Vomiting puppets and a mouse meal

A pretty door along the Meet Me at Maynard's route

Before we get into our activities I need to get a couple dreams off my chest. One of the things my father and I have in common is weird and vivid dreams. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be) I rarely remember the dreams but this week was an exception.

Two dreams I woke up from I immediately shared with Joan (which does no good because she is such a sound sleeper that even when I wake her in the middle of the night, she really isn’t awake) but in explaining them to Joan it helped me to remember them later.

I repeat them here in the hopes that someone can help me interpret these dreams.

Joan in front of "Griffen"

Dream No. 1: I was wandering around a familiar place – not sure specifically where – with two puppets under my control. They appeared to be Muppet-like creatures with me holding the strings. Each time I pulled on the strings they both vomited. Gross, I know, but that’s what they did. Large volumes of vomit came out of their furry mouths each time I pulled the strings.

Joan’s interpretation was that I was recently telling her about a time that me and a couple buddies were in the Alex Theater balcony in Glendale, California and quietly opened a can of vegetable soup (I think we got this idea from one of my relatives) made vomiting sounds and then poured the soup down on some unsuspecting folks on the main floor. We got into serious trouble and were asked to leave the theater after that prank.

And just to be clear I was there when it happened, but I neither opened the can nor poured it over the balcony. I was asked to leave along with about six of my closest friends.

Scenery along the Maynard's walk

Dream No. 2: Joan and I were visiting an acquaintances’ home (I know the acquaintance and it may or may not be a family member so I’m not mentioning them here) and for dinner we were offered “fresh mouse meat” or “spoiled shrimp.” Even in the dream it seemed an odd and difficult choice and fortunately I woke up before I learned our final decision.

Joan has no interpretation for the second dream as we have not been talking about eating mouse meat or spoiled shrimp.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog.

“Meet Me at Maynard’s” was our Monday activity, but we later learned out we missed out on a great “Fun Band” night in the ballroom here at the resort. Sometimes there is just too much going on at the same time here.

Starting up a steep mountain along Bug Springs Trail

Joan was ecstatic that she was able to walk the two-mile course at the MMM night in downtown Tucson. Wearing her new hiking shoes she kept up a good pace and was really happy to complete the course in just about one hour flat. It is great to see her doing so well with her knee recovery.

Maybe next year I can get her to hike up Mt. Wrightson with me. After the downtown hike we had dinner at Diablo Burger and each had a burger. The hamburger meat was out-of-this-world (of course it cost $11 for a hamburger) and instead of a traditional bun used an oversized English Muffin. It was a very tasty burger.

On Tuesday I headed out for one of my favorite hikes, a trek on the Bug Springs Trail, which last year was snow and ice covered and extremely treacherous. This hike has a very steep opening act, a rise of about 1,000 feet in a little less than a mile. No snow or ice this year.

A more tranquil part of the trail

After the lung busting first part of the hike, the rest of the trek settles into a more gentle up-and-down that presents tremendous views. The first part (the steep part) is in the shade, but the second part of the hike is in the open with the sun beating down on you. The views are great no matter what part of the hike you are on.

After getting home and cleaning up, Joan had cooked up a meatball dish to take to the “Hiker-Biker” potluck which is the season-ending party for all of us who hike and bike at the resort. Some of the hikers are also bikers, but there are a large number of folks who only take part in one of the activities so it was a chance to meet even more new people.

The view from our snack stop

The park has three separate bike groups, a long distance road group, a short distance road group and a medium distance desert biking group. None of them appeal too much to me as yet, although I might give it a try next year. Falling off a bike into a cactus is not something that I would look forward to doing. And it does happen. Plenty of flat tires too.

Wednesday started with my workout at the fitness center and Joan at her aquacise class and then I made a run to the post office to mail a check to our well guy who finished repairs at home at a cost much less than we had anticipated, so that was good news. It’s always good to be on the right side of your well guy, trust me. He refers to us a “good, loyal customers” and he gives us a nice break for being quick to pay.

My snack perch over the ledge

Anyone who is willing to work outside in the current weather should get paid on time, in my humble opinion.

