A quick week in Vermont before heading off to Brazil

Sunday, May 12, was a busy day, with a trip to the Red Cross in the morning.  They are always glad to have us platelet donors there.  I was commenting to them that I am approaching fifty years of donating blood and blood products - I started at tech school at Keesler AFB, MS in November of 1966.

Sunday afternoon included a trip to Earl's bike shop to drop off our bikes for service.  We should have done this before going to Arizona.  The estimated wait time is until June 4 - springtime causes people to get out and use their bikes in the good weather.

Sunday was Mothers Day.  Martha and Ben invited us to their house and Martha made a most wonderful dinner for us.  We had a fine evening of food and family.

Monday was around the house, and Patty had to work in the afternoon.  I fasted overnight and went to Good Health Lab for blood work Tuesday morning.  The phlebotomist could not get the needle in right on the left arm, so we had to tape that up and then a successful try again on the right arm.

Tuesday continued to be a busy day, with driving Patty to work in Colchester, then driving to Johnson State College for meetings with payroll for paperwork, public safety to get new parking permit, FYS office to get the new common book for fall 2013 and then a lunch meeting with Henrique Cezar to discuss the upcoming trip to Brazil.  Then I drove to the Habitat ReStore in Williston, and discovered that their truck was having the windshield replaced.  Since Patty would need to use the car Wednesday, I took a ReStore truck key with me.  Went home and walked Shadow, then drove to Colchester to pick Patty up.  We then drove to the windshield store, and I drove the truck home.  This would allow me to drive the truck to the ReStore Wednesday and leave the car for Patty to use - we have to plan more now that we have only one car to share.  Here is the truck parked at our condo.

Tuesday evening was a very special event for our son.  Ben was elected by his classmates and inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society at the UVM College of Medicine.  We got to attend the College of Medicine Awards Banquet where he was recognized with the other inductees to the Honor Society. These are the questions asked of the members of the class of 2014, and by which 15 students were selected for induction:

1.       Classmates you'd like to have work at your side in a medical emergency
2.       Classmates who best fit "the secret of good patient care lies in caring for the patient"
3.       Classmates shown exceptional interest in service to their communities
4.       Classmates best choices for a highly desired residency
5.       Classmates you'd want as doctor for you or a loved one
6.       Classmates with best listening skills with patients

Needless to say, we are all impressed with Ben's progress in medical school and know that he will be a fine physician.

Before heading off to the ReStore on Wednesday, I walked Shadow - zoom in on the photo to see the sign.

Wednesday was a relatively easy day at Habitat and I was done by 2:00.  Thursday was my day to walk: 1.0 mile with Shadow; 2.7 miles to Mirabelles to have breakfast with Ben; 0.3 miles to Riteaid drug store; 1.5 miles to the Lakeside campus of Champlain College to meet the CPS staff; 1.5 miles to main campus of Champlain to meet with MSL director (who was busy and so we did not meet); 1.5 miles to Barnes and Noble to have coffee with David Don and then lunch with Terry Bailey; 0.5 miles to Good Health for my annual physical; and 2.0 miles home.  Good exercise on a beautiful spring day.

Friday I was back at Habitat and found that the schedule had changed.  Instead of Assistant Manager Dan driving and me helping, I would drive and have a new volunteer, Kirk B., with me.  Kirk is a retired teacher and several years older than me, but still in good physical condition.  It turned out to be the busiest day I have ever had with Habitat.  We went flat out for 8 plus hours, without time to stop for lunch.

Saturday was packing and getting ready for Brazil.  You can find more about that on my Brazil blog: tomstriptobrazil.blogspot.com.

As always, make the most of today and every day.

Springtime in Vermont

Not only was spring in Arizona beautiful, the same applies here in Vermont.  We got in late Saturday night, so I did not see much.  But while walking the dog this morning, I came across many beautiful blooms.  Azaleas were losing their blooms, as were most of the daffodils.  But many others were in bloom - dogwood, crab apple, lilacs, some tulips, even dandelions.  As I started my morning walk with Shadow, I was pleasantly surprised by the trees in blossom here in Quarry Ridge Condos and in Summer Woods (one block over, they use the same landscapers).

Maple trees now have both leaves and the many seed pods we used to call helicopters - the wings on both sides of each seed make them spin like copters as they fall off the tree.

In Jaycee Park down the street, many other trees bushes were in bloom.

