I started CAYLWAWRAL almost three years ago to document, well, a whole hell of a lot of stuff, actually. Way too much diversity for one blog.
In the intervening time, and because of that complexity, I began to split off a lot of my publicly-oriented content into twin topical blogs that have since grown to be held in modest esteem within our community and geographic area.
This morning I completed the other side of that transition by creating a new family blog that will be unlisted and accessible by invitation only. That's intended to replace and improve upon the personal side of CAYLAWRAL.
I have reached my limit on this idea of blog-as-faceplate. I have never been comfortable with the personal branding, air-brushing and showmanship that have infected the blogosphere, which is precisely why I always tried to include as much general value-added content as possible in CAYLAWRAL, even though it didn't fit stylistically with the personal and family material.
In order to be existentially valid, a blog has to serve somebody with a purpose more profound than simple ego puffery. And in order to really serve, it has to be honest and an accurate representation of reality. My two topical blogs are less personal in nature and therefore it's appropriate to keep them public, but the honest and accurate nitty-gritty family stuff is intrinsically private and needs to be kept that way.
The new blog is intended primarily to serve the CAY in CAYLAWRAL, the CAY who is now a teenager facing an order of magnitude more life responsibility as a pending adult. Those of you family and close friends who are reading this will get an invitation with a sign-up URL shortly.
I extend a warm thank you to all of you, the tens of thousands (!) of you, who have accessed sections of CAYLAWRAL. I hope I've been able to bring you some good ideas or a tiny bit of inspiration along the way. I will leave CAYLAWRAL posted up for the time being, because I can see statistically how that content is still being sought.
Thank you, and good luck to you all in your respective lives.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Sunday, July 31, 2011
It's a dog's life
General demeanor of Guava while being tortured by children (no sound with this video because I'm currently limping along with a fairly neat phone, the HTC Trophy, which unfortunately is rendered all but useless by Microsoft's corresponding Zune software and its fatal sync error, meaning I get video but no sound, and no JPG syncing at all):
Cay was cooing this morning (with respect to the dogs), "These are my children. I've got a boy, and a girl."
She does for the moment, at least, as we continue to look for a home for this mild-mannered and highly tolerant pup.
Cay was cooing this morning (with respect to the dogs), "These are my children. I've got a boy, and a girl."
She does for the moment, at least, as we continue to look for a home for this mild-mannered and highly tolerant pup.
 |
| We can dance, but we can't sync. La la la... Once you fail to sync with Zune, it's Game Over, because Windows Phone doesn't provide you with any other alternative. It's back to the Verizon store, and my Droid should be FEDEX'd to me by Tuesday. |
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The key of C
Believe it or not, I did manage to open Cayley's mind to one of my favorite movies of all time: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a John Hughes classic so loved that even a fan's recut trailer got over a half million views on YouTube (the original trailer was crap, failing to capture the essence of the film it was intended to promote).
Ferris' $8,000 synthesizer was reportedly an Emulator:
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| www.wikipedia.org |
So we couldn't make it cough and we couldn't make it fart, but it has a few hundred other voices:
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| OK, laughing, nothing radical about that. |
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| Car pass?? And if that's too mild for you... |
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| ...you can always make it go BOOM. |
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| Demonstrating once again the strange priorities we hold as a society, it's acceptable for a keyboard to emulate a machine gun, but not a bodily function common to everyone. |
Friday, July 15, 2011
Can(a)d(a)id Camera
One in a million to us, but one in a hundred in this particular public assembly.
Enjoy the video:
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| That good-lookin' guy in the lower left hand corner is none other than Grandaddy Canada!! |
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Dancing dogs
"When the student is ready, the teacher appears."
In this case, the teacher would seem to be beagle-sized. This stray appears to be an unusually quick study for a dog that seems to have had very little socialization prior to the past couple of days of Cesar-inspired gentle assertive handling. Here's hoping we can find him a good home.