After getting home from the post office, Joan and I headed to the ballroom where all the local activity groups were displaying their wares. I could have displayed my “Eagle” with the “Easy Bleeders Wood Carving” group, but I decided my meager creation was not up to the standards of some of the other offerings. I’ll put up a couple photos here so you can see what I’m talking about.

The quilters, silversmiths, ceramic, photography, sewing, genealogy, stain glass, wood working shop, scrapbooking, glass fusion and many more activity groups were on hand to show the many beautiful things they made this winter. There are truly some very talented folks who stay here.

It wouldn't be a hike without a 'thumb's up" from Jim

There is also a couple writers’ groups in the park, but I get all the writing fun I want just doing this blog, so there is not so much of an appeal to me in that. But who knows, maybe next year I’ll stop in.

Joan is interested in bringing our family photos down next year and taking the scrapbooking class so she can put them into some kind of order.

I spent the rest of Wednesday working on my Bible study and also making phone calls for my next blood drive in Michigan. An American Legion brother is handling the drive in person, but I am still responsible for setting everything up and making the calls to potential donors.

Me at the high point of the Bug Springs Trail

Thanks to my sister-in-law Patty, who sent me an article about Buffalo wings, I talked Joan into making Buffalo style chicken wings for dinner and then at 7 p.m. we went to Ash Wednesday services here at the resort.

Not sure what is in the wind, but there has been a virtual air show from the National Air Guard base at the Tucson International Airport and from the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in the last few days. Plenty of A-10 Warthogs and F-15s buzzing around the airspace this week. In addition we have seen lots of Blackhawk helicopters and C-130s flying over the resort as well.

Last year when one of my hiking mates complained about the noise from the jets, I just replied that I enjoyed the daily air show. “Consider it the sound of freedom,” I said.

Heading down

Since my last report on the Big Horn Sheep, two more have been turned into lunch by local mountain lions. Of the 31 Big Horn Sheep released into the mountains, only 16 remain. The other 15 have become Purina Mountain Lion food.

In one of the great euphemisms, the Game and Fish Department spokesman said the mountain lion responsible for the most recent deaths was “removed.”  The media explained that the lion was shot and killed.

There is growing angry sentiment among the animal rights folks that it is time to round up the remaining sheep and remove them from the mountain lion buffet table. I’ll keep you posted.

My wood carving group - great name eh?

On Thursday we went to a great lecture given by a former F-15 pilot who was a career Air Force Officer who commanded a squadron at the nearby Air Force Base. After his retirement from a 25-year career as a fighter pilot and commander he went to work for Raytheon, the local missile maker here in Tucson.

His lecture was a detailed look at all the air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles produced by Raytheon. It was especially interesting because the speaker had fired a number of the missiles during combat missions in Iraq and had also fired a number of them in training missions.

Some more of the carvings

This guy stepped right out of central casting for a fighter pilot and just close your eyes and imagine your image of the perfect fighter pilot and you have this guy. His wife came with him and he gave a moving tribute to her and all the families and the sacrifices they make in being connected with a career service member.

For one thing, he and his wife had lived all over the world and moved 18 times in 25 years. Most of the work for those moves were done and supervised by his wife.

After the lecture Joan did laundry and I did my usual mule duties in hauling the dirty and clean clothes back and forth between the trailer. While Joan did the laundry I worked on making my blood drive calls (I have 300 people to call every two months to remind them of the North Branch American Legion blood drive). Made a good dent in the list and finished it on Friday. We had a quiet night with grilled cheese and ham sandwiches and a side of tomato soup for dinner. Yum.

Some of my friend Hap's work

Friday was also a quiet day with most of the day spent around the trailer and we went to a very funny show at the resort Friday night. Dan Bennett, a comedian and juggler, was the featured entertainer and he was very funny and skilled at what he did. His running commentary was hilarious, but his juggling was even better.

One of his better jokes: “Men, why do we always ask for sex, but never ask for directions?”

My other favorite was “Did you know that 5 million people tuned in to television to watch President Obama’s inauguration and only 7 of them had to miss work to see him?”  There were equal jabs at Republicans, but I can’t remember them right now.

The pottery group

Living in a senior complex like we do in the winter presents one with a variety of ways to get injured or killed. I’ve already mentioned the many warnings I received about being on the roof of my trailer and how a man died last year after he fell off his roof onto his head.

