Day 13

CAPTAIN'S LOG:

Hi y'all.  It has been a while. My brother Ivan texted me today and told me to get off my keester and write a blog entry. Oh, I've been having a bit of a time (I've been kinda crabby the last few days), and I wanted to wait till I had some perspective before climbing back onto the blog. But when one's readers begin demanding entries, well...

We're in Taos, New Mexico! We loved Santa Fe and we're loving it here so far. I always knew I'd like New Mexico. I lived in the desert in the early 90's and liked it very much. I especially like the reds and the browns and all all of the adobe-like houses. Santa Fe is a bigger-sized town that manages to feel small (Sedona, Arizona, on the other hand, is a small town that feels a little too big and busy). One gal's opinion.

We were driving on the "High Road to Taos" (it's actually called that) this afternoon and passed what looked very much like a black horse standing in the roadside drainage ditch.

Naw, it can't be. (That's the highway there in the upper right-hand side of the picture, by the way.)

Yup. It was a horse. And a cute one! It was eating the dry leaves along the rim of the ditch. I'm a city slicker (soon to become a small town gal!) but I still thought something look really wrong with that. The horse wasn't wearing a little yellow traffic vest or anything. Just out there, in the ditch, with no fencing, maybe five feet from speeding traffic.

I decided to pull Sweet Ride over and see if someone knew what the hell was going on with that horse. Again, city slicker here, but it doesn't seem right to leave horsies in ditches. The horse was really happy eating those leaves but the poor thing got kinda spooked as I walked near the ditch (which deepend my concern that the ditch wasn't it's normal hangout). As I stood on the supposed owner's property line (there were all these "DO NOT TRESPASS" signs at the entrance to the property, so I was a little nervous about venturing further) a neighbor yelled to me "he got out?"

Yay!! Somebody friendly who knew the horsie!! I went over and spoke to the fellow for a couple of minutes. What the heck, I'm in New Mexico -- get to know the folks. This fellow was really quite, QUITE friendly. As we talked he touched my arm, then put his hand on my waist, leaned over and kissed me on the cheek! Ha! I get out of San Francisco for a couple of weeks and all of a sudden I'm an easy mark. Good thing I got back to the car when I did or Harper might be expecting a sibling. On the bright side, on my way back to the car I saw that Mr. Rushin' Hands and Roamin' Fingers had put the horse back behind its fencing, so at least the horsie was safe. (Although maybe he got fresh with the horse too -- guess we'll never know.)

So a few days ago we spent the night in a very small town in Arizona called Winslow. Sound familiar? It's mentioned in the Eagle's hit "Take it Easy"

Well, I'm standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona
Such a fine sight to see
It's a girl my Lord
In a flat bed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me.

Yup. That's the place. And it brings us too (you guessed it)...

ADVENTURE #4:  Siri is a crazy-assed b****.

What the hell is wrong with Siri? Does she just get bored or is she out to liberate her computer brothers and sisters by slowly directing iPhone users to their doom? I want to cuss here, but I promised my Aunt Irma...

It's nighttime -- and therefore dark -- when we roll up on Winslow, each of us tired and hungry. "Hey Siri, what's the quickest route to the restaurant?" (Please note, we didn't say "Hey Siri, would you kindly send us down the darkest, scariest back roads to the bowels of the local creepy airport?" But that's where the heifer sent us.)

"Amy, this doesn't look right. Are you sure we took the right turn?"

"That's what's on the phone. We make a right in 400 feet."

"Okay, but this is an airport -- I don't think the restaurant is here. Oh good grief!! Those are the runways!! We're like 20 feet from the runways!! The f'ing planes are going to LAND RIGHT ON TOP OF US!!"

SIRI: "Turn right in 50 feet. The destination is on the right."

Siri sent us right into a dead end in what I can only assume is a staff-only area adjacent to the Winslow airport runway. Really. Plus Amy thought this was the perfect moment to tell me about the time, when she was in college in Georgia, that she accidently drove herself and several friends directly onto the runway of the Hazelhurst, Georgia airport -- and there was a plane coming! She said it was like 100 feet away!! A very funny story which unfortunately did NOT make me feel better at the time. I nearly ran over a jackrabbit hauling ass out of there. (For your edification, the fields surrounding Winslow's airport are filled with jackrabbits running around like there aren't freaked out high-yellow sistuhs driving lost and "slightly" above the speed limit.)

