OKLAHOMA!

OKLAHOMA! continued.

Snowed through the night, Friday, and most of the day, Saturday, but the show went on. Actually, temperature near enough to freezing that the main roads were clear.

We got a backstage tour -- here's the theatre interior -- had dinner (Italian), then went to the show.





From the time Laurey (Kaci) walked out of Aunt Eller's cabin singing "Oh, what a beautiful morning," we were captivated. Here's Susie's review and impressions.


"When I was a little girl in the fifth grade, my dad (a high school music teacher in Raton, New Mexico) took my mom, my brother and me to Colorado Springs to see the traveling production of "Oklahoma." What a thrill---that was my first exposure to the musical theatre. A few years later I was cast as Ado Annie in my college production of "Oklahoma." I remember that my dad sat in the balcony, hung over the railing and cried like a baby--from pride, I hope. Little did I know that some fifty years later I would see my precious granddaughter in the leading role of Laurey and not to be outdone by my dad, I cried like a baby.


"Now, of course, we all can brag about our outstanding grandchildren, but I'm here to tell you that she was beyond outstanding! Her reviews have been wonderful and she has great times ahead of her at the music conservatory in her college of choice--Baldwin-Wallace. Interestingly enough, I was able to dig out some old reviews of my college performances and sent them to Kaci. I told her that I didn't want her to think that she got all of her talent from her mother!


"Luckily, we have been able to see a couple of her other performances but this production was staged by the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre and was quite a production. I feel so blessed to be able to travel to see as many of our grandchildren's activities as we have. We now have six grandchildren--Matt (Jeff's son) is all grown up, Tony is attending the College of Santa Fe (close to his Grami and Rob), Andrew in the 8th grade (a drummer and a good soccer player), Jason (a first grader and also a good soccer player) and our new little China doll, Malia. God is good!"

We went back for Sunday matinee and it seemed even better, or maybe it was because we had seats with better acoustics. Of course, the cast loosened up when Ice, the horse that is led on stage at the beginning of the play, loosened up in another way. His trainer soon appeared with a shovel and wet rag and that took care of that.

Monday it was back to Midway Airport, Chicago. We flew to Las Vegas with Heidi for a couple of days of basketball, maybe more -- Mountain West Conference tournaments, men's and women's. Won't report on that. It was in all the papers.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie

OKLAHOMA! in Michigan

March 2, 2007

Well, another kind of OKLAHOMA trip. Granddaughter Kaci Hinkle is starring as Laurey in the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre presentation of OKLAHOMA! We are going and the other three Hinkle kids are also so there will be a family reunion in Grand Rapids this weekend. Well, that was the plan, but winter weather intervened.

We planned to leave Albq on Thursday, March 1, and were on the way to the airport early that morning when we got phone call from daughter Mandi, closely watching the weather from her SW Airlines vantage point. Weather outlook seemed bad enough in Chicago that we decided to wait until the next day. On Friday both Mandi and daughter Heidi would be flying in to Chicago and we would meet them there, weather willing, and drive to Grand Rapids together. That part worked.

As we left Albq we were told that Chicago was under weather advisory, meaning that our flight could be diverted. But, it wasn't. Strong wind and blowing snow in Chicago made for a bumpy descent but we all got in, had lunch, picked up rental car, and headed for Grand Rapids, normally a 3 hour drive away. Very cold and windy as we selected our car: the car we finally left in was our third choice: first car was too small, second car was too smokey, but the third car was ju-ust right!

Strong wind and light snow the first half of the way, but not sticking to the roadway, so no problem. Then, on up into Michigan, on I-196 along the SW side of the state, traffic slowed to a crawl due to numerous incidents of cars sliding off the road. Almost all were from the southbound lanes, though, and it never seemed particularly treacherous in our lanes. With cell phones we kept in touch with Kaci's father, Matt, all the way and finally got to their house about 4.5 hours after leaving Chicago's Midway Airport.

We made it, but, unfortunately, son, Jeff, and Valerie Hinkle couldn't fly out of Sioux Falls, SD. Airport was closed Friday under blizzard whiteout conditions and would still be closed Saturday. Too bad. Note for the future: Do not plan trips to or out of the upper midwest in early March. Earlier in the planning stages we had planned to drive Tuzigoot, but decided against it, partly because of possibility of winter weather problems and partly because we decided to fly to Las Vegas from here in order to see some of the Mountain West Conference basketball tournaments.

Meanwhile, here are some excerpts from the newspaper's review of OKLAHOMA after its opening:

As the main twosome, Alexander and Hinkle shine, for the most part, although the male lead's singing voice could have been more robust here and there. Granted, it was hard to compete with Hinkle, who delivers the kind of voluminous, dazzling vocals that seem made for musical theater. .... Hinkle is ideal as Laurey, coy but not silly, and sassy without being over-the-top.

So you can see why we're eager to see the show. Our unbiased reviews in the next installment.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob

Malia Fix, continued

Picking up where Blogger interupted us:

Plan Monday, Feb. 19, was to spend a day and a half getting home -- take a mountain route through CO rather than the I-25 route we've taken several times in the last year. Stop whenever we felt like it.

