Christmas

We got the boxes off, and a smattering of cards out (more to do). Laura and her cat Adee came to visit for a few days. We decided last Sunday to have a Christmas Eve brunch, and emailed out some invites. About 20 folks came by and we enjoyed the morning.

We strolled through Winterhaven late in the evening. My favorites were the 12th day of Christmas and a green Charlie Brown Christmas tree amid all the led lights, music, and other fantastic light displays. On the drive across town, folks seemed to be heading home, though the Walgreens and the hospital parking lots were quite full.

Back home, we made preparations for Christmas morning with Laura taking on much of the responsibility. And then we slept....a long winters night sleep. The morning started with stockings and a late brunch, and continued with phone calls, gifts exchanged and appreciated, more phone calls and stories, a late afternoon walk in the twilight, a simple dinner and a little tv, including Charlie Brown Christmas.

It was a quiet day for enjoying family and friends and celebrating whatever meaning one can find in it. I've realized it doesn't have to be a perfect holiday or a perfect day. It just is what it is:
peace on earth...joyous noel...liberation and freedom...friendship and love....family and friends...hope...chit ananda...tis better to give than to receive...a day to practice patience and love. We hope your day was a wonderful day.

Blessings to all.

Winter Comes

I keep humming, "In the bleak midwinter" and consider rereading John Steinbeck's In the Winter of Our Discontent* or Dickens, but the solstice arrived in Tucson at 5:04 a.m. on Sunday December 21 and we are on our way back to summer and light. True, there is one more very dark week before the sunrise begins to creep backward, but it contains the Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas Eve and Christmas, so it will be a joyful week.

We knew we'd have a leap day and a leap second in 2008, but can you remember a longer year in your life? Somehow, though, I am hopeful with 61% of the folks voting, and thousands of people continuing to be engaged at a grass roots level after the election. Civil dialogue? Who knew it was possible in this age?

Comings and goings of the year

Hannah graduated from UA in veterinary science and moved to Denver where she works as a certified vet tech at the Firehouse Animal Health Center on Colfax. She had a great review and has worked phenomenally hard. Hannah is applying for vet schools and a couple of veterinary science master's programs in her quest to become a veterinarian. Although admitted to CSU last year, she decided to take a break and work. Matt, her beloved, is completing his culinary degree at Johnson & Wales, and will set off on an 11-week externship at a very upscale restaurant in New York or California this March. We're missing them for the Christmas holiday, but Laura will visit them in January, and we'll pop up that way soon. They are enjoying the snowy weather and opportunities for young folk in Denver.

Laura was admitted to the PhD program at UA in Natural Resources and works
with Don Falk. She spent much of the summer doing field work in New Mexico and Arizona, and is analyzing the data and working on some papers for submission. She received her master's diploma from UC Irvine during the year. She moved into the place that Hannah vacated when she left for Denver, making us official empty nesters again. Laura is an amazing desert gardener. We're still eating tomatoes off her plants, and she kindly landscaped her rental unit. Laura taught herself to knit this fall, and her photography is worth a visit on her flickr site linked below.




Bob and I are news, science, and documentary devotees. He runs. I yoga. We are both working on family genealogies. We have taken up bananagrams as sort of a faster version of scrabble. We eat at home much more regularly, and try not to look at our IRA statements more than necessary. I caught sight of What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement: Planning Now for the Life You Want by Richard Bolles and have added it to my reading list. There is something very nice about simplifying, and I'm grateful for my frugal parents who taught me well. I wonder how a job stimulus package to rebuild the infrastructure will really work? We've been pointing folks to the post-industrial information, post-industrial work force for decades. The service-based, buying of stuff that takes discretionary income economy has many cracks. So, like everyone, we watch and wait. And we are frugal.

Frugality can have great unintended benefits. It takes me back to working my first post-graduate job c. 1975, when the office newlyweds had a $10.00 gift budget for each other. They strove to find the most clever, interesting, one-upping gift they could each find for $10.00. Granted that was worth more than it is now, and long before everything was made more cheaply. Craig's List wasn't even a thought. They were great savers with a plan, and they really enjoyed seeking a worthy gift on a shoestring.

