Adventures of the third kind.

How many kinds of adventures are there. I mean categories.

Like, the title of this blog referred to our intent to spend a summer working in Skagway. This category of adventure means setting out to do something different or unusual to see what experiences you can have. It is intended to be fun.

On the way to Skagway, we had an "adventure" of the second kind. That is, descending the 13.5 miles of 9% grade, pulling a trailer, while the brakes on the truck make that baaaad sound all the way. So you could define this category as potentially death defying, but-turned-out-okay. And definitely not anticipated, and definitely not fun.

Then there is the adventure that happens unexpectedly while engaged in a routine activity. It isn't death defying, dangerous, or necessarily interesting or fun. It is just unexpected. Many of us have this kind of adventure at the auto repair shop. You need an oil change, and end up with new brakes. This is the kind I had today.

The check engine light began coming on again after we had a new gas tank installed due to a recall stemming from the regurgitation of fuel when the pump automatically shuts off. The code translated to "gascap." But tightening the gascap did not cause the light to go out. It turned out to be a faulty "rollover valve." You see, the Wrangler has a valve on the filler tube that will prevent the rapid emptying of the fuel tank in case of a rollover. Fire prevention, doncha know.

However, the filler tube is integrated into the tank itself. All one piece. So I needed a new tank. Again. So the adventure here is the extra three hours I got to spend in the waiting room watching Sandra Lee, Rachel Ray, Paula Dean, The Barefoot Contessa, and numerous others share recipes and cooking tips. I had a book, but I finished it in only three hours. I read the newspaper, did the Jumble, Cryptogram, and Crossword, and started on the Sudoku. Had a conversation with a former Southern Pacific engineer about trains because I was wearing a hat with a train on it. Shared accounts of weekend activities with a new-car salesman taking a smoke break.

So there went another day.

How did yours go?

AZ springtime.

Prior to my adventure with the plumbing, we enjoyed a weekend visit from Greg and Ariana. Casey joined us as well. We went to the Desert Museum, always a treat, and got to watch the raptor free flight and the feeding of the cats. Ariana is old enough to be excited and interested in most of the animals. What she enjoyed most was playing in the sand in the back yard. Every flowering plant we have is in bloom. She and Casey picked flowers and decorated "sand castles" with colorful arrangements.

Dave and Margie came for a visit the next weekend. We went to the Arizona Historical Museum to see the 100 year quilt exhibit and were excited to see that they had collected the "quilt bomb" from the trees out front and had included them in the interior exhibit. Peggie's piece was at the front entrance!!

We also had to take a little jeep ride, of course. We took a wash that runs from Oracle to Mammoth, through the Tortilla Mountains where the Tiger Mine was located before they closed it down. Now the overburden has been sculpted and planted so it blends in like the natural hills around it. When we got to Mammoth we continued along the railroad north to Camp Grant Wash, where we turned back through the mountains on our return to Tucson via Willow Springs Road. It was a gorgeous day. Some poppies remained, but the best flowers were on the hedgehog cactus. We spotted deer, including a magnificent three point buck, cardinals, hawks, (especially a red tail sitting on her nest on the platform of a windmill) ravens and a pretty little vermilion flycatcher. But best of all on an Arizona jeep trip, we got our wheels wet! In Camp Grant Wash a spring feeds a stream that stays on the surface for a mile or so. It meanders across the sandy stream bed so often one loses count of the number of times you are required to cross it. Luckily, the sand is firm and there is no danger of becoming mired. I have been on this route a number of times during all seasons of the year and the stream appears to be permanent. This is unusual in Arizona. This was also Easter weekend, so for the first time I have seen, there were people camping in the canyon allowing the children to play in the water.

A LOT of people. We estimated two hundred or so in the mile of water. Those of you not from desert climates need to get the picture here. The water is nowhere more than two inches deep and would make a stream about three feet wide if it stayed together. But it meanders in ribbons like the mouth of big river like the Mississippi. Even so, the children were wet from head to toe and having a great time. The wash bed varies from thirty to a hundred foot width of flat, driveable surface between steeply climbing stone walls. Four wheel drive is unnecessary, in fact most family sedans could drive it.

We concluded the weekend by joining some of the Bice (mom's family) clan at a Glendale park for an Easter potluck.

Gimmee three trips...

Extra credit if you get the reference for the parody.

Gimmee three trips, gimmee three trips, mister, gimmee three trips to the store.

My manhood is intact.

