V Bar V

Petroglyphs at the V Bar V Heritage Site, near Sedona.

Today we went over to a great little State Park and toured the V Bar V Heritage Site. Its an entire rock wall of Petroglyphs and I was struck by how similar they are to some I saw in Hawaii when we lived there. I guess there are only so many ways to carve a sun or a person into rock. This site is unique in that there is a stone outcropping that casts shadows on certain figures at different times of the year, and today the shadows fell on corn planting; thus the theory is that the ancients would watch this "calendar" and when the shadows hit the planting symbols they would plant corn. I don't know what they did if it was cloudy on that day :-).

It was a nice little excursion, and reminded me of how things that seem like such immediate needs are rarely timeless. The corn planting probably got done by these folks in time for a good harvest, but the thing that was timeless was the rock art. The anniversary of Dad's death is upon us again, and I am reminded of the timeless lessons he taught me. There were mundane things (like hanging pictures straight and fixing a toilet handle) that are pretty important to everyday life, and then there are the timeless lessons...how to transition to the spirit life with joy and confidence, how to treat people on a day to day basis, and how to be a good parent.

On a lighter note, baseball is in full swing, so to speak, and AJ is on the Diamondbacks. He plays outfield, and is settling into a new team just fine. The coach is much better than the mutant that he had for a coach last year! There was a bit of parent drama at the last game, with some yelling being done when a player got hit by the pitcher, but that isn't the norm here, and most of the folks seem really nice. It gets cold here during the evening games (like nights at the Passion Play in Spearfish used to feel!) so we welcome earlier games.

Guess that's about it for now.

sky visit

What you do NOT see in the family picture is that a huge Condor was flying overhead while the guy was taking the picture. We were all watching the Condor and the guy was saying "Look over here! Look over here!" and we were saying "Look at the rare bird flying right over our heads!" It was pretty funny.

photo album; sky's visit

 
 
 
 

Sky's here!

We've had a busy few days with Sky here from NYC. He's enjoying the fresh air, we are enjoying seeing him. Its nice that Sage was here recently, and now Sky, so it helps Arizona feel more like home all the time. Photos to follow when I figure out how to make them appear.

One year later...

A year ago Mom died. It seems like it was much longer than that, most days. I told my friend Chris that I was surprised at how much it still hurts sometimes. She said that after her Mom and Dad's deaths she found that it still hurt just as bad but not as often for quite a while. That helped me to know I'm not just being a crybaby. Losing Dad was a bit different, Mom was still here, the house was still "ours", the loss didn't feel as complete. Anyway, I keep plugging along, and every once in a while have myself a good cry. Today feels like it might be one of those days. I remain very proud of all that my brother and sisters did to make Mom's final wishes happen. When I tell people about how we managed all that they are very touched and tell me I must have an amazing family. I agree. So Eunice, Corrine, Jer and Phyl--thanks. We did good.

Disneyfied

AJ, Viv and I took the train out to Anaheim for 2.5 days of endless laughing and walking. We had a great time! Dave stayed home to take care of pets, so the kids and I were on our own. We had great fun at Disneyland, esp since "its a small world" is closed for "remodeling". Word has it that it was deemed polictically incorrect and may be permanently closed. YIPEE! Man, I hate that song.

We spent a great afternoon in California Adventure, a new Disney venture right next to Disneyland. The coasters are awesome and we all agreed our faces literally hurt from laughing so much. The Best Spring Break Ever, as AJ says.

You call this a Caesar Salad?!?

I had some time off work, so we took a road trip to Prescott then on to Scottsdale/Phoenix. Prescott is a nice smaller town with a great art gallery. If you're ever in the area its called VanGogh's Ear.

We went to a ballgame in Scottsdale...the Giants vs Rockies. The Rockies won big time. It was Spring Training, so the stadium was small, the atmosphere fun, the weather perfect. The kids had fun getting autographs and Dave and I had fun just hanging out at the game.

We went to a GREAT Italian restraunt in Scottsdale, and there was an older couple behind us who were both busy being picky. Nothing was right, and they were quite vocal with the complaints. The man's napkin was too rough. Really. The lady wanted to eat, but wasn't "all that hungry", so she listed off a bunch of stuff she doesn't like and the waiter tried to meet that list of demands, while not exceeding the quantity of food she had in mind. Then the wine wasn't exactly right, and even though they had the bottle right on the table the guy kept yelling for the waiter to pour him more. The clincher was that the guy had ordered a chicken caesar salad, and they brought it to him without chicken. He complained loudly and they took it back and added the chicken. However, for the rest of the meal, we all heard "They just threw some chicken on the old salad, this isn't a new salad!" "They call this a Chicken Caesar Salad? They didn't even mix it in. This is just a salad with chicken on top!" Then he'd settle down for a minute, but just when we got lulled into thinking he was satisfied, he'd start up again...."YOU CALL THIS A CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD? ITS JUST A SALAD WITH CHICKEN ON THE TOP!" .... "They just threw some chicken on the old salad!" .... strong>"YOU CALL THIS A CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD?!?"<strong> By the time this had happened 3 or 4 times Viv and I started getting the giggles about it. AJ and Dave were not as close to the action, so they were missing some of it, but when we started laughing, they started listening. It kept on the whole time we were there. But the food was great and we had a good time. So that was Scottsdale. Now its back to work again tomorrow.