Virtual-Doug

Geographic Bachelor

The Mystery Guest Blogger is in Ohio as I write this - she's in the process of moving her mother here to South Texas.  Those cold Ohio winters are getting to be a bit much for her.

 So - - I'm alone.  Well kinda alone.  We've had our cat Bao for many years, but we recently acquired Jack.  Like Bao, he's a foundling.  When you see a kitten in the neighborhood, you're in trouble once you give it a name, so bringing him into the house followed soon after calling him Jack.  Obviously, Jack has been living in someone's home for awhile - just pick him up and he purrs.  He was in great shape when we found him, but he'll go in to the vets for a little snipping next week.  He is as rambunctious as most kittens - and drives the older cat nuts.

(Be sure to click on the photos to see a larger version.)

While I stay busy taking photos for the local weekly newspaper and my own web site, I do have a little   time to veg out - one eye on the television and the other on the laptop, which is always handy.  I'm not really a big television watcher, but I'll slip in an occasional movie DVD once in awhile.

 I'm a lucky guy - I'm married to a lady who likes the smell of a good cigar and has no problem with me smoking in the house.  My daily cigar is smoked at the end of the day - a time to get out the book I'm reading, put my feet up, and end the day with an Arturo Fuente or a Macanudo.

But, like a lot of guys who have worked all thier lives and can't bring themselves to sitting on the front porch whittling and am going back to work.   I have accepted a part-time job working at the University of Texas-Pan American for the brilliant woman who originally hired me ten years ago.

Life is good.

You Can't Do This in Việt Nam

One of the highlights of the Christmas trip to Colorado was to take Tuan and Trang skiing.  They had seen their first snow only a few days before - then we drove into the mountains to Copper Mountain.

 Yeah - it was cold.  I am a firm believer that taking skiing lessons is the only way to go.  Lift tickets, lessons, and equipment were all included.  But they made it through the process of trying on stiff heavy boots they had never worn before, then waited for the five hour lesson to begin.

 

If anyone can make it through the first two hours of ski school, then they will enjoy skiing.  Watching the two of them, I remembered the first-day strange feeling of sliding down a hill on boards strapped to your feet - and I remembered the labor of walking sideways up the little hill.  Everything feels so weird during the first few hours of skiing.

 Of course there was a little bit of friendly competition.  Trang let me know that she didