We had snow flurries yesterday, and it is cold this morning. It may hit 40 by afternoon, but it is sure to be sunny. The Sandias are dusted with snow. Flowers wilted from the cold, and leaves are gathering in piles, swept by the winds we had before the the cold and snow came through.
Jackson got a cast on Wednesday. It is bright orange. He carries a permanent marker in his pocket so his cousins, classmates and friends can sign his cast. On Wednesday evening, Jack got his bobcat badge at the pack meeting. It's the initiation achievement. He was very excited and happy about it. We had the complete uniform for the meeting, all the badges and patches on. Last night he studied the wolf handbook and made a list of all the "belt loops" he can achieve.
Rylee is very excited about Halloween. He is already talking about next year. He has a costume parade at school today, and a couple of his buddies at school have birthday party plans. He is making skeleton hands out of paper and glue. Cyndi made candy corn and popcorn hands, with plastic spider rings, using latex surgical gloves, for both Ry's and Jack's classes. They will have a busy day.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Bare Loon Lake
I'm going through some documents in my office today, and found this poem Ariel wrote in the summer of 1996. She may be cringing a little, knowing I'm about to set it out here. She was 12 when she wrote it and about to go into 7th grade. I recall she submitted it and it was published before. We were returning from our hike with David, Terra and Jennifer along the Chilkoot Trail when she wrote it. The night before we left on the hike, David directed us in packing our provisions, quick eats like gorp, bagels and cream cheese. I think I drank iodine-laced water, flavored with Tang, on the trip, as we had no purifiers then. Most of our party had external frame backpacks. Ariel had a blue junior-sized one we bought at REI, filled with gear and clothes, her sleeping bag and mat, and food and water. A ridiculously small bell dangled and tinkled from her backpack to protect her from bears, a dubious safeguard no longer recommended. She usually wore shorts, big boots, wool socks, a couple of layers on top, sunglasses, and a floppy hat or bandanna on her head. David had the only stove, which we used to boil water. We took the ferry up from Juneau to Skagway, slept overnight at the trailhead in our only rainfall of the trip. The trail took us through the rainforest and then we entered alpine and snowfields, following 33 miles of the trail the gold seekers took during the Klondike Gold Rush to enter the Yukon in the late 1890s. Before the Chilkoot Pass there was a hard climb up a rocky slope, covered with snow near the top. There were switchbacks of boulders marked by poles, but it was mostly scrambling. There is a famous photograph from 1898 showing an endless train of stampeders, each carrying hundreds of pounds of provisions on their backs, hiking straight up to the summit along steps carved into the snow. These are the Golden Stairs. Once you reach the summit of the pass, you enter British Columbia. A Mountie (probably a warden, or ranger, actually) was stationed there. A man portaging a canoe passed us there. We saw very few others, usually only at a camp site or at the pass, discussing bear sightings, but more often we saw no one. Several miles later we made our second or third camp at Bare Loon Lake. We were alone. Our two tents sat on a rocky ledge at the edge of the lake. The night never became dark, and we listened to the cries of the loons on the lake. I recall drinking hot coffee in the morning, standing near the lake, and Ariel bolting from the tent, pack on her back, ready to go. Here is her poem, which I think she began on the ferry back to Juneau and worked on as we flew back home. She also made a pastel painting, a Christmas gift, which I have but I must repair the glass.
Bare Loon Lake
I wonder if the loons sang those nights
The nights it was windy and cold
The nights stampeders hiked through mountains and snow
To find but a handful of gold
I wonder if the loons sang those nights
Sang their eerie song
On a lake with waters as clear as glass
Glistening in the quiet dawn
From the lush rain forest in Alaska
To Canada with lands full of light
Gold seekers reached a peaceful lake
Where the loons may have sung that night
I heard the loons sing last night
The night after climbing The Golden Stairs
The same stairs stampeders made in the snow
The snow that covered many rock layers
I wonder if the loons sang those nights
Sang for the travelers sake
I wonder if the loons sang those nights
Those nights on Bare Loon Lake
Here is an official web site for the Chilkoot Trail.
David has pictures and an account of a recent trip along the same trail here. David has other links, pictures from another trip, and photographs.
Finally, here's the wikipedia page.
When I have a chance, I'll scan photographs from our trip in 1996. Someday, there'll be another.
