Jake and Ani’s Trip to the Mojave

We just got back from a Desert Field Studies Center in the Mojave Desert. We went there as a class for Cuesta College and had a blast!!! We started off the trip by meeting at Cuesta College at 6:30 am on Thursday April 30th. That means we had to get up at 5:00 am. Yikes!

First Gila Monster reported in the area for decades.

Good thing our bags were packed and we were ready for the adventure. It took about 5 hours to get there with various stops on the way to see Joshua trees and Juniper trees. We already knew about those Junipers!

After arriving at the Center we got our room assignments, unpacked, and then were off to dinner. After dinner we had a lecture and then off to astronomy. We observed the Moon and Saturn including the rings that night. It was so awesome and really interesting!

Friday was a full and fun day. On Friday we went to the Lava Wash and hunted lizards. On the way to the wash we spotted a Desert Tortoise on the side of the road. It was about 8 inches long and estimated to be 20 years old. When we got to the site we started out lizard hunting. This entailed tieing a slip knot with dental floss at the end of a car antenna and catching all you could find. Neither Jake nor I caught any that day, but we had so much fun trying. After all was caught, we observed them and documented our findings.

Here we are upon arrival at the Desert Studies Center

After lizard hunting we came back to camp and had another lecture about desert fish and then off to dinner. After dinner, and when it was dark enough, we were off to scorpion hunting. Jake and I each had our black lights, which when shined on a scorpion will cause it to become florescent. That was fun until my shoe got caught in some barbed wire. I couldn’t see, and it ripped the front part of my shoe. Im just lucky it wasn’t my leg!

Saturday was our absolute favorite. Jake and I and our class woke up very early and we were off to the Kelso Dunes. Once there, we loaded up on water, our lizard nooses, and sunscreen (which I seemed to forget) and were on our way up the dunes. It was 1.5 miles to the top and 700 ft up – in sand. Jake caught a Leopard Lizard on the way up. He noosed it, and then wrestled it to the ground. Maybe not that extreme but it was a big lizard and it was quite the sight. We continued on our way and it was getting harder and harder for me.

I wanted to quit several times but Jake was there cheering and encouraging me on. Did I mention how wonderful he is? We both made it to the top and what an experience it was! Seeing the 360 degree view of the dunes was breathtaking. I would do it again! We also saw another tortoise at the dunes. After the dunes we visited the Vulcan Mines. It was awesome to see all the Iron filled rocks.

On our way back from that we see our instructor slam on his brakes and pull over to the side of the road (we saw this with the first desert tortoise). We assumed it was a large snake or something. We all get out and it was a Gila Monster. This was awesome because there have been no Gila Monster sightings recorded in 40 years.

Our instructor, who specialized in Herpetology, was in a state of euphoria. It brought him to tears. It was so incredible to see. We came home today after a 5 hour car ride. I would do it again in a second. We both learned so much about the desert life and would love to learn more in the future. Here are the photos from our trip. Hope you enjoy them!

A hymn and a court of honor

I know that “America the Beautiful” has been in our hymn books as long as I can remember, but I don’t think I’ve ever really thought of it as a hymn to God. After all, it is stuck at the back of the hymn book (#338) with the likes of the “Star Spangled Banner” (#340) and “God Save the King” (#341), and we tend to dust it off in summer and forget abut it the rest of the year.

So that song’s status as a hymn has just not impressed itself on my mind and heart, the way say “I Stand All Amazed” has and does.

That is, not until Tuesday evening.

Immediately following the invocation at her nephew’s Eagle Scout court of honor AnnaLisa Stratton sang the hymn, solo and a capella. Her rendering of the hymn – all four verses – was as much a prayer as the invocation offered by her brother-in-law, Lance. He had prayed, among other things, for a spirit of patriotism to be felt by those present.

When AnnaLisa concluded “America the Beautiful,” there was a silence and a discernible spirit of God and country so strong, that for several seconds no one moved (if they even breathed) until Eagle Candidate Cameron Nettle’s soccer coach Donny Matticks started clapping and urged all to join. 

The Nettles: Zachary, Shelley, Cameron and Steve

That spirit tangibly invoked the theme of Cameron’s court of honor. It is a theme expressed in the Scout Oath, which begins “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country….”

On the patriot side of things, Cameron’s uncle Scott, a fighter squadron commander in the U.S. Air Force and himself an Eagle Scout, recited the oath as he spoke of God and country and of leadership. 

The Oath also speaks of helping other people and of obeying the Scout Law, a collection of 12 principles to guide moral behavior. Cameron’s grandfather, Lorum Stratton, himself a former Scoutmaster, gave a demonstration on the Scout Law. Aided by six Scouts in his demonstration, Grandpa Stratton identified in Cameron’s life 12 men who exemplified each one of those virtues until all 12 virtues were described.

Cameron’s high school soccer coach spoke of Cameron’s leadership and teachability.  Another of Cameron’s uncles – Jess Karren, who was cited by Grandpa Stratton as an exemplar of bravery in his service as a peace officer – provided the benediction.

It was a lovely way to spend an hour or so of a Tuesday evening, and inspired gratitude for the blessings of God, of this nation, and of the Boy Scouts of America.

