Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Thought I'd share a few pictures on Facebook today, from the little cottage we called home for a couple of days when we first arrived in Ajo, through my last walk to the library. We have with us a large stand-up poster of the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge tour that was accidently left in the pickup when we made the last storage unit run, and we've decided to take pictures of 'Mick and the boys' as Budd calls the poster, everywhere we travel for NPS until we land somewhere permanent. I guess I need to haul them out in front of this house and take the picture here.

Budd has found the house he wants to buy here, and I knew which one it was as soon as he told me where, because I've had my eye on it, too. It has two huge shrubs like the smaller one we have out back. I think of it as a rose because the flowers are similar, but one of these days I'll get it identified for sure. Anyway, they are all laden with heavenly hot pink flowers right now. So yesterday I took a couple of pictures of that house also. Unfortunately, it isn't for sale. It seems that every third or fourth house here is, though. When I conversed with a local real estate agent, I learned that average days on market exceed a year. Not a good place if you want to fix and flip, but may be good if you want to acquire a lot of rentals.

We checked out the 'casino' in Why on Sunday while out for a drive. It was actually a combination gas station, convenience store, slots room. No table games, so it won't be a temptation. Someone told us the nearest table games were at a casino in Maricopa, which looks to be at least an hour, hour and a half away. Our drive was cut unfortunately short as I began to realize that the shake from Dairy Queen had disagreed with me, but we did find the dump (no municipal garbage collection here), the golf course and the airport. The latter is merely a landing place for private aircraft--there's no commercial service as far as we could tell. There is, however, a good bus service from here to points both north and south.

I'm going to have to find a walking buddy, as I have to fight with myself to go out for my walks alone. We live in what is known as the Historical District, very close to the square which has a couple of commercial establishments, the post office and the library. Also close to the only bank in town, the newspaper office, the Curley School, and the historic Catholic church. NOT close to the grocery store, Dollar stores, or thrift stores. The Curley School is located on the site of a former public school, I forget now whether C told me it was the high school or the elementary school. In any case, it now hosts large gatherings like the Sonoran Desert Alliance symposium that was taking place during our first week here. I understand there are also artist apartments there, and I assume there are classes of some sort. A Google search reveals that there are mixed opinions of it, and I haven't begun to explore the truth yet, but it appears to be well-respected by the locals as its events are prominent in the local newspaper.

We're curious to learn whether the restaurant that we got to about a week ago just as it was closing for the night has actually closed for the season...we haven't seen it open since that night. We have, however, found one that stays open until 9 p.m., and it's within walking distance. I'm afraid that many of the local establishments will close for the summer, but at least this time there is a larger town within less than an hour's drive. And within two hours, we have most of the Phoenix area available, as opposed to Gallup when we were at Canyon de Chelly. I don't feel quite as isolated.

I guess I'll have to go alone to take pictures of the wildflowers. The biggest problem I have with his long commute each day is that he doesn't want to make it again on the weekends, which is the only time we would be able to take the hiking trails at the park. He has also developed night blindness that's as bad or worse than mine, so he isn't interested in going driving at the times that many of the desert plants bloom--after dark. Which, to be fair, is also the most likely time to run into illegals and drug runners out in the countryside--not my favorite idea. Maybe I won't go alone after all.

I've discovered some weekly library events that look like a good place to meet people I'd like to get to know. The Community Garden people meet there, and there's a 'Stitch and Chat' meeting weekly on Thursday evenings. Won't get a chance to get there this Thursday, as I'll be out of town.

I'm marking time until my trip to Dallas to see my immediate family and cousins in what we've been terming a 'cousin reunion'. These are cousins from my mother's side of the family, and there are only a few of us as Mother only had two siblings live to adulthood and none of the three sisters had a really large brood. My brother, sister and I have just two female cousins, daughters of Aunt Margie, and one male cousin, son of Aunt Teddy. Both of them have passed away, as have their husbands and my dad, so it's just Mother in that generation of her immediate family now (although she has a couple of first cousins still living). We all treasure her, and are really looking forward to seeing her and each other this upcoming weekend.

March 25, 2010

Just a short note today, as it's been pretty quiet since my last.

On Tuesday we met the neighbor across the street, who came over as we were doing a little yard work. I barely heard her call out, because Budd was using the leaf blower. The yard is terraced up off the street about 3 or 4 feet I think, and E was standing in the middle below us. Now that I think of it, it was probably inhospitable of me not to go and open the gate and invite her up. E's house was built by her now-deceased husband, and from the outside looks to be as nice as the one we were fortunate to rent. There is some beautiful and colorful tile work in the Spanish-style outside entry that I admire each day when I open my curtains. She also has a grapefruit tree still laden with fruit in the front yard, and another of the curiously bare fig trees. She graciously invited us to enjoy some of the fruit from the grapefruit tree.

Getting out into the yard made me realize that I had missed a few of the cactus specimens in my list. There is also what I think of as a barrel cactus, but don't know whether that is correct, and a prickly pear that's in sad shape. The chain-fruit or 'jumping' cholla has a crop of babies around it, too. This is an interesting plant. It looks fuzzy from a distance, but up close you can see that the 'fuzz' is actually a dense arrangement of spines, each with a tiny bend at the point. It's called jumping cholla because the bends, or hooks, create an opportunity for the plant to grab anything that comes within a few inches, and it readily sheds the small segments those spines are attached to. Something I read in the park visitor's center leads me to believe this is a method of propagation the plant developed because its fruit isn't attractive to birds and insects.