Life was simpler without the pressure to have every technology gizmo in the house. Studies show, however, that we look at the past with rosy glasses and nostalgia. I for one, am not trading in my computer. And my general advice to know how to support yourself 6 different ways turns out to be good advice for a lot of folks.

We've enjoyed some trips and guests this year....Oklahoma City, Columbus, Atlanta, Washington DC, Flagstaff and Denver. We lost some dear family, and reconnected with other family members in the process.

Are we connected yet?

The conjunction of the moon, Jupiter and Venus amused us in early December. Bob says it doesn't mean anything, they are all just hanging out in in the same line of sight. First there was a sort of smile, with the planets above the moon, then it flip flopped....for those of us in the northern Hemisphere. We're slowing down, dark matter has been photographed, the planets align and realign. What we see in the night sky is really not there anymore. It all gives me perspective on our tiny place in the universe.

We miss the girls, but cell phone, email, Facebook....keep us in touch. I remember setting off for college in the late 1960s and being told, "you can call home on Sundays." Period. It isn't the same. I've managed two visits to Denver, one shortly after the August move right as the DNC started up, and another on a 4-hour layover on the way to D.C. Who knew a layover could be valuable?

The connectivity explosion has propelled me to become a joiner. You'll now find me on Facebook along with my Peace Corps Fellow and Peace Corps Fellow alum groups, Ning for work, Linked-In for professional contacts, Twitter because Wendy and Bert told me to. And I'm still maintaining the Peace Corps Fellows web site, throwing up You Tube interviews of the Fellows, emailing, managing 5 listservs, and occasionally updating this Which Way Ranch blog.

I say, sign up for Facebook. It turns out to be an entertaining and useful tool for quickly reaching others. It sends a message to your email in-box. It is fairly easy to throw up photos. The over 40 crowd is flocking to it. It is more likely to have baby pictures than "babe" photos on it among my crew.

Happy Holidays

Wherever you are, whatever your situation, whatever you believe, we wish you a moment of peace and harmony and hope you are with those you cherish. Since everything is impermanent, this time will change too...we just don't know when. We do know that the light will return.

* See the linked New York Times review of "Its a Wonderful Life" if you want a slightly ironic view of the post-industrial age we inhabit.

Early December

With just the cat and the chicken and Bob and me at home, the pressure's off. The Thanksgiving horn of plenty and the lady pilgrim candlestick holder are still laying about and the frig still has ubiquitous leftovers that are now likely headed for the compost bin. We're thinking about decorating for the holidays and perhaps a little simple entertaining.

We attended the Messiah Sing-Along last Monday, Dec. 2, at Grace to the Nations Church. We warmed up with some carols led by the Tucson Boys Chorus conductor. Last year we arrived late and sat with the tenors and I sort of kept pace with the sopranos seated right next to us. This year, we went with the soprano section, and guess what I've learned I'm an alto. We snagged a new copy of the libretto. This year, the bass recitative "Behold, I tell you a mystery" caught my ear. "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be chang'd in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet." The chorus chimes in with two pages of "we shall be chang'd, be chang'd" and indeed, that pretty well sums up this year in every way.

I attended Adrian and Febe's wedding in Agua Prieta yesterday with my friend Laura. It was a charming wedding and lovely dinner, and we had a great time catching up on the drive. The minister did a lovely job of reminded the couple and the congregation what it takes to tend to the marriage over the long haul. We were all amateur photographers and took many shots of the beautiful day.

It looks like we really do have to produce our passports in about 6 months to cross, so I've got to get mine renewed. In the meantime, my faded, but certified birth certificate got me through our very thorough crossing guard. We stopped again at a Border Patrol check on the north side of Sierra Vista. One wonders what changes may take place.

This evening we drove across town to Nick and Mary's tree trimming party, an annual tradition for many moons. I walked in and brutally thought, "who are all these old people?" Oh, it turns out that they are us, though now there are kids of original guests coming.

