uh... May already?

Not keeping up well with the blogging these days.

But it is May. NMSU classes ended Friday, Quincy will take AP exams this week and next, and Jake arrives home in about 10 days. Stu is done teaching for the semester and has a busy summer planned.

This dealing with adult children thing is harder than it looks. Quincy asserts her independence, we push for standards. The car, after all, should not attract more flies than the dump in July. Jacob loves college, but still calls when he needs a sounding board for a paper, statistical methods, or politics. Perhaps our value is in our consistency of availability, values, opinions. But there is a fluctuating and faint line between too much and too little, and by the time we get it figured out, the landscape has shifted again.

This spring has seen a number of health challenges to friends, family, and colleagues. I don't think the season has been any worse than usual; rather, our community ties get tighter every year as we discover that people we know are family to others we know. Las Cruces is not a small town, but it seems that way often.

Spring has come to the Mesilla Valley: highs are in the 90s next week and the spring winds have been not too bad this year. Typically I have about a 20 mph tailwind pushing me up the big hill at the end of the day. I am now at 10 months of biking to work daily, and the hill gets easier in infinitessmially smaller increments.

April already?

Jake is back in Willamette but planning for a summer in Las Cruces. Quincy has already traveled on the band trip, so I guess it must be near the end of the school year. Wow.

What I've missed: Stu, Jake, and I marched in the Bataan Memorial March again this year and recovered relatively quickly. Might even do the Organ hike this weekend.

Quincy turned 17. I completed another Ursus issue. Work has been crazy busy for us all.

The sharp-shinned hawk brunched on the white-winged dove yesterday morning outside the north end of the house, as sparrows danced around. Were they confident that they were too small to be on interest, or that the hawk was not interested in a lagniappe?

Jake home for Spring Break

Most excellent to have Jacob home for a week!

He had a late night flight Friday and will be here until after the Bataan Death March next Sunday. Concert today, Spring Break at NMSU next week, and I plan some annual leave to compensate for no vacation.

Lots to do around the house!

A springtime Midsummer

LCHS finished its production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last night to a standing ovation from an audience of about 250. Quincy played Starvling (she is pretty skinny) and looked like a very comely boy. I also saw the production on opening night, and the cast really grew in comfort with every production. Stu and Quin also helped with the set.

I ordered mass quantities of red chile for when Jake comes home for spring break. Will spend a day making mole, a favorite of Jacob's.

Jake says he is learning a lot at Willamette. For example, after the swim season finished, his swim team formed an intermural basketball team, and Jake says he has learned just how well swimmers play basketball. (Especially him: not so well!) Classes are going well for him this semester and he will come home on March 20 for a week. Quin and NMSU have Spring Break at the same time, and I hope to also take time off.

Stu, Jake, and I are also all getting ready for the Bataan Memorial March on March 29. This will be our second year. We will have our greatest success when we persuade the Q to do it with us.

Walking by dung heaps on a snowy morning

Dung heaps, about a mile from my parent's home in Delaware. Steam is coming off this one from the exothermic decomposition process.

I am visiting again, which means more snow in Delaware. I now really want to visit in June to see if I really can make it snow every time I visit. Cool!

The night and day after I took this, it snowed about 10 inches more. I would have enjoyed it more if I was not trying to make a plane out that day to come home. Didn't make the plane, or home, but got to spend the night in the luxurious Sleep Inn accommodations at the Dallas airport. Beat the hell out of airport chairs...

Mom has much more energy that she did during my December visit and seems to be improving. She will start radiation therapy the week of March 17, which will, we hope, eliminate an annoying and persistent spot she on her lung that was found in September.

Dad and Kent are both well.



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Getting ready for solo and ensemble.

I was instructed: No pictures!

Quincy was in Solo and Ensemble at LCHS today. She played a brief (intentionally) solo unaccompanied (unintentionally; her accompanist could not make it at the last minute). She has not checked her score and, I suspect, will not do so. The young man in the striped shirt is Chris, a friend of Quincy's.

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Hiking the Boyd

Gorgeous morning for a hike. We started out a little after 9 and were at the saddle just south of the Boyd about 10:30. Then the weather started to change -- temperature dropped, wind started kicking up, and we watched the weather roll in from the west. Hike home was much easier and we made it before the rain passed us over. (it is raining not as I write this)

Hikers were Miley, Phillip, Annie (black spot Phillip has his hand on), Stu, Belle, and Rosie off to the right. This is a Bataan prep hike -- Only about 6 weeks from Bataan! Must get registered soon and see if we will hike with 2 or 3 this year.

Other news: Jake has started his semester well, Q is working hard here. Stu will travel to see Jake swim next week in Seattle for conference swim -- he has been instructed to bring back crab. I am heading to Delaware at the end of the month to visit the parents. Will bring back crab? Not exactly the same thing.

I am 7.5 months into my year cycling challenge. The ride home feels easier all the time, and I am learning to avoid the places where tire-shredding glass lives. I made it through the worst of the cold and the shortest days, but the windy times lie ahead!

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