All That Sparkles

The Simple Woman's Daybook: January 29, 2012

FOR TODAY …  January 29, 2012

Outside My Window… Darkness, cold, and not a drop of snow.

I am thinking… About getting a NV driver license. That's right, I've held on to my CA license. For some reason, I just haven't wanted to give it up. Thinking about it.

I am thankful for… A warm, dry, safe place to call home.

From the kitchen… Dinners and lunches for R for the coming week:  Seven bean/rice/cheese/chicken burritos;  four containers of roasted potatoes with dill with baked chicken breasts w/barbecue sauce. Salad fixings.

I am wearing… Blue drawstring pants, a black short-sleeved cotton button-down shirt, no shoes, no bra.

I am creating… Time. I must manage my time better.

I am going… to meet a new client for lunch tomorrow. Cool.

I am reading… PLAYED by Barbara Freethy on Kindle. The first book of hers, TAKEN, intrigued me because she had re-released it when the print edition went out of print as an ebook, along with the rest of her backlist, and has sold several million copies of her work. Since that's my biz, I wanted to support her. And the books are good, even though romance is not my genre. There is some mystery/detecting work in there, but they're just fun.

I am hoping… That nothing has gone awry with one of my clients. We've been trying to reach him for several weeks. I hope he is all right.

I am hearing… The heater blowing. Thank G*d. Guess who got cold? (Besides me. hee hee.)

Around the house… Needs tidying and a vaccuum, but it will get done when it gets done.

One of my favorite things… Kitties. Kittes everywhere.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week… Work, work, work, work, work. Take some stuff to the SPCA store. Get to bed early.

With thanks to the Simple Woman's Daybook.

Death Valley to HB to Death Valley

OK, I found the cord to upload photos from my Blackberry. Where was it? In the very safe drawer I put it in on my desk. Heh.

After we left Badwater, we headed southeast toward Baker, CA. And by this time it was dark. And as I am wont to do like a baby in a car seat, is put my seat back and pass right out. Something about the rhythym of the car and the blackness out the window, and I fall asleep like I've been drugged.

I woke up a few hours later in the parking lot of a Bob's Big Boy with big appetites. We like Bob's. We used to go to the one in SoCal in Burbank all the time--24 hours. When I worked nights, we could get there in about 20 minutes from North Long Beach (aka "Compton."), where I lived. I once saw Drew Carey there, and there's a booth where the Beatles once sat, complete with commemorative plaque.

We hadn't eaten in about six hours, and we were huuuungry.

After we ate, we headed west to Orange County to visit R's folks in Huntington Beach. We arrived there about midnight. For some reason that could never be explained to me satisfactorily, my in-laws had the guest bedroom, and we were to sleep in their bedroom. I asked R why, and he said it was something about sheets, which made no sense, but whatever. We had a place to sleep. They have a tubular waterbed--tubes filled with water the length of the bed, and it was very warm and comfortable. Evidently it's great for people with fibromyalgia as it's easy on the joints.

We woke up late, schmoozed with my FIL for a while, then I begged to be taken to see the ocean and we went out. MIL was still in bed. So while we were out, we stopped at a chicken place we love--I'd like to re-create their chicken, it is SO good (lemon / garlic with lot's of paprika). Then we drove by the beach. Since R's mom wanted to open gifts that night, we couldn't stay long. I wanted to go for a walk, but the sun was going down (yes, we slept that late).

The mountains in the center are Catalina Island. I stepped out of the van and the very palpable and pungent smell of the ocean on that part of the coast ambushed my nose. The smell is composed of salt, kelp, and oil / tar (lot's of oil wells in Huntington Beach, and they stink. When I was growing up, we used to define bad odors as "smells like Long Beach." Lot's of oil/tar there, too.). The fragrance memory of that scent brought memories of my teens to the forefront of my thoughts--summer days when my friend Tammy and I used to bike to the beach almost every day, body surf, lay out, and work on our "tans." Well, Tammy did. I just got more freckly and burned. I spent most of my time in the water anyway. We also put "Sun-In" or lemon juice  in our hair to lighten it. Did you ever do that?

Anyway, then we went back to the in-laws, opened gifts, chatted, and then we all returned to our bedrooms, three of us with laptops, one with a book, and at 9am the next morning, we got up and left, heading back to Death Valley. The best visit I've ever had with my in-laws. :-D

It was a long drive to DV, and we were headed for Mosaic Canyon. We stopped at one point in DV off of the 190 to use their bathroom facilities, and as I stood outside, by myself, there was no sound. I could hear my heartbeat. Not even the wind was blowing. And I could see coyote and other tracks in the sand near the bathrooms.  It felt serene and scary at the same time. Part of me was suddenly hoping that the van--which had never given us one moment of doubt--would start.

