laundry is my hobby

2006-09-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

So Wood bought a new truck this weekend. The Ranger was just too small for the three of them, and it seems he has to haul the adult-sized children more and more. So what did he get,you ask?

A Honda.

A Honda Ridgeline. OOOOhhhhh.

He's been looking at this truck for about a year now, and I've been dragging my feet because of this or that (mainly the payment, and the fact that it doesn't affect me since I'm never the one who has to cram into the little leprechaun -size jumpseat.). Well, the time is now. He did most of his "shopping" on line, and last year we went to one of the dealers on the east side of town to look, but didn't drive, since we knew we weren't buying at that time. That dealership had a few Ridgelines on the lot, but all were top-of-the-line tricked out leather/compass/juicebox holder styles, way above our budget (budget-Ha).

So when we decided to actually get physical this time we weren't too sure we'd be able to find a regular old plain jane just a good stereo type model on the lot. Well, the internet search resulted in a phone call from a different dealership, one closer to home, so I told the Man we had an appointment at 10:00 am Saturday morning. Boy, for a guy buying a truck he sure made an ucky face and dragged his feet. Blamed it on benadryl. Ok, whatever.

So we get there. There's one on the lot. One. It's white. That's good, it's the preferred color. It's an 06. That's ok too, we're not proud. But it doesn't have the stereo configuration that he had his heart set on. But wait! There's an 07, back here, hot off the truck, barely checked in by the dealership! Be still his heart!

We do the drive around the block, getting to know the salesman, (recently relocated from Maryland, his lifelong home, wife and daughter came out in early summer, loving the complete absence of grass in his yard and the one-story house, had a rear-ender first thing after moving to town, has neck problems, is seeing an orthopedic/spine surgeon with whom (?) I work on occasion, prognosis looks good as soon as the lawyer settles and the insurance pays-ah, Vegas)
and it's a done deal.

So we do the paperwork, the credit app, go to the finace office, listen to his additional deals for warranties and such, sign here, shake hands, wait for the vehicle to be detailed for "delivery". Delivery? To the door around the corner. Whatever.

So now we're talking to the girl from the customer service department. Reminds me of Pooh.
A cutie, has a one-year old at home who likes to put everything in the toilet. Ah, the good old days of toddlers.

It's ready! Customer service cutie accomanies us out to give us the once over with the truck so we know all the cute buttons and warnings and where the hell the spare and jack are.

She shows us the trunk (a truck trunk!), and points out the release latch. "In case that dead body isn't really dead", I say. She looks at me and says "Right! Exactly!"

Then she points out the drain plug in the bottom of the truck/trunk, and turns to me and says "And if you need to rinse it out, all you have to do is hose it out and let it drain! In case, well, you know." "In case it really is dead?" My kind of girl.

So we get home and show the kids their new ride, and sure enough, a body will fit in the truck/trunk.

2006-09-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

Did the long haul to the homestead and back this holiday weekend. This involves going over Hoover Dam. Twice. So add up the number of trips we've done since we've moved to these parts and multiply by two and in all those opportunities I've never seen anything like this, till now. Thanks to Flip for being quick with the camera.

2006-08-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

The pond has five fish. I know this for a fact. As a newbie pondkeeper, I am beset with green algae water. So a few weeks ago I drained the pond and discovered that yes, there are definitly five little fishies (out of ten). I restored the pond and added an ultra-violet filter and a bigger biological filter and now the piscine pets have clear water and I need Wood to install a fourplex electrical outlet for all my accessories. Maybe two fourplexes(plexi) if I ever get around to installing lights.

I was relating to a surgeon at work my fish status, five happy fish and all, and he said

"Five out of ten? That's a fifty-percent mortality rate!"

I said to him

"No, no, no. That's a fifty-percent survival rate!"

2006-08-23T08:07:00.000-07:00

Birthday train part 2

My dad used to deliver propane to the rural customers in Yavapai county some years ago. I would go with him on occasion, and it was interesting how some people lived so simply, so far away from anyone else.

