Carolyn had made a commitment to Zach that when they moved into a new house and had a yard big enough we would see to it that he (and now Zoey) had a nice new "Playscape" (the modern day term for what was called a "swing set" when I was a kid) ... and so for their "big Christmas gift", Carolyn did appropriate internet research, some local shopping and comparisons and ultimately ordered online a "Gorilla Blueridge Outlook" playscape ... free shipping and no tax were both considerations plus the typical "end of year special pricing ..."

I'm not REAL SURE there was TOTAL awareness of the scope of the actual "construction" considered by all parties involved but regardless after a few shipping hassles were resolved a big semi truck pulled up to Scott's house a couple of weeks ago and "dumped" out 4 HUGE boxes that basically filled their garage ...

We arranged to at least start to build the playscape on Monday 12/21 while Brandi and Steven were in town and could lend a willing hand and as it turned out we were also blessed to have Scott's boss give him the day off unexpectedly, and a couple of Melissa's relatives on hand to help as well ... so we had a good sized team of willing labor even if NONE OF US had a clue what we were doing ...

The online reviews of this particular "kit" indicated 2 or 3 people could if all went well finish construction in 12-17 hours ... somewhat more than the 8-10 hours the manufacturer advertised ... I was not looking forward to this task.

The weather was good and we got started at 10AM ... we followed the recommendations to open all boxes and verify there were no missing parts, lay things out in an organized manner and carefully follow the 50 or so instruction steps ...

I've included a couple of photos here and there are MANY more taken by the official project photographer Brandi in the web picasa photo gallery at

Photo Gallery

A few pictures below ...

From Playset

From Playset

From Playset

From Playset

From Playset

From Playset

And ... 8.5 hours after we started ... and well after dark ... with a lot of help ... we had ...

From Playset

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Carolyn's dad, N.B. Willey will be 90 years old tomorrow, November 16, 2009. That is a pretty momentous milestone in one's life and we are glad to have had him around to enjoy our children and grandchildren. We hope he will be with us for many more years to come.

I was struggling with a "unique" idea for a birthday present several weeks ago and as it happened Carolyn mentioned on her return from a recent visit that her dad had lost his walking cane and had taken one of her mother's old canes and erroneously cut it too short for himself ... and that lead me to thinking that I ought to be able to find the "elements" of a handmade cane on the internet ... I have PLENTY of available cedar limbs that have been cut or broken off and dried for some time and should be very light and easy for an elderly person to carry.

Knowing absolutely NOTHING about how a cane might be fashioned I started wandering around the internet in my typical "research mode" and determined that there were not really that many things one had to know ... a cane has to be dry, comfortable to hold, have a handle that is comfortable to grip, a tip that will assist with stability and be of "an appropriate length for the user" ... that last part is a little nebulous but other than that it seemed within my limited skills if I could find the necessary parts.

A little more research and I found what I considered to be adequate pieces parts and went out in the back "yard" and mused around some piles of dead cedar until I heard a "stick" calling to me ... clearly this was "the one" ... so I drug it over to the back of the shop, cut it down to a manageable length and started pealing the bark off ... this exercise proved to be the most "difficult" part of the whole escapade but honestly was not that big a deal ... pealing, grinding, rasping and a little blood and I had a "naked" cedar stick. I cut enough off of the "big end" to serve in my judgment for a handle and proceeded to whittle, carve, cut and saw until I had a "stick" that I figured looked pretty "cane like". I fitted the top brass piece by whittling a round 1 inch "tenon" on the end and then went to work on the "handle" ... more carving, sanding and whittling I had had what I felt like would serve as a comfortable handle ... a bit more sanding and some finish application and I came up with this result ... I'm pretty pleased with it ... I will present it to Mr. Willey tomorrow night (11/16/2009) on his birthday at a small party arranged by one of his friends in Hondo, Texas ... I will try and get him to decide how much too long it is for him and then bring it back with me to get the final length set and the end cap/rubber tip installed ... I think he will be pleased!

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

The road home is long!! ... and we are ready to be home ...

