Its Been a Pretty Good Year

December 2007

Somehow, one day at a time, the year has vanished.

We have good health, wonderful children, a comfortable home, work we value, a community like no other, and lots of things that amuse us so we hardly noticed the days of summer (that lasted much longer than a summer should) whiz by.

Our exotic trips were confined to day dreams. In reality one or more of us visited Walnut Canyon and Flagstaff in the dead of summer. There were small trips to Prescott, AZ, Irvine, CA, Washington D.C., Cape May, NJ, Columbus, Ohio, Oklahoma City, and Durango, CO. We got to see friends, eat good food, exercise, and reflect on the differences in place.

We worked puzzles day in and day out. I specialize in the daily sudoku. Bob should patent his sudoku sheet. It is easier to work with than anything I've seen on the market. Bob is dedicated to the NPR Sunday puzzle with puzzlemaster Will Shortz and the annual online summer US Google Puzzle Championship. We battle wits and words fairly regularly with Scrabble. Hannah has become a crossword fan.

The garden grows - with humming birds and lots of tlc. I saw a photo from 12 or 13 years ago and by golly, the landscaping has grown more lush. We are moving more and more to water harvesting, and enjoyed a water harvesting event held by one of our local groups. Water harvesting is as simple as sticking a bucket under a downspout and planting new plants in wells that naturally collect water. We planted two trees out front that seem to be surviving and an ocotillo in back. There is a risk with the ocotillo because you don't know if it takes root for some time - a year even.

We read, listen and watch - the paper, books, the internet news, youtube, netflix, a little tv - the Lynley Mysteries, Sicko, all the stuff you watch too. We wonder about things a lot.

While we all contribute to the family mileage, Bob does most of the running, by far, (he calculates 839.6 miles to date this year - exactly the distance from Tucson to San Diego and back). When it is July and the middle of the day, you'll find Bob plugging away. It was his top month for running. The whole gang turned out for the Thanksgiving Cross Country at Reid Park before our wonderful meal for 25.

Anusara yoga remains my real passion and after approximately 2 years of really trying (on top of a couple of not really trying), I have managed to kick up into handstand at the wall with no assist. The day it happened I woke up thinking, "I wonder if today is the day." It was. The thing about yoga is that it is called a practice. It doesn't have to be perfection...just a giving to the practice.

My peace corps students are amazing (yes I still work)...53 of them and 5 others who are AmeriCorps...working all across the community...a positive inspiration. Do not fret over the state of the world. All will be well with these people in our communities. Perhaps when we retire, we will join Peace Corps.

We are grateful to you, our family and friends. May you find a bit of joy, indulge in a sweet, hug your beloved, and embrace this season of reflection and the new year.

With good wishes and hope that you greet the new year with heaps of optimism,

Georgia & Bob

All Things Great & Small

It wouldn't be a Christmas card without a nod to the critters. So, this little segment is dedicated to creatures that entertained, comforted, and occasionally annoyed us this year.

Dalie (that's pronounced Dally in our household) is indeed the sweetest dog that ever lived. As a rescue dog, maybe she knows she got that second chance and is especially sweet. She gets along with everyone 2-legged, four legged or whatever. Her only annoying habit is a penchant for biting off the nozzle end of hoses - which is a favorite plaything especially in the hot summer when someone is watering. We think Dalie is a Buckeye at heart.




In the feline department, Adee has cautiously ventured into the backyard. She enjoys whapping at poor old Andy. She and Dalie have teamed up against an unfortunate lizard or two in their time. Laura says she's part Maine Coon cat and that's why she's so fluffy and squeaky.




Andy, Andy...put down the food bowl and walk away. He just tries to eat for two and is a living example of inertia. He is still my favorite lap cat. Hannah gives him a lion cut for us so he's a little more comfortable.

You know you want to know...the chicken count. Sadly we're down to the last chicken. It is one of the blues. I never could tell them apart. Laura says its name is Blue. I feel badly it is a lonely chicken, but no more. I'm ready to convert the coop to a garden. We said farewell to the last two dutch and the other blue this year. One of my friends tells me about the professor who has a photograph of a chicken pulling a little cart. It is labeled, "If a chicken can learn, so can you." So, even chickens get a break. Does anyone know if there is a guiness record for geriatric chickens?

The Yo Yo Years

They come, they go.

Laura is back from UC Irvine with a master's in Earth System Sciences. It was a rigorous year, and she's happily turned her attention fully back to tree ring/carbon work. (Footnote, the research site her advisor there worked with is now fried to a crisp in the terrible fires.) She's finishing up some papers and posters on the research she's done over the last couple of years, and is presenting at a conference here in Tucson in January. I think she's applying to a PhD program at UA, but in the meantime she finished her 6th NaNoWriMo novel in Nov., submitted a couple of short stories, and has been diligently writing this fall. She runs now and then and has taken up jewelry making with beautiful stones and wire. Laura's cat Adee is quite at home here with us, and bosses old Andy around. You can see some of Laura's photography on Flickr (see links to the right).