Bare Loon Lake
I wonder if the loons sang those nights
The nights it was windy and cold
The nights stampeders hiked through mountains and snow
To find but a handful of gold
I wonder if the loons sang those nights
Sang their eerie song
On a lake with waters as clear as glass
Glistening in the quiet dawn
From the lush rain forest in Alaska
To Canada with lands full of light
Gold seekers reached a peaceful lake
Where the loons may have sung that night
I heard the loons sing last night
The night after climbing The Golden Stairs
The same stairs stampeders made in the snow
The snow that covered many rock layers
I wonder if the loons sang those nights
Sang for the travelers sake
I wonder if the loons sang those nights
Those nights on Bare Loon Lake
Here is an official web site for the Chilkoot Trail.
David has pictures and an account of a recent trip along the same trail here. David has other links, pictures from another trip, and photographs.
Finally, here's the wikipedia page.
When I have a chance, I'll scan photographs from our trip in 1996. Someday, there'll be another.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
injury
Cyndi had a girl's night out in Santa Fe on Friday. They took the Railrunner and went to Canyon Road and the plaza. The boys and I had hot dogs at Costco and went to an indoor putting course. On Saturday morning, we went to the skate park, meeting Pete and Brendan there. In the afternoon, we went to Belen. I put bratwursts on the stove, Ry was still asleep in the car, and Cyndi and Jackson went riding on their bikes. I'll let Cyndi describe what happened and how she managed to find a cell phone, but I got a call that Jack broke his arm. I drove with Ry to the park where they were and we took Jack to an urgent care. We managed to get there two minutes before they closed; otherwise, we would have had to drive to Albuquerque. We got xrays and saw a doctor. They put his left arm in a splint and a sling. At this point, it doesn't look like a fracture, possibly a dislocated elbow, and probably a severe sprain. Cyndi will take him in tomorrow, but it doesn't look bad. Jack was pretty tough about it, and he helped his mom in the moments after the accident.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
sailboats & golf
The boys got costumes for Halloween this week. Ry is a "scary ghost" and Jack is a magician. There's talk of the cousins making a "haunted house" at Nicholas' and Lauren's house, where we'd meet for trick or treating this year.
Jack's cub scout pack had a sailboat regatta on Saturday. We met on Saturday afternoon at the middle school, and the boys raced their boats in rain gutters set up on sawhorses and filled with water. The regatta was followed by an ice cream social, with big bowls of ice cream and lots of toppings. Jack and I started building the boat from a kit on Thursday but the last coat of paint and glue were still drying just before the race. Jackson painted the boat in blue and yellow and put stickers all over the sail. The boat could have sailed better, but Jackson had fun.
Ry and I went to the skateboard park early Saturday. It's pretty amazing to watch him gliding along. Later he asked to use a golf club and decided that golf was his new favorite sport. He wanted to watch the golf channel that evening. Ry will only wear sports clothes, because they're "cool." Lately, he's been adopting a skateboarder look. He said he wasn't interested in the "handsome" clothes his mom ironed and set out for him for school. We told him he could be both handsome and cool. When he said he wanted to wear golfing clothes, I told him golfers wore "handsome" polo shirts, just like the ones Mom set out for him. So now he's wearing a polo shirt.
Jack's cub scout pack had a sailboat regatta on Saturday. We met on Saturday afternoon at the middle school, and the boys raced their boats in rain gutters set up on sawhorses and filled with water. The regatta was followed by an ice cream social, with big bowls of ice cream and lots of toppings. Jack and I started building the boat from a kit on Thursday but the last coat of paint and glue were still drying just before the race. Jackson painted the boat in blue and yellow and put stickers all over the sail. The boat could have sailed better, but Jackson had fun.
Ry and I went to the skateboard park early Saturday. It's pretty amazing to watch him gliding along. Later he asked to use a golf club and decided that golf was his new favorite sport. He wanted to watch the golf channel that evening. Ry will only wear sports clothes, because they're "cool." Lately, he's been adopting a skateboarder look. He said he wasn't interested in the "handsome" clothes his mom ironed and set out for him for school. We told him he could be both handsome and cool. When he said he wanted to wear golfing clothes, I told him golfers wore "handsome" polo shirts, just like the ones Mom set out for him. So now he's wearing a polo shirt.