The planned power outage on Tuesday came right on the dot at nine, or maybe 30 seconds earlier, because we were still trying to get through our DVR recording of the American Idol broadcast, skipping judges' comments and commercials as the program went right up to nine anyway. We didn't think to turn everything off ahead of time, so both UPS backups started screaming, and we had to fumble for the LED lantern before we could see to get them quieted. Then we each pulled out our new booklights and tried to read, but my eyes fatigued quickly, so I went to bed. Only to be violently awakened at 4:10 a.m. by my bedside lamp. I'm usually a light sleeper, and I wake up easily, but this must have caught me in a deep sleep cycle, because it was brutal.

Don't know why, but I've been having vertigo attacks ever since. Every time I turned over before finally getting up at 6 a.m. felt like I was falling out of bed, and I've even had a few episodes while walking around the house. Budd says it's probably from trying to read with the booklight in an otherwise inky blackness. Or it could be because I had to go back to my old glasses when the newer ones (different prescription) fell apart in my hands the previous morning--I just thought of that. Either way, I'm a dizzy gal.

I had a bit of interesting conversation with my landlady about the Tohono O'odham tribe of the neighboring reservation. Apparently they were called Papago until about twenty years ago when, according to C, they changed their name. Probably back to what they always called themselves before the white man came along, would be my guess. Hope I can find more information, especially on whether they are linguistically related to the Athabascan group of southwestern tribes.

We've received a piece of mail, so I can now go to the library and have my two-book limit raised. Maybe I can find some books about the desert plants and the Indians.

March 23, 2010

I'm beginning to wonder if all service providers and repair people speak a different language than we do. Moments after I posted yesterday, and while I was preparing to take my walk at around 9 am, I got a call from the DirecTV repairman that he would be arriving 'within two hours'. What part of 'between 1 and 4' did they not understand? I wonder whether they offer you the choice just to make you feel as if you are in control?

Got my walk anyway. It's about 4 blocks to the post office, and the library is right across the town square, which is the only place in town where there is any grass to speak of. It's a pretty little area, surrounded by Spanish-style buildings on three sides that house businesses, a restaurant, and the aforementioned PO and library. 9 a.m. is too late to start my walk, as it was warmer than I liked by the time I made my way home with no mail and two new books. Next time I'll go a little earlier and be there when the library opens its doors.

The DirecTV guy was here by 11 a.m. to replace our aging DVR receiver. After numerous calls over the past couple of years to complain about blank spots in our recordings, they finally agreed that they should replace a leased receiver that isn't working properly anymore. By this time, it was popping to the screen saver while we were watching programs in real time, popping to real time when we were watching programs from a recording that we started watching late but before the show was over (like Jazz games) and still recording blank spots or pixelated images. As I signed the work order, mentioning that I was making sure there was no charge as had been promised, the tech answered, 'Oh, no, there's no charge...you have the protection plan.' Well, we don't, but then I don't agree that we should pay for a protection plan when we pay monthly for the equipment. So I said nothing. After four years, they should replace the receiver at no charge. And it wasn't even a new one, anyway--it's refurbished.

By the time he left I was starving for lunch, and then it was time for my tutoring shifts, so I didn't make it to 'town' for any of the things we needed, including a vent hose for the dryer. Budd came home while I was working with a kid, and passed me a note saying he was going for the things on the list. Half an hour later he called me to say that the Tru-Value closes at 4:30 p.m., so no dryer hose. Unbelievable! I'm going to write some business plans, rent some of these decrepit old buildings, and put some people out of business by providing decent customer service.

Fast-forward another half-hour and I had discovered we were missing an early Jazz game against the Celtics. Tuned in to the channel we had purchased with the SportsPack specifically to get the Jazz games, only to find a message that the channel wasn't purchased. Within seconds, my brother called, Budd kept trying to call on the same line, and the dinner I was preparing started to burn. By the time Budd got home, I was a wreck, and of course it was his fault, poor guy. He must have agreed, since he did the dishes for me later. (Not really--he did that because of what happened next.)

Since the dinner was inedible, I got on the computer to make sure the game wasn't on a different channel and just blacked out on FSUT as had been the case on Saturday, but no, that wasn't it. Then I called DTV to complain that we had indeed purchased this channel. An hour on the phone with customer and tech support finally got us to a person who told us--get this--that the SportsPack channels only work when they AREN"T AIRING A GAME! I was outraged. I had specifically told the customer service rep from whom I ordered SportsPack that watching the Jazz games was my only reason for doing so. He assured me that unless they were blacked out because a national network had purchased the rights to show them, we would be able to see not only the Jazz games, but also any Redskins game that was aired on a Fox regional feed.

Unfortunately, when I'm outraged, I'm not very nice, so I handed the phone to Budd to resolve this situation. By this time, the game was scheduled to be over, and when it hit time for the postgame show, we started receiving the feed. The game still had six minutes to run, so we did get to watch the Jazz finish off the Celtics. Meanwhile, Budd negotiated receiving NBA League Pass free for the rest of this season for all of our trouble. We'll have to pay for it next year if we're still here, but for now I'm mollified.