Stopped by to say good-bye to Malia and Valerie (Jeff gone to work) -- see picture at top of previous posting -- then headed down Hwy 285, SW from Denver, into the mountains. Forecast was for developing mountain snow during the day, but it was nice and clear to start with (don't mean to sound foreboding, so I'll tell you now that we didn't get trapped in a blizzard).

Here's a shot in the South Park area -- you can see the clouds looming over the mountain peaks. They increased through the day, but no rain or snow at our level. Just cold and windy.

Had lunch in Buena Vista -- see shot of historic courthouse. The Collegiate Range (Mt. Princeton, Mt. Harvard, etc.) was pretty much socked in, so we couldn't see the high mountains in this area. Drove through historic downtown Salida, but didn't stop to browse or shop -- some other time in better weather -- then south through the San Luis Valley and into New Mexico.

Stopped at Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Just before you get there, from the west, there is a settlement of unusual, partially underground houses. Sign said, I believe, Spaceship Earth. There is a visitor's center, so some time will have to stop and find out what that's all about -- 21st century version of Taos commune society, I would guess.

The reason for going through Taos was to do some prep work for a possible outing of St. John's RVers this summer. I had talked by phone to the preacher at El Pueblito United Methodist Church and wanted to meet him. Turned out he was in Albuquerque, but I had a nice visit with lady at the church with a group preparing a Mardi Gras dinner. We also scoped out a Taos RV park where we might stay.

By now, it was late afternoon, but rather than stay the night, we decided to head on home -- hard to stop when you're within a couple of hours at home.

Next up: trip to Grand Rapids, MI, first weekend in March, for granddaughter Kaci's performance as Laurie in OKLAHOMA! All four Hinkle siblings will be there for a reunion and more family fun.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob

Malia Fix

Feb. 16, we drive to Denver to spend the weekend with Malia, Jeff, and Valerie. This would be our "Malia fix" Susie mentioned earlier, not having seen her, and them, since LAX returning from China. Because it's winter, we pack extra water, food, and blankets. Almost had to use them a half-hour from home.

I'll stick the last picture in here first -- three "Easterling girls" -- just to set the theme.


To catch I-25 east of Santa Fe when heading north we sometimes take county roads and state highways that lead east from our area. It was a windy day -- very strong wind from the north. As we drove east snow that had been around several days was being driven across the road -- looked almost like fast-flowing, frothy water. Actually, quite pretty, sun shining; sorry I didn't get a picture. No real problem driving for a while, though, as visibility was good and the snow was not accumulating on the road.

After about nine miles of this we got to a point where there were drifts on both side of the road, narrowing the road to one lane while the blowing snow really reduced visibility. Spotted a car stopped on the road ahead of us. We stopped and the car's driver came back and told us she couldn't go any further. We'd have to back up. We did so, for about 100 yards, hoping nobody would come up suddenly behind us, and got turned around in a driveway, back-tracked and then took the road north to Madrid, then Santa Fe, with no problems. Told Susie I could just see us in a ditch, all day, with our emergency supplies, 10 miles from home!

Whenever we get the opportunity we stop in Las Vegas, Susie's main home town, for a meal at the Spic and Span restaurant. We even planned ahead this time, very light breakfast at home, brunch at S and S. False start delayed us a bit, but we enjoyed it as always. Great Mexican food, tortillas prepared on site. Outstanding donuts, too. Uneventful journey after that: some periods of high wind; the usual construction slow-downs through Colo Springs.

(I love the drive from Las Vegas to Raton (some call it boring) -- majestic golden plains framed by mountains and mesas, punctuated by ranches and occasional tree-lined stream beds. Ah, New Mexico!)

Got to Highlands Ranch to find Malia decked out in a shirt her statistical grandpa got her (caption: I'm statistically significant). Didn't take her long to remember her China traveling companions.

For our Albuquerque friends, mark April 1 on your calendars: Malia will be baptized at our church -- St. John's United Methodist -- and there may be other opportunities to greet Malia and her family that weekend.

Saturday morning we stayed with Malia while her parents made a half-hour trip to Target. Both parents and child handled the separation well. Here we watch basketball -- getting psyched up for March Madness.

Saturday pm we all went down to the Cherry Creek Mall for some shopping and people-watching.

Later that evening, on the way to dinner, Susie started playing a game with Malia with a little soccer ball that made Malia laugh and giggle more than we'd heard her. All in all, a great day. Malia, of course, did exceptionally well.

Sunday morning Susie and I drove to nearby Parker, CO, where my boyhood friend, Dennis Clark, preaches and shepherds his flock. Dennis and I go back to the summer before I was in sixth grade. We lived in Manhattan, KS, and Dennis was spending the summer there, living on the same block, while his dad was in summer school. My dad had just gotten the job of president of Northern Oklahoma Jr. College, in Tonkawa. He needed to hire a band instructor. I told him, my friend Dennis's father is a HS band director -- hire him. He did, and Dennis's Mom later became my Dad's secretary. (Small world dept.: The Clarks were in Hope, KS, at the time, home town of Albuquerque/St. John's friends, Anita and Loren Keller.) We palled around together and with a third musketeer, James Gilbert, all the way through high school. Then, I went to OSU, they went to OU, but, hey, can't hold a grudge forever.

