In The News

I’m going to interrupt the ongoing Seattle sequence again in order to stay current. Here’s some recent random newsflashes from John and I and the Sullivan/Wood clan. This is actually like 10 or 12 posts all in one, because I’m that far behind! After this, I’ll get back to the rest of those Seattle posts I want to finish.

Computer Woes

I wrenched my computer and messed up the screen! Towards the end of our trip I was sitting in a camp chair near the van door, and when I went to close my laptop computer, I encountered a slight resistance. A string hanging from our van’s mosquito netting was laying across the inside of my laptop, up near the hinges, preventing closure. I move the string and closed my computer. I didn’t think anything about it until the next time I went to do something on my computer and encountered this:

What a sad moment! We weren’t even done with our trip, and I had lots of blog posts to do and no working computer. That’s one of the reasons I’m so far behind with my posts. (The other reason is we were doing so much stuff in Seattle!)

Once I got to Albuquerque I was able to hook my computer up to an external monitor and it works fine that way.

I plan to take it in to get it fixed, but I want to wait until I can get my old computer that is stored away in a closet in Tucson. Then I won’t be computer-less while this one is getting fixed.

Summer Weather

John sent me this weather map; he was impressed by how dry it was in August in the proverbially wet Pacific Northwest compared to how wet it was in August in the southwest desert (due to monsoon rains). I think he finally understood why I booked our trip to Seattle in August – and only August!

The fate of a could-have-been house

There’s a house in Albuquerque about a block away from our house that went on the market when we were house hunting in the summer of 2020. I noticed it in particular because it had a pool, which is fairly unusual for Albuquerque, and I was very determined to buy a house with a pool.

It also had city lights views, which I’ve always wanted.

I didn’t like the fact that a large house was on the hill above it, looking down on it, but the pool area was in front of the house and not visible from the house above. The pool was high enough off the street that it wasn’t visible from the street either. (Unless you had a drone, which is what was used to take this marketing shot, which I got off the internet.)

This house was also very affordable and large, at 3,600 square feet, with 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Lots of room for guests! And those solar panels you see on the roof were owned and paid for – not leased.

That house had a lot of great things going for it, but we weren’t sure if we wanted to stay in Albuquerque. Maybe we were going to move to Tucson? Or Sacramento? As you know, we picked Tucson. This house sold in August of 2020 and we bought our house in Tucson one month later.

I don’t know what happened or when, but yesterday as I was walking Biska in the neighborhood, I saw this:

The house burned. We must have been in Tucson when it happened (or Seattle or who knows; I don’t know when it happened). Both levels of the house are completely burned out and it looks unsalvageable to me. It just seems so sad!

Emily’s Copperhead

This was in her backyard!

If I had seen this snake, I would have assumed it was a very large garter snake, and I would have been very, very wrong. Garter snakes are striped, not, uh…uh…that is a viper. holy shit.

Emily, who is skilled at reassuring panicked emergency-room patients, and frequently uses that skill with her family as well, told me that “they are the least venomous pit vipers so not as bad as rattlesnakes.” I have no reason to doubt her assessment, but give me a rattlesnake over a pit viper any day! Actually, give me no snakes – any day!

I guess it’s just because I’m much more familiar with rattlesnakes, but my comfort level with the idea of a rattlesnake in the yard is somewhat higher than a freaking pit viper, omg. I have had rattlesnakes in the yard more than once, in rural areas of the desert. For example, I had one nearly drop on me at the front door of the house we rented down the hill from John’s house in Placitas, and there was a big one in the dog run area of an airbnb we rented on the rural west side of Tucson prior to buying our own house (which we bought in a more central location, hello!) I was worried about the safety of the 3 little dogs I had at the time. But Emily has three little girls! Much more important than 3 little dogs!

This type of viper is endangered, so the dens are closely monitored, and many of these snakes are microchipped. The animal control officer got out to Emily’s house in about 20 minutes and caught the snake and took it away. The officer didn’t think there’s a snake den in Emily’s yard. Well, I hope not! What if there was? It’s an endangered species. If it was denned there, would they just have to leave it there, in my sister’s backyard in suburban Boston?!?

Emily didn’t initially realize what it was, and took that photo while wearing sandals. After she ID’d the snake and called for help, she went in and changed into her tall rain boots to go back outside with the animal control officer. When the officer arrived, she told Emily her rain boots weren’t going to do her any good because when vipers bite, they leap up really high. Not a good image!

