Elections and eclipses

Thought I'd just post quickly about this week's special day -- Tuesday, which was both Election Day and the Transit of Venus.

I love Election Day, every Election Day. I always vote in person (I would hate to live somewhere where I had to mail in my ballot), and I always vote manually, with a pen (don't trust those electronic voting machines, nosirreebob). For this election, Rocket Boy and I had stupidly, idiotically, forgotten to re-register at our new address -- I don't know how we let that get by us, I really don't. Having four-year-old twins cannot be used as an excuse forever. And for a while I wasn't going to vote, because I thought it would be illegal. But then I found some convoluted statements on various election websites that indicated that you really could still vote, even if you'd moved. Also, moving didn't change a single thing about our registration -- we're still in the same congressional district, same everything district. All of Ridgecrest is in the same everything district. So I voted. And emerged from the polling place with my heart singing a happy song.

But in about a month we are DEFINITELY going to re-register, just so there is not a shred of confusion for the fall election.

The Transit of Venus was to become visible around 3:30 here, and I wish I'd gone right over to the Maturango Museum then, so that I could have seen the blobby dot that Venus makes when it crosses over onto the sun. But I didn't know about that yet, so I didn't go until 5 pm, when Rocket Boy got off work and picked up the twins from daycare. Then we all drove over there. The museum has a little observatory, but also several members of the local astronomy club had set up telescopes, so there were plenty of chances for everyone to view the Transit.

Amusingly, Rocket Boy and I realized that we knew at least half the people there -- all the liberals in town had come out for the viewing. Later on there were people we didn't know, looked like most of a Boy Scout troop and all that, but still.

We had a very hard time getting the boos to look through a telescope, even though they do know what Venus is. Or sort of. They've been finding Venus in the night sky since they could barely talk. "Venee" was a very early word for them. But it was really hard to explain that the star-like thing they know and love was now a black dot crawling across the surface of the sun during the daytime. So instead they ran away and played in the museum garden, which is very attractive.

After a while we decided to go eat dinner, so we went to the China Lake buffet, which is not too far away. After eating we returned, and looked through the telescopes (or didn't, in the boos' case) some more.

Of course I didn't bring my camera -- it didn't occur to me that this would be a photo op. But I have some photos taken in the museum garden about a month ago. Here are the boos (a month ago) running through the museum's labyrinth (and sorry about the smears on all the photos -- the lens has been cleaned since that day):

A little friend of theirs from daycare showed up with his grandpa, and he didn't want to look through the telescopes either, so the three little boys ran the labyrinth together. It wasn't 105 degrees, we'd had a cooling trend, but it was at least 85, and still they ran. Ran and ran and ran. Oh to be four, with boundless energy. Here's the museum garden bell, which they and other children rang obsessively:

Finally their little friend's grandpa insisted that he come look through a telescope, and of course then boos wanted to do it too. So they all looked through telescopes, again and again, until we finally got tired of it all and took them home and put them to bed.

And then of course we had the election results to obsess over, and that's always fun, though we were disappointed about what happened in Wisconsin, and as for our local elections... well, what can I say? Ridgecrest is Red. The hotly contested race was for County Supervisor -- and don't ask me what a county supervisor does, but somehow it's very important to us out here in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, 8 people were running. My guy came in 3rd and Rocket Boy's guy came in 5th, but only the top 2 move on to the fall election, so, oh well. Even more locally, Ridgecrest voted for term limits, which means all but one of the city councilmembers will have to leave at the end of their current terms. That'll be an interesting shake-up, though I'm not sure we'll still be here to witness it. Ridgecrest also voted itself a much-needed tax increase, so that's a good thing.

Anyway, it was a lovely day.

Chimney Creek, Part 2

Here I am, back for the rest of the story of our first family camping trip.

Breakfast was a simple meal, because we had decided in advance that we didn't want to make another fire. So I had a single-serve container of Cheerios for each of us (Honey-Nut for boos), and to go with them, a container of Rice Milk (doesn't have to be refrigerated), blueberries, and grocery store mini muffins. Rocket Boy and I missed having a strong cup of tea, so I think next time we'll have a morning fire. But this was OK.

I remember camping trips when I was a kid, and morning was always a stressful time. I'm not a morning person anyway, so everything that seemed charming the night before was just unpleasant come morning: those "smelly bathrooms," getting dressed in a tent, it's always cold and there's always a bug where there shouldn't be a bug, sitting at a scratchy picnic table worrying that a spider might be crawling on your leg, and on and on.

But on this trip I felt fine in the morning. I was pleased to have survived the night, I wasn't worried about the simple breakfast, those smelly bathrooms are always less scary in the daytime, and I knew we would be going home soon. I think I may even have felt a flicker of relaxation, which I hardly thought was possible around my children.

After breakfast we took a short hike up above our campsite, just exploring the area a little more. We saw both cactus and wildflowers -- even a flowering cactus!

After a bit, I went back to the campsite and Baby B followed me, while Baby A stayed with Daddy. As I sat at the picnic table, I noticed a very large yellow butterfly fluttering around. Then it perched on a tree, probably to warm up in the sun. "Do you see that butterfly?" I asked Baby B. He did, and soon Baby A came back and he saw it too. I took a picture of it with my zoom lens:

Couldn't identify it until we got home (MUST bring bird, butterfly, flower, tree, and other such identification books next time!), but when I was able to look it up, I discovered that it was a lovely Western Tiger Swallowtail.

All the time we were messing around our campsite, we kept looking down to see what was happening at the campsite below us, where the Pacific Crest Trail people were. (We didn't speak to them, but that was obviously where they'd come from -- for one thing, they didn't have a car.) They were very quiet, as people are supposed to be in the wilderness, and in contrast to our two EXTREMELY LOUD little boos. They didn't make a fire -- my understanding is that ultralight backpackers often don't.  Another PCT-er appeared from nowhere and was chatting with them ("How was your hike yesterday?" etc.).

