Almost there yet not quite started

We finished up everything at work today and had a wonderful sushi and sashimi lunch party.  Everyone was asking about the trip, the who, what, when and where. I'm not sure they understood when I said there was no destination in mind. Sure we are headed somewhere in Louisiana but where? Looks like we might spend Christmas at Grand Isle State Park on the Gulf of Mexico but even that is not guaranteed. What if I see something I like on the coastal trip from Alabama to LA. There looks to be a nice, although probably busy, road that parallels the interstate so thats probably what I'll take.

We were going to go see my son and his wife tonight but they had a conflict arise. so instead of leaving at 8 a.m. to hit the road on Saturday, we will go the opposite way and visit at 8 a.m. But that is fine, because when you have no agenda it doesn't matter. I had a point I wanted to stop at Saturday night and we probably won't make it there. I might make it up on Sunday or I might not. Isn't that half the fun?

My boss and her husband just spent a week in New york and had planned activities every day. I guess if I was to do something like that I might too. But I have no desire to go to New York. so when I was explaining to her the plan today of no destination, no reservations, no must things to see or do, she got a wistful look in her eye.

I'll try to blog on the road, if not I'll have a few pictures here and there of the journey. There are oysters somewhere in the trip. There are hopefully soft shell crabs.. There will probably be alligators.

WooHoo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No news of the fiscal cliff, or shootings, or the NRA. Or the attack on christmas - lol.

"Out Standing" In His Field

It's a busy time of year as we count down the days for our trip. Hard to believe that in 4 days we head south. My wife is making dog biscuits for my next door neighbor and my son's dogs. It's just what she does. The pooches appreciate it and they aren't too bad considering the nibble I gave one last night. "Well, these are funny looking crackers, look they have little bits of carrot....." before discovering who they were for. Not bad actually, and all natural. It reminds me of the time years ago, celebrating Christmas at my sisters house before she moved to Colorado. In our family homes, you don't ask, you just open the fridge and go for it.

I was thirsty and grabbed a glass and clinked a few ice cubes into it and opened the fridge and there was a carafe of apple juice. So I fill my glass up and go in to join the festivities. Take a sip and my face froze. Defatted clarified chicken stock in no way tastes like apple juice. Let this be the lesson of the day. Maybe sniff before you pour. Well, everyone got a good laugh out of it anyway.... But I disgress.

The little church I attend has had a tradition for the past 30 years or so of hosting a Living Nativity. We used to have a ratty manger made of scrap wood and dies sheets for costumes. But that was a while ago, Now we have these velvety things and lights and animals and it reminds people of the reason for the Christmas season. People park in the parking lot and come up to where we are and walk around and we laugh and talk and it provides a welcome respite from the commercialization of the malls. We used to borrow 2 llamas and strap pillows on their backs that looks like humps. I am always a shepherd, because I'm not wise enough to be a wise man. Plus the kids all want to pet the animals. The llamas could sometimes be a handful, especially if we were standing out in the snow.

This year we have 2 mangy sheep, a huge goat, and a miniature donkey. I'm the goat holder this year. A goat with a bladder infection possibly. A goat that has peed on my shoes 2 or 3 times...... Which I didn't know about until my co-shepherds started snickering and pointing. Sigh.......  But the show goes on. The children love to pet the goat and always look at me a little funny when I ask them if they have a pet goat at home.

But it's a fun gig for three nights. For many parents it is a reminder of a simpler time. When the holiday wasn't ruled by credit cards and no parking places. It's not glitzy, it's never polished. The children come wide eyed trying to decide which is more appropriate, to go look at "baby Jesus" first or go pet the goat held by the guy with the smelly shoes.

We don't preach, we don't have a gimmick, we don't knock the commercialization of the holidays. We stand in the beauty of the night sky, sometimes in snow, right on a busy 4 lane road and remind people that there is a story here that never grows old. A story of a promise fulfilled. Whether you believe in a higher power or not, whether you believe in the biblical narrative or not, it is still a heck of a story.