May or may not get to walk today, as it was pouring rain when we woke up. This is the second day since we've been here that we've had rain, and I think it's a little unusual this late in the season. The first time, though, the rain was done and the sun came out around noon.

Obviously, it's going to make for a beautiful spring and summer with all the desert plants blooming. I learned at the park visitor center that the Sonoran desert is different from the other four desert areas in the US in that there are two rainy seasons, one in winter and the one they call the monsoon season in August. I remember calling the rainy Augusts in Moab monsoon season, but had no idea I was being accurate! Maybe I heard it on the weather reports and internalized it without realizing it. Anyway, when I've learned a little more about the desert flora and fauna, I'll write about it.

For now, I'll just describe our beautifully landscaped yard. We have lantana, oleander and several other flowering vines and bushes that are either in bloom or about to bloom right now, both front and back. In back are also an orange, grapefruit and fig trees. The orange tree had two oranges way up that our landlady hadn't been able to reach when she harvested them in December or January, so Budd picked them for us the day we rented the house, with her permission. Everyone agreed that they would have been better had she waited until now to harvest. The grapefruit tree has buds on it, and the fig is just beginning to leaf at the lowest branch joints. I guess figs are supposed to be trimmed back to the big branches, so they look dead right now, except for the few leaves that are already out.

In front, there is an acacia willow and another tree that C (the landlady) can't remember the name of, also just beginning to leaf out. There are several clumps of decorative grasses with tall flower stalks that she also can't remember the name of, a couple of juvenile saguaro cacti, and a large senita cactus. There are also senita and one saguaro in the back. All of this is surrounded by pale pink granite gravel, and not a blade of grass, for which Budd is very grateful. The yard has winter debris in it right now, as no one was living here, but C brought us a leaf blower and as soon as we have it cleaned up, I'll take a picture for Facebook. I'm also going to try to catch one of the lectures at the library or the park about the local plants, so I can identify the ones that C couldn't name.

C brought me some extra 'parts' for the drip irrigation system, so I will be able to plant flowers or vegetables in containers if I want. I'm torn--if we're only here two months, there isn't much point. But if we're permanent, I'd love to be able to harvest our own tomatoes, squash, radishes, etc. I also learned there is a community garden here, where we can purchase organic produce or even participate in the gardening, only three or four blocks away. I might just add that location to my walks and buy fresh vegetables each day. I guess that will depend on whether they stay open until Budd and I get home from the park once I start working.

Speaking of which, Budd learned yesterday that there will be another opening for someone with my experience, at a higher pay grade than the temp job I'll be taking. The AO wants me to apply for that one, too, and I must admit higher pay sounds good. It would even be sufficient to allow us to stay here in the unlikely event that Budd doesn't get the permanent position. Guess I'll apply when it's posted.

For now, I'd better get out on errands before the sun comes out and heats everything up.

March 22, 2010

We're pretty much settled in our new home now, though a few minor things need to be finished up. I'm going to take a walk to the Post Office and library in about an hour, hopefully the beginning of a healthy new habit.

A little about the town of Ajo. There is a difference of opinion among historians regarding the name of the town. One says that the Tohono O'odham Indians called the region au 'auho (meaning 'paint') for the copper-rich soil that produced a red color. Others say Mexican miners named it Ajo for the wild garlic. Either way, it was the copper that brought Americans to the region in the mid-1800s. It is pronounced AH-ho.

If you look at a Google map satellite view of the town, you will see two areas that look like giant craters. They're actually very unsettling to look at--appearing almost alien in nature. These are the open-pit mines, which today are abandoned and contain water at the bottom. Unfortunately, they're right up against the town, which makes me worry about the water quality. Copper mining has taken place here off and on since the town was settled, and up until about 1983 according to a local resident who informed me of some of this history. I believe I've read that there is some movement afoot to re-establish the mining now, also. I don't know whether these pits were the original mineworks, or the modern ones.

What took place in 1983, according to my informant, was a strike against the mining company that was the local version of the Civil War. 'Brother against brother' was the way she described it. Supporters of the mining company were employed elsewhere, but strikers remained here after the mine was closed. Because there was no commerce without the mine, the economic results are still visible in the run-down condition of most commercial establishments, and the continuing welfare attitude of some of the residents that we have encountered. I was told by one woman (who makes a living selling sofas and beds out of her living room) that one of her daughters 'couldn't' work because her husband made too much money and they 'were having to pay in.' Taxes, I assume.

The economic base now appears to be the 'snowbirds'--mostly senior citizens who come here for the mild winter weather and leave during the summer--and the government. Surrounding the area are an Air Force base, the Tohono O'odham reservation, a wildlife preserve and the national monument. Forty miles south is one of the major routes into and out of Mexico. So we have Border Patrol as well as employees of the Park Service, Forest Service and right now tons of contractors who are working to make the border less permeable.