Back in Quarry Ridge, the wonder of spring time continues.

When I got back inside our condo, I noticed outside the door that a chickadee was gathering nesting material from the door mat.  I am sorry that the photo did not come out better.  After the installation of the storm door (we have not put the screen in yet for the summer), it appears that it is so soundproof, the chickadee did not here Patty, me or the dog although we were only two feet away.

When heading out to the Red Cross, I noticed next door - those are piles of the pink petals from the blossoms that are now falling off the tree between our condo and the two next door.

And when out walking the dog this afternoon, I noticed one of the houses out on Patchen Road.  It is hard to tell from this photo, but this one bush had both dark purple blooms on one side and much lighter pinkish/purple blossoms on the other side.

All in all, a beautiful time to be back in Vermont.

Great time of year to be at Carlyle Condos

The weather has been unseasonably cool for May - highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s.  This means it has been absolutely fantastic weather, no need for the air conditioner to be on since it is not the usual highs in the 90s/100s.

It is also beautiful now, as many of the plants are in bloom here at the Carlyle Condos.  In spite of the three nights of killing frost in January, the landscaper has done a great job.  Here are a few of the blooms around our building.

Back in Phoenix

I forgot to post these first two pictures.  Even though Willcox AZ has near desert climate, the hotel had a surprisingly large number of rose bushes with beautiful roses of many colors (yes, I am learning to stop and smell the roses).

 We ran many errands upon returning home to Phoenix.  The big one was to close on the paperwork for refinancing our condo here - having bought in the fall of 2005 as prices were going up, we are underwater, so we are glad to be able to have refinanced.  We also got rid of the internet connection from the cable company and are now using a portable mifi connection.

Saturday morning, Patty and I went out for a hike at Dreamy Draw park in Phoenix.  This was called Dreamy Draw because of the vapors from the mines that caused hallucinations for the minors - it has to do with the mercury found there.  There are some fifty mine shafts and we went by many of them as we hiked.  They have been filled in but you can easily see the square openings for the mine shafts.  There is more info on their website at http://phoenix.gov/parks/trails/locations/piestewapeak/hikingmap/  We did a circle route out from the Northern Ave entrance on the west side of the park out route 100 the north to the boundary of the park, then west to the paved bike path and then south back to the entrance.

 

 On Sunday, Jane, Patty and I went out in North Mountain Park, along a section of Route 100 which goes from Mountain View Park on 7th Ave to the North Mountain Visitor Center on 7th Street.  We saw that some of the saguaros were starting to bloom, but the majority have not yet started.  Here is one that has several blossoms - if pollinated they will turn into red fruit which are edible.  A few years ago, I went on an outing where the Tohono O'odham tribe are authorized to enter Saguaro National Park to harvest the fruit from the cacti.  We collected fruit in the morning, then at lunch had the opportunity to peel and prepare the fruit.  They cooked the fruit down to make jam and jelly, even juice and liquor to celebrate the harvest.

Three weeks ago, when hiking here, the creosote bushes were full of yellow blossoms.  Those that were pollinated have now formed these seed pods.   Although these are called creosote bushes, they have no relation to the creosote most people know about.  Petroleum based creosote is produced in oil refineries and is the brown creosote we see on telephone poles and railroad ties.  Wood based creosote is the gas released when burning wood in your fireplace or wood stove that then condenses on the cold chimney, usually near the top of the chimney - after accumulation, that creosote can be ignited and cause chimney fires.  That is why it is important to clean your chimney regularly.  Creosote bushes got their name because when it rains, the smell they give off is similar to the smell of creosote.

 Many palo verde trees are still in bloom with their beautiful yellow blossoms.

To cut down on water loss, palo verde trees have very small leaves.  To get enough chlorophyll for photosynthesis, the bark contains chlorophyll and is green in color - hence the name palo verde (green stick in Spanish).  They are leguminous trees and those blossoms that are pollinated form these green beans which are about 2-3 inches long and have several seeds in each bean pod.

Here is one of the palo verde trees that is still in bloom.

And here are Patty and Jane heading back south on our morning hike.

From Phoenix to Vermont and back to Phoenix, Part 4

On Monday, the three of us set out from Meridian MS and headed for the Vicksburg National Military Park.  Before and during the Civil War, Vicksburg was an important economic center.  Mississippi was one of the wealthiest states at that time (strange now that it is one of the poorest states in America).  It had fortifications on high bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River.  We watched a video giving a history of the year long attempt by the Union Army under Gen. Grant to capture Vicksburg.  It finally was captured in the summer of 1863 - actually, the Confederate troops surrendered on July 4, 1863. 

