I Hate Boxes

The move is over. The unpacking has begun. The cable guy actually came on time, and was incredibly helpful and efficient. Hence the connectivity. I think I drank about two liters of water a day for the last five days. Interestingly, it just seemed to seep right out of the bottle and out my shirt. I'm very, very glad it was only in the mid to upper 90s during the move. That may sound insane, but it could have easily been 110+ for the entire week.

The new apartment complex folk have been very accommodating. No pun intended. They installed a ceiling fan in our office (which for normal people would be the second bedroom) for free, they've removed (and will be removing) doors for which we have no use, and were even an integral part of the efficiency of our cable installation today. He needed authorization to drill through a wall, and had it in under five minutes. Awesome.

So... we're here, we're finding places for everything, and the clock is counting down for the next move. (No, I'm not kidding.) I think we should just get an RV, so all our crap could move with us all the time, even when we go get groceries and stuff.

Alanis Would Call It Ironic

Day one of our long-awaited move has come. We rented a U-Haul truck, which got upgraded to the 14' model. (Yes, brother and dad, I was driving a 14' diesel automatic. Oh, the jackrabbit acceleration!) There were a couple things bad about the truck itself. The lack of acceleration was fine, since I really didn't want all of our stuff pinned against the rear door of the truck. The part about having to push the brake pedal all the way to the floor in order to slow down and eventually stop? Yeah, that's a little bad. Oh, and the air conditioner wasn't working. In Tucson. In the summer. That wasn't as bad as it could have been, since it only got up to about 98 today. I say "only" because that's about ten degrees cooler than yesterday. I'll take it.

As for the "Alanis" thing... it has not rained for any significant amount of time here since August. In that time frame there have been three or four intermittent showers lasting anywhere from 5-10 minutes, but it barely made the ground damp. That being said, would you care to guess what happened today? Today, the day we're moving our belongings from one place to another by carrying them outside? Yep. Rained. For about an hour. It was during the rain that I learned something else about the rental truck: the wipers sucked. All they did was smudge. (Yes, brother and dad, I was driving a 14' diesel automatic with limited visibility, no A/C, and lousy brakes! Woohoo!)

We moved a large quantity of things. We're quite tired, and will be very sore tomorrow. But that's part of the fun of moving!

Discovery

Not the channel.

And Another Thing

There were only a few places along the canyon that had railings. I hesitate to call them "safety railings" because a twenty foot walk in either direction negates whatever "safety" it may have had. As an undertall person, I have visions of death whenever I get on a stepladder. However, I can stand precariously close to the edge of a breathtaking canyon without giving it a second thought. I guess it's far easier for me to picture falling off of a ladder than falling a few hundred feet or more. I suppose if I thought about it, I'd just stand at the edge of the canyon and cry like a little girl. Luckily, years of government work have provided me with a high degree of cognitive dissonance.

For The Curious

Yeah, they're still looking. I guess they wanted to see our vacation pictures.

OH, and for my governmental fans, please read this news story, and then by all means continue to tell me that it's OK for government employees to surf websites while at work. Please.

A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty...

"Hi-Yo Tungsten!"
Or not. What the hell do I know about horses? Apart from a ride on Sunshine the pony back when I was... four? (Help me out, parents!)... My experience with horses have pretty much been summed up as: "What's that smell?" Yet as a part of our trip to Bryce we chose to go on a horse ride through Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest. Not just any old horse ride, but a four hour trip in 95-ish degree weather in the afternoon. Sunblock? Yep. With a trowel. But I still got a bit of a burn, and a nifty pale watch-shaped patch on my wrist. The scenery, however, was out of this world. By that I mean that it really did feel as if we were on another planet. I learned that the horse knew exactly what she was doing and where to go, so that enabled me to hold the reins with one hand and take pictures with the other. Yes, I was taking pictures from the back of a moving horse. Through more luck than skill, they came out clearly. (You better believe I was surprised!)

The guy on the horse is not me, obviously. That was one of our trail guides. I call him "Tex" for two reasons. First and foremost is that I have no idea what his actual name is, and second calling him "Utie" is just too weird. I just liked the shot, because it showed him in action and showed off how good my saddle-based camera work is. I'd consider it as a career, except my ass would never forgive me. And I ain't talking donkeys.

Volcano, Wukoki, 118 degrees

Those are three things we experienced today. The first was the Sunset Crater Volcano. I never thought I'd see a volcano, but then again I never thought I'd live in Arizona. The wupatki wukoki was a few miles away from the volcano, and it was inside the wukoki I took this nifty shot:

Since Sam (or someone) will ask, I've already sized it for desktop goodness.

As for the 118 degrees... that was noted in Flagstaff when we stopped for gas. Luckily, it was not quite so unseasonably warm here when we returned.

In any event, we're home. We're tired. There will be a few pics posted, but I've got to go through a few hundred and find the really, really good ones. (Not an easy job.) (You know you went on a good vacation when you can say that you took 100 pictures each day and can honestly say you didn't get it all. Or even come close.) Deb will go through her shots as well, so prepare yourself for full-color rocky goodness.

Inside Joke

This one's for the family. For the rest of you, pictures will follow as soon as we're home.

We went horseback riding on the 2nd. A four hour ride at the bottom of Red Canyon in the afternoon. (Yes, it was hot.) My horse's name was "Patricia." All she wanted to do was eat and not walk around. Luckily, the reins worked so she did what I wanted. Though she did keep glaring at me. Funny!

OK, on the road again. More pics later!