Christmas Lights in Solvang

Solvang, a Danish town in California has her Christmas lights out in full glory. The little park in town, has a large well lit tree, and lots of sycamore trees wrapped in light. It's one of the few towns I've seen in this state that has decorations out. Thank you Solvang for celebrating Christmas.

On the Road Again

Yep...we are on the road again. We like to keep moving and as long as we are able, we will. When we retired we made a promise to ourselves that we would try to be where it is warm and sunny most of the year. So far, so good.

To that end, we are winter camping a few miles from my sister's home, where it is sunny (not exactly warm). This afternoon we will celebrate Christmas with the family. I've been told a lot of the folks are able to make it to the celebration and that gives me great joy.

In the meantime, we are not the only people winter camping...there are 50 units in this campground "enjoying" the not very warm sun. I tried to post a picture, but alas, "blogger" won't take it...who knows why so I'll end with a Belated Merry Christmas wish to you and yours from me and mine.

Merry Christmas

We are home from our wonderful cruise and now we are dealing with cruise-lag (if there is such a thing). So much to do after being gone for awhile. The one "job" I did like was opening a mailbox filled with Christmas cards and letters from our friends. I love Christmas mail, and this year we received a fair share. I'm happy to report that my old friends are all doing well, and filled with the spirit of the season. It's absolutely lovely. The cards are so colorful and filled with fun news. I cannot think of a better gift to come home to.

Thank you friends for your cards and letters. Thank you for keeping the spirit of Christmas alive in your heart. I write this at 11:30 on Christmas night. The day is over and my heart is overflowing with your love. I hope you had a Merry Christmas. We did!

Good night!

Good Cruise

It's been a good cruise. We visited some ports that were old friends, like Kotor, Montenegro, Santorini, Corfu and Venice. We visited new ports like Cadiz, Spain and Rhodes, Greece. We sampled some fine prosciutto in Kotor; saw where the Colossus of Rhodes stood (it collapsed many centuries ago). We saw the mules on Santorini in the "off" season where they are used to transport goods instead of people up the high cliffs to the cities on the tiny island. We visited a few old churches, which are always special to me. One of the highlights of the cruise and maybe the year was visiting the village where my father was born. I've heard of the village all my life, but I saw the house that belonged to my grandfather. I walked the tiny lane that my dad played on when he was a toddler. I saw my great uncle's home. I even visited the parish church. Sadly the church is no longer a church--it serves as a gathering place and the day we were there several men were playing cards and laughing. I tried to talk to them, but we had no language in common, only smiles. They did recognize my name and they pointed me in the direction of the little street with the same name. I tried not to cry, but something leaked out of my eyes.

The first leg of the cruise had many stops ashore, while the second leg was devoted to crossing the Atlantic. For the most part the crossing was easy, except for the last 2 days. We've been rocking and rolling a lot. The seas are gray and uneven with lots of whitecaps. The blue skies we had in the Mediterranean have been replaced with drippy blackish clouds. I've been keeping myself entertained listening to lectures and crocheting with our merry band of "happy hookers" as we like to call ourselves. I've only made 2 blankets, but I did learn how to make a cute stuffed teddy bear or kitty. I figured out the prototype pattern after translating it from Knit to Crochet. I've never done that before so I was proud of my efforts.

The best lecture series I've heard in a long time happened on the second leg of the cruise. It was a set of 3 lectures by a professional musician, AJ Clarke. He had excellent programs based around a clever organizing principle...the letter B. So we painlessly and eagerly learned  about "Bach to Beethoven," "Berlin to Bernstein," and "Beatles to Bacharach." He knew his topic well. I wished he had taught my music appreciation class I had to take in my sophomore year of college. I would have learned something!

The singers and dancers gave us many nights of great music too; as did other entertainers. We laughed at comedy routines, swayed to country music and kept time to familiar tunes. The nightly shows were very very good. We know we've been doing this awhile as we have several favorite artists who show up on cruise ships...and a few showed up on this cruise. 

The food was good but not great. There was definitely enough of it; and it was displayed with gusto. On the second leg of the cruise, the ship was decorated for Christmas. We have gingerbread villages in several places on the ship; lots of pretty trees and greenery. I have a feeling the next sailing will be more heavily decorated.

Alas, it's time to pack and leave the Pacific Princess. She's a good little ship. Lots to do today. We have a fun, relaxing cruise and we're ready for the next challenge...that of bearding the airports in 3 cities as we fly back to reality.