They had numerous replicas of various fortifications used in the Civil War.  The first and third photos below are of cannon mounts, the first from inside, the third from outside.  The second photo shows one of the devices to stop attacking soldiers from coming up the embankments.

Cannons were the weapon of choice then, and several were on display.

There were numerous memorials to those who fought and died there.

Although we did not go on it, there is a self guided tour that is some 16 miles.  It starts under this memorial gateway and among other things, goes by the USS Cairo Museum.  The Cairo was the first ship sunk by electrically detonated mines in the Mississippi River.

From Vicksburg, it was another six hours of driving, including going through rush hour traffic in Dallas to get to the hotel near DFW airport.  We were very thankful for the accurate routing provided by our Garmin GPS - without it, we would have easily been lost for hours, as it was a most contorted route to get to our hotel.

On Tuesday, Helen left the hotel bright and early - on the 6:00 a.m. shuttle to catch her 8:30 a.m. flight.  She safely made it back to Hudson MA before dinner time.

Patty and I set out later and after the blessing of the GPS Monday evening, found the curse of the GPS Tuesday morning.  It directed us into traffic, then we hit detours and construction.  But we survived and finally got back on I-20 for a fun drive of 500 miles - all within Texas.  We drove by Abilene where Ben was born in 1982 and Dyess AFB where we lived from 1981-1983.  A couple of years ago, when driving this route, we noticed a lot of wind generators - windmills just west of Abilene.  We did the Google and found that they were in a construction boom for the wind generators.  Now, much of that has come to fruition.  And the small city of Sweetwater has just installed new welcome signs in each direction - it is a large wind generator blade with the words "Welcome to Sweetwater, the Wind Power Capitol of North America."  We did not stop to get a photo, but I looked on line and found the following in the Feb. 11, 2013 issue of the Sweetwater Reporter:

The Sweetwater Chamber of Commerce and Crane Service Inc. have installed Sweetwater's new welcome signs on Interstate 20 at the east and west main exits. Installation began on Thursday, as Crane Services put the blades into place. Creative Graphic Solutions will be creating the blade wrap that will say, "Welcome to Sweetwater — Wind energy capital of North America."

 

We continued on for a long, long day of driving and stopped in Van Horn TX for the night.  This is at the northern edge of the Chihuahua Desert - the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute is just south of there in Fort Davis, TX.  It was very windy and very dry, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the owners of the hotel had beautiful roses in front of their hotel - one must stop and smell the roses.

We were in cattle country, so we had dinner at the Van Horn Cattle Company Bar and Restaurant.  The Tuesday special was bottles of Tecate for $2.00 - cold beer tasted great, especially with great steaks - and the hotel was in walking distance, so no need to worry about drinking and driving. 

Wednesday, we crossed into the Mountain time zone about five miles west of Van Horn and into Arizona we crossed into the Pacific time zone (Arizona does not do Daylight Savings Time).  Although we only went 350 miles, we gained two hours on the clock.  And now we are in Wilcox AZ.  We had planned to go into the Chirichua National Monument where Cochise and the Chirichua Apache used to roam, but we are both tired and are just taking it easy here at the hotel.  Thursday, we will head back to Phoenix.

One thing that amazed me on the trip was how quickly we passed from Northern Vermont which still had snow on the mountains and things just starting to turn green - to Hyde Park NY where forsythia and flowering trees were in bloom, daffodils were up and tulips were just starting to come up - to Dover DE where the tulips were in full bloom and the trees were as well - to Durham NC where the azaleas were in bloom, roses were starting to bloom and the tulips were pretty much gone by - to Columbia SC where the tulips were all gone and summer annuals were starting to wilt - to south Georgia where they were already starting on the second cutting of hay - through Alabama, Mississippi and east Texas where everything was green and where we hit rain so hard we had to stop the car - to the desert and wind of west Texas where we hit record high temps and dust devils with warnings for dust storms.  We were south of the snow falling this morning in Colorado.  America is an amazing place - we Americans take it for granted that we are free to roam throughout this great land.  We should all learn more about this country, the flora and fauna, the geology, the climate and weather, the peoples, our history - and our system of government that allows us the freedoms we enjoy.