I thought I was a smart person, till I tried to read the 1,500 page Health Care Reform Bill.
Honestly, I really thought I was smarter.
If you care to try it yourself, here it is:
http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2009press/prb101909.pdf
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Pioneer Woman
She's currently on a book tour for her recently published cook book, her website gets a bazillion visitors each day (today I had trouble logging on because the huge amounts of traffic shut it down for a bit) and now the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, is featured in People Magazine.
Pretty cool, huh?
Desert Frog
I've heard of the Sonoran Desert Toad, often wondering if the stories were true. This type of toad will burrow underground and stay until there is some moisture. Usually, it's during the monsoon season that these guys emerge. Our monsoon season here in Havasu consists of the occasional thunder and lightning show, but in other parts of the state it's regularly occurring thunderstorms that bring floods.
Our friends down in Phoenix had us as guests at their home, and while there we noticed their dog jumping around in the back yard. He was playing with a toad!
We ran outside and photographed the toad, while protecting him from the curious dog. What a unique sight; it was like seeing an endangered species or something.
As for the story of the Sonoran Desert Toad, I googled it and it turns out it is true. They hibernate until there's rain.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Jet Ski World Finals
Today was the fifth day of racing for the Jet Ski World Finals, and I decided to get some photos of the vendor row, or "Performance Alley."
As the sun set, I headed over to the other side of the property to check out the motocross races (big piece of property, to have World Finals on one side and motocross on the other)
Shay's dad has him racing motocross, and I've never been able to get to one of his races. They're usually scheduled while I'm out of town or working at some other event.
As I weaved through the thousands of people, I looked over at the track to see what age group was racing. I had no idea where to find Shay.
Then this tall blonde kid came walking toward me, I could see him out of the corner of my eye. It was Shay! I guess I forget how tall he's gotten.
I was not in time to see his first race, and his next wouldn't be for two more hours. So I took a couple of photos.
Here's Shay and his dad:
And, no, his dad did NOT look like that when we were together.
That whole look is a part of his new life.
Parade Nonsense
It seems I've been in the parade every year for the past ten years. My family has never seen me in it, because they don't come. But I always find old friends along the parade route and say "Hi!"
Today my parade entry was to promote the upcoming farmer's market that I'm working on. And since the band backed out, I couldn't talk anyone into helping me on parade day, and I knew I really really REALLY needed to get out there and promote the market, I did it.
And it turned out pretty nice...
I had antiques, flowers, ivey vines, paper flowers, flags, a quilt, and of course pumpkins. All with the ton of hay bales. I wore the biggest cowboy hat I could find, and waved my rake and flag down the street.
My neighborhood (during parade staging) was one that seemed a bit circus-like. There were the Agave Queens, next door:
And the harem behind me:
I think that's Heather on the inside of the tent. Giving me some gang signs.
She posed with me before we took off:
She also walked up the street with me to see the creepy camels:
What a huge parade. It began at 10:00, my float was towards the back so I didn't get moving until 11:40, and we were done with the parade route at 12:30.
Exhausting.
Today my parade entry was to promote the upcoming farmer's market that I'm working on. And since the band backed out, I couldn't talk anyone into helping me on parade day, and I knew I really really REALLY needed to get out there and promote the market, I did it.
And it turned out pretty nice...
I had antiques, flowers, ivey vines, paper flowers, flags, a quilt, and of course pumpkins. All with the ton of hay bales. I wore the biggest cowboy hat I could find, and waved my rake and flag down the street.
My neighborhood (during parade staging) was one that seemed a bit circus-like. There were the Agave Queens, next door:
And the harem behind me:
I think that's Heather on the inside of the tent. Giving me some gang signs.
She posed with me before we took off:
She also walked up the street with me to see the creepy camels:
What a huge parade. It began at 10:00, my float was towards the back so I didn't get moving until 11:40, and we were done with the parade route at 12:30.
Exhausting.
I Saw Someone Die
I almost never see things as they happen. I'm usually caught up in everything else going on around me and I fail to see the moment as it arrives.
Unfortunately I saw something yesterday, and I only saw it because I just happened to be looking in its direction.