In this case, the teacher would seem to be beagle-sized. This stray appears to be an unusually quick study for a dog that seems to have had very little socialization prior to the past couple of days of Cesar-inspired gentle assertive handling. Here's hoping we can find him a good home.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Hurricane Lawee: Art imitates life
I knew that aesthetics were calling for a circular mirror in our outdoor room, but it took Lawee to inform me that we actually needed five of them:
The mirror arrangement represents a stylized hurricane:
This design pays homage to the fact that hurricanes have played such a prominent role in our lives here on the upper Texas coast, and in Galveston County in particular.
It's also a nod to the fact that we nicknamed Casa Caylawral "the hurricane house", because in order to get to it, one must make the first left turn followed by the first left turn followed by the first left turn followed by the first left turn - in other words, one must access the house by spiraling counterclockwise, just as its northern-hemisphere namesake does.
And of course, for good measure, I note that all good art is intensely cross-referencing. In this case, the right-ascending diagonal on the exterior wall echoes the right-ascending diagonal formed by the house's main hallway:
Unfortunately the dynamic sense of movement that this art piece produces is totally lost to the camera. Lawee did a wonderful job in designing this feature, but it just doesn't show well here.
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| The new table is made of reclaimed teak and we got it at Home Source. The saddle stools are from o.co, one of my favorite internet retailers. You would not believe how difficult it is to find 18" saddle stools. 99% of those for sale are bar-height (24" to 30"). |
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| Hurricane Ike, which changed everything around here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hurricane_Ike_off_the_Lesser_Antilles.jpg |
It's also a nod to the fact that we nicknamed Casa Caylawral "the hurricane house", because in order to get to it, one must make the first left turn followed by the first left turn followed by the first left turn followed by the first left turn - in other words, one must access the house by spiraling counterclockwise, just as its northern-hemisphere namesake does.
And of course, for good measure, I note that all good art is intensely cross-referencing. In this case, the right-ascending diagonal on the exterior wall echoes the right-ascending diagonal formed by the house's main hallway:
Unfortunately the dynamic sense of movement that this art piece produces is totally lost to the camera. Lawee did a wonderful job in designing this feature, but it just doesn't show well here.
As you walk by the array of mirrors, the scene accessed by each appears to evolve independently, giving a much more intricate sense of complexity and movement than a single mirror would provide. Your eyes simply don't know what to settle upon first, which is essentially the same reaction you have when faced with the Real Thing.
 |
| Clear Lake waterfrontage near El Lago, the day after landfall of Hurricane Ike September 14, 2008. |
Friday, May 27, 2011
Closing the loop on tying the knot
Today we filed a piece of paper with the County Clerk finally registering our common-law marriage. This option was philosophically favored by Libertarian-minded Lawrence, as it consists of an act in which we tell the government what we've already done, rather than the government giving us its permission to do something (i.e., via a marriage "license").
Common law marriage is fully legal in Texas, but the devil is in the details: it can be difficult to establish rights without going to Court to prove each and every separate instance in which those rights apply. So if I got hit by a bus, it might be difficult for Lawrence to make medical decisions for me, even though I assigned him medical Power of Attorney several years ago which theoretically should be valid regardless of our marital status. And if I kicked the bucket, he'd have a hell of a time trying to collect survivor benefits from Social Security if he couldn't produce a registration or license.
For those reasons, a registration route exists by which a common-law marriage to a state-sanctioned marriage but without formality and without endorsement by a third party. In a hold-over from its frontier days,Texas may be unique in the extent to which self-declared marriages are recognized legally: all a couple need do is live together and represent that they are married, and they are married, by law. But it's administratively more efficient when the marriage is registered.
It's a bit of a tricky concept. Thus far, Cayley has been the shrewdest in grasping where this option fits on the continuum of "togetherness". The first words out of her mouth were, "So if you guys broke up now, would you need to file for a divorce?" Answer: Yes, absolutely. And that, of course, is the ultimate litmus test for whether a state-sanctioned marriage has actually formed.