Hannah is a senior and submitted applications to vet school this fall. It is tough to be admitted since there are few schools and many applicants, so we're very proud of her just getting to this stage. Her top choice is Colorado State, but she is flexible and has backup plans for all eventualities. Update - she's got an interview at Ohio State College of Vet Sci on Feb. 1. She's now the senior vet tech at Miller Pet Hospital, and is working a lot of hours on top of rigorous classes like cell biology and histology. If you need a first rate dog-sitter just give Hannah a call. She accompanied me to Washington DC last July (coinciding with a 21st birthday), and we had a nice time seeing many of the sites and eating some good food. She quickly became an expert navigating the city while I was occupied reading grants. Dalie, Hannah's dog, is the happiest, easy going dog we know.

Mini-holiday In-Town

Last weekend, Bob ran the Tucson half-marathon. Let's just say, the shuttles depart between 5-6 am from the parking lot to haul 3500 runners up Oracle Road the 13 or 26 miles. For those of you not familiar with Tucson, the Tanque Verde area is at least an hour away from the shuttle stop. So, we piled into the car on Saturday and had a mini-break over on the NW side of town. The runner has a chip laced onto his shoe, so it didn't really matter when they started, but you had to be there. Bob was on the shuttle and at the start, and finished in good time. This also was the culmination of running all 10 master's races locally. It turned out to be a beautiful day (after 2-3 days of wind and rain). We enjoyed the little in-town vacation.

Next up was the Messiah Sing-Along which they say is the oldest Messiah Sing-Along in the country - 31 years old. Can anyone break that record? We sat on the edge of the tenors near the sopranos, and had fun reading the score. An added positive feature was getting to bounce up every time the chorus sang (remember that half-marathon?). I can't say we contributed much to the musicality of the evening, but I managed not to belt out any hallelujah's during a rest. This version ran through some of Part II & III, and I have to say, the line, "Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing?" caught my ear.

Handel's Messiah was quite controversial back in the good ole 1740's when it was composed. He was well known for his theatrical music, and the fuddy-duddy's of the day considered his work to be inappropriate. It was first performed in Dublin in 1742 at a Music Hall, and crossed the Atlantic in 1770 for a partial performance in George Burns Music Room in a New York City Tavern. It was Christmas Day, 1818, before the entire oratorio was performed in Boston. Listening to the singers, you can't help but notice various extemporaneous parts. That tradition began from the get-go, and it was the 1750s before a fairly standard version appeared. Want more details? Check out gfhandel.org

Signs of Winter

Greetings All!

Here it is again - another Advent season. This season of expectation, waiting and contemplation always seems so incongruous with the Real World. Even though we can barely call it fall here in our Sonoran Desert home, the light tells us it is late fall. I love waking in the early morning darkness and descending the steps after a day of work into the same quiet stillness.

There are other subtle signs of winter. We've enjoyed a few cloudy days and a little rain here in Tucson. Today, Nov. 30, it has fallen steadily all day, and that is a blessing for the desert trees. The grape leaves have fallen, and the palette of greens in the back yard turned from the greyish desert green, to a distinctly yellowish green. Laura says the roots are absorbing sugars from the leaves.

Through late October and much of November, we watched Comet Holmes. Sky and Telescope reported: "On October 24th, periodic Comet Holmes (17P) brightened by nearly a million times overnight. For no apparent reason, it erupted from a very dim magnitude 17 to about magnitude 2½. Within a day its starlike nucleus had expanded into a perfectly round, bright little disk in binoculars and telescopes. It looked like no comet ever seen."

Bob expertly picked it out each night - visible with the naked eye even in the city (well, our city with a dark skies ordinance) and better yet with the binoculars. It is moving through the constellation Perseus, though we found it to the right of Cassiopia (the big W constellation) and near Capella, a really bright overhead star. It slowly moved from a perfect right triangle to an arc as the month passed. It will be up there through March. We've posted a photo from the NOAO website below in case you missed it.

The Beaver Moon - the funniest name for the full November moon - lit up the sky last week. Orion is peeking over our rooftop - another harbinger of winter.

The Winter Solstice occurs today, Dec. 21 at 1108 pm MST.

Here's the National Weather Service report on the Solstice.
THE WINTER SOLSTICE WILL OCCUR WHEN THE SUN REACHES ITS
SOUTHERN MOST LATITUDE OF THE YEAR AT 1108 PM MST FRIDAY.
THIS IS WHEN THE SUN WILL BE DIRECTLY OVER THE TROPIC OF
CAPRICORN IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE AT 23 1/2 DEGREES
LATITUDE SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR. IT WILL BE PRECISELY 1108 PM
MST FRIDAY WHEN THE SUN ENDS ITS 6 MONTH JOURNEY SOUTH AND
BEGINS ITS 6 MONTH JOURNEY NORTH.

THIS IS THE TIME OF YEAR WHEN THE LONGEST SHADOWS ARE CAST
BY OBJECTS IN THE SUNSHINE IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. AT
1228 PM MST FRIDAY IN PHOENIX...THE SUN WILL BE AT ITS LOWEST
ANGLE OF THE YEAR WHEN DIRECTLY SOUTH IN THE SKY. THIS ANGLE
IS 33 DEGREES ABOVE THE SOUTHERN HORIZON IN PHOENIX.

We're further south in Tucson, so the angle here is 34.4
degrees. Sunrise/sunset are at 7:21 am and 5:23 pm today,
then we welcome the return of old sol.