Mary always slaps a nametag of a famous person on your back and you ask questions of others to guess your identity. I was a dead male Arab - it turned out to be The Prophet Monammad and Bob was Helen Keller. The theme was persons who 'rock hope.'
Mary asked us all what the highlight of the year was. Hmmm, I thought about it and decided doing a handstand on my own at the wall was pretty wonderful. It took me about 6 years to actually pull it off. Bob and I also agreed having the house to ourselves was also pretty nifty. We do miss the girls and wish they spent more time with us, but there's a simplicity we enjoy.

A tip from Mary on tree trimming....she had 3 or 4 bouquets of baby's breath for the final glory instead of . It tucks in beautifully.

Hannah sent photos of snow in Denver. It looks like she and Matt will stay there for Christmas this year, but they may visit afterwards and sister Laura is planning a visit out to Denver in January.

Thanksgiving 2008

I put together a scrapbook of Thanksgivings past this year. They are all look pretty much the same, but we have transitioned from impatient little kids through the teenage years to a throng of beautiful young adults. We clean house, make and eat a lot of food, play games and sit and talk, pack up the leftovers to send home with the kids, and clean up again. Everyone pitches in and enjoys seeing each other.

The day started with the Southern Arizona Roadrunners cross-country run (see video of the amazing water filled ditch). This year, Bob, Laura, Hannah, and Colleen all started the day at Reid Park for the annual SAR run. Galen ran on his own. Laura, Bert, Hannah, Sean and Collen came early to help out and figure out where to put the table. Bert peeled 37 potatoes! No matter how many lists and how much pre-planning there is, there's a lot left to do. It was complicated by a cold front (cold for Arizona) with a lot of rain this year. We settled on an inside dinner this year.

We were about 24 this year with some after-dinner drop-ins plus 2 visiting dogs and a cat. We missed Kin who was recuperating this year and Matt who made dinner for his family, but we welcomed Kyle back from Budapest and Diana who missed '07 flying from China to New York.

We finally started the buffet line and did the go- around to say what we're grateful for, and the eating began. There was a lot of laughing at the big kids' table catching up, and and it was a lovely day. If we're outside there's a fire and a lot of lingering. If we're inside, there's a run to the store for benadryl.

Here's a snippet of video from the run. This water wasn't here on Bob's first lap around, but was pretty deep by the time the ladies ran.

A Peaceful November

Our Peace Corps Fellows planted a peace pole on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008, on the north side of Old Main - the first building on the University of Arizona campus. It was an idea conceived in July 2007 in Flagstaff at the Arizona AmeriCorps conference. We heard Terri Mansfield, who heads the Arizona Department of Peace Campaign who told us there's a peace pole in a conference room at the Pentagon and one in Iraq and another 200,000 poles around the world. Steven and Adam thought, "why not?" and embarked on a 14 month journey to raise funds, locate it and seek approvals.

Becca and the other students planned a meaningful ceremony with dignataries, inspirational speakers, a Tohono O'odham blessing by the tribal elder and CESL and other students speaking the words, "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in their native languages. Becca also led the effort to make many, many oragami cranes, a symbol of peace that comes out of Hiroshima. The cranes were strung among the trees.

The site is a lovely grove of trees. It is a point of welcome for visitors, it is near the CESL building which hosts international students and scholars, andthe location is contemplative and historic, and pretty far off the path for the skateboarders that plague a lot of the campus property. The ceremony was held in International Education Week, the day before the 45th assassination of John F. Kennedy, who created U.S. Peace Corps.

My dear friend Bert argues it is symbolic and won't do anything....without further action. We agree, and invite you to take a peaceful action today.

You can see an Arizona Public Media/ KUAT video of some of the ceremony courtesy of Anna Latta by clicking on the title of this entry above.

Fall is here!

Although we're creeping back into the 90s by weekend, the crisp 42 degree mornings have been fabulous. We snap out of the lethargy of Tucson's endless summer and festival season begins anew. The last Symphonic Winds concert was the best ever at Udall Park. Tucson Meet Yourself was positively frigid by 7 pm, but nothing would keep us from our annual sampling of foods from around the world always beginning or ending with Danish ableskiver. Our friend Bert kept us company.