Monday, October 12, 2009
a weekend
The weekend began with the boys off from school on Friday. They went to the balloon fiesta with Cyndi, her sister, Elley, and their cousins. Later they rode their bikes on the ramps at the skateboard park. On the way home, I picked up some crates of halloween decorations from the storage unit. After Cyndi went to restorative yoga, we went to Monroe's. I talked with Ariel on the telephone. She was about to meet Chris. He was flying in that night and they would meet at Penn Station in Manhattan and have a pizza at about 1 a.m.
Saturday, the boys and Cyndi set up the halloween decorations around the house. Ry remembered where they were placed in the house last year, and Jackson found decorations he had made in school in years past. I worked in the yard a bit. Jack helped me plant some mums that were still in pots and rollerbladed on the sidewalk. Ry dug a little and skateboarded in the driveway. I fixed a sprinkler head that broke, mowed, trimmed, swept, watered, and cleaned the grill. The day was beautiful, sunny and warm. We invited Elley and family and Dorie and family over for dinner that night. We spent the afternoon making corn chowder and marinading the tri tip. Jackson set up the Polar Express and Ry drew pictures of a figure-eight train track. Ry practiced his counting and addition that day. He counts past one hundred and can add a string of numbers. He understands that two million plus two million is four million, that three plus one is the same as one plus three, and that 2 + 2 + 2 is 6. This year in Jack's second grade, there doesn't appear to be much of a push or challenge and the teacher, on instruction, she says, of the school system, is sticking to a pretty low level of a curriculum. We're not impressed, but Jack still loves school. He checks out Junie B. Jones books from his library, which are a hoot to read, and says he wants to know history.
The families came over, and we had a really nice pot luck dinner. Cyndi made a salad and an apple cobbler from the last of the apples from Mom's and a few from a friend at work. Her sisters brought garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, bread, ice cream, and more wine. We opened some wine, and I grilled the steaks while Pete and Don and I stood around the grill, talking about football, the balloons, and I don't remember what else. Brendan, Jackson and Rylee skateboarded in the garage before Nicholas and Lauren came over. Ry practiced his ollies, a move that lifts the board off the ground so he can jump over things. At one point in the middle of the meal, I watched the kids playing in the living room. Jackson was playing hearts on the computer at the moment. Lauren and Rylee were drawing pictures of a haunted house. After dinner and dessert, we all sat around watching "Hocus Pocus" and then we were all ready to crash for the night.
The meal and the wine were heavy sedatives and Cyndi and I woke up from deep sleeps the next morning. We all played a couple of hands of hearts. Ry shot the moon, although I was playing his cards while he was playing with a bicycle catalogue, and it was an open-handed play. Jackson and I spent some time figuring out how to network all of the computers in the house, and we discovered that we could access recorded tv shows and movies on the desktop to play on our laptops anywhere in the house. This came about after fixing the wi-fi router. It was all I could do to convince Cyndi not to do chores in the morning.
She planned a bike ride and we said we'd meet at the Academy. The tire stem on my back wheel had broken off in Monterey. I found an old innertube in the garage, changed my tire, pumped it up, and it seemed to hold. The boys and I rode up the street and along the bike path--an uphill climb--to the Academy. I contacted Cyndi by phone, and we decided to meet at the Starbucks, so the boys and I kept riding on the path toward Starbucks. Many walkers along the path smiled at the boys and me bicycling. It was a beautiful morning. Jackson took the lead and would wait for us at any intersection. The boys each wore their helmets and an unzipped sweatshirt. Rylee pedaled along at an easy speed. When we arrived, we parked the bikes in a rack, ordered our coffees and hot chocolates, and Cyndi arrived smiling. I walked to get bagels, and when I returned our friend, Paula, was sitting with Cyndi and the boys. We talked for a good while, sitting outside in the shade. While we were talking with Paula, the boys rode around the sidewalks. One lady watched them and told us how amazed she was to see Rylee weaving around the tables. On our way back, stopped together at a curb, two women commented to Rylee about how he wasn't using any training wheels. Rylee answered by jumping the curb. Jackson and Cyndi took the lead going back, and Rylee and I pedaled behind them. (Those little wheels only go so fast.) Ry said that from now on we can ride our bikes to Starbucks. It's better than driving, he said, 'cause he doesn't have to sit in the car. I agreed. We coasted downhill to home on the bike path. Maybe four miles total. Jackson complained that we were so slow.
The balloons didn't go up that morning--the last mass ascension and the last event of the fiesta--due to the wind at dawn. The wind died down somewhat but it still felt cool that day. It was very sunny, though. I shut down the cooler, and we had a fire in the fireplace that day.