Last Formal Night

Tonight was the last formal night of the cruise. Most folks were looking pretty good...but on "last formal night" some interesting outfits come out. One fellow is wearing his black

with bright white running shoes. Another fellow is wearing a tuxedo t-shirt with black jeans and matching black running shoes. The women are not as formal either. This is sort of a tradition...last formal night is not very formal.

For the last few days we've had mild seas and beautiful weather. This morning something different happened. The clouds rolled in and the rough seas arrived. It's not nice on the ship right now. Walking down the aisles is an adventure as you never know what exactly is going to happen when a wave hits the ship at just the wrong way.

On the other hand, we are having fun. There was a contest called "reindeer games" this afternoon. It was simple merriment of tossing rings around reindeer antlers. The antlers were worn by 2 members of the dance cast. It was a hoot. I finally learned about reindeer games--remember Rudolph , was not allowed to play any reindeer games.

Eight Days at Sea

We are sailing at 17.3 knots per hour on the Atlantic Ocean and we will do that for 8 days. The first leg of the cruise had stops almost every day but not the second leg. So we are enjoying sea-days (or sea daze). I've been crocheting -- I've made one teddy bear blanket, several angels and several tiny trees. I give them away before I take pictures--so please imagine them.

The ship is decorated with Christmas trees and gingerbread villages..but the internet will not let me load any pictures...so please imagine them too.

The internet has been iffy on the second leg too...last 3 days without the net. Some folks are having withdrawals...but it's back on today. More later.

Termini Imerese

This is a city name I've heard all of my life and today we visited  it. It's important to me as my dad was born there over a century ago. Today I walked the narrow street that he walked as a little boy. It was overwhelming to think of all the family history that has played itself out on that tiny street.

I found  a few family roots. I saw the house that belonged to my grandfather's brother, I saw the house where my father was born. I walked the streets around the neighborhood. I saw the blue Tyreanean Sea just a couple of blocks away. What a day.

In Naples

I love looking at all the traffic in the sealanes at a port. Gone are the days of white ships with tiny lettering. What you see are ships decorated with LARGE letters and designs. I'm looking at a MOBY CARGO ship backing into port in Naples...the letters on the side of the ship are huge in bright blue and red print. 

Other ships have similar logos. One of the best we saw yesterday at the port of Rome 

As it had a huge Batman riding a dolphin on the bow. 

We are in Naples today. Tomorrow we'll be in Palermo and I'm sure the ships will be just as decorated. 

Catania

Today we our first landing in Sicily, in Catania. We stayed onboard and enjoyed being on the "yacht" as I like to call the Pacific Princess. While 400 or so pax went on shore excursions, we had the boat to ourselves. There's nothing better.

From our ship we could see the big duomo or dome of the cathedral as well as the busy port. Our friend Roger went into town to mail some letters and found the local post office was so crowded they were using a numbering system. A woman walked out of the post office and gave Roger her place in line, and he waited another 45 minutes--and she had already waited 90 minutes! After hearing about crowds, we decided it was better in the ship.

Here are a few pictures from the port of Catania, Sicily, Italy.

Santorini

One of the lovelier Greek islands is Santorini. At one time, centuries ago, it was an active volcano when it blew off it's top which created a caldera that was filled by the sea. What remained was a little bit of paradise. People moved into this eden and built white houses on the tall cliffs overlooking the beautiful blue water.  Churches were built with cerulean blue domes reflecting the sky and the water. That's Santorini and today we had the pleasure of enjoying this scrap of land in the middle of nowhere.

We tendered to the island, and took the gondola to the top of the mountain. From there we walked and rode to Oia, the city on the top and enjoyed the views. The tourist season is over, so Oia is a quiet village. We've been here during tourist season and it's not quiet at all. I finally got to see the island without several ship-loads of my closest friends, and it's a delight.  I have 2 favorite Greek islands--Corfu and Santorini. This has been a good cruise as we visited both.

On the road again

We are at sea on the Pacific Princess. The sea(s) being  the Adriatic, Aegean and the Mediterranean. We are making  landfalls at either old walled cities on land, or old walled cities on small islands. After we cross the isthmus at Gibraltar, we will sail in the Atlantic to Fort Lauderdale.

We started in a wet and rainy Venice. While not a walled city, it was protected in ancient times by the mighty Venetian navy and in modern times by the "moat" aka waters in the Venitian archipelago. From there we went to Sibenek, Croatia then to   Kotor, Montenegro.