So my dad, the propane road-warrior, recalled to me how the train had to go uphill on its way to Hillside. He said we could catch up to it and watch it again there. What the heck, I said, and we went on a little oh, fifteen, twenty mile jaunt to Hillside and sure enough, we had just toured the main street (only street) and here came the same train (I think I can I think I can I think I can.....) so we hustled over through an abandoned-looking lot to get a closer view and the engineer blew the whistle for us again and I think I was happier for the boy than the boy knew how to be for himself. (The lot was not abandoned was we thought, but turned out to be part of an operation that made houses out of styrofoam. The guy gave us a little tour and all but he wasn't the best PR guy because I still am not sure it they made just insulation or the whole house. There was metal of various configurations which could have been structural supports and huge sheets of styrofoam which he cut with an electrified wire-neat!- but he said the business wasn't doing so good and he was shutting the place down.)

Heading back to Las Vegas that afternoon, we made the obligatory stop at the Sonic in Kingman, and oh my stars did we see not one but two trains during our stop.

So let's see, the total train tally for the thirteenth birthday weekend comes to

Lego trains 2
other train models 1
trains spotted/stalked 5 (four if you count two viewings of one train)

I make it 8. Eight items of intense interest. Woo Hoo!

2006-08-08T06:17:00.000-07:00

"BIG FAT IN YOUR FACE FN A!!!!"

microbiology is done.

2006-08-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

The boy had a birthday a few weeks ago. He's 13 now, all teen-agey. Hard to tell these days which behavior is due to autism and which is just teen angst. His sister is angsty as all get out, so it would follow that he is too.

We spent his birthday weekend in Wilhoit with the grandparents. Wilhoit is actually part of the miniscule sparsley populated region that includes Skull Valley and Kirkland (or Kirkland Junction).

If you started in Prescott, Arizona, and went south on Hwy 89, you would pass right through Wilhoit and probably miss it, unless you were jonesing for a beer at the biker bar in Nowhere, which doesn't have a sign anymore because people kept stealing it. Since Nowhere ceased advertising itself, the two little burgs have melded into a micropolis called Wilhoit, but it's still so small its mailing address is Kirkland, some miles away to the westish, and, paradoxically, is even smaller than the aggregated Wilhoit.

His birthday is usually train heavy, since that is an enduring fascination. When he was smaller it was the wooden Thomas-the-tank-engine type of train. Now it's more Legos and viewing real trains. We make regular pilgrimages to Boulder City to see the parked train there (more on that later).

Every trip over to see the grandparents includes a stop in lovely Kingman at the Sonic drive thru on Andy Devine Rd (part of the old Rt. 66). The train line there is always busy, so it's a good bet that we will see one anytime we stop there. And the bathrooms aren't too terribly nasty. We were rewarded with a glimpse of a BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) barreling through whilst we sipped our cherry-limeade slushies and munched our tater-tots.

Saturday afternoon we traveled over to Skull Valley, specifically the Skull Valley elementary school. The tracks run inbetween the road and the school, and it is a fairly pleasant wait under the big cottonwood trees. But not this day. It was pretty hot, being July and all, and not much of a breeze, and something about his sister kept the Boy keyed up and cranky. We ended taking a short walk to the general store (everything from feed for livestock to ice cream) for a cold drink. I'm guessing he has frustrated that no train was magically appearing. He did calm down somewhat, and we went back to Grandma's for a little birthday cake and unwrapping of the trains. Sunday, however, was a different story.

Sunday we tootled around the homestead till about noon. Since the guy from the railroad had confirmed that we could not know the time a train might pass our location (thank you terrorists), we decided to take another chance and went back to our perch under the cottonwood trees. It was just me, Grandpa, and the Boy in my little car, and Wood and Flip in his tiny truck. We were there maybe thirty minutes when we were made quite happy by the sound of the train whistle. We were about thirty yards from the tracks, so it was quite loud and when we gestured for more whistle (mime the pull of the cord) oh boy did we get an earful. I had my hand on the Boy's chest and his heart was just pounding. He was a happy guy. What a treat for a birthday boy.

As we were headed home, my dad mentioned that we could catch up with the train, if we wanted. If we wanted!!? At Kirkland Junction, Wood and the girl turned left to go back to the homestead and we turned right. Towards Hillside/Bagdad.

2006-07-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

No fishies. Well, maybe one or three, it's hard to tell. But out of a total of 10 little fishies introduced to the pond o death, glimpsing one or two is rather disappointing. Wood says it's cats. I have to reluctantly agree, but doubts linger because 1: the fish are really small, large guppy size and 2: no evidence of cat squatting, ie no disturbed shrubbery or bark, no carcasses, no cat shit or cat fur dangling from the mouths of dogs I JUST DON'T KNOW.
The suspicion is pretty strong, but being born in Missouri is really a curse sometimes, and I find myself wishing for a pond cam, just for proof.
At least the water is clear, and the fountains sound lovely.