As for the snowbirds, my landlady told us that Ajo is known as 'poor man's' Arizona. It is less expensive to live here than in Casa Grande, any of the bigger cities like Phoenix, Tucson and their suburbs, or the better-known resort areas. With Mexico just 40 miles south, 90 miles to the resorts of the northern coast of the Gulf of Baja California, and the outskirts of Phoenix or Tucson just an hour and a half north or east, it isn't too inconvenient to live here. Unlike Chinle, there are some shopping and services. While there is still only one store you would call a grocery store, there are two 'dollar store' chains with a presence here, Family Dollar and Dollar General. There is also a Radio Shack and a Tru-Value hardware store. Numerous thrift stores, a couple of gift shops and/or Mexican imports, a Napa auto parts, several restaurants, and undoubtedly others I haven't noticed yet make it possible to get by for almost any emergency needs. Unfortunately, everything, including the restaurants, are closed by 6 or 8 p.m. I think I need to teach these people how they should do commerce in a hot climate! They should be closing between ten a.m. and four p.m., and then re-opening until at least ten p.m. for shopping in the cool of the evening.

Well, that's enough for today. Time for my walk.

March 19, 2010

Happy birthday to my sister-in-law, who prefers to keep her real name private. Ali, we love you!

I got a message from my brother-in-law chastising me for not blogging when I said I would, so if others are similarly offended, I apologize. The best-laid plans and all that jazz...

We left Chinle last Saturday, nearer to afternoon than morning and already feeling rushed because we weren't sure what kind of time we could make with the rig Budd was driving. For those who aren't on Facebook, we had ordered a 5' x 8' trailer, but the local store only had 6' x 10'. Corporate called to tell us that the pickup wasn't adequate to haul the larger trailer, and recommended that we take a 10' truck with an auto dolly instead (same price). Then they called back to say the drive shaft would have to be disconnected to use the dolly, and I told them we had no place to do that, so they gave us an auto transport instead of the dolly. Difference is all four wheels on the trailer, instead of just the front two. But when Budd went to pick up the truck, the local store's 10' truck was stuck in the mud, so he had to take the 14'. Still the same price, but now we have a truck that was so big that all of our possessions barely covered one layer on the floor of the truck. It cost at least $100 more in gas to get us here, but oh, well.

Pulled into Camp Verde, AZ in the late afternoon as the truck/auto transport rig would only do about 60, and pushing it that hard guzzled gas like crazy. The place we stayed was called The Lodge at Castle Gate, so we pulled into the Castle Gate casino parking lot and parked the Uhaul rig, then Budd jumped in the car with me and we went to check in. Fortunately, we chose valet parking so we didn't lug the suitcases into the casino to find that the Lodge was actually a couple of blocks away and not accessible from the same parking lot. They told us it was ok to leave the Uhaul there, though, so we did. Budd said it should have been called the Lodge Near Castle Gate. Anyway, we found it, checked in, found several things wrong with the room including standing water on the bathroom floor, changed rooms, and went to the casino for dinner and to relax. By 10 p.m. we had played all the blackjack we cared to, listened to an ok live band, and found ourselves ready for bed.

The next day we headed out with plans to stop at the Avondale Costco to get my glasses repaired, over Budd's objections because of the awkwardness of his rig in town. Fortunately it was just a block off the freeway, unfortunately they couldn't repair my glasses or replace the frames. So we continued to Ajo.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is 37 miles south of Ajo. The motel where I had managed to secure a cottage with a full kitchen for a couple of weeks is the first building you come to as you come into Ajo from the north. I had inadvertently added 10 miles to Budd's commute, but it turned out ok. As we pulled in, we thought we might have registered at the Bates motel, but the cottage turned out to be really cute, though old and somewhat beat up. Let's just say the owners had done the best they possibly could with limited resources.

Monday Budd called his new boss and told her we needed to get some things settled, but he'd be in later in the day. She told him to take the whole day, with pay, to get a PO box for the mail and try to find a place to rent. We didn't have high hopes because of what the real estate agents and apartment house managers had been telling us, but we had seen a few FSBOs that seemed willing to rent instead of sell when we drove around on Sunday evening. After getting our PO box, we drove around the town square and happened to pass the library, so I begged to drop in for a library card. There our luck started to change for the better. The librarian made us a copy of the classified section of the previous week's newspaper, reasoning that the new one would be out the next day so there was no sense in our paying 35 cents for last week's, lol.

We made only three calls...the first two as it turned out were to a landlord and his assistant. We agreed to meet him at a 3 bedroom 'house', which turned out to be a flamingo-pink double-wide mobile home. It was very spacious, and furnished, but filthy! When we said it was too big, to avoid saying the real reason we didn't want it, he showed us a 2-bedroom single-wide that was even dirtier! He wanted $850 a month for the small one. I guess because the town is so full, he can expect to get it, but not from us!

The third call we made was to one of the FSBOs whose sign said 'or lease'. My first question was whether they would consider a short-term renter, and the immediate answer was yes. Driving up to the house, I was ecstatic, because the rent was the same as for that dreary, dirty little mobile home, and I was looking at a pristine white 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath rambler with a xeriscaped yard, double carport, orange, grapefruit and fig trees and two storage sheds. I fell in love with it, which may have been premature, but it's so much better than what we've been living in and what we expected that I'd buy it today if I were certain we'll be staying.

Only problem was that it isn't furnished. We hit a couple of thrift stores, but didn't see anything we liked except two easy chairs with a matching ottoman, which we bought without looking at them carefully enough and paid too much for. By that time it was dark, so we went to dinner and discussed driving to Phoenix this weekend for some kind of bed.