I was so jealous. Ever since I first heard about the three long-distance trails in the U.S. (the PCT, the Appalachian Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail) I have wanted to do them -- one, two, or all three. It takes 4-6 months to do one of these trails -- and that's if you're in good shape, unlike me, and have all the right equipment, time, stamina, mental energy, etc. I could no more do one of these trails than I could fly to the moon using my arms as wings. But it's still a dream -- not a bucket list item, because that implies that I think I could actually do it -- just a dream.

Then it was time to clean up, pack up, and move on out, and once again Rocket Boy had to do most of the work (though I did pack up small items and roll sleeping bags, etc.). In a few years Baby A is going to be a huge help to him -- he would so love to do everything Daddy does -- but he's just not strong enough, big enough, or careful enough to be of much assistance yet. So Rocket Boy worked and worked, but it all got done. Here's the campsite with nothing left of the tents but one crummy, made-in-China ground cloth, and Baby A, wishing he could help fold it up.

So off we drove back to Ridgecrest -- I think it must have been around 10 am or so. The sky, which had been a very pretty blue the day before, was brown and smoggy looking. Out here that means one of two things: dust from the Owens Valley (but it hadn't been windy) or a fire. When we got home we learned about the George Fire that had started the day before in Sequoia National Forest, and I think that's what the brown air was from.

The road was pretty deserted, and it's pretty rocky, so we took it slow, always watching for wildlife. Then suddenly up ahead there was a big stick in the road -- except it wasn't a stick. "It's a snake!" I said, and then "it must be dead."

"It's not dead," Rocket Boy said, stopping the car and going out to have a look. And then I saw the snake raise its head. Sure enough, it wasn't dead. It was, however, in the middle of the road (sunning itself, waking up after the chilly night), and the next car that came along would run it over and break its spine. Thus we had to get it out of the road. But how to do that?

Rocket Boy found a couple of actual sticks (as opposed to snakes) by the road, but they weren't very long. "It's a rattlesnake," he said, coming back to the car for a moment, "but I don't see the rattle."

A rattlesnake without a rattle? But even without a rattle, it was rattling. Also, as Rocket Boy said, it hissed so much it sounded like a vacuum cleaner. Carefully, Rocket Boy waved his short sticks at it, and threw handfuls of pine needles at it. The snake reared up and tried to strike. Dancing away, RB threw more needles and one of the sticks at it. Slowly, reluctantly, the snake moved off the road.

When we got home I looked up "rattle-less rattlesnakes" on the web and found out that the snake wasn't a rattlesnake at all, it was a gopher snake (I thought the head didn't look right). Apparently gopher snakes try to imitate rattlers and are often killed for their trouble. We, of course, had been trying to SAVE the snake, regardless of its nature, but anyway, it's nice to know that Rocket Boy wasn't in any danger.

When we finally got home it was only about 11:30, but we were all so tired it might just as well have been 11:30 pm. After carrying in some of the stuff, Rocket Boy announced that he was going to take a shower, and the boys decided to go in with him. That's when we discovered that Baby A had a tick, firmly adhered to his right upper back.

Ticks, I know, should be removed As Soon As Possible, so I went running for the tweezers. But Baby A associates tweezers with splinter removal, so he ran away from me, "No! No!" We decided that he could have his shower first, and maybe the tick would be easier to get out when it was wet. (Not sure that was the right decision, but anyway...) When Baby A came out of the shower he'd calmed down a bit, and I was able to get the entire tick out with the first grab of the tweezers. It wasn't engorged with blood yet, but it was still alive (!) and wiggling, so I immediately flushed it down the toilet.

Later I read online that I should have saved the darn thing for identification and even testing, to see if it was carrying any horrible diseases. Next time, next time. From the photos on the web I have decided that it was a male Western Black Legged Tick, which is bad, because they carry Lyme Disease, but the fact that it wasn't engorged yet is good, because they usually inject their bad diseases at the end of a meal. Anyway, we rubbed the wound with alcohol and put a bandaid on it, and we'll watch it -- and Baby A -- for signs of problems. Sigh.

What a camping trip! Rocket Boy and I agree -- despite everything, it was a lot of fun and we are definitely going to do it again. Soon!

Chimney Creek campground

When Rocket Boy and I got married, nearly 10 years ago, we received some camping gear as wedding presents: pads to put under sleeping bags, a camping first aid kit, plastic wineglasses, etc. And then we never did any camping! I wanted to, but RB (who has camped all his life) didn't, so we didn't.

One more way in which having children changes EVERYTHING. A week or two ago, Rocket Boy suddenly decided it was time to start camping with the kids. I was delighted at the idea, so we started planning. We bought a kids' size sleeping bag from the local outdoors shop, we researched local campgrounds. We thought about digging through our camping gear, but didn't. We decided that our first camping trip would be Saturday, June 2, and it would consist of one night spent at a campground fairly close to home.

Saturday morning (of course, of course) found us frantically combing the garage for our camping equipment, much of which did not surface. It may be in Boulder, it may be in a box we haven't opened yet. Who knows? Among the things we didn't find were those two nice wedding present pads and both of RB's camping stoves. But we did find 2 tents and 3 adult size sleeping bags (which was fortunate since the outdoors shop didn't have another kids' size sleeping bag -- they have to order it) and various other items. We threw whatever we could find into the back of Rocket Boy's Ford Escape, bought some VERY simple food, added a bag of charcoal and a couple of gallons of water, and we were off.

We drove first to the Walker Pass campground, which is only about 25 miles from here.

I should have mentioned that it was beastly hot in Ridgecrest on Saturday, something like 105 when we left the house around 3 pm. It was cooler at Walker Pass campground (note: the pass itself is called Walker's Pass -- don't know why the campground loses the apostrophe-s), but not THAT cool, and there's very little shade. Plus, to our surprise, most of the campsites were occupied. We walked around them and talked to a guy sitting at one picnic table -- and he explained what was up. Walker Pass campground is pretty much right on the Pacific Crest Trail (you know, the trail that goes from Mexico to Canada?), and hikers often stop at the campground just to take a few hours break. The man we talked to was about to start hiking again, so he said we could have his campsite. But we were concerned about how many people might be staying the night, and how noisy the twins are. We decided to keep going, into the Chimney Peak Recreation Area.

