Thursday, January 8, 2009
Yes, I do keep in touch with everyone
For those of you who ave asked...I WRITE (letters) email and call half the population of Utah. I mad a lot of wonderful friends when I was there and I've made an effort to not lose them by attrition (I'm busy, I have kids, I'm tired, the dog is barking...). That is going to go on all the time. My mother is 89 and she gets mail from friends all the time; people she has know since I was a little girl!
It take a little effort, but not any more than finding matching shoes every morning.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
This took me totally by surprised
*******************************************
I lived here for ten years. This kind of weather should have come as no big surprise to be...but it did. This is the night we drove into Payson..December 23, right around 4 pm. I'm a couple of blocks from the little house I used to live in and in a little bit, we're going over to Pat's house to visit for a while and then crash out at the hotel. All of this traveling has just knocked me out.
This is what it looked like when we parked the CAR outside the hotel. Yes, Marji, I know you can;t see the hotel. trust me, both the car and the hoel are there. I can see it plainly. You need you some photoshop.
December 24
We are going to Homestead to go diving at the Crater. When I was at BYU, my sorority used to come here for the weekend. There was llittle of nothing to do--cross country ski, snowshoe, go horseback riding. There was a big hot springs pool and the food was great, but there were no televisons, no radios, no telephones. These are stock photos from the Homestead website. It was SO COLD that it looked like we were walking into the gates of Hell. The water is 96 degrees and the outside air was around 15 degrees. If you ever are in the Provo area, I highly reccomend going up Provo Canyon and spending some time at Homestead. It is wonderful; close to Heber, which has lots of neat shops and activities and you can take the highway around the mountain and circle back towards Salt Lake and drop down into Park City and Emmigration Canyon on your way into town.
After we got home from diving, Pat came and got be so we could juke around. Payson is a lot bigger than it used to be--it even has a Walmart! There's a Subway and a McDonald's but that's about it for fast food. we stopped at a drive up liquor store and got cokes, drove around and gossiped. Drove out to Wilsonville, past Big I's place and Up Yours, over to Angee's...who RAISES ELK! Like a whole herd of them! Is that crazy or what? And Angee looks like Miss America (even after three boys). She lives in one of those big family-cenric houses where there is only one tv, where she can keep an eye on it. The boys are polite and like to hunt. They have snake skins and other critters they've hunted down in their bedrooms (which were tidy and clean). Angee is exactly the way she was when she was 10 and just as sweet. Love her and her mom to bits. I've know them...since 1975 and probably talk to them once a week and email almost every day...usually over nothing; just to keep in touch.
I lived here for ten years. This kind of weather should have come as no big surprise to be...but it did. This is the night we drove into Payson..December 23, right around 4 pm. I'm a couple of blocks from the little house I used to live in and in a little bit, we're going over to Pat's house to visit for a while and then crash out at the hotel. All of this traveling has just knocked me out.
This is what it looked like when we parked the CAR outside the hotel. Yes, Marji, I know you can;t see the hotel. trust me, both the car and the hoel are there. I can see it plainly. You need you some photoshop.
December 24
We are going to Homestead to go diving at the Crater. When I was at BYU, my sorority used to come here for the weekend. There was llittle of nothing to do--cross country ski, snowshoe, go horseback riding. There was a big hot springs pool and the food was great, but there were no televisons, no radios, no telephones. These are stock photos from the Homestead website. It was SO COLD that it looked like we were walking into the gates of Hell. The water is 96 degrees and the outside air was around 15 degrees. If you ever are in the Provo area, I highly reccomend going up Provo Canyon and spending some time at Homestead. It is wonderful; close to Heber, which has lots of neat shops and activities and you can take the highway around the mountain and circle back towards Salt Lake and drop down into Park City and Emmigration Canyon on your way into town.
After we got home from diving, Pat came and got be so we could juke around. Payson is a lot bigger than it used to be--it even has a Walmart! There's a Subway and a McDonald's but that's about it for fast food. we stopped at a drive up liquor store and got cokes, drove around and gossiped. Drove out to Wilsonville, past Big I's place and Up Yours, over to Angee's...who RAISES ELK! Like a whole herd of them! Is that crazy or what? And Angee looks like Miss America (even after three boys). She lives in one of those big family-cenric houses where there is only one tv, where she can keep an eye on it. The boys are polite and like to hunt. They have snake skins and other critters they've hunted down in their bedrooms (which were tidy and clean). Angee is exactly the way she was when she was 10 and just as sweet. Love her and her mom to bits. I've know them...since 1975 and probably talk to them once a week and email almost every day...usually over nothing; just to keep in touch.