We both went to the park the next morning (Tuesday) to meet his new boss, who will be mine when the background check is finally done. I guess they are backed up and it could be longer than I thought, but that just gives me time to get the house in order. The other reason I went was that the park is providing Budd with a vehicle so they won't have to pay mileage for that 70+ mile commute each day. We have been blessed with a silver lining to the temporary job cloud--the parks pay for lodging plus a food and incidentals per diem in addition to his salary, adding substantially to our bottom line. Anyway, he had to get there in a vehicle that he wouldn't be driving home. I took the opportunity to check out the visitor's center very thoroughly and then came back to town. We were still staying in the motel because we had committed to a full week's minimum stay and because there was no furniture in the house.

Budd came back to the motel that night with surprising news--the park would pay for utilities and rental furniture in addition to the rent! The reasoning was that if we were staying, say, in that cottage, it would be $2400 a month. Paying for rent, all utilities including phone, the PO box, and a houseful of rental furniture is less than 3/4 of that, even when the temperature hits 120 degrees and we have to run the AC constantly. So, the next day (Wednesday) I spent putting kitchen stuff away in the house and arranging for living room, dining table and chairs, a computer desk, washer, dryer and bed to be delivered from the nearest Rent-a-Center. I want to stop right here and give them a huge recommendation. We got all of this for $469 per month, no delivery charge despite it being an hour and a half away, and the gentleman who delivered it also carried it in, placed it where I wanted it, and hooked up the laundry machines, all with a cheerful attitude. It arrived this morning, so tonight will be our first overnight in our new home-away-from-home.

Meanwhile, Budd's boss says that it shouldn't be at all difficult for him to get the permanent position because no one wants to come here (more about that another time). To say I'm excited would be like saying the desert is a little warm. More about that another time, too. Of course, once that happens we will need to go get our own furniture, because the park won't pay for everything any more, but that's ok! Medical benefits are nice, too.

Just finished arranging to get the Jazz games here. Who knew that the satellite signals were regional, not just by rule, but physically? We are out of range of our home network, so had to reluctantly go to local programming. Now Budd will have to re-point the satellite dish for the major network local affiliates, but we can at least get the Jazz game tonight.

Wow, thinking about everything we've accomplished in the last 5 days has made me tired! That and waking up at 6 am every morning. Guess I'll take a nap so I'll be able to stay awake for the game. Will be back to interesting stuff about the local area and the park next time.

Too funny. Last Chinle craziness. We needed a 5x8 Uhaul to pack up for Ajo. This location didn't have any, just 6x10s. So Uhaul corporate calls us and says Budd's pickup won't pull one of those, it's too big. They'd give us a 10' truck and auto dolly for the same price. Then they called back and said he'd have to disconnect the drive shaft on the pickup for that to work. No place or tools to do that, so they'll give us an auto transport trailer, still for the same price. He gets to the local dealership, and their 10' truck is stuck in the mud, so they'll give us a 14' truck for the same price. We're finally getting our money's worth, but now we've got way too much room in the truck.

We have loaded almost everything in the truck...1 layer of boxes, and still have room for more on the bottom. Does anyone have about 500 cubic feet of something they want to send from Chinle to Ajo?

We'll be on the road for about half a day tomorrow and half again on Sunday. Ajo is still full of people building the virtual fence, so we have a little cottage that normally rents by the night for two weeks at least.

When we were getting ready for Canyon de Chelly, we knew that we would have a two-bedroom, 1 bath house, but had no idea what size it would be or what amenities, if any, we'd find. I thought that was adventurous, but here I am 10 weeks later moving from this little house to the real unknown. We have no idea how long we'll have to wait before we can rent something appropriate, or where we'll store what's in the truck until that happens. I think I'm beginning to understand what people go through who are homeless.

I find myself wishing we hadn't brought so much stuff with us, including the things that got here accidentally that were supposed to have been left in storage in Salt Lake. For example, Budd's big stand-up poster of the Rolling Stones Voodoo tour, that stowed away completely without our knowledge.

It reminds me, once again of a song from my mother's era that she used to sing when we were going on trips: We're on our way, pack up our grip, and if we stay, we won't be back! How can we go, we haven't got a dime, but we're goin' and we're gonna have a happy time!

See you on the other side.

March 9, 2010

We are down to the last few days at Canyon de Chelly, and I am of two minds about it. I'll be happy to get somewhere that has a library, for sure. I've already checked out Ajo's and based on their website, I'll be quite happy with it. I'll also be happy to finally get to the warm weather, although the timing will deprive me of a spring this year...straight from late winter to early summer and high 70's-mid80's.

But I'm disappointed about a few things, chiefly not getting into the canyon. Between weather, high water in the wash, and Budd's excruciating toothache over last weekend, we missed all our opportunities. The last one was going into the canyon with the burn crew, which probably won't happen because rain and snow are predicted through Thursday. Friday will be our last full day here, so I'll be doing last-minute laundry and packing instead of going to play. But, Budd will be back to finish installing some equipment that didn't get here yet, so maybe I'll get to come with him and do it then. Or maybe we'll swing by on our way back to Salt Lake for a visit or to pick up our furniture.

I thought of a new reason why this nomadic adventure is good for us today. As I swung toward where I have kept the store-bought water for my hot tea and realized I had emptied the little rolling shelves and packed them, it occurred to me that this is a good way to keep our aging brains active. We have to constantly remember where we have put things each time we make a move. Thank goodness we left 95% of those 'things' in storage in Salt Lake--I don't think my brain could take that much conditioning every few weeks.

