This Oughta Be Good

My nearby Rocky Mountain National Park recently got a new superintendent - the first woman for that park. One of the questions in her newspaper interview was about how hard had it been to work her way up through the ranks, and she said she'd never had any obstacles in her career path. She's about 50, I'm guessing with all the problems national parks have these days: hiring freeze, budget cuts, climate change denial, deteriorating infrastructure, record numbers of visitors, I think men didn't want that job, and that's partly why she had no obstacles.

I'm so sorry. It was so nice that you were able to treasure John's memory by finding a good home for Buster and his last days were happy.

I laughed out loud at the having to use two keys business. Now, all that is behind you. If it was me getting rid of all that adversity and work arounds, I'd wonder what I was going to do with all the newly-found spare time. But time has a way of filling itself.

Las Vegas has gotten more moisture in the last couple of months than fell here in Colorado. If the weather doesn't straighten out, this summer is going to be very hot and dry. I'm considering storing the family photographs in town in case of fire because there are so many boxes it would take a long time to load them into a vehicle if we were told to evacuate. Take it easy out there - drink lots of fluids, and I don't mean margaritas.

That's cute. Now I wish I'd gone to the store on the 14th.

Have you seen the movie Bernie starring Jack Black? There is a plot element of getting people from another county to be on a jury, and one of the outtakes was: "those cousin-countin rednecks over there, I mean they got more tattoos than they have teeth, and there ain't a brain in the dozen of them, and they're gonna have to decide something important like this" and several other pithy put-downs. The thing is that the movie is based on a true story, so somewhere in Texas or wherever there must be a county full of people who have been insulted. If the put-downs were true or semi-true, they probably don't realize it, might even be flattered.

But I agree with you on the Bill Cosby thing. I wish some other folk whom I shall not name here would be called to task for their handsy-ness.

Sounds yummy.

The first warm weather always inspires me to spring clean the house. If it's a false spring, I sit really still until the mood passes.

My mother was born a few days after you, and she left home at age 16 to move to Denver. After she graduated from business school there, where she met my dad, she moved up to the next town to where he lived and had an apartment upstairs in Mr. and Mrs. Thompson's house. We visited them often when I was growing up and our favorite thing was to sleep over in that place our mom lived one time.

Yes, says it all.

Thanks for the update, I think back to when you lived in Mexico and how much we enjoyed the stories of your life down there. It was sad that conditions down there deteriorated so badly that you had to leave, but it brought you back to Oklahoma where you continue to make a difference.

Are you going to have a Great Martin's Oscar Party?

Many times I've thought the supporting actor/actress did a better job than the lead.

Sounds exciting to have something to get started on and look forward to the final product.

This reminds me of a recipe I have for Grand Canyon Cake - different colors of batter layered in the pan, and then create some craters in it when done. I have never made it, and don't know if I ever will, but enjoy thinking about it.

I wonder how many good movies on the average come out a year - I'm sure you know. Do they all make it to the Academy Awards? You know one I can't stand? The Hours. I saw it a few years ago and couldn't understand why Nicole Kidman got an Oscar for it. I tried to watch it again the other night, and decided the reason was the entire movie feels like slogging through 2 feet of wet concrete - slow and boring and wooden actressing by all three main characters - so she probably got the Oscar because the voters figured it wasn't her fault, or maybe it was for other things she'd done in that past where she really did deserve it maybe.