Sunday evening we celebrated Chinese New Year with two other couples with adopted Chinese daughters by going to a nearby Chinese restaurant. Another good time was had by all. Here, Susie corrals the three girls for a picture. Btw, all four girls are wearing Chinese garb -- Susie's jacket from Guangzhou.

Blogger apparently has a space limit, so I'll continue this report in a separate posting.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie

Oklahoma, Feb. 07

Because I contemplate possibly teaching at Oklahoma State U, my alma mater, some day, I contacted the stat dept in January and said I come to OK every once in a while to visit family, so I wondered if I might come to Stillwater to visit the dept some time, give a seminar, and talk about teaching possibilities. In particular, I'd like the visit to coincide with an OSU home basketball game, especially if somebody could find me a ticket. For the marquee games, at least, the tix tend to be sold out.

So, I was invited to give a seminar Friday, 2/9, and a request was sent out to find a ticket for me for the Sat. game against Texas Tech. On two-week notice, I committed, thinking surely a ticket would come available.

Nothing was forthcoming from the dept contacts, so a few days before my visit I got into a couple of e-bay auctions, but dropped out when prices went over $100 (regular prices are $25 - $40). Decided I'd take my chance with sidewalk scalpers on game day.

Thursday, flew to OKC and spent the night with my Mom, sister, Verla, and her family in nearby Edmond, then drove to Stillwater (about 1 hr. away) Friday morning.

But first, the big entertainment event Thursday night was to go to rock concert by Luma, a band (oops, I should define them as alternative rock) that two of my nephews play in -- my sister, Connie's sons Marcus and Stephen. If you go to the Luma website, which may be the first time any of you dared to go to myspace.com, the first and third guys in the picture are them. The venue was called the Jazz Lab, sponsored by the U of Central OK, there in Edmond. Some name acts have played there, so being booked there was a big deal. Also, the show was being taped for a Live album. There was a large, enthusiastic crowd. My nephews, Stephen on lead guitar (electric, need I say) and Marcus on bass were all over the stage like good rockers are supposed to do. Amazing! Verla and I left before concert was over -- so I could go over my notes -- but we found out later that neighbors called police to complain about noise, so it was a great success.

Friday, in Stillwater: checked with the ticket office -- nothing reserved, but general admission tickets would go on sale, on-line, that evening at 6:00. But, that would require lining up a few hours in the cold before the game, so decided I'd stick with the scalper plan.

Several years back I had met the receptionist at the Alumni Association office and found that she was married to good acquaintance from Tonkawa -- Bob Vincent, class of '61 (vs. my class, '60). So, I looked her up and had a good visit, but, alas, no ticket leads. Also roamed the campus a bit -- here's quad with library at end, student union on right.


Meanwhile, why am I here? Oh, yes: statistics. Had lunch with dept chairman and a prof who came to OSU the year I graduated -- 1967. We've gotten to know each other well over the years. Lunch was at a nice on-campus cafe that the hotel and restaurant admin dept runs as a way for its students to get to know the business.

Gave seminar -- Passion-Driven Statistics. No doubt many of you recall I started flogging this theme with seminars at SMU and Abilene Christian a couple of years ago. The idea is that it is subject-matter enthusiasm and smarts, say in medicine, science, restaurant management, whatever, that leads to good statistical plans and analyses. But, you could never tell that from many of our texts -- boring. I name names, give examples. Got pretty good eyeball to eyeball feedback during the talk, but was disappointed at absence of questions and comments afterwards. Oh, well.

Also was disappointed to find that two of my profs who live in Stillwater had not been notified about my visit. I called Dave Weeks, who was my thesis advisor and is partly responsible for my concerned view of statistics, but no answer. Back to Edmond for pizza dinner at my other sister's, Connie, house.

Saturday morning I called the Weeks' residence again to set up a visit with Dave and Shirley either before or after the game. When I innocently mentioned that I was planning to buy ticket from scalper, Shirley insisted I use her ticket. So, I got to their house about an hour before game time, then went with Dave to historic Gallagher-Iba Arena for the game.

Back when I was a callow undergrad at OSU I liked to hang out at then Gallagher Hall just to watch "Mr. Iba" coach. Back before the shot clock, when basketball was really basketball. Since then Gallagher has been expanded, essentially by building a shell over the old gym and putting seats into the space created -- from 6000+ seats to 13,000+. The Wikipedia says it's one of the country's best, and rowdiest, college basketball arenas. It turned out that there were quite a few empty seats -- season ticket no-show, I guess. I didn't have time to see how much scalper action was going on, though.



The game was worthy of its setting -- a double overtime victory over Texas Tech, with OSU miraculously overcoming large deficits in the last minute of regulation time and the first overtime. Shirley had a pot of soup ready after the game and we had a nice visit before I returned to Edmond just in time to see nephew, Sterling, in a city-league basketball game.

Sunday morning was church with Verla, son Sterling, and Mom, then after lunch we all went to an Edmond nursing home where Verla played the guitar (acoustic) and led the singing and her husband, Clarence, taught a Bible lesson. Mom and Verla sang a nice duet -- this picture.