At any rate, we get to Mosaic Canyon, and it's a 2 1/4 mile drive up an unpaved, rocky road, that had dried ruts in it from when it had rained, flash-flooded, and then dried. We almost turned around. But we made it.

Imagine my surprise that it was a 1/4 mile hike, uphill, just to get to the mouth of the slot canyon. But I sucked it up, perservered, and hiked that hill because dammit, I wanted to see that canyon. I was huffing and puffing--have no doubt--I have been having some issues going on with my lungs--I'm still on a steroid inhaler and am constantly clearing my throat and/or losing my voice (maybe a trip back to the doctor?), but the rest of me was fine. R. was a little ahead of me, and I had him take my picture at the entrance to the canyon. Behind me is the parking lot and more of DV desert.

And after that, the digital camera battery died. *groan*  So we punted and went with my BlackBerry camera, which, of course, I had with me despite there being no signal. R was much faster than me, so he charged ahead taking photos. I got about halfway through the Canyon before it became clear that more serious climbing was needed, and my bad knee just can't do it. So I had R snap my pic...

And he went on as I picked my way back to the car, trying not to fall on my ass (loose gravel). R. took a while showing up, and I started to panic thinking I'd have to hike up there and drag his body back down that canyon....but at last he appeared. And the following are the photos he took. They start after the first picture of me at the entrance to the canyon, to the turn around point, and then back down.

If you get a chance to go to Death Valley, I highly recommend it. I'm looking forward to going back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Death Valley

Yes, I need to finish my trip story. Unfortunately, our digital camera's battery died just as we got to a landmark in DV, and we had to use my cell phone for photos. There's a lot of them, and I want to upload them directly onto my laptop instead of emailing them one at a time....but I can't find the frikking cord.

If I don't find it soon, I'll start emailing the photos.

Cheers

Death Valley: Badwater

After we left the Artist's Palette loop, we headed south to Badwater (scroll down) as we fought diminishing sunlight. This is the lowest spot in the continental US, and was No.1 on R's hit parade. We got there while there was still light.

With flash.

 

Without flash. It's really hard to get a perspective on just how big this place (and Death Valley in general) is, but if you look just over R's shoulder, you'll see two little black dots. Those are people.

It's blurry, and I took 3 snaps and none of them came out, so on full zoom, I got this little sign way up the side of this cliff--it says "Sea Level".

R. decided he wanted to walk out to the salt flats, and I got bored, so I walked down to the actual water area, which is a salt water that comes up through very porous limestone. It got it's name, actually, because a mapper who came through there had a horse who refused to drink the water and he put "bad water" on his map. It stuck.

So R and his iron legs took off toward the salt flats, and I was wandering around, looking at the water, which is evidently home to a snail and aquactic bugs and plants, reading the Nat'l Park signs posted. And I got bored. 

So I decided this was a good time to implement my New Year's direction to move my body more. And I started walking, down the boardwalk, and onto the salt-encrusted ground.

There were these cool holes in the ground where water seeped out into the limestone below. They reminded me of boiling mud pots at the Salton Sea, only dried up.

I just kept walking, keeping an even pace, and kept going even when my back started hurting. I could no longer see R, he was waaaaaaaay out there on the salt flats, and it was starting to feel like I wasn't getting any closer; the people at the edge of the flats weren't getting any bigger. Then suddenly I was there, and people were passing me going back to the parking lot because by now it was dark, and I saw R coming in off the flat so I waited for him. He was very surprised to see me so far from the car (nearly as surprised as I was). And I got him to take my picture.

I could almost be anywhere, really.

So I had him do it again. See that little white dot over my left shoulder? That's the headlight of the car parked next to us. I have no idea how far we walked, but the trip back seemed to take forever. R slowed his pace to stay by me, and we remarked on the "potholes," the salt, the elevation, the beauty, the quiet and how lucky we were to be there. Then we were at the boardwalk and up the stairs and back to our car. I spent some time trying to get the salt off my shoes before I got into the van, but it was not successful.

The blacktop parking lot had white salt tracks running parallel to every parking space where people had walked out onto the flats and then brought it back to their car. It was kind of funny.

