Escalante & Pneumonia

Last fall I a got a really good deal on a 3 night stay at the Road Creek Inn that had to be used by the end of the month.  It was scheduled before the trip to Nashville or we probably would have postponed it.  Monday night I started to have a cough but didn't think much about it.  Went to work Tuesday but left early feeling like complete crap, same on Wednesday but feeling worse.  Thursday I just stayed home sleeping. Got up Friday actually feeling human but with the worst cough. The kind that you've got to gird up for,  makes your eyes water and almost pee your pants. Went to the Dr for something for my cough, got that and a Zpack and informed I had pneumonia, who woulda thunk?  I thought because I felt better than all week we should go anyway.  It was the fever thinking.

Friday was a little questionable but by Saturday was much better.  Hiked to Lower Calf Creek Falls, absolutely beautiful! Well worth the 3 mile hike, even heaving like fool.

Sunday we decided to go see the slot canyon  a Peek a Boo Gulch.  Everything we have read and heard said little hard getting in but after that easy.  We got to the entrance and the "little hard" was a 10 freaking foot wall.  Now, someone had made a hand and foot hold, but they only work  if you aren't munchkin size.  There were a bunch of people getting up and going in and were getting kids in sho we thought , eh we can do it if they can.  Haha haha.  Mark got up pretty good.  Me, yeah right.  The guys in the group with the kids ended up essentially pulling me up after 2 failed attempts with one ending up sliding down the face landing on my ass in the grossest most disgusting puddle. After getting in the canyon it was supposed to be easy, forgot to mention another wall with another gross puddle at the bottom.  The idea is to hug the wall using the hand holds and scoot across.  I ended up in the mud again and being pulled up yet another wall.  In the end it was pretty cool, I've never done a ropes course or anything like that but we helped everybody get across both walls.  By the time it was done we were all buds.  It's much easier to think about  a bud pushing me up by my butt than a complete random ass  stranger. ;0 .  Huge shout out and huge thank you to my new buddies Kathy, Jeff, Victor and I can't remember the other guys name.   Here are a couple of pics Kathy took.

It was a very cool experience.  I'm almost an outdoor kinda girl now and I've got the wounds to prove it. Ok, they're really dumb, (sliding down the rock will take some skin off) but I got some.  In the fall we are going to take the kids to the Grand Canyon, I'm ready!  Bring on dirty stuff. 

  

So it's been a while II

Where do I start?  Got lots of stuff. 
Went to Nashville for a work conference and stayed an extra couple of days.  Loved it, very very cool city.  The old buildings are amazing, so many in downtown. Every where we went we asked people what we should do.  No kidding, every single one (yes, really) started with "well you drink, right?" They all said to hit the different bars in downtown, The Gulch which is were the "high class" drunks were.  We ate the first night at Sambuca which just happens to be in that area.  Good food, I think the best of all the live music we heard.  We also visited the area where the "low class" drunks were, essentially all of historic downtown.  The waiter that gave us a list of 6 things to see and he was who classified the high vs low class drunks.  It was very cold, in the low 20's the last day we were there and because of an anticipated ice storm most tourist spots were closed.  That's how we let ourselves into the Belle Meade Country Club and had an, um, unguided tour of the Belle Meade Plantation grounds.  Tons of fun with my friend Linda & her husband Brett. 


In October Ryan, McKinna & I had a do-over on the 2011 Monster Roadie.  Accidentally drove right smack through Rachel Nevada.  For those that don't keep up on alien landings it is right on the Extraterrestrial Highway.  Ate at the Little A'le Inn, no UFO's though.


Great trip to Arches in the Fall for a workshop. Learned a ton and had a great time doing it.  The pic I'm calling "The Pic" from the trip was awesome.  Delicate Arch with NO people in it!!!!  Now,  40 degrees with 30 mph winds may have a little to do with it. ; ) 


I'm going to try and post a couple of pics but based on the fact all of my previosu ones are now those stupid little gray triangles they may not work.  If not and you want to see check out http://happyplacepix.phanfare.com.

