winter – Page 3 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Merry Christmas

In spite of our slow start to the season this year, Christmas has arrived in full force and I am all the way in the mood. Something about deep snows and bright bluebird skies does a lot toward making things seem all as they should. Mo is finally over her cold and I am over the dizzies for the most part. I decorated the house, put up the outside lights and the snow started falling ten days ago and hasn’t stopped since. We get a little break now and then, but Mo has plowed every single day but one and we have been shoveling the driveway and snow-blowing the pathways every day as well.

Somehow the snows make me feel all is right with the world. Climate change is real. Call it global warming, global weirding, blame it on whatever makes you happy, (I have no idea why this science is colored by politics, but that is another story and I’ll save the arguments for elsewhere) but the real part about climate change is that things will get weird. Things are weird. We didn’t have any snow at Rocky Point for most of December, and it just felt weird. Now, finally, on schedule, the big snows have arrived. And somehow it makes me feel that the climate is giving me a bit of a reprieve. Things are normal. It is cold. It is snowing. I am shoveling and Mo is plowing. It is a good thing. The weather, at least for the moment, and at least here in the West, is doing what it is supposed to be doing.

I worked last week, and still managed to get presents ordered and shipped for the great grandchildren scattered around the country. Presents for my daughters were already taken care of in Prague, gifts to kids and grandkids in the mail. I don’t do as much as I would like to to, but as much as I can manage, and it is enough. This week I started cooking and baking, with a few treasures that Mo and I will never be able to eat, so of course we will share with kids and neighbors. The smell of baking makes things seem all right with the world as well. It has been a quiet time, and a good time.

Daughter Deborah sent oranges and lemons from Texas to brighten my winter days. Daughter number two and her husband are doing Christmas in Mazatlan this year, a last minute decision for a much needed vacation. Son John in Missouri is enjoying his extended family there and we had a nice long conversation the other day. Thank goodness for telephones and email with family scattered all over the country. I hope that someday I can get everyone together in one place at one time, but for now I’ll be grateful for what I have.

Mo gets dozens and dozens of cards from old friends and family. I know I have friends, I know I do. But I think I get about 4 cards. My friend Jeanne never lets me down and always sends an amazing photo of herself somewhere in the world. This year her photo was lovely and full of tropical flowers, even though she is now back home in Vermont. Some of the young soil scientists I have had on my crews are now having families of their own, and I get a few lovely cards with wonderful photos of their babies and families. I really treasure them.

The rest of my friends are just as wonderful as Mo’s friends, but they are all on the internet, hooked up to facebook, and GPlus, and Christmas cards seem to have gone the way of the handwritten letter. I gave up this year and only sent cards to the folks who sent them to me. Is that petty or what?! I had an excuse. I was dizzy. I didn’t even send out the Christmas letter. I resort to the new standby…”want to know what I have been doing? Go read my blog.”

It is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow Melody and her family will be here to spend the day eating, laughing, and sledding in all the wonderful snow. Last year we went for a walk in the woods without a speck of snow to play in, so we are all looking forward to it. I’ll have ham, a great one from the local “real” meat store, and I made a luscious peach pie from the Sunset peaches I froze late last summer.

Mo has been building a big fire in the cabin to try to get the snow to slide off the roof. Tonight we decided to “go to the cabin” for our Christmas Eve traditional clam chowder supper. Instead of a long drive to the mountains, we just had to walk down the steps and across the driveway. I carried our little back porch fiber optic Christmas tree and we opened a great bottle of dry Riesling to accompany our meal. The cabin was so warm we had to leave the door open. Turned on the radio for some Christmas music and reminisced about the past year. It has been a good one with lots of travels and friends, and projects started and finished. Another year gone by. I am truly truly blessed.

Yes!

I won! I won!! Amazing. Those of you who rode along with me in the MoHo on the Coast 101 Quilt Run (my very first such experience), and wished me well, are in for some thank you’s. I won a third prize gift certificate for $50 to spend at will at the sweet little quilt shop in Brookings. I am happy to say that this was one of my favorite stores of the 14 that I visited. I had given up on winning anything except receipts for all the fabric I bought when this little card showed up in the mail yesterday. Needless to say, I am tickled and already imagining and remembering all those gorgeous fabrics and the great ladies I met in the shop last month.