We didn't go all the way to Kennedy Meadows, which is famous as a Ridgecrestian refuge from the heat. Instead we went to the Chimney Creek campground at 5700 ft elevation, which (like Walker Pass) is managed by the BLM, is free, and has no water. Unlike Walker Pass campground, it is very out of the way (though still only about 40 miles from our house).

By the time we got to Chimney Creek, it was after 5 pm, so we needed to get busy and choose a campsite. We had our pick -- none of the 9 sites we could find was occupied (the campground supposedly has 32 campsites, but I don't know where the other 23 were hiding). First we chose a big campsite, high up close to a bunch of rocks, but then I started thinking about what was going to climb down from those rocks during the night, and we moved to a small cozy campsite lower down, away from the rocks, a very short walk from what the twins call a "smelly bathroom," and close enough to the road to see it but not be run over by cars who miss the turn. We only saw 2 or 3 cars on the road the whole time we were there, but you never know.

The campsite was long and skinny: firepit, picnic table, area to pitch a tent, and place to park car, all in a row. We had brought two 2-person tents, and we put them up with the openings facing each other, about a foot apart. Here we are watching Daddy start to put up the second tent (firepit is behind the picnic table):

and here we are looking the other direction, toward the car:

Daddy worked very very hard putting up the tents, and then he started the fire (I've just got to learn how to do some of these things; maybe next camping trip). When the coals had stopped flaming, we put the hot dogs on to cook.

This was my dinner menu: one package of 7 all-beef kosher hot dogs, one package of buns, a can of baked beans (which we didn't bother opening), water to drink, and of course marshmallows. Hey, don't knock it, it worked. We also brought chips, pretzels, and grapes, which we munched during the tent assembly process, so no one but Rocket Boy was very hungry for dinner. The twins each ate most of a hot dog, I had two, and Rocket Boy had three. Then we roasted marshmallows over the coals. At first the marshmallows weren't cooking, but then we moved the grate and they got nice and brown -- to Baby B's horror. "I don't want a brown one!" he cried. My efforts to convince him that roasted marshmallows are supposed to be brown were for naught. I ate that one and he ate a plain uncooked white one.

While we were eating, a few other campers showed up -- on foot. It turned out that this campground was also just off the Pacific Crest Trail, though not as popular as Walker Pass.

After eating we had just enough time to take a walk down the quiet road, where there were wildflowers, bunnies, and lots of birds. I had forgotten my binoculars, but I could tell some of the birds were interesting. There was a beauty with an orange and yellow head, but I wasn't quite sure what it was. As night fell, we realized the moon was almost full.

Then it was time to get ready for bed, and that's when things got amusing. We decided that Baby B and I would sleep in the blue & white tent close to the car and Baby A and Rocket Boy would sleep in the orange tent close to the picnic table. Here you can see both tents, right before bedtime:

I got both boos into their diapers and pajamas in the blue & white tent, and read them 2 stories with a little headlamp strapped to my forehead (boos were jealous). I had brought books about camping and the outdoors, and in one book there was a drawing of the bird we had just seen -- a Western Tanager! Then I sent Baby A back over to the orange tent to sleep with Daddy. Boos are used to sleeping together, not with their parents, so they were concerned about this. But I just wasn't comfortable having them in a tent with no parents, even though the parents would be a foot away. We were in bear country, after all.

Rocket Boy and I had taken our melatonin, we were ready for sleep (at 9 pm!). I haven't been sleeping well in the Ridgecrest heat, and of course Rocket Boy had done all the work of putting up the tents and everything.... we were tired! But boos just couldn't settle down. After a bit Baby A decided he was going to sleep in the big tent with Mommy and Baby B, so he and his sleeping bag crossed over to our tent and we squished together to accommodate him. But it was really a squish. "Do you really want to sleep here with us?" I asked Baby A and he said no, he wanted to sleep with Daddy. So back to Daddy's tent he and his sleeping bag went. Baby B said that he would sleep with Daddy too, but I said no he wouldn't. So no more sleeping bags moved.

I kept tucking Baby B into his sleeping bag, with his favorite blanket and his favorite stuffed toy, Ducky, and then a few moments later he'd pop out again. I decided to tell him a story (rather than read another one, which would have required a light). "Once upon a time," I said, "when I was a little girl, I went on a camping trip with my Daddy and my Mommy and my little sister -- and that was Nonny."

"Oh!" Baby B said. "Nonny's house is near Baba's house!"

"Yes," I said, "but this was a long time ago, and I lived near Baba too, and Nonny and I lived in the same house."

This was too much for Baby B. "Mommy? Can you tell a story about Ducky?"

I'm flexible. I decided to tell a story about going to the duckpond when I was a kid. "Once upon a time when I was a little girl..."

"No! Tell a story about Ducky!"

No problem, I can do that. "Once upon a time when Ducky was a little duck..."

"No! Ducky was not a little duck! Ducky was always the same size. He was born and he grew up and he stopped growing. And then I loved him."

This was so sweet that Baby B and I both laughed together and I hugged him. But he didn't go to sleep. At one point he got out of his sleeping bag and announced that he was going to go outside and look for "creatures." "NO!" I shouted, grabbing him. "You will stay right here and go to sleep!" But a moment later he popped up again.

At some point we both finally fell asleep, and the occupants of the other tent did as well. I know this because later on something caused me to wake up. I was just conscious of being conscious -- and then, through the thin wall of the tent I saw the car flash its brakelights! And it made a soft whirring noise!

I looked at my watch -- it was midnight. It was midnight and we were at a campsite a million miles away from civilization, with two darling small children, and someone was in our car -- which we had left unlocked. Someone was stealing my money, credit cards, and perhaps even the car. And then they would come and kill us. I tried to find my car keys, which I knew were in the tent somewhere, but couldn't find them. (Not sure what I was going to do with them -- maybe lock the thief into the car?) Baby B was sound asleep, lying next to the tent opening. I leaned over him and hissed in the direction of the other tent to try to wake up Rocket Boy, but there was no response.

