Month: April 2015

April Read: Bill Bryson’s “The Lost Continent”

I first read Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” about 15 years ago on the heels of finishing his “English: The Mother Tongue.” I loved his humor, perspective and narrative, and “Walk in the Woods” adventures through misadventures along the Appalachian Trail had me completely hooked on his books. The guy is funny; in my opinion, he’s kind of a cross between Dave Barry and Garrison Keillor. If you don’t know who either of these two examples are, you n00b- stop what you are doing and click those links. Go ahead, use my links, you lazy butt, and spend the time you just saved reading up on them… I’ll wait…

Two by Bryson... on the only uncluttered flat surface in my home right now.
Two by Bryson… on the only uncluttered flat surface in my home right now.

This month I’ll finally read “The Lost Continent.” I’ve had this title on my shelf for several years, never letting my dad borrow it because I have meant to get to it, but never did. Yeah, it’s a theme in my life lately, hence, This Blog.

I’m hoping that it can hold a candle to “A Walk in the Woods,” and want to pick up “Neither Here Nor There,” “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” and “Shakespeare: The World as a Stage” next.

And maybe the rest of his writings as well… there’s about twenty in this lineup.

And Dad? You can borrow it at the end of April.

*If you really are unfamiliar with Garrison Keillor and Dave Barry, spend some time tripping through the web following links, and laugh the whole way. You’ll thank me.

APRIL Project- Stop being *Those* Neighbors…

…you know who they are. Their lawn could use a trim. They have some bushes that are half dead. And are they ever going to do something about that spot with weeds? Yeah… that’s us.

Smart people who can maintain their yard...
Smart people who can maintain their yard…

I have four spots in the front and back yard that need work that I keep saying I will do something about-

  1. Put another citrus tree in a pot in my backyard- do the work myself this time instead of making The Husband do it all
  2. Find a water-wise plant and rocks for the front of our walk
  3. Also, more water-wise plants for my window boxes instead of committing plant abuse and killing off a bunch of flowers again 
  4. Plant the cactus The B-I-L has so generously offered to share from his plant many times- fresh nopales in my future!
Potted tree- fine.
Potted tree- fine.

I don’t know why our citrus trees are dying slow deaths. Yes I do. I don’t fertilize them, the snails are eating up the new leaves. and then there is the entire North American population of Whiteflies living on one little Meyer Lemon tree/bush in my backyard, struggling to overcome these pests.

It isn't arborcide if your tree has blossoms, I tell you!
Unpotted tree… It isn’t arborcide if your tree has blossoms, I tell you!

Hopefully, by the end of the month I’ll have gotten out there and made our incredibly nice neighbors proud, and turn over the job of being THOSE neighbors to someone else.

Desert View Tower and The Old Plank Road

Disgusted that she has to climb up steps.
Disgusted Mom.

I drove my mom to see her mother on Friday. Gramma is fading fast. We stopped along the way to visit a viewpoint that I have meant to stop at each time I drive across the desert to see my grandparents. A very short drive off of Interstate 8, following In-Ko-Pah Park Road is the Desert View Tower. There are caves to explore there, too, but I was lucky to talk The Mom into climbing up the steps to the viewtower. If it resembles hiking or walking that requires any effort, she would rather sit in the car and read her paperback- she never leaves home without a paperback, no sir-ee!

Making whales!
Making whales!
Really... I can't make this stuff up.
Really… I can’t make this stuff up.

We almost didn’t get out of the car, either- not because of desert heat, it was a beautiful 65 degrees with a light wind. We were just too engrossed with trying to send each other baby whale texts. We stink. We don’t make good teen-aged girls.

While in the viewtower shop I found an article written about the Old Plank Road that used to exist between Yuma and San Diego. My gramma told us how she had traveled on that plank road, and how it felt like it took forever with her brother annoying her along the route and their father changing a tire every ten to twenty miles of travel.

Article about the Old Plank Road...
Article about the Old Plank Road…

Can you imagine? She says that over the years tourists took away most the planks after better roads were built, and eventually “the hippies and hobos” used up almost all of the rest to make campfires. Only a small portion remains as a protected landmark, that you can read about here at DesertUSA.com, or if you have good enough zoom capabilities on a desktop computer, click on this photo on the right.

Gramma is very tired, and only sleeping lately. I bet she is a tired as she was while traveling across that Old Plank Road, but at the end of this journey, her father, mother and brother are waiting for her. Safe and blessed travels to you, Betty Gene!

Outside the box.

Creative thinking and hard work will always take you far:

Renee's avatarLaugh Up My Sleeve

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Some may call it cheating – I call it a creative mind! (Ha ha)

Thinking outside the box enables us to be more creative – to breakdown and overcome the norm. Thinking outside the box is what allows entrepreneurs and businessmen to succeed. It’s finding a different way to handle things, it’s trying to find a better way. Thinking outside the box helped grow huge corporations like Apple and Microsoft. It allows people who yearn for freedom to escape the unwritten societal rules about how life ‘should’ be lived, and hell – backpack across Europe for two years.

For example – society wants me to eat eggs or cereal for breakfast, but nope – not for this outoftheboxthinker…

I ate the leftover half of my turkey burger, AND a bite of pasta salad. Take that, society and diet.

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