Sleeping at Megan's

I am reminded again and again that God is mindful of us even in the small details of our lives. Last week late in the evening I was sitting on the bed reading a book and Mike was watching TV. I looked up at Mike and noticed that his face was flushed, I mean dark red flushed. I asked him if he felt alright and he said that he felt a little dizzy. I felt his face and he was HOT. Then I took his blood pressure and it was through the roof--197 over 110. He doesn't have blood pressure like that. So while I am fussing around and worrying he asks me to look up the drug interactions of 2 medicines that he takes. Lo and behold, these two meds have a negative interaction leading to high blood pressure, rapid heart beat, tachycardia, fever, etc etc. and can be fatal.

FATAL is not a good word. Mike took blood pressure medicine and went to sleep and in the morning I called the VA and left a message for his doctor. Three phone calls later from the pharmacist and one call later from his primary care dr. no one could figure out who or how or why he had been prescribed this combination. The next morning the dr in charge of the clinic called at 8:00 AM and asked if Mike could come in and see him right away. Well, the doc had all the symptoms and complications printed out for the syndrome caused by the 2 meds. He was very accomodating. Incredibly accommodating in fact!! He acknowledged that the interaction between the 2 drugs could be quite serious. (To which Mike replied that FATAL certainly seemed to fall into that category) He dropped the offending drug. Everyone was happy. Except that it took several days for the side effects to clear the system.

I asked Mike why he had me look up those two specific drugs, and he said that he had seen an ad that afternoon on TV that mentioned the danger of taking Imitrex (one of the 2 meds) with certain other medications. I have never seen that ad before or since. But it was there when we needed to know.

Hen's Eggs

Isn't this a cool plant? Not surprisingly it is called the Hen's Egg plant. I have a friend who works every day in her garden. She has a big piece of land and the whole place is cultivated. It looks like an oasis in the desert. She lives down the hill and speaks only Spanish. I visit her once in awhile and trade her my black plastic pots for plants. It is always a surprise what I will bring home. But this was completely unexpected. The fruit looks and feels like an egg. But it's not edible. Oh well. Nothings perfect! Have a great day.

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring. . . .

Is this my favorite view or what? I must have 100 pictures facing this direction!!

I woke up this morning to the rumble of thunder and the sound of steady rain. The hurricanes on the Pacific side of Mexico ( as if Mexico had a pacific side!) spin rain up to us here in Southern Arizona. And if you live in a desert that is wonderful. So the plants keep growing, everything looks good, and it is the most relaxing sound in the world early in the morning. Have a great day

6 word sentences

The preying mantis lays her eggs:

Janelle gave Mike a book for his birthday. It contained only 6 word sentences. We found it again yesterday. Oh my. You can't imagine what happened. We had to write a thank you note:

Hi Janelle, this is your sis.

We cleaned the bookroom yesterday afternoon.

Mike found his sixtieth birthday book.

He read it again, every word.

All our converstions have six words.

It's so great to be sixty!

You should only use five . . .

That's what 50 is like.

But, you'll never see 50 again.

Life keeps getting better and better.

Does your body ache all over?

Oh, it will--I Promise you.

Soon you'll need large print documents.

Bifocals may soon follow; so sorry.

Hair color fades, facial hair sprouts.

And your hearing? What about that?

Well, we've had lots of fun.

Now I will give the message:

In just 25 words or less:

“These things are important: temple marriage,

mission, college. Press on, set goals,

write history, take pictures twice a year.”

Hope you all enjoyed General Conference!!

Enough already. Have a great night.
Mike and Karen

Where have we been?

Just a week ago we left Rio Rico and drove to Tempe, where we spent the night at Charlie's house. He is in the middle of remodeling the house he just bought--making 2 bedrooms into a master bedroom with walk in closet and larger bathroom. A Project. But great.

We then drove up to Flagstaff to Megan's and planned to go from there to Salt Lake City to our neice Lauren Spence's wedding. But, after driving around Flag for a couple of days a sensor came on on the dashboard of the car. What to do??? We called on-star, they ran a diagnostic, and said that we definitely should not drive all the way up to SLC. We needed to take the car into the dealer.

So here we are back on the border. The car is fixed, the trip is off. But we spent all afternoon in the book room, moving books around, reading, relaxing. . . and I filled a big box with books we don't want or need. I only need to fill about ten more boxes and we'll be able to fit all the books on the shelves. Hmmm.

Spending the day in the book room is like a mini-vacation. We are in a different building. There is no phone, no TV, comfy furniture. We'll have to go on a vacation like that again tomorrow!!