There was an OSU-OU wrestling match at Gallagher-Iba on Sunday afternoon, but I forewent that -- had spent enough time on the road between Edmond and Stillwater. OSU won big, as usual.

Brought back memories of when I was a grad student there and Tonkawa friends, Dennis Clark and James Gilbert, both OU students at the time, came to come visit the weekend of a OSU-OU wrestling match. Well, the match was going so much in OSU's favor that Dennis and James decided to leave before it was over -- beat the crowd and avoid having to listen to the OSU fans gloat in victory. BUT, after they left OU rallied -- won a couple of matches over heavily-favored Cowboys and won the match. Too bad, guys.

Oh, nothing was decided about teaching at OSU -- maybe spring 08. I ain't going unless I can get basketball season tickets, though.

Cheers,

Rob

Next weekend to Denver, so we can return this blog to its Malia theme.

Family Trip, January, 2007

Jan. 5, 2007

Home from China, out of the snow: time to travel -- again. Our trip plan: fly to Raleigh, NC, for son, Mike's, birthday on 1/8. Then, drive to Burgess, VA, where my brother, Lael, and his wife, Katherine, live on a sailboat -- Painted Skies. After a couple of days there, return to Raleigh for grandson, Jason's, birthday on 1/16. Didn't quite work out that way.

Here's a plug for our chariot of the sky, Southwest Airlines. En route to Raleigh, we changed planes in Nashville and had lunch with Mandi, whose SW passes keep us in the air.

We had a very nice weekend with the kids. Wet weather kept us indoors, but Jason and I played a lot of indoors baseball. That plus NFL playoff games on TV.

Then, Monday it was time to celebrate Mike's birthday. Karen's parents, Kathy and Bob Nauman, came over for dinner, cake, and BCS national championship football. That's an IBC Root Beer bottle in Jason's hands, in case you were wondering.

Here's where the plans changed:

We had also learned, en route to Raleigh, that Susie's cousin, Jane, had just died. From our previous reports you may remember Dick and Jane and their dog, Spot, who live in a beautiful home overlooking spectacular Torch Lake, Michigan.

Just last summer, soon after Jane had buried her mother, Susie's Aunt Adelaide, about whom we reported in September, 2005, I believe, Jane was diagnosed with liver and pancreatic cancer. As you probably know, these tend to be rapidly deadly, but Jane fought bravely with chemo and medication.

She had a good Christmas with all her family -- four kids and numerous grandchildren, but at year's end, took a bad turn. We were told just before we left home that the doctors said she probably only had 1-3 weeks to live. We considered going to Michigan to see her before we went to Raleigh, but it really seemed too late. Her brother, Jim, told Susie that Jane might not recognize her. We had seen Jane in late July and she and Susie had had a chance to cry, and talk, and hug.

After years of being separated by half a continent, Susie and Jane had gotten really close since fall, 2001, when we were in Ann Arbor and got together with them (Dick and Jane Thie) several times. Dick and Jane traveled with us in spring, 2002, on our first major motorhome trip, the one to Arizona that included a stop at Tuzigoot National Monument -- and etched that name into our consciousness. Two of our later Tuzigoot trips included a stop by Torch Lake.

Funeral arrangements were set for Thursday, Jan. 11. We decided to go. We considered driving from Raleigh to Torch Lake, because I had a nonrefundable car rental previously set up through Priceline for the period we would need to drive to MI, but decided it made more sense to fly to Detroit (it's a thousand miles from Raleigh to Torch Lake), then drive to Grand Rapids where son, Matt, lives. From there we could make round trip to Torch Lake on Thursday, then retrace our steps back to Detroit and Raleigh.

Trip up went well. Only light snow as we approached GR on Tuesday evening. Wednesday was an R&R day and gave me a chance to get some Michigan barns in winter pictures.

On Thursday there was a family-only burial ceremony for Jane at a cemetery on the shore of Torch Lake. This was followed by a memorial service in the Thies' church, the Congregational Church in Central Lake. The sanctuary was packed and the service was inspirational. Dick gave the eulogy, very loving, spiritual, moving, with some touches of humor. During an informal period, the kids, several grandkids, friends, and Susie talked about Jane. Susie later posted this note on the CarePage that was established when Jane was diagnosed:

Rob and I cannot tell you how moved we were by the whole experience yesterday as we celebrated Jane's life with you. Dick's words were so inspirational and such a witness to so many. The children and grandchildren's involvements were a real testimony to the legacy that Jane has left. We are so proud to have been a part of this celebration and, more especially, to be a part of this wonderful family. Our memories will be a comfort as we deal with our grief. We will certainly do everything we can to assure Jane that our love for her is steadfast and our commitment to her family will be a "forever" thing.

After the service lunch for the 150+ attendees was served at a restaurant overlooking Torch Lake. Highlight was a slide show that Jane's daughter, Diana, put together with music and snapshots of Jane's life.

After lunch we drove back to Grand Rapids for the night and Friday. Friday's main activity was a tour of the Gerald R. Ford Museum and a visit to his gravesite. At the time of his funeral, I was involved with being towed out of the snow and missed most of the observances, so it was good to have this opportunity to reflect on Ford and his times via his museum.