Please give me a moment to 'splain:

When I was a small child, in the 70's, living on Sanchez Street in San Francisco's Castro District, a bull dozer scared the s**t out of me. I was playing on the couch in our living room and just happened to pop my head up to glance out of our front window. There must have been construction going on close to the apartment because just as I popped my head up a bulldozer, with it's huge scoop lifted high in the air, was driving up our small driveway -- its scoop just a few feet from the window and its motor blaring. I know today it was just a bull dozer likely making a 3-point turn. But what I saw was a MONSTER ABOUT TO CHEW MY HEAD OFF!! I ran my little ass all the way to the back of the house. Scared the crap out of me. To this day I don't like big, loud-assed machines bearing down on me. That night in Winslow, I knew that a plane (even a very small one) bearing down on our car, out in all that backness (and all those jackrabbits) was going to freak me right out. I'd have held it together ('cuz I'm a big bad butch). But that was a "boy howdy" moment that I was anxious to avoid.

End of story!

Well, I'm spent, so I'm going to bed soon.  Before I sign off, I want to share with you this iPhone photo series that Harper took of several of her lovies (lesser mortals might call them stuffed animals -- but they're not; they're lovies). We are traveling with an entourage of nine lovies (NINE), which take up a hell of a lot of space in our hotel beds! I mean, is there any room for mommy? Harper literally kicked me out of our temporary (full-sized) bed to make room for her lovies when we were staying in a sublet in the Mission while selling our house. Luckily, Amy's good friend Phern loaned us an inflatable mattress or my sleeping arrangement would have been tragic.

HARPER'S GENIUS LOVIE PHOTO SERIES:

I think this one is the chihuahua.

Hello Kitty!

Doggie with bunny ears (artsy shot).

Her Majesty, Queen Elsa.

No idea.

Oh! I forgot! While in Springdale, the absolutely charming small down at the gates of Zion National Park, we saw the following sign in a restaurant. I meant to share it with y'all earlier. I think it's hillarious (and I assume I'll be saying this phrase myself at some point):

Ha ha ha ha!!

So I suppose you're itching to know why I was feeling crabby (and therefore not blogging). It's very, very, very complicated. So complicated, in fact, that I don't understand what the hell is going on. At all. None of it. But I can tell you how I feel. I feel like I'm the title charactor in the 1990's movie "The Truman Show" (you know, the one staring Jim Carry). As a reminder, here's the original movie trailer:

https://youtu.be/c3gI9ms8Fdc

On a bad day, this REALLY upsets me and poor Amy bears the brunt of my righteous indignation. Let's just say I'm no picnic. (It's also true that I'm not having one either.)

But I'm over that, for now. Enjoy these pix:

Hippie chicks at "energy vortex" in Sedona, Az. (We just gotta touch...)

Winslow, AZ in the daylight (no boogey men!)

Welcome sign at Winslow church (I was wrong about the absence of boogie men...)

Good thing I didn't run over that rabbit at the airport, or this might have been awkward.

Amy (and my damned thumb) at the Grand Canyon.

It snowed on Saturday (3/26) in Santa Fe!!

Snow on my locks ("ain't no surprise, just poor me a drink and I'll tell you my lies.."). I'm sorry. That was rediculous.

Snow on the lamb's locks. :-)

Day 6

CAPTAIN'S LOG:

Oh my.  Where to start, y'all.  We've had adventures...

First, I assume you'll be happy to know that with a friend's help, I've managed to properly add the "follow by email" link to the right-hand side bar (thanks Phern!). Enjoy!

We extended our stay here in Springdale, adjacent to Zion National Park in Utah, by one day because it's so AWESOME!!! Really, if you've not yet visited Zion Park, you must. It's just beautiful here. And you can find nice accomodations and yummy food (that's pretty cheap) too. Nuff said.

So, when last we left our heroines (Amy, Harper, and me) we were having a blast at Disneyland. From there we drove to Las Vegas to overnight before driving to Zion. Which brings us to:

ADVENTURE #1: Amy loses cell phone.

After enjoying the wave pool and lazy river at the Mandalay Bay Resort last Saturday morning and afternoon (I loves me a lazy river, by the way -- so fun!) we showered, packed our stuff, checked out, loaded our stuff into Sweet Ride (I've officially named my new car "Sweet Ride") and were fixing to drive off when Amy notices that she doesn't have her cell phone. Bummer. She goes back into the hotel, begs, borrows, and steals to gain access to our room and... the phone's not there. She comes back to the car, which is still parked near the front lobby, and I suggest that she check the pool -- "terrific idea" she says and dashes back to the pools where she has interesting experiences with "Find My iPhone," GPS imagry of the pool laundry room, and various staff who successfully locate her phone (under about 3,000 used pool towels -- literally) then facilitate the accidental deletion of ALL of her personal information from the phone. Egad. Which brings me to...