My poor Budd had quite a time of it with his toothache. Friday we went to the local hospital, which is where the urgent care and dental clinic is located. After waiting through a line at the intake desk, he was sent around the corner to fill out a four-page questionnaire which included questions like 'Where is your current residence located?' and 'What color is your house?' I guess that's the result of not having an address system. After filling out that one, he was sent down the hall and around another corner to the dental clinic, where they gave him another questionnaire to fill out, this time only three pages.

I think that paperwork took longer than the actual appointment. He was out in 15 minutes, saying that there was nothing the dentist could do in an emergency appointment about the problem. They had taken x-rays and decided it wasn't his tooth but jaw pain brought on by chewing only on that side, as he was favoring a tooth on the other side that's sensitive to temperature. Go home and eat soft foods for a while until the flare-up is over, and take ibuprofen for the pain. So, he went to work, driving to Hubbell Trading Post for the afternoon. I made creamed tuna on noodles, a dish that I normally save for emergencies when I have nothing else to cook, for dinner. Even that was too much chewing, and he got up the next morning too distracted by the pain to take the canyon tour. While he searched in vain for a dental clinic open on Saturday within a two-hour radius, I went over to the meeting place for the tour and told them we wouldn't make it. He felt so bad about my disappointment, but I couldn't have let him drive for two hours by himself while in that kind of pain.

Unfortunately, he didn't find a dentist, so I went to the grocery store for Ensure and overripe bananas to try to keep him from starving over the weekend. Monday morning he went to St. Michaels, a 'suburb' of Window Rock, to another dental clinic. There they told him that the painful tooth was broken and the nerve pain was from the tooth 'giving up'. Whatever that means. But they did give him prescriptions for an antibiotic in case there was some infection and Lortabs (which he forgot make him sick) for the pain. I fed him bean soup that I took the precaution of liquifying in the blender, and he does feel better this morning. Don't know what we'll do with the Lortabs--eighty bucks' worth that he had to drive all the way to Gallup to get. If he takes them at all he'll have to cut them at least in half. He says he'll take nausea over the tooth pain, but if he upchucks the medicine he'll have both, lol.

Budd was laughing at me last night as we watched an episode of 'House' where the patient blogged about everything that happened to her (over her husband's objections when it involved him) except the one thing that would have helped the team diagnose what was killing her. Now he'll really make fun of me, as I'm sure all that toothache stuff was TMI for my casual friends who are reading this.

Everyone will be happy to know that House's patient was saved at the last minute, as usual, after the treatments they tried first made her worse. You'd think they would get a new plot. We watch it now not for the medical mysteries but for House's outrageous shenanigans with the rest of the hospital staff. We have a few mindless shows like this that we record and watch after nine p.m., when we are no longer productive for the day and need some help winding down to sleep.

I figure we won't need much help soon, though. As I understand it, from Ajo to the park headquarters at Organ Pipe Cactus Nat'l Monument, hereafter to be known as ORPI, is a 45-minute drive. With both of us working (still not confirmed), I'll have to get up at around 5:30 to get my shower before Budd gets up. If I make it to 9 p.m. in the evenings without going to sleep, I'll be surprised. On the other hand, the 45-minute drive back from the park may provide me with a nap.

Oh, I almost forgot to post a link to our neighbor's blog. Tess and her numerous sisters have a blog here at blogspot, http://sistershandmade.blogspot.com/. It is absolutely gorgeous, in addition to being interesting. One sister beads and sells beautiful crucifixes and rosaries, one sells handmade knitted and crochet items as well as found treasures, and one does incredibly interesting leather work. Tess was kind enough to bring parting gifts to us last night, a beautiful and intriguing leather planner that closes with a button made of an antler for Budd and for me a leather bookmark decorated with a perfect feather, as well as a unique, butter-soft leather wallet 'for all the money I'm going to make'.

Since it was Tess who saved my sanity with the loan of some really good books so I wouldn't run out of reading material, it didn't occur to us that she would also give us these gifts, an overwhelmingly kind surprise gesture. Do check out 'Sisters Hand Made', especially if you want a unique gift for someone or would like to see what a little effort will do for even a blogspot blog. If I ever decide to go commercial with one of mine, I'll beg them for the name of the person who designed this one-it's exquisite.

March 5, 2010

Yesterday was jam-packed with household chores and working online, so I didn't have a chance to write about talking more with Tess. Am I the only one who procrastinates getting to know a new acquaintance until one or the other of us is about to move away? I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation later on the evening of the 3rd and now wish we had done that sooner, so there could be more of them. Thank goodness for Facebook, where I can stay in touch with friends, get reacquainted with distant family (my cousins Val and Barb in particular) and correspond with all of them at the same time.

I'm excited to have the opportunity to join a canyon tour on Saturday, assuming there are any paying customers. We are to present ourselves for the 'standby' tomorrow morning before 9 a.m at the gift shop. We're thinking if there aren't any paying customers, we'd better become that...there won't be another opportunity for me to do it. Budd will be back for a short stay when some of the equipment he needed to finish his project gets here, but chances are I'll be working and unable to come with him.