If we don't answer the phone, just leave us a message!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!

Yes, it's true. Today is Megan's birthday and she is as wonderful as ever. Happy Birthday to you.

Ho Hum

No news is good news. Unless of course something bad has happened. But tonight it's just no news. All olds. You want a good story? Talk to the story teller. She is always in the know.

Quote of the Day

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
Abraham Lincoln

SICK

I am sick, my mind doesn't work anymore, I am under attack! Or at least my computer is--it keeps showing a warning that I cannot close saying I have a virus (actually 2) and a bad pool header (I don't even have a pool), and line 4 access denied. I try to restore and it says I have no uncorrupted restore points. Everything seems to work except that I can't close these messages. I have tried safe mode, virus programs, restorations, resets. . . I hope opening my blog doesn't make you sick. I guess I will take this little beauty in to a coputer doctor. HELP.

Names, Names, Names

The top picture is the young Berta Woolley. Isn't my mom cute? Right below her is Mette Marie Eliasen, Mike's grandmother as a young woman. I think he looks like his Danish relatives!

This stern faced woman is Esther Blackmoore, Ruth May's mother. How long ago was this? They must have used the first camera ever made. I think she must have been afraid to get her picture taken. (maybe the photographer was afraid when he looked through the lens!)

Above is Calvin Hopkins, Mike's dad at the start of WWII! Hopkins are Scotch Irish, which gives new meaning to the expression, "To really be Irish you have to have a fifth of scotch in you!"

And below is the young Edwin Evenson. My grandpa. These are all different lines and this isn't even the tip of the iceburg. Oh, brother!

Well, I have been doing family history for awhile. I have been going along and finding names and building a pedigree file and family groups in a Personal Ancestor File (PAF). I have been finding and submitting names on line. So, when I passed 2100 names in our file I was pretty pleased.

Now though there is a new program called Get Your Ancestors. It will automatically search, find and download names into a PAF file from new familysearch that are linked directly to me, or to whoever you put in as the starting name. I decided to use this program and then compare the on line information with what I have already found with my diligent searching.

I put in 20 generations in the search list. I figured there wouldn't be any names past there. The program started up. It ran all morning. It ran all afternoon. It ran all day. When it stopped there were more than 22,000 names! I was shocked. I saved it onto the computer and opened the program. There were all these ancestors--on pedigree charts, in family group sheets, in alphabetical lists. I have to tell you. I was boggled.

But that wasn't all. The names only followed my parents, grandparents, etc. Just Evenson/Woolley and ancestors--NO Hopkins.

So I started over again yesterday with Martin's name. The program found us another 11,000 names. Oh my goodness. I think I will be busy all winter. And I love it!

Happy 100th Birthday

Today is Tumacacori National Historical Park's 100th birthday. We went over to the ceremony to eat good tortillas and enjoy the festivities. We also went to take a look at the newly built museum with a new mural on the wall. The mural is about 8 feet high and about 15 feet long and curves around the wall. Very nice. It depicts the jesuit missionary expulsion from Matape, Sonora. No one knew what the church in Matape looked like, or even exactly where Matape was, when the artist was ready to begin the project 3 years ago. So Martin, Steven, Graham and I jumped into the car and went exploring, finding the town of Matape, other historically interesting sites, some new insects, and incredibly bad roads. We photographed the church inside and out and the artist used our photos in his recreation of history. We were introduced this morning as the photographers. I am sure both Steven and Graham remember taking some of the photos, as well as pushing the car in pouring rain and deep mud. I wish they could have been there today to see their handiwork! This is a small version of the mural (above.) Michael, I think would have enjoyed seeing everyone as well--he worked at the park for awhile. (We said hello for you to one and all!)

For pet lovers everywhere

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'

'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.

'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.

'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'

The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked.

'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.

As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'

'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.'

'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog.

'There should be a bowl by the pump.'

They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.

'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.

'This is Heaven,' he answered.

'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'

'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.'

'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'

'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'

Karne, Karne quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

Does that look peachy or what? We have been eating peaches for weeks, drinking peachy, icey drinks, eating peachy warm desserts. I am afraid we are coming to the end of the peach season. Who knows though, if the rain keeps up atnight and the sun stays warm in the day we could be eating peaches all year!

Isn't it great what the rain will do for a garden?? Plants are growing everywhere, across the yard, up the wall . . .

