Life in the Valley

It is mid-November.  The forecasted high for the next four days in degrees Fahrenheit is 72, 72, 77, and 82.  This is why I have an orange tree.  This also creates winter Texans, some of whom live in the nicest mobile home parks I have ever seen.  

While driving home from work, I saw a truck with a magnetic sign advertising a concrete company.  The company's specialties?  Sidewalks, Drive-ways, Additions, and Remodelation.  Yes, someone ordered, and someone else printed, a sign using the word remodelation. 

I finally saw the Rio Grande.  To see the river, I had to walk out on an international bridge because the view was otherwise obstructed by a tall, thick concrete fence that cost $1 million a mile to construct.  In San Antonio, the river was lined with expensive homes, restaurants, lush vegetation, and sidewalks.  

Yesterday, I visited my neighbors at their house for the first time.  They invited me in and then gave me a tour of the entire house, including the master bedroom and bathroom.

The majority of my driving occurs at no more than 40 miles per hour, even when the speed limit exceeds 40 miles per hour.

My car insurance rate went up after I moved here.  Apparently, car theft is popular when an international border is only 11 miles away.  

I receive more Spanish TV stations than English TV stations.  Some of the Spanish stations are picked up from Mexico.  News broadcasts in Mexico are. . . tailored to please men.  Mexican TV programming in general is . . . tailored to please men.  

I tried Pan de Campo for the first time.  It's yummy.  I'll share some with you if you're ever in town.

Clowning Around

King William

King William: the awesome neighborhood in which I used to live; the neighborhood that has more character than words or pictures can capture; a place you must live to understand.

My home.

 The neighbors.

Nature.

Restaurants, restaurants, restaurants.

My homing beacon, the Tower of the Americas.

Sights seen via a short bike ride.

Cheers King William!  Thank you for so many great memories!

Before and After

This is where I used to live.  It was beautiful with or without all of my treasures.  

Showers of Blessings

Today makes two weeks that Chris and I have lived in our new house in our new hometown.  Getting here was no small feat.  There were uncertainties about work and a home purchase.  On Tuesday, October 12, we packed our final possessions into a moving truck with no place to take them.  This was a low point - the kind that tests a marriage and patience and short tempers.  Then, this week happened.  I started my new job, Chris and I closed on our house, and Chris found work in our new hometown

Chris attributed our good fortune to the Dallas Cowboys win last Sunday.  His reasoning: He always has a good week after the Dallas Cowboys win.  I respectfully disagree.  There is someone greater than the Dallas Cowboys watching over us, guiding us, and blessing us.  Thankfully, His blessings do not depend on the Dallas Cowboys.

Moving - The End

Chris and I arrived at our new home four days ago.  We unpacked the final boxes last night, and we are already feeling quite settled.  Getting to this point, however, was nothing short of eventful...

1.  Chris was summoned for jury duty six days before we had to vacate our apartment in San Antonio.  He was subsequently selected to serve on the jury and was unavailable for three days.  Perfect timing.

2.  I rented a U-Haul truck for our move.  When Chris and I picked up the truck at the rental facility, I noticed that a lot of the trucks displayed messages about using the truck for "Your Moving Adventure" underneath happy pictures of animals and nature.  While the slogan and images evoked ideas of fun and pleasant memories, the act of moving does not actually create very many fun or pleasant memories.

3.  Moving is a beast when you have appliances and big furniture.  I now know that moving a couple of appliances and a few big pieces of furniture is a lot more work than moving twice as many boxes and small pieces of furniture.   Thank you so much to Ed, Felipe, and Justin for helping Chris and I load everything.  

4.  I loved my apartment in San Antonio so much that I became emotional when it was time to say good-bye and shut the door one last time.  In my defense, I believe that my emotional state was also affected by the temporary homelessness that followed.

5.  Regarding temporary homelessness, moving is a lot less stressful if you know when you can move into your new home before you have to leave your old home.  Praise God for good friends who shared their home for a few days and an enterprising young man who gave Chris and I a "cash payment discount" of 50% on late charges when we returned our moving truck two days late. 

6.  Renting a 26-foot moving truck with an auto transport trailer should probably be against the law, or at least against U-Haul company policy.  After four days with an oversized truck and trailer, I give you the "Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Rent a 26-Foot Moving Truck with Auto Transport Trailer":

(10) A 26 foot truck is the biggest truck you can rent from U-Haul and therefore costs the most money.

(9) Renting a 26 foot truck means that you have enough treasures to fill it, which is entirely too many treasures.

(8) Parking on the street is really your only option, and it requires half a block of empty space and no overhanging trees.

