Laura comes for a concert in Tucson

I’ve been making bread lately, so I tried to make gluten free bread for Laura’s visit. It didn’t work out!

Luckily there’s a gluten free café in town, and Laura and I love going to cafés.

Laura always makes good use of the pool when she visits.

Here’s a video of her swimming underwater.

Laura is a big fan of the band, Bones UK. (Don’t worry, I had never heard of them either). They were the opening act for Smashing Pumpkins.

Laura had bought tickets for us on the very edge of the amphitheater because she knows I don’t like being smashed in crowds. I thought that was considerate of her. And they were good tickets, quite far forward.

It turns out there was an unanticipated benefit to our tickets on the far edge – it was the same night as the eclipse of the moon and we were on the correct side to see the moon.

I took more pictures of the moon than of the concert. Of course it was terrible lighting for viewing the sky with all the concert lights. But it was still very cool to see.

I did take one or two pictures of the concert.

But mostly I took pictures of the eclipse.

I have no idea why I wore a pink flowered shirt to a Smashing Pumpkin’s concert. I wasn’t thinking I guess. I looked quite out of place, but I didn’t care.

It was a good shirt for watching the moon.

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More of San Diego

I’m so far behind on my posts. Here’s some more San Diego pictures from over a month ago. I’ve need to just plow through last month’s events because now I’ve got June stuff to write about. We’ve been doing a lot!

Here’s John and Biska at sunset in San Diego. That dog is getting almost too big to be carried around. She’s 25 pounds now, and we think she’s about done growing. She’s long, so she looks bigger than 25 pounds.

I took far too many pictures of the sunset. I love the sunset over the ocean.

One morning we went to the Safari Park outside of Escondido.

John really likes that park. I was grumpy because it was colder than I expected that far inland. I wanted a hot coffee, so we went to the unbranded coffee shop in the park. There was only one barista that early in the morning and she didn’t even know how to make hot coffee – only iced. I did not want iced coffee – I was freezing. She couldn’t make most of what was on the menu and refused to take instructions.

I ended up with a lukewarm “coffee” that tasted like the chocolate milk that we used to get in little cartons in the lunchroom when we were kids. The only possible value there would be for nostalgia; but not in my case.

John kept trying to take my picture but all he was getting was scowls. He was failing to coax a smile out of me. Eventually he tricked me into laughing. I look like I was having a great time!

Later we went on an afternoon walk around a reservoir northeast of San Diego. I had been there before with my brother and knew it was a nice walk. The fog finally burned off that afternoon, plus we were some distance from the ocean. I was finally warm enough.

Here we are at a neighborhood park near the lake.

We found some excellent Thai food in the suburbs.

There’s nothing like a cloudless sky to improve my mood. Ocean and lakes and good food – at moments like this I’m like wow, we could have moved here! But houses in this region start at about a million and a half, and go up from there. Plus I spent most of that trip cold. I think we’re a much better fit for Tucson, even though there’s no ocean.

Heading down to say good-bye to the beach on our last morning.

Brrr! Next time I want to walk on the beach, I’m going to Mexico. It’s closer! Not to mention warmer.

Yep, there’s our van on the cliff on the left. All things considered, it is a fairly spectacular place for a campsite.

And it was good to see my brother and his kids. We’ll go back again someday.

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The best day of Biska’s life so far

There’s a dog beach on Coronado Island where the dogs can run free in the ocean. Biska had never seen anything like it!

John says for once my videos aren’t boring, but don’t take his word for it. They’re just as boring as all my other little home videos of dogs and rain and games and floating trees.

If you can’t see the videos embedded above, here are the links to the same videos, Chased into the ocean by a German Shepherd , Checking out the beach , Never mind that big dog , Puppies running , Running with John , Splashing through the waves

While Biska was having the time of her life, I got distracted. This little puppy was there with his foster mom, looking for a new home. Now in my defense, I don’t actually want MOST puppies I see. But every so often it’s just love at first sight. I did not want to put this little guy down. The perfect playmate for Biska!

I don’t remember what the foster mom was calling him, but clearly his name should be Juan. Doesn’t he look like a Juan? Luckily, I don’t really want a boy dog. If this puppy had been a girl, I don’t know how I would have managed to let go.