A giant gourd plant is growing across the yard and up into the mesquite tree. Mostly it is giant plant. I am waiting for the giant gourds to grow up and hang like mesquite fruit from the branches. Like I said, if the rain keeps falling and the sun keeps shining . . . there is no telling what might grow!!

odds n ends

Mike's sister Charlene and her husband Brad came to visit. Now they're gone. We hadn't seen them for a long time. We caught up on what the kids are all doing, visited Tombstone and stood in the exact spot where Morgan Earpp died on a pool table. Took the mandatory walk across the border and back. Brad broke his leg badly when he was hit by a car some time back. But he limped around with the rest of us gimps. So a good time was had by all.

Weeds, weeds everywhere

It rained a little yesterday. So taking advantage of the damp earth I pulled weeds on the front hill this morning early, before the sun was really up and the heat of the day came upon me. I think I am about 2/3 of the way to the edge of the wall. Who could believe what a lot of work weeds can be. Now all the weeds that I pulled inside the yard are trying to grow back. I have to snatch them up whenever I go by. But, my pumpkins are growing, the giant gourds are beginning to form, there are tomatoes on our plants, and tiny bell peppers on my enormous pepper plant--The plant put all its energy into leaves for the first 4 months of its life. Luckily we have a long growing season. (Unluckily when it comes to weeds.) Oh well.

How do you move a tortoise?

Did you know that tortoises are very territorial? They like their own space. They measure out their own space, pace it off, and defend it from intruders. Yes, the Tortoise Wars are real. But, when you move or decide to send the tortoises off on vacation, say to Disneyland, they become very disoriented.
When we brought Fred and Wilma home it took them a year to pace off the backyard and really feel at home. It took them a year to mate even. I mean that is disorientation. Unfortunately Wilma died before we moved down here. We added 5 more tortoises to Fred's area to keep him company--including 2 females--but he has never recovered. He hates all the intrusive tortoises who are trying to share his space. And he weighs over a hundred pounds. . .
Oh well. After five years here I thought he would adjust. Do you know a tortoise therapist?

My how time flies!!

We are back in Rio Rico. We left Flagstaff on Tuesday morning at the same time that Megan left for class. It is gorgeous here as always. We stopped in Phoenix and had lunch with Charlie, then stopped in Tucson to see Graham and Elysse before finally arriving home.

I was soooo tired today. I don't know why. But I couldn't even sit down and read a page without falling asleep. I did figure out how to make our old scanner work and scan our negatives from the last 20 years of vacations--No, that will not be a one day job, but I was really excited to see how well it works. The monsoons are still with us thanks to the constantly recurring hurricanes. And my pumpkins are growing big, my peaches are turning peachy, I actually love it. That's all from here--Have a wonderful day.

Good morning world

It's morning. Once again we are in Flagstaff sleeping in Megan's living room. All night long cars go by on the highway. It sounds like the surf when I'm sleeping, but now that I'm awake I think the entire world drives past Megan's house in the night. And it's cold. I'm wearing my Mexican dress, a sweatshirt and high heeled flip-flops, plus goose bumps.
Last night we drove down the highway to the rest stop and collected dynastes granti. Unfortunately we took a styrofoam cup, collected seven big males and one female, and before we knew it the males used their horns to cut out the bottom of the cup as neatly as a can opener. We dropped the first cup into a second cup and then I played tug of war with the cups while Megan drove. Beetles pushed the cup up, I pushed it down. Beetles tried to sneak around the sides and out, I tried to intercept them.
Does this sound like an unbelieveable easy task??? First granti are big--7 to 8 centimeters long. (The biggest beatle in North America, excluding Mexico)
Second they have two forward facing horns like pinchers or pliers--One kept clamping onto Megan's fingers before she could deposit him with me. (I have seen their larger, South American cousins crush a coke can with their horns.)
Third, like all insects they have six legs, and their little tarsi are sharp and made for clinging tightly to the sides of trees, telephone poles, and in this case my fingers.
And finally I was sitting in a small car, in the dark, with a dog watching my every move with intense curiousity.
When we finally got back to the apartment we dumped out the cups and discovered that 2 beetles had gone missing. Megan will have to find them in her car this morning.
A good time was had by all, I'm jumping back into the covers. I think Flagstaff must be part of Alaska.

The will to choose

"Part of deliberately doing anything is creating an environment that supports it. Environment is stronger than will. You will not attain your goals until you surround yourself with people who are actively striving toward similar ones."

The above is a quote. I don't agree with it completely. I think that the choice of environment may be an act of will. Will it bring me what I want? Will I choose to change my environment?

I do know that turtles shouldn't swim where there are crocodiles.