2006-07-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

Oppenheimer the Gardener is at it again.
The pond is back up and running, with the addition of water plants and 5 (count 'em) little fishies.
If I still have any fishies in a month, I'll be a somewhat happy camper.

2006-07-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

We made a semiannual trek through the Bellagio conservatory/gardens a few weeks ago. Boy, were we SURPRISED! The Boy was thrilled no end to find model trains all over the place. Up, down, through the trees, through tunnels and towns, it was a delight for his little autistic perseveration. They had his favorite, a BNSF, nearly close enough to touch.

Here's a village scene, with the favorite. We stood and watched this little cutie for some time.

Same train, different angle, with tunnel.

The ladybug trolley scurried by a wooden boot/house, underneath a great castle.

And the crowning piece, a miniature Bellagio, complete with fountains. All these buildings and bridges were made of wood and plant parts. Some were pine cone leaves/blades, twigs, seed pods, acorn cups, pieces of bark, all craftily glued together in amazing detail.
We enjoyed it so much we went back the next day, too.

2006-07-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

Volunteer tomatoes were doing great there in the ersatz mulch pile...till I found a suicide caterpiller munching away. So I pulled it off (no easy feat-they're tenacious) and put it under the bird feeder, thinking that was that.

Well, that was a few days ago. Today I was admiring my (ahem) handiwork and there were not one, but SIX caterpillars on my now leafless tomatoes. Since I had not invested a lot either monetarily nor emotionally on these catepillar targets, I pulled them up and put plants and all under the bird feeder (Fresh Meat!).

Wood was there as I was pulling and placing the target tomatoes, and as I was gazing in dismay at the now very murky green pond, he asked me,

"Do you think Oppenheimer was a gardener?"

"The Father of the Bomb?" I asked, thinking Wood might be more confused than I.

"Yeah," he said, " 'I am become Death, destroyer of worlds' and all that".

"Shut. Up."

2006-07-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

So. I got called to work for a "bring-back" the other night. A bring-back is a procedure done on a patient (usually open heart) when their condition indicates that there may be excessive bleeding or sudden clotting of a graft and they would benefit from a re-exploration of the chest. It is usually a quick procedure involving re-opening the sternum, removing a bunch of clots or cauterizing the underside of the ribcage where the sternal wires go inbetween the ribs and around the sternum.
I had scrubbed for this case earlier in the day, and when I came in to the lounge on my way to the dressing room, the surgeon told me that this would be a real quick case, just a pacer wire exchange. Apparently the patient (who had artery bypasses and a mitral valve repair) was not benefitting from the temporary pacing wires that had been placed earlier and was experiencing low blood pressure and erratic rhythm.
We get in there and do a minimal opening, just enough to see the old wire and poke in a new one, and the patient is just not responding-poor rhythm, low pressure.
"FUCK!" shouts the surgeon. This is not unusual for this surgeon, who is of, um, mediterranean descent by way of, um, New York, I think, and, at any rate, is rather loud and boisterous on most good days and here it was midnight-thirty and he'd done a full day's work and had another to go. "FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING FUCK FUCK FUCKER!".
"WHAT THE FUCK" said the anestheologist.
"DOUBLE FUCK" I said.
And the patient got better.
And we all felt better.

2006-06-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Okay okay. I won't do any more pond posts, but I had to post these two.

2006-06-21T23:54:00.000-07:00

So. We had big doins this past weekend at the Oceanside, er, beach.

That's the beginning. The trench and the first course of brick took most of the day. I have to give credit to the MAN, who did the lion's share of the work. Did I mention it was hard digging? In caliche? Did I mention that those stupid bricks had to be level front/back left/right AND level with neighbor bricks? Have I mentioned how the MAN did the hardest work on one of the hottest days this year? Did I mention it was hot out? Way. HOT.

When arthur says it's this hot, it's siesta time.

So the next steps, which pretty much rounded out the first day. Funny how a ton of sand doesn't go quite as far as you might think.

