I'm Talking to Myself:

LA, Second Day

2008-12-09T23:07:00.006-06:00

We didn't have time to do much of anything art related today -- we were due at Terry's father's new apt. at 1 or 2pm, so we headed to a place for lunch called the Green Street Restaurant in Pasadena, which had delicious food, then headed over to Hal and Madeleine's.

They are both about to turn 90, and this year they had to give up driving, give up their car, sell their private apartment, and move into a combination assisted living/independent living place.

Although their new place is about half the size of their old place, it's really an improvement! Their previous apartment was on the bottom floor of a complex in Westwood, was surrounded by tall buildings, did not receive much sunlight and did not have any views. Their new apartment is one floor below the penthouse of an 18-story building, with fabulous 180 degree views looking northwest, west, and southwest towards the faraway ocean, the hills and forests, and you can even see downtown LA from their balcony.

We had a nice visit with them, and made plans for dinner the next night and again Thursday, the last night before catching the train back home.

These are a couple of pics from their balcony.

After our visit (Hal and Madeleine had plans for cocktails with friends that evening), we checked out a seafood place near our hotel on Colorado St., Cameron's Seafood Market, which turned out to have quite tasty food. We had shrimp cocktail with 6 huge delicious shrimp, and kabobs of shrimp and scallops with bacon. Yum.

LA 2008

2008-12-07T23:38:00.003-06:00

I promised my husband we could go to visit his father and his father's wife in California, after my fall art season of shows and events was over.

He took me up on my promise, and not quite 2 short weeks after the East Austin Studio Tour, we headed to San Antonio in the car to catch the Sunset Limited train to LA. But before leaving, I had to pack, burglar-proof the house (well, as much as is possible), and take care of some dangerous code some hacker had inserted into several of our web pages (a 3-4 hour clean-up job). Thanks, hackers (spell that beginning with a f-u) -- it is my sincere belief that hackers are worse even than junk mailers, telemarketers, and cockroaches. I mean, at least cockroaches serve a useful purpose, even if they are filthy and disgusting.

Point being, I got zero sleep before our trip, so when we boarded the train at 5:30 a.m., I had been awake for about 20 hours. I couldn't fall asleep on the train either -- I was too wound up -- until after breakfast, so make it about 24 hours without a wink of sleep.

But then it seemed almost all I did was sleep (and get up for lunch, dinner, breakfast again) until we arrived in LA a whole hour early! Not like last year's train trip to LA, in which we were about 8 hours late, and almost missed (by seconds!) getting our rental car. This time, we were too early, and the car we planned on renting wasn't ready yet, so we had to upsize (!).

We had a contingency plan for being late; but not one for being early. So I called my friend Patri, and we headed to her new place in San Gabriel, where we hung out for awhile, then went out for some pretty good Mexican food (but nothing like Austin style, and sadly so), and then did a whirlwind tour of the Norton Simon Museum, which had a tiny show called Marcel Duchamp Redux (a literal copy of a show they had had there decades earlier). They had prints mostly of about 14 pieces from the earlier 1963 show, all in one small room.

More exciting to me were a few pieces from the post painterly abstract painters Sam Francis and Helen Frankenthaler; especially the Frankenthaler piece, which was a huge, all orange stain painting (orange -- my favorite color! So exciting!!!). The painting was called "Adriatic," from 1968, and the snippet of quote I copied from the gallery card was this: "What concerns me is -- did I make a beautiful picture?" Well, I'd have to say emphatically, YES! I think (I'm afraid) I have similar sensibilities, whether that be good or not so good these days. What can I say?

There were some other great pieces in the room, "Tall Figure IV" by Giacometti; "Three Standing Figures," 1953, by Henry Moore; "Untitled," 1962-63 by Robert Irwin; "Horseman," 1947, by Marino Martini; and "Bottles," 1960, by Diebenkorn. And more, but I didn't have a chance to take any more names or notes.

Patri was getting antsy being in the museum, but we spent a few minutes admiring the perfect yellow Van Gogh had used to paint a straw hat and a tree (2 different works), a couple of pieces of Cezanne's, including one of his fantastic tulips paintings, a Monet, and I forgot what else -- some more Impressionist works.

We also peered at the "On the Enlightened Path: Jain Art from India";
"Ruth Weisberg: Guido Cagnacci and the Resonant Image"; "Under the Influence: Art-Inspired Art"; and "The Art of War: American Posters from World War I and World War II" -- which was really quite fascinating.

We ended our too brief excursion to the Norton Simon with a stroll through the gardens. We then headed back to Patri's apartment, where her child's father was baby-sitting their kid, darling little Kevin, and had dinner; then checked into into our hotel room in Pasadena for the evening.

Hail Storm - Austin

2008-05-15T10:14:00.016-05:00

About 12:20am last night, a huge storm blew through Austin, with gold-ball sized hail lasting what seemed like a long time, but was probably only 5 or 10 minutes. As a neighbor noted, it sounded we were "under artillery fire (or in a washing machine with metal golf balls)."

My dear sweet husband ran and threw blankets and comforters over our cars to protect them from dents, while I stood outside on the porch watching in amazement as small branches came raining down all over the yard and street.

The storm blew in fast and hard from the west, and yet hail landed at my east facing front door, 6 feet in from the roof over the porch. I think the hail was breaking the small branches off. Power went out briefly a couple of times. The wind was blowing quite hard, but I've seen stronger, longer-lasting winds blow through here before. What I haven't seen before was the constant rain of small tree limbs - a shower of leaves and limbs.

Some neighbors believe we may have had a bit of a tornado -- apparently, the damage was much worse further east: broken windshields and house windows, trees down and even uprooted, plus many people had their power out for most of the night. Maybe they're right. At one point, from inside with the storm door locked, the door started pulsating back and forth, and I actually began to be a little afraid that we might be having a tornado.

The back of our garage (facing west) shows how hard the hail was hitting. (See clean spots in the picture below). Wooden chairs on the back deck have some impact splinters.

Hail on the deck, 15-20 minutes after the brief hailstorm:

Morning after the brief hailstorm (front yard, shredded plants in garden, shredded banana plant):

States Visited

2008-04-29T16:04:00.001-05:00

create your own visited states map

Countries I've Visited

2008-04-29T15:58:00.001-05:00

create your own visited countries map

Returning Home

2007-09-02T05:00:00.000-05:00

Packed up and headed for the train; everything has gone very smoothly. We didn’t sleep as well this part of the train trip (next time, I’m packing my own pillow!). The train had the usual waits for freight trains east of LA, and started with another medical emergency, but it wasn't those that slowed the train down. Rains and flash floods in eastern California did, though. Sigh!