The day we find snow
It is o'dark thirty because we get up before the sun comes up. We don't even need an alarm clock. So here we are, about an hour outside of Vegas, thinking about breakfast.
See how much knitting I did? I'm going to fiddle with a couple of ideas I've been thinking about (this is a pattern I've been using for the last 25 years). I want to see if I can add a sideways ribbing, instead of picking up stitches later. So here is where I'm going to make my new little changes. I have about six hours of dry road to fiddle with,
6:30
Is this gorgeous or WHAT? This is the Virgin River Gorge, outside of St. George, Utah. It used to be the bottom of the ocean, so what you are seeing are layers of sedimentary rock, which used to be sand and silt. This is the same part of the world where you can find dinosaur tracks
The ground around here and down south into Arizona (Bryce Canyon, Zion and Grand Canyon) is the most beautiful colors of red and pink and peach. Couple that with the forest greens and weathered greys of the sun-bleached wood...it is really beautiful.
7:15
Outside Cedar City...
Uncle Howie lives here.
Look! some snow!
I heard on the news that there is a big storm headed towards Seattle. I'm hoping that we get a little snow on this trip. But right now, just a little up on the landscape is more than enough for me. We brought chains and I had the car prepped for super cold temps, but I don't even own a warm winter coat. I forgot my Dux boots, but I figure that they have stores even in Utah.
7:45
Parowan, Utah
My friend Karen lives here
8:30
Manderfield
My old room mate from college, Carolina, lives here. She has eight kids. I think her husband is some kind of a farmer.
9:30
Meadow,Ut
Yet another friend from college, Fawn Hunter, lives here.
10:30
Scipio
The roads are dry but we saw deer! (You take the road thru Scipio thru Orderville to Kanab and Tuba City. I taught there for one summer when I was in college and really wanted to teach at the reservation school. For one, it would have canceled out my student loans (I also thought about teaching in Appalachia). But my mother did not send me to BYU to go teach a bunch of poor children. (And what have I been doing my entire career?) Anyway, I liked my time at the Navaho Nation, even though it was a boarding school and there was an immense amount of grinding poverty, drug and alcohol abuse and very young mothers. Knowing what I know now, I'd be a better teacher NOW. Then? I had a sack on my head. I was a do-gooder. Sincere, but without a clue.
11:30 am
Nephi, Utah
It is just now starting to actually snow. Big fluffy soft dry powdery flakes and just at the end of town. I used to work in Payson (about 45 minutes from here). Before I-15 was put in, Nephi had the only stoplight between Orem and, well, Nephi. I was driving to work one day in a terrible snow storm and I missed my exit and didn;t notice it until I stopped at the light in Nephi. I had to find a payphone (long before cellphones) and call in to let Pat know I was going to be late.
See how much knitting I did? I'm going to fiddle with a couple of ideas I've been thinking about (this is a pattern I've been using for the last 25 years). I want to see if I can add a sideways ribbing, instead of picking up stitches later. So here is where I'm going to make my new little changes. I have about six hours of dry road to fiddle with,
6:30
Is this gorgeous or WHAT? This is the Virgin River Gorge, outside of St. George, Utah. It used to be the bottom of the ocean, so what you are seeing are layers of sedimentary rock, which used to be sand and silt. This is the same part of the world where you can find dinosaur tracks
The ground around here and down south into Arizona (Bryce Canyon, Zion and Grand Canyon) is the most beautiful colors of red and pink and peach. Couple that with the forest greens and weathered greys of the sun-bleached wood...it is really beautiful.
7:15
Outside Cedar City...
Uncle Howie lives here.
Look! some snow!
I heard on the news that there is a big storm headed towards Seattle. I'm hoping that we get a little snow on this trip. But right now, just a little up on the landscape is more than enough for me. We brought chains and I had the car prepped for super cold temps, but I don't even own a warm winter coat. I forgot my Dux boots, but I figure that they have stores even in Utah.
7:45
Parowan, Utah
My friend Karen lives here
8:30
Manderfield
My old room mate from college, Carolina, lives here. She has eight kids. I think her husband is some kind of a farmer.
9:30
Meadow,Ut
Yet another friend from college, Fawn Hunter, lives here.
10:30
Scipio
The roads are dry but we saw deer! (You take the road thru Scipio thru Orderville to Kanab and Tuba City. I taught there for one summer when I was in college and really wanted to teach at the reservation school. For one, it would have canceled out my student loans (I also thought about teaching in Appalachia). But my mother did not send me to BYU to go teach a bunch of poor children. (And what have I been doing my entire career?) Anyway, I liked my time at the Navaho Nation, even though it was a boarding school and there was an immense amount of grinding poverty, drug and alcohol abuse and very young mothers. Knowing what I know now, I'd be a better teacher NOW. Then? I had a sack on my head. I was a do-gooder. Sincere, but without a clue.