First Roadie of the year

We can say we have successfully finished the first roadie of the year.  This was a trip to the Old Boise State Penitentiary with some side trips to three mining/ghost towns.  First stop Silver City Idaho.  If you have never been next time you are in the area (or just plan a trip) stop by.  Plan to spend at least a couple of hours, we spent 2 and probably could have easily spent another hour or so.  We were surprised to find it still is inhabited full time.  The residents are working on restoring the homes & business's.  The buildings are being restored to how they looked while it was still an active mining town.  There is a working hotel and restaurant with a couple of stores that sell souvenirs and locally made trinkets. We weren't allowed to go look through the hotel beyond the lobby but I would love to know what the rooms look like.  Outside of most buildings is a little placard that gives a bit of history on the building and it's owners.  It's amazing to walk around and see how it could have looked 50-100 years ago.  The old cemetery attached to the town is a little over run at this point but the old head stones are a great piece of history. 

Next stop Boise State Pen.  Parts of the prison has been slightly restored but mostly it looks to have been cleaned up and organized.  There isn't a formal tour of the property you just can wander at your leisure and explore the buildings, just stay in the approved areas.  The portions we could see that are of limits look virtually untouched and if given the opportunity I'd be in hog heaven.  The self guided tour is really neat, there are areas from all sections available to see but not much access to the out lying buildings.  We left the prison just before 5:30.

Next stop Rocky Bar and Atlanta.  After we made our way out of Boise and headed in the right direction we were running about 2.5 hours behind schedule.  Not bad but means we are getting home later than we planned, on a Monday.  Eh, oh well.  We should have done a little more research on the easiest route, OK, I should have.  We drove through Lucky Peak recreation area, it is amazing!  I can totally see a camping trip there. It defiantly qualified as the "scenic route".  I swear we ended up on roads not on any maps.  For about 4-5 hours we wandered around the dirt roads looking for non existent signs trying to get unlost and find our towns.  Don't get me wrong, hours of bonding with Ryan & McKinna on a dirt road was great, but damn.  Stopped at a camp ground and asked for directions and the kid said we were another 60 miles away-on the dirt road!  Holy crap, at this point it's closer for us to continue on instead of turning around.  We finally reached Atlanta at dark, was able to look around a little.  Met two of the residents, super nice guys that love where they live.  I'm not even sure what time it was when we reached Rocky Bar.  Too dark to get a good look at the town.  A couple of the buildings were right off the road so of course we had to stop and look.  I would love to go back at some point and see both towns in day light.  

Headed home!  At 3:00 we hit the flat tire jackpot!!!! To change the  we need to pull prob 50 lbs of rocks out of  the cargo area.  Big rocks for my rock garden, hello. Slap on the 50/50 and lets roll.  Well 50/50 is half flat, that doesn't leave much air in the tire. I am sooooo grateful Ryan is basically an insomniac and doesn't mind night driving. We rolled into Layton about 6:00, no kidding.  Just in  time for Ryan & McKinna to shower and drive really fast to work.  I arrived home in time to "hey babe" as Mark was getting up at 7:00.  I have a little more flexibility in my job than Ryan or McKinna and had the luxury of grabbing a couple hours of sleep before heading in to work. 

After all is said and done it was a great trip (including needing 4 new tires).  We've done this 5-6 times and never had any issues. (Taking the scenic route to Bodie, CA doesn't count.) We had a blast, saw some really cool stuff and I'm excited for the next roadie.

It's been a while.......

Lessons come in many forms, sometimes they sneak in and sometimes they walk up and smack ya.
For a long time I've thought I have, um, an interesting job.  Not interesting in the same way that that researchers do or cops/fire people do but interesting in it's very own special way.  Proprietary education gives you the opportunity to meet & work with people you may never have met otherwise.  Co-workers and students.  This isn't going to be a rant about work or idiots driving to work or anything like that.  I need to say this right up front because if I wait and explain first you might not get all the way to what I want to say, by no fault of yours but because I may loose my train of thought. 
So, family & friends I want you to know I feel so blessed (yes blessed) to have you in my life.  Thank you for all that you do and are. I need to apologize for all of the times I have slighted, offended and hurt. I'm sure there are many, some I am aware of and some I'm not either because I didn't get called out on it or I missed the obvious cues.  Please assume ignorance not malice, I wouldn't ever do it on purpose.  There are people in my life that are amazing people that I admire that I have forgotten to make sure they know.  These are the people who always get the brunt of what ever negative emotions/actions I have and or do.  There are times when I have a quota on nice/friendly/helpful and use it all up and any reserve with /on everyone/thing but them.  Unfortunately Mark, mom & dad end up taking the brunt of my rants, it's because they are safe, not (believe it or not) because I enjoy tormenting them.  I need to thank them for their patience and wise counsel, even when I ignore it.  When I met Mark all of  the pieces came together and it's wonderful.  I can't believe my parents made it through all of us (the good, bad & the ugly) and stayed moderately sane and married for 43 years.  My grandma is amazingly strong, I can not imagine (I'm guessing here) but after 60 some odd years together waking up with out your partner must be so hard.  Speaking of strong, my aunt Kelly is one of the most incredible people I have ever met. Her grace and humor is remarkable and most amazingly she keeps us.  :)  There are people and things I could go on and on about, but I'm going to call it here for right now. 
THANK YOU!  THANK YOU! Even if I never tell you all how much I love you and am so grateful for you. 
So now the thought is "why is she being sappy all of a sudden?"  Well, this is where the interesting job comes in.  First, I have to say that people that work in private education are a very special group of people, even the ones who only stop in for a sec, wise up and run like hell.  Some pretty amazing people, crazy as hell but amazing. 
Well, the sappy and lesson comes on the heels of several very interesting (and in some cases disheartening and some very surprising) conversations with students/grads. 
There are so many people that have no family and in some cases few friends.  I have this in spades. For those with friends and family, there are ones who would be better off with neither,  because they are either mean, nasty, crazy or just plain not capable of love, kindness or compassion.  I've got some crazies but they are all capable of love, kindness and compassion and it is readily available in copious amounts.  I don't have the words to say how much it means to me to be so lucky.  I love you and thank you.