I was terrified. What could I do? Should I scream? (wake up the kids, disturb the other campers, annoy whoever was stealing my wallet -- maybe they would come out of the car with a knife or a gun) Put on my shoes (if I could find them), crawl awkwardly over Baby B, and go out and investigate? What if it was a bear? I kept calling softly to Rocket Boy. Why didn't the man wake up? Then I found my flashlight, so I pointed it at the car. Maybe if the person in the car realized that someone was awake, they would go away. Sure enough, I heard more noises. A car door opened. "Who's there?" I said, in a really mean, loud voice.

"It's me!" It was Rocket Boy. Of course. He had been unable to sleep in the cramped little tent, so had gotten up to walk around and then tried to sleep in the car.

I was so relieved that I was not even mad at him. But then it was hard to get back to sleep (especially with the moon shining full into the tent).

Later, I did fall asleep, but it got cold in the tent and I kept waking up.

Let's just say that at 6 am when the sun woke me up for good, I was pretty tired. Rocket Boy was even worse off -- he'd hardly slept a wink. But as I looked over at Baby B, snoozing soundly in his sleeping bag, I was a proud and happy mom.

This is getting long, so I'll go to bed (I'm so tired!) and tell the rest of the story tomorrow.

Glendale and the LA Zoo

I know what you're thinking, you're thinking this is going to be another post about how awful it is to do anything with four-year-old twin boys. But it's not! We had a pretty nice weekend! I mean, it was very strenuous and taxing, and I'm so glad to be home and all that. But really, all things considered, it went well.

We left at 9:15 Sunday morning and drove to Torrance with only one bathroom/fuel stop in Mojave. Made it there a little after 12, in plenty of time to partake of the delicious lunch before the birthday party entertainment began. The entertainment was exotic animals, which I always enjoy (though the twins didn't pay much attention!).

The animals included this nice chicken

and this beautiful snake, which I also got to hold.

After the party we drove to our hotel, a Vagabond Inn in Glendale -- chosen because it was kind of on the way home and because it was very close to the zoo. Also, according to the website it had a heated pool and was next to a big mall.

Well, it was not a fabulous hotel, but it was OK. The room was fairly spacious and the air conditioner sort of worked. There was a very nice empty space for setting up the pack 'n' plays for the twins (which they still manage to curl themselves up into). I'd say the worst thing about the room was that the TV had no kids' channel -- no PBS Kids, no Nickelodeon, no Sprout -- but of course the kids wanted to watch TV, in their minds that's the whole point of staying in a hotel room, so we kept watching very odd, inappropriate things. The pool was small and practically in the parking lot, not very appealing. Also, though it was heated, it was not very warm. And there was no hot tub. Rocket Boy and Baby A did go in it and enjoyed themselves, so that was good, but I think I'll look for something better next time. Still, overall it was OK.

When we got hungry we walked about a block to a Jamba Juice and got smoothies and some bread things. Then we walked into the mall-ish thing that is right there, "the Americana at Brand," and discovered a "grassy" area on which to sit and eat our "dinner." This was the view from where we sat:

I'm not sure WHAT that grassy stuff was -- it was extremely short, and bits of it got all over our clothes and limbs as we sat on it. Not like any grass I've ever sat on before, but not like astroturf either. I also don't know WHAT that gold statue is supposed to represent. But there were fountains that shot up, and music played, and there were tons of people out enjoying the evening. There was also a nice children's play area, but it had fences around it and a sign saying it was only open until 6 pm (we got there around 6:45). A bunch of kids (including ours) climbed over the fence and played there anyway, until, get this, a SECURITY GUARD came and shooed them all away. I mean, yuck. Why does a playground have to close at 6 and why does a security guard have to chase children off a playground?

I don't know. Rocket Boy liked it, the twins liked it. I was just turned off by the artificiality of the whole place. It was trying SO hard to be European and quaint, but that security guard gave it kind of a Nazi feel, and I don't think that's the type of European they were aiming for. Anyway, despite that, we had a nice time.

The next morning we got up fairly early and had breakfast two doors down at a restaurant called Foxy's, which we liked very much: we got to eat outside on the patio, we were there early enough that we didn't disturb anyone until near the end, and there was oatmeal (I liked that part). Boos shared an order of pigs in blankets, which the waitress was nice enough to divide for us (and gave them 2 each, even though the order was only supposed to have 3 total), Rocket Boy had a veggie omelet, and we shared a bowl of fruit.

Then we packed up in a leisurely fashion and left for the zoo at about 10:15 am (it had opened at 10). The desk clerk at the hotel had warned us to get there early, but we ignored him, and as we joined a long line of cars taking the "Zoo Exit" I realized that we had made a mistake. However, even though we had to stand in an enormous line to get in, the line moved quickly.

The zoo itself is very attractive and I'd really like to go back. That said, we probably didn't do things the way we should have. First of all, we should have rented a big stroller. Boos are very good walkers now, but a stroller would have given them a chance to rest now and then. Second, we should have ridden the carousel as soon as we spotted it, rather than continued to say "We'll do that at the end, when we come back." Baby B so desperately wanted to ride it that he couldn't focus on anything else, just kept asking me when we were going to ride it. My idea was that we would walk to the farthest corner of the zoo where the lemurs are, see them, and then go back to the carousel, but that didn't work. We finally had to turn around (without seeing the lemurs) and go back to the carousel.

Silly boos are still afraid of the carousel animals that go up and down, so we rode on this nice peacock bench. Everyone enjoyed themselves.

Third, we should have taken out a bank loan before going. It cost us $54 to get in, $37 for lunch, $3 each for the carousel... I know, stuff is just expensive these days. At least it wasn't Disneyland!

After the carousel we saw a few more animals, and Baby A provided some excitement by actually climbing into a tortoise pen. Granted, the tortoises inside paid no attention to him, but the whole crowd looking at the tortoises was yelling "Get out! get out!" and of course we were yelling the same thing, and for a moment there I thought he was going to be too scared to be able to respond, but we eventually got him out. Here he is on the outside of the pen, not looking the least bit repentant:

I was glad I got to see the tortoises, because we did not manage to go into the new LAIR exhibit hall, where most of the reptiles are. But that's a reason to go back. After the tortoise incident we all agreed it was time to go, and we ended up driving out of the parking lot at about 2 pm.