In a nice turn, in Grand Rapids they refer to him as "Gerald (Our) Ford." The museum has well-done exhibits pertaining to Ford's career, the 70s in general, and to Watergate. What a decade that was! Aptly summarized by the Alka-Seltzer guy: "I can't believe I ate the whole thing." His wife says something like, "Shut up, Ralph. You did."

Lots of good information, too, about Mrs. Ford and their four children, one of whom, daughter Susan, lives in Albuquerque. There was a special exhibit on slavery and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision.

Here's a U Michigan tribute on the museum grounds:

And here's a picture of Pres. Ford in the back of a campaign train, I think, but it looks like it could be a bus -- reason enough for me to include it.

Judy and I, Mike and Jeff, were in DC from '75 to '77. I was working at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I remember making the smart-aleck comment to someone when we left Albq in '75 that we'd probably be in Washington longer than Pres. Ford would. In hindsight, I think it's too bad he didn't get another term. One personal highlight of our DC time was being on the Mall for the Bicentennial Fireworks show. Another was being downtown for Carter's inauguration and almost getting our little boys crushed by the crowds.

Here's the burial site for the Fords against a backdrop of a corner of the museum. Just a simple wall with their names.

At any rate, if you're ever in this area, we recommend a stop at the Gerald R. Ford Museum.

Grandson, Tony, attends the College of Santa Fe and Friday was his last day at home for the Christmas break. Reason enough to eat out. Matt picked out a nice Italian restaurant located in a converted elegant old house. Here are a couple of pix. A very fine time was had by all.

Saturday, January 13.

We rise early and make the three-hour drive back to the Detroit airport. Some rain along the way, but not so cold as to be creating ice as has been happening in the southwest this weekend. Flights to Raleigh via BWI are not crowded, but the check-in line in BWI was long due to canceled flights in the southwest. Nevertheless, had time for a crabcake lunch in BWI airport.

Raleigh, I should say Cary, weather has been very mild -- around 70 degrees, as it was the previous weekend, and holding. Sunday we attend church with Mike, Karen, and Jason. The church, St. Francis United Methodist Church, Cary, NC, is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and a former minister delivers the sermon. The church's brass band provides special music. We go to brunch and then football games consume most of the rest of the day.

Monday is Martin Luther King Day, no school and Mike and Karen are off work. We go to the Naumans for lunch and fun. The Naumans' house has a large basement and Mike has built a large slot-car track in one room. Here's one of his pictures that I copied:

Has a computer-controlled lap timer and counter and Mike is starting to construct scenery, as well as dreaming about even bigger tracks. He and Bob have bought woodworking equipment and that occupies another room. Boys and their toys. The Nauman house provides ample opportunity.

In China we bought Jason what we call a hacky-bird -- a contraption that functions like a hacky-sack, but this one has feathers, like a badminton birdie. And it has a stack of disks that provide the springiness. In Chinese parks we would often see people in a circle kicking the bird around. Good for developing soccer skills so we bought our soccer-playing grandsons, Jason and Andrew, each one. One of our guides said this "sport" is also popular among retired people. Good for the constitution.

Here, Jason is preparing to kick, then following the hacky-bird's flight. It's hard to make a circle with two people, but we came close to an occasional returnable pass from one of us to the other.

Jason and I also went "exploring" along the creek behind the house and found 10 golf balls. We figure the balls must have washed down the stream during their last big rain -- there is a golf course in the development.

Tuesday was Jason's seventh birthday. He set the menu: Domino's pizza, cookie cake, moose tracks ice cream.

We seriously considered going to Virginia to visit brother, Lael, and Katherine on Wednesday, as we had planned for the previous week, but decided to head on home. We'll catch up with them another time.

[Note added. Weather got nasty Wed. and Thur. in the NC-VA area, so we fortunately missed out on that.]

Southwest Airlines got us home in comfort -- we flew via Phoenix because this route had the most available seats and got us home in early afternoon. Saw lots of ice (apparently) and snow as we flew over Texas.

So, as you realize if you've read this far, this was primarily a family trip -- two birthdays and, sadly, a funeral. I don't know if it's age or maturity, but family gatherings of any type seem to have increasing importance. That makes this a special trip for us.

More family doin's in the future. As Susie says, we need to go to Denver in the next few weeks for a "Malia fix." Then, the first of March it will be back to Grand Rapids. Granddaughter Kaci has the lead in the city theatre's production of "Oklahoma." All the Hinkle kids are coming for the show and a reunion of that side of the family. We'll keep you posted.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob

Snow Falling on Cedar Crest

We got home from Las Vegas about 1:00 am, Wednesday, 12/27. There was quite a bit of snow in our driveway remaining from the pre-Christmas snow -- our tail of the storm that shut down Denver. Then, about Thursday noon it started snowing again and didn't stop until Saturday pm, at which point we had nearly two feet of snow in the driveway. Thursday night I had planned to go to book club, but a UPS driver who came by in late afternoon advised against it, so I stayed home. We had food enough and other necessities so we just snuggled in. Here are some pix of the accumulated snow.

