The George from the Lincoln

Night in DC. Thunder overhead and a choir singing by the reflection pool. Because if you are here in DC with a choir, why wouldn't you sing?
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Beautiful days in DC

We have had beautiful weather for touring DC -- yesterday we spent most of the day on bikes with the fattest tires in the world (picture below), following around NPS rangers on a tour of forgotten landmarks in DC. The Grant statue (above) is not so much forgotten, but it was good to be reminded that Grant gazes at Lincoln, his commander in chief (and beyond to the Lee estate in Virginia, confiscated to create Arlington National Cemetery). Quincy elected to not join us but did laundry. (Any advice?)

Also spent time at the Eastern Market and just cycling around the city. DC is a great city for biking.

Today we visit Ford's Theater and the Supreme Court. We also hope to hit Mount Vernon, the Newseum, and other highlights of geekdom.

Biking here and everywhere

Bikers and shoes at Las Cruces' Bike to Work. Oddly enough, what we all had in common was that we were not at work. My feet are in there somewhere.

From the carbon footprint calculator at the Nature Conservancy, I have saved about 6600 pounds of carbon dioxide in my nearly year of biking. I aim to give up breathing soon to try to further reduce my carbon footprint.

Great horned owl at Home Depot.

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Mystery of the yoyos

Dozens of glow-in-the-dark yoyos (or parts thereof) litter the side of the road on the way into town. Branded as Lockheed Martin. What's up with that?

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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?