The upstairs toilet was leaking. It needed a new float valve. So I headed to the local Ace. Picked up the new valve. Came back home. Disconnected the old valve. Oops. The flex line over-flexed and broke. This required replacing the shut off valve, because the flex hose is integrated. So I headed to the local Ace. There are MANY different kinds of shut off valves and flex hoses to choose from. I selected one. Oops. Wrong one. So I headed to the local Ace. Exchanged wrong one for correct (?) one. Stephanie, at the register, (we are on a first name basis now) said if I needed to return, to give her a call and she would just set up a cot for me in the back room.

The second job, replacing the shut-off valve and flex hose, required turning off the main water line. No problem. It also resulted in a cut on my finger. So I jumped up, went to the handy bathroom sink to wash away the blood.... Oh, well, there were Kleenix handy, too.

But the moral to the story is that I completed another successful home repair.

And a note just for my children: When removing the original shut-off valve didn't work as expected, I went on-line to get the info needed to get the job done.

MMMM Give me meat! Me man! Albeit, a modern man!

E=mc2

Yep. Relativity.

According to Einstein, and supported by actual experiments, time is not constant. The faster you are moving, the slower it goes.

That explains why the five years from 2002-2007 took longer than the five years from 2007 until now. During the previous five years I was hurrying just as fast as I could go. So time slowed down. During the last five years, I have done some hurrying, but mostly I have been taking it easy, so time has flown.

It is spring break at the local schools. This week I awoke from a nightmare. I was trying to teach a class, but the students, on the first day back from spring break, were restless. They were wantonly hostile and misbehaving, even the ones who were usually good students. I was totally hopeless. Thank goodness I woke up.

The wildflowers are all over. If you haven't yet, get out to see them.

If you give a moose a cookie..

That book is a more accurate record of the way we live our lives than I ever knew.

This morning I was sitting in my reading chair working on the daily crossword. My coffee ran out. (no, no, no. coffee can't run, I drank it all and my cup was empty) Right before that, Peggie mentioned that the #&*@% doves were once again building their nest above our back door.

So...if your coffee runs out, you will want to go refill it. While you are in the kitchen, you might as well step outside and chase the #&*@% doves away. (They are too messy to have above the door) When you get to the door you will see the hummingbird drinking from the water hose at the new bush. Seeing the water filling the basin of the new bush, you will realize that the flow will have to be adjusted so the new bush gets the correct amount of water. You will want to put on shoes to go into the dirty part of the yard, so you might as well get dressed. When you go upstairs to get dressed, you might as well brush your teeth. While you are brushing your teeth, you will need to pee. While you are peeing, you will notice that the toilet should be brushed. When you go outside to check the setting on the water hose, you will notice that too much water has overfilled the basin, so you have to get the shovel and repair the berm. When you are adjusting the water flow setting, you will notice that your Leatherman is binding.

But wait! Your coffee is getting cold. While you are sipping your fresh coffee, you might as well sit at the computer.

And then it is bedtime.

If you ever wonder where your life went. Don't. It is too exhausting to think about.

43 and counting

Peggie is one lucky woman. Forty-three years ago today she was fortunate enough to have accepted an invitation to a party being thrown at my house. Not surprisingly, this was an "adventure" for her because she didn't know anybody at the party except the other girls from her dorm who were also coming. Since that day we have had many adventures, some of which have been chronicled here. We intend to have many more. Some of which will be chronicled here.

March-ing on

Cannot believe it is March already. If we were going to Alaska, we'd be leaving in six weeks. So it is good we are not.

I need some sand for my backyard work, and I still need some more flat rocks to interlay among the flagstones. So, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go gather some of each. Peggie came with me and we went into the washes and mountains north of Oracle and into the San Pedro valley. It was a beautiful day, 60's, blue sky, and we discovered the wild flowers are blooming. Lupine, desert marigold, filaree, and of course, golden poppies. Hillsides covered with them. Peggie took some photos, maybe she will add some to this post. We upset a Harris' hawk and he really squawked at us. Maybe we were close to a nest?

We attended the last in this season's TSO concerts. Mozart and Beethoven. Very enjoyable.

This coming week will be busy. Peggie has four scheduled events in six days, and I have to get my haircut and prepare the trailer for summer travel.

Oh, and we did have some wind the day before the rest of the country had tornadoes. It blew our tombstone rose off the wall. We have to figure out how to get it back up. Beats the heck out figuring out where your house was blown to.

Okay, enough for now. Stay well, Karin. You will need your strength later.