We ate, slept, read, and I drew some…it was very relaxed trip home, but once again, we were about 4 hours late in arriving at our final train destination, San Antonio (with an further hour and a half trip back to our home in Austin). I do wish Amtrak could get funding to build their own set of tracks. It seems that would enable the trains to (mostly) run on time, and no doubt, the trip would be much smoother!

We arrived back home about 4:00 a.m.; as much fun as it is to travel, it's so much better to come home!

Song Kun at the Hammer Museum; Last Day in LA

2007-08-30T23:00:00.000-05:00

One last breakfast in San Diego, then we headed back to LA. We moved our quarters to the Holiday Inn Express on Olympic Blvd., a far nicer and more regular place than the Stars Inn, though twice as expensive!

After checking in, Terry and I had a few hours for some art, so we headed over to the Hammer Museum to see Eden’s Edge, a show of 15 LA Artists. It was very interesting; all the artists are far more capable of extreme obsession than am I. I liked some of the work; though not all.

On our way out, we almost missed a small show by emerging Chinese painter Song Kun, who filled a small gallery with 97 daily paintings of her life…fabulous! Her work ranges from part drawn, part painted canvases to fully realized and very well-done representational works to a number of blank canvases. At first, I took one quick pass through the gallery, intending that to be it; then went back and looked at each painting more closely, then went back again, by this time fully drawn into her mesmerizing paintings. This was my favorite art of all that I’ve seen on this coastal trip!

We had dinner again with Terry’s father and Madelaine; it was kind of sad to leave them, though; they are getting pretty frail, and I think they are afraid we may not see them alive again. I feel fairly sure we will, but of course, they are 88 years old…

Crawling Around on Ships in San Diego Harbor

2007-08-29T23:00:00.000-05:00

Today we started out with another great breakfast down the street at The Café 222. I had Porky Eggs Benedict and Terry had the Eggs Italia.

Then we headed out for our first stop, the Midway Aircraft Carrier. What an interesting ship! It was enormous -- the flight deck alone is larger than 4 acres! We toured the hanger deck, the below decks, then went up onto the flight deck, where there were many restored fighter planes and wartime-type helicopters on board.

We took a tour of the Pri-Fli (primary flight control), the bridge, the Captain’s quarters, and the Admiral’s Country.

While we were getting a demonstration of the catapult system that shoots the planes off the carrier, there was a slight interruption for a re-enlistment ceremony for a sailor from the Ronald Reagan, a large carrier that was in the port for a few days. Actually, first he received his honorable discharge, and then he re-enlisted. It was kind-of charming to be allowed to witness this sailor’s ceremony, a bit of an honor.

I was actually surprised how interesting it was to tour the Midway. The biggest downside was that it was very hot up there -- especially in the enclosed quarters, but also on deck with the sun beating down on my thick black jeans.

After touring the Midway, we went to a Fish Market restaurant on the coast for a beer and a great lunch of prawn cocktail and shrimp avocado salad. A seagull was hanging out on the deck ledge beside us, and we saw him swoop down into the water and catch a small fish for his own lunch.

After lunch, we shot back up Harbor Blvd. to the Maritime Museum, which is about 5 boats docked there together that you can tour. We started on the HMS Surprise, the small frigate that was used in the movie "Master and Commander." It was a beautiful ship, but had quite a few cheesy displays on-board, mostly about pirates.

Next we boarded the Berkeley Ferry, a very large and quite beautiful ferry, with an ornate top deck complete with plenty of seating, a small stage for a band, a bar and a good-sized dance floor. There was a small sailing yacht moored to it’s side that we also investigated -- beautiful, but not too much more to say about it.

Next, we boarded the Star of India, a Bark type of sailing ship, used for hauling freight around the world. It has three main masts, two of which each have 3 square sails, and various triangular-shaped sails fore and aft.

This really wasn’t a very big ship; it had a lot of sails, but not really a lot of space. There was the cargo hold below (the only place that was supposedly always dry), and some berths for passage of poor immigrants in steerage, plus a couple of tiny cabins for first-class passengers (very, very tiny; and the passengers had to furnish their own cabins, bunks included!).

There was an amazing video playing on board -- shot in 1929 by a Capt. Johnson aboard a similar ship, called the Peking, on a voyage from Germany to Chile, starting in the deadly North Sea and then traveling around Cape Horn and then west 200 miles, before heading back in to Chile. They endured 3 major storms on this voyage, which Johnson shot from atop one of the masts -- an amazing scene of huge waves of ocean water sweeping across the deck, back and forth, completely engulfing it as it swept across. He talked about the nets that were put up on the sides of the ship during these storms to ‘strain’ the sailors from the water as the water washed back overboard.

He said the men’s clothes were always wet; that the air was mostly water, with a little air in it that one could breathe along with the gulps of water; and how when it rained, the men would catch the rainwater to wash their clothes with, as there wasn’t enough fresh water on board to spare for laundry.

He also talked about how self-sufficient the men on board were; they never wanted to pull into any harbor except to pick up or drop off cargo, so they brought all sorts of repair tools and supplies with them, and spent the time in the Doldrums making repairs. It was a fascinating video with great narration and amazing footage.

After the Star of India, we climbed into the Soviet submarine. Sheesh! It didn’t look too small on the outside, but it was tiny on the inside! They had a crew of 78 or 79, but I counted no more than 18 or 20 tiny bunks, stuffed into every available space around other equipment throughout the sub. We had to climb through 4 very small 'portholes' between sections of the ship. Got out just after the sun set…

For dinner, we chose an Italian place near the hotel called Chianti's, because their menu was in Italian (hence, they 'seemed' more authentic), and they looked like they might have been there awhile and might be staffed by pros. So far, every other restaurant we tried in the Gaslamp district had been staffed by very young, and very inexperienced wait staff. When a cute young man with Sid Vicious-style spiky hair came to wait on us, I thought we were in for it, but he was a stone-cold pro, and the food was the best of all the places we ate in San Diego! We had thick, perfectly cooked steaks with a fabulous mushroom sauce, wonderful crunchy vegetables, and a very nice Chianti (of course).