I’ve almost been run over by golf carts and bicycles and hiking up and down mountain trails presents several options for injury or worse. There are poisonous snakes, steep cliffs and the simple strenuous act of climbing up a mountain are just a few other ways to face a little danger.

This Saturday morning, on the way back from the shower, there was almost a collision between a golf cart and a bicycle at an intersection in the park.

The stain glass group

There are also subtle signs that things are starting to wind down in the park. For one thing, there are many more empty RV spaces. The trash and recycle bins are not filling up as fast as they were last month and the concerts are having more and more empty seats.

By next month at this time there will be a lot fewer folks, including us.

So Saturday afternoon we drove to the Tohono O’odham Cultural Center and Museum in Topawa, Arizona on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. This is the follow up to the lecture we heard here at the resort a couple weeks ago.

Jewelry making

The drive is about 90 minutes from Tucson and goes past Kitt Peak which is on the Tohono O’odham Reservation.  By the way, the name of the tribe is pronounced Ta-hone-ooh Audumn (like the word autumn with a “d” instead of a “t”).

As it happened we were there on the day of the cultural center’s open house and were one of maybe only five non-tribal folks at the open house. There were a couple cultural presentations that we attended and they invited us to join them for a free lunch.

The Tohono O’odham reservation is the second largest in the country. Only the Navajo Reservation is larger. The reservation has 11 districts and the people have three distinct tribes (the mountain people, the river people and the desert people – which was the area we visited.)

Horses running loose on the reservation

The cultural center is the result of gaming money and is truly a beautiful building. From what we heard there is a bit of a tug-of-war among elders whether they want to encourage outside visitors. So far the elders who are discouraging a market campaign to attract “outsiders” is winning, we heard.

On the way to the museum (and on the way home for that matter) we noticed that horses wander loose through the streets of Sells, which is the main town north of Topawa where the cultural center is located.

Of course Joan was ecstatic that she saw horses in the road to prove her theory and constant warnings to me about loose livestock. She made me stop and take a picture of the horses in the road.

Part of the Tohono O'odham museum grounds

One of the presentations we heard was about the efforts to recover Indian graves and artifacts which were looted over that past 150 years.

I believe I have a fascination with Indians – Native Americans – because I grew up with a grandmother who had a house decorated with portraits of all the great Indian chiefs. By the way, many of the Indians here call themselves “Indians” we passed several schools on the reservation which had names like “Indian Oasis” and the mascot for the high school was the “warriors.” So I don’t believe it is disrespectful to refer to them as “Indians.”

Unfortunately due to tribal customs we were not allowed to take photos inside the museum, but I grabbed a couple shots outside.

The mountain in the background is sacred to the O'odham

As we left the resort to head to the reservation we called OnStar for directions, but I didn’t know the exact address. When I unsuccessfully tried to say “Tohono O’odham Cultural Center” the nice caller finally asked me to stop pronouncing it and said:

“You don’t need to try and pronounce it again, I am a Native American and I know what you are trying to say.” 

Even then she couldn’t locate an address to the place so she sent us to the city center of Topawa, Arizona, which is quite a feat because there really isn’t a “city center” there.

Onstar also introduced us today to a new road designation. In Texas we had the FM roads (Farm to Market). The roads on the Indian reservation are designated BIA roads. It took us a minute but we figured out that meant Bureau of Indian Affairs Road.

A beautiful Saguaro

It was small enough that we were easily able to find the building standing out among all the little houses there. One thing we have learned and been told is that you must strictly observe speed limits on the reservation. They have their own police and they don’t take kindly to outsiders speeding through town.

Because we had the nice lunch provided by the museum, gratis by the way, we skipped stopping for dinner and headed home to watch the news. Once again the big news today was about those poor Big Horn Sheep in the mountains.

Protestors demanding the end to the Big Horn Sheep experiment were protesting at a hearing Saturday of the Game and Fish Department. Some were wearing Big Horn Sheep masks and others were chanting “stop killing lions,” while others had signs saying “We (Heart) Predators.”

Just remembered another of Dan Bennett's jokes: "If God didn't want us to eat animals, why are they made of meat?"