As I stood on the beach possessively clinging to this puppy, John was giving me a look that meant, “It’s him or me babe, you choose.” So hmmm, Juan or John? I chose John, but it was a close one!

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San Diego

At the beginning of May, John and I camped at a state park at the beach north of San Diego. It’s very difficult to get reservations for camping at the beach, so I had made them sometime last year, having no idea what we would be up to during May.

We almost decided not to go because John’s been quite busy at work and having to go to Albuquerque frequently. But we didn’t want to give up the reservations that are so hard to get. So off we went to California!

Biska appears to be getting too big for her bed between our seats in the van.

We’re here!

I always like to take a view shot from the open van door everywhere we stay. Oceanfront!

The obligatory crooked-camera selfie in front of the ocean to send to my friends:

Yes, I’m wearing a jacket over a sweater because brrrr, I’m used to Tucson!

We arrived on a Sunday in the late afternoon, and the first thing we did was visit with my brother and his kids, because once the week got going they would be busy with school and activities. It was getting dark, but I still tried to take a photo. I wanted to take a picture of just them, but Katherine insisted on me taking a selfie with them. So unfortunately, there I am not helping the photo out any.

I was super happy to see them, lol. Me the dorky aunt. This is Katherine and Alex; Jonathan is off to college now.

The next day John and I went to Balboa Park. It’s great they allow dogs.

We were curious about these pretty little fig-like fruits.

I had to tell John not to try to eat it! We did not know what it was and I think spotted things look particularly poisonous. Usually it’s Biska I’m shouting to, “Don’t eat that!” She is a doggy vacuum cleaner. I don’t usually have to implore John to not eat things. I don’t think John would actually have eaten it…or maybe just a nibble? Hopefully he was just teasing me, but you never know.

Mmmmm…grass. Lovely, thick, long, green grass. We don’t get a lot of that in Tucson.

Hmmm, what’s this? Some sort of trumpet vine except dark pink instead of orange? I want to grow that!

This huge hedge of star jasmine smelled amazing.

Clouds again, but still beautiful.

Here we are walking near the campground. It was definitely colder than we’re used to in Tucson!

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The bigger issue

I just read an article about a weight loss app that turned out to be a more interesting article than I expected, given that I’m not particularly interested in weight loss.

Although the primary topic is about weight loss, the underlying topic is about human psychology, and specifically, how easily we can be manipulated by apps. In this case, an app manipulated the author to lose weight. But so often the apps and websites and the algorithms they use are designed to make us click on dumb stuff on the internet, resulting in us believing stupid shit designed to get us all riled up, or sending them our money for junk that we don’t need and probably don’t actually even want.

I’ve seen it in my own life. I’ll go onto Amazon to buy a couple of kitchen hand towels or something reasonable, and then what the hell happens to my mind? The scary thing is, the folks at Amazon don’t really know how it works either. Their software collects data about what we (hundreds of thousands of us) click and when we click, and pretty soon the data shows crazy minute detail such as that we’ll buy more if the background page is one shade of beige instead of a different shade of beige and the “buy” button is turquoise, or whatever inscrutable insights the data shows. They know it works but they don’t know why. We are being tricked by people who don’t even understand themselves how the trickery works!

Meanwhile similar algorithms can now beat all humans at our most challenging games like chess and go. Not only are we being tricked, but we are being tricked by algorithms that are smarter than we are! Algorithms will soon be beating me at the game of who-gets-my-money, just like how the algorithms manipulated this author into losing a truly huge amount of weight in what sounded like a potentially unhealthy amount of time.

It’s such an interesting article that I used one of my 10 per month free share options to generate a link that doesn’t have a firewall so you can read it if you want.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/magazine/weight-loss-pandemic.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DIDm8biOEcDIGS-kHAIrVuZtQzw3GfQ8RadacmQvB_y-5UeUxxTg3i6r21pKM4GQRn44SiQjFxmJvXQbEz9TKtNTG1Ie4jz7b65EuLPH3tWvTezX13JwZ6pZA1cVqgjnMOx6_PAfc1joclpYopAZp6RDkLYCOY7bK_W1glZoLwPlyL4RI2WupZRTjUgdWYjrsGewxWAlrMJ2httSd-sJgPfYNKY9usakIoa8H8gr4OC2N3L4vPBpA5Rofcl7QCoqdKc5I_DuGHbmqKwyEFy_Ht&smid=url-share

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And the winner is…

You might remember back in March, Laura and Alex came to Tucson for Alex to compete in a bike race here. He did very well until the last day when a couple of people ahead of him collided, creating a pile-up. Alex broke his clavicle and had to fly home the next day in a temporary splint, and get surgery later that week.