11:30 am
Nephi, Utah
It is just now starting to actually snow. Big fluffy soft dry powdery flakes and just at the end of town. I used to work in Payson (about 45 minutes from here). Before I-15 was put in, Nephi had the only stoplight between Orem and, well, Nephi. I was driving to work one day in a terrible snow storm and I missed my exit and didn;t notice it until I stopped at the light in Nephi. I had to find a payphone (long before cellphones) and call in to let Pat know I was going to be late.
Afternoon Monday December 22, 2008
Here it is...noon and there are some of the many miles of orange groves. It is high enough here on the slopes of the foothills so that the oranges don't freeze. In a few miles, it will be too cold and nippy for them. There are mandarin oranges here and avocados, too. Miles of them. A little higher are apples (they need colder weather). Lower down, where I live, are peaches and plums, apricots...stuff like that there.
1:00
It's snowy and stormy and COLD. Look at the sky! It snowed in Vegas yesterday. Marji emailed me and said that it's been windy and cold in Sedona and there is supposed to be a huge storm on the way to Utah from Seattle. I have a sweatshirt and my RiteAide tennis shoes with me. I have my Dux boots..at home. We did bring chains.
1:30
Look at THIS! It's the wind factory in Tehachapi and there is snow and fog and terrible weather everywhere. What was I thinking? Whose idea WAS this? I hate the snow! I HATE the cold! I like my own bed.
1:40
And then like magic, the skies are clear right around the bend on the way down to Mojave.
3:00
This is what the Mojave desert looks like in the winter. Not what you expected, is it?
4:00
Stateline
About an hour outside of Vegas.
5:00
Las Vegas
It looks pretty spectacular at night...just like CSI. This is what it looks like in real life. We stayed at South Pointe Casino for $29. (I looked it up on the web and then called the hotel direct. Got a better price that way. Who knew?)
Of course, wireless internet was $13. Nothing was on tv. You could rent movies for $15. Or you could go gamble. The buffet was $15 (and it was REALLY good and really fresh. Probably the best I've ever had in Vegas. Ever.) Which is what we did and then we went to bed.It was one long day. And tomorrow is going to be longer.
On the road to Utah: Monday, December 22
***************************
8:30AM
We just left home and it is FOGGY, damp and miserable. If you have never been in the Central Valley in the winter,this is what it looks like. Flat. And because of the fog, it is slow going. Sometimes we can see clear across the road (14 feet) or just to the side of the road (7 feet) or just from dotted line to dotted line (about 2 feet). Sometimes not that far.
My plan is to take a picture every hour because..well, what is familiar to me might possibly be interesting to someone else. Or not. I've been taking this same drive for the last 40 years. Turn left at Bakersfield. It's entertaining to ME.
9:30
More of the same. Flat. Wet. Grapevines. Walnuts. A lot of wet and miserable and cold.
Knitting in car.
Keep in mind that knitting in the car is the Zen that allows me to think these powerful thoughts. Make these earthshaking connections. and in general, just get it.
It's the Zen of the art. The simplicity of the pattern, where form follows function. I am not a fast knitter. No need for speed here. I like the sound of my needles and the way the yarn feels. It's a nice, tactile little art. And because I'm in it for the long haul (41 years now) I can set ugly scratchy yarn is free to sail the high ways. Roll the window down and pitch it out
.
Likewise icky plastic needles that taste like rotted milk or dead fish. (I stick my needles in my mouth when I'm thinking. I stick them in my hair, behind my ears, too.) So if they don;t please me, I pitch them.
My personal knitting favorites are bamboo and wood needles and soft yarns in pretty colors that don't remind me of rotting leaves. That pretty well rules out all the dirt colors.
9:45
McFarland
There's a prison here. Heck, there's a prison practically every 90 miles along the whole of the Central Valley. If half the felons made a trip TO this part of the world, they would give up their wicked ways. The weather here is terrible. AND did you know that where ever it is that you commit your crime you have to GO BACK and do your parole? Which is dandy if you knock over a bank across the stree from Disneyland, but imagine knocking over the 7-11 around here? Crappy weather and what are your job prospects? Prison work (cross that one off the list), construction and farm work. I've done all three.
10:20
Oildale..
not pronounced "Oil Dale" but "oyl duh ale". People from Tulare (pronounced To-Larry, not Two Lar) don't get down this far south and don't say it right. They cain't help it none that they ain't from places outta the Grapes of Wrath or Halliburton.
10:30
Here's where you take a left at the Tehachapi (Ta-hatch-a-pea)exit.