The first time we visited Kotor we were sure it was the model for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books. Upon returning to it 8 years later, it still is a honey colored walled city/state filled with narrow, curvy cobblestone streets that lead to tiny shops tucked into alcoves along the way. We kept on looking for a friendly wizard to show us the way to magic shop. We have a minor love-affair with this little town that was once part of the Venetian empire.

Our next stop was Corfu, a Greek island that is drop dead gorgeous. Bigger than Kotor, it is a teeming with Greek-ness. This is where you look at signs and think "that's the strangest fraternity name ever"...it's all Greek to me! We've been to Corfu many times and each time we've thought it would be a wonderful place to live -- but there is one problem -- everything is written in Greek and there are not subtitles.

Today we landed in Rhodes, the 4th largest Greek island and famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, a huge statue that connected two parts of the island. Sadly, the Colossus fell down millennia ago, but archeologists have recovered stones from it and know the exact location where it stood. First on my list was to see the location, which is now marked by two columns, each topped with a deer. 

Tomorrow we head to Santorini, another drop dead gorgeous Greek island. I hope my internet connection is good enough for me to post some pictures. In the meantime, what follows are some collages of Kotor and Rhodes.

Kotor is located at the end of a long fjord, so the waters are still and the reflections are amazing.

 

"Blogger" won't let me download my collage of Rhodes, but these are the columns that depict the location of the Colossus of Rhodes.

What Happened to Christmas?

I'm on a rant here, so bear with me. I've been looking for Christmas cards that wish people a MERRY CHRISTMAS. This year that wish seems to be difficult to find. I can find cards that wish Happy Hanukkah, or Feliz Navidad, or Happy Kwanzaa, but not Merry Christmas. Instead the cards wish you a bland-ready-for anyone-non-offensive "Seasons Greetings" or "Joy" or "Merry" or "Happy Holidays." Well, I'm offended. It's Christmas that we are celebrating. That's the reason for the season. What happened? Is it politically incorrect to wish people Merry Christmas? If that's the case then let me be the first to wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS this year in my best politically incorrect manner!

Geography Pillows

These are my "geography pillows" -- I made tonight. Many years ago I bought this fabric for my classroom, and it has it has lingered in my fabric stash ever since. Tonight I created pillows from my fabric stash. I think they came out well.

Sunsets and Utility Poles

Once again, we were treated with a spectacular sunset. If you look closely, you will the fields in the "middle ground" are very dry.  We've not had rain in over 200 days if the weather guesser is correct.

And, another positive note--work is starting on the generator. We are getting a new service pole today. We have small herd of trucks onsite...I did not know there was room for so many.

Ode to a Fence

What a fine fence you are.

 Meticulously crafted of barbed wire supported by stakes that have seen a hundred winters.

Not rickety or feeble because you boldly snake through gullies and climb mountains

Yes, you are worn with time

...yet you carry your burden with dignity

Halloween

Several years ago we were in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival. As luck would have it, I was offered an authentic Carnival hat and I said YES. We brought the hat home (which was not easy) and since then it has been in my living room as a conversation starter and attention getter. Well, this Halloween I wore it to town...and several other people took the chance to wear it too. I wore to McDonald's and "won the prize" (which was a cup of coffee) for best costume of the day. Great fun!

Pumpkin Hat

Happy Halloween

One of my friends asked me to make her a pumpkin cap...so I did. 

It's what every one needs on a frosty Halloween day.

Power and Fall Colors

The power has been restored ... hooray. I heard someone call our local power company Almighty PG&E and I had to agree. They turn off the power and turn it on in was seems to be capricious ways. There's no wind...the power goes off. There is wind, the power is on. There's wind in the cities around us...their power is ON, our power is OFF...what's the difference? The Almighty PG&E knows and just tells us that the power is being cut but not why. Tis puzzling and frustrating.

On the other hand, the trees are changing colors. Fall, in our "tree city" is beautiful...take a look.

City Mice and Country Mice

Guess what? The power is out yet again! We were given a lot of warning this time, and we were ready. We are living between the house and the RV and making do. Right now we are borrowing wifi from a nearby McDonald's. The power outages are strange. The folks in the city (city mice) are enjoying power, but the country mice are enjoying the "green new deal." The country mice are not all that happy with this "new normal" as our governor calls it.