Of course, then we had the long drive home, but we broke it up with the usual stop in Palmdale, where we went to Trader Joe's and our usual coffee place for drinks and snacks. Then it was on to Ridgecrest, getting home just before 6 pm. Everyone (except me) took a good long nap between Glendale and Palmdale, and we were all still in a fairly good mood when we got home. It cheered me up, as we were driving on 14 fairly close to the Inyokern turnoff, to see ALL the cars coming back from the mountains and to think how far they still had to drive.

So that's what I call a successful weekend: a family gathering (the birthday party), getting to see something a little different (the Americana at Brand), and a fun, special outing (the zoo) which we all actually enjoyed. Plus, the chance to buy a whole lot of cereal at Trader Joe's (very important, since my favorite cereal costs TWICE as much in Ridgecrest). Still didn't get to use my Macy's gift card, but that can wait. I'm happy.

The Train

OK, I guess I have to write about the train too, just to get beyond it. It seemed like such a nice idea: there's a train called the Metrolink that runs from Lancaster/Palmdale to Los Angeles and parts beyond. Why not take it some weekend? Why not indeed? Oh, there are so many reasons, most of them involving four-year-old twin boys. But anyway, it did sound like a good idea, in the beginning.

So we looked at the schedule and discovered that very few trains run on the weekends. This is a SERIOUS train, a commuter train. There was a train that left Lancaster around 9:15 am (and Palmdale 10 minutes later), but it would take us nearly 90 minutes to drive to the station, which meant leaving the house at 7:45 am, which meant no, try again. There was an 11:30 train, but that's lunchtime.

Finally we decided to drive to Palmdale, do a little shopping, eat lunch, and catch the 1 pm train. Rather than go all the way to LA, which would take 2 hours, we decided to stop at a place called Newhall, about which we knew nothing other than that the train would get there a little after 2 pm. There was a train from Newhall at 3:30 which would get us back to Palmdale at 4:30. All that sounded reasonable and doable, and really, it should have been. Sigh.

We got to Palmdale around 11 am and went straight to Dillard's, because Baby B needed new shoes. His beautiful flashing Stride Rite shoes, only a few months old, have a huge hole in them. What has happened to formerly dependable brands like Stride Rite??? Might as well shop at Walmart. We managed to buy both boys some shoes, with only a small amount of screaming and running away. Then we had a quick quasi-meal at a coffee place, and we were off to the Palmdale train station.

We got there quite early, around 12:30, because we didn't know how hard it would be to park, buy tickets, and all that. Everything turned out to be very easy, so we had a long time to sit and wait.

It costs $10 to ride the Metrolink on the weekends -- all weekend for just $10. If you were dating someone in LA, you could take the train down on Saturday morning to visit them, stay until 5:40 pm on Sunday, and ride the train back, all for just $10. Unfortunately, we're married and have four-year-old twins, so Rocket Boy and I paid $10 each to ride the Saturday afternoon train to Newhall and back. But still, it was a pretty good deal, and the twins were free.

The train ride was pleasant, at least at first. We sat on the upper level. I didn't get a window seat (preview of my life as a mom from now until eternity) so I couldn't see as well as the boos could, but it was still nice. Here's Baby A, observing the scenery.

Of course, as soon as we got on, someone needed to go potty, but the Metrolink has bathrooms! So we visited them a few times. Rocket Boy and I took turns. The rest of the time boos climbed back and forth between our two rows of seats. "Are they twins?" the teenage girl across from us asked, and I could see that look in her eye, that "I want twins" look. I wanted to say "no you don't" but resisted.

We reached Newhall about 2:15 (JUST as Baby A was nodding off, sigh), got off, and looked for something to do. Newhall is a part of Santa Clarita. It's very attractive, I guess. We spotted what we thought was a Rec Center right next to the train, and went there first.

But it turned out to be a place where school-age kids can go after school to get help with homework and participate in activities. There was nothing for us there, not even vending machines, although they did say we could play on their playground. So we did. But it was so hot.

So then we walked the other direction and through the renovated downtown. Newhall is sort of an odd place, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. First we walked down Market Street to a little park dedicated to veterans. Then we walked down Main Street looking for an ice cream parlor or some such place to have a treat. Main Street just couldn't be prettier or cleaner -- someone spent a lot of money fixing it up and even more money maintaining it. And yet the stores weren't right. You'd be expecting, I don't know, a fancy clothing store, or an espresso place, and instead here's a laundromat, a place to buy lotto tickets, a dollar store. And everything was mostly in Spanish. And it was so hot. We finally found a Panaderia and bought some cupcakes and drinks, which we took back to the train station with us.

The train arrived around 3:30 and we boarded. We sat downstairs this time, within sight of the bathroom, and what a mistake that was. Baby B spent the entire hour-long return trip wanting to visit the bathroom. When someone else was in the bathroom, he yelled or ran up and down the car. Baby A was not much better. They were tired, they were bored, they didn't want to be on a train anymore. Rocket Boy and I were also tired and didn't want to be on a train, at least not with our children. The other passengers also did not want to be on a train with our children.

But we were all TRAPPED. For an HOUR.

A little before 4:30 the train got to Palmdale and we got off. If we'd had any sense we would have driven straight home to Ridgecrest. But we have no sense. And there were all those stores. First we went to Lowe's so Rocket Boy could shop. Then the boos and I went to Target while RB waited in the car. I had all these things I wanted to buy at Target, but I got caught up in helping the boos choose a toy (I had told them before we went in that they could each have one small toy), and forgot about everything else. When we got back to the car I almost burst into tears in frustration.

We still had Macy's and Trader Joe's on our list. I had a $25 coupon for Macy's. But suddenly I knew we had all passed our limit and I needed to get us home immediately. So I got on the highway and drove fast, much faster than the speed limit, all the way back to Ridgecrest. Everyone else slept most of the way, but I stayed awake, driving, driving, all 92 miles. We got home around 7pm, JUST before I collapsed.