After his surgery he worked hard to stay in shape. At the time I wrote, “We’re happy he’s feeling better, but sorry about an upcoming race in Sacramento he was really hoping to have a shot at winning in May of this year. He came in second back in 2019 before the pandemic closed it down. Well, maybe next year.”

The upcoming race was scheduled for the last weekend in April and he just had surgery in March – it didn’t seem possible. I was assuming he was going to have to sit out the Sacramento race this year. But he trained hard all through April with his arm in a sling.

Finally, a week before the race, his doctor said he could take off his sling. That was all Alex needed to hear – he was determined to win that race in Sacramento.

Here he is, warming up.

He did really well the first day on various timed trials. Here’s the big race on the second day: https://youtu.be/Bh7HOA2vDwI

In the video you can hear them announce Alex’s name as the front runner (and that’s Laura screaming). But did he actually win?

Alex is the one on our right (left from the point of view of the bicyclists). You can’t get much closer than that. Impossible to call!

We waited tensely for the results. Finally the results posted, but Alex’s name was nowhere. Surely that wasn’t right. He was either first or second. Or there was a tie for first.

After some discussion, they reposted with Alex in first place! Whooo-hooo! But wait. Controversy ensued. Lots of people showed the referees the videos on their phones. And the call was reversed! Alex was second.

He took it well.

Turns out he had good reason to not mind being second. It was just one race of many timed events and he knew he was likely still going to win the whole thing. And sure enough, when all the points were totaled over the couple of days of racing, Alex was the champion for the weekend!

Yay, Alex! Eight weeks after breaking his clavicle.

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

Farewell to the Mesquite Tree

As you may remember from previous tree posts, we had been trying to save our huge mesquite in the front yard. But after a year and a half in Tucson, we are more aware of the risks.

Although Tucson doesn’t often get the frequent, sustained high winds that we’ve always disliked in Albuquerque, it does still get occasional wind storms. Tucson also gets surprisingly powerful brief dust devils. I’m not sure if “dust devil” is the right term. I always thought of dust devils as being harmless. But these brief whirlwinds can blow off chunks of roofing and take down unstable trees and branches.

The key being the word “unstable.” The previous owners had cabled together a split in the tree. We’ve been told the cable brace is just a temporary measure. Sometimes trees can be bolted together as a more permanent solution, but we’ve since been told that mesquite are brittle and not good candidates for bolting.

For me the moment of insight came when I looked up one morning and it seemed like the split was visibly larger than it had been. It felt inevitable. John wrapped a chain around it for additional luck and we started getting quotes to take the tree out.

In addition to the split, one section of the multi-trunked tree leans far over the house. I wondered how they were going to remove it. The previous company, which we had hired to trim the tree last year, dropped a limb on the roof and broke a skylight. We didn’t hire them this time.

The morning of the removal, the crew and several pieces of large equipment showed up bright and early.

The tree was in bloom and looked particularly beautiful in the early morning light. It was very sad.

This big crane with the hook holds onto the sections of tree that are being cut so they don’t fall, and moves them safely into the street.

At first a guy in a bucket removed some lower branches. An operator in the cab of that crane moved the arm that held the bucket. The guy in the bucket could also do some fine tuned adjustments using controls on the bucket.

They got the big crane in position and strapped to a large limb.

When they put tension on those cables, the whole tree shook. Once they were sure the limb was being held by the crane, they sawed off the limb. https://youtu.be/RSBPTXtGXdE

Here they are taking out the middle third of the tree. https://youtu.be/9VeDFnx5JOA

After the midsection was removed, it was very obvious how much the remaining trunk leaned over the house.

If you don’t have the fortitude to watch an entire four and a half minute boring video, start about a minute in. https://youtu.be/dRLUO53Qhko

It was so weird to watch the tree float through the air.

I felt sad to have it gone. Our front yard looked empty and our house looked naked!

John went out right away and bought some pots and bougainvillea bushes.