Apparently anti-venom is hard to come by; sometimes one hospital in Boston has it, otherwise the closest is Rhode Island. Why is this the case? I don’t know. I’m an environmental scientist and I believe in living with the local wildlife, but this is a bit much.

Emily said they’re going to clear all the vines and sticks out of the wooded area of their yard, “so if there is a venomous snake back there it will have a harder time hiding.” Yeah. My vote is for no snakes in my sister’s yard at all, ever.

Laura’s party

On a more cheerful note, Laura’s company had a big annual weekend retreat at the beach. Here’s a picture of Laura and Alex at a fancy dinner event. Looking good!

Dawn’s lights

Our sister-in-law, Dawn, sent these amazing photos of northern lights, the aurora borealis, taken by a camper at their lake resort in Minnesota last week. Wow! Wish I had been there. Maybe next summer, how about it Dawn?

Albuquerque Roadrunner

I wasn’t surprised when I saw a roadrunner while out on a morning walk with Biska in our neighborhood in Albuquerque. That is not uncommon at all. We have lots of roadrunners in Albuquerque. I’m surprised I even bothered to take this picture. The roadrunner is far in the distance; you can barely see it in the road at the foot of a driveway.

But then as the roadrunner dashed away to safety, it ran towards us rather than away from us, clearly heading towards the house that we were standing right in front of. Why did it go in our direction instead of away from us?

Then I saw all the roadrunner signs and artwork at that particular house. It’s hard to tell in this zoomed-in photo, but that’s a roadrunner mural in tile on the wall. And a roadrunner crossing sign.

Can you can see the real roadrunner there, on the edge of the lawn along the front path?

Obviously the owners love roadrunners, based on their signage and their mural. Lots of people in Albuquerque love roadrunners. And some people have them in the neighborhood, just like we do. But when that roadrunner saw me and my dog, it ran towards us, in order to get to that specific house. So here’s what I want to know. How did the people who live there manage to attract their very own resident wild roadrunner? I don’t have one, and I like roadrunners too!

Sweetpea

Biska has a new friend! Sweetpea is an albino Catahoula Leopard dog. As albinos often are, she is deaf, and she is also partially blind. Sweetpea is about 6 months old, and already a little heavier than Biska, who is 26 pounds and mostly full-grown at a year old.

No, we didn’t adopt Sweetpea! This is just a neighbor’s dog. Lol, why would you think I’d adopt another dog? (hehehehe)

Sweetpea’s owner was happy to see her doing so well with Biska. Catahoulas are often reluctant to make friends with other dogs. And they often do best as the only dog in the household.

Speaking of Catahoulas, Laura’s dog, Zane, is a Catahoula Leopard mix. You can see the unknown “mix” (possibly pitbull) in that one hilarious pointy ear, but his markings and temperament are all Catahoula.

I love pictures of Zane camouflaged on their living room rug; it’s just so funny.

He’s a great looking dog.

Is my tree dying?

John says it’s fine, because John employs optimism to keep his to-do list from getting impossibly long. But regardless of our already brimming to-do lists, I think the tree is in dire need of immediate help of some sort. Any theories?

Biska’s new friend, Jackfruit

Biska and I were on a walk at the local park in Albuquerque when we came across – a pot bellied pig named Jackfruit!

His owner (whose name I didn’t get) was happy to pose for some pictures.

Jackfruit is 2 years old and I forgot how heavy his owner said he is. He lives in the house with his owners and their dog. He loves summertime and hates snow, and is generally very calm and in good spirits.

His owner told me that they named him Jackfruit because that’s what Asian restaurants often serve in place of pork in a vegetarian dish that would traditionally be a pork dish. They call him Jack for short.

Biska was super curious and would have loved to play with Jackfruit but I was wary of those tusks.

Jackfruit’s owner says they have a dog at home and he didn’t think there would be any issues, but we were at the park and Biska isn’t behaved well enough to be off-leash (she would run and jump on everyone). So she had to be content with a brief meet and greet – of her first pot bellied pig friend!

Chirstina’s New Job

And last but not least, Callan’s partner, Chirstina, has a new job and starts towards the end of this month. Congratulations, Chirstina!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.