(7) Buying gas requires multiple transactions because most gas stations impose a $100 limit on each transaction.

(6) While driving, (a) the truck may leak fuel, (b) a chain on the trailer may drag the ground and create a never ending stream of sparks, and (c) these two events may occur at the same time. 

(5) The truck comes with a disclaimer that it is not waterproof, but the truck is too deep to examine for possible leaks after it is filled and it starts raining.  

(4) Backing up: The sheer size of the truck and trailer combination make it humanly impossible to simultaneously monitor both sides of the truck and remain close enough to yell directions at the driver attempting to back up  

(3) Backing up in public: Everyone offers to help, including a doped-out homeless person who stands behind the truck, yells confusing directions, and then exclaims halfway through the process that he "didn't know there was a trailer attached."

(2) Missing your exit on the freeway requires rerouting your trip instead of turning around and risking additional situations that require backing up in public.

(1) Driving the truck while towing the trailer will exhaust you mentally and physically, which leaves you in no state to unload the truck at your new home.  

Praise God for watching over Chris and I throughout our move and bringing us to our new home safe and sound.  I look forward to making new friends and memories in our new home.

Moving - Part 2

All the boxes, popping bubble wrap, and noisy rolls of packing tape have caused Doug visible anxiety.  I think he was beginning to worry that we might not take him with us.

Chris hypothesized that Doug was separated from his first family during a move, which has resulted in his current moving anxiety.  I don't know if that's true, but I do know that this has been a very stressful move for me (more on that later).  If a bad moving experience causes future anxiety, I will be a nervous wreck the next time I move.   

Apps

I'm not one to seek out the newest or coolest apps for my iPhone, but a friend recently showed me a really cool app for stitching photos together to form panoramic pictures.  My first attempt at using the app was at a women's NBA basketball game:

While this picture captures the atmosphere in an arena, all the movement going on caused my friend's head to look a bit Picasso like.  After more practice stitching photos, however, I was able to capture this pretty awesome picture of the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth:

Special thanks to Fred for showing me this cool app!  I'm lovin' it (that's a shout out to the McDonald's where I'm typing this)!

Moving - Part 1

Chris and I are in the process of moving.  The first step in our move was finding a new place to move to.  A few weeks ago, we made a last minute trip to the Valley, our future home, to look at housing options.  Because the trip was last minute, we had no choice but to take Doug with us.

We left our apartment early in the morning.  Doug was very excited when I asked him if he wanted to go for a ride as we were preparing to leave.  Doug was also very excited to be in the car with us as we traveled over 200 miles to our destination.  Doug was even more excited once we arrived in the Valley and stopped at a park to play ball.  Doug was not so happy, however, when we left him in the car as we began looking for our new home.  At first, Doug cried as we walked away from the car without him.  After a couple of stops, he realized what was going on and tried with all his might to sneak out of the car as we shut the doors.   I felt sorry for Doug, but we always made sure to crack the car windows, park in the shade, keep our stops as short as possible, and give Doug plenty of time between stops to recover from the increased anxiety he appeared to be experiencing.

Toward the end of our house hunting day, we stopped at a house and left Doug in the car.  I cracked my window and squeezed out my door while holding Doug at bay.  Chris and I entered the house with our real estate agent and began looking at the living space on the main floor.  After three or four minutes, we heard the front door open.  Chris, the real estate agent, and myself turned around at the same moment and were surprised to see the door opening by itself.  When we looked down, we saw Doug running toward us with his ears back, tongue out, and whole body wagging as if to say, "Hey guys, you forgot me in the car but aren't you proud of me for finding you."  Chris and I looked at our real estate agent in disbelief and then walked to the car.  The car doors were securely shut.  That's when we noticed the smear marks on the passenger side window likely caused by dog paws and a wet nose, and we realized that Doug squeezed his way through the crack in the passenger side window.  I imagine it looked something like this picture I took one time while I pumped gas, only with a much smaller crack in the window:

Silly Doug.  Next time we'll plan better and leave you at doggy day care.  

More Shenanigans

One of the seventh-grade pathfinders I work with broke his arm recently.  I asked him what happened the first time I saw his arm wrapped in bandages and a sling.  He glanced at me and looked down at his arm sheepishly.  Then, without a grin or any hesitation, he told me that he tried to arm wrestle Chuck Norris.  Clever Fletcher, very clever.  

Sabbath Shenanigans

Today was a great day for a picnic with the furry friend.

After the picnic, we ran into this constipated-looking Scally Wompus! 