Sat. afternoon I decided to try the snow blower I had bought from our friends, the Youngs, about two years ago when they moved to Texas. Hadn't used it since, though. Well, it wouldn't start. So, I shoveled snow a while, trying to make a track through our driveway, which is uphill.

(Here's a night picture out the living room window, illuminated by moonlight.)

Continued shoveling, occasionally, on Sunday and Monday, no hurry -- we weren't leaving town until Friday -- and got one track down to gravel. Figured I should be able to put the Explorer in 4wd and back out. Well, it wouldn't go into 4wd. Just requires a button-push on the dash, but it wouldn't shift. Without 4wd it was hard going with much tire-spinning, but after more shoveling and repeated tries, I finally backed up the drive and into our plowed road. Drove up to the gate and got a couple of old newspapers.

Returning home, I decided I should back down the driveway so I could drive out frontwards. Somehow, though, through inept driving, I got off the track and ended up with the rear wheels straddling a RR tie that borders the driveway. @@*&&##@ (Oh, darn!) Only way out now would be a tow truck.

It being New Year's Day, I didn't even try to get a tow truck, but on Tuesday I called AAA. Sorry, they said. Our tow services say they can't get to your place. Try tomorrow. I doubted that claim, but I did know that I-40 remained closed from Albuquerque east, including the road to Cedar Crest.

By this time we were getting a little low on some supplies. Considered calling National Guard and asking them to drop a bale of TP. However, our neighbors across the street were going for groceries and they offered to pick some up for us. Thanks, Anna.

Same AAA story on Wed. morning, so I decided to call a local, non-AAA-affiliated tow service. Finally, a good decision. "Sure, we'll be out in an hour," they said. They were and expertly pulled the Explorer out of its predicament. We went to town on a few errands and somewhere along the line, in a parking lot, thought, Let's try the 4wd. It worked! Apparently requires a lot of warming up, because on subsequent tries cold, or slightly warm, it still won't work.

And that's how 2006 ended and 2007 began. Next up: a family trip to NC for Mike's and Jason's birthdays.

New Year's Resolutions: Get 4wd and snow blower fixed before the next storm of the century.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie

China Wrap

China Wrap

Home Again! Landed in Albuquerque right at midnight, Tuesday, 12/26, and then got home at 1:00 am, just about four hours short of three weeks after we left, though I think you should get extra credit for crossing the international dateline. A few moments of panic when I couldn’t find the car and house keys in the secure niche I had put them in my backpack, but just about the time Susie said, Let ME Look, I found the little side pocket in the big pocket wherein they resided.

Had a great Christmas weekend in Las Vegas with daughters, Heidi and Mandi (well, great being with family; the sniffles I flew home with turned into an achy cold. Susie had some stomach distress, and both of us took a couple of nights to de-jetlag). One Vegas highlight was seeing an Ansel Adams display at the Bellagio’s Fine Art Gallery. And, Heidi brought home a Christmas meal prepared by Bellagio, turkey plus lots of fancy trimmings that we all enjoyed Christmas Eve day.

Note added: A most statistically unusual event happened. Heidi and Mandi independently each bought me the same pair of T-shirts -- "Hopelessly Overeducated" and "I'm sick of being my wife's arm candy" were the two inscriptions. Now, why would either one of them think that those were appropriate inscriptions, much less both inscriptions and both of them? They discovered this coincidence late Friday night and there were continuing whoops of laughter downstairs. I asked what was going on and Susie said you'll find out Christmas.

There were a few China things I wanted to talk about earlier, but didn’t get them in the blog postings at the time. So, I’ll post them now. But first, the reason for the trip: Malia XiaoFong Easterling, in this picture that I copied from Jeff and Valerie’s blog, at home in Colorado having Christmas fun. (Can you believe, I just had to add the word ‘blog’ to the Microsoft Word dictionary?)


Background Reading

In the Rio Grande library system, before we left, thanks to the miracle of search engines, I found a novel set in Hunan, the province Malia hails from, and took it with me to read. The title is, A Dictionary of Maquiao, written by Han Shaogong, translated by Julia Lovell. The book is organized loosely like a dictionary: the author lists words and terms used in the mountain village of Maquiao, usually in much different ways from elsewhere. The listing is sort of chronological, not alphabetical (in either English or Chinese, I gather). Each dictionary term is the launching point for tales about people and events in the village. The book's narrator is an “educated person,” sent to the village during the Cultural Revolution, now, later, reflecting back on his time there. The author was himself one such “educated person,” but I don’t know to what extent this book is autobiographical, though I would guess highly.

One example. A periodic chore is to chop firewood on the mountainsides and carry it back to the village. The idea is put forward by the educated youth is that if, once, you just leave the firewood where it is cut and let it dry out, then the next time you cut firewood, you again leave the freshly cut wood and carry out the dried wood which is now not so heavy. Etcetera. That’s an application of science. No, Uncle Luo says, “What d’you mean scientific? You mean lazy.” All those city machines like cars and trains were just thought up by “lazybones.” Science is not respected in Maquiao.

Most of the tales are much darker than this. Poverty, disease, and violence constitute much of the story of Maquiao in this telling. The Glossary reminds us that 30 million Chinese died during Mao's Great Leap Forward -- mostly rural peasants. At any rate, the book helped me get a feel for China - about the extent of the research I did - and I’m glad I came across it.

