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Hello from the Land of Enchantment |
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Once again Christmas has snuck up on me, and I suddenly realized that I must get our Christmas letter composed or only those on email will get a copy. It has been as always, a busy, interesting, sometimes frustrating year, so I will begin at the very beginning. The New Year was uneventful as I recall, though we were still wandering around all happy with our win in court against our idiot neighbor. His behavior had offended our attorney enough that she swatted him for an extra $1600 in miscellaneous costs, which he had to pay. All went very quiet on that front for a few months, until June, which I will describe below. At the beginning of February my dear friend Shanny (Laughing Medicine Woman) joined me for a trip down to the Tucson Gem and Mineral show. We had a great time, though we could see that high fuel prices had cut down on the number of vendors and buyers both. I tried very hard to restrain the spending, but after all it was a Gem and Mineral show. Well we headed back after a week in the wonderful warm Arizona desert, and the whole family, me included, went down with the flu 12 hours after I arrived home. It was the one that was not covered by that years flu shot, and it was a doozie. I recovered within 2 weeks pretty well, and the boys too, but Jack went down with double pneumonia and was very sick. 3 months, lots of antibiotics, and an oxygen machine later he was well on the way to recovery, but remained weak for a long time. He got to go to his 50th High School Reunion in Claremont, California in June, and had a very pleasant time. * * Rapid trip between Elizabeth town and Raton rondys, but I had a chance to see brothers Pat & Mike and my friend George while I was there, as well as attend the reunion. Some of the class look like an older version of the same and others are un-recognizable. Work went crazy in April – the “Tiger Team” of court cleanup showed up on Monday the 31st of March, and my co-worker left for 3 weeks sick leave on April 1st. Guess who got to answer all the questions, and sweat through all the reorganization. It was an amazingly stressful 2 weeks they were there, but did they ever clean us up and clean house. When my co-worker got back I got the job of showing and explaining all the new systems to her, and she was less than interested in listening to what I had to say. However, I was firm about it, and we are still more or less operating under the new rules to date. Our parent organization is woefully short on money, and apparently lobbying power, and with the current crisis all hiring, all raises and anything that costs money is off the table. I am still part time, and the work is piling up, but not my problem.
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In June, the neighbor’s truck rolled up, and we braced for trouble. Instead, he completely ignored us, and spent a week demolishing the old house and clearing the land. The view is much improved, and he took 3 or 4 trailers of wood down to his place in Albuquerque, and we have not seen him since.
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Last fall’s antelopes are still giving good meals. The Weber BBQ book is the only cookbook I have ever seen Shelley follow to the letter even once and here she does it twice. (I have found that this book has it right, down to the second, so I don’t mess with success. I am planning to apply for the Oryx hunts down on White Sands Missile Range – apparently Oryx makes excellent eating and JJ would enjoy Oryx Bolognese!!) |
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In August we had the highlight of the year – a trip to Yellowstone and to hell with the gas prices. We had an amazing time with Shanny and her grandson along. She was our native guide, and what a guide. She took us to this amazing camping site, which we had all to ourselves, and at night I could hear wolves howling in the distance. The bears minded their own business, and the boys had a blast. The bear proof trash container was amazing – it was almost people proof!! We got stuck in a bison jam three times, accidentally on purpose as they say, and just had a grand time. |  The small National Forest has only five campgrounds. #1 has four sites, 2, 3 & 4 have two sites each and #5 has one. We took the only vacancy, in #5. |
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We went in through the Grand Tetons, and came out to Cody, home of Buffalo Bill. Cody is a charming tourist town with a fabulous museum – 5 museums under one roof, and Jack got to spend a whole day in the museum of Firearms. Even I was impressed. I must mention the day we spent at Thermopolis, home of stinky sulfur baths and a great dinosaur museum. Our two boys are dino freaks, and little Jesse caught the disease real quick. I rockhounded all the way round – we probably brought back several hundred pounds of rocks, just to improve the fuel consumption of the big red truck. We took a lovely ride around the Wind River mountains, close to Lander where Shanny lives, and where she collects her medicinal sage. Wyoming is just great – a big chunk of it sits on the enormous caldera of Yellowstone. If it ever blows, there is going to be a helluva hole in the middle of the US and nuclear winter for the whole planet. | |
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If I ever win the lottery I want to buy a place in the Tetons, not too far from Jackson Hole. It is a great little town, with fabulous medical facilities for those who fall off their skis, or get eaten or trampled by the wildlife. Hunting and fishing all over the place – just my kind of town. The boys are getting bigger all the time – and better at outwitting their parents too. JJ is going to hit 6 foot 5 inches without even trying – he is starting to eat like a horse, and since elk/venision/antelope/buffalo or bear Bolognese is his favorite dish, I have informed him that he is going to have to learn to hunt, so he can provide his own supper. He kind of likes the idea, and is at least willing to give it a try. He is doing well at school, though homework is always a fight. I personally think homework is simply a recipe for disharmony in the house, and would ban it if I could. |
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| Don Diego is also growing like a weed – he is very smart and very sharp – look out world when he gets a plan in his head. He is very gung-ho and fearless but not stupid, and he can hold his own when it comes to banter. Every little celebration at Head Start seems to involve cupcakes with lurid colors of icing – see picture!! |  |
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They both like to play computer games –whatever we will let them have – and as much TV as we will let them have too. If parents are stony hearted, boys are like water – the water always wins, drip by drip by drip!!!
So life goes on – I have not kept in contact as much as I would have liked this year, but as ever I make a New Years resolution to do better. Here is wishing you a very Merry Christmas, and a blessed New Year |
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