So that was our Metrolink experience -- our only Metrolink experience, since we're never going to do it again.

Rancho Cucamonga

Once again I've gotten off track about posting -- sorry about that, devoted fans. We had two really gruesome weekend trips that I was going to post about and then didn't, because they were so gruesome. Coming up this weekend: yet another trip, which I hope will not be gruesome. We are going to a 5th birthday party in Torrance on Sunday and then staying overnight at a hotel in Glendale which supposedly has a HEATED pool and is right next door to a family-style restaurant and right across the street from a big mall. If all goes well, we might go to the L.A. Zoo on Memorial Day, since our hotel is 2 miles from the zoo. But as we all know, all will NOT go well -- probably the pool's heater will be broken, or the entire pool will be closed for repairs, the mall will be closed for renovations, the zoo will be closed because all the animals are sick, my credit card will be cancelled, the car will get a flat tire... Anyway, think good thoughts for us.

Life continues apace in the potty mouth department. Boos have stopped calling everyone a booty butt, but pretty much every other word they say has something to do with bodily functions. It's my fault, partly. We had a cute book out of the library a few weeks ago called The Very Kind Rich Lady and Her One Hundred Dogs by Chinlun Lee.The one hundred dogs of the title are pictured individually and named, and some of the names are a bit suggestive, shall we say (Pipi, Tinkle, etc.). To get through the book you have to read all one hundred dog names twice, and when I got tired of reading the regular names, I would make some up, such as Poop, Dirty Diaper, and Gas. What can I say, I'm a four-year-old at heart. Anyway, this caused great hilarity and almost immediately got out of hand, and so now, even though the book has been back at the library for over a week, Baby A and Baby B are still calling everything Dirty Stinky Diaper, Poopoo Head, Smelly Gas, and other similar names.

How long does this phase last? And how long would it have lasted if I hadn't made it worse?

The two trips that I didn't want to write about... OK, I'll write just a little. The first one was to Rancho Cucamonga, which is about 125 miles straight south from here. Why did we go to Rancho Cucamonga? Because that's where we bought my computer (used) last fall, at a little shop called PC Mart, and my computer was clearly dying. I don't know if there's a place in Ridgecrest that fixes computers, but even if there were, I wouldn't take a computer there, because one thing Ridgecrest is not good at is SERVICE of any sort. So we drove to Rancho Cucamonga. It turned out the hard drive was dying, so we had to get a new one. Unfortunately, on my computer there was a sticker that said it had a 60 GB hard drive, so that's what the guy replaced it with. Unfortunately, my computer ACTUALLY had a 140 GB hard drive. When this was noticed, we had already spent about 4 hours in Rancho Cucamonga and it was too late to have the guy replace the hard drive and reformat it and all that stuff. And we just couldn't come back. (It was exactly the sort of thing that would have happened in Ridgecrest. Might as well just have stayed home. On the plus side, the twins learned how to say Rancho Cucamonga.)

So now I have a 60 GB hard drive, which means my photos won't fit on it. This is OK because I have lost all my photos (they were supposedly on my backup drive, but I can't find them). Lots of them are on the Kodak photo sharing site, but since the Kodak photo sharing site is GOING OUT OF BUSINESS, that's not going to be much help for long.

I am getting madder and madder as I type. I hate computers.

While we were waiting for the guy to fix the computer incorrectly, we went out to lunch (involving the usual screaming and general mayhem) and then drove off to look for a place to recycle the carload of Styrofoam that Rocket Boy had insisted on bringing along (because of course you can't recycle it in Ridgecrest) and which was blocking my visibility. We drove a long ways to a recycling place, only to be told that the minimum charge was $29 and they didn't accept Styrofoam anyway. So then we had to drive to ANOTHER recycling place, miles and miles away, and fortunately that place DID accept Styrofoam, so we got rid of it,

but not before I had a total nervous breakdown, complete with requests for divorce and pointing out to Rocket Boy that the carbon footprint involved in driving all these extra miles to the recycling place was a LOT bigger than any savings to the Earth from recycling the stupid Styrofoam. It really wasn't such a bad experience as all that, but I had wanted to go to the Rancho Cucamonga mall, and now there wasn't time.

Also it was hot and humid (to us desert rats, anyway).

Anyway, the next day was Mother's Day and Rocket Boy and the twins gave me a beautiful hanging basket (my request)

which two days later just completely died on me. We moved it to a more protected location and I watered it and watered it, and now the white petunias have come back, but all the pink ones are dead and gone. Oh well.

Anyway, this is why I haven't been blogging recently. I think I'll stop here and not describe the other disastrous trip, which involved a TRAIN. Maybe in a day or two, if I feel ambitious. I'm sure you can hardly wait.

DISGUSTING!

On each episode of Sesame Street there is a "word of the day" -- such as humongous, separate, etc. Around our house, the current word of the day (or week, or month) is DISGUSTING, or as Baby A and Baby B also like to pronounce it, SCUSTING!

And what is it that is so disgusting and/or scusting, you might ask? Well, everything really, because everything is now described as a BOOTY BUTT.

Note: We did not teach them this term. I may have used the word "butt" around them once or twice, OK maybe even more than that, but not "booty," at least not this kind of booty. They learned it at DAYCARE. It is DAYCARE's fault, not mine.

So here we are walking to daycare the other day, boos in the stroller, me pushing. A perfectly normal man is approaching from the other direction. Baby A spots him. "Euww, look at that booty butt!" he says.

"Shhh," I whisper urgently. "Don't call people booty butts!"

"DISGUSTING!" Baby A and Baby B chorus, as the man passes us, looking a bit puzzled. It is all I can do not to slug them. I want to run after the man, to explain that these comments have nothing to do with him, but he's long gone and we're late for daycare, so off we go. I hope we haven't ruined his day.

Note to everyone: Do not ever feel bad about something a small child says in your general direction.