I'm SO romantic, ain't I?? Well, I've got a hell of an appropriate bedfellow to continue having and holding in that regard. I won't even bother telling the entire story about how Lawrence contemplated declaring our anniversary as coinciding with the calendar date upon which Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrodinger published his famous "Schrodinger's cat" manuscript, because I seriously doubt that anyone could comprehend his rationale.
:-)
So how's this for romantic:
What could possibly be more romantic than 6AI4V ASTM Grade 5 (aircraft-quality) titanium with a Gibeon meteorite inlay showing its signature Widmanstatten pattern?
:-)
Yeah, I know, I know. Not everybody's cup of tea, but we thought it was absolutely delightful, and an appropriate nod to Lawrence's aerospace engineering education and current career as an ISS Flight Controller.
Actually, Lawrence's invoking Schrodinger's cat during this process was more a propos than it might first appear, because when we would sit down to plan any kind of conventional marriage, it felt like we were trying to herd cats. Talk about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle! Every time I'd get one or two of those cats corralled, another few would go flying off in another direction - a quantum quandary metaphorically manifest in socio-consanguineous n-dimensional space!
:-)
So by letting the situation naturally evolve this way, we have removed one pesky layer of complexity from our equation. We reserve all future rights to ceremoniously reinforce this commitment that we made to each other and to Cayley several years back, to re-take publicly the private vows that have long since characterized our union. But now we have the option of doing that in a less-loaded framework of expectations (whew!).
And - oh yeah! - in case it hasn't been obvious during the past four years, we're very happy.
;-)
Common law marriage is fully legal in Texas, but the devil is in the details: it can be difficult to establish rights without going to Court to prove each and every separate instance in which those rights apply. So if I got hit by a bus, it might be difficult for Lawrence to make medical decisions for me, even though I assigned him medical Power of Attorney several years ago which theoretically should be valid regardless of our marital status. And if I kicked the bucket, he'd have a hell of a time trying to collect survivor benefits from Social Security if he couldn't produce a registration or license.
For those reasons, a registration route exists by which a common-law marriage to a state-sanctioned marriage but without formality and without endorsement by a third party. In a hold-over from its frontier days,Texas may be unique in the extent to which self-declared marriages are recognized legally: all a couple need do is live together and represent that they are married, and they are married, by law. But it's administratively more efficient when the marriage is registered.
It's a bit of a tricky concept. Thus far, Cayley has been the shrewdest in grasping where this option fits on the continuum of "togetherness". The first words out of her mouth were, "So if you guys broke up now, would you need to file for a divorce?" Answer: Yes, absolutely. And that, of course, is the ultimate litmus test for whether a state-sanctioned marriage has actually formed.
I'm SO romantic, ain't I?? Well, I've got a hell of an appropriate bedfellow to continue having and holding in that regard. I won't even bother telling the entire story about how Lawrence contemplated declaring our anniversary as coinciding with the calendar date upon which Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrodinger published his famous "Schrodinger's cat" manuscript, because I seriously doubt that anyone could comprehend his rationale.
:-)
So how's this for romantic:
 |
| Awwww... |
:-)
Yeah, I know, I know. Not everybody's cup of tea, but we thought it was absolutely delightful, and an appropriate nod to Lawrence's aerospace engineering education and current career as an ISS Flight Controller.
Actually, Lawrence's invoking Schrodinger's cat during this process was more a propos than it might first appear, because when we would sit down to plan any kind of conventional marriage, it felt like we were trying to herd cats. Talk about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle! Every time I'd get one or two of those cats corralled, another few would go flying off in another direction - a quantum quandary metaphorically manifest in socio-consanguineous n-dimensional space!
:-)
So by letting the situation naturally evolve this way, we have removed one pesky layer of complexity from our equation. We reserve all future rights to ceremoniously reinforce this commitment that we made to each other and to Cayley several years back, to re-take publicly the private vows that have long since characterized our union. But now we have the option of doing that in a less-loaded framework of expectations (whew!).