The ride was so fun, we decided to go out again later in the afternoon. Cyndi thought we should try going to the driving range. I grabbed a few irons of my Dad's, and some old tees from his bag. We got a big bucket of balls and borrowed some junior clubs and ladies clubs. The boys loved. A group of teenage boys stopped to watch Ry hit. Both boys did great for their first time.
Ry is anxious to get his halloween costume. He's changed his mind so many times, and I think he really wants a ninja-star wars-transformer-action hero sort of costume, with a mask, from a store. I've been trying to talk him out of being a zombie skateboarder. But lately, he's also been back to where he started from after last year's halloween: a ghost. He talks about getting a sheet and cutting holes in it. I like that idea so much better, although I don't think Ry likes my idea of cutting a whole face out. That's not the way he knows it's done. He got interested after a friend of Cyndi's dropped off some old, bygone Albuquerque Dukes stuff, and of course Rylee put it all on and looked good, and he and I joked about being The Ghost of the Albuquerque Dukes. Jackson has pretty much gotten it down to a magician's costume, which is mostly a cape and a hat. He's been practicing magic tricks to perform, and he and Rylee joke about pulling his stuffed bunny from a hat.
A great weekend.
Saturday, the boys and Cyndi set up the halloween decorations around the house. Ry remembered where they were placed in the house last year, and Jackson found decorations he had made in school in years past. I worked in the yard a bit. Jack helped me plant some mums that were still in pots and rollerbladed on the sidewalk. Ry dug a little and skateboarded in the driveway. I fixed a sprinkler head that broke, mowed, trimmed, swept, watered, and cleaned the grill. The day was beautiful, sunny and warm. We invited Elley and family and Dorie and family over for dinner that night. We spent the afternoon making corn chowder and marinading the tri tip. Jackson set up the Polar Express and Ry drew pictures of a figure-eight train track. Ry practiced his counting and addition that day. He counts past one hundred and can add a string of numbers. He understands that two million plus two million is four million, that three plus one is the same as one plus three, and that 2 + 2 + 2 is 6. This year in Jack's second grade, there doesn't appear to be much of a push or challenge and the teacher, on instruction, she says, of the school system, is sticking to a pretty low level of a curriculum. We're not impressed, but Jack still loves school. He checks out Junie B. Jones books from his library, which are a hoot to read, and says he wants to know history.
The families came over, and we had a really nice pot luck dinner. Cyndi made a salad and an apple cobbler from the last of the apples from Mom's and a few from a friend at work. Her sisters brought garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, bread, ice cream, and more wine. We opened some wine, and I grilled the steaks while Pete and Don and I stood around the grill, talking about football, the balloons, and I don't remember what else. Brendan, Jackson and Rylee skateboarded in the garage before Nicholas and Lauren came over. Ry practiced his ollies, a move that lifts the board off the ground so he can jump over things. At one point in the middle of the meal, I watched the kids playing in the living room. Jackson was playing hearts on the computer at the moment. Lauren and Rylee were drawing pictures of a haunted house. After dinner and dessert, we all sat around watching "Hocus Pocus" and then we were all ready to crash for the night.
The meal and the wine were heavy sedatives and Cyndi and I woke up from deep sleeps the next morning. We all played a couple of hands of hearts. Ry shot the moon, although I was playing his cards while he was playing with a bicycle catalogue, and it was an open-handed play. Jackson and I spent some time figuring out how to network all of the computers in the house, and we discovered that we could access recorded tv shows and movies on the desktop to play on our laptops anywhere in the house. This came about after fixing the wi-fi router. It was all I could do to convince Cyndi not to do chores in the morning.
She planned a bike ride and we said we'd meet at the Academy. The tire stem on my back wheel had broken off in Monterey. I found an old innertube in the garage, changed my tire, pumped it up, and it seemed to hold. The boys and I rode up the street and along the bike path--an uphill climb--to the Academy. I contacted Cyndi by phone, and we decided to meet at the Starbucks, so the boys and I kept riding on the path toward Starbucks. Many walkers along the path smiled at the boys and me bicycling. It was a beautiful morning. Jackson took the lead and would wait for us at any intersection. The boys each wore their helmets and an unzipped sweatshirt. Rylee pedaled along at an easy speed. When we arrived, we parked the bikes in a rack, ordered our coffees and hot chocolates, and Cyndi arrived smiling. I walked to get bagels, and when I returned our friend, Paula, was sitting with Cyndi and the boys. We talked for a good while, sitting outside in the shade. While we were talking with Paula, the boys rode around the sidewalks. One lady watched them and told us how amazed she was to see Rylee weaving around the tables. On our way back, stopped together at a curb, two women commented to Rylee about how he wasn't using any training wheels. Rylee answered by jumping the curb. Jackson and Cyndi took the lead going back, and Rylee and I pedaled behind them. (Those little wheels only go so fast.) Ry said that from now on we can ride our bikes to Starbucks. It's better than driving, he said, 'cause he doesn't have to sit in the car. I agreed. We coasted downhill to home on the bike path. Maybe four miles total. Jackson complained that we were so slow.