At home, absolutely everything is a booty butt, and thus scusting, such as whatever I make for dinner, videos, toys, the mail, the laundry, all the human members of the family, and of course Pie Bear, the biggest booty butt of all. It seems to me that this must be limiting the twins' language development, since they no longer have to remember the names for anything. We're all just booty butts.

(Baby B has another scheme for not remembering the names for things. He says to me: "Mommy, do you know what I have at my painting house?" I say, "No, what?" and he says "Think about it." So then I have to suggest something, and then he gets to decide whether that's what he wants to have at his house or not. I have not figured out how to get around that one yet.)

Of course, what is considered the most disgusting right now is what comes out of people's booty butts, i.e., poop. Baby A and Baby B have always been interested in each other's diapers, and later potties, but now it's turned ugly. Whenever either of them uses the potty in this productive way, the other one hurries over in order to say "SCUSTING!" This makes me kind of sad. I suppose it had to happen, it's a normal part of development, but still. Just one more way in which they aren't little boos anymore.

Of course, today a friend stopped by the house to give me something, and while she was standing in our entryway, talking, Baby A unceremoniously walked up, pulled down his pants, and proceeded to sit on the potty. (Yes, our potties are in the entryway -- the bathroom is too small for them -- so it wasn't really Baby A's fault, but he COULD have used the real toilet in the bathroom. But no. Complete lack of modesty.)

"Oh dear," I said, embarrassed both for Baby A and for Donna. "Maybe it's just pee."

"No, it's poop!" Baby A corrected me. "Wipe me, Mommy!"

"I'll take that as my cue to leave," Donna said, leaving. I wiped Baby A's booty butt and then we had to clean out the potty and flush it.

"DISGUSTING!" said Baby A, and from the other part of the house I could hear Baby B's answering call: "SCUSTING!"

The Racetrack

In a Christmas letter we received last year, one of my old friends mentioned that something she'd done that year had been a "bucket list" item for her. And I thought, bucket list? When I was younger I had a long mental list of big things I wanted to do, and I did a lot of them, too. But right now I'm mainly living day to day. Oh sure, I've got some vague plans and dreams. For instance, when the boys are a little older (i.e., old enough to know what a state is), I'd like us to visit a few different states each summer, so they gradually get to know the country. Also, I'd like to have a novel or other book published someday, but even that is all wrapped up in just wanting to do lots of writing, make it better and better -- if I do publish something someday, I won't consider that item checked off, but rather only just begun.

But once in a while I remember that there are a few very specific things I really want to do.

We've been wanting to go to Death Valley for several weeks now, but it keeps getting put off. Finally we decided that yesterday was do or die, because very soon it's going to be too hot for us to go there again until next November. "Is there any place special you want to go?" Rocket Boy asked me, because Death Valley is a Really Big Place and you kind of have to decide what you want to do there.

"I want to go to the Racetrack," I said. Ding! Bucket list item.

The Racetrack is a dry lakebed in the northern section of Death Valley, and it's home to an interesting phenomenon -- rocks that move around the lakebed seemingly by themselves. When you read articles about Death Valley, the Racetrack is always mentioned, and it sounds so intriguing. I've always wanted to go. But what we learned when we moved here and started visiting Death Valley is that it's almost impossible to get to the Racetrack and the rangers don't really want you to try. Each time we've asked a ranger at Stovepipe Wells or Furnace Creek about going to the Racetrack, they've always told us we have the wrong type of car, the wrong type of wheels, the road is in worse shape than usual, try again some other time....

This time we were going. We just absolutely were. Nothing was going to stop us. We packed a picnic lunch, lots of water, extra clothes for the twins, sunscreen, money, everything we could think of. We even left the house really early (for us) -- we were out the door by 9 am.

Of course then we had to stop for gas, and put some air in the tires, and get Starbursts for the road, and that took half an hour. Then we drove to Stovepipe Wells, which is 100 miles. There we stopped and talked to the ranger. "We were thinking about going to the Racetrack," I said casually.

"Oh, you don't want to go in that car," the ranger told me immediately.

"It has really heavy duty tires," I pointed out. We had brought Rocket Boy's Ford Escape, which has huge thick tires.

The ranger took the time to actually look out the window at the car. "It does have high clearance," he admitted. "But you know, punctures are really a problem out there. The rocks on that road are chert, which is volcanic and very sharp."

"I'll talk to my husband about it," I told him, and we were off to the Racetrack.

First we had to drive the road to Scotty's Castle, which takes forever (about 45 miles), except that you turn off just before it and go to Ubehebe Crater instead. We got to the crater parking lot around 12:30 and decided to have lunch. I hadn't seen Ubehebe Crater before either and it's really something. Here are Rocket Boy and Baby B looking down into it.

 

We hiked around there a bit and then ate our nice picnic lunch. No picnic tables, but there's a ledge to sit on, which was an acceptable substitute. You can see our new picnic "basket" in the picture -- Rocket Boy got it from Blue Cross as a thank-you for attending one of their lunchtime wellness talks at the base.

So now it was 1:30 pm, time to drive to the Racetrack, which is 27 miles from Ubehebe Crater. Since we knew it was a bad road, we figured it would take us about an hour. Ha ha ha.

First you drive 20 miles to Teakettle Junction,

then 7 more miles to the Racetrack.On the Worst Road Ever. It took us just under 2 hours, which meant that we arrived at 3:30 -- yes, that's right, six and a half hours after leaving home. We did not get a flat tire, but we worried about it a lot. Each time we stopped, we checked all the tires, and we agreed that if we got a flat, after changing the tire we would turn around and drive straight back, no matter how far we'd gotten. It's not like there's anyone around to help you out if you get stuck. But we didn't get a flat. And we made it to the Racetrack.

Was it worth it? Yes and no. It's quite a sight, though not exactly what I was expecting. I did find a rock with a visible trail behind it (showing that it had mysteriously moved).

 

But what we also found was evidence that people have been doing what all the literature says you must NEVER do -- drive on the playa. That seemed sad. Maybe that's why the rangers try to keep people from visiting it.