Balboa Park Museums and Dinner in the Gaslamp District

2007-08-28T23:00:00.000-05:00

Today we got up late, and I did some work for TSOS (the E-zine), which gave us an even later start to the day. We finally went to get some breakfast around 11:00 a.m. We went to a little place down Island Street called Café 222. Very Good! Terry had a standard, but tasty American breakfast; I had Eggs Italia, which were scrambled eggs with pesto, goat cheese and fresh tomatoes, served with focaccio bread and rosemary potatoes.

Then we headed up to Balboa Park. The first museum we came to was the Museum of Living Artists, so of course, we had to check that out. They had a show of local artists responding to the Dead Sea Scrolls (which are currently showing at the Museum of Natural History).

Good show, similar in some ways to an AVAA show. For a local show, I was impressed by the number of strong and thoughtful pieces. There were many interesting responses to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

There was a beautiful abstract called Mosaic #6 by Jane Fletcher, the prettiest piece in the show, a very funny piece called "The Dead Sea Squirrels" by Hank Gross, a very interesting torah-photo sculpture by Art Ferber, a thoughtful piece called “What Every Household Needs” by Nanette Newbry, that printed the entire Patriot Act in something like 1pt. type on a metal plate. One woman had created a piece that encompassed all (I think) of the text of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, each line of tiny text cut out and arranged in concentric shapes morphing from a circle of text to a butterfly, each shaped piece about 24” in diameter and encased between sheets of plastic (Cheryl Sorg, piece titled “Bodies I Have in Mind, and How They Can Change to Assume New Shapes"). Another notable piece was called "Scroll and Palimpsest" by Bob Simpson - a 13 panel long mixed media piece on plywood that beautifully incorporated marks that resembled writings with drawing and painting. There was a pretty groovy mixed media piece called "Sheep" by Wendy Kwasny-Bowen and a beautiful large oriental style scroll piece called "Waves in Conversation" by Rosemary Kimball, a nice small piece called "Fish Legend" by Meredith Cummings, and several other very nice or very thoughtful pieces, like "The Scroll That Never Ends" by Robert Collie, a digital piece about all the soldiers we’ve lost in Iraq.

There were also two featured artists with many works on display: Jo-Lind Eckstein and Claire-Lise Matthey Anderegg. They both did work that ranged from small to medium-large, and the work was layered and very richly textured. I loved both of their styles very much.

Next we went to the Museum of Art, and saw a few small rooms of paintings from Ingres to Frantisek Kupka and the surrealists. I really loved the Kupka piece! His work was apparently so avant-garde at the time, even the avant-garde didn’t get it. When asked what his work represented, he responded “Must then a work of art represent something?”

There was also a nice, elaborate show of Impressionist Artists of Giverny - lots of beautiful paintings by some of the apparently 350 artists painting around there at that time, including of course Monet, and also Frieseke, plus many I have never before heard of.

After the Art museum, we went to the Museum of Natural History. The first thing we saw was a large Foucault’s pendulum-very cool! We stood watching it for some time, hoping to see the pendulum knock over one of the many pieces of wood set up at the ends of the pendulum's arc of motion. I looked away once, and one got knocked over (!). The next one kept getting turned aside, and after 5-10 minutes of watching and waiting in anticipation, we finally gave up and moved on.

Lots of dinosaur displays throughout the floor we were on. . .

There was a very large globe displaying an animation in the round of the movement of the world’s landmasses caused by plate tectonics from 750 million years ago through today. Another animated display not only showed the shift in plate tectonics in the past, but also forward 250 million years into the future. Other than that, pretty standard stuff at this museum.

After the museums, we headed back to the hotel for a cold beer, a little reading on the balcony, and then a short nap before dinner. For dinner, we went to a Chinese place called “Blue Ginger.” Terry ordered some tasty trio of beef, chicken and shrimp, and I had the crispy scallops, which were huge, very juicy, very crispy, and absolutely delicious! Maybe the best scallops I've ever had at Chinese food place, and that is saying something! The only downside to this meal was that the computer went down just before we could take care of our tab , and the young waiter left us waiting for at least 15-20 minutes for it to revive, which it never did. Finally, Terry talked to the manager, who instructed the young man to add up our tab manually. Terry said to the manager, “when the computer goes down, the brains go away.” He laughed.

First Day in San Diego

2007-08-27T23:00:00.000-05:00

Started with a great breakfast around the corner from Pat’s downtown apartment, then we packed up and headed for San Diego. Like all of our drives on this trip so far, we encountered no traffic issues! Miraculous - our last trip was nothing BUT traffic issues!

Got to the Horton Grand Hotel right at check-in time, and we were given a very lovely 3rd floor room with a pretty solid view of a large treetop from the little adjoining balcony. It’s a very pleasant place to sit and read.

However, we were starving, so we scoured several blocks of the Gaslamp District around the hotel area to see what was available, and frankly, you couldn’t throw a stone in any direction without hitting an Irish Pub, Italian Restaurant or other fine dining establishment, and maybe a nightclub or two. We opted for fish and chips and a couple of Smithwick’s at the closest Irish Pub; the beer was great, but the fish was awful - dry, tough, and overcooked!

Later in the evening, we ate a great dinner at a Latin Fusion restaurant very close to the Hotel. The food was great -- there was a beautiful Russian girl hawking the restaurant right by the outdoor area where we were sitting. We chatted with her for a bit; I asked what part of Russia she was from, and when she replied, Terry asked if that was near Georgia. She got all huffy, saying Georgia is not a state, and then went on and on about something! I had told her I’d been to Moscow and St. Petersberg, and had loved them, and had then taken a train into Lithuania to visit my relatives, at which point she got all huffy again. “Lithuania is part of the EU, and we don’t need to be -- we don’t want to be! We're doing just fine!” (basically, we don’t need no stinking EU, thank you very much!). Such a proud little nationalist!

While enjoying our great food, from the pub across the street, we overheard some young men who were getting drunker by the minute, it seems, saying, “…and later, we’re all getting tatoos!” What a hoot! Like, "and in the morning, I'm making waffles!"

The Gaslamp area reminds me very much of 6th Street in Austin, only perhaps more full of young drunks.

Tim Hawkinson's Floopsia and Uberorgan at The Getty Museum

2007-08-26T23:00:00.000-05:00

We packed up and checked out of the Stars Inn, then headed back to the Coffee Bean to check email, and have some coffee while waiting for Pat to join us. Then the three of us headed out up the 405 to the Getty Museum -- though we had some trouble locating the museum, and then finding parking spaces was a bit of a challenge (hint: drive all the way to the end, there were many spaces there).