Hedged in

See the small plant between the pampas grass in the corner (young pampas grass) and the left edge of the picture? That is one of my problematic palm trees. It looks so small in this picture. i don't know why I couldn't just move it into place. Take my word for it. It is like an iceberg. You see less than a tenth of the entire tree!! The second palm tree is further to the left, which means, obviously, it is out of the picture!!

This is a view of my hedge. Of course you can't see all 12 plants, but when they grow a little it will be very nice. This is outside the wall around the yard. So the wall and the hedge are between us and the road.

Squirrelly

What the heck is that??? Haven't you ever seen a squirrel scratching itself under under the arm with his back foot? Well there you have it. You have to look close. I thought it was hilarious. If only I had had a video.

My how time flies. . . .

Here they are...these are the plants that I bought on my birthday 19 days ago. Luckily I did not take this picture today. I planted all the shrubs two weeks ago. All 12 along the outside of the 84 feet of our front wall. They look great. I was counting on the monsoon rains to keep them watered for me, but today I noticed that the rain isn't quite doing the job. All flash and boom, very little actual water here on the hill.
Meanwhile my palm trees sat in the driveway allll this time. A neighbor came over to help me move them, but we discovered that the tire on the dolly was flat. Steven was going to move them when he was here--I imagine he could have just picked them up and carried them across the yard and dropped them in the hole--but time slipped away. Another neighbor told me he would come by on Thursday and help, but then his father was hospitalized. Who would have imagined the difficulties that could pop up. Today, Thane and his nephew came by at 7:30 in the morning and we actually moved the trees across the yard, out of the boxes and into the ground.
Wow! I'll take a picture so you can see that I am telling the truth!
Then I decided that I really had to water the trees and shrubs. So, I dragged hoses from the back yard and hooked them together to start watering. This was my day: Water one shrub for 20 minutes while reading the Bourne Sanction outloud to Mike. Run outside for ten minutes move the hoses to the next shrub, check the hose on the palm trees, go back and read for 20 minutes. Do you realize that watering 12 shrubs that way takes 6 hours?? Ten til four. Yep, and most of a book.
Yesterday I did family history all day. On the Danish census. Iam starting to learn all those family words like muder and datter. Ugift is single. Gift is married. Nice huh?? Have a great night.
(Happy birthday Janelle and Mark E and Elysse. More people are born in August than any other month. And happy belated birthday Steven and Chase and Tory! and Abbie! That's just in the family. And I am sure I am forgetting some. What in the world was going on 9 months before August??!!)

Books and other things

Aly (Smith Lloyd) invited me to join her on-line bookclub. Hmm. So what fun books have I been reading? I just finished reading The Broken Spears, by Leon Portillo. Great book. Excerpts from early post-conquest Nahuatl writing about the conquest of Mexico. And now I have started reading Five Letters of Cortez to the Emperor, by Hernando Cortez. Also fascinating. And completely different perspectives obviously. Some of the Nahuatl writings hadn't been translated into English until the 1960's. And Cortez's first letter was lost until several years ago when fragments of it were discovered, along with the fifth and previously unknown letter.

But at the same time I have been reading Science Fiction short stories just to even things out. That book is The Intergalactic Medicine Show. Great fun. I wish it hadn't ended. I could have kept reading short stories. But none of these are the popular reading club books of the day.

Megan gave me the greatest birthday present ever--Daniel Silva's newest book--Moscow Rules. Have you been following the whole Russia/Georgia thing? Silva makes Russia sound really scary. I'm afraid it is. Our cousin Caroline Bartholomew was in Armenia for three years, and went to a resort on the Black Sea, that she said reminded her of Santa Monica, Ca when she was young. I assume that was in Georgia. What a small world.

Graham caught a gopher snake last week. He put it in the aquarium with his King snake. Guess what happened. . . . The King Snake strangled the gopher snake and swallowed it whole. It was an 8 hour process. Reminds me of politics.

Gross.

The family eccentric

". . . in the real world everybody's family is strange, in one way or another. On average, families are pretty much alike, but in detail, every family does things that make people from outside the family shake their heads and wonder how any of the children emerged with their sanity.

Well--do any of us? Or don't we all carry around in us bits of madness acquired from our families? This does not mean families are bad--on the contrary, those who have no families merely carry around the madness of strangers. The fact is that everyone has an odd upbringing, with plenty of triggers leading to eccentricity (at least) or serious neuroses--or worse."

(OS Card)

If this quote doesn't apply to you please ignore the above!!

Isn't it great to know that we are all normal and just like everybody else after all. Except for me--I think I am the perfectly normal exception that proves the rule??!!