Time to Fly

I started my latest flight to the far south today. Leslie and Gina were nice
enough to take me to the airport. Instead of being able to make a short
55 minute flight to Denver, I had to fly all the way to Dallas and then to
Denver. I had a rare window seat and took lots of fun photos of the leaves
turning over the San Juan Mountains and all kinds of crop circles! After a
three hour layover in Dallas, I was pleasantly upgraded to a First Class Seat
for the two hour flight. What amazed me was when we received a meal
(which in itself is amazing on a domestic flight these days), we were given
a real knife and fork...made of metal! As my friend Ben later said on
Facebook, "So I guess the way to attack
the plane would be to check your box-cutter at the gate, but get first
class seats. Because no one ever hijacks a plane from first class. Hijackers
fly coach." I thought the exact same thing. Oddly, they didn't
give us a spoon. Is the spoon the new weapon of choice for terrorists?
Anyway, the day was about three times longer than it needed to be, but
it was uneventful and I picked up about 1200 Frequent Flyer miles instead
of 250. That's a good thing!

Ben Would Not Be Pleased

Ben is one my most loyal readers. Of course he would not be happy
with this blog entry. Over the past four years, we've been in communication
with the baseball coach at Grand Junction High. Our house is immediately
down the left field line of Fanning Field. If we get a window broken, the
school will pay for it. Although no broken windows, we've had a number
of balls land in our yard. Long story short, the head coach offered me a
varsity cap earlier in the summer and today I picked it up. Why would Ben
be unhappy? Because Ben went to Central High (GJHS' rival) and that's just
how Ben is!

Soon Not My Room

I pretty much have everything packed and am ready to leave.
Only just a few more days before the plane takes me outta
here! My side of the room is all but stripped and Ben's is
not...but Ben will be spending the winter in this room so it
is now his to do with what he wishes. The nice thing is, I
won't get a room inspection from Housing as he is taking
responsibility for it in it's current condition. In return, I will
do the same in October for him. This is the room that we
have every year, but because Lynn wasn't here this year,
it really didn't seem like home. Seven roommates in all
made it a trying season. I know this room will be cosier
next year.

Blue...Really?

The future is here. And I'm not liking it.
A project that is seemingly taking all summer
is the painting of Building 155. And what a
horrible color it is too! Not a happy sky blue.
Not a cheerful robin's egg blue. Blue...I have
no words for what color of blue it really is
although I plan to find out. It reminds me of
the dark blue chalk that comes in one of those
multi-color boxes teachers use on chalk boards.
I've heard that almost all of our buildings will
eventually be painted this color. The reason?
Because all of Scott Base's buildings are painted
one color. However, their buildings are all
Chelsea Cucumber (a kind of mint-chocolate-chip
green). This is just ugly. The blue does give
more credence to my roommate Ben's theory about
the color blue in the Galley though. The color
blue causes one to want to eat less, therefore
saving the Program money. That's why so many
things in the Galley are blue. Trays, cups,
paint trim, the clock, the Dining Attendant's
shirts, the tile floor... So, why not paint the
entire building that houses the Galley blue as
well. Will our appetites be beaten into total
submission by the color blue...or just our eyes?

Time on Our Hands

Combine the fact that it was a cloudy morning with the fact that
my back was almost as red as my Oklahoma t-shirt (too much
pool), it was a perfect day to drive around the Valley and see
some things that needed to be seen. In our case that means
things that are cheap (free?) and what we might stumble upon.
Finding the Desert Botanical Gardens ($15 admission each) and
the Frank Lloyd Wright House ($30 admission each) a bit beyond
our price range, we opted for old standbys. Lynn wanted to visit
a yarn store in Mesa called the Fiber Factory. No, not the place
where Metamucil is made, although that might be an interesting
trip for another time...but one of the "best" yarn stores in the
Southwest. I have to admit that it was pretty nice if you're into
that sort of place, which Lynn is and the people working there
seemed very knowledgeable about Antarctica and Colorado.
However, they thought Colorado was cold all the time...shhhh...
don't tell them it's not!