We rode the tram to the museum proper, and immediately headed for the Uberorgan by Tim Hawkinson in the main hall. We didn’t have long to wait for it’s hourly musical performance…it was pretty groovy. Then we went to see his other pieces - Zoopsia -- which were just the ones they showed on the website, so….hmmm. I mean, they were very cool, but there wasn’t much to see we hadn’t already seen on the website. It was great to see them in person; just wish there had been more!

Then we checked out the exhibition of Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère -- very much more interesting than I had ever realized before. We also looked at the European Drawings on view.

There was also a nice large show of Weston photos, and some very large current photos by Luc Delahaye.

We finished our day at the Getty with lunch at the museum café, then left for Pat’s in Pasadena.

Brandon was there, and we chatted with him for awhile; later I ‘supervised’ little Kevin at the drawing board. I was impressed by his drawing skills at the ripe young age of 20 months -- he was very intent on making very specific marks, and did so rather successfully. It was great to see Pat, and how happy she is being a mom…more than any of my friends, it seems she was meant for this!

The MOCA in LA...

2007-08-25T23:00:00.000-05:00

We breakfasted at the Coffee Bean - a coffee shop on the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Blvd., got caught up on email and some small work over coffee and a pastry, found out that the painter I so much wanted to see at the ACE Gallery, David Amico, was not in fact showing there, and made a new plan to go to the MOCA downtown.

As it happened, they were installing a new show, so they only had a couple of rooms of art to view. Not bad, though. They had these fabulous sculptures and drawings by LA artist Matthew Monahan. His sculptures are conglomerations of all sorts of materials, including sheetrock and wax, but we really enjoyed the heads he so beautifully drew and then folded into head shapes, sort of like origami -- very beautifully done!

We passed by the gorgeous Disney Concert Hall on our way back, but had no time to go inside.

Terry and I spent the afternoon chatting with his father and Madelaine again, then Madelaine’s nephew, Doug, and his sweetheart came over, and we headed out for another fabulous Italian dinner at Il Moro.

Arriving in LA - 8 Hours Late!

2007-08-24T23:00:00.001-05:00

***

We finally arrived in L.A. Union Station around 6:10 p.m., ten minutes after the Hertz Car Rental place was supposed to close -- we had already called them to cancel our (now second) reservation for a car. But what luck! -- as we threaded our way towards the baggage claim, we saw that the Hertz guy was still at the desk helping someone else. Terry dropped his bags and raced over to the counter, and the young man was so very nice to stay and help us get the very last car available at the last possible minute. Then after picking up our bags and spending some time getting directions to the Westwood area, we carried our bags downstairs to pick up our car -- which was completely blocked in by other parked cars! Terry ran back to the Hertz counter, and thank goodness, the guy was still there, and came to help us extricate our car!

It took us awhile to make our way across town to the motel where we had booked a room -- the Stars Inn in the Century City area, just blocks from Terry‘s father‘s place. The Chinese guy who checked us in gave us not the room we thought we had booked for $60.00 a night, but he took it upon himself to move us up to an end room for $90.00 a night. Probably the right thing to do, though, since the rest of the hotel clientele we saw didn’t look too well-heeled or trustworthy…The hotel was very pretty on the outside - beautiful courtyard and bougainvillea growing over the entrance -- but kind of funky on the inside, with ugly mismatched furnishings, though it turned out to be perfectly serviceable and comfortable.

We finally made it to Terry’s father’s an hour late for our dinner reservations, and Madelaine greeted me with many kisses on the lips (!); then they whisked us out to Pastini's, a great little Italian restaurant not too far away, where I had a fantastic seafood and pasta dish, and Terry and I shared the most amazing chocolate souffle dessert. Afterwards we went back to the house to hear his father's stories about Terry as a boy. But we were quite tired, and I had to beg off to go back to the hotel to sleep long before Terry's father was ready to let us go.

West Coast Trip 2007

2007-08-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

I have probably never before been quite as prepared for a trip as I managed to get for this one. I was even ready to leave the house before Terry! Well, except that neither one of us had managed to get a wink of sleep since getting up Wednesday morning…

We left the house about 3:15 a.m. to drive to San Antonio to catch the Sunset Limited Amtrak train. We arrived at the train station around 4:45 a.m.

Terry left to park the car in a city lot a few blocks away, at which point, one of the few other waiting passengers let me know the train was going to be delayed -- from a scheduled departure at 5:40 a.m. to the train not even expected to arrive at the station until maybe 8:30a.m.!

The reason? As we heard it at the time, a car had pulled into the path of the train at a crossing, and the train had not been able to prevent colliding with the car -- and there was a fatality. Later in the morning, another waiting passenger said a man had taken his 2 daughters and put the three of them in the path of the train! Suicide, plus killing his children! My, my, that had people talking for quite a while. “How horrifying! How could he do that to his children? And his action inconvenienced hundreds of people waiting for the train and those working on the train!”

Come to find out, hours after hearing this version of the story, the ‘real’ story was that three teenagers had pulled out of traffic waiting at a train crossing, pulled around the gate, and had tried to outrace the train…and they lost. Guess they’d never seen one of those shows on trains explaining how it takes about a mile for the train to stop -- after the engineer sees the obstruction! Even though the engineer did all he could to stop the train, he smashed into their car, which apparently exploded on impact, was dragged 2000 feet, got caught under the engine and burned, and of course, all three kids lost their lives in that single impetuous act.

Back at the station, 8:30 came and went. Then we were told it would be 9:30 when the train would arrive. 9:30 came and went. Then 10:00; then 10:30. Finally, around 11:00 a.m., our train arrived, with a badly scorched, but apparently still functional engine.

Here's a link to the horrific story of the poor teens who tried to beat the train: teens killed.

***

This is the first time I have traveled in a sleeper car in America…well, it’s actually more appropriately called a ‘roommette.’ And it’s great! Though the room is not much larger than a closet (and smaller than most 21st C. walk-in closets), it’s so well-designed and engineered that it works great for two compatible folks. We have comfy seats facing each other, which fold down to make up one of the two beds. The other one is parked above the window in an unobtrusive way, and folds down for either daytime or nighttime sleeping.

The door slides shut and is lockable from the inside, and has a curtain that velcroes together with another curtain on a hallway side window for complete privacy. The room is also equipped with a mirror, folding coat hooks, a couple of hangers on a rod/handle, a couple of shelves that also serve as steps up to the upper berth, a deep well of narrow storage, more storage under each seat, a small fold-out table-top, washcloths, A/C, a 120v plug, room and reading lights, and a little trash bin.