There's a prison there, too. We stopped at THE worst truck stop for gas...not a car friendly stop. This was a TRUCK stop. One toothed hookers (that would be hookers of indeterminate ages, plural, with one random tooth in each singular head) lounging at the doorways. Varying Brittney-Madonna-Paris-Christina hooker get-ups. An entire wall devoted to condom and sextoy dispensers in the bathroom, which was grungy to the max. I've stopped at my share of icky places but this was #1 with a bullet for the worst in North America.
11:00
Walnut Orchard
We're moving out of the flat part of the San Joaquin Valley and into the mountain pass where there are orange groves and stone fruit trees that need the colder weather to set a crop. (I know all this stuff. Grew up on a farm.) I can recognize most crops and fruit trees we drive by, Pretty entertaining on a trip. at least for me.
Hartley Walnuts...they look like little hearts when you hold them in your hand. Sorta kinda. Well, more than other walnuts do. And if you whack them right on the pointy part, you get pretty little halves that look nice on cookies, if you are a cookie baker sort of mother kind of person.
Probably the last grapes we'll see; we're just outside of Lamont, which is, oh still in the Valley. It's not noon yet.
8:30AM
We just left home and it is FOGGY, damp and miserable. If you have never been in the Central Valley in the winter,this is what it looks like. Flat. And because of the fog, it is slow going. Sometimes we can see clear across the road (14 feet) or just to the side of the road (7 feet) or just from dotted line to dotted line (about 2 feet). Sometimes not that far.
My plan is to take a picture every hour because..well, what is familiar to me might possibly be interesting to someone else. Or not. I've been taking this same drive for the last 40 years. Turn left at Bakersfield. It's entertaining to ME.
9:30
More of the same. Flat. Wet. Grapevines. Walnuts. A lot of wet and miserable and cold.
Knitting in car.
Keep in mind that knitting in the car is the Zen that allows me to think these powerful thoughts. Make these earthshaking connections. and in general, just get it.
It's the Zen of the art. The simplicity of the pattern, where form follows function. I am not a fast knitter. No need for speed here. I like the sound of my needles and the way the yarn feels. It's a nice, tactile little art. And because I'm in it for the long haul (41 years now) I can set ugly scratchy yarn is free to sail the high ways. Roll the window down and pitch it out
.
Likewise icky plastic needles that taste like rotted milk or dead fish. (I stick my needles in my mouth when I'm thinking. I stick them in my hair, behind my ears, too.) So if they don;t please me, I pitch them.
My personal knitting favorites are bamboo and wood needles and soft yarns in pretty colors that don't remind me of rotting leaves. That pretty well rules out all the dirt colors.
9:45
McFarland
There's a prison here. Heck, there's a prison practically every 90 miles along the whole of the Central Valley. If half the felons made a trip TO this part of the world, they would give up their wicked ways. The weather here is terrible. AND did you know that where ever it is that you commit your crime you have to GO BACK and do your parole? Which is dandy if you knock over a bank across the stree from Disneyland, but imagine knocking over the 7-11 around here? Crappy weather and what are your job prospects? Prison work (cross that one off the list), construction and farm work. I've done all three.
10:20
Oildale..
not pronounced "Oil Dale" but "oyl duh ale". People from Tulare (pronounced To-Larry, not Two Lar) don't get down this far south and don't say it right. They cain't help it none that they ain't from places outta the Grapes of Wrath or Halliburton.
10:30
Here's where you take a left at the Tehachapi (Ta-hatch-a-pea)exit.
There's a prison there, too. We stopped at THE worst truck stop for gas...not a car friendly stop. This was a TRUCK stop. One toothed hookers (that would be hookers of indeterminate ages, plural, with one random tooth in each singular head) lounging at the doorways. Varying Brittney-Madonna-Paris-Christina hooker get-ups. An entire wall devoted to condom and sextoy dispensers in the bathroom, which was grungy to the max. I've stopped at my share of icky places but this was #1 with a bullet for the worst in North America.11:00
Walnut Orchard
We're moving out of the flat part of the San Joaquin Valley and into the mountain pass where there are orange groves and stone fruit trees that need the colder weather to set a crop. (I know all this stuff. Grew up on a farm.) I can recognize most crops and fruit trees we drive by, Pretty entertaining on a trip. at least for me.
Hartley Walnuts...they look like little hearts when you hold them in your hand. Sorta kinda. Well, more than other walnuts do. And if you whack them right on the pointy part, you get pretty little halves that look nice on cookies, if you are a cookie baker sort of mother kind of person.
Probably the last grapes we'll see; we're just outside of Lamont, which is, oh still in the Valley. It's not noon yet.
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