To Hell and Back.
So, we’re back from a quick trip to the family’s palm tree farm (see previous post).
Some impressions:
When we arrived on Thursday night, it felt pretty darn hot in the little house, despite the fact that my FIL had stopped by and made sure the thermostat was down so the air could cool. R. blamed it on the open doggy door. I raided the freezer and sat there in the living room with packages of frozen hamburger meat pressed up to my neck and forehead. We had every ceiling fan running on full blast, the thermostat down to 50, and still we were basically circulating the 115 degree air from outside. By the time R. and I got on the same page–that the AC was, in fact, broken–it was six o’clock on Friday night. Here is the nice repairman, who gave up the first evening of his weekend to help us:
Thank you, nice repairman.
We were there for three nights. Very little is open in the desert’s off-season, so we had dinner at the same restaurant three times. This particular place is known for its oil paintings, which cover all the walls and were done by the same artist. There must be about 150 paintings, and they all contain stagecoaches. The artist, Marjorie Reed, clearly had a thing for stagecoaches:
Between the stagecoaches and the menu, there was a lot of repetition associated with dinner on this trip.
We also encountered some strange animal activity: a coyote stalked R. for about 1/2 an hour when he was out on a run. (He runs in the early morning, so it’s only in the low-90s.)
On our way to dinner every night, we came across a series of great-horned owls sitting in the middle of the road. Their heads would swivel around when the headlights hit them. I have seen some owls in my time but never hunting while on the ground. I guess it’s easier just to wait there on the double-yellow line for the mice to come running across the open road then it is to catch them in the brush.
Lastly, this roadrunner came up on the porch and just hung out, staring at the front door. Not sure what message he wanted to deliver.
We took the dogs out for a run, but they can only last a few minutes in their fur coats, which is a good thing since I get tired of worrying about cactus, coyotes, and fire ants (no snakes out in that heat!!).
R. has a lovely toxin-bruise on the back of his shin from his experience with a jumping cholla during his run…in fact, he came back fairly bloodied from his hike-jog on a trail that disappeared. The guidebook failed to mention that the trail succumbs to open desert and involves some amount of scrambling over rocks in a steep canyon. R.’s comment: “those pioneers from back east must have taken one look at this place and been convinced they had arrived in Hell.” This from a guy who’s been coming here for nigh-on thirty years.
And, yet, we had a great time.
Sounds hot and fun! I wish I could enlarge your thumbnal photos, or are you keeping them small for privacy? Welcome back!
Comment by: atomic mama - 08.21.2006 - 3.23 pm
Fuck the wordpress photolink. That is the single WORST thing about wordpress, IMHO. They will only let you upload thumbnails, unless I am missing something. And that is quite possible. I’ve spent the last week reading CSS manuals, trying to decide whether I should upgrade and pay the $15 fee. Or whether I should get an outside host for my photos (does Flickr do this?) or just pay to have a host who works with wordpress do the site.
Yeah, so, no privacy issue. Sigh.
Comment by: SBird - 08.21.2006 - 4.40 pm
Okay, so using Flickr and a really convoluted method of cutting and pasting HTML, I can achieve a larger-sized photo on wordpress. I’m not sure I can sustain the momentum to do this every time. Anyone have any better ideas?
Comment by: SBird - 08.21.2006 - 5.40 pm
I haven’t found a better way than the Flickr way.
Why all of the stagecoaches, I wonder? But then I keep expecting the new issue of Oprah to have someone besides Oprah on the cover.* Maybe Dr. Phil, just for a change of pace?
Perhaps the artist figured out how to paint a mean stagecoach and just decided to stick with it.
Comment by: Snow Monkey - 08.21.2006 - 6.39 pm
I love the pictures. It is great to look at them. Sorry posting them sucks
Comment by: Nicole - 08.21.2006 - 6.49 pm
Snow Monkey…Okay, so I can calm down about the photo thing. But can I ask…did you upgrade on Wordpress and do some CSS magic in order to get that killer snow monkey background in your title spot?
Yeah, stagecoach obsession. If I had to waitstaff in that place, I fear I’d have nightmares about the Butterfield line for years afterwards.
Comment by: SBird - 08.21.2006 - 6.50 pm
That was a nice repairman. He fixed the AC on a Friday and his shirt was tucked in - no crack!
Sounds like you are having a wonderful time.
Comment by: Jessi - 08.21.2006 - 8.44 pm
I think the road runner was saying “Let me in! Its fricken hot out here!”
Comment by: Christie - 08.21.2006 - 9.40 pm
I didn’t upgrade, but creating the header was complicated. Here’s what I did:
* I found a template that includes an image header (Johnny of Down to This uses the same template, but he uses one of the premade images instead of his own customized image).
* Then I took the snow monkey image, chopped it to the correct size in an image editor, and added the title.
* Then I posted the image on Flickr.
* In Flickr, there are two options for creating a URL–one that includes some html that links to Flickr and one that doesn’t. Only the second one works for what I did. I copied this Flickr URL and told my template to link to it (there’s a box in the template form for this–but, again, only for this one template).
Comment by: Snow Monkey - 08.22.2006 - 6.18 am
Snow Monkey–I love the tricky way of doing things. It’s beginning to dawn on me that Wordpress is rather parasitic.
Comment by: SBird - 08.22.2006 - 11.57 am