The balloons didn't go up that morning--the last mass ascension and the last event of the fiesta--due to the wind at dawn. The wind died down somewhat but it still felt cool that day. It was very sunny, though. I shut down the cooler, and we had a fire in the fireplace that day.
The ride was so fun, we decided to go out again later in the afternoon. Cyndi thought we should try going to the driving range. I grabbed a few irons of my Dad's, and some old tees from his bag. We got a big bucket of balls and borrowed some junior clubs and ladies clubs. The boys loved. A group of teenage boys stopped to watch Ry hit. Both boys did great for their first time.
Ry is anxious to get his halloween costume. He's changed his mind so many times, and I think he really wants a ninja-star wars-transformer-action hero sort of costume, with a mask, from a store. I've been trying to talk him out of being a zombie skateboarder. But lately, he's also been back to where he started from after last year's halloween: a ghost. He talks about getting a sheet and cutting holes in it. I like that idea so much better, although I don't think Ry likes my idea of cutting a whole face out. That's not the way he knows it's done. He got interested after a friend of Cyndi's dropped off some old, bygone Albuquerque Dukes stuff, and of course Rylee put it all on and looked good, and he and I joked about being The Ghost of the Albuquerque Dukes. Jackson has pretty much gotten it down to a magician's costume, which is mostly a cape and a hat. He's been practicing magic tricks to perform, and he and Rylee joke about pulling his stuffed bunny from a hat.
A great weekend.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
a little hike
I was just re-reading the recent blogs after my dad wrote me an email, and it reminded me of this past weekend somehow.
Janey was in town during the weekend, so on Sunday after a breakfast of eggs and bacon and toast with the strawberry-rhubarb jam we bought on Saturday and after church we met Janey and went on a short hike along Piedra Lisa, which is near the La Luz trail in the Sandias. The first part is a dirt road, almost a half-mile. Jackson brought his water pack, with a few essential things, and it wasn't long before I was carrying it. But you know that's going to happen. Rylee was running on the road, and he was sure to be tired soon. The trail itself was much steeper than I would have thought, and very gravelly, which makes it slippery going down. It was a very rocky, narrow trail, bordered by pinon and fir, cholla and yucca. Jackson hiked with Janey and Cyndi, and he would occasionally stop so Ry and I could catch up. As the trail became steeper, Rylee and I would sing songs. The songs we know don't really drive us to march up the hills, as a cadence, but they distract us. Rylee forgets that he just asked me to carry him up the hill, and it's way too early to be doing that. There was "I've been working on the railroad," "Take me out to the ballgame," and the Alphabet Song. On the way back, we sang songs again, holding each other's hands to keep from slipping on our butts, but Ry didn't want to repeat songs, so we had to think of others. We do our own variations of "Numbers Rumba." Ry appreciates the new rhymes. (Ariel and I would do a variation of this on our hikes when she was young.)
Later that night, we learned to play hearts and uninstalled some gadget apps that Jack had placed on his sidebar and were causing some havoc on the computer.
A different weekend of sorts. We went to Great Wall on Friday night. The food is very good, we were able to avoid the Balloon Fiesta crowds, and the bill makes me happy. I sound even to myself like a curmudgeon when I get on this soapbox, but it's really upsetting me these days to pay up to three or four times the amount I paid on Friday night, get food that the owner thinks deserves to be charged the same as the food prepared by a chef in a fine dining restaurant but is almost always suspect if not horrid, or too much is served, and then you end up tipping three or four times the amount I tipped for my Friday night bill for service, let's be honest, that was the same, or worse. It doesn't seem right. The problem I see when taking family out for dinner is that there are very few places that are reasonable. The simple family restaurants are long gone. I can count good, affordable restaurants on one hand. The franchises are charging near high end these days and they don't even make the food. I suspect that even locally owned places must operate like franchises to stay in business and share the same high overhead. Fast food costs about the same as a night out at the affordable family restaurants, unless all you're getting is a bean burrito, but unless you only ate a bean burrito you feel sick afterwards. Still, when we do have a very fine meal out, ahh, it is so good.