Further thoughts on the slaughter

I posted this on my Facebook page today. Just ramblings as I continue to process the evil that can be in this world. And then another song.


"And this is where I end up upsetting a lot of people but here goes. I ache for a young man who was an innocent child just like those he slaughtered. I ache that at the age of 20 he saw no recourse, he saw no innocence, he saw nothing but rage and pain that caused him to kill the very children he was not that far removed from being.

Why? Where were those to help him, to be with him, to love and nurture him? To seek assistance when it became apparent he had trouble coping with life? And where was he on those dark days of madness and depression when he would allow no one in his world? There is a tragedy on both sides of this issue. And as I watch our country split apart in an "us versus them" mentality, where yelling, and bullying, and name calling become the norm, rather than compassion and empathy, we will see it over and over again.

Let me also say as a person of strong faith, that the meme of "God not being allowed in school" is insulting and disingenuous. And contributes nothing but more animosity. I can think of many teachers and administrators, and students who come to school each and every day full of prayer and God. Our faith is best shown through our actions and words, not by beating our breasts on the street corner. The God I love, was in each bathroom, each closet, and his omnipresence outweighs our human attempts to include or exclude him.

There is no excuse for what happened yesterday. There are only reasons, there is only the clarity of hindsight 20/20 vision. what can we learn from this? What can we do as a society to minimize the potential next incidence? When will we "reach across" to understand what those who disagree with us are saying rather than just dismiss them outright. Sometimes the answer to being shouting at is not to shout louder.

And today, I try to wrap my head around the perpetrator and well as his victims."

I'm leaving this topic for now. The news over the next few days will paint a picture of what happened, in their dramatic fashion. and we can let it sift through our filters for the proper analysis. In a week from now we'll be heading southward for our vacation.

Dan Fogelberg wrote an amazing song with wonderful guitar work in it. Called Tucson, AZ (Gazette)

"His heart is filled with sadness and his soul is like some ugly vacant lot"
 

"The papers simply stated it must have been the drugs that drove him mad
The neighbors speculated what could make a good boy go so bad?
Well, it might have been the desert heat it might have been the home he never had."

Urge for Going

Although Joni wrote it, Tom Rush does such a wonderful job on this song. 

I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town 

It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down 

When the sun turns traitor cold And shivering trees are standing in a naked row 

I get the urge for going but I never seem to go - Joni Mitchell

  

My sister made me aware of Tom Rush. And so often when I listen to him I'm reminded of younger days. This is another Joni Mitchell song but I'm sure I heard his version first and it remains my preferred favorite of the two. 

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round And the painted ponies go up and down 

We're captive on the carousel of time 

We can't return we can only look behind From where we came 

And go round and round and round In the circle game - Joni Mitchell 

  

And since I'm on a Tom Rush kick tonight, even at the age of 56, 

the song below can bring a tear to my eye.  I remember when my Mom and I 

could no longer be in the same house and it was time to go. 

And as fate always works it's hand, it fell on me to be the one 

who cared for her the last years of her life . The one that got the calls.

The one that calmed her when her delirium overtook her.

"Each of us must do the things that matter
All of us must see what we can see
It was long ago, you must remember
You were once as young and scared as me

I don't know how hard it is yet Mamma

When you realize you're growing old

I know how hard is not to be younger

I know you've tried to keep me from the cold"

I know I'm melancholy tonight as I think of the heartbreak in a small Northern town. 

My heart aches for those innocent ones. 

My heart breaks for a young man who was so torn in his life, he shot children.  

Tomorrow the debates and finger pointing will begin in earnest as

we search for answers and solutions.

I know I don't have them.

But I do know this, love always wins.

Eventually.

breakfast of champions

I'm an intermittent breakfast eater. Or at least I used to be. Oft times I need to be up for awhile before eating. I used to be a prolific coffee drinker, sometimes 8 to 10 cups a day. But one day about 6 months ago I wanted to see what would happen if......

And surprisingly it wasn't that bad. A little fuzzier in the morning a slight headache, but after a few days I was fine. After a month or so I started 1 cup of coffee when I get up at 5:00 and then a cup of green tea about 8:30 when I eat breakfast.