While I was waiting for Lynn to peruse the yarn store from top to
bottom, I sat on the "man couch" and read a small newspaper
distributed by the Downtown Mesa Association. In it, they talked
about a "favorite" local Mexican restaurant just down the street
named Mangos Mexican Cafe & Bakery. In a word, it was
AWESOME! Lynn had the Chimichanga and I had Enchiladas and
even the chips and salsa beforehand were great. I found out later
that it had received 5 stars on several internet sites. I especially
liked having to walk through the kitchen to use the restroom.
All very authentic and real comfort food. As much as I love Mexican
food, we hadn't had any real Mexican food in a restaurant since
we came back from Ecuador. I love Taco Bell, but that doesn't
really count...neither does our new discovery, El Pollo Loco.


One of the main goals as we headed out the door was to
visit some used bookstores. We've visited both Bookman's
in Phoenix already, so we wanted something less commercial.
We found it walking back to the car from Mangos. The Book
Gallery. A really nice used bookstore, all of the books are
in good condition and don't smell of mildew. Something we've
run across quite a bit in used book stores. Lynn found a few
knitting books and I found a good book on Colorado
geography and then I stumbled across the "Flag section". Yes,
they actually had a small section of flag books. In it, I found
"Flags Through the Ages and Across the World" by Whitney
Smith. He is the man who coined the term "Vexillology".
I used to check this book out of the Naperville and Denver
Libraries and have seen battered versions of it for sale over
the years but never found a really good copy of it. Here it
was. Only problem...$35...Ouch! However, since the book is
already 34 years old and has been out of print forever...plus
the fact that this copy was in pristine condition...I had to bite
the bullet and buy it. Maybe I can sell some plasma or
something down the road to afford it. Later on, I looked it
up on Amazon and the cheapest copy is available for $106.
Definitely not a price I would pay for a book. I definitely
made a good purchase.


I drove by my old condo in Chandler and took a few pictures
since I didn't have any digital copies (yes, that sounds weird to
me as well) and even past the place where I wrecked Lynn's
Camry leaving the Dairy Queen in 1995 (no photos here
however). Afterwards, we were driving up I-10 toward
downtown Phoenix when there appeared an IKEA in Tempe
on the right hand side of the highway. We'd never been to
an IKEA before and we felt like browsing. For those who
don't know, IKEA is a huge (store size) Swedish-owned
household goods store that has locations around the world.
Everything in the store is VERY reasonable and affordable.
We're looking at making some updates to our house in the
next five years so we were really encouraged that we could
shop at IKEA and make some of the changes we want down
the road without bankrupting ourselves. Only trouble is, the
closest location to us is in Salt Lake City. Not very convenient,
but maybe someday.


Lastly, we stopped at the Barnes and Noble (sorry Ben) at
the Chandler Fashion Mall. Mainly because they have free
internet! They've made a deal with AT&T (boo) for free
internet access in all of their store cafes around the country
and if we get a small coffee, I don't feel so bad about
abusing their bandwidth. I'm finding that more and more
places are offering free Wi-Fi although here's the part of
this post where I complain. Our hotel only offers it in the
lobby for free, not in the rooms. If you want access in your
room you have to pay $9.95 per day. How is it that
seemingly every Motel 6 or Super 8 across every interstate
highway in America can offer "free" Wi-Fi access in their
motels, but a "resort" charging much more charges a
ridiculous price to do so. There...that's been bothering me
for the last 4 days and it's off my chest! And yes, I'm
smiling as I type this!

All My Roommates

The day finally came this week...I received a roommate. I was lucky
enough to not get one for the entire time since Lynn left and I was
hesitant to talk about it since I would either jinx myself, or someone
would find out that I didn't have one and that would be the end of
that. Realistically, I'm sure Housing probably knew I didn't have a
roommate but since there are 200 or so less people here this year,
they didn't need the bed space.

Over the years here, I've been lucky enough to have only three roommates.
Lynn of course is the best. She puts up with my snoring and my perpetual
paper blizzard. I also basically worship the ground she walks on...I'm
a lucky guy.


Atlas was my roommate a few years ago when I came down and Lynn
was camped down the hall in our winter room, but the other occupant
of the room hadn't left yet. Atlas was nice enough to take me in...and
put up with my snoring. I was scheduled to be in a room with three
other people in B-155 and he had no roommate, so I was able to move
in. It was a nice situation.


My newest roommate is Ben. Ben and I worked together for several
winters in Housing and he was the Food Monkey in the Food
Warehouse for several years in Supply. Ben is a good guy, but
has one huge flaw...he's a Mets fan. I suppose I will learn to
overlook this small hitch in his character...maybe :)