I was a curmudgeon at the arts & crafts show, too, and it got to the point where it embarrassed Cyndi, but when we got in it really was a good show and worth some, but not all, of the price of admission (including the exorbitant on-site ATM fees). We ended up having fun that morning and enjoyed a little lunch there. This was the day we went to the balloon fiesta, where I'm sure I complained about the coffee. But that's all.
No, I also complained about the carnival atmosphere at the balloon park. The carnival is a half-mile strip of tents selling baubles and trinkets, pins and calendars, candles and every sort of balloon ornament imaginable. Before dawn, half awake, it is a strange world lit up by flood lights from above and from television crews, with the smells of pork and hot oil, coffee, burnt sugar, and barbecue, crowded with hundreds (growing to thousands) of the other undead wrapped in blankets wandering about with styrofoam cups and wearing jester hats. There is an inane commentary going out over the P.A. speakers. The carnies are present, too: "get your programs," "get your memory cards." This is great stuff but only before dawn. All of a sudden, the entire crowd is silent. A woman sings "The Star Spangled Banner", a cappella, as the mayor, up for re-election this week, floats above the hushed crowd, their upturned faces gazing at the flag draped from his balloon. One man behind me dares to sing it loudly, but the crowd doesn't join in.
The real magic of the balloon fiesta comes when you walk on the field, the grass of the park is lush now, and go among the balloons just starting to inflate. If it is cold, you find a gondola for that moment when the propane burners are ignited. You listen for the whistles permitting lift off. You are surrounded by colors and the sky is now blue. It's just past seven in the morning, and your day feels complete already. It wouldn't matter what you did the rest of the day. A nap is in order.
I have to say that the drive to park was not bad. We picked the right streets, maybe, or maybe we were just lucky when we left. We watched a full moon setting as we drove. We were in lines a mile deep, but the lines moved quickly and we were directed to a space to park three rows from an entrance.
Later in the day, we cooked hamburgers for Janey, her daughter and Kristina, and Elley and Lauren came over, too. We tried out a new vending machine at the supermarket to rent DVDs for a buck. There are no clerks at check out any more. Jack and Ry run the packages through the bar code scan and key in the produce numbers stuck to the tomatoes, which now have vines still attached to them. The Blockbuster, we discovered, has closed. (The end of that era. What a racket. Banks are next.) Yesterday, I downloaded a bunch of stuff on Bennie's new IPod after having to install a new version of software and marveled at the podcasts, audio books, movies, shows, and even educational courses that you can now download.
This is really enough.
Janey was in town during the weekend, so on Sunday after a breakfast of eggs and bacon and toast with the strawberry-rhubarb jam we bought on Saturday and after church we met Janey and went on a short hike along Piedra Lisa, which is near the La Luz trail in the Sandias. The first part is a dirt road, almost a half-mile. Jackson brought his water pack, with a few essential things, and it wasn't long before I was carrying it. But you know that's going to happen. Rylee was running on the road, and he was sure to be tired soon. The trail itself was much steeper than I would have thought, and very gravelly, which makes it slippery going down. It was a very rocky, narrow trail, bordered by pinon and fir, cholla and yucca. Jackson hiked with Janey and Cyndi, and he would occasionally stop so Ry and I could catch up. As the trail became steeper, Rylee and I would sing songs. The songs we know don't really drive us to march up the hills, as a cadence, but they distract us. Rylee forgets that he just asked me to carry him up the hill, and it's way too early to be doing that. There was "I've been working on the railroad," "Take me out to the ballgame," and the Alphabet Song. On the way back, we sang songs again, holding each other's hands to keep from slipping on our butts, but Ry didn't want to repeat songs, so we had to think of others. We do our own variations of "Numbers Rumba." Ry appreciates the new rhymes. (Ariel and I would do a variation of this on our hikes when she was young.)
Later that night, we learned to play hearts and uninstalled some gadget apps that Jack had placed on his sidebar and were causing some havoc on the computer.
