April 19, 2009
Busy With Family Related Travel, Business & Life
Fire season approaches. Spring winds have howled, more than usual here in Central California, and the grass is browning. There is late snow in the Sierras which assures the high country will be green well into late Summer. Nature is setting the stage now but fate directs the stories to be told.
This season I plan to cover the major fires from this blog and Twitter. Fire activity could start any day.
In the meantime action on the family front is heating up. My oldest has decided to attend UC Merced this Fall. His original desire was to attend a private school in Arizona where his girlfriend is enrolled.
I'm proud of his decision. UC Merced is the newest school in the UC system but is already making a mark in the sciences. Enrollment is under 4,000 currently which gives the school the feel of an exclusive private college. He'll study computer engineering.
Son #2, our sophomore is on an academic mission. He wants to be a valedictorian and earn an academic scholarship to a top school. As such he is spread out between Science Fair, Academic Decathlon and Science Olympiad. This summer he will attend a three week program at Stanford University. He is signed up for four AP classes next school year.
During Easter vacation we traveled to Arizona. We visited friends and family in Tucson and Phoenix. In Tucson we stayed in a condo in the Starr Pass resort development. The desert setting did not disappoint. There is nothing like a desert morning. Our first morning the animals and birds of the Sonoran Desert made an appearance near our patio including white-tail rabbits, cardinals, cactus wren, curved-bill thrashers a road runner and in the distance a coyote.
My wife was taking out trash on our final evening in town and was surprised by a javelina. Instead of running, the pig-like creature stood his ground forcing my wife back in the casita. In the morning I caught a javelina on camera passing through the back of the place.
Southern Arizona is beautiful like that. In Madeira Canyon, between Tucson and the Mexican border 234 bird species were identified by bird counters in the late 1980's.
One of the recent topics in Tucson is about a Leopard captured near Mt Lemon. Leopards are indigenous to the region but one hasn't been seen in Arizona in decades. The poor animal was captured and moved up to Phoenix where it died, reportedly from old age.
The other talk is about the new basketball coach. The day the new coach, Sean Miller was announced we were having lunch with relatives at La Parilla Suiza. It's been 15 years since I lived in Tucson but I am still a Wildcat fan at a distance. At lunch my brother in law and nephews were excited to discuss the new hire. Even the wait staff was energized by the buzz of the new coach. Though Tucson is home to more than a half million it has a small town quality. They have no pro teams so the University of Arizona is about it.
After we left the meal we headed to the U of A to buy our kids some tee shirts. Before we entered the gift shop adjacent to McHale Center I was approached by a local TV crew. The reporter wanted my opinion on the hiring of the new coach. I acted the part parsing from what I heard on the radio just minutes before.
I came off like I knew the subject matter. My opinion led the KVOA Channel 4 evening news at 5:00 and 10:00. Our family who we lunched with only an hour or so earlier was watching the news trying to get the very latest "breaking news" on the permanent replacement for Lute Olsen only to see my mug all over the screen.
Good luck to the Wildcats, it's a class organization and the community deserves a winner.
In Phoenix we stayed in a place at the base of South Mountain. the Sonoran Desert is not as lush in "The Valley of The Sun" but we did see two javelina around the lodge as we drove off towards California.
The CHP is out in force on California highways. They are writing tickets like never before, a budget thing no doubt. No matter to drivers, anything less than 75 is holding up traffic. 7o MPH is max here but in AZ it's 75.
This season I plan to cover the major fires from this blog and Twitter. Fire activity could start any day.
In the meantime action on the family front is heating up. My oldest has decided to attend UC Merced this Fall. His original desire was to attend a private school in Arizona where his girlfriend is enrolled.
I'm proud of his decision. UC Merced is the newest school in the UC system but is already making a mark in the sciences. Enrollment is under 4,000 currently which gives the school the feel of an exclusive private college. He'll study computer engineering.
Son #2, our sophomore is on an academic mission. He wants to be a valedictorian and earn an academic scholarship to a top school. As such he is spread out between Science Fair, Academic Decathlon and Science Olympiad. This summer he will attend a three week program at Stanford University. He is signed up for four AP classes next school year.
During Easter vacation we traveled to Arizona. We visited friends and family in Tucson and Phoenix. In Tucson we stayed in a condo in the Starr Pass resort development. The desert setting did not disappoint. There is nothing like a desert morning. Our first morning the animals and birds of the Sonoran Desert made an appearance near our patio including white-tail rabbits, cardinals, cactus wren, curved-bill thrashers a road runner and in the distance a coyote.
My wife was taking out trash on our final evening in town and was surprised by a javelina. Instead of running, the pig-like creature stood his ground forcing my wife back in the casita. In the morning I caught a javelina on camera passing through the back of the place.
Southern Arizona is beautiful like that. In Madeira Canyon, between Tucson and the Mexican border 234 bird species were identified by bird counters in the late 1980's.
One of the recent topics in Tucson is about a Leopard captured near Mt Lemon. Leopards are indigenous to the region but one hasn't been seen in Arizona in decades. The poor animal was captured and moved up to Phoenix where it died, reportedly from old age.
The other talk is about the new basketball coach. The day the new coach, Sean Miller was announced we were having lunch with relatives at La Parilla Suiza. It's been 15 years since I lived in Tucson but I am still a Wildcat fan at a distance. At lunch my brother in law and nephews were excited to discuss the new hire. Even the wait staff was energized by the buzz of the new coach. Though Tucson is home to more than a half million it has a small town quality. They have no pro teams so the University of Arizona is about it.
After we left the meal we headed to the U of A to buy our kids some tee shirts. Before we entered the gift shop adjacent to McHale Center I was approached by a local TV crew. The reporter wanted my opinion on the hiring of the new coach. I acted the part parsing from what I heard on the radio just minutes before.
I came off like I knew the subject matter. My opinion led the KVOA Channel 4 evening news at 5:00 and 10:00. Our family who we lunched with only an hour or so earlier was watching the news trying to get the very latest "breaking news" on the permanent replacement for Lute Olsen only to see my mug all over the screen.
Good luck to the Wildcats, it's a class organization and the community deserves a winner.
In Phoenix we stayed in a place at the base of South Mountain. the Sonoran Desert is not as lush in "The Valley of The Sun" but we did see two javelina around the lodge as we drove off towards California.
The CHP is out in force on California highways. They are writing tickets like never before, a budget thing no doubt. No matter to drivers, anything less than 75 is holding up traffic. 7o MPH is max here but in AZ it's 75.