In the meantime, there are 2 fires blazing in CA. One was started by the power company that shut down our power due to high fire danger. The origin of the second fire is unknown as I write.

I like being a country mouse. I like living in a first world country. I'm not living in a first world country right now. What happened?

Power

PG&E shut down the power yet again. This time we tried to get ready for it as we were given warning. Prior to every shutdown, PG&E sends me a text saying it's going to happen on a certain day but no details as to when it will happen on that certain day. Then the text says "be prepared." PG&E recommends people go to this website to get current information for your exact location. It has an excellent wind map for the west coast of the US too.

This time we decided to buy an inverter generator for the RV. Off to Home Depot where the last inverter generator was being wheeled out the door as we entered the store. Another generator was located about 20 miles away, so we went there and bought what we needed. Once home, our neighbor helped us get it "up and running." He pulled the starter cable and after a few pulls the generator "caught" but it sounded strange. Instead of the "putt-putt-putt" sound I was expecting, it cycled with a "putt-putt-whoom--putt-putt-whoom" sound. We wondered why it was not sounding smooth...only to discover it was leaking fuel too. We turned it off and took it back to the store. We were both thinking "so much for advance planning."

Then our neighbor called and said he had a friend who was selling an extra generator that had 4 hours on it. We called the friend, went to his house and bought an almost-new inverter generator. We hooked it up the RV and it "putt-putt-putted" away just as it should.

We were ready for the power outage. We removed food from the fridge and freezer and put it in the RV. We forgot to remove the ice...next time we won't make that mistake. We need to put all the ice in large bowls and put them on the freezer shelves...then we have water if we need it. This time we had a dripping mess. Live and learn! We brought in essentials for daily living and moved to the RV. So much nicer than moving to a hotel.

The power was off for 28 hours with the threat that it might be turned off again this weekend. We are learning to live with the situation but that does not mean we are liking it. The RV is ready for the next round of electric-free living as we boon dock in our own backyard.

Yet Another Blanket

The other day a friend asked me how many teddy bear blankets I had made. I don't know that answer. The pattern was shared with me in 2003 and since then, it has become my "go-to" blanket pattern. To the very large number of TBBs I've crocheted in the past sixteen years, add one more. The color is "aran" which is the traditional color for a fisherman's knit sweater. It looks good on a TBB too. In case you are wondering, I'm working on a pink TBB now. I started it during the power outage as it's easy to work on in the dark.

I Didn't Forget

Honest, I didn't forget to write in my blog, I just had nothing to say that was not nasty. I had a rant about PG&E but after thinking about it, the rant could not begin to tell what it's like to live without electricity for 5 days when the closest town had electricity. It made no sense. Life goes on. PG&E goes on.

It's time to enjoy the sunsets (and the electricity) while we can.

A Sunday Drive and Power Company Rant

We don't go on Sunday drives often, but today we did. We started early with breakfast in town, then we headed west toward the rice fields. We discovered some teeny tiny towns (one had a population of 75 souls). We looked at the huge rice elevators and enjoyed the warm sunshine. After lunch, we continued to drive toward the flat mesas by the dam.

The California hillsides are covered in dry, yellow grass. "They say" the fire danger is high. To add to the equation, the local power company figured it is wise to shut down the power for the whole area when the winds are blowing. Yesterday we had a 14 hour power outage in order to be safe. I believe in being safe, but we did not have any wind.  

So, we are enjoying the dryness--hating the power company--and wondering when the power company will come up with a better solution than cutting power to tens of thousands of people every time the wind blows. Maybe they should have a town hall where we can offer them some better solutions apart from the blanket order of killing our power. Maybe, the power company should put in safer equipment that does not spark and cause fires.

Trouble in Paradise (CA)

Last November the "Camp Fire" roared thru the town of Paradise and destroyed it. Since we have not been to Paradise for awhile, we thought it was a good time to check on progress. The news is grim. One of the main streets is still devastated. The stores that were there are gone and no progress has been made on rebuilding. There are still wobbly-looking fireplaces standing that used to be surrounded by houses. Burned trees stand on empty lots. A few lots have signs that say "Will Build to Suit" but it looks like no one is taking up the offer. 

Blue Ripple

I finished one more blanket this evening. It's a ripple design made from lots of different shades of blue. It's very warm.

Tetons and Yellowstone

We finally made it to our 2 favorite parks before leaving the high country. Our first day up here was glorious

The mountains were brilliant in the late summer sky. The temps were perfect.