There are also double-size and larger sleepers available, but the cost is a lot more. As of this writing, the small roomette is only slightly more expensive than flying, and if you consider that they feed you three full good meals a day, plus the cost of a hotel room, then really, it’s a great bargain.

Of course, traveling by train is not for folks who are in a huge hurry; though over the last several years, I discovered that flying, while usually faster than a train, is no longer quite the time-saver it used to be, since you have to get to the airport so early to be searched. Airplanes are also frequently delayed - I‘ve been delayed by as much as 27 hours due to bad weather and missed connections. If you happen to be flying standby, flying can take days longer, in those instances when you can’t make it onto the flight you wanted. Often, when we flew standby, whatever money we saved by using buddy passes was offset or even exceeded by extra days of hotel and food costs.

When you add to that how tiny the airplane seats have become, the lack of any amenities, such as food or drinks, the limitations on what and how much of what you are allowed to bring with you, and the rudeness of having to be treated like a potential terrorist every time you fly, traveling by train really starts looking more attractive. And, if you care about the carbon footprint of your mode of travel, then a train is by far the more environmental choice (about 10 times more efficient).

[Here's a great story about traveling by rail in Canada; it sums up a lot of ideas about today's modes of travel pretty well: New Era for Train Travel?]

On a train, you see the land you’re traveling across -- the mountains, deserts, farms, small American towns, and parts of the larger cities….up close and (almost) personal. Traveling by train is actually ‘traveling,’ while flying is more like a very expensive way of getting people from one place to another, with not much of anything but unpleasantness in-between.

On the train, we sometimes share dinner tables with fellow travelers, and everyone we’ve met so far has an interesting story to tell. Some have a lot of interesting stories!

Several people we’ve talked to on this train have just traveled through New Orleans and other parts of the south that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina 2 years ago. They said that much of the area is still in complete ruins.

One guy went to work in Biloxi, where the money the government has taken from us to use for the post-hurricane rebuilding is being used to build new Casinos, while the people are still living in trailers and have begun to rebuild their houses themselves without the government aid that was promised. Meanwhile, a few blocks away, graveyards that were torn up by the hurricane are still in complete disarray, with the crypts that were broken open and strewn around by the storm still left in the shambles they were in two years ago. This man was so upset seeing the destroyed graveyard every day through the windows of the Casino he was working in, that he quit that job.

Link to Pages of Photos from Canada Trip

2005-08-28T20:36:00.000-05:00

Edited slightly for redundancy and such...

Trip to Toronto, and Visiting Snaige and Antanas

2005-08-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

We awoke refreshed at the Chalets on Lake Muskoka early this morning - in time to say 'bye' to Dan and Noreen. We dined on fabulous rice pancakes that Jim had made, covered in Arleigh and Larry's wonderful homemade maple syrup.

I showed my abstract art portfolio to Terry, Betty, Joleigh and Vivien; Vivien really liked the musical series; she may be interested in one of them for her house.

Teal came to pick up Jeff and Gigi and Terry and me, and take us all to a car rental place in Barrie. Turns out it would be cheaper by almost half to rent a car for the 4 of us for a day rather than all of us taking buses, shuttles, taxis, etc.

It's Teal's 27th birthday, so we all sang to her; then the whole gang marched us out to Teal's car, banging metal utensils on pots and pans. What a hoot!

The drive to Barrie was, I believe, longer than our subsequent drive to get Jeff and Gigi to the Toronto airport. At the airport, we said our goodbyes to Jeff and Gigi; then Terry and I headed downtown.

We parked pretty near the CN tower and the sports arena; had a delicious lunch of panninis at Pizza Rustica; then wandered through various downtown areas in search of the art museum.

Great way to get the feel and smell of a city -- just wander about, turning where it looks interesting -- avoiding the too-polished looking streets. There were some young kids on the street near what appeared to be a University area with signs for handouts -- one said, "Spare change for pizza and beer;" another, "Why lie? Anything you can spare for pot." :-)

We sampled quite a variety of ethnic areas, before we came to Grange Park and The Art Gallery of Ontario. The park was lovely -- filled with people relaxing and kids playing and dogs frolicking, but the museum was surrounded by construction boards, and we couldn't tell if the museum was open until we spotted a sign on the construction boards saying it was.

So off we headed to the left around the construction zone...and around and around and around for blocks! Turns out the one remaining entrance would have been pretty close to us had we headed to the right, but we ended up circumnavigating about 80% of the perimeter before discovering it. And dang if it wasn't closed! On a Tuesday even! We were sorely disappointed, as it looked like a very good museum, and I'm sure we weren't alone in our disappointment, as about 15 other people tried to enter as we stood there scratching our heads wondering what to do with ourselves next.

We decided to head east, and found ourselves at the Peace Plaza of Nathan Phillips Square. What a lovely place! Fabulous architecture on the city hall -- beautiful fountain and gardens. We hung around there for awhile, then wandered through the gardens of the Osgoode Hall law buildings, before we decided to head back towards the car and maybe find a place for a beer along the way.

No shortage there! We settled into a small outdoor cafe, drank a good Canadian brew and watched the city energize for going home. It's so great to be in a city that works so well -- we weren't far from the underground -- trolleys passed quietly by every minute or so, as well as buses, taxis, cars, and people on foot or riding bikes. It seems like a very bike friendly downtown. For a city of about 2.5 million people, how cool is that? [Some info on Toronto.]

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We headed west during rush hour to my cousin Snaige's house. I'd really only met her once -- back in '93 when my mom and I came up to visit Snaige's dad, Algimantis, before our trip to Lithuania. Algis had been born in Lithuania, and when he was sixteen, he apparently had to leave Lithuania due to WWII, and wound up in a DP camp in Germany. He and my mom, who were first cousins, wrote back and forth during that time. Algis met a woman in the camp, Eugenia, who became his wife. If I understood the story right, they were able to leave the DP camp by basically becoming indentured servants to a farmer in Canada.

I don't know the rest of the tale, only that they had 2 children, and had since been living happily in Toronto.

When I met Algis in '93, he had such an effect on me. He was such a sweet and gentle man, full of intelligence and wisdom and lots and lots of love. He wrote to me from time to time; and sent me emails for years (once email became an option), and even had a subscription to a Lithuanian magazine sent to me as a gift. I had always hoped to get back to Toronto to see him and introduce him to Terry and vice versa.