Bad Dougie

Doug, my dog, is not allowed on the furniture.  Lately, however, he has realized that no one will punish him if he climbs on the couch after Chris and I leave for the day.  Unfortunately, he has not realized that   certain items lazily left on the couch are clear and convincing evidence of his secret behavior:

Bad Doug!  Go sit in time-out!

Surprise! It's a Meal!

I recently went to my first baby shower hosted at a Spanish church.  I'm accustomed to finger food and cake at a baby shower, so I was shocked when the hostess served everyone this:

Everyone else at the shower acted like a full meal was normal and expected at a baby shower, that is everyone except for myself and the only other blonde woman present.  For us, the meal was a delicious surprise.

Tiny Baby

Last month I saw giant elephants walking on the access road. This month, I found a tiny baby squirrel laying in the middle of a street in my neighborhood. I wonder what animal encounter next month will bring?  Please, no snakes.  

AutoMech

Chris and I went to a car museum.  There were lots of cars, and I took my time examining them until I realized that I was on one of four levels.  The museum had A LOT of cars, and one really cool pegasus.

Chris was particularly interested in the race car, probably because race car driver is his dream job, or maybe because he was examining the wall mounting system.

After looking at so many cars, I learned that old cars have cool details - lights that resemble lamps or eyes, curves galore, and tons of chrome.  I like old cars.

I also learned that the first electric cars were invented in the early 1900's and were considered vehicles for women and doctors.  They had feminine details like lace curtains and a flower vase.  I don't know why electric cars weren't popularized until the Prius, or why doctors drove feminine cars in the early 1900's.

While in the museum, I finally found a Ferrari that I would drive.  I never really like Ferraris before visiting the museum.  I think the problem was that I never saw multiple Ferraris lined up together. 

Chris found a model of his very first car.  Unfortunately, we didn't find the car he drove when I met him.  I guess a multicolored Chevy Cavalier without heating is not classic . . . yet.

Seaside

My cousin Seth called this a pigeon brothel.   I like it, so I must like pigeon brothels. 

Family Vacation

My dad's family reunited in the Seattle area last week.   My dad's family last gathered in July of 2000.

Twelve years later, our outward appearances had changed a lot!

One highlight of the reunion was a family beach walk on Marrowstone Island.  My uncle stuck his hands into the tide pools and pulled out all kinds of sea creatures.  We saw sea anemone, star fish, crabs, sea roaches, and lots of sand dollars.

While on the beach we met a very friendly little boy who told us that he had collected over 1,000 golf balls on the beach, that his dog saved him after a bicycle accident, and that he sells marshmallow roasters that he makes out of golf clubs and forks.  While shopping downtown later that day, I found this sign next to some handsomely crafted marshmallow roasters.  Maybe that little boy wasn't telling me tall tales after all.

Another highlight of the reunion was my great grandmother's memorial service, during which family members recalled funny and heartwarming stories about my great grandmother's 99 year life.  After the memorial service, my cousins and I played dodgeball in the church gym.  My dad even joined in the game, and I saw him run for the first time in years.  I think my great grandma would be happy that her family had so much fun at her memorial service.

On Saturday night, our final evening together, my cousins and I competed in a photo scavenger hunt.  When we returned from the scavenger hunt with nothing but our cameras, my grandpa told us that people didn't return from a scavenger hunt empty-handed in his day. We had to explain that our loot was digital.  After 45 minutes of heated judging by the "adults," my grandpa retreated to his office to tally the scores with his calculator.

When grandpa returned, everyone looked at him in anticipation.  With a captive audience, Grandpa paused and then said, "Now, I have just one more question..."  Grandpa!  He finally determined that my team lost the scavenger hunt by a mere 150 points.  

Overall, it was a very good family vacation.  My cousins are cool, and I hope that we don't wait another twelve years to reunite again.  

Back to the Basics

This weekend I learned how to start a fire with a magnifying glass.  It was a good weekend.

Cave Things

I went to Natural Bridge Caverns.  The cave formations at Natural Bridge Caverns were very similar to the formations I saw in Carlsbad Caverns a couple of years ago.  The theme in both caves? Wet, slimy, and lumpy.

For example, here is a cave formation in Natural Bridge Caverns:

And here is a cave formation in Carlsbad Caverns:

Natural Bridge Caverns:

Carlsbad Caverns:

The biggest difference between the two caves is the lighting, which of course was added by man.

Until a new cave can promise me something other than wet, slimy, and lumpy, I think I've seen my quota of cave things for one life.  

Urban Safari

Just another day waiting to enter the highway.  

I always yield to animals that can crush my car if provoked.