A "G-Rated Journal" That Even My Mother Can Read (because she does!)
Effervescence is a state of mind. It's about choosing to bring sunshine to the day.
Every person I meet matters.
If it's written down, I know it (If it's not written down, I don't know it)
If it's color-coded, I understand it (If it's not color-coded, I don't understand it)
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Daddy-do and me, 2010
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Estrella: Part Two (with pics!)
If you missed the first part of the tale, it was here.
Estrella Part One-and-a-Half: Some Pictures of the Good Parts - Of course, if you click through to the album it self before reading the rest of the story, well, you'll see the spoilers. But the whole album is up, and here's a few highlights.
Only click this one of the boys, if you want to browse the album and see the spoiler photos:
Lot and Michael, goofing around with "Caid's first Cadet" (that's the red scarf on Michael's arm, and the irony is that Michael's already a Don and Caid doesn't have Cadets):
Two proud recipients of the Corde Guerre (a war-time combat award), Diego and Meala:
Estrella Part Two: The Wild Ride Home - Now, the TRUE irony is that Wilhelm bought me a t-shirt and gave me a surprise gift while we were packing. The shirt reads as follows:
We were packing everything up, and someone said outloud "I just want to get home while it's still Monday." This is an important foreshadowing!
We were actually all packed at 12:07 pm (Lot was hoping to be done by noon), but the first adventure was about Gideon's car. I've found out since the event that he actually had problems with his car *before* he came out to Estrella. But once the mechanic said "Good to go," he made the trip to Arizona from California just fine. Unfortunately, the car wouldn't start for the drive home. So we had to wait for the flat-bed tow-truck, and we needed to follow his car to the shop.
The shop couldn't look at the car for another hour, so we headed over to WalMart to pick up snacks for the road. Some of group when just a little bit nuts in the Easter Candy aisle (giggle). Gideon rang up the shop, and they couldn't get the replacement alternator until the next day. So he booked a hotel that was supposed to be "just across the street" from the WalMart Super Center, and we got directions and prepared to take him to the hotel.
Who would ever expect that a little tiny town in the middle of the Arizona desert would have TWO WalMart Super Centers? After three U-turns with three cars, and one of them an SUV towing a trailer, we finally found directions on my Blackberry internet and headed over to the *other* WalMart 18 miles away! (Poor Diego, who was sick in the backseat of the SUV... Every time he opened his eyes, we were back in a WalMart parking lot!)
It was about 3 pm when we finally had Gideon at his hotel and our caravan ready to hit the road. We filled up with gas, and got on the I-10 heading West (the only road we were going to see for the next six hours, right?). We were hoping to head up to Phoenix and have a nice sit-down dinner at a steak house.
But only 10-minutes down the road, we were shouting on the walkie-talkies to Raphael to have him pull over immediately. The driver-side trailer wheel was giving off smoke, and on further inspection, it wasn't the tire. IT WAS THE WHEEL. The lug nuts themselves had carved out the center of the wheel. The whole thing was really only balanced by gravity, sort of. So Raphael tried calling Triple-A for some assistance, and really wasn't getting any help from them at all.
So there we are. Five people, three cars, stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the Arizona desert, really in the middle of nowhere.
Here's the guilty wheel, itself, artistically posed with dear Elisheva:
What happens? A suped-up van hauling a horse trailer pulls over. Four SCA members from An Tir (that's Washington state and British Columbia, basically) hop out to see what's up and how they can help. Sylverstone immediately takes everything into hand, and organizes getting everything off the trailer, into the cars, the van, on top of, and ON THE SIDES of the horse trailer. He's convinced we can get =everything= tied down somewhere, and that nothing will be left on the side of the road.
He was right. Three hours later, everything was tied down or stuffed in a vehicle, including the guilty wheel, the sides of the trailer, everything was saved.
And here we are, being rescued!
Now, as soon as we were all in the vehicles, it was pitch dark and suddenly started raining. Yes, we were not only rescued, but we had light and good weather until we were safely battened down inside, and beginning the caravan home to Los Angeles.
You might be wondering why these four rescued us when they really were planning to drive to WA or BC. CA isn't normally on the way. Well, it's even more elaborate than the kindness of fellow SCA members, who saw the SCA stickers on my car and decided to stop and see if we were okay. No, they were also on their way home to WA and BC by way of driving to Pasadena, CA because four other members of their kingdom were in a horrible car accident the night before. Their SUV and trailer they were hauling was smashed up in a jack-knifed semi-truck accident at 2:30 am at the intersection of the 210 and 134.
The news story on the crash can be found at http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_050100825.html and photos of Emiel's truck can be found at http://new.photos.yahoo.com/pluto4202003/album/576460762390360593.
All of Emiel's crew were actually fine, but their truck and trailer were completely destroyed. So they were waiting in a hotel in Pasadena, waiting for Sylverstone to pick them up and bring them home to WA & BC.
And remember the foreshadowing? I was joking, as the day got later and later, that if we made it home before 3 am, it would still be Monday in Hawaii, and HI is part of our Kingdom. So as long as it was "still Monday in Caid" then we made it.