And at last, fountain and plants. And a big red carp. Ceramic, that is.
The boy moved the chair there all on his own. He'd been waiting so long. SOOO long. I made the mistake of purchasing the liners first, some months ago (before it was hellishly hot), and he has been most persistent reminding us about the pond. When he really wants to communicate, which is rare, he'll get right in our face, almost nose to nose, and say his one word or phrase, in this case, "Pond." He must've gotten tired of us saying, "not today" or "later, it's too hot" because he started saying "POND" in a much clearer, louder voice.
Gawd, are we suckers for for a clear loud voice. He did help dig, and haul, and stack, and fill, and most of all, enjoy.
I think he likes it.

2006-06-07T23:43:00.000-07:00

So, I am back to my old hobby. Dryer's fixed. Washer has a new knob. But it was close there, when things were at their darkest, no dryer, knob on the washer breaking off, I was this close to spending several hundred dollars to fix $20 worth of problems. Arrgh.

For some reason, one of my bird of paradise plants is dying. Other one looks great, so I'm not sure what the problem might be, since I treat them the same. Just dunno. Divided the aloe vera plant, and I'm not so sure it was the best time of year to do that. But my sister passed along a bunch of hens-and-chicks, and I had more than one pot of those so I had to uncrowd the aloe to intersperse with the hens-and-chicks and oh, well, that's how it goes when I start getting my hands in the dirt.

The volunteer tomatoes are doing amazingly well. For something springing up in the ersatz mulch pile, they're looking better than any I've paid good money for. Hope I haven't jinxed myself. The strawberry's a goner. I guess Flip's right-I don't bring home plants, I bring home more "victims".

2006-06-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

Here we are back from the first annual Las Vegas Walk Now.

Tired feet. The Boy walked the whole way, bless his heart. We ended up raising over $800, just short of our goal of $1000. Not bad for the first year, I think.
Thanks to all who generously donated to this cause, by all accounts it was a very successful and fun day.

2006-06-07T23:32:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the first annual Walk Now 5K walk to raise funds for Cure Autism Now.

2006-05-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

Laundry is not my hobby. Not today. Probably not tomorrow.

Well, it kinda is. Here's the thing. The dryer is merely a tumbler. Which would be cool if it was a tumbler on the Batman Begins scale. No. With my luck or lack thereof, I get a big spinny metal tube that throws the clothes around while they air dry. Arrrgh. Good news is, the weather is cooperating, it was nearly 90 degrees today. That man o' mine strung up an erstaz clothesline on the patio when we found out we had to wait for a week for the $5.00 part to be non-expeditiously mailed to us. The $5.00 part comes on the heels of the $150.00 (expedited) burner assembly, which, when assembled, didn't work. Seems the problem is, ah, electrical. Wood's buddies when he told them, asked first thing, "What did your meter tell you?" Well, it's Wood in sheep's clothing, kicking himself for not putting his electrical meter on the darn thing right off. Turns out the problem isn't the gas flow, it's the overtemp thermostat breaker thingy. But boy, have we got a good look at how the lint piles up in, under and around a dryer. And the belt configuration! We could go on for, oh, minutes, about how the belt configuration is terribly difficult to figure out when it falls off before you get a good look at it (but there's pictures on the internet, thank geeks).
So, here I am, it's Monday night, I'm not on call, the laundry can wait a little bit, must be time for, hmmmm, VODKA! No guilt.

2006-05-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

So, I'm hanging in the hallway at work, waiting for the opportune moment to relieve my coworkers for a lunch break, shooting the shit with one of the perfusionists who covers our hospital (a perfusionist operates the heart-lung machine that keeps you alive when your heart is being sliced and sewn). One of the newer heart surgeons, a Texan of Indian (bombay not blackfoot) extraction, walks up and relates this story:

"So you know what? I was standing up at the front, and this breast surgeon guy comes up to me and says

'I don't like your coat. It looks like something a resident would wear.'

(Heart surgeon wears a knee length lab-type white jacket embroidered with his name and title)

I looked at him and said "Excuse me?" and he told me

'I don't like your coat and I don't think you should be wearing your boots into the operating room.'

(oh yeah, he wears his cowboy boots. To work. In the OR. )

like that's any of his business what shoes I fucking wear and so I told him

"If you have a problem with my jacket or my shoes, we can settle this right now. Otherwise, you just stay out of my heart room and I'll stay out of your breast room (heart surgeon is all of 5' 4" 130 lbs soaking wet with his boots on). Can you believe this shit?"

I told him no, I couldn't believe this shit, but another staff member who heard the tale said

"Good, I'm glad Dr. Boob got put in his place."

Jeez, some people.