This morning I got up as usual, and the cats were poised and ready for their morning feed. Jasper must get low-blood sugar cause he is ornery as heck waiting for his food. He'll bat the others and posture, even though he is in reality a wuss.

There is a routine of who gets fed first and where, etc. The things we do for our critters. It was chilly this morning and the appeal of a warm breakfast hit me. Today called for one thing and that was oatmeal. And not just oatmeal, but steel cut oats, with raisins, almonds, and a hint of brown sugar. In fact as I type out this mundane post in an effort to blog more, I'm enjoying the creamy goodness with a splash of almond milk, and a rare second cup of coffee. It's Friday and tomorrow will be busy preparing for departure next weekend. Anticipation is building, checklists are running through my head, and an atlas of routes to be pondered and dreamed and discarded for the simple idea of going.....

of course, my bowl is a cheap tupperware knock off since I'm here at work, but the idea is the same. And since we will be heading to Louisiana let me introduce Zachary Richard as I dream of oysters and shrimp,

Planning or no planning?

“There must be a time of day when the man who makes plans forgets his plans, and acts as if he had no plans at all.
There must be a time of day when the man who has to speak falls very silent. And his mind forms no more propositions, and he asks himself: Did they have a meaning?
There must be a time when the man of prayer goes to pray as if it were the first time in his life he had ever prayed; when the man of resolutions puts his resolutions aside as if they had all been broken, and he learns a different wisdom: distinguishing the sun from the moon, the stars from the darkness, the sea from the dry land, and the night sky from the shoulder of a hill.” - Thomas Merton

Some of my best trips have been the ones where minimal planning was involved. Times when we just look at each other and say "Let's go...." We take day trips in the car sometimes. We'll pick a direction and go. One time we drove 5 hours just to go get barbeque. We like to take the road that parallels the interstate when possible just to have something to look at rather than billboards and trucks.

Next weekend we leave for the South. I've looked and researched and plotted and planned and threw it all away. I might want to drive 5 hours one day instead of 8. I might want to take this detour toward the west rather than honor the reservation I might have made at this or that park. I don't know where we will be Christmas day. And that is what makes it so important just to go. I do know this: We are leaving Dec 22 and returning Jan 1 or so. The cats are staying home and arrangements are made. There are a few people that have indicated we stop by on our way. But as I explained I can make no promises, for I don't know what day or time I'm coming through.  I'm going to eat an Oyster Po'Boy, I know that.

There will probably be alligators somewhere.

And if they want my shoes they can have them. My wife has already informed me that if she sees an alligator around the camper she is not getting out....

I've got a camera and will take way too many pictures. This will be our longest jaunt in the camper yet. She'll have crafts, I'll have books. I've never really developed a hobby but I keep looking!

We'll be staying mostly in State Parks I think. Louisiana looks like it has some wonderful parks and I've been reading the adventures of the Gypsy BoHo Express and her reviews.

So thats it, I have to get through the next week or so of work and then onward and upward. Or downward, since I'm headed south.

Well, if there is one thing I can certainly claim as my own, it's the ability to be a slacker. I had almost, ALMOST, forgotten I had a blog here. I know when I started it I had big dreams (don't we all) of writing every so often and throwing all the great trips in the Vista on here with pictures and diagrams and arrows pointing here and there and asterisk for clarification of the finer points and so forth and so on. But then....... life. "Oh I'll update soon."
"Hey I need to write on the blog"
"What's that, I need to do?"

And the next thing you know a week, a few, a month, a few have rolled by. Pitiful. No worries though. Right? Today is the start of a new day, a new post and a long overdue update. Hopefully the next post will be about the amazing Assateague State Park trip in September. The weather, the sand, the ponies, the thrills and adventures. Because I need to get that one out of the way because of the big trip (for us) coming up.

A three state tour of the deep South. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Well at least 10 days worth. Why there? Why not. I want to go to the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, The Gulf Shore, back to New Orleans. Out to Lake Charles. Stay tuned.