Globalization

I frequently picked up the China Daily, China’s National English-Language newspaper. Its emphasis is on business and there were many stories pertaining to a large high-level US delegation being in the country for two days of dialog and other activities. Our Treasury Secretary led the group that included several other cabinet members and the head of the Federal Reserve. Also, George (41) and Barbara Bush were in the delegation. Don't know how much coverage this story got here.

Also, China has been marking the five-year anniversary of its admission into the World Trade Organization. Trade between the US and China has grown rapidly in those five years, on both sides – that is both our exports and our imports. Daily, there were stories about deals being made – Home Depot bought a chain of Chinese home supply stores, Wal-Mart is opening its 69th store in China, …. You might be interested to know that Wal-Mart has permitted its employees to unionize and one store now has its own Communist Party branch!

All this is particularly interesting to me now because my book club, the Last Thursday Book Club, recently read The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman. The book deals with globalization and primarily the growing roles of India and China in providing goods and services to the US, in some cases, but not all, replacing things that we might have done internally. Trade agreements as well as modern computing and telecommunications technology has enabled these developments. As a footnote, in Las Vegas I set up a computer for Heidi – Hewlett Packard computer from China, Canon printer from Vietnam.

There are lots of pro and con arguments about all of this, good and bad aspects. Trade enables China to modernize in a big way, makes them a player on the world stage, perhaps makes them less of a threat. Millions of Chinese have been lifted out of “dollar a day” poverty, as one writer put it, but many people have gotten very rich, so there’s a bigger difference between top and bottom. China human rights, labor, and environmental conditions are seriously lacking.

Saw a Business Week cover story while we were there about Chinese labor conditions. Work for US firms has many regulations pertaining to pay and working conditions. That’s part of being a member of the World Trade Org. But, you – a Chinese contractor - can hire advisers to help you fake your way around inspections. But, then, you – the US firms – can take steps to counter that.

My impressions of three large Chinese cities, I’m including Hong Kong, are mixed. You can feel the excitement from all the new construction of towering, gleaming offices, banks, and apartments. And from the hustling young business men and women you see in the hotels and on the streets. But, the miles and miles of decrepit high-rise apartment houses are depressing. And you have to feel for the guys hustling big piles of scrap on bicycles and hand carts. My sense, though, is that increasing trade, despite glitches and real problems, will on balance benefit both/all trading partners. There’s no doubt that China and SE Asia is an increasingly important part of the world.

Well, enough heavy stuff. Let’s get back to being a tourist.


Water

We were advised ahead of time not to drink tap water in China. Also, keep your mouth closed in the shower and don’t brush your teeth with tap water. There was also some advice to take several extra toothbrushes. I think the scenario was that if you could only rinse them in bottled water, they would tend quickly to get yucky with toothpaste, so toss them. Well, Susie took 26 toothbrushes for us, I believe. In case you’re planning to go to China, let me tell you: we didn’t need them. The hotels supplied a couple of water bottles daily and that generally sufficed for drinking and rinsing toothbrushes. They also supplied toothbrushes and it was easy to buy additional bottled water. Susie gave Mandi and Heidi each a bunch of toothbrushes, wonderful stocking-stuffers, by the way, labeled as being used only once by Yo Momma.


Food

Hunan is known for spicy food – In Changsha, Ellen kept calling our little girls the “Spicy Girls” – but we didn’t find much, partly because our adult-sized spicy girls, Susie and Valerie, weren’t interested. The hotel has a buffet and we ate there the first night. Jeff was our most adventurous, he had snake which he had read was a Hunan specialty. Tasted OK, he said, but too many ribs in it to eat easily. The next night Susie and I went into another restaurant in the hotel. Menu had so many items like goose web, fish jaw, ostrich tendon, boarsblood ball, and cock’s comb that Susie didn't want to even consider the less exotic items, so we went elsewhere and ordered fried rice. We came back to that restaurant a few days later and Jeff and I each had some good spicy dishes made from conventional, by western standards, animal body parts and Susie and Valerie averted their eyes from the menu.

Traffic

Jeff has a great description in their blog, so I’ll just refer you there. I tried to capture some of it in a picture. Here’s a mother with daughter in tow casually crossing several lanes of traffic -- buzzing buses, scooters, and cars. And they worry about how well a baby is bundled up inside a hotel lobby!

In Conclusion



Great trip for a great purpose. Enjoyed creating this blog and hearing your responses. We're recuperating well and, as Susie said, it seems surreal just to think about where we've been and what we've done the last three weeks.

Cheers.

Rob and Susie, Jeff, Valerie, and Malia

Greetings from Las Vegas

Made it back stateside -- to Las Vegas for Christmas weekend.

As we boarded bus taking us from White Swan Hotel to Guangzhou Airport, one guy sighed, "Good-by, China; hello drinks-on-ice." Everybody ready to get home, particularly new parents starting up life with their adopted daughters.

We flew from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, then changed planes for flight to LAX. All went pretty smoothly. Lots of empty seats on the long flight: Susie and I spread out over four seats. Jeff, Valerie, and Malia had two sets of three seats, each set with an aisle seat, and we were right behind them, so that made moving Malia around quite convenient. Flight had tail wind, so we arrived after about 12 hours, nearly an hour early.