Much against my "normal nature" (my anal nature) ... we decided to go "off the grid" this morning as we left Williams, Az (where we spent the night after seeing the Grand Canyon) ... "off the grid" being ... abandoning my carefully laid out heavily researched, strictly timed routing to our next stop in Las Cruces ... and head rather to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest National Park. ... OMG ... neither Carolyn nor I had ever seen either of those sights and we were "somewhere around 50 or so miles from the park ... we think ..." ... so ... off we go, completely without planning, time considerations, routing details ... aaaaggggghhhhh ... my anxiety was ... uh .... high ... but ... we have "Wicked Wanda" our trusty GPS system ... right??? ... so we should be able to locate the park with that and then get home ... right??? .... right??? .... aaaaagggghhhh ...

As we boogie down IH40 expecting to see a sign ... I'm madly checking out "attractions" on the GPS .... no "Petrified Forest National Forest" listed .... aaaggghhhh ... about 30 miles down the road ... FINALLY ... A SIGN" .... so we exit ...

From Bade's web log

... and into the park we go ... by the way ... it's basically a one way trip unless you totally backtrack ... so "where will we come out??? it WON'T be on IH40!! " ... aaaaggggghhhh ...

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

And as you can clearly see it was spectacular!!! ...

"Wicked Wanda" managed to locate us in the middle of the desert and generally in the middle of no damn where ... and told us how to find civilization ... the whole detour took an extra couple of hours and we wound up going much further North in Arizona and New Mexico than initial travel plans but managed to get to Las Cruces by about 6:30PM Mountain time ... we are in for the night ...

The class is done the sights are seen and tomorrow's 8-9 hours on the road should see us home by 5pm or so ... it's been an enjoyable trip but we are ready to sleep in our own bed, see our grandkids, eat good TexMex and get back into the regime of our life ... hope you enjoyed the ride ...

For those following my Lutherie web log you know I've been pretty focused for the last several days and basically dead dog tired when I get back to the hotel from "camp" and writing up that daily log. The folks at camp seem to really appreciate my dailies and so I've really tried to do that before crashing ... also I sadly have not adjusted to the time zone change and so am typically waking up sometime between 4am and 5am pacific time each morning ... makes for a long day.

The hotel we are staying at in "SLO" (pronounced "slow" and local shorthand for San Luis Obispo) is really very nice ... a suite with king bed, bath, "living room" with sink, microwave, fridge and bar, table, chairs, sofa and bar ... more than enough room for the week.

Carolyn has been chauffeuring me to the camp each morning ... we get up, she has breakfast supplied by the hotel (waffles, sweet roll, toast , juice ceral ...) and we leave around 7:30AM ... it's about 20 miles to Roger's house and takes about 20 minutes ...

While I'm at camp Carolyn has done some needle work and a bit of exploring around SLO ... it's a pretty college town (Cal Poly) of around 45,000 people nestled along the Pacific coast in very scenic rolling hills.

Since my meals are included in the camp price Carolyn has been having lunch and dinner alone and I feel bad about that but tonight (Thursday) she joined us at the camp for pizza.

After dinner tonight Carolyn and I drove back to the hotel (we got out early tonight) and took the trolley right out our hotel door to the "Farmer's Market" downtown SLO ... the trolley was a pricey 25cents per person each way ... the Farmers Market has been held here on Thursdays for the past 35 years or so and is basically a combination of the typical hill country farmers market where you can buy fresh produce and Night In Old San Antonio during Fiesta ... they block off a very long main street and vendors set up booths selling everything from strawberries and onions to psychic readings ... I took a few pictures and will post them later ...we bought some strawberries and cherry tomatoes and a bag of kettle korn popcorn and headed back on the trolley to the hotel ...

My lutherie camp will be over about 3:30PM tomorrow and we will stay the night in SLO and drive to Las Vegas starting early Saturday morning ... we will be staying at the Mirage and from there Sunday morning we will drive West to the Grand Canyon ...

We are having fun and look forward to being home ...

Bade

We left Palm Springs around 7:30AM PST and proceeded to San Luis Obispo. 

The wind was phenomenal as we left Palm Springs ... it was blowing sand and small rock all over the highway ... I was gritting my teeth thinking about what I suspect will turn out to be a pitted windshield and paint ... it was UGLY and Carolyn has all she could handle to keep MiniRita on the road through the mountains in the wind.

Palm Springs is a VERY picturesque  little town ... leaving Palm Springs ... not so much ... very very desert like ... think Egypt ... worse than West Texas ... hills, mountains, plains ... all sand ...