Bob and Ellen are following the trials and travails of the Boston Red Sox who pulled it out late this evening. UA football is sliding into its predicatable pattern. Our fall garden is springing to life, and we're sampling gardening classes at the Tucson Botanical Gardens to see what we can learn. We're immersed in some geneaology classes as well, and we have a favorite new game...the fabulous Banangrams.

We've done several runs with Southern Arizona Roadrunners - Labor Day at Sahuaro East, the Jim Click Rock and Roll and a downtown 10 miler this Sat. for Bob. I'll been walking the AIDS/Walk on Sunday with the PC Fellows.

Hannah comes to visit for Thanksgiving with friend Matt. She's working at the Firehouse Vet Clinic in Denver, and is adjusting to actual cool weather...even the threat of snow. She is liking the new clinic. She won tickets to the Denver Nuggets recently at her clinic. She's reapplied to vet school and the CSU master's program and will have Colorado residency by next fall, making grad school far more accessible. Matt is doing well in his final 6 months at Johnson & Wales Culinary School and we can't wait to sample some of his new dishes. I've dropped by Denver twice since the move. We miss our girl and her dog Dalie.

Laura is back at UA in the PhD program in Natural Resources continuing to work with Don Falk and researching sites in New Mexico. She had a busy summer field season and is mounting cores and working on her papers. She's off to Los Alamos for a day of intense writing. She's cleaned up the garden at her rental and put in a winter garden.

Work is busy, challenging, and never dull. Severe budget cuts are revisiting the campus and anxiety runs high. The economy and the world contribute to that. We look forward to the end of the world's longest presidential election. Enough already. Let's vote. We are voting early in fact. We have become Comedy Central regular viewers, however, and SNL has also ramped up with the new fodder.

The Volvo gave up the ghost, but the last remaining chicken has not. Andy is troubled with arthritis on cold mornings. Adee is with Laura now near campus.

We're dreaming of Thanksgiving and practicing pumpkin pie from scratch. Mmmm good!

Graduation

We celebrated Hannah's graduation from College of Ag & Life Sciences this May with lunch at Feast and a Memorial Day party at home.
Pressing question...which side does the tassel go on? Left to right, right to left. We don't know, but it was a good day! Let's tip our tassel to Erma Bombeck, who said, "“Graduation day is tough for adults. They go to the ceremony as parents. They come home as contemporaries. After twenty-two years of child-raising, they are unemployed.” But we're still our kid's best cheerleaders!



Here are Hannah and Matt, lunching at Feast....mmmm....(see Laura in the mirror).


We enjoyed other graduation parties the day of...Peace Corps Fellows, Liana & Galen....so many smiles on the faces of parents on graduation. It takes me back to the first day of kindergarten, when the kids were fine and the moms were all worried and fretting. The kids are still fine!

Laura and her tree ring folks did some trial field research in the Pinalejos, the mountains about 60 miles east of Tucson near Mt. Graham. As it turns out, a few windy days kicked up a prescribed burn, and they were only on the mountain two nights. They went to the cabin for lunch, and when they came back a tree had fallen on their sitting spot. Then it snowed, and the temps dropped to 0 F. It was altogether a good field exercise, and everyone returned safely.

Sunday, we had a lovely graduation celebration...Matt, Anne, Laura, and Bob all pitched in on the food....a beautiful seafood paella, empanadas, and patatas - tapas-style from Matt;









Laura made malaysian green beans, three beautiful fruit
tartes (blueberry, strawberry and apricot with an almond meal
filling and her homemade orange marmelade glaze...mmmm),
and a white wine sangria with peaches and valencia oranges.






Anne brought a delicious gazpacho and her
wonderful pasta salad.








Bob made his fruit salad.











I made a mozzarella salad and an asparagus paella.










