On My Mind 2

I have a lot on my mind. Sadly it seems to be mostly songs.

We're getting ready to go help The Weather God and DolphinLady move this weekend. It should be fun. Especially since DolphinLady tells me that they are already 80% moved. It's mostly the heavy stuff that we need to take care of. And you know what that means, I don't have much to do! Yeah!!! I am going to take my camera and plan to take lots of pictures, which means I will probably forget the camera in the car and take like 2 pictures of my toes. I need a life.

Speaking of pictures, here are some from our trip. This is the turtle that was in the middle of the road at one of the rest stops. Isn't he cute?




This is Music Man waving at me so I'll stop taking his picture while he's driving.



This is Miss Goofy sleeping.


This is Miss Goofy not appreciating me taking her picture while she was asleep.



This is Nora and Pito. They go on long trips with us. And short ones too. Like down the street to look at the sheep grazing in the field next to us, and to KMart to buy new batteries for the camera, and to Sonic for Hot Fudge Sundaes and to the big city for grocery shopping. By the way, never take a lion and a llama grocery shopping.



And by the way they belong to me, not Miss Goofy.

These are my toes.


Bet you thought I was going to show you what I look like, ha ha! And those funny spots on my feet are from my sandals. My feet don't normally have weird patterns like that.

This is part of the thunderstorm that hit us while were driving.



And that's about all the pictures I have for today. Just thought I'd share before I go out of town.

Trees, Trees, Everywhere There's Trees

So, for 10 years Music Man constantly went on about how many trees there were in Oklahoma. And how there aren't enough here in California. It got kind of old if you want to know the truth.

We finally got to go to Oklahoma last month and what did Music Man say about the trees? "There's too many trees here", "When did all these trees get here?", "I don't remember all these trees".

It was really kind of funny. Now the part of Oklahoma that Music Man is from is heavily wooded and is on the edge of the Ozarks. So what he was expecting must have been from a child's perspective. My only other theory is that he got hit harder on the head 4 years ago than even I thought. Either way, there are a lot of trees in that part of Oklahoma. I really loved it. Except for the allergies.

I didn't even mind them too much. Although I may have to learn to function with Claritin in my system if I go back. Or rather when we go back and visit again. I found the place to be really beautiful. I would love to put pictures of the trip up and show everyone how beautiful it was, but I didn't take any pictures of Oklahoma. I don't know why. I just know I didn't.

I did however get some wonderful shots of Nora and Pito. If you don't know who they are, count your blessings. Maybe I'll post those pictures. We'll see.

Now, I'm gearing up to drive (no, not again!) to the Bay area and help DolphinLady and The Weather God move, only 16 more days until we leave.

That will make 2 moves for friends this month. The Weather God and his goddess, and Music Man managed to get conned into helping his boss with moving his soon to be ex-wife into an apartment. When he realized he'd been conned, Music Man said something along the lines of "I have a piano you get to help me move." I believe Boss Man will attempt to be busy that day. That's okay, Music Man knows where all Boss Man's files are located and how to delete them. (***Not that Music Man or I would ever do that sort of thing or suggest anyone else do that***)

And as of now, we're looking for a house. We've found a few but we're still looking around and deciding exactly where we want to be. More about that another time.

My vacation

I love the word vacation. It invokes thoughts of sleeping late, seeing goofy things, bad restaurants, and motels. And lots of driving. If I never see the inside of my car again...

However, we did go on vacation. We drove from California to Oklahoma. It was a long drive. And by long drive I mean, have you ever been through New Mexico? It goes on forever. It is around 390 miles across. I can't remember exactly, and my atlas is in the car. You do get to see such sights as Tecumcari, Santa Rosa, and Albuquerque. I know there are towns west of Albuquerque, but I can't remember what they are. I will say that Flagstaff is probably the most beautiful town I've ever seen. With all those wonderful pines trees around, it's not what you expect when you think of Arizona. I know Music Man wants me to say that his hometown was the most beautiful, and while it was pretty, Flagstaff was just magical to me. Could be because for some reason I didn't remember it was at something like 7700 ft.

In any event, I do want to share one story to give some background information and then a conversation that occurred in the car on the way to Oklahoma. We were still in California and it set the tone for the trip. My grandmother took my mom and uncles on trips to see historical markers all over the state of California when they were kids. She took my sister and I on trips to see many of the same historical markers. On these trips we would invariably pass Joshua trees. And invariably Grandma would say something like, "Look kids, a Joshua tree, it's a cousin of the lily." Now my grandma has a wonderful sense of humor and we have teased her about that for years. In fact, when Grandma, Miss Goofy and I took a trip down the mountain to the nearest big city, Miss Goofy pointed out Joshua trees every 5 or 10 minutes and said, "look a Joshua tree, it's a cousin of the lily" and Grandma would giggle. So, we're out in the middle of nowhere California, and I was feeling goofy and excited about the trip. So, I said while pointing out the window, "look a Joshua tree, it's a cousin of the lily." We all giggled. A moment later, Music Man points out the window and says "Look a call box," Miss Goofy doesn't miss a beat she pipes up with "It's a cousin of the phone." We howled. Grandma will love that story.

We did have a purpose in going to Oklahoma. Music Man's father passed away in November of 2005. I embarrassed to say that before now we either had the money to go back and bury his cremains or we had the time to go back. It took until now for us to have both the time and the money. We did however finally have both time and money for the trip. We buried him at the foot of Music Man's mother's grave. Music Man placed his father in the hole and he was even allowed to bury him himself. It was very healing for Music Man. He felt much more at peace after it was over.

I got to meet some of Music Man's cousins and we got to spend a lot of time with his uncle and aunt. I felt so welcomed and loved right from the start. What a wonderful family. I am so blessed to be a part of them.

There was one day on the trip where the weather was hot and humid. It was uncomfortable, made only worse by the fact that my hay fever went crazy. I hadn't had an attack like that since I was a kid and lived in the San Gabriel Valley. Come to think of it I hadn't felt heat and humidity like that since then either. I didn't mind the hot and humid, but I really didn't like the hay fever. In fact the hot and humid was kind of nice. Reminded me of my childhood and those were happy memories.

Well, that's about all I have to say for now. I'll post more about our trip as I think of it and I'll try to figure out how to post some pictures.