As we motored thru the outskirts of Los Angeles the wind died down for the most part ... once we got on Hwy 101 we had a better scenic drive but a couple of things became abundantly clear:

1 - California has not spent ANY money on road repairs in a LONG time ... and they need to ,,, pot holes, rough spots ... really bad at 65mph

2 - The further West one drives ... the less attention people pay to speed limits ... whether it says 65 or 70 or ... it doesn't matter ... people drive however damn fast they feel like and it is apparent that the highway patrol doesn't care or isn't staffed to fine the speeders ... I'd wager that a week of passing out tickets on IH10 or 101 would clear up the state deficit ... Carolyn and I have tried to stay at or just barely over the posted speed limits on this trip ... and when we were doing 67mph down 101 (posted 65mph limit) we were being run over by every vehicle on the road ... including highway patrol, trucks, busses, RVs ... I'm pretty sure I saw a horse drawn buggy zip past at 80mph ... and the motorcycles are definitely motoring along near 100mph ... it was scary and rampant!

We arrived at our hotel safe and sound ... it is a GREAT hotel, wonderful 2 room suite, good wireless internet (free),  good breakfast , heated pool and spa, fridge, microwave ... I think it will be perfect for the week!  The hotel is about 20 miles from the mandolin building camp.

I've posted my first log about the mandolin building camp over on my Lutherie Web Log  if you are interested take a look ... it's going to be a great learning experience I do believe ...

Gotta get an early start tomorrow ...

Bade

We left Las Cruces at about 7:45AM Mountain time and crossed into Arizona at 11:19AM Central time (using central time as a standard) ,,, crossed into California at 5:20PM CST so about 6 hours to cross Arizona.

We stopped in Tuscon for a bite of lunch and then right back on the road .... not much to say about the scenery ... Carolyn made me pull into a rest stop so she could take pictures of the big Saguaro cactus ... MOST of the speed limit thru New Mexico and Arizona was 75MPH it turned to a sorry 70MPH in California ,,, damn liberals!!!

In Arizona we came upon a fairly horrific site ... MANY emergency vehicles (fire & ambulance) in the center median where it was pretty evident a driver had fallen asleep or some such and crossed at a high rate of speed into the very wide and rocky median ... I couldn't see any other vehicles involved but debris was scattered over a large area and the car was in bad shape .... ugh!!!

THEN ... JUST as we crossed the California border and where the traffic was being slowed from 70mph to 45mph and then a full stop for a border check point ... RIGHT IN FRONT OF US ... at about 45-50mph a "mini-van" type vehicle rear ended a semi with trailer and broke the min-van pretty bad ... fortunately I along with others were slowing for the upcoming checkpoint and no other vehicles were involved ... it was literally one car in front of us ... WAY too close ... I think the mini-van driver didn't realize the truck was slowing WAY down and pulled into him changing lanes ... Carolyn called 9-1-1 and reported the incident, there were other cars stopping and we saw both drivers walking around so we proceeded on thru the checkpoint (less than 1/2 mile from the crash) ...

We pulled into Palm Springs right on schedule at 5:20PM PST (7:20PM Central) so it was a pretty long day ... we drove to downtown Palm Springs for dinner at Ruby's Diner ... lottsa folks walking around downtown ... seems to be a sort of RiverWalk without the river ... very dry air and pleasant temperature.

Up early tomorrow AM and 5 or so hours drive to San Luis Obispo ...

Well we have landed for the evening in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

We left the house at 7:45AM and crossed into New Mexico at 4:11PM
Central time ... almost 8 hours from home ... From just South of
Junction, TX until just South of El Paso, TX we had 80MPH speed limit
and that was very very nice ... made good time ... good weather all
the way.

So the 70MPH "speed" limit was a bummer on both ends but I expect that
may be what we see all day tomorrow through NM, AZ and into CA.

We got to our hotel, checked in, discovered that the "high speed"
internet connection is NOT wireless ... found a Radio Shack, bought a
too short but functional ethernet cable and discovered our "high
speed" internet wired connection is TOO DAMN SLOW to do much of
anything beyond simple text ...so we were not too sorry to see that
the Smithson Valley highschool football game is NOT broadcast over the
net ... cause it would choke this connection big time to try and
listen to a stream broadcast!

Had a good steak dinner at a Texas RoadHouse and have settled in for the night.

Up early tomorrow AM and headed to Palm Springs.

--
Bade
Like an old desperado ... painting the town beige