Ghost Town 2

2006-04-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

Ghost Town 2
Originally uploaded by teejaybee19.

Same scene, with LIGHTNING.

Ghost Town 1

2006-04-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

Ghost Town 1
Originally uploaded by teejaybee19.

Goldfield Ghost town, as seen by the Boy. For some reason, it's raining.

church tornado

2006-04-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

church tornado
Originally uploaded by teejaybee19.

Same scene, with TORNADO.
Sucks to go to church in Goldfield.

2006-04-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well, the pictures don't really do it justice. The first is the front gate, with this big elevator thingy and a huge ore bucket thingy. This second is a view from the train around the back, so the church you see is actually behind the elevator thingy in the first view. Confused? Well, the boy draws a much better picture.

2006-04-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Apache Junction.....site of the most wonderful object of recent obsession by the Boy-Goldfield Ghost town. Is his excitement evident? Well, it was to those who know him.
Apache Juction is a little hole-in-the-wall wide-spot-in-the-road that is quickly being swallowed up by the metastasization of Phoenix on the south and east. We rendezvous-ed with the Pooh and had a great time, walking up the block-long street that is Goldfield, peeking in the storefronts, and of course, riding the train. The town of Goldfield was really a working mining town, its inhabitants brought up over a million dollars' worth of gold from a not-very impressive hole in the ground, there at the base of the Superstition Mountains.

The train makes a loop around the site, at a speed of about 5 mph, with frequent photo op stops. It turned out to be a pleasant way to spend about an hour out and about on a beautiful spring day in the desert.

The whole experience made quite an impression on the Boy. He's been drawing some interesting pictures.

2006-04-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Spring.....Break!

Kids are on spring break this week. So I took the week off (all three working days, that is), and headed to AZ to see the family.

No peace to be found. Well, maybe a little, down south. We departd Las Vegas early Saturday morning and stopped by Prescott to catch up with my brother, who lives in Tucson (the younger older brother). The original plan was to proceed straight to Tucson, do not pass go, do not collect $200, and have a nice night or two with my brother and his wife and drink in he lovely Sonoran ambience and a few margaritas. What happened was, my brother ended up sporting up to Prescott from Tucson to check on the status of the great demolition happening in Wilhoit. Oh, I didn't mention that?

The Wilhoit compound is getting new digs. The old (and I mean OLD) "mobile" home that the parents have been living in has been literally torn to pieces to make way for a newer one-one from this decade. So my pa, the workahoilic, the one who traveled to HAWAII while suffering congestive heart failure (diagnosed after he returned), the one who can't say no and can't slow down and never asks for help, is running the demolition/prep at the homestead. My assorted local male relatives have been down to help as they can, but I think my dad (the horriblest pack-rat) is afraid they might throw away something he can reuse or wants to keep for otherwise obscure known-only-to-him reasons. I dunno, it's just a guess. But he's had plenty offers of help, and has been waving them off from time to time. So, when I asked my ma how things were going, she seemed to think they were going allright. But she did let slip that he told her that he had to stop for a bit during the work the other day and that his chest hurt. She's worried crazy about him, living in one of the sheds on the property, while she's camping with my sister up in town. so, here in this roundabout way, is why my brother came up from Tucson, and we got together in Prescott before reuniting down in Tucson later in the day. My brother cruised by the demo site and thought is looked okay and that Dad looked okay. I said hi/bye to my sister and my mom, the kids had a bite to eat and a potty break and off we went.

We blew right through Phoenix, since Pooh wasn't sure what her plans were for the day, and got to Oro Valley, just north of Tucson, just in time to see my brother's wife's herd of horses out at their property before going into the town of Catalina for some really good Mexican food at Lupe's. No margarita, though. We retired early and got up at 0530 (thanks, Boy), and had a couple of quick hikes before we left for Phoenix to rendezvous with the Pooh.

Which, we did, although it was in Apache Junction.

2006-03-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

spring!

Spring is springing out all over here. The irises that I brought from mom's in AZ are starting to bloom, the fortnight lilies that were divided last fall are almost all starting to bloom, the lone hollyhock from my friend Linda is comin up, oh, and 2 (TWO!) hummingbirds this morning (at once).

Took a walk yesteday around the "pond" (a flood control catch basin, one of dozens around town), and it felt great. Worked into the wee hours Friday night/am, slept til noon, and during the walk it felt like a great weight lifted off my shoulders-not on call. Ahhhhh.