Is it cold in New Mexico?

Si, Senor!

Quincy took this picture of a frozen fountain yesterday morning. It is so cold that the afternoons are only getting into the high 50s.

This weekend was also the Mesilla Valley Balloon Rally. Although once ballooning seemed like a cool thing to do, I have had second thoughts about the advisability of hanging in a flammable wicker basket a couple hundred feet in the cold, cold air with a large propane burner over your head...

Age of Majority

Jake turns 18 today.
Seems hard to believe.
He is ready to fledge and is a good enough person to care that I am not quite as ready.

As he is now an adult, I wonder if this means that the school will stop calling me to tell me that Jake missed school on days when I signed a paper saying he would be gone...???

My German!

Ack-Electronics. *pokes cord thingie. Is that red light supposed to be blinking??? Computer blows up in face. runs away and hides. I swear I didn't do anything!!!!!! The computer hates me, it wasn't my fault!!!!! Honest!!!!!! I just hit the button that says do not push!!!!!!!*
Anyways...as you can probally guess this is my first post and.......well yeah........
Claire came over from Germany at the end of October. She got here in time for the wonderful holiday of Halloween. I made cosumes for us, witches, and we went to a halloween party.
We had lots of fun, going to Santa Fe and learning how to make drums, watching soccer and just generally having a good time.
She left two days before Pirates opened, so she didn't get to see the show.
I am going to Germany in May and will spend about three weeks with Claire, and a week in Berlin. Fun!

Highlights of 2007

So long, 2007. You were a good year, with some goals retired and new ones made. Family, travel, and new friends were the big hits of 2007.

Goals retired
Kids hit number 50! Beautiful trip to the Canadian Rockies included a trip across BC to Prince Rupert, where we caught the ferry to Ketchikan. We spent a few days hiking, birding, and touring and left with the resolution to see more of Alaska. Kids have now been to all 50 states!

Jake and Mel hit 9,000! After living in the shadow of our beautiful Organs for 17 years, two of us got to the top on a grand day for hiking. (Top of the Organs is about 9000 feet.)

Continuing stories
Stu brews excellent brew! Highlights of the year were the Scotch ale (rich and smoky) and chicha in addition to the usual favorites of porter, bock, IPA, etc. The beer book continues.

LCHS Dawg Soccer wins state! Jacob’s swimming times are dropping. He works hard at 6 am practices and hopes to swim in college next year.

Stu got recertified as a high school soccer referee, thus answering, at least in part, just how do parents avoid soccer withdraw after their kids age out of local soccer opportunities?

New endeavors
Quincy makes her LCHS acting debut (as a drunkard and a woman who reads too much...) in the Crucible in March. In November, she was the Technical Director for Pirates of Penzance.

Jake applies to colleges; gets his first college acceptance and merit scholarship!

Claire Fiedler visits from Germany: includes visit to Cochiti Pueblo where we watched Mel’s friend Sam Suina make drums (see slideshow at http://santeros.nmsu.edu/folkart/index.html).

Other highlights: We host Aaron Long, a high school student for a couple weeks or so over the summer. Mel’s promotion comes through; she now works at NMSU as the Special Assistant to the Vice President for Student Success.

Kids and academics: Jacob started a tutoring program for high school students to work with elementary students through the LCHS Honor Society. Up to 10 students have participated. Both kids anticipate good grades for the end of the semester.

Texas City Anchor

(Last post on Galveston, I promise.)

This anchor is a reminder of the Texas City Disaster in 1947 in which 576 (or 567, or some other number, depending on the source) people were killed in a pair of explosions at the docks.

The Grandcamp caught fire on April 16 at the dock. It was carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer: think Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, but the explosives were in a ship instead of a dinky little rental truck. The Grandcamp also carried fuel, adding more fuel to the fire.

After burning for long enough for fire fighters to respond and townsfolk to come watch, The Grandcamp exploded killing somewhere between 500 and 600 people. Early response was complicated by a phone operator strike, but within a couple hours, surrounding areas had all sent response teams.

