Sunset After The Rainstorm, In Chronological Order

I took a walk while Michael was putting Darcy to bed and captured the sunset while I assessed the rain damage further up the road. It's really too bad the power lines cut straight through our view to the west. The pictures aren't improved by their presence.

The Aftermath Of The Rain

This picture doesn't really have anything to do with the rain and its aftermath. I just really like this picture of Michael and Darcy on the rocks. We were trying, without success, to meet with some folks for Michael to climb with, and he was scouting for their car.

But this is the aftermath of the rain. This is our washed-out road. Our driveway joins the road on the right hand side of the photograph. Luckily, Kate came by the next day to test our water and very kindly dragged the road and driveway for us. We got more rain that afternoon, but nothing that caused further damage to the road.

During our post-flood walk, Michael and Darcy took advantage of the newly-formed curb for a short rest.

The rain and flood caused some gorgeous patterns in the sand. Our road has a layer of black sand that pops up in a few places; the storm uncovered quite a few patches. We think it's just a very iron-rich sediment of some kind.

And, again, this has nothing to do with the rain. Darcy wanted to go play outside after dinner tonight, but didn't want clothes. Michael took his guitar out and Darcy ran around and around, checking in with "Orville" every few minutes. Just thought I should show the scintillating social scene that is Cima, CA.

The Creatures Of Cima

We see a lot of critters around Cima House, ranging from tiny red ants to coyotes to (finally!) deer. I take pictures of some of them. Not the ants, so much, but I thought I'd share a few pictures that were lying around. Our resident herd of cows was showing off their not-so-brightness in this first picture. They are standing around a spot that had been a small water hole. They were frequent visitors to the water, which is smart. However, this picture was taken two days after maintenance fixed the leaking pipe that had created the water hole and there was no more water. The cows were there for fifteen or twenty minutes anyway. Not so smart.

Here are some quail and a cottontail rabbit enjoying the damp (and therefore somewhat cool) earth left by the outlet from our swamp cooler. We've had up to three cottontails, a jackrabbit, and two families of quail there at a time, jockeying for position.

This spider was on our bedroom ceiling as we were getting ready for bed one night. I took it's picture while Michael retrieved the spider-removal-kit. It lives, I assume, somewhere on the outside of Cima House now. A much better place for it. For scale, the strip going along the left hand side of the picture is the frame supporting the ceiling tiles. It was big. Very, very big.

This is not really a creature or at Cima House, but it's cute. We tried to meet up with some folks a couple weeks ago so Michael could go climbing. We didn't manage to find them, as there were some wires crossed about just where we were all supposed to meet, but we drove down a lot of dirt roads trying. I spotted this sweet bird's nest lodged in a cholla alongside the road and made Michael stop so I could take a picture. The construction was pretty impressive.

Rain Comes To Cima House

Up until yesterday, I'd been feeling slighted by the rain in these parts. I'd watch the storms come through the valley or we'd hear that Cima Dome was getting pummeled, but it would never come here, to Cima House. Then yesterday, we got home from Las Vegas having traveled over roads with sand and gravel washed over them in many places. I had high hopes. They weren't in vain. Our dirt road into Cima House had clearly been a river while we'd been gone.

I was mostly satisfied, but I wanted to see our road when it was a river, not after the water was gone. I'm greedy like that.

So when we started hearing loud thunder and I saw this lovely storm sweeping through the valley, I started hoping that maybe, just maybe, we'd get to see the river.

And so we did! Here's the stream heading down our driveway and out the gate. I went out in boots, under an umbrella to get these shots. My clothes are still very damp.

Our road, looking north from our property. Our driveway enters at the exposed apron.

And our road, looking south from our gate.

I took quite a bit of video, which I'll try to splice together into something presentable and get up in the next few days. I just have to remember how to do it; I haven't made a multi-video film since the one of the belugas in King Salmon.

105 Reasons I'm Glad We Don't Live In Baker Anymore

We went away for a few days for my birthday and got home last night. Late. When we drove through Baker at 10:30 pm, it was 105F.

Enough said, I think.

Oh! Whales!

Ok, so this isn't about Darcy or our life in the national parks much at all. But this article about whales interacting with humans is really worth reading. I cried. I want to go to the lagoons in Baja California now. You should read it.

(And yes, I know that I probably have a bigger soft spot for animals than most other people on the planet, but really, this is a wonderful article.)

The Continuing Saga Of The Wright Brothers

And a cute picture from the very start of our vacation, too. The night before we left for North Carolina, we stayed in Vegas as part of a park-and-stay deal at a suites hotel near the airport. It let us avoid paying airport parking fees and worked out almost perfectly. The return end wasn't so great, but everything else went smoothly. In the morning, after breakfast, Darcy played her first round (??) of golf on the hotels little practice green. This picture is really for PopPop (Dan).

It's now been a month since we went to the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk. We have fed the obsession a little by getting books from the library, but in our defense, that's because we didn't want to have to read the same board book seventeen times a day. Even with the other books, I read it five times yesterday. But really, I don't think Darcy needs our help on this one.

Michael and I are still Orv and Wilbur, respectively. Random children encountered at parks and libraries (and stores and parking lots and anywhere else) are generally greeted with a very enthusiastic, "Hi Orville! Hi Wilbur!" Much of her play is about the Wright Brothers, with her tent standing in for Dayton, OH. The doll that has been Christened Orv goes everywhere with her these days. He is needed on every car trip, comes into every store, has gone to story hour twice now. At her story hour, which is for the under-three set, they sing a bunch of songs where the parents are supposed to help out a bit with getting the right gestures and moves. For the good morning song, there's a lot of waving, and Darcy usually does it half-heartedly. But this week, she sat Orv on her lap and helped him wave his hand to the music.

The kicker for me, though, was Tuesday's addition to the phenomenon: When we were in town and she pointed people out to me (which is normal, for her), instead of saying, "There's someone else from story hour," she said, "There's someOrville else from story hour."

Uh-huh. SomeOrville else.