Javelina

Answer me this: What is a javelina?
Is it A) A small javelin (spear-like weapon) used by Native girls?
B) A pig-like rodent that lives in the southwest.
C) A goat taco
D) An eight-sided Navajo house
I'll post pictures and the answer next week. No fair looking it up in a dictionary!

Off to Tucson

The morning that we planned to leave CA, Brian went to remove the tire covers on the RV. He felt a groove on the inside of the right rear tire. We had the tires changed on the way to CA, remember? They put better, and slightly larger tires on the RV in Amarillo. The shocks on the right side rubbed the tire. We were able to get right into a tire shop in Paso Robles and were on our way by 1:00. We went to Bakersfield because we wanted to get some other work done on the RV. On Saturday, we drove through Lake Havasu City, AZ where the London Bridge is currently located. Yes, the London Bridge built in 1824. When the London Bridge started to fall down, they replaced it. They brought the old one to Lake Havasu City, AZ in 1971 and set it back up!

The first week and a half that we were here it was really hot (100). But as they like to say out west, "It's a dry heat". I agree with my mother-in-law who says that my oven is a dry heat, but it's still hot! It cooled off for a week, but now it's back up to the low 90's. The heat is the reason that we'll only be here until mid-May. The nice thing about Tucson is that there are a lot of things that can be done in partial days. Our schedule hasn't been the greatest, but we soon have a 7-day stretch off. Our RV park is close to an Air Force base. We got to see the Blue Angels for four days straight! They did two days of practice, then a two-day air show. Joy loves the doggie park here in the RV park. So far we've gone to Saguaro Nat'l Park, the local mission, the Titan Missile Museum (very interesting! it showed how war was prevented!), and today we went to Biosphere 2. Biosphere 2 is where 8 people lived inside this man-made "miniature earth" for two years. Brian enjoyed seeing the engineering aspects of it. During the time the people lived in it, oxygen levels ran really low. I enjoyed seeing it, but the whole time I was thinking of that verse about God looking from heaven and laughing at the foolishness of men. The smartest people on the planet got together to try to make a miniature earth and they do a pretty good job, but they made serious miscalculations about something that we can't live without. It has cost some billionaire in Texas $250 million so far. Sure, they learned some things about the earth, but I still think it was/is a giant waste of time and money. Work has gone pretty good so far. It will be over really fast. We only have 6 more weeks here.

Last CA pictures

We went to Parkfield, CA before we left. It's the earthquake capital of the world. The bottom picture is of the mission that was closest to us. I finally went to see it the day before we left.

Between assignments

Between assignments, Brian went to Florida to get our taxes done and to see his parents. AND, Brenda & Elaine came to see ME!! Needless to say, the time was too short! We watched the sunset 3 times, ate, and tried to see as much of the central coast as we could. In this picture, we were using ALL of their bread to taste different olive oils at We Olive. Elaine and I also ate quite a few olives. Brenda was brave enough to try some olive spread that I told her was really good. We didn't need lunch that day!

We had a great time and made more wonderful memories!

Green Hills

It was so nice to see the hills turn green before we left! The cows sure did look happy!

Morro Bay

We were determined to watch the sunset at Morro Bay even if we froze!

Computers

I have to post a copy of an e-mail that I recently received. My reasons for doing this are: 1) It is very funny and 2) It applies to our lives recently.

Disclaimer: I don't know if it's true or not! I personally don't believe everything I read. I don't know who wrote this!

"At a recent computer expo (Comdex), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, 'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon.'
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash . . . . Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason, you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only 5 percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turn the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You would have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.


The morning before our last night of work in CA, I tried to check my e-mail. The computer wouldn't even turn on. Brian woke up early that evening and went to Best Buy before work. Since we were leaving CA soon, they advised him to try to erase the hard drive and reinstall all the programs just to make sure that it wasn't just a virus. He spent the whole next day erasing the hard drive and putting everything back on it. That worked for two whole days before darkness occurred again. He had taken his computer to Florida with him, but I was busy and didn't REALLY need it. When we got to Tucson, we took it to Best Buy. They told us that the hard drive was kaput and that they'd call us in 5 days. During this time, I was reminded why we needed two computers (it helps the marriage if we don't have to share computers). We did o.k. On the 5th day, I called Best Buy to see if the computer had come back and they just forgot to call us. I handed the phone to Brian when they started saying things like "mother board", "cd drive nonfunctioning", and other things that are over my head. I heard Brian saying "O.K., O.K., O.K., so we should come pick out a new computer?" I was sad to say goodbye to my computer, but in exchange I got a new one with the new operating system and it's supposed to be a little faster. Hopefully it will last longer than 2 1/2 years!
Despite all of this hassle, I am very grateful for computers!! Where would we be without them?
I am also very, very grateful for a husband who can take care of them for me. Would I have one if he hadn't come around? I don't know the answer to that question!

Valentine's Trip

For our valentine's getaway this year we went to Lake Tahoe. The night before we got there they had 20 inches of snow. It was absolutely breathtaking. We drove around the lake a little bit, then took the gondola halfway up the mountain. We thought about going intertubing, but since we didn't get up there until a little before 3 and they shut down the gondola at 3:30, we decided not to pay $25 each for an hour of sledding. A guy heard us talking about it and told us that we could each do a "test run" for free! What a blast!