So I hiked/walked. In Death Valley. *proud*

Death Valley: Artist's Palette Stills

Before I started video recording the drive through the Artist's Palette, I took a lot of still photos. There are photos of the road to the AP, mountains, canyons, the crazy road, different colors of rock, and some pictures of the salt flats as we exited the AP.  We took these photos about 3:30--the sun goes behind the mountains early and it gets shady and dark early as if the sun had gone down. We got there really at the perfect time. I hope you enjoy them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bird Stampede

I took the camera out to our little duck pond/creek that flows through our complex to try and capture an unusual-looking duck who had recently appeared in the pond. R and I took out most of a loaf of wheat bread to feed them, and they came by the dozens.

When we weren't feeding them fast enough, they came out of the water and up onto the gravel path that surrounds the pond/creek, honking and hooting, walking on my feet, and opening their mouths for food. So I started filming. At one point, I almost drop the camera so it goes wobbly and then black, but you can see both of us hand feeding ducks, coots, and Canada geese, which are like big lumbering cows of the bird world. They're slow and kinda' dumb but they're so beautiful and when they fly? Magic.

 

Death Vally: Day 2

Where was I? Oh yes, we had breakfast, then strolled over to the "world's biggest candy store" or something similar, where the candy was overpriced and while shopping, I sneezed, and my canine-tooth crown flew out of my mouth. I found it on the floor, rinsed it off, and shoved it back in. Urgh.

We didn't buy anything  except some fountain diet Cokes (thank goodness, sticking to our "less" theme for the year), and headed out to see what we could see of Death Valley before dark. After that, we were heading to the outlaws for a late Christmas celebration.

Death Valley is big. I mean, really BIG. Gianormous. It's 3 million acres of varying wilderness. There are two main roads that go through Death Valley:  One goes south-west, the other goes south and then east to Baker, CA. While not the armpit of California (that would be Needles), it is definitely within range. They did, however, have a Bob's Big Boy, which we love mightily. (If you're a fan of Bob's and you remember the 80s, you might have called this statue "Ronald Reagan." Heh.) More on that later.

We checked the map we got from our hotel, and then dicussed what we wanted to see which would determine which road we went. On our return home from SoCal, we would take the opposite road from the one we picked today. I wanted to see Mosaic Canyon in a bad way. I'm fascinated by slot canyons and had never been to one.  R. wanted to see Badwater. I saw on the map there was loop of something called "The Artist's Palette," which sounded fun, so we chose the south and east road first. The video in the previous post is from the Artist's Palette. It was stunning. The colors, the layers, the different types of rock compressed togethether, and the one-way, single-lane road was a fun roller coaster of a ride. We'd come around a corner or pass a big boulder, and suddenly, we'd be looking down the road of what felt like straight down. LOL  It was worth it. I'd do it again, and will, next time we visit. Because there will be next times.

So then we drove on to Badwater, where the salt flats are and the lowest point in the United States. R was dying to see that.

The road south toward The Artists' Palette.

 

 

An old Building near the Borax Works

Harmony Borax Works (mine)

Heading toward Furnace Creek, the green parts in the center right of the photo. Just beyond Furnace Creek tourist area, is a Native American reservation. You are free to visit, you just need to sign in with the management office before you do. Death Valley was, and still is, home to the Timbisha Shoshone Band of California.

 

They had mostly touristy stuff at Furnace Creek:  Gift shops, campgrounds, sandwiches and drinks, and a museum that is being remodeled and not quite open yet.  There was a gas station with gas for over $5.00 a gallon and on which we passed. We did, however, use their restroom, and that's where I saw these....haven't seen any in years.

As for my cell signal? It was off and on, mostly on, and frankly, better than the reception we get from home.

 

Off in the distance, the Furnace Creek Inn luxury resort.

Then off we went again, headed for Badwater. And where I did the first of two amazing things (amazing for me). Stay tuned.

Death Valley Trip

My husband loves maps. He has piles and piles and bags of maps. He's the guy who picks up those map/brochure give-aways in motel and hotel lobbies. He likes to look at maps. Mostly because he likes to travel. I like to travel, too. While he was perusing one of his maps, he realized that Death Valley was not that far out of our way to visit his parents. As a teacher, he gets two weeks off for Christmas. He really didn't want to visit his parents--me either (the dysfunctional atmosphere relating to his 40-something brother and his girlfriend, the drama queen, living in his parents' den) and he changed his mind a dozen times. I hired and fired a cat sitter. I hired a housesitter to stay with our cats. I finally decided to just wait it out. Eventually, enough time would pass and we wouldn't have gone. But I did want to see Death Valley. After a friend's 18-year-old daughter crapped out 30 minutes before we were supposed to meet and 12 hours before we were going to depart (and my "friend" was unapologetic for her child's irresponsible behavior. Typical.), we got our neighbor, who has two cats of his own, to watch them for us.