When I work at the jet ski races, I don't watch the racers if I'm not scoring them. Yesterday I was walking around taking a survey of the spectators (it's for the Convention & Visitor's Bureau, not just for fun) and as I spoke to someone I gazed toward the nearby water. There was a race going, and I saw two very large jet skis hit each other, very hard. When these guys are racing, they are going 60-70 miles per hour. That's a pretty tough hit to your body, should you be unlucky enough to sustain it.
As I watched the medics pull the hurt rider from the water, I could tell that this was a very, very bad accident. Indeed, it was...he was gone.
His name was Cesare Visrara, an Italian racer who was no stranger to the World Finals that's held here every October. We've had almost thirty years of Jet Ski World Finals on Lake Havasu and there's never been a fatality. It was shocking, to say the least.
I was a bit pensive last night, thinking about how surreal it must be for the guy's family. Maybe they came with him, but most likely they did not. He raced all the time, and to go halfway around the world to see him in yet another race probably wasn't reasonable. So they hear from his teammates over the phone that he went to Arizona and was tragically killed during a race. How does someone deal with that? They're thousands of miles away and they can't even go to him and say their goodbyes.
It makes you think about your loved ones, where they are, and what kind of effort it would take to go to them and make sure they are okay.
Unfortunately I saw something yesterday, and I only saw it because I just happened to be looking in its direction.
When I work at the jet ski races, I don't watch the racers if I'm not scoring them. Yesterday I was walking around taking a survey of the spectators (it's for the Convention & Visitor's Bureau, not just for fun) and as I spoke to someone I gazed toward the nearby water. There was a race going, and I saw two very large jet skis hit each other, very hard. When these guys are racing, they are going 60-70 miles per hour. That's a pretty tough hit to your body, should you be unlucky enough to sustain it.
As I watched the medics pull the hurt rider from the water, I could tell that this was a very, very bad accident. Indeed, it was...he was gone.
His name was Cesare Visrara, an Italian racer who was no stranger to the World Finals that's held here every October. We've had almost thirty years of Jet Ski World Finals on Lake Havasu and there's never been a fatality. It was shocking, to say the least.
I was a bit pensive last night, thinking about how surreal it must be for the guy's family. Maybe they came with him, but most likely they did not. He raced all the time, and to go halfway around the world to see him in yet another race probably wasn't reasonable. So they hear from his teammates over the phone that he went to Arizona and was tragically killed during a race. How does someone deal with that? They're thousands of miles away and they can't even go to him and say their goodbyes.
It makes you think about your loved ones, where they are, and what kind of effort it would take to go to them and make sure they are okay.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Desert Ranch
On Sunday Steve and I took the plane out since the weather finally dropped below a thousand degrees.
He had the excursion planned, with some interesting places to explore. A friend of his owns some acreage out in the middle of nowhere. Literally. We flew there and landed on the dirt runway.
We checked out the cool little cabin hidden under the salt cedar trees:
Oh look the out house has such beautiful lighting!
As this photo snapped Steve joked that it would be a portrait of us in front of our future retirement home:
The salt cedars were enormous, being fed by the ground water of the nearby Bill Williams River.
We also flew to a bump in the road called Vidal Junction, California. Not far from there is the home where Wyatt Earp and his wife Josie lived out their retirement.
I wish we'd have gone there instead! Vidal Junction is the California border, and there's a convenience store nearby. And homeless people. They sure had their world rocked by an airplane landing in their desert. We parked near the sign to a now defunct trailer park and hotel.
Not a lot to photograph there, so we moved on.
Maybe this weekend we'll have more adventures.
He had the excursion planned, with some interesting places to explore. A friend of his owns some acreage out in the middle of nowhere. Literally. We flew there and landed on the dirt runway.
We checked out the cool little cabin hidden under the salt cedar trees:
Oh look the out house has such beautiful lighting!
As this photo snapped Steve joked that it would be a portrait of us in front of our future retirement home:
The salt cedars were enormous, being fed by the ground water of the nearby Bill Williams River.
We also flew to a bump in the road called Vidal Junction, California. Not far from there is the home where Wyatt Earp and his wife Josie lived out their retirement.
I wish we'd have gone there instead! Vidal Junction is the California border, and there's a convenience store nearby. And homeless people. They sure had their world rocked by an airplane landing in their desert. We parked near the sign to a now defunct trailer park and hotel.
Not a lot to photograph there, so we moved on.
Maybe this weekend we'll have more adventures.
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