Then came the snow in Yellowstone. Tonight it's not snowing but it's raining. Who knows what the morning will bring.

There are still bison roaming Hayden Valley in Yellowstone

And the "smokes" are more vibrant in cool weather. It's been a good time in the mountains. We return home tomorrow. We'll open the shades and find out if we have to go thru snow!

9-11 Remember

There are many defining moments in history and most of them are bad. In my life the first "defining moment" was the assassination of President Kennedy. If you were alive when that happened, you know exactly where you were and what you were thinking. 9-11 was another of those "moments" -- it was the day the world changed. Hope disappeared for awhile on that awful day when Arab terrorists tried to destroy my country. They are still trying.

Awhile back, I visited New York City and paid my respects to the victims of the 9-11 terror attack. 

This is real...this happened in America...my home, my country...some cowards tried to destroy our beacon of liberty. Everyone remember that. We are a free democratic country.

New York is rebuilding...is moving forward...

But we can never forget that we are under siege by people who want to destroy us and our way of life.

Leftovers, part 2

On August 14 I posted a picture of a blanket I was starting. It's now September 8 and progress has been made

The bright red border connects the squares into 8 strips. The next task is to connect the strips together to form the blanket. There is a hitch...I counted wrong and I have to make 4 more squares and another red bordered strip before I can form the blanket.  The last step, is a border around the whole blanket. As you can see, more work is needed. Right now, the blanket is sitting in the middle of my living room--I will "take it down" this morning and move it to my office where it will be out of the way. By the way, I've found out this is called a Crofter's Blanket. 

Musings

This morning the valley had pockets of clouds clinging to the floor. At almost 6000 feet, it seems like the clouds do not have enough "will power" to climb above the 9000+ feet mountains.

Here's looking at you. The aspens develop eyes...walking in an aspen forest is not a lonely experience.

Two license plates in the RV park...the motorhome is "I Wana Go" and the tow car is "Wana Go 2."

If you need the perfect license plate, then a vanity plate is the way to go. 

It's Still Fun 56 Years Later

Long before Disney Studios "got woke" they made a series of wonderful movies. One of those movies was "Mary Poppins" and we saw it last night. In January we saw "Mary Poppins, Returns" and frankly we were not impressed.Turn the clock back 56 years and look at the original, which is still the best.

Looking thru that long lens of time, Mary is a dark character. She puts her charges in strange and interesting situations and they love her for it. Her job it to put together a family that has lost it's way, and she does it with a spoonful of sugar and dose of magic. The story is still delightful. The music is memorable. I like the "unwoke" Disney. I wish we could have more movies that are heartwarming, apolitical and just plain fun. If you have the urge to see one, rent Mary Poppins, with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke and start smiling.

New Blanket

I finished a lavender teddy bear baby blanket last night. It will be put in a "blanket drop" for Dorian survivors.

Virginian Fire in Jackson Hole

Update: The name of the fire has been changed to "Saddle Butte Fire"
Several areas of Jackson have been evacuated.
There's a fire in Jackson, WY, that started across the street from the Virginian Hotel (hence the name). We rolled into Jackson about 5 PM and the fire had already burned the scrubby dried grass on the mountain across the street from the hotel. It was spreading around the mountain and threatening downtown. The firefighters are working hard to keep it on the mountain and away from the town.

Helicopters are dropping water on the flames

Nearby homes have been evacuated, but there are not many homes in this particular area.

The ground cover is dry and it's a hot day (for us) so the conditions are right for a blaze. I hope they contain it soon.

Going To Seed

The wildflowers of summer are coming to an end. The transformation is different for each one. The process of creating and spreading seeds for the cycle of life is an amazing work of art. Plants produce fluff, or parachutes, or pods, or shells, or berries to protect those precious seeds of life.

The forest is still lush and green. The leaves have not put on their autumn garb, but the aspens sound crisper than they did earlier in the summer.

The saxifrage was yellow, now it's ready to spread tiny bits 

of fluff all over the wild garden.

The tall prairie grasses bow their heads laden with shells filled with seeds.

The paintbrush blooms get longer as the summer progresses. Soon they will go to seed, but they are not ready yet. Did you know it's illegal to pick paintbrush flowers in WY? I just found that out. It's a protected state flower.

The snowberries are started to appear. The deer love to snack on the berries..

And I must not forget the lovely salsify with the biggest ball of parachutes readying for the winter.