Our departure time was 130 pm, China time (Did you know all of China is one time zone - Beijing's?). Malia slept the first couple of hours, then was awake for the duration. I don't think J, V, or I slept at all; Susie had a couple of short naps. Valerie spent a lot of time standing and walking with Malia -- think she (Malia) had a little tummy distress. (I'm typing this from Las Vegas library and didn't bring my camera, so unfortunately, can't attach any pictures. Later.)

We arrived in LA about 900am, Friday. Lots of uncertainty for Jeff and Valerie flying to Denver, but their flight did go eventually, after some mechanical delays. In Denver, though, their friend who was to pick them up was unable to get to the airport. So, it was a $100 cab ride home, but cab was able to handle the roads.

We were scheduled out of LAX at 300pm, so with that amount of layover time, we thought we might catch an earlier flight. Wrong! We hadn't figured on the Southwest Airlines check-in scene. Long lines, winding in and out of the terminal building, first to get boarding passes and baggage tags, then to send bags thtough x-ray, then to get ourselves through screening. Must have been the busiest travel day of the year -- Friday before Christmas! If we had tried to change flights, we would have had to work our way through another line, but with the crowds traveling, the chances of finding earlier seats available seemed pretty remote. So, we just congratulated ourselves for having reserved seats and not choosing to play the stand-by, fly-free game, and went with the flow. Daughter Mandi, as I'm sure most of you know, works for Southwest Airlines, so we have great sympathy for airline workers at times like these, and other times, too. Anyhow, we got checked in in about an hour and a half and had time for a leisurely lunch and chill-out period before the flight to Vegas.

Slight hitch on the other end as our baggage didn't get in to the terminal for about an hour after we landed, but it was great to see Heidi and get to her house around 600 pm. I think that was a mere 27 hours from the time we left the White Swan. Time for some Ambien-aided sleep.

Some wrap-up notes later.

Cheers.

Rob and Susie

Guangzhou Wrap

Thursday, Dec. 21.

While in Changsha I vowed that I would try to get out into the countryside and see something other than big-city sights. So, I did some web-searching for Guangzhou area tours. Found a couple of tour agencies, but no phone numbers were listed. I asked the concierge if he could provide phone nos., but the firms identified on the websites apparently did not have telephones. However, after I explained what I wanted to do, the concierge pulled out a hotel flyer that identified several tours, one of which was the Lianhua (Lotus) Mountain half-day tour. This mountain features an ancient quarry, steep cliffs, and overhanging rocks. It’s also the site of the Lianhua Pagoda and a very large gold-coated Goddess of Mercy statue. On the trip to the Lotus Mt., it said, we ”will enjoy beautiful scenery of the countryside.” Just what we needed, so I scheduled this outing for Susie and me while Jeff, Valerie, and Malia went with the group to the zoo. (Is this any way for grandparents to act? you say. Well, they have to solo some time. Actually, they are already excellent parents. We haven't had to do much serious instructing at all.)

This was a private tour – driver Mr. Chong, our guide, Grace, and us. Grace was very knowledgeable, spoke English well, and knew her stuff. Took us a while to get out of the city because of traffic and there was only a short stretch through a rural area, but the mountain was well worth the visit.

Here’s the Goddess statue (about 135 ft. high, I’m converting from meters in my head) and that’s Grace and Susie in the foreground. I chose this picture because that red hat of Susie’s became famous all around the western Mediterranean on our cruise in ’05.




This mountain and this statue overlook the mouth of the Pearl River as it enters a sea whose name I didn’t catch and haven’t looked up, which in turn empties into the South China Sea.

Next it was on to the ancient quarry. If I got the story correctly, red sandstone from here was used over the centuries by various emperors for their palaces and government buildings. The quarry site now, called the Swallow Cliffs, for the birds that nest there, features high cliffs and a lovely garden beneath them. Here are a couple of shots.


We had to walk down a considerable staircase to reach the garden level and then back up (about a 40 min. round trip). Grace said I was the only foreigner she had guided to choose to make this descent. Susie said that was worth a good tip.

Adjacent to the Swallow Cliffs is this modern set of dwellings for the farmers who work the surrounding fields.


Coming back into town, I snapped this picture of a well-loaded motorcycle. I’ve seen bicycles similarly loaded. One person in our group mentioned seeing a bicycle carrying 300 pounds of water in large water-dispensing jugs.


Grace said a big change is coming: motorcycles will be banned in Guangzhou next year. Part of the reason is traffic and safety. Part of the reason is that this is popular mode of transportation for purse-snatchers and the like. That will make a big difference, but could increase the amount of car traffic. Guangzhou is also in process of expanding its subway system. Grace says, that it's not well used, though, because of cost. You can ride air-conditioned bus anywhere now for 25 cents, US. Half that for non-air-conditioned bus.

Well, that’s it for now. I plan another posting on some loose ends and observations, maybe even some corrections, after we get back. It’s been good to get comments from many of you.

Thanks, Cheers, and Merry Christmas!

Rob and Susie