Whenever we leave town for more than a couple
of days, I forward the calls from the home phone to my cell phone. The home phone is the number that the
majority of my customers know so if I get work calls I can deal with them in a
timely manner. This morning I got a call
about work…at 6:45 a.m.! This person
didn’t know that I was a couple of time zones to the west so the earliness of
the call is understandable. It was 9:45
back home and that’s a totally respectable time to call someone. I think we made plans to connect when I get
home…I crawled back into bed and slept until 9. 😴
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StellarVision is a business in Tucson that deals with all things
astronomy. Frank, the owner, doesn’t
keep a typical 9 to 5, 5 days a week schedule.
Because of that, it’s best to call in advance and see when he’ll be in…and
Kim has learned even that’s no guarantee.
Yesterday Kim called and made plans to stop in today as he needed a guiding
shoe for one of the scopes he brought with him. He was able to resolve his
guiding issue for his scope and he’s ready for clear starry skies tonight. It’s been breezy today but I don’t think that
will impact him as he’s set up in a somewhat protected area.
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I realized today that the level of difficulty
can be changed on the Kindle version of Scrabble. I’ve been playing on the ‘Beginner’ level. I’ve won every game and sometimes the
computer presents a challenging game but not often. I bumped it up to the ‘Intermediate’ level to
see the difference. It is more challenging but then I’m seeing
more words that make me turn to the dictionary, too. 😒 The
word of the day is suete. It’s
anybody’s guess as to how to pronounce it or what it means as I have not been
able to find any definition of the word.
In fact the Scrabble dictionary website says “suete” was not found in any Scrabble word list. Based on that, the playing field isn’t level
because every word I know is a word because it has a definition…I can’t
play what I don’t know and the computer won't let me play my made up words. But like any
glutton for punishment, I keep playing. 😏 So far on the Intermediate level I’ve lost
one and won one.
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As
soon as Kim declared his intent to go to Tucson today and asked if I wanted to
come along, I declined. He had other
stops to make besides StellarVision and figured he’d be gone 3 to 4 hours. It was sunny, the temperature was heading
toward 70 and I knew it was going to be my opportunity to get a ride in
today. Kim left around 11; I sat
watching the birds until noon-ish to let the day warm up a bit more. After lunch, I changed into my riding clothes…which
meant exchanging the shorts and sandals for jeans and boots. Thought about my options, then called Kim to
let him know I was heading out to the Tohono O’odham Reservation to ride. I saw myself cruising down IR 15 enjoying the
sun in my face, taking my time to look at the landscape, and stopping to take
pictures whenever I wanted. Which is
exactly what happened. I rode…I looked…I
stopped and took pictures. Kim is always
agreeable to stopping and picture taking but sometimes the photo op presents
itself quickly and I want to act on it at that moment…those times are just
easier when I’m by myself.
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Indian Route 15 has an incredible amount of memorials along the road. I’ve
been told that each of these memorials marks a spot where a traffic death
occurred. Most are very ornate but lack much in the way of identification except
maybe a title…sister, daughter, brother…and occasionally a first name. Since all memorials differ in the amount of
care and upkeep, I assume it’s family that maintains the memorial and not the
tribe. Today I stopped at one I had seen
the other day and was curious about. I
would describe it as being the size of a one person bus stop shelter. It had a
headstone propped in front of it, although that was a detail I couldn’t
distinguish when riding past at 55 mph.
The headstone has a name and dates…the man, Robert Juan, was born in
April 1953 and died in December 1979. He
was 26 at the time…it’s been over 38 years since his death and the memorial is still
very well maintained. The current
caretaker may not have ever met this young man but I wonder if the Indian
tradition of storytelling has kept his memory alive all these years. Someone still remembers and cares based on
the condition of the memorial. 
It
was windy today and the dust devils were numerous and flying high. The horizon all through the reservation had
columns of dirt rising up and twisting around. They would dance across the landscape
and then dissipate about as fast as they started. Fun to watch.
At first I thought I was seeing dust from a tractor out in the field but
I stopped to watch several in one area and realized that there’s a difference
between tractor dust and a dust devil.
Hard to explain…just one of those ‘you
had to be there’ situations. Thankfully the blowing dust was at a distance…only
once on the way back did the dust blow across the road at me but since there
was no sandblasting involved, I considered it minor. On the way out, I stayed on roads I knew…however,
I did a bit of exploration on my way back.
I recognized the name of a crossroad and hoped that it would take me
over I-10 to the Casa Grande-Picacho Highway.
It did and I cruised on back to camp on our regular route from Eloy. Kim was already at camp when I arrived.
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Someone is leaving painted rocks around camp. One appeared on top of the
hand dryer in the bathroom several days ago.
Then today I noticed another one in the dirt near where I do my bird
watching. A couple of kids walked by and
I waited to see if they noticed it. Nope. This one had a sparkly rainbow (at least it looks rainbow-ish to me) painted on it and I thought it would be a nice addition to the rocks on my
window sill at home. But to be fair I wanted to give a child the opportunity to
snag it first, so I moved it to a spot where I thought it would be better
noticed and maybe find a new home in a kid’s pocket. When I got back from my ride it was still in
that same spot. I went to the office and
mentioned the appearance of the painted rocks and right away the camper worker
behind the desk said with a bit of exasperation, “I don’t know who is doing that….I found one in the bathroom and
just don’t know what to make of it.”
I told her that I had found one in the dirt and had moved it so it could
be found. I went on to say that it hadn’t
been taken and asked if it would be okay if I took it. The camper worker’s response was “I don’t know what the purpose is so I’ve
been just leaving them alone but if you find one that you want, by all means,
take it.” She actually acted like
those painted rocks were a nuisance…I view them as someone’s attempt to spread
a little cheer. I shall gratefully take
my little bit of cheer home with me and put it on my window sill. And I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more as
I wander around camp. 😊
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We
didn’t take a bicycle ride today. I don’t
know Kim’s reason but I formulated my excuse on my way back to camp. The wind…I simply didn’t want to fight the
wind with pedal power only. Makes me
seem like a fair weather cyclist. Oh, well....😐
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Bike miles today: 114
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