Totally dorkness.

As I'm sitting here typing the news is on and the current story was about banning a book in the school library's called In My Mothers House. On the cover is two women and 3 children of varying nationalities. Lets get real folks, get over yourselves, family is whatever your family is. Whoever loves you and that you love. Family can't always be mom, dad and 2.5 children with a white picket fence and a dog. What message are we giving those kids that come from non traditional families? That they don't count? That they are a "family"? What about kids that live with their grand parents, or single parent house holds. Isn't it better to live in a family that has love regardless of who it is than with family that can only be dad, mom, 2.5 kids and a dog?  Speaking of banning books from the library.  That crap around 50 Shades of Gray, if you don't like it or think it is inappropriate DON'T READ IT!!!!  I picked it up, I had to see what the issue was.  When I got it all I actually knew almost nothing, didn't even know the basic premise.  Well, it's not a series I am going to finish, it is really too much for my comfort level.  I don't care who you sleep (or not) with and I don't care how you choose to do it. Just because I am not planning on reading the other two doesn't mean that you shouldn't read any of them.  Leave 'em in the libraries and just don't read it.  Problem solved. 
Fun stuff goin' on.  Well, if your kind of a dork, and I am.  First thing this morning I've got a guy in a Chrysler 300 (heeelllooooo Hemi) that actually worked really hard to try and get me to race.  Yeah, no kidding.  Now I'm not sure what kind of a bad morning he had but if he feels the need to race a girl at 7:30 in the morning  it couldn't have been a good one. I didn't, I would really like to say it is because I would smoke him (in a perfect world) and I didn't need to prove anything (even though I would have smoked his ass).  However, as he was doing this thing I was working really hard not to tip over or anything else to look stupid because that's when it's going to happen.  The real reason I didn't is because I'm a big fat chicken,  I rode on the freeway yesterday and was thrilled, it was almost a major life achievement. 

Also falls into the 'oh shit' category

Poor bugger.  Can't imagine that went over well.  "Um,  boss.........."

It's that time again........

We've got about a dozen tomatoes and 5 sweet peas,never grown pea's before.  Yay!!!  There are 9 tomato plants this year, and they are spread out.  Not like last year when they were all bunched up.  Mark is building me a dog deterrent fence and here's to hoping it work's.  One of my plants isn't doing so hot and I actually thought "oh, I'll ask grandpa when we see him", then it dawned on me that I wouldn't be.  I can't believe for just a minute I forgot but when it dawned on me it sucked, talked to my dad for a minute and just bawled.  Like a freaking baby.  Evey time I smell fresh lilacs it makes me think of grandma and it makes me happy and smile, I hoping my tomato's will make me smile soon. Ok, need to move on..........
 It's racing season again.  Went to Horsepower Heaven on Saturday.  Total blast.  Went by myself and met 2 new friends "old guy 1' b& "old guy 2".  Old guy 2's name is Rick, they are here from Bakersfield with a friend racing one of the Top Fuel Dragsters.  A tad scary because they were 70+.  If you weren't able to go here is a little of what you missed.

#46 is a 15 year old girl.

Trains rock

Love this guy

What are races w/o a little ass crack?

Ummmmm