The boys had fun climbing on the weird mass of rocks in the middle of the Racetrack, called the Grandstand. And Baby A and I walked way way out in the middle of the Racetrack, looking for rocks. And now I can say I was there.

And I suspect I will never go again. Because then we had to drive back. We only spent about 45 minutes at the Racetrack, leaving a little after 4 pm. We drove the bad road a little faster going out, but it was still slow. We stopped at Stovepipe Wells for a quick dinner, and then drove on toward home -- with just one little detour to Panamint Springs to buy fabulously expensive gas (almost $5.50/gallon) when we realized we didn't have enough to get to Ridgecrest (there's no gas in Trona right now). Got back to the house around 10:15 pm, the latest we've gotten home in just ages. It was an insane trip. But hey, I finally saw the Racetrack!

April Update

Where has the month gone? I just checked this blog and realized I'd only posted once in April. It's not as though we didn't do anything this month... gosh, there was Easter, and the Wildflower Festival, and we went to Los Angeles... I don't know! I can't explain it. Guess I just haven't felt like writing. Well anyway, here's a quick recap of this month before we move on to the next one.

The day before Easter we took a trip to the Desert Tortoise Natural Area, and actually SAW TORTOISES! First time ever (at least without the ranger's help). It was very hard to remember that they are wild and not to be touched! Here's one:

It was so dry and desolate there, though. Just nothing is blooming this year, because we didn't have rain in December/January. We've had several small rains in the last month or two, but it's too late.

 I can't post any Easter photos because this year the boos did what they do quite often these days -- they took their diapers off when they got up (yes they still wear diapers at night) and ran around in their pajama tops and nothing else. I finally got them to put on underpants, but every picture of them with their goodies is pretty much not ready for primetime. So instead I will post a photo from the park in Lone Pine, where we went Easter afternoon:

That really is a cool park -- wish we had something like that here. Of course, part of its appeal is that Lone Pine is in fact cool -- completely different climate from Ridgecrest.

So the next weekend was the Wildflower Festival, which was a bit lackluster, seeing as how there were no flowers. I did sit at booths for both the tortoise club and my writers club, and on Sunday we went to Short Canyon, where we were told there were flowers. Gosh, not many. One or two of each variety, in many cases. But it was something. Here's a photo of a coreopsis (I think):

I don't have a single photo of the boos from that trip, because they were soooo naughty that I didn't feel like recording their behavior. But here's one from around the same time. They're sitting on the back of the loveseat in their room, so you can see the view out their window. My cute, though impossible, boys:

The next weekend we went to Los Angeles for a birthday party for two of their cousins (actually first cousins once removed, but who's counting). Lots of fun. Here's a photo of the party, showing the racetrack cake and the tower of cupcakes:

And that pretty much sums up the month. We've had some very hot weather, learned that the air conditioner in the new house does work, so that's good, though we wish the swamp cooler did too. Boos have been playing with their water table, as they always do when it's hot. And tomorrow, if all goes well, we are planning to visit Death Valley -- because once it gets hot here, it's impossible there, and we feel that we haven't been there enough this year. Supposed to be 88 here tomorrow, 98 in Death Valley. We'll see. I'll blog about it if we do go, I promise. And I'll try to do better about posting in May...

Pie Bear lost and found

Last Saturday morning (NOT April Fool's Day, I should note, but the day before), the twins woke us up at some ungodly hour (OK, it might have been 7:30), and eventually we got up and everyone got dressed and had breakfast, and around about 8:30 am Rocket Boy said, "where's Pie?"

Pie Bear, you'll remember, is our big fat black cat, currently our only companion animal. He normally spends the last part of the night on our bed and wakes us up before the twins do, wanting his breakfast (so as to get even fatter). But that morning there was no sign of him.

Immediately RB and I were panic stricken. Pie Bear has a cat door to the garage and a hole in the garage wall leading to the front yard. He wanders in and out during the night, interacting with other cats and who knows what else. Anything could have happened to him. A car could have run him over. A coyote could have eaten him (though it would have to be a pretty ambitious coyote).

We looked under the bed and in the closet and on all the various chairs and sofas where he likes to sleep. No Pie Bear.

I put on my shoes and went out to see if his enormous black body was lying dead in the street. The twins went with me as we walked up and down the street. No Pie Bear, though we did find a garage sale.

When we got home again, Rocket Boy was in the backyard, where there is a locked gate leading to a sort of alley. He had taken the gate's hinges off and was exploring the alley. But no Pie Bear.

Rocket Boy was ready to take action. "I'm going to talk to the neighbors," he said.

"Wait," I said. "Let me make a flyer."

"OK, you do that, and I'll call the animal shelter." I hastily put together a Lost Cat flyer, while Rocket Boy phoned. However, it was only a little after 9 am and the shelter didn't open until 10. So, taking some flyers, he went out to tape them to things and talk to people.

"Be sure to ask the people having the garage sale," I told him.

"Why didn't you ask them?"

"I was shy."

Shaking his head, he grabbed his wallet and went out.

A while later he came back to drop off the items he'd purchased at the garage sale, to get more flyers, and to report on his progress. He'd met several neighbors to the east of us and given them copies of the flyer. No one had seen Pie Bear recently, in fact no one had EVER seen Pie Bear, but they promised to watch for him.

"Why don't you call the shelter again," I suggested. It was just after 10 am. So he called them and explained our plight. "Yes, a male cat, black with just one tiny white spot under his chin, about 20 pounds." The person at the shelter said they'd keep an eye out for him.

Rocket Boy went out to post more flyers and meet the neighbors to the west of us.

Finally he returned, having met and told at least eight of our neighbors. "I don't know what else I can do," he said in despair. "We shouldn't have moved to Ridgecrest. First Whiskers dies and now Pie. It's just not worth it!"

Just then, Pie Bear emerged from the guest room, yawning and stretching.

Screams, swearing. With great effort I picked Pie up and hugged him.

I took down the flyers and called the shelter, but I made Rocket Boy tell all the neighbors. At least now everyone knows us, though their opinion of us may not be very high.

On Monday, as it happened, Pie Bear had his yearly vet appointment. He now weighs 22 pounds.