I'm Now a Spoiled/Lucky/Blessed Six Year Old

Written on 6-28-17.

     It sure is fun to type that date.  It means that I’m still alive, and it also means it’s my “other” birthday again today!  It’s just like Sia when she sings, “I’m still breathing.  I’m still breathing.  I’m still breathing.  I’m still breathing. I’m ALIVE!”

     I’m six years old now, and it’s been a continuous counting of blessings for me.  For example, I celebrated (more than a few times) my real birthday, my 50th birthday, back in January.  It started three months before the actual date with a surprise party at Beau Jo’s Pizza with family and friends and ended in Phoenix with my siblings, my niece Emily (who turned 21 the day before my birthday), and Belinda with an escape room, a professional golf tournament, and 18 holes with Guy at Papago. 

    One of the biggest blessings, by far, this past year was our trip to see James in New Zealand at the end of May and the beginning of June.  We did many touristy things, no doubt, but I can say with confidence that the best moments came when we were all “stuck” together in a Jucy rental car or a small hotel room.  We cherished getting our “Core Four” back together again, possibly for the last time before James or Danielle might possibly start families of their own.  Who knows? 

     Thankfully, we were able to afford to go to New Zealand due to our retirement and our continued work in education.  Belinda found two subbing jobs that were long-term, but also part-time, one of which she subbed for her twin, Amanda.  Amazing!  With the help of Laura Shepardson, I was hired to work for the CORE (Collaborating for Outstanding Readiness in Education), and that job allowed me to much more consistently continue my new passion, helping teachers.

     All is good.  Life is great!  Remaining humble and thankful, I feel like Sia when she sings another song, “I’m unstoppable today!”

Final Thoughts on New Zealand

Written on my iPhone 7 on 6-7-17.

     We are sitting in the Wellington Airport, sans James.  Sigh.  It's the two ladies and me from here on out.  We fly back to Auckland tonight for one last stay at a hotel, and then we fly back to the United States of America tomorrow.  It's difficult to believe that this trip of a lifetime is nearly over.  Soon, it will be back to reality, and that reality is mostly The First Tee.  Until then, however, I still intend to "be" on vacation.  Mostly, I've stayed unplugged from anything that was work related.  I have an e-mail I need to reply to for Brian (last name) for my summer's Time to Teach training, and I need to get things going with Dr. Johnny (last name), too.  It will all happen in good time.

     I had some more New Zealand things to write about, so here I go.  First, everywhere we walked, we were in danger as Americans.  No, not because of Donald Trump, although he is heavy on the minds of New Zealanders, according to a few of the interactions I've had here, and some of the news reports, also.  It's because...

New Zealand Landscaping

     I wanted to write some more about the scenery here.  Imagine gigantic dirt hills.  Not quite mountains, but very large hills.  Now, picture even larger blankets of thick sod with dark green grass.  Now, take the sod and lay it gently over the huge dirt hills, but crinkle it up in many places, so it looks imperfect.  The sod blanket should definitely be wrinkled and crumpled, and it should be in unexpected places sometimes.  When finished with that, choose a crazy variety of trees and place them wherever.  Choose from evergreens, a wide assortment of normal-ish leafy-looking trees, big palm-looking trees, and more than a few freaky symmetrical trees that look just like fake plastic Christmas trees.  Place them everywhere.  Clump trees that look alike together in some places, but mix some of the different trees together in multiple places, too.  

     Now, it's time to make some natural fences.  Plant some of the evergreen type trees in straight lines, very closely packed together, preferably where you would like a fence or a boundary of some sort.  Let the branches grow and entangle tightly together, so closely that it's impossible to see through them.  Shave those trees into enormous hedges that act just like fences.  Make some of them ten feet tall, but make most of them over 20 feet tall.

Throw in a few rusty brown rocks here and there.  A creek is necessary, too.  Or, you can choose a wider river, but not too often.  

     We are almost done.  It's time for the sheep and the cows.  We'll need more sheep than cows.  Put the sheep everywhere.  As I mentioned before, many sheep are on the sides of hills, even extremely steep hills.  Put some in the flat spaces, too, though.  In some places, put hundreds of sheep together.  In other places, put just a dozen or so.  For fun, put just one sheep alone in one area.  There.  That's about it.  You can do the same with the cows, but the ratio should be 3 sheep to 1 cow. We now have the New Zealand landscape.

     The only thing missing is the depressingly gray skies (my opinion as a New Mexican).  It is fall here, but the sun shows up about as often as the cows compared to the sheep.  Every once in a while, let the sun come out to warm things up, but do not let it stay out for more than two hours.  Make sure the sun is also very low in the sky.  It should feel slightly claustrophobic to get it right.  Make it rain or mist for the majority of the day.  The moisture can stop when the sun comes out.  If it is not raining, it should at least be misty or extremely humid and foggy.  

     James has now moved into a nap position on the longer charcoal gray couch, so I have managed to outlast them all.  He is not napping, however; he is looking at videos on his phone.  I am tired, though, so it's time for a break.

Until next time...

Riversdale 'Ritings

Written on 6-4-17.

     I am sitting on the smaller of the two charcoal gray couches in the beach house that belongs to Katy, one of James's co-workers and friends.  She and her husband, Crispy (yes, Crispy), are thinking of renting this place as a VRBO or an AirBnB.  We are the trial "renters."  I broke it in on the second morning when I accidentally burned the carpet upstairs when the iron ran out of water.  I was ironing at the end of our bed, because they do not have an ironing board here, or they do, but we couldn't find it.  The iron burned my shirt sleeve, so I goofily set it down on the carpet where it immediately made a perfectly shaped burnt imprint of the bottom of the iron at the foot of the bed, a permanent one.  Yikes!  So sorry, Katy and Crispy.

     James, Danielle, and Belinda are watching The Office on my laptop, so I am actually using my iPad Mini and my wireless keyboard to type this.  We are all sitting upstairs where it's much...