And - oh yeah! - in case it hasn't been obvious during the past four years, we're very happy.
;-)
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Subconscious surprise
Home design has really been fun for us precisely because we are not skilled at it. We usually don't know in advance what any particular space will call for, but we know we can figure it out, because the old adage holds true: where good design is concerned, we'll know it when we see it.
Quite often, the results of this fumbling-toward-artistry process are totally unpredictable, and thus provide us with the sheer joy of discovery.
Take the case of our little game table, for instance. For months, this thing has been whispering to me that it needs something very specific on the wall above it: three cheap back-of-the-bedroom-door mirrors lined up side by side.
What?!? No kidding - that's what it told me it needed. Logically, this didn't make any sense to me, but finally I succumbed yesterday and brought three door-mirrors home from the hardware store (one can always return things that do not work in a space). They cost a whopping $9.99 apiece.
When I first started rough-fitting these things, I said to Cayley and Lawrence, "I don't know about this... does it look too 1970's Grandma-style? Too busy? Do I need to return these to Lowes and get a real mirror custom cut?"
Immediately the both of them issued an emphatic NO, especially to the idea of a solid mirror. They agreed that the space needed a series of long skinny mirrors and that a custom-sized mirror would look too chunky.
I know when I hear immediate reactions from them both like that, I have to listen, because they're onto something, even if none of us consciously realizes what that is.
And so it was. Once I got the door-mirrors dry-fit to the wall, the subconscious integration broke through and the logical explanation hit me firmly upside the head. At that point I asked, "Lawee, why do the three skinny mirrors look right?" He replied, "Because they cross-reference the three windows opposite them." And I said, "No, that's actually not the answer at all. Look again."
Inside each of our brains is a distinct separate identity who engages in a thought process completely independent of our more conscious lines of reasoning. Those other identities are very primitive and they don't speak English, but they are extremely wise and totally aware of the world around us. And if we listen carefully, they can tell us some surprisingly delightful stuff.
:-)
Quite often, the results of this fumbling-toward-artistry process are totally unpredictable, and thus provide us with the sheer joy of discovery.
Take the case of our little game table, for instance. For months, this thing has been whispering to me that it needs something very specific on the wall above it: three cheap back-of-the-bedroom-door mirrors lined up side by side.
What?!? No kidding - that's what it told me it needed. Logically, this didn't make any sense to me, but finally I succumbed yesterday and brought three door-mirrors home from the hardware store (one can always return things that do not work in a space). They cost a whopping $9.99 apiece.
 |
| It looks a bit bizarre in isolation, but read on. |
Immediately the both of them issued an emphatic NO, especially to the idea of a solid mirror. They agreed that the space needed a series of long skinny mirrors and that a custom-sized mirror would look too chunky.
I know when I hear immediate reactions from them both like that, I have to listen, because they're onto something, even if none of us consciously realizes what that is.
And so it was. Once I got the door-mirrors dry-fit to the wall, the subconscious integration broke through and the logical explanation hit me firmly upside the head. At that point I asked, "Lawee, why do the three skinny mirrors look right?" He replied, "Because they cross-reference the three windows opposite them." And I said, "No, that's actually not the answer at all. Look again."
 |
| Can you see the answer yet? Lemme help ya... |
 |
| The aspect ratio of the long skinny mirrors was repeated in all the inset panels of the kitchen cabinets... |
 |
| ...and prior to the addition of the long skinny mirrors, there was no consistency and the resulting view was improperly weighted. The eye was not able to travel across all three walls and register spatial balance. And if there's one thing that the subconscious brain (aka "the gut") objects to, it's discord of any kind. So what my brain was REALLY whispering to me was, "You need to finish this array by repeating the motif." |
:-)
Friday, April 29, 2011
Precedents public and private
How auspicious for the British royal couple that they were wed today in the very London abbey where I once nursed my little girl!!