ADVENTURE #2: Sweet Ride won't start.

Yup, my sweet ride had a boo boo. Minutes after Amy left the car for misadventures searching for her phone, I couldn't get Sweet Ride to turn over. As the car is basically a computer on wheels, I initially assumed that I had pressed the wrong button (or had forgotten to press one, or some bullshit like that). But the car became less and less responsive each time I turned the key. It seemed pretty obvious that the battery was dying/dead. Poor Harper was in her seat and ready to go and her mom's were dawdling with the darker aspects of technology.

I initially contacted the free roadside assistance I got when I bought Sweet Ride for a jump start. Then I thought better of it. First, it was quickly turning to Saturday evening at one of Vegas' more popular resort hotels and I was concerned that help would have a hard time reaching me once the parking area started to fill up. Second, and more importantly, I felt it was likely the valet service that parked the car likely left a light on in the car or something, and drained the battery -- so I figured it was the least the hotel could do to jump the car. When Amy briefly returned to the car (before going to the pool to search under towels for her phone) she stayed with Harper while I hit the valet manager up for a jump. He was emphatic that his crew did not cause the battery drain (after all, they drove the car to the hotel entrance, didn't they? if a member of his crew had jumped the car beforehand, he would have been told, etc.). Fine buddy. How about a jump?

So they bring their utility van around to jump start my car (and they were nice -- I shouldn't be a grouch). Guess what? The jumper cables were not in the van. Where might they have gone? I won't get into that... The manager and his colleague were scratching their heads about what to do next. Scratching their heads. It never occured to them to ask ME if I had jumper cables. Nope. Which brings me to a vignette that I like to call...

IF YOU'VE GOT A VAGINA -- I'm sorry Aunt Irma. My Aunt Irma admonished me two days before I left the City  to keep this blog "clean." This is a necessary evil, Aunt Irma...

It never occured to either of the fellows attempting to jump my car to ask me if I had jumper cables because they assumed, correctly, that I have a vagina. Next, they incorrectly assumed that I therefore don't have the damned sense to own jumper cables. Friends, I'm not the smartest peanut in the tin, but I do know that having a vagina and possessing jumper cables are mutually exclusive. Yet and still, I digress...

So I said to the valet manager "would you like to use MY jumper cables?" and he looks at me with an exasperated expression, which made me feel badly for him (really), and said "If you'd like this to go quickly..." Which is what I wanted, so I fetched said cables and fully two hours after we checked out of the hotel we were rolling our asses down I-15 towards Zion. Boy howdy.

EXHIBIT B: The bidet in out hotel bathroom.

Soon after arriving at our fabulous hotel digs in Springdale we discovered a bidet in the bathroom!  Here's a pic:

Which brings us to our THIRD adventure on that Saturday:

ADVENTURE #3: Frisky bidet.

I was immediately curious about that bidet. So I turned a few knobs to see if I could get it to work and voila! A stream of water shot about three feet straight up out of the gadjet, wetting the floor. I shut off the knobs and immediately left the bathroom. Yup, the thing frightened me. But I was still very, very curious about that bidet... About 30 minutes later I got my gumption back and went into the bathroom and figured out how to control the "jet stream." I plopped myself on the thing and immediately started giggling. Harper heard me giggling and wanted to try the bidet out.  I plopped her on there and she loved it! That child is in touch with her European roots...

Later, Amy tried to get the bidet going for Harper (nothing wrong with the child staying clean) and because she's been to Europe several times I assumed she knew how to make it work correctly, so I didn't show her how to "ride" the controls. Long story longer, the thing squirted her in the head!! I had to hide in the hallway to while I cracked up. OMG. I got back into the bathroom and tried to show her how to turn the water stream on slowly, but Amy wasn't paying attention. She had gone off to dry off her hair. Oy, mama.

The last adventure I have to report happened this very evening while we were at dinner in Springdale. When you're in the town you're literally surrounded by absolutely beautiful red peaks and cliffs. It's just stunning. Tonight, a very special sunset played off this backdrop with really incredible results. Apparently, sunsets like this one happen only every several years here.