Lucky me, since we are heading back to Brookings on Sunday morning, and I told Mo that we would have to wait until store opening time on Monday before we travel south to California. Once again we are going south, looking for sunshine and warmth. According to the predictions, however, it might be warmer than Rocky Point but probably not much sunnier. A big storm is dampening the west right now, and it spreads far and wide.

Our plans have shifted back and forth several times, with thoughts of traveling far enough south to the Carizzo Plain to see the amazing wildflower show. The image on the right is from the internet (I have no idea who to acknowledge here), but it is one I have seen repeatedly when searching for wildflower blooming times in the California springtime. The Carizzo Plain and the Tremblor Mountains straddle the San Andreas Fault and are a long way from anywhere southeast of Paso Robles and southwest of Bakersfield.

I plugged the plan into Streets and Trips, counted the days, looked at the weather, and looked at the lack of rain and rethought the plan. Wildflowers on the plain are an ephemeral thing, totally dependent on the timing of rainfall, and this year there has been very little. Rumor has it there isn’t much blooming yet. The Carizzo Plain will have to wait for another year. Of course, now that we have ten days to get away, it is raining. Of course.

Gas prices being what they are, and timing being what it is, I decided instead that it might be time to go see Pinnacles National Monument. Merikay was there recently and took some great photos. Mo was there many years ago when she lived near Half Moon Bay, but I have never seen it. Several friends from soil survey have been involved in the soil mapping there as well. I have read papers, and seen the results of research and study, but now I just want to walk and explore and experience what it has to offer.

Being a national monument, we knew that Abby couldn’t go on the trails, so planned for a doggie day care in nearby Gilroy for the two days we plan to stay in the park. The day care seems rather amazing, with no cages, just lots of beds and toys and other friendly dogs in a big doggie park kind of environment.

Last week I wasn’t working, but of course Mo and I had some big projects waiting for a non-working, non-traveling week. We finished the painting project started last year at this time and completed our office, and mud room and back entry halls.

In the early mornings I worked on the baby blanket I am knitting for Mo’s new grand niece born just after her birthday and took one long afternoon to pull out the sewing machine. When Maryruth and I had our girls weekend last fall, we bought fabric and patterns at the quilt shop in Chico, but of course Maryruth doesn’t quilt. I am making this diamond lattice table runner for her. As simple as it looks, it still is a bit of a challenge for me as a newbie, but I am having so much fun with it. It amazes me how all these little puzzle pieces actually turn into something.

This week was a working week for me again, and Mo managed to finish painting her entire big bathroom while I plunked away on the computer. It is Friday!! I shut down NASIS for the last time this evening and won’t look at it again for ten days. Poured myself a glass of wine and took a deep breath. Tomorrow we will brave whatever the weather gods have in store for us over the Highway 140 pass to go to Medford for the day. Our destination: the annual Cheese Festival at the Rogue Creamery and of course an opportunistic Costo Run as well. Gotta stock up for our Sunday exit to sunny…er…rainy California.

Christmas

I am writing this post from the comfy MoHo sofa waiting for the frozen water hose to melt. Of course, we are in California and it dropped to 25 degrees last night. Silly us. We saw rumors of freezing temperatures but kind of ignored them. Couldn’t be THAT bad, right? We are on the road again, but instead of writing about the trip (that will come in the next post), I wanted to write about Christmas. As the years go by, how would I ever remember where we were and what we did if I missed blogging it?!

For the first time I can remember, there was no snow in Rocky Point for Christmas. We had a month of gorgeous sunny clear days, short as they were, and cold temperatures, but not a single day of plowing or shoveling. It made for a good month for me to spend time decorating the house inside and out. Two comments from the day made it all worth while. My youngest said, “Thanks Mom, it finally feels like Christmas to me”. And my oldest said, “Thanks Mom for a true “mom” Christmas”.