:-)
We didn't set out with the intention of nursing in that amazing place, but a baby's gotta eat when a baby's gotta eat, and so that's what happened.
And of all my memories of England, that's definitely my favorite - the old-world embrace of natural maternity. Whereas so many Americans become uncomfortable or upset at the sight of a nursing mother, Europeans don't even bat an eyelash at that which is such a vital part of the Natural Order of Things. I've long since stopped nursing, but I still miss the healthier attitudes toward that and other aspects of human sexuality and reproduction. Long live the Queen and her throne ascendants!!
:-)
:-)
 |
| Do you see the woman in the large turquoise hat near the lower right corner? That's where we sat. |
 |
| Souvenir from our baby book. |
And of all my memories of England, that's definitely my favorite - the old-world embrace of natural maternity. Whereas so many Americans become uncomfortable or upset at the sight of a nursing mother, Europeans don't even bat an eyelash at that which is such a vital part of the Natural Order of Things. I've long since stopped nursing, but I still miss the healthier attitudes toward that and other aspects of human sexuality and reproduction. Long live the Queen and her throne ascendants!!
:-)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Room with a chew (or two)
We are hard at work on a major addition to our outdoor room and I will soon have neat-o pics of that.
As we are absorbed in that fun-filled task, there are reminders around us that the universe is continuing to unfold on its own terms, which may not always be the ones we'd hope for, but some of it is running in a definite theme groove here. For instance, as soon as I saw this scene below, I said to myself, "Uh oh... Sir Lawee the Duke of Arlington is not going to be pleased..."
And then along analogous lines, there's the issue of our dog, not one iota reformed in her mandibular ways even after her near-death chew-fest fallout:
Anyway, with that, I must leave you biting your nails in anticipation of what all the outdoor room fuss might be about.
;-)
As we are absorbed in that fun-filled task, there are reminders around us that the universe is continuing to unfold on its own terms, which may not always be the ones we'd hope for, but some of it is running in a definite theme groove here. For instance, as soon as I saw this scene below, I said to myself, "Uh oh... Sir Lawee the Duke of Arlington is not going to be pleased..."
 |
| CHOMP!!! Raccoon? Opossum? I'd guess the omnivorous latter. But I can't figure out how it managed to get into the yard. Musta climbed the fence (possums are excellent climbers) because nothing has tunneled underneath. This is what I get for being so caught up in room-building that I forget to harvest the tomatoes. |
 |
| No kidding - this is not a staged photo. One of my work gloves landed on the ground and within about three minutes, she had eaten (not just chewed) four of its five fingers, curiously leaving just The Impolite Finger, perhaps as a way of saying "F*ck y'all and f*ck death, too - I'm gonna eat poisonous sagos and everything else I put my mouth to!" |
;-)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
A win and a save
Let's just say that we had more than one reason to celebrate today: one is back from the dead, and the other is back on top.
The CONGRATS balloon is for Miss Cayley, who took a trophy in at the Houston Science & Engineering Fair this weekend, an absolutely amazing accomplishment!
The WELCOME HOME balloon is for our dog Nyx, who spent the past three days in the hospital, first in the animal-analog of an intensive care unit (ICU) and then at our regular vet for continued IV and drug treatment.
Nyx ingested a piece of sago palm root, which none of us knew is often lethal to dogs - and humans - if consumed (the damned dog seizes every opporunity to eat indiscriminantly - we haven't been able to break her of that behavior). Internet references place the canine mortality rate around 50%. Our emergency room vet said that, in her experience, the mortality rate is more like 80%. I had to sign a piece of paper acknowledging that Nyx would likely die even if we expended all the medical effort and corresponding money to save her - heavy stuff!!
Sago causes liver necrosis followed by death. As of this evening, Nyx's liver is not functioning in normal ranges, but it has improved since the weekend and the vet thinks this is a very optimistic sign that it can recover (the liver is the only mammalian organ that can regenerate). The vet gave me her personal cell phone number this evening as we were checking out of the hospital. She said, "I'm giving you this only because I don't believe you're going to need it."
