Reading list

#12 The Hunger Games
#13 Catching Fire
#14 Mockingjay

How can you stop, once you start?  I want to see the movie, and not wait for it to come out on NetFlix.  Have I mentioned how much I liked Winter's Bone, the other movie I saw Jennifer Lawrence in?  It was supposed to be set in the Ozarks but could have been Suthern Orygun.  Watch it if you get the chance; I highly recommend it.

#15 Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult.  Recommended by Ellie and Kathy when we were discussing books over dinner a couple of weeks ago.  I enjoyed it for the medical and court drama, for the mystery, and for the interludes about wolf behavior.  Maybe especially for the Luke/Wolf interludes.  Thanks for the recommendation and I'll try her other 18 books.

#16 Today I'm reading A Night to Remember by Walter Lord in honor of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  It has always been a fascinating subject to me.  And yes, I do believe I have watched the 1997 movie (cough) several times.  I saw it three times the first few weeks while it was still at the theater.  Different people kept needing me to go see it with them (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

I'm pretty close to my one book per week goal for the year.  Some longer, some shorter, it evens out.

Bringing Dad Home

On Wednesday I flew down to Palm Springs to help Mom pack up and drive north for the summer. She had done most of the packing already, but we used our time wisely in packing the car and putting all the outside stuff in the shed (or what would fit) and in going out to dinner with friends.  Chada Thai in Palm Springs, South of the Border in Desert Hot Springs, you could eat out every night of the season and never hit the same place twice.

Next time I will have to get some pictures as I fly into or out of Palm Springs. From above you see myriad little oases. Green blocks with fountains and pools and palm trees.

I borrowed this picture of the airport:

Much of the concourse is open-air, and the architecture is stunning.

In bright contrast to recent weather at home, it was bright and sunny and flowers are everywhere.  It was, however, very windy.  Blow-you-down-when-you-come-around-the-corner and I-should-have-cut-my-hair-shorter windy.

The oleanders dividing the spaces are in full bloom.

I tried to capture an unusual (to me) bird that was flitting around the tree in Mom's yard, but lacked Tom's extreme lens.  It was only slightly bigger than a hummingbird.  From song and color tentatively identified as a Yellow Warbler.

Friday's weather was predicted to be bad. Very bad. Neighbors who would be driving large motorhomes or pulling trailers elected to wait an extra day. But as we would be driving Mom's Pilot we decided to go for it.

Goodbye, little desert house. See you in October.

The prediction for the Lucerne Valley had been for 100% chance of rain and winds with gusts to 60 mph.  When we got there we said "well, this isn't so bad after all."   But then . . .

We had to cross the Tehachapis.  Yes, it sometimes does snow in Southern California.  The little white speckles you see are outside, not rain drops on the windshield.  Mom's Pilot is quite sure-footed and I have done some snow driving . . . so this piddly amount barely slowed us down.  (I now like more than one "Pilot".)

Many of the natives were driving 40 mph in the slow lane with their flashers on.

Down into the Central Valley.  Glowering clouds but no tornadoes (though there had been a small on in Tracy the day before).

Here's Teddy in the motel room.  Mom and I shared the "Great American Experience": Motel 6 and breakfast at Denny's.  Then back on the road yesterday morning.

Clear and beautiful in the San Joaquin Valley in contrast to our last trip through in November.  Sometimes the air needs a good cleaning.

Above Lake Shasta it begins to look like home.  Fresh snow glistens in the mountains from the storm which passed through.  There was snow along the road just above Dunsmuir, but we ran into no more weather.

Mount Shasta peeks through the trees.  Her base was shrouded with cloud.

Over the top of the Siskiyous we drop down to the Rogue Valley and home.  Interesting how the clouds pile up before sneaking over the state line.  We see this time and again.

Now that Mom is home, we will have a Memorial Service for Dad on May 5th.  Mom has a well-written obituary to publish which I will ask for permission to post.

(And thanks to Mom for handling the photo-documentation while I was driving.)