Tech vs. UT – a sociological delight

Red Raider fans whoop it up

Students started standing in line at Jones Stadium MONDAY for Pete’s Sake, to get the best seats (student seating is not reserved). They pitched tents. Some had generators. Tuesday there were a couple hundred who had taken up residence at “Raiderville.” They even have a mayor and a police department. By Wednesday there were 700 residents. Thursday another 1,000 moved in. Friday classes across campus were noticeably  devoid of students. If it were Harbor High in the early sixties, I’d swear 17th Street was breaking over head with a 15-knot offshore and water temps in the 70s. 

Tech football team in black

All that is interesting enough, but somebody else started moving onto campus Tuesday. ESPN. ESPN is doing their College Game Day thing on the Tech campus. So they started moving in Tuesday. They plunked down their trailers, their trucks, their cameras, their satellite dishes, furniture, fencing and all right in the middle of campus. They took over the Tech Engineering Key with all their munitions. And it’s clear they agree with Sports Illustrated. This is ESPN’s “Saturday Showdown.” 

Aurora Borealis shining down in Dallas

The Muppet Movie had a number of great lines, great songs, and great lines in great songs — if you enjoy playing with words. This morning we had a glorious natural sunrise phenomenon that inspired Nancy to quote a song from the movie.

We had some thunderstorms roll through the South Plains last night, and around 8:30 our power went out for about three hours. So when we got up in the morning, we went through the ritual of re-setting the clocks and radios and anything else with real-time timers and checking other appliances for signs of life. 

There were still some lingering storms as the sun began to rise. For just a few minutes, as the rising sun peeked over the horizon but under the clouds there was a grand and glorious glow. I motioned Nancy to come outside, and her immediate response was “Aurora Borealis shining down in Dallas…” to which the only response could be “can you picture that?” Picture that?

Picture! It was a transient phenomenon, so I ran back into the house to snag a camera and did manage to get a couple of quick shots before it entirely disappeared.

“We have met the enemy, and he is us!”

One of my favorite cartoons used to be Walt Kelly’s “Pogo.” One particular episode in the life of Pogo Possum dealt with high-minded political discussion about environmental pollution. In the course of conversation, Albert (the alligator) flips his cigar into the swamp. In agony, Pogo cries, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
Monday night we all (three households, 7 souls altogether) agreed to meet at Buns Over Texas for dinner. At our home, we have contractors in refinishing the floors in the living room and kitchen; so we pretty much had to eat out. And Nancy has been watching the Aiden and Lilly in the afternoon until Kenneth can pick them up. So here we all show up at a burger place for dinner. Somehow the conversation turned to global warming / climate change / greenhouse gases. I looked at our table and laughed. Seven people and we got there in five separate vehicles. I thought of Pogo.
We have met the enemy, and he is us.

No stroke – Bell’s Palsy

Well, at least we can be grateful it wasn’t a stroke. Should have been easy to figure out. It was only my face that was messed up, not the whole right side of the body. So Nancy and Marina had figured Bell’s Palsy even before Doc McCarty came in Monday. He confirmed their diagnosis. It seems that the palsy is an artifact of a little cold I have been dealing with.

Never trust a virus you can’t see with the naked eye.

The good news is that it isn’t a stroke. The bad news is there is no cure. The good news is it usually goes away on its own, in 3-6 months. Good news is that they can hasten the acute part of the process with steroids. Bad news is that [Read more]

Jacob stiffed at Circuit City

In the Black Friday feeding frenzy this morning, opportunists at Circuit City abused the system and left Jake and Andrea shivering in the cold. Here’s what happened.

Long on the prowl for a notebook computer he could take to classes, Jake was encouraged when the Thanksgiving newspaper advertisements listed a name brand laptop computer for $299. He and Andrea got up at 3 a.m., drove the 30 miles to San Luis Obispo, and got in line in freezing weather.

At the appointed hour, Circuit City employees handed out all the vouchers for computers to a few people at the front of the line. Those people, now armed with multiple vouchers, walked down the line offering to sell the vouchers — at a profit for themselves — to others in line. One of the scalpers was asking $100 just for the voucher. In this manner, if he had three takers, he would be getting a free computer.

Jake and Andrea refused to play that game, but told store managers, pointing out one of the scalpers in line to claim a computer. The Circuit City managers’ response was “there is nothing we can do about it.” What do you think?

House hunting

There’s a piece in the New York Times about trying to sell a $135 million home. The home is on 95 acres near Aspen, Colo. and is billed as the most expensive single-family residential property on the market in the U.S. There’s a number of nice photos of the 46,000 sq. ft. palace. If you have nothing better to do, take a look by clicking on the link above.

Gramps buys a Mac, for Pete’s sake!

Okay, I finally did it.

I started my formal departure from the Evil Empire. After 25 years of DOS / Win as my main environment with a little bit of VMS, UNIX, and a fair smattering of Linux thrown in, my new main machine at home is a Mac Pro.

It happened this way.

In the fall of [Read more]

Dreaming of a white … Easter

A couple days ago we were basking in the warmth of three weeks of weather mostly in the 70s, warm, sunny days punctuated by a few thunderstorms here and there. We put away the winter clothing. Took the comforter off the bed.

Lawns were green. Trees had blossomed and now were leafing out in fast pursuit of summer. When the weather folk started talking Thursday about cold fronts and the chance of snow for the weekend, we thought it was a tasteless joke.

Can you believe it? It got cold Friday, and in the afternoon it started drizzling. Somewhere about 7:30 Saturday morning it started snowing. Big, gloppy snowflakes coming down think and fast enough you really didn’t want to drive anywhere. It’s supposed to warm up a little on Sunday, and then be back in the mid-70s by Tuesday. Go figure.

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