For once, I think I've posted more pics and fewer words. Things are good at the moment. More later.
 |
| In addition to this, she has been invited to apply for a slot in the Broadcom Masters national competition in Washington DC. |
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| Bright lights, BIG big city... Attempted art shot of the irridescent stuff coating the trophy. |
Nyx ingested a piece of sago palm root, which none of us knew is often lethal to dogs - and humans - if consumed (the damned dog seizes every opporunity to eat indiscriminantly - we haven't been able to break her of that behavior). Internet references place the canine mortality rate around 50%. Our emergency room vet said that, in her experience, the mortality rate is more like 80%. I had to sign a piece of paper acknowledging that Nyx would likely die even if we expended all the medical effort and corresponding money to save her - heavy stuff!!
 |
| Cayley wanted a cake that was "exuberant" because "Nyx is exuberant". I myself have been called "irrationally exuberant", but not lately. |
 |
| Alert, oriented, clear eyes, but you can see that the rear limbs are not behaving exactly as they should, here being splayed at odd angles. In addition to causing liver necrosis, there's reportedly an unknown additional toxin in sago that affects limb movement. However this odd motor control effect is not apparent when Nyx is moving around. In stride, her coordination appears perfect. She still has a catheter inserted in her front leg just in case she has a relapse and needs additional fluids. |
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| Celebratory dinner. I love Lawrence's face in this photo. It's the face that says, "My ass has officially been worn out by all this stuff." |
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| Drug regime. The dog is now officially a junkie. Incidentally, the term "MT" is an old environmental waste management shorthand. It means "empty". In this case, take that pill on an MT stomach. |
 |
| This is sorta sick, but I told her I'd buy her a new fluffy bed if she would agree to live. So far, we are both holding up our ends of the bargain. I tried to get the bed in a good color to coordinate with my rock rug, because that's where Nyx spends most of her weekdays hanging out - in my office. Methinks she likes it. She is very tired, though. |
Friday, April 8, 2011
Everything (Scientific) is Bigger in Texas
The finalists from among greater Houston's approximately one million (!!) school children assemble today at the George R. Brown Convention Center (aka "the GRB") to compete in the 52nd annual Science & Engineering Fair.
The Fair is a three-day process. Yesterday was sign-in day.
Cayley won Clear Creek ISD first-place gold medals in Grade 4 (a wildlife investigation in 2008), Grade 5 (the famous mammoth tooth project in 2009), and Grade 6 (a prophetic pre-Deepwater Horizon oiled bird cleaning experiment in 2010). However this year, with her fourth District medal win, is the first year she is eligible to compete in a regional fair and according to the international rules, in what is called the "Junior Division". The whole thing is very complicated, being sponsored by a nonprofit called the Society for Science and the Public, as well as major corporate sponsor Intel. And it's really heavy stuff: successful children at the high school level go on to compete internationally for over $4 million in prizes!!
We are looking upon this year's participation as a feet-wetting experience, rather than as a bona fide competition for Cayley. We did not build as much value into this year's project as we had done in previous years, and that was partly a deliberate decision (due to other personal considerations) and partly an involuntary decision (the vacant lot upon which the project was conducted was sold before we could fully develop the project, a turn of events that we had determined at the outset to be an acceptable risk). It was a darned good idea for a project, but that combination of factors led to a resulting data set that we think is really too limited for advanced competition.
Anyway, we are infinitely proud of Cayley for making it all the way to this regional competition!!