A different weekend of sorts. We went to Great Wall on Friday night. The food is very good, we were able to avoid the Balloon Fiesta crowds, and the bill makes me happy. I sound even to myself like a curmudgeon when I get on this soapbox, but it's really upsetting me these days to pay up to three or four times the amount I paid on Friday night, get food that the owner thinks deserves to be charged the same as the food prepared by a chef in a fine dining restaurant but is almost always suspect if not horrid, or too much is served, and then you end up tipping three or four times the amount I tipped for my Friday night bill for service, let's be honest, that was the same, or worse. It doesn't seem right. The problem I see when taking family out for dinner is that there are very few places that are reasonable. The simple family restaurants are long gone. I can count good, affordable restaurants on one hand. The franchises are charging near high end these days and they don't even make the food. I suspect that even locally owned places must operate like franchises to stay in business and share the same high overhead. Fast food costs about the same as a night out at the affordable family restaurants, unless all you're getting is a bean burrito, but unless you only ate a bean burrito you feel sick afterwards. Still, when we do have a very fine meal out, ahh, it is so good.
I was a curmudgeon at the arts & crafts show, too, and it got to the point where it embarrassed Cyndi, but when we got in it really was a good show and worth some, but not all, of the price of admission (including the exorbitant on-site ATM fees). We ended up having fun that morning and enjoyed a little lunch there. This was the day we went to the balloon fiesta, where I'm sure I complained about the coffee. But that's all.
No, I also complained about the carnival atmosphere at the balloon park. The carnival is a half-mile strip of tents selling baubles and trinkets, pins and calendars, candles and every sort of balloon ornament imaginable. Before dawn, half awake, it is a strange world lit up by flood lights from above and from television crews, with the smells of pork and hot oil, coffee, burnt sugar, and barbecue, crowded with hundreds (growing to thousands) of the other undead wrapped in blankets wandering about with styrofoam cups and wearing jester hats. There is an inane commentary going out over the P.A. speakers. The carnies are present, too: "get your programs," "get your memory cards." This is great stuff but only before dawn. All of a sudden, the entire crowd is silent. A woman sings "The Star Spangled Banner", a cappella, as the mayor, up for re-election this week, floats above the hushed crowd, their upturned faces gazing at the flag draped from his balloon. One man behind me dares to sing it loudly, but the crowd doesn't join in.
The real magic of the balloon fiesta comes when you walk on the field, the grass of the park is lush now, and go among the balloons just starting to inflate. If it is cold, you find a gondola for that moment when the propane burners are ignited. You listen for the whistles permitting lift off. You are surrounded by colors and the sky is now blue. It's just past seven in the morning, and your day feels complete already. It wouldn't matter what you did the rest of the day. A nap is in order.
I have to say that the drive to park was not bad. We picked the right streets, maybe, or maybe we were just lucky when we left. We watched a full moon setting as we drove. We were in lines a mile deep, but the lines moved quickly and we were directed to a space to park three rows from an entrance.
Later in the day, we cooked hamburgers for Janey, her daughter and Kristina, and Elley and Lauren came over, too. We tried out a new vending machine at the supermarket to rent DVDs for a buck. There are no clerks at check out any more. Jack and Ry run the packages through the bar code scan and key in the produce numbers stuck to the tomatoes, which now have vines still attached to them. The Blockbuster, we discovered, has closed. (The end of that era. What a racket. Banks are next.) Yesterday, I downloaded a bunch of stuff on Bennie's new IPod after having to install a new version of software and marveled at the podcasts, audio books, movies, shows, and even educational courses that you can now download.
This is really enough.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
balloon fiesta 2009
A fun morning at the balloon fiesta. On the road by 6 am, joining the line of cars into the park. Breakfast of a great green chile breakfast burrito, sweet roll, horrible coffee, and two hot chocolates. At dawn, joined Jack's friend, Hailey, and watched the first wave of balloons go up. Afterward, we went to the arts & crafts tent, enjoyed more food, listened to some music, bought a couple of small things, and made sand art. Went home and took a nap.
The weather was great. Cool, almost no wind, a bit overcast so not the usual crisp, blue skies for the photographs. An expensive proposition over all. The number of balloons is down, a little over 500, from years before. The grass fields are such an improvement, and when you are on the field, next to the balloons, feeling the warmth of the propane torches, being enveloped by the balloons as they fill up, and then watching them lift into the air, there is no more magical way to start a morning. Still, the carnival boulevard is a disappointing way to leave. Talk of winter weather coming soon, maybe even tomorrow.
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