We decided to spend the night outside of Death Valley in a small Nevada town called Beatty, spend the next day exploring Death Valley, then continue on to the outlaws, and then back through Death Valley on our return. Quick and dirty trip.

I found this cool motel on the net and it was actually cheaper than Motel 6 AND had free WiFi AND had just been remodeled. It was a very nice room. It's called the Atomic Inn. There were "radiation" logos on all the lamps and lights, and the picture on the wall was of a full-color mushroom cloud. Very cool and kitschy. I highly recommend it.

We checked in and walked a few blocks to KCs Outpost and Saloon for dinner (no webpage). It was not much to look at inside, and there was nothing on the menu R wanted (so he drove over to Denny's), but I had the best tuna sandwich I've ever had in my life. They make their own bread, and it was soft and chewy, crispy on the outside and warm and yummy. It came with a small potato salad that tasted like my mother's potato salad, and a cup of homemade beef vegetable soup. Yummm-E.

The next day, we had breakfast at Denny's at the Casino (no one else offered breakfast), and then we headed out to Death Valley. I took a few pics outside the casino.

 

 

 

 

I generally do not like the desert, but this is a different kind of desert. This is a desert with mountains, color, ravines, canyons, formations. It's not mile after mile of the same frikking landscape (*coughtexascough*). It was beautiful and alive, and the weather was in the high 60s and I had the window down and my head hanging out, tongue wagging, like a dog. It was a blast. I hope to go back many, many, many times.

 

The official entrance to the national park. I have lot's more pictures and stories to show and tell, and a personal challenge that I met not once, but twice. Stay tuned. ;-P

The Simple Woman's Daybook: For January 11, 2012

FOR TODAY …  January 11, 2012

Outside My Window… Twilight across the parking lot, the plaza outside our door, dead potted plants and an empty birdfeeder.

I am thinking… About what an asshat I can be sometimes.

And, also, taking a crocheting class. I did a lot of it as a pre-teen and teenager, but I've lost the skill.

I am thankful for… Medical and dental insurance. I don't think I can overstate how great, and what a relief, that truly is.

From the kitchen… Coffee--3/4 Organic Sumatran, 1/4 Trader Joe's "Wintry Spice." It has black pepper in it. It is SO good.

I am wearing… My dark pink w/yellow flowers cotton-weave pin-tucked nightgown that I got for Christmas in 2010 from my MIL. It has short sleeves, but it's quite warm. My husband says it's an "old-lady nightgown." Perhaps, but I'm not freezing my arse off while I'm sleeping. ;-)

I am creating… A place where I am less angry at myself.

I am going… To run some errands in a little while.

I am reading… I am reading Kathy Reich's 5th Temperance Brennan book (and which the TV show BONES is loosely, very loosely based on), GRAVE SECRETS for Kindle. It's a pager turner.

I am hoping… Two things:  That this year we can move to a bigger place. Even paring down, we've just outgrown this condo/apartment. It's really meant for one person. Second, that my income will stabilize.

I am hearing… The Ed Show. Not a favorite, but he's on after Chris Matthews.

Around the house…Paring down, getting rid of stuff, donating to charities, throwing in the trash. We have too. much. stuff.

One of my favorite things… A heavy and warm lap blanket. (You know it's cold when your coffee cools off to the point it's undrinkable just walking from the kitchen to the living room. Brrr.)

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week… Start work on two new projects, maybe tomorrow; continue working on a continuing project (a novel), and keep taking crap to the trash or a charity.  Why did I keep five years worth of Cooking Pleasures magazine (and pack and move them 5 times?) when all their recipes are available online? Buh bye.

With thanks to the Simple Woman's Daybook.

Micro Vacay to DEATH VALLEY, CA

I've got the photos downloaded, but a new project just dropped into my lap so I won't have time to get them all up and listed as quickly as I'd hoped. Instead, I have a video from the Artist's  Palette, a one-way, single file loop through some canyons on the east side of Death Valley. The road was a little roller-coastery, well over a 6% grade in a few places, maybe even 8 or 9%, (reminded me more than a bit of some streets in San Francisco ;-P ), but we enjoy that and it was fun in addition to looking at all the beautiful formations and colors. So, for now, I hope you'll find this as interesting as we did!  I had such a good time there! We hope to go back many more times. What a mood booster!