The lack of snow made travel easier for everyone, and Deb and my grandson Matthew drove down from Portland on Friday without a hitch. It was wonderful having two nights with them here before Christmas, with time to just hang out together, eat good food, watch a sweet little movie, and have time to talk. Then on Christmas morning the rest of the local family, with Melody and Kevin, grandkids Hillary and Elric, and my sister Sally and my niece Savannah arrived early for our traditional family breakfast of eggs benedict.

The house was warm and festive with family all together laughing and talking and sharing stories. Something that happens all to rarely it seems, so I treasured every single moment of the entire day. After breakfast we opened packages and a highlight for me was the soft sculpture coyote that my granddaughter Hillary made for me. She couldn’t find a pattern so she just designed her own, personally designed and hand sewn. Hillary is an artist who spends much of her time drawing, so somehow she had the ability to picture something two dimensional turning into something three dimensional. Amazing to me, since I am the one that always had trouble with those shapes tests! Vocabulary and reading skills off the charts for me and forget the mechanical stuff! I failed miserably.

Since there was no snow, we settled on another family walk through the Rocky Point neighborhoods, amazed at the 40 degree temperatures and light skies. I hear that winter is coming with a vengeance this week, but lucky us, we missed it! Most of the family left just before dark on Christmas Day, but Deb and Matt waited to leave for Portland until Monday morning, just in time for Mo and I to pack up the baby car and leave Rocky Point behind for two weeks of traveling.

Of course, most of you know to hover over photos to see captions and click to enlarge the picture. For family who want to see the rest of the photos, click here for the web album on Picasa. It seems that these albums are also viewable on Google Plus for plus users as well. I made them visible to anyone interested.

Once all the Christmas hoop-de-do died down, I had some time to read some of the blogs and see all the wonderful Christmas posts from everyone. Beautiful. A belated Christmas to everyone and thanks for being part of my world.

Making a List

Checking it twice. Christmas is almost here and it is time for the final lists: groceries, gifts sent, gifts still in the waiting, cards? yes or no. All the little details that go with this season. After two weeks off while I traveled to Florida, I now have two weeks working full time in order to prepare for our two weeks coming up in Desert Hot Springs. Something about this plan isn’t working that well. It seems as though all my time is spent working or traveling.

Where oh where do I find the time for the baking, the wrapping, the decorating? the Open House? All those special little pieces of the Christmas holiday that make me want to spend it at home in Rocky Point. The snow?? A mixed blessing, of course, with icy roads and shoveling always a part of it, but this year the snow has evaporated and no new snow is on the agenda before Christmas day. Nights are clear and cold and days are brilliantly sunny. It is gorgeous, but surely doesn’t look anything like Rocky Point at Christmas.

We even had the amazing gift of a perfectly clear dark morning to view the total eclipse of the moon. I packed up the camera and the tripod and Mo drove while we searched for some open sky among the trees. The temperature gauge in the truck read a clean 7 degrees F and my fingers had a hard time finding buttons on the camera in the dark. Still, we watched in awe at the heavenly sky treat, punctuated now and then with a shooting star to make it all the more dramatic.

So far, I seem to have at least managed the decorating part of Christmas at home. Mo and I have a lifetime of accumulated Christmas “things”, and as usual her collection is much smaller than mine. We agreed that anything that we couldn’t find a place for this year would get passed on, either to my kids if they want it or to Goodwill if they don’t. Needless to say, there are little treasures that have been tucked into places where we might not think to put any decorations, just because we want to keep the particular item. We are sticking to the rule: If there isn’t a place for it, it goes!

Case in point: all the Disney decorations that Mo had tucked away for at least 25 years. I put them on the little white tree with white lights and we set it in the laundry room next to the cat food. Works just fine with the white appliances and I think that Jeremy likes the lights while he is eating. Lucky for me, we also have porches where things can go. We have managed to eliminate several boxes of “stuff” and when we get back from the desert in January, the packing up of Christmas should be easier than it has in the past. Yeah, I still have my village, but am giving away a bunch more stuff when Christmas is over. I still have a tree inside the house, with my pears and partridges and special ornaments, and Mo still has all her keepsake ornaments from around the world on the green trees on the front porch, protected from weather and lit up at night. It all works.