In the space of just a few seconds, the view from the restaurant changed from this:

... to this:

It was after 7pm and it looked like t was 9 or 10 in the morning because the cliffs were so bright!! Amy and everyone else in the restaurant got up to take pictures of this event, which lasted only 2-3 minutes. The street outside the restaurant filled up with people watching and taking pictures too. All of a sudden we were all staring at the same thing and having this intense experience. Really awesome. It felt to me (and I'm not a religious gal) as if God had picked us all up by the scruff of our necks and shouted "Hey!" That's all. Just "Hey!"

That's a good note to end on. Here are some pix:

Foolish squirrels!

At the Emerald Pools in Zion.

Under a waterfall (Amy took this great pic).

Cowbutch! 

(The black straps on my shoulders are suspenders, which I was wearing with shorts -- so I pretty much looked like I was wearing lederhosen.)

Bambi.

My little buckeroo.

Saturday morning in Vegas, before our misadventures began. If I knew then what I know now...

Day 4

CAPTAIN'S LOG:

Up early yesterday to make "magic hour" at 7am at Disneyland. That's honestly a bit too early for me, BUT WE HAD A FABULOUS TIME!!!! My best trip to Disneyland hands down. We went on a million rides -- 11 each, to be exact -- AND Harper danced with Mary Poppins AND we saw a dope parade.  (The Disney "cast member" playing Mary Poppins seriously looked just like Anne Hathaway. I mean really. Woudn't that be crazy if she actually had been Anne Hathaway?)
Amy went on Splash Mountain. I was not fixing to go on Splash Mountain. That ride is buck assed crazy. You get soaking wet!!! Harper and I watched that log she was in get dunked. I cracked up and I think Harper was enthralled. That child's mama is up for it...

EXHIBIT A:  My wife, Amy Hope Peterson (aka: "mama"). Amy and I started calling each other "mommy" and "mama" shortly after Harper started addressing us by our first names (she might have been two). Being called "Kenya" by my baby girl is =not= my jam, so nowadays Amy hears me use her given name maybe three times a year. In addition to pretty much always being up for fun, mama is also a good sport. :-)

We're staying the night at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. There's an awesome wave pool here and a lazy river! We'll hang out at the pools tomorrow morning then we'll drive over to Zion Park in Utah. It's lovely there (though I've not been at this time of year before).  I'll let y'all know how that goes...

NEW SUBSCRIBE FUNCTION! I spent a good hour or more tonight trying to figure out how to allow readers (y'all) to subscribe to this blog so you can get email notifications when I post new entries. Although honestly, there is something romantic about imagining everyone madly checking several times a day in hopes of finding a new blog post. I did my best with this whole subscribe thingy. You'll find the subscribe option in the right hand sidebar --->.
I also tweaked the comments permissions to make commenting easier.

Disney Pix!

They've got some hella big raccoons in Anaheim.

Harper (in pink skirt) getting jiggy with Mary Poppins!

At Disney gates at 7am. Amy is perky. I am not.

This perfect angel graced Dumbo's Wild Ride.

Two peas in a pod...

Chip was all over me. (Someone had better tell Dale!)

Day 2...

CAPTAIN'S LOG:

We did it.
Woke up yesterday morning, read a sweet bye bye text from my baby brother Ivan (which immediately set me to crying), stretched, woke up my wife and daughter, packed our things into my sweet new ride (a red Subaru Outback with heated front AND rear seats... very sexy), enjoyed a final in-City breakfast at Toast, and skeedaddled our asses out of San Francisco. During breakfast I received a second bye bye text -- this one fom my mentor and one of my best friends in the world, Bruce. Burst into tears again. Right there, all up in Toast. Hope our fellow diners and the wait staff found that entertaining.
(When I was a kid, not crying was a matter of pride. You could punch me in the stomach, which happended pretty regularly with the wild bunch of kids I hung with back then, and I'd do my best NOT to cry. Now I read a text and get all boo hoo. Sigh.)

On Monday I said goodbye to my old blue Toyota Echo. Took pix. That stoic little car got us through difficult times. It did us the solid of not konking out in its old, battered age, which allowed a sistuh to keep making her mortage payments and to pay for fancy-assed childcare for our baby girl. That's a good car. We donated her to KQED. Hope she finds a good home with someone.
I'm not a big social media-type person. Y'all probably know, I don't do the Facebook Machine or Twitter. So maintaining this blog, loosely chronicling our move from San Francisco to western Massachusetts, will be kind of like a pilot project.

Here are some pix.

Chaos in the sublet (many thanks for the roof over our heads, Tia!)

Goodbye old buddy.

Me and Ivan. That boy made me cry...

Harper gaining access to new, sweet ride. The child has what one calls a lot of "agency."