We had many reasons to celebrate - Tommy & Barb's engagement (the picture is too fuzzy or I'd include it),
Bert's upcoming 90th birthday
Liana and Galen's graduation and bon voyage to Japan,
Laura's master's degree from UC Irvine (it arrived), and a beautiful spring evening.

Honestly, we haven't had such a nice spring in memory. The 0F temperatures stayed on the mountain and it was maybe 86 degrees...really amazing...just a few breezy moments. I was altogether too chilly to swim!

We even had all the kids together for a photo, except Kyle who is still in Budapest. The dogs are really not evil vampire critters, just don't know how to deal with "blue-eye reduction!"

Welcome New Year!

We toured the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior, AZ on a beautiful sunny Dec. 31. We drove up Oracle Road through Florence and skipped the bumper to bumper I-10 traffic. The Arboretum was established in the early 1920s and has many interesting collections reflecting arid regions around the world - Australia, Africa, Mexico.

I was especially taken with their wonderful boojums and even brought home a small (probably 10 years old) specimen from their plant shop. Queen Creek flows through the property and we were shocked to find a beautiful suspension bridge built with the generous support of Jim & Mary Faul, two long-time Arizona ranchers who have supported 4-H and other good efforts in our fair state.



Along with the wonderful plants and landscaping, I especially enjoyed the evidence of human habitation. A rocky ledge near a creek was probably used by early Native peoples and later by cowboys. The rocks were blackened, and you could imagine walking down to the creek in the morning.

A small stone and plaster house with 3 tiny rooms sits on the property. It was built in 1915, the same year our beautiful house on Dominion Blvd. in Columbus was built. This tiny structure was home to a family of 5. The walls were blackened from a wood fire, and there was barely any light in the rooms. Every time I come across a pioneer dwelling, I am struck at how difficult life must have been.

The uber wealthy Boyce Thompson built a very different, magnificent home high above the arboretum property. He lost many of his millions in the stock market crash, had a stroke, and died quite young. Arizona's mining industry attracted all manner of east coast characters. For photos of the Arboretum, go to Laura's photos on Flickr. They are worth a visit and remind us of the stunning array of vegetation in our Sonoran Desert.

After the tour, we had a late lunch/early dinner in Superior, in a wonderful little restaurant, Los Hermanos. The cook couldn't quite believe we didn't want meat, which crept into the veggie soup and the enchilada sauce, but our waitress, Fran, quickly adjusted our check throwing in a great slice of apple pie in lieu of the soup. Everything was very tasty. The servings were generous. The apple pie was the real deal, with delicious pastry redolent with cinnamon and not too much sugar. Laura and I tucked cherry and a pineapple turnovers into our carryout bag, and we should have grabbed a dozen of the delicious homemade tortillas. Even the bill was a satisfying, small-town, we still know the value of a dollar deal.

We drove home the back way also, and Laura captured the glorious last sunset of 2007 somewhere near Florence Junction. As we approached Florence, which is a community of "correction facilities" and the upcoming Estrella War (which will bring my hometown buddy Cindy to town - I can't wait), we saw what appeared to be mist nestled in the mountains. As we passed through the community some 30 helmeted people were gathered together on their dirt bikes, ready to ride their way into the New Year. It was one of those surreal moments that reminded me of emerging from the Paris metro for the first time circa 1970 to see 6 motorcycles ridden by black, leather clad young men with drop-dead gorgeous women on the back, pull up to a cigar shop . They moved into the store as one, doing who knows what, emerged, and vanished in another minute.


New Year's Eve was anticlimactic except for a hot scrabble game. The local channels insist on "dropping the ball" at mid-night Mountain Standard time as if. I slept late Tues. a.m., missed yoga, grumped over the wind that blew hard all day, and made a big pot of hopping john with diced chilis, cumin and turmeric, and a roasted jalapeno for extra spice. Laura made cornbread which was delicious with the roasted chipotle raspberry sauce that was in the goody basket from Hannah and Matt. However ordinary the day, I am glad to welcome 2008. We hope that with all our good intentions, this year will be one which we remember with pleasure.