I will have at least part of my family here for Christmas. Oldest daughter and my grandson are coming south from Portland for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year. Youngest daughter who lives in Klamath will be here with her family. Sister and niece might drive out if the snow continues to wait till January, she has 2 wheel drive and is scared to death of snowy roads. Middle daughter is hauling jet engines around the country with her husband in their big rig and will be here in spirit. Holidays off are not part of their trucking life right now. Son and his wife are tucked away in Missouri and a trip west in the winter won’t be on the agenda any time soon. Grandson and his wife and my great grandkids will be in Texas. Other grandson will be going to his father’s family up in Washington State. I have no idea when or if I will ever again have my entire family in one place at one time. I’m just grateful for the internet, email, and telephones to make keeping in touch with everyone so much easier.

I returned home from Florida just in time to attend the traditional Rocky Point Ladies Luncheon, where many of the men of our community volunteer to cook a special dinner for all the ladies, and some of the ladies volunteer to dress the tables in Christmas finery. It was a lovely day spent connecting with the folks who live out here that we don’t often see. The joke was that we show up now and then between travels to take a nap before we head off to some other destination. The favorite comment we get is, “Where are you two going next?”

In the midst of all this fun, I am finally knitting a sweater for my trucker daughter. I have had the yarn for almost two years now, and this time the promised sweater may get finished by her birthday at the summer solstice. Ah yes, I am NOT a fast knitter, especially with all these other projects in waiting. My quilt is sitting in a bin in the closet waiting for another chance to set up the sewing machine. Cookies and tarts are waiting to be made, and I found an online recipe for my favorite goodie from Starbucks, “Cranberry Bliss Bars” that will find their way into my Christmas pile of sweets and savories to share with the family.

I love Christmas. I plan to keep knitting, keep cooking, play some carols on my piano, and enjoy every single minute that I have with family and friends and sparkly lights in my living room.

The Best Laid Plans and all that

After posting yesterday about our departure plans, I continued to check the internet for road conditions and weather cams. Our original plan included visiting some good friends in Tehachapi, traveling east along Highway 58. After reading about 6 inches of snow accumulation and predicted winds on Sunday of 40 plus miles per hour with gusts to 85! yes that is 85 mph, we thought we should possibly reroute. Next plan, instead of driving over 58 toward Laughlin, we could just stay south on 5, get through LA hooking up to the 210 and the 10 heading east and go straight to Borrego Springs, saving Laughlin for the latter part of the trip and skipping out on our visit to friends. That’s a bit sad since we haven’t seen them since 2007.

So, once again to weatherunderground.com and the web cams and the severe weather reports. What??!! 85 mph gusts at Bakersfield, Frazier Park, and 6 inches of snow possible over the Grapevine on Sunday??? Big Sigh.

Jeremy doesn’t care whether we are traveling or home, just as long as he can be warm and snooze.

So here I am this morning, in my jammies typing away on the computer instead of driving south to Redding as planned. We wrote all our friends along the route saying, nope, not this time. We are packed and mostly loaded, watching the weather. At first we thought we might wait until Monday, but looking a bit more closely led us to deciding on a Sunday departure. Yes, high winds and rain all the way to Sacramento tomorrow, but not 85 mph. We will hole up tomorrow night near Lodi, amble south on 5 toward the Grapevine and hole up again at a truck stop and wait to see what the road is doing on Monday morning. Sooner or later we are going to get to all that hot sun and warm temperatures that everyone is talking about, right?

One of the very best things about retirement and the RV life is the ability to re-route, re-plan, and stay flexible. Today, instead of driving, I am going to cook up a bunch of stuff for our trip that I hadn’t the opportunity to do last week. Today the house will be filled the the smell of pulled pork in the crock pot, some chocolate chip and some peanut butter cookies, a big pot of spaghetti sauce to freeze, and a luscious turkey pot pie with a biscuit topping made from some of our leftover freezer turkey. I won’t have to cook for a week while we are on the road!