And the next week he planted a desert willow where the mesquite was.

The desert willow is currently struggling (two weeks later), so we hope it pulls through. They generally do well here, it’s just shocked from the transplant. The bougainvillea are doing great.

While the crew was out removing the huge mesquite, we also had them take out a much smaller trash tree in the backyard. It was brittle and a large section of it had already fallen on our fence during the July storms last year.

The guy brought the tree down right on top of the wires, which alarmed me, but after flashing me a sheepish look, he nonchalantly pulled the tree off the wires and continued working. https://youtu.be/_rWLaVheTe8

Now that the mesquite is gone, our back patio is so much cleaner! We used to have little mesquite needles everywhere – in the yard, in the house, in the pool – pervasively everywhere, like dog fur but worse. John filled two huge leaf bags with mesquite litter just from the roof. Now we are making steady progress clearing out the needles from every crook and cranny on the property.

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

Emily, Bryan, and their girls visit

In April, Emily and her family came out to visit. They visited last year in April too, and it is becoming a highlight of our spring.

I’m so happy I have a pool heater. By the second half of April the air temperature is usually hot in middle of the day, but the night temperatures are still dipping quite low, and the pool water would be very cold if it weren’t for the heater.

The kids had so much fun in the pool every day!

Here comes Uncle John!

Last year we bought this children’s play set that nearly takes over the family room. It comes with tons of little plastic hollow balls, that Biska would crunch up with wild abandon if we let her. She did manage to crunch a few.

Biska did great, by the way. She’s very good with kids.

Family picture time!

John and Bryan took the older girls to a lot of fun activities in the afternoons, while the youngest slept. That gave Emily and I time to sit and talk and catch up. It was very nice.

Here they are at “Golf ‘N Stuff”, which is a children’s play venue just a few blocks from where we live.

On another day they went to the Reid Park Zoo.

When John sent me these photos, I was confused, wondering, where is that lake? Water is an unusual feature in Tucson, but apparently there is a duck pond at Reid Park.

There is a carousel at Reid Park Zoo. Thea had some initial trepidation…

Once they got started, she realized she loved it and declared with excitement and amazed relief, “I’m not scared at all!”

Now that’s a happy face 🙂

Butterfly girls at the Reid Park Zoo

Another day, another carousel, this time at Trail Dust Town. This is also just a few blocks from our house.

Trail Dust Town has a western theme. This “spooky western” train ride had them completely entranced.

Snack time!

Jailbirds! I love that face.

We had tons of fun. And suddenly, all too soon, it was time for them to fly back home – with promises to come again next year!

By then I hope to have all the peanut butter cleaned up!

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Camping in the Chiricahua

In April, John had to go out to Albuquerque for two weeks and I didn’t go because I had too much going on in Tucson. Originally he was going to take a 4-day weekend and drive back to Tucson for the long weekend before heading back to Albuquerque for the second week. But then he had meetings added to his schedule, and it didn’t make sense for him to drive that far for a shorter weekend. That’s when I suggested we meet halfway and go camping!

The area John ended up picking was much closer to Tucson than Albuquerque, but it was somewhere we had been meaning to check out; the Chiricahua mountains! That’s pronounced Cheer-uh-caw-wa, with the accent on the caw.

I know, I know, I should learn to write out pronunciation with the actual official way of designating the sounds. But not only would I have to learn the what symbols are for what sounds, I would also have to learn how to write all those marks over the vowels on my keyboard. And no one is paying me for this blog, so nope, not doing it. That’s the joy of being a volunteer. If my readers don’t like it, I can be like (shrug) Don’t read it then.

We met in Willcox, AZ, which was our turnoff from the freeway, and I followed him south into the Chiricahua. We turned onto washboard gravel roads and bumped along. After a few miles we passed a pretty little area with campsites.

But we kept going. We climbed and climbed. Pretty soon we were in a burned area, bleak and eroding. I was faithfully following behind John, eating his dust and wondering when the heck are we going to stop? Where the heck are we going?

I finally decided to just stop and hope that he notices, except there was nowhere to stop on the steep and windy road. Plus, John was a ways ahead of me, and I knew if I stopped, by the time he noticed he would be unable to turn around. What to do? We had no cell tower so I couldn’t just call him. I honked but he didn’t hear it. I started trying to drive with my turn signal on, but every time we went around a curve, it automatically clicked off again. I kept putting it back on. But it was hard for him to see me clearly in his rearview mirror due to all the dust the vehicles were kicking up.

