Parade of Lights

It wasn't the same, being at the parade without the family, but I went with a couple of friends. I usually make a lot of food and drinks, and we watch the boats go by together. This year I stood at a railing and tried not to think about it.
I guess that would be something along the lines of Bah Humbug.

Third Wheel

My friends, I must say, are very good babysitters. They want the old Shawna back, the one who smiles and jokes and plays around. The one who is always looking for a good laugh. The one who doesn't mind looking stupid in order to make someone else giggle.

So they dragged me out of the house on Sunday to go riding in the desert. We left at noon, hit the trails, stopped at a watering hole, explored an old mine shaft, then poked our way back home. Well actually the journey home was quite fast--we were testing the limits of the Rhinos we were riding in.

Right away I was beginning to feel pretty good- and I didn't hesitate to show that with my camera...

I did have a few pensive moments, where I stopped to enjoy the view and found my mind wandering back to my grief and misery.....

Usually someone would come along and jar me back into the "don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it" mode.

I found the sole to a shoe. It seemed funny to me.

After a bit of riding I realized that there's more dirt than anything out there. And the chapstick on my lips was attracting the dirt.

We stopped at the Desert Bar, which is a mecca for off roaders during the winter months. They have live bands, food, nice views.
On this particular day they just happened to have someone playing JAZZ FLUTE!!!

Or something like that.

Then we hit the road and visited the old mine. And I fell in it.

Down there.
Heels went right over my head.

So of course I have bruises and scrapes. That's gonna look nice for that job interview on Wednesday.

As the sun began to set, we raced back to the pavement. Literally.

And I went home feeling a little more peaceful inside. Thanks, friends!

Among the Living

November is a month I'd like to forget. Forever. But maybe it's one of those darn character building experiments that the universe has thrown at me.
At this point, though, my character should be really frikkin awesome. I've had too much thrown at me over the years.

I did travel to Mexico, to work the start line for the Baja 1000 race...so here's a few photos of that:

Okay, that's not really fair. That was the rear end of one of the Coca Cola girls who stand around during the pre-race activities. She was definitely a member of the Coca Cola "B" Team. But who would look good in those pants, anyway??

Seriously, here are some race photos...

This is an ambulance that was entered as a race vehicle. It didn't finish.

We stopped in a restroom and I had to laugh at this sign. I've always known that they expect people to refrain from flushing their toilet paper--but I've never seen it put in writing before! Mexico has very poor sewer systems--if they have any at all--and flushing the toilet paper leads to big problems. So there's always a nice sized waste basket next to the toilet...

This is one of the Osh Kosh trucks entered in the race. Not as in Osh Kosh B'Gosh, but the huge truck manufacturer that generally does military stuff:

I did manage to get my annual photo with the girls. The Tecate girls.

Here's Jesse James pulling up to the start line. He didn't finish.

Roger Norman pulling up to start.

It was the nicest Baja race I've ever worked, because Jim changed things up. Normally, we have the same staff handling the start and the finish. We start the racers on Thursday morning--that takes a few hours. Then we verify all our numbers and go on break. The racers have 44 hours to complete the 1000 miles, so we estimate the time that we need to be back at the finish line to begin logging their returns.
But this race wasn't a "loop," it was a "point to point." The start was in Ensenada, the finish was 1000 miles south at LaPaz. Instead of scrambling us all to an airplane to get us to the finish line after the start of the race, Jim had three of us handle the start, then fax the numbers down to him and his crew at the finish. Then they logged the finishes. Once we sent our numbers down to him, we were done. Awesome!! We packed up and headed to the border.