But he had gotten sick, and early this summer, I received a card from Snaige saying he had passed away last fall of cancer -- 2 years almost to the day that her brother had also been taken by cancer (which was also news to me).

So, I just had to see Snaige. Being the not-so-hot planner that I am, I hadn't written to her until the night before we departed for Canada last week. I anxiously checked my yahoo email on the two days I had internet access after arriving in Canada, but no word from Snaige. I called on Saturday morning, and found out from her son that she was on a canoeing trip, and that her husband, Antanas, was also away in the country.

Antanas called me Monday to say Snaige was not scheduled to return home until Wednesday evening -- by which time we would already be home in Austin. So it seemed it wasn't meant to be this time around -- until I got another call from Antanas later that day, saying Snaige was actually cutting her trip short by a day due to the terrible storms they had been through last Friday, and would be home Tuesday evening and would we come for dinner, and would we like to spend the night at their house before our flight home? Well, of course, I was thrilled, and said yes.

Snaige and Antanas live in a lovely brownstone-type two story home, just as the neighborhoods seem to start becoming lovely real houses. Their house is beautifully and tastefully decorated with wood scandanavian type furniture and tasty fabrics, lovely colors of walls, with Snaige's beautiful art hanging here and there. We sat out on the back deck and drank Lithuanian beer and got to know each other a little better before Snaige's childhood friend, Amanda, arrived with the canoe, and Snaige ported it pretty much by herself to the backyard.

The photo above is of two of Snaige's prints currently in a museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. I shot this photo in 1993 when I was there -- my Lithunian teacher in Vilnius was quite surprised when I told her that was my cousin's work!

Antanas cooked us the most wonderful meal starting with bread and borscht (Polish style, but with delicious fresh beets), eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, some of the most delicious new potatoes I've ever had, and grilled steak. He made this truly great dessert of fresh peaches and blueberries on top of whipped-cream covered mini shortcakes. He had also completely cleaned the house for Snaige's arrival. What a guy! He truly wowed his wife (and us).

He's also thoroughly charming and pretty darned cute. He's had 3 books published since I was here last - 2 novels and a collection of short stories. Terry was quite charmed by this, and they talked a bit about the writing process and Terry's book in progress. Antanas used to teach at Humber college, but now he's doing more of an administration position, which he actually made sound pretty cool, as Artistic Director of the Humber School for Writers, Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.

Snaige's art career is going well. I had forgotten she had studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. She's recently had another show, and was featured on a documentary on Canadian artists that was shown on Bravo Canada. They also used her lovely brush strokes for the beginning and ending credits for the whole series. http://www.movingimages.ca/catalogue/Art/artistslife_sileika.html We watched the video of her segment, and talked some about the artistic process, and how best to carve out time for creating.

Anyway, the evening and the visit with Snaige and Antanas was much too short, and I didn't get much of a chance to find out too much more about her dad, or as much about them and their lives and art as I'd like. Another time, perhaps.

Snaige's website: http://www.snaige.ca/

Some pages on Antanas: http://www.writersunion.ca/s/sileika.htm http://www.randomhouse.ca/features/travelbypaperback/book4.html http://writerscafe.ca/weblogs/writers/Antanas-Sileika-Woman-in-Bronze-a-novel.php http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/book_awards/tba_shortlist2.htm#time

One More Day with the Lucketts, and I Get to Sail!

2005-08-22T22:16:00.000-05:00

Our final night at Eden Place B&B, now on the king-size bed, was somewhat of an improvement over the previous two. The bed still sucked (she really should take her ill-gotten earnings, even if only from us, and buy some new mattresses!), but this broken down mattress had more padding on it, so the springs didn't hurt so bad. We also had a window that opened and a fan, so we didn't have to run an AC to get some air circulation. I still didn't sleep well, but when it came time to get up for another dreadful breakfast, I opted to attempt to catch a few more winks instead.

Terry and Erin joined the other guests, and reported that Ethyl had served some nearly inedible peirogi-type device, I guess in honor of her Polish missionary student guests.

We packed up and said goodbye to Ethyl, and she had brochures, business cards and such all prepared for us to give to our friends, and told us to be sure and come back. Yeah! I'll be sure and do that -- not!

One more stop at Oliver's for coffee. Elizabeth and Erin were heading home today, so we all headed back to the chalets for some more family and beach time before they had to take off.

Terry and I went back down to the beach, and it wasn't long before Dan asked if anyone wanted to sail. I, of course, jumped at the chance.

I headed off with Dan, and Terry joined Bob. After a while Dan started explaining the theory and practice of reading the winds, using a clockface as an analogy -- then handed me the ropes! So I controlled the sail while he controlled the rudder, and we sailed back and forth between the big island and the shore, and even around the tiny island a few times.

It is so much fun! I love the zen aspect of it -- that you have to pretty much focus your attention on just what you're doing -- it takes your mind off anything else you may normally be thinking about. Very relaxing. Kind of like painting.

Dan and I and Jim all tried to encourage Terry to consider getting a rig like this...we'll see how that goes. With the zero extra time we've had over the past 3 years, I'm not going to get my hopes up...or maybe I will! Things are changing with my job situation, and hopefully, it will be less dire financially and time-wise than it has been, now that I'm leaving Austin Regional Clinic for much better paying free-lance illustration work.

In the afternoon, we went back up to hang at the chalets, and I talked to Joleigh for awhile. She told me some wild stories of her youth at UT in Austin, studying under the radical John Henry Faulk, and getting involved with the Young Communists.

Later someone suggested a game of "Settlers of Catan." I normally don't do games -- generally, I find them too boring and a waste of time, but Terry joined the game, and I sat at his side as it began.

What a great game! It was anything but boring, and we played for hours (one game). Folks had to tear us away to eat dinner, and we were so reluctant to pause playing, we missed the guacamole that Nancy and Libby served up. :-(

Dinner was fabulous; I got lucky and got some of the salmon and other fish, but as soon as we could politely tear ourselves away from dinner and clean-up duties, we were back at the game.

We were very nearly in a four-way tie, each of us only 2-3 points (out of 10) away from winning. Gigi had been behind (by a point), as she had started with the worst board position, but after another maybe 45 minutes of play, she whupped us all! It was a really fun game, and we're trying to figure out which of our friends we may be able to rope into getting addicted with us.

Terry and I spent our final night at the family reunion sleeping in one of the rooms in Joleigh's cabin. Finally, a comfortable bed!