John finally figured out I wanted us to pull over and we found a nice wide area to do do. Whew. I was so relieved to be stopped. But John misunderstood and thought I was just freaked out from having to drive the second vehicle. So he suggested we leave the pickup truck in the parking spot and go on together in the van. I climbed into the passenger seat, too dazed to argue.

We started going again, this time with me in the passenger seat, but I was no better. In fact, I was worse. I was actually more comfortable as the driver than as the passenger. I didn’t like the curves and the steep drop off, and I didn’t like the burned, bleak forest and signs of recent erosion.

Sometimes that happens to me when I’m overwhelmed. I don’t clearly understand what is wrong and what I need to happen to fix it. John made a very good guess – that I was tired of driving – but it turns out we were wrong. The problem was I didn’t want to be up there at all, but I wasn’t coherent enough to even realize it myself.

We reached a saddle (the top of a ridge but not the top of the mountain), and pulled over to decide what to do. It was crazy but I was still willing to go on. I do not like being the one to disrupt other people’s plans even when I’m miserable. And I often don’t recognize when it’s time to call it quits when I’m feeling overwhelmed. I find myself unable to make decisions, such as whether to go on or whether to go back. It was John who realized we needed to go back.

So back down the mountain we went, collecting the pickup truck on our way, and continuing down to the camping area we had passed on our way in. It was dispersed camping, not an actual official campground. There were no amenities except fire rings built by campers themselves. This was fine with us. Our van is fully contained and we don’t need any amenities.

Surprisingly, there were numerous sites available. This was particularly surprising because there was a little creek. Creeks in the desert are usually quite crowded. They are a rarity!

Plus, extra bonus, it was at the trailhead of very nice trail. It’s usually very difficult to find a place to van camp anywhere near a good trailhead.

We parked and walked around, surveying the sites looking for one that was set apart enough to be able to let Biska off her leash without her running into the next campground looking for playmates. Biska is an extremely friendly dog and will not mind her own business and leave people alone!

We found the perfect spot, bound on two sides by a U-curve of the road and on the third side by the little creek. Only one problem – we weren’t going to be able to get the van down there. The branches were way too low for our 9′ tall van.

We debated what to do. We didn’t have a tent or anything with us – we were dependent on the van. We finally decided to leave the van in the small pull-out area for the trailhead across the road. The van was only couple hundred feet from our campsite. We set up our chairs and hammock at the campsite and just walked to the van when we needed to.

Usually we had the parking area to ourselves anyway, or maybe shared with one vehicle. It turned out to be a rarely-used trail. It wasn’t like some trailheads that are grand central station all day long on the weekends.

And that’s how we got an excellent campsite, for free, on a creek, at a trailhead. Unbelievable!

Not only that, the weather was perfect. On the way out, we had high winds on the freeway. Our extra-tall van in particular (which I was driving), was getting hit hard by the wind, creating a difficult driving situation. I was afraid it was going to be miserable camping in all that wind. But the campsites in the Chiricahua were sheltered and we weren’t bothered at all by the winds blowing across the desert plains.

We hiked up the road, and hiked on the trail, and swung on the hammock and had an excellent weekend.

Here’s a mine entrance just up the road:

Views from hiking:

Biska did great – except she tries to eat crap she finds in the woods. I don’t know what all she was trying to eat, but I can guarantee you it’s not food. As we walked along, John and I deep in conversation about our upcoming remodel project, our discussion was frequently punctuated with “Biska! Don’t eat that! Yuck! No!”

At the end of the weekend I headed west back to Tucson and John went east back to Albuquerque, both of us battling the high winds all the way home. It was worth it.

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You heard me

You know how when you’ve been asleep dreaming that your spouse does something that makes you mad, and when you wake up you’re still mad, even though they didn’t really do anything wrong? It was just a dream!

I don’t usually talk in my sleep, but in the middle of the night last night I shouted, not mumbled, but shouted so loud that I woke myself up. In my dream I was so frustrated with John that I yelled, “FUCK! YOU DON’T LISTEN!”

Apparently my shout woke him up too, because the next morning he was like, “Well, I heard that.

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