The explosion registered seismographically as far away as Denver and blew out windows 40 miles north in Houston. The explosion carried a tugboat 100 feet inland. The resultant tsunami was 15 feet high and flooded the surrounding area.

Of course, the Grandcamp was not the only ship in port, and another nearby ship was also carrying fertilizer, sulphur, and, presumably, fuel. Efforts to steer it away from the Grandcamp were futile, and it exploded early the next day.

There are 2 stories about anchors: in one, a 5-ton anchor was found buried in the ground a half mile from the explosion. In another, a 1.5 ton anchor was found two miles away. The one in the photo above is located in Anchor Park at the base of the Texas City Dike.

This web site has amazing photographs and more of the story:
http://www.texascity-library.org/TCDisasterExhibit/index.html

Galveston retrospect

Other Galveston highlights:

• Round of golf with Jay, Stu, Quincy, and Jacob
  
• Beach trips with the extraordinary Sadie
  
• Visit to Saint Arnold, a local place of worship near Jay and Donna's Houston home (http://www.saintarnold.com/)
  
• Excellent time with nice people – good things to talk about, see, do, eat, drink
  

My favorite, though, had to be the shared meal around Jay and Donna's very large table with family and neighbors. Jay started the meal with the grace that I grew up listening to my grandfather, uncle, and father deliver before family meals. It was a special moment.

Thanks, Mitchells. We had a memorable time.

Loggerheads: Not learning animals!

This is no ordinary loggerhead -- it is a research loggerhead.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains a sea turtle facility in Galveston where they raise turtles for testing in turtle exclusion devices. These devices are escape hatches for fish and turtles caught in shrimp nets. As new designs for TEDs are developed, they are tested by turtles rasied at this facility.

At the lab, the staff emphasizes that turtles are not learning animals. Does this have implications for their ability to do research??

Travel time: Galveston, 12/28

Good birding in Galveston!

Highlights included a Pacific loon, crested caracara, and lots of waterbirds: roseate spoonbills (pink birds in photo), tri-colored herons, stilts, oystercatchers, little blue herons, ibis (second bird from left, above), in addition to various peeps, gulls, and grebes.

And excellent views of dolphins from the ferry between Galveston and Bolivar (longest ferry crossing in Texas!). The Ferry was also where we encountered the security guard who recited his poetry to us. Love local color in all its forms...

Travel time: Galveston, 12/27

We did eventually make it to Galveston and the Mitchell home there (photo was taken on 12/31, right before we left; Jimmy is missing).

Jake and Quincy met second cousins Emily, Alaina, Jimmy, and the ever-delightful Noah. Jay and Donna were charming hosts (and the lack of heat — not that much of a problem…).

More on Galveston tomorrow.

Travel time: Shiner

Shiner must be historic -- the plaque says so!

No real cigar factory here, but a cute little central Texas town.

Travel time: Shiner, Texas, 12/27

Shiner, Texas: Home of the Spoetzl Brewery, maker of Shiner Bock Beer.

We toured this facility and got free samples. Love these brewery tours.

By chance, we were there on the same day the Rabbi certified the brewery as kosher. Stu talked with him and the Brewer as Melody sampled. Jake drove the rest of the way to Houston...

Travel time: San Antonio, 12/26

Is this great art, or what?

We caught this one on the way to browse the River Walk (12/26), on Day One of our Las Cruces to Galveston tour.

I do love the Walk -- all downtowns should have such an area. But I would love to know if it is it actually possible to have a good meal on the River Walk.

I am 0 for 3. Maybe 1 for 3, but the 1 was too long ago to recall.

Maybe there is good catfish someplace?

Travel time: San Antonio

Gotta love this one. Wouldn't you just love the meat from this place?

Sorry about the line across the photo. Stu spotted this one as we were leaving the hotel in San Antonio.