I'm really excited to have been invited to accompany a burn crew into the canyon next week. That should be very interesting, and I'll save the little I know about what they are doing for after. I'll pick Tess's brain as we drive out so I'll be able to explain it. Tess is the 'burn boss', and I found out when I mentioned this opportunity to Budd, she used to be a firefighter. More and more interesting!

I made another discovery in the saga of the inconveniences to overcome when you're on the road. Don't remember if I talked earlier about the mail situation...there isn't an inexpensive or convenient solution for people who don't have a fixed address, as we don't at the moment. If you are ever going back to your original address, they don't want you to do a permanent change. If you are going to be gone longer than six months, you can't do a temporary change of address as it will expire. If you are going to be in any given place for less than two months, it isn't prudent to do serial changes of address, because your magazines are going to be scattered from hell to breakfast. There are services for people who live on yachts, for example, but it involves someone handling your mail at a per-piece rate which is exorbitant. I suppose if you live on a yacht, you may be able to afford it.

Our solution was to permanently change our mailing address to our daughter's, and ask her to forward only important mail and magazines. Laurie emails me almost daily to tell me what we've received, and if it's a bill she opens it and tells me the amount and due date so I can pay it online. I began wondering whether she was holding the magazines until there were enough to make a trip to the PO to mail a package, but she said we hadn't received any magazines. Hmm. Then I asked if any of the mail she has received had the yellow forwarding stickers on it. No. Hmmmm. So yesterday I tracked down how to verify that the change of address went through. NO! Hmmmmmmmm!!!!!

I wonder where the postal carrier has been putting the mail for the past two months? A case has been opened, and we shall soon find out. Meanwhile, for a mere dollar per person (which somehow got debited twice) and business, a change of address order is taken by a real person, who actually speaks English, and can be backdated two weeks. That is, the change of address can be backdated, not the person who speaks English--for shame Miss Cheri English tutor! I found out that the order could be backdated when the CSR asked me when I wanted it to start, and I said December 30 of last year. I was being sarcastic, but at least I got the info that it could in fact be backdated--just not that far. I would have said immediately if I hadn't been royally ticked off.

Laurie is envisioning an avalanche of mail, but I am hopeful it won't be that bad. Surely they have already tossed all the bulk mail. Now I know where my December paycheck for tutoring must be, though. They have long since stopped payment on it and presumably have sent a replacement, though that hasn't arrived yet, either. Sigh. One more hurdle more-or-less behind us. By the time I get this all figured out, we will probably have permanent jobs and a year-long lease on a home. Cross fingers!

I don't think I mentioned a few weeks ago waking up with some sort of an insect bite. It itched and burned for a couple of days, scabbed over and the scab fell off, and I never thought more about it, except to wonder what would have been awake in the winter to bite me. This morning I noticed that it has left a bit of a scar, with a pattern of dots that looks like the 5-spot on a domino or a playing card. Now I'm wondering what it was again. I guess since my leg didn't fall off, it doesn't matter. I found a squashed spider in one of my house shoes after that. Just hope I had my socks on when I squashed it. Ewww. Laurie, don't get mad at me, it was an accident.

Just one more subject today, and I probably shouldn't even mention it, as it doesn't show me in a good light. But, since this is supposed to be a journal, I will write it and hope it will make me better in the future. Years and years ago, when I was in college, I discovered I had little or no patience with kids. Later I discovered I really enjoyed teenagers, and babies, but between about 4 and say, 11 or 12, not so much. During college, I was more-or-less planning on teaching when I 'grew up'. I dropped the idea of teaching and never took any education classes because of the impatience. Thank goodness a whole generation of little kids didn't have me as a teacher! I'm of course older and somewhat mellower now, and I've really been enjoying tutoring. Every now and then, however, I get a kid, usually between 5th and 7th grades, who is just using the service to push someone's buttons, or so it seems. They don't have a homework question, just want to argue or play. I've had two in the past two days, and it is making me remember the decision I made back in college not to teach.

Budd was at home during the sessions I'm referring to, and was amused to hear me muttering "You're lucky I can't reach you, you little *&%$#!" I have an icon I can click to give the student a cartoon high-five when he or she has grasped a concept--now I want one with a boxing glove that I can punch the kid with. Just kidding, I wouldn't really hit a kid. Probably.

March 3, 2010

Suddenly, it feels like spring around here! Still a little chilly in the early morning, but the sun is warm, and I can even see tiny buds on the cottonwoods, if I look closely. It will be welcome.

We're in sort of a holding pattern...it's too early to start packing, and too late to start any new projects before we go, so there's not much to blog about. However, I did have an interesting conversation with one of the rangers today. I was looking for Budd, to get the key for the bunkhouse so I can do laundry. Didn't find him, but I did find Tess, whose books I need to return. We started talking about one that I want to give her, and the conversation came around to the linguistic relationship between the Creek people in that book and the Navajos. Long story.

Anyway, William, the ranger, was sitting there so I got the opportunity to ask him some things about the Navajo language that I've been wondering about...how to pronounce the name of the canyon, for example. Turns out all those diacritical marks mean whether the tone of the vowel is high (if there is an accent mark over it) or low (if not). The apostrophes denote glottal stops, as I suspected. So Dineh, with the second syllable falling in tone, is the proper way to pronounce the Navajo word for 'People', which is what they call themselves. The name of the canyon sounds like Tsay-ye-eh, but the last syllable is stopped, not drawn out. It's easy to see how the Spanish made that into 'Sha ye', which they then spelled as they would to make the 'y' sound in their own language...a double-l. Who knows when the second syllable would have dropped off, to make the 'Shay' pronunciation that's common today.