As I look back over the past few days, I'm so happy that I got to spend more time with all the family folks that I did. What a great, kind, wise, and loving family -- I am so lucky to have become a small part of it.

Experiencing the Tub at the B&B, and Hanging out on the Beach at the Club Muskoka

2005-08-21T22:30:00.000-05:00

An identical miserable night last night trying to sleep on that piece of garbage our Christian proprietess calls a mattress. I was so ticked off when I got up , I threatened to my husband to report Ethyl to the Canadian B&B authorities (if they have such a thing).

But at least, I thought, we'll get to enjoy those fabulous banana beignets she bragged about yesterday. But sadly, no...breakfast was every bit as dreadful as it was yesterday.

And then Ethyl had the audacity to ask how I had slept. In a very quiet voice, I told her I hadn't slept almost at all for either of the past two nights, and when she asked why...I eventually (after breakfast, after her other 'guests' had parted) told her it was due to the extremely hard and lumpy mattress, and told her we would have to do something to ameliorate this condition.

She offered to let us move across the hall to the room with the lumpy king-size bed, and still use the bathroom in the room we were currently in. She did not offer an apology or a refund, however (the king-size bedroom was supposed to be cheaper than the god-awful room she had put us in). I thought it had to be an improvement, and the bed did seem to have more padding on it, and the room was considerably more cheerful, yet still not 'nice' like Erin's room or the room next to her. So move we did.

Then I went to take a bath or shower or...something. Trouble was, the bathtub is a bit on the short side for taking a bath, and since it's located under the eaves, it's also short height-wise, making showering something of a problem. I ended up standing up bent-over and spraying myself, soaping and spraying, shampooing and spraying, creme-rinsing and spraying. I've had worse bathing situations in third-world countries, so there's that to be thankful for.

Terry demonstrating the size problem of our tub/shower
at Eden Place Bed & Breakfast

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We eventually headed back into town for some real coffee in real coffee quantities, and then out to the chalets at Club Muskoka for a second breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup.

Then everyone who wasn't already on the beach (or sailing) headed down there on this quite gorgeous Canadian summer day. All the inflatable sailboats were in use, as well as the inflatable kayak. I was hoping for a ride on one of the boats, but had brought a book to read, some art supplies and my camera to entertain myself with in the meantime.

I chatted with Terry Luckett for awhile. She told me about life after her marriage to Vernon, HP's brother, and made me yet again so sad that I'd never gotten a chance to meet my Terry's mom, DB.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the kids play -- Robert is great and smart and so cute, but almost never smiles -- he's very serious, you know; his twin sister, Catherine, on the other hand, is all giggles and light and reminds me very much of Gilda Radner's little girl scout character Judy Miller, of the Judy Miller show.

We watched Jim and Dan and passengers sailing on Lake Muskoka. Jim Luckett manufactures and sells these sail kits to turn an ordinary inflatable raft into a small and very safe sailboat -- one that you can pack and take with you on your world travels, even! http://www.sailboatstogo.com/

Bob and Vivien also have one of these boats and they brought it down to the shore to get it read to sail. I won't tell you how long they stayed out, though!

Bob starting to inflate and assemble his portable sailboat.

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Dinner was sort of a disorganized affair this evening. Erin, Nancy, Libby, Terry and I decided to go into Gravenhurst and pay somebody to feed us. When we reached Gravenhurst, we discovered that only 2 or 3 restaurants were even open. We opted for the better looking of the two Chinese restaurants, and Libby ventured inside just as the clouds broke open, only to discover they were only open for take-out. So we headed down the street to the other place, and it was perfect!

It was delightful getting to know Nancy and Libby better over a leisurely, more intimate dinner. Libby told us how we are related to Tim Berners-Lee (more), inventor of the World Wide Web (he's her husband's brother-in-law). Through Libby, we are also related to Kevin McCarthy (more), the actor, and Mary McCarthy (more & MM quotes), the author (she wrote "The Group," among many others). Pretty cool!

The So-Called Eden Place B&B, & Barbeque at Arleigh and Larry's

2005-08-20T22:11:00.000-05:00

The woman who owns and runs the Eden Place Bed & Breakfast in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada, is a small, pretty Jamaican Christian woman with bright orange hair, and a very sweet demeanor. We had been grateful to find a room with a bath on such short notice during a busy weekend in Gravenhurst...until we tried to sleep, that is.

Well, Terry slept OK -- as he says, he could sleep on a meathook. He gets lots of practice sleeping. Me, on the other hand -- a completely different story. I haven't been able to sleep through the night for about 5-6 years, but I usually can get by just fine on only 6 hours of sleep a night -- provided I sleep well those 6 hours.

I wasn't expecting the small, cramped garrett room that Ethyl put us up in, filled with all kinds of her personal junk. It was kind-of a tent-like shape, as it happens, so we joked about our tent karma on this trip. The bed was merely a double, and one that I could swear had been dragged out of the garbage pile years before, due to it being completely worn out, hard and lumpy. The pillows were in about as good condition as the mattress, and had to be squished all together to get any kind of support under one's head. For this, the Christian woman Ethyl was charging us $100.00 a night!

I managed to fall asleep and maybe stay asleep for a couple of hours, but once I turned over, the rest of the night was more like a nightmare. I tossed and turned and turned and tossed and started counting sheep at least thirty or forty times, and every time I would get close to going under again, I would be so uncomfortable that I had to turn, and that would wake me up. I was totally miserable, but finally went under for another hour or two before 'breakfast' a 8:00am.

Now I've stayed at B&B's several times before over the years, and breakfast has always been a real pleasure...until Eden Place. Ethyl served us a tiny cup of partially frozen, yet still 'old' and partially rotted fruit as a first course. The second course consisted of a storebought hashbrown patty from the freezer case and canned boston baked beans. When she finally got around to serving us our coffee halfway through the 'meal,' she served it in tiny little teacups, and we had to practically beg for seconds. There were no thirds. With those meager portion sizes, I could've used sixths or eighths or maybe tenths, even!

We went back to bed for more non-sleep before the gang came to get us to take us to Arleigh and Larry's. We were so grateful to find a place, Oliver's, to get a huge cup of coffee in town on our way!

*****

The afternoon at Arleigh and Larry's was delightful (in spite of so little sleep). We went for a walk in the woods, and Larry explained about the very hard work that they put themselves through every spring to tap some of their many maple trees, and make maple syrup (which is delicious!) .