:-)
A few parting shots from the GRB yesterday:
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| The exterior of this convention center, which is as distinctive as it is massive. The GRB covers six city blocks - the building is about 1,570 feet long and 400 feet wide! |
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| Buncha buses!! Note that this photo-melange represents a TINY subset of the total. Greater Houston has about thirty independent school districts. Not thirty schools - thirty districts!! Houston ISD, the seventh-largest in the country, has over 200,000 students and a billion-dollar annual budget. Cy-Fair ISD has about 92,000 students. Our own ISD (Clear Creek) has 38,000 students. |
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| Thankfully, there were about fifty people working the sign-in desks, so no bottleneck there. |
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| One view of the display floor, looking northwest. Along the rear wall of the arena were troubleshooting desks and (yes) souvenir sales!! |
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| View looking southeast from Cayley's display station. |
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| The sign-in and set-up processes were rigorous. The project board had to be inspected by two independent representatives of the Fair's governing board before we could exit the arena for the night. |
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| "I'd rather be texting, thank you". She was dressed much more formally for today's competition, but Mom is not allowed to take many photos these days, because that would be way too uncool. |
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| The project involved evaluation of different industry-standard methods for controlling sediment pollution from active construction sites, but... |
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| ...this is a picture of our former project area today!! The experimental areas were bulldozed, but a new family will soon be moving in next door to us! :-) |
:-)
A few parting shots from the GRB yesterday:
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| They may be the area's most talented young scientists, but they're still just kids!! :-) |
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| Attempted art shot inside the GRB. |
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| The eclectic south Houston skyline looking north from the GRB, with historic houses backdropped by skyscrapers. |
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
BBRSP
That's a funny acronym in the title, isn't it?? Almost looks like a belch - "Brrrrrp!!"
But really it stands for Big Bend Ranch State Park, which is where the Lawral subcomponent of Caylawral journeyed last week.
I must do a travelogue of this one, but I thought I'd burp up a few pics here to start with.
On the subject of those travelogues, people usually respond with something like, "They are absolutely stunning - but how do you find the TIME to make them?!"
I reply, "Well, if you notice, I only do one or two each year!!!"
:-)
Anyway, here's two thirds of this year's backcountry team:
Now journeying through the fourth year of our relationship, Lawrence and I are evolving out of the self-absorption that characterizes every new relationship, and instead we are experiencing the natural inclination to be more inclusive in our activities. While it is certainly still necessary and enjoyable to spend some "alone time", we really missed Cayley on this trip (she was in Hawaii with her bio-Dad).
Initially we didn't know whether or not the dog would adapt well to the demanding travel circumstances that characterize our west-Texas wanderings, but she did, and we were glad to have her along - she helped fill a void. As we were en route back to Houston, my summary lament was, "Well, we just had this wonderful bonding experience with the dog, but I really would have preferred a wonderful bonding experience with the child." So we know what our goal is for our next camping trip. And in the meantime, stay tuned for the travelogue on this one.
;-)
But really it stands for Big Bend Ranch State Park, which is where the Lawral subcomponent of Caylawral journeyed last week.
 |
| View looking across the Chihuahuan desert from the Cinco Tinajas trail. |
 |
| My favorite pic of the trip: Nyx in Closed Canyon, waiting patiently for me to catch up, like the good (Australian) shepherd that she is. |
I reply, "Well, if you notice, I only do one or two each year!!!"
:-)
Anyway, here's two thirds of this year's backcountry team:
 |
| It was abnormally hot, 100 degrees F in the shade, and Lawrence served as Nyx's water valet, hand-carrying her blue bowl down the canyon, for the frequency of water stops. Despite the substantial environmental stresses, she looks like a happy dog, doesn't she?? She was an EXCELLENT trail animal, taking to both her backpack and the demands of the trip with aplomb. |
Initially we didn't know whether or not the dog would adapt well to the demanding travel circumstances that characterize our west-Texas wanderings, but she did, and we were glad to have her along - she helped fill a void. As we were en route back to Houston, my summary lament was, "Well, we just had this wonderful bonding experience with the dog, but I really would have preferred a wonderful bonding experience with the child." So we know what our goal is for our next camping trip. And in the meantime, stay tuned for the travelogue on this one.
;-)
 |
| L showing off canyon-walking skills gained from a winter's worth of working out. |
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