We pulled into the Dudley's at 2:54 am.
* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Sylverstone, Howitzer, Genevieve, and Isabella -- Our Heroes!
Estrella Part One-and-a-Half: Some Pictures of the Good Parts - Of course, if you click through to the album it self before reading the rest of the story, well, you'll see the spoilers. But the whole album is up, and here's a few highlights.
Only click this one of the boys, if you want to browse the album and see the spoiler photos:
Lot and Michael, goofing around with "Caid's first Cadet" (that's the red scarf on Michael's arm, and the irony is that Michael's already a Don and Caid doesn't have Cadets):
Two proud recipients of the Corde Guerre (a war-time combat award), Diego and Meala:
Estrella Part Two: The Wild Ride Home - Now, the TRUE irony is that Wilhelm bought me a t-shirt and gave me a surprise gift while we were packing. The shirt reads as follows:
We were packing everything up, and someone said outloud "I just want to get home while it's still Monday." This is an important foreshadowing!
We were actually all packed at 12:07 pm (Lot was hoping to be done by noon), but the first adventure was about Gideon's car. I've found out since the event that he actually had problems with his car *before* he came out to Estrella. But once the mechanic said "Good to go," he made the trip to Arizona from California just fine. Unfortunately, the car wouldn't start for the drive home. So we had to wait for the flat-bed tow-truck, and we needed to follow his car to the shop.
The shop couldn't look at the car for another hour, so we headed over to WalMart to pick up snacks for the road. Some of group when just a little bit nuts in the Easter Candy aisle (giggle). Gideon rang up the shop, and they couldn't get the replacement alternator until the next day. So he booked a hotel that was supposed to be "just across the street" from the WalMart Super Center, and we got directions and prepared to take him to the hotel.
Who would ever expect that a little tiny town in the middle of the Arizona desert would have TWO WalMart Super Centers? After three U-turns with three cars, and one of them an SUV towing a trailer, we finally found directions on my Blackberry internet and headed over to the *other* WalMart 18 miles away! (Poor Diego, who was sick in the backseat of the SUV... Every time he opened his eyes, we were back in a WalMart parking lot!)
It was about 3 pm when we finally had Gideon at his hotel and our caravan ready to hit the road. We filled up with gas, and got on the I-10 heading West (the only road we were going to see for the next six hours, right?). We were hoping to head up to Phoenix and have a nice sit-down dinner at a steak house.
But only 10-minutes down the road, we were shouting on the walkie-talkies to Raphael to have him pull over immediately. The driver-side trailer wheel was giving off smoke, and on further inspection, it wasn't the tire. IT WAS THE WHEEL. The lug nuts themselves had carved out the center of the wheel. The whole thing was really only balanced by gravity, sort of. So Raphael tried calling Triple-A for some assistance, and really wasn't getting any help from them at all.
So there we are. Five people, three cars, stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the Arizona desert, really in the middle of nowhere.
Here's the guilty wheel, itself, artistically posed with dear Elisheva:
What happens? A suped-up van hauling a horse trailer pulls over. Four SCA members from An Tir (that's Washington state and British Columbia, basically) hop out to see what's up and how they can help. Sylverstone immediately takes everything into hand, and organizes getting everything off the trailer, into the cars, the van, on top of, and ON THE SIDES of the horse trailer. He's convinced we can get =everything= tied down somewhere, and that nothing will be left on the side of the road.
He was right. Three hours later, everything was tied down or stuffed in a vehicle, including the guilty wheel, the sides of the trailer, everything was saved.
And here we are, being rescued!
Now, as soon as we were all in the vehicles, it was pitch dark and suddenly started raining. Yes, we were not only rescued, but we had light and good weather until we were safely battened down inside, and beginning the caravan home to Los Angeles.
You might be wondering why these four rescued us when they really were planning to drive to WA or BC. CA isn't normally on the way. Well, it's even more elaborate than the kindness of fellow SCA members, who saw the SCA stickers on my car and decided to stop and see if we were okay. No, they were also on their way home to WA and BC by way of driving to Pasadena, CA because four other members of their kingdom were in a horrible car accident the night before. Their SUV and trailer they were hauling was smashed up in a jack-knifed semi-truck accident at 2:30 am at the intersection of the 210 and 134.
The news story on the crash can be found at http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_050100825.html and photos of Emiel's truck can be found at http://new.photos.yahoo.com/pluto4202003/album/576460762390360593.
All of Emiel's crew were actually fine, but their truck and trailer were completely destroyed. So they were waiting in a hotel in Pasadena, waiting for Sylverstone to pick them up and bring them home to WA & BC.
And remember the foreshadowing? I was joking, as the day got later and later, that if we made it home before 3 am, it would still be Monday in Hawaii, and HI is part of our Kingdom. So as long as it was "still Monday in Caid" then we made it.
We pulled into the Dudley's at 2:54 am.
* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Sylverstone, Howitzer, Genevieve, and Isabella -- Our Heroes!
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