Missing Idaho

It’s been a few busy days for me and an active week overall

The monthly hiking club meeting was last Tuesday night. I came to the meeting 45 minutes late so that I didn’t have to watch another person’s vacation slides from Hawaii last April. I’m just not a tropical person; my time in Haiti cured me of that, but some of the landscape photos were well done and of course the flora is out-of-this-world.

“You need to lead a few hikes!” said Brenda to me toward the end of the meeting, and I agree, but I just haven’t been able to get myself into the mountains this year. The garden has been my priority all summer long and I’m still not done. I hope to lead hikes starting in September, when a few fall hikes in the nearby sky islands would be ideal.

The long-awaited car camp to Idaho which the club had been talking about for a few months is now going to be from 19 August through 2 September. Hearing that was a little heart-breaking, as I so wanted to see Idaho finally, but it cuts into my college courses and the Lake Mead trip. I had no choice but to back out. Only four people are going: Brenda, Gordon, Steve and Paul.

Maybe next year I can finally see Big Sky country when I drive up to Montana, Idaho and northern Utah. I want to see the sites that Lewis and Clark wrote about in their journals.

After a heavy rain Wednesday night and soft ground to work with, I spent the last three mornings pulling weeds from the back yard by hand. Wednesday my back was so sore from the constant bending that I asked for some of K‘s Tylenol, which did the trick.

Pulling weeds for me is like eating tortilla chips: you just can’t pull one. You’re knee high to the ground looking at that prostate crabgrass and notice other weeds in the immediate area, and then more weeds. The more you pull, the more you see and you don’t want to stop while ahead. I have to force myself to stop and take breaks. And that’s when I notice the aching back, the cut-up hands, the dirt-stained knees of my jeans.

The monsoon has been good the last few days, hitting Tucson harder than here but probably because there are more paved roads there that flood over. The city got three inches Wednesday night, we got half that. The garden is in full bloom, and the oleanders are all in red and pink display. If it weren’t for all the pests now feasting on the garden, I’d say the garden looks very healthy.

But I am tired of gardening, burned out from working it practically every day since March. The corn is becoming infested wth mold and other beetles, the beans seem to have some sort of rust on them, and I find new pests in the garden every day. I feel like I am losing the battle! We had a big infestation of the tomato hornworm this summer. The garden is also full of leafhoppers, chiggers, armyworms and Mexican bean beetles. The red salvias in the front yard have spittlebugs.

I belive in organic gardening. It's safer and cheaper but it's more time-consuming. Sometimes the work to maintain a well-balanced garden is overwhelming, and the many pests remind me that I'm still not quite the master in the garden that I'd like to be.

The change of pace from constantly being on the road was relaxing and much appreciated this summer, but now I am ready to travel again. I was home locked this summer, perhaps the first time in years. I will resume my road travels be next summer. Now I have my school to concentrate on as I start my teaching certification process.

Getting myself registered for school was on my mind all week, as classes start Monday. The garden outside kept holding me back; I’d go outside as soon as Kevin left for work just to see what sort of weed flowers I needed to pull, and before I knew it, several hours had passed.

Watching the Olympic games was another distraction all week. Watching athletes try their hardest to win “the gold” and seeing their faces beam with pride when their national anthem plays for the world, is quite a tear-jerking sight. The Chinese sofar have done a great job, despite several allegations of cover-ups and denials. But I’ll leave those for after the Olympic torch is extinguished.

Driving into town was a daily event this week. I miss human interaction so when I got to speak to others, I reveled in the opportunity. On Thurday I stopped by both the Republican and Democratic headquarters to pick up campaign materials for both Kevin and me. Kevin said he is voting for McCain and I got him McCain materials. I am voting for Obama so I stopped at the Democratic headquarters. Both headquarters were open and staffed and accepting voter registration. I wanted to see if any Obama material was available.

I grabbed two bumper stickers and ended up talking to two volunteers. One, Meg, was very enthusiastic about supporting the Democratic candidates for positions, giving me a rundown of who was running for my district (25). I had no clue until Meg pointed that out to me.

One thing about the Democrats that makes me uneasy is its stance on illegal immigration. The Democrats seem to want uncontrolled immigration and hand-outs for all.
“Not at all!” answered Meg. “We just put a humane stance on this, as these are human beings we are talking about” I can’t argue that, and would not want to see human being abused in any way. But open hand-outs are draining our tax dollars.

“Not at all” continued Meg. “There is a $12 billion underground economy that is in our favor” she went on, “they pay taxes like the rest of us but don’t declare them. That money then goes to the state because the illegal immigrants are afraid to declare them.” She defended her stance quite well, and I admired her enthusiasm for the political process. We shook hands before I left. I hope to see her again.

I feel like I have 23 years to catch up with, 23 years in which I could have gained valuable experience as a teacher. I am overcompensating for my lack of experience with vigor and enthusiasm; I hope I don’t get shot down again in the classroom.

Yesterday I registered for my first college course in years: Arizona Constitution. It’s a required course for teachers. The admissions process and registration took me just little over an hour, and I was granted in-state tuition. I didn’t have to prove anything else but my driver’s license, although I had my vehicle registration with me just in case. (Where is my voter registration card?!?!)

My Ford Escape cost me $264 to register for the next 18 months. That’s $253 MORE than what it cost me when I was active duty! But the added costs are worth it. I seldom go on post anymore, and mostly to visit the garden shop or to see what the PX has on sale, which most often is very little and the tax savings are only worth it if the purchase is high, as the gasoline to travel the added ten miles adds up over time. The lowest price in town for regular unleaded is $3.75, dropping another two cents in the last two days. It hasn’t been that low since early June.

The track and field events at the Beijing Olympics are now in their second week. Michael Phelps, the faved US swimmer, evened the Olympic record set by Mark Spitz in 1972 (the first year I took note of the Olympics, when I was in Berlin) Mark Spitz was on NBC Sports to talk about his record being broken. Now grey-haired and sans moustache, he still looks great for his age. How old is he anyway? I remember he was a graduate student in dental school when he was an Olympian. He was one of my first crushes as a young girl, but now, 36 years later, there is no longer any evidence of Spitz’ once heart-breaking good looks.

Watching the events on TV, from gymnastics to swimming and now to my track events, I feel how old I have gotten. I am no longer th active woman from just a few years ago. My back is constantly in pain. I haven’t jogged since the Bataan Marathon. I don’t miss the running because running means sore and burning knees. My knees no longer ache. I still weigh the same since leaving the army and I watch what I eat. The dogs and our power walks around the neighborhood keep me in somewhat aerobic shape, but I no longer wake up wondering if I should jog the four miles around the foothills or not. Now I wake up and wonder if I should pull weeds or not.

What will my future hold? I hope to be employed very soon but now classes will keep me busy. Erin is in dental hygiene school too now and hopefully she will be certified next spring. I am so relieved that she is finally working on her future. Now I have to focus on Eric, who at 19 seems to enjoy just lingering at home and living off the welfare of his dad. At least I don’t have to worry about him being homeless. With his natural smarts it’s a shame, though that he’s not applying himself in any way.