The Navajo word for 'white person' is bilagaana, with an accent over the first a after the g. Bil a gah ah na. William told me that there are two possible ways this word could have been developed. One was a combination of the words for 'hand' and 'destroy', which, from what I've learned about the history, I can certainly understand. William told me his preferred theory is that it was a corruption of the Spanish word for a female American...Americana. I guess there is some evidence for this type of cross-language usage and corruption; for example, the Navajo word for 'money' is 'beso', a corruption of the Spanish 'peso'. Navajos didn't have any use for money before the Spanish came trading and raiding, so they didn't have it or a word for it in their own language.

I'd probably enjoy learning more, but there won't be time as we leave for Organ Pipe Cactus Nat'l Monument at the end of next week. The Native Americans in that area aren't Navajo.

William was also able to tell me a lot about how and why the Athabascan group of languages spread, and what others spread where else. He was acquainted with a linguist who studied it, and now I know where to look for more information. Linguistics and etymology have always interested me, more so lately.

I never did find Budd, so I may have to put the sheets back on the bed until tomorrow, since my online work schedule is from 2-6 this afternoon. Well, at least it's not a futon and a sleeping bag--not-quite-clean sheets is a hardship I can live with.

March 1, 2010

It's hard to believe that we've been here two months. Sometimes it feels like we just arrived, usually when something new comes up that we would never have given a second thought before and we have to figure out how to cope with it. Other times, it feels like forever. We've made good friends, learned a lot, and actually have settled into this little house as if it were long-term. Then again, we haven't done a lot of what we wanted to and expected to when we first arrived. We haven't managed that canyon tour, and now there is only one weekend left to do it.

However, we did finally get back out on the North Rim road yesterday. Rain and snow were predicted, but we decided to go anyway, as we could see patches of weak sun now and then. It was colder than we thought it would be, with a sharp wind blowing. We both wished we had taken our hats.

We started with the Massacre Cave overlook, but the pictures from there were disappointing. The cave is barely visible from the overlook, and impossible to photograph from the angles we had. Budd leaned over the barrier and stretched his arm out as far as possible, but it was a roll of the dice what he got, since he couldn't see the viewscreen that way. As we looked out at the scenery, two girls came up the path and asked if we would take their picture. Budd did, and they returned the favor. It's rare to get Budd in front of a camera. He usually prefers to be behind it, especially if he can find a way to take embarrassing pictures of me.

The story of Massacre Cave is very sad. It was named that after 1805, when Spanish soldiers chased a large group of Navajo women, children and old men up Canyon del Muerto to the shelter of the cave. Most of the younger or more able-bodied men were out hunting at the time, leaving the group defenseless. The Spaniards were looking to punish the Navajo for raids on livestock, as well as to take slaves. Over the course of a day or two, they picked off most of the Indians, who had no guns to defend themselves. About 30 were taken as slaves. One of the incidents that the Navajos preserved through their oral tradition of story-telling was that a young woman, desperate to help protect the remaining people, jumped on a soldier and carried him with her off the edge of the canyon, falling about 600 feet to their deaths. The Navajo call the place where the overlook was built 'Two Fell Off' to commemorate the story. It's also interesting to note that the stories preserved from survivors of the Long Walk often mix this incident into the Long Walk stories, which occurred more than fifty years later.

We then walked around the path to the Yucca Cave overlook. This was easier to see...an Anasazi ruin with a storage room in a smaller cave at the same level. It appeared we could actually climb to that if we were brave enough, but it would have been illegal, and it's been years since I scrambled around sandstone 'slickrock', anyway. It isn't actually slick, although the nickname implies it might be. One can stand and walk up a relatively steep incline fairly easily. I have always scooted down them in a sitting position, though, even as a kid.

When we had looked at that for awhile, we went back to the car to drive to the next overlook. That one, Mummy Cave, is spectacular. It is a huge cave full of well-preserved structures, linked to a smaller one to the left with structures representing about 20 rooms. In between is a later, fortress-like structure built outside the shelter of the two caves. They are all so well-camouflaged that my eyes didn't pick out the whole complex at once. I actually missed the fortress until I started looking for the likely path between the two caves. The pictures on Facebook will show how amazing that is, because it isn't concealed at all. It's just the same color as the surrounding sandstone.

We skipped the Antelope House overlook, because we had seen that one before and we also expect to see it from a closer perspective when we do the canyon tour. There is another overlook that we watched for, but never found, called Ledge House ruin. I'm hoping we can find that one before we leave, also. It's the closest to the entrance of the park. Since we missed it, we continued around and went back up the South Rim road to the White House overlook. From there, tourists can take a trail over the top of the canyon edge, down the cliffside and across the wash to get a close look at White House. With weather threatening, we decided to do that another time. It is said to be a 2-mile round trip, but it sure looks longer than that. I did walk out to the place where the trail drops off the canyon ledge, just to see how it was accomplished. It's steep but not a technical climb. Budd got a few pictures there, which are also on Facebook.

On the way back to the car we were both suffering from frozen ears, so we were happy to stop exploring for the day and go home.