We traversed the not quite overgrown path out to the sugar shack where Terry once spent a week in contemplation, and farther on to where the beavers build their dams and make lakes out of the marshy areas; then headed back past poisonous mushrooms and fallen birches to the wireless tower that Larry and Rob had erected for internet service.

We had a delicious meal of barbeque meat and salmon, and fabulous vegetables and fresh fruits; then started lining up for the family photos. I didn't quite get in on the picture taking at first, but here are a few of the smaller groups of folks whose pics I shot:

The siblings and step-siblings:
Dan, Jim and Arleigh Luckett,
Libby McCarthy Carlson and (my hubby) Terry Dyke

Born in the Seventies (plus one):
Carolyn Prochazka, Quin Shirk-Luckett, Elizabeth Luckett, Erin Foster, Gigi and Jeff Luckett, Teal Shirk-Luckett, and Rob

The cousins: clockwise from upper left:
Elizabeth Luckett, Erin Foster, Jeff Luckett,
Teal Shirk-Luckett, Robert Tota, Sofia Luckett, Catherine Tota, Louisa Carlson, and Quin Shirk-Luckett

Some of the younger generation:
Louisa Carlson, and twins Catherine and Robert Tota

The Rest of the Gang Arrives, and We Move to a B&B

2005-08-19T22:22:00.000-05:00

I slept surprisingly soundly in the tent on Arleigh's land, but awoke as it was beginning to rain -- a day that made some small weather history in Canada (more). We decided the weather dicated that we move to an indoor sleeping location, so we arranged for a room with bath at a B&B in Gravenhurst, where Erin would also be staying.

The rest of the family were all flying or driving in today, and we were all to meet for a wine and cheese party provided by Joleigh at the Chalets on Lake Muskoka around 4 or 5pm. In the meantime, Terry and I visited with Larry while also helping out with a few chores in preparation for the events of the next few days and listening to a great canadian blues musician, Paul Reddick & the Sidemen. Must get whatever albums of his are available!

We met Arleigh and Joleigh at the chalets around 5:30; Dan and Noreen had just arrived, driving in from Ottawa. Quinn, Carolyn, and 8-month-old Fin arrived from Guelph, and before long Bob, Vivien, Catherine, Robert and Terry Luckett arrived. Jim had called several hours before from on board the airplane on the tarmac in Toronto -- the storms were so bad, they weren't allowed to deplane, because the guys who operate the jetbridges don't during lightning storms -- so they had to wait (something like 4 hours, as it turned out) to get off the plane. Elizabeth was also stuck on a plane at the Toronto airport.

Teal arrived late with her boyfriend, Rob, who we liked immediately. He works as an arborist, and has a lovely Scottish accent (though he was born and raised in Canada).

I really can't remember in what order everyone arrived, but eventually, Erin and Elizabeth made it in from Toronto; with horror stories to tell of Erin waiting at the airport for 4 or 5 hours for Elizabeth to arrive, as they'd planned to rent a car and ride up together; and Elizabeth being stuck on a plane for hours due to the lightning storms, and finally, the captain had them all buckle up safely in their seats only to move the plane forward just inches to the jet bridge so they could deplane(!).

Nancy, Libby and Luisa made it in eventally, and the last stragglers were Jim, Betty, Sofia, Jeff and Gigi, who, after waiting forever to be allowed off their plane, also had to wait another two hours for the mini-van they had reserved! They were pretty wound up by the time they arrived (somewhere around 11pm, I think?) .

At some point, we all ran out of steam, and headed into town to our so-called B&B.

Luckett Family Reunion 2005: Getting to Arleigh's Dome Home...

2005-08-18T22:02:00.000-05:00

We got up at 3am (though actually I had only gone to bed at 2:15, and then couldn't sleep, so basically, my day started at 7am Wednesday). The shuttle came at 4:02; we were at the airport by 4:20, though it didn't even open until 4:30am. No real problems getting on board our flights or anything, even though we were flying standby. There was a 2 or 3 hour layover in Cincinnati, though.

Arrived in Toronto about noon, and only a small hiccup at customs, due to the fact I was traveling on an expired passport and hadn't been able to find either my birth certificate or my voter's registration card, even though I'd searched for 2 or more hours (hence, the lack of sleep).

The first real issue came when we went to get the shuttle to Washago -- they were all booked for the next 4 hours. I tried to lay down and catch a few winks on a bench near the shuttle desk, and was almost there when a voice said "You lucked in." Another plane had been delayed, so we could get its passengers' spots on the 2pm shuttle.

Washago was the last stop, so with all the other passengers being dropping off along the way, we didn't arrive there until 5pm. Arleigh showed up about 15 minutes later, and we bought some beer and headed to her dome home.

The home is so cool! They built it beginning with a foundation pour in about 1971, I think, and the original structure was completed in 1975.

The main building (the dome) consists of a living area complete with wood-burning stove, a dining area, a kitchen, and a bathroom, plus a loft upstairs for offices and guests. They later added a octagonal tower with a couple of bedrooms and a workshop, plus a hallway and another upstairs room (up a circular staircase) in the middle, and a screened-in porch with hot tub.

The feel of the house is so warm -- with no actual corners for bad vibes to get caught in. I really loved the organic quality of it. I've been trying to figure out how I can manage to build my studio as a dome or get some land and build in the country somewhere...

Space being what it was, our sleeping accomodations turned out to be a tent in the yard. I wasn't really prepared for camping, but was grateful for a cozy little place of our own.

We had a pleasant evening visiting with Arleigh and Larry over a good dinner and several beers, and we prepared ourselves for a cold night sleeping outside with silk longjohns, Cutters (for the mosquitoes), warm socks, pj's and a robe, several blankets, plus some good earplugs to drown out the sound of bugs....and whatever else there may be. I remembered before going to sleep that Arleigh had talked about the racoons and otters and the bears that occasionally wandered in from the woods...

Elephants

2005-03-22T17:32:00.000-06:00

I saw a great show about Elephants on the Science channel the other day. I was shocked to learn that 30% of elephants born today are born without tusks! And so are their offspring. The reason this is happening is because of man…because so many elephants are killed by man for their tusks only, leaving only the tuskless elephants to reproduce. Evolutionary pressure for elephants to survive has caused this kind of change, which would normally take thousand of years to develop, to occur in just the past 50-60 years!

I find this amazing…and truly sad. Here’s a link to the show I saw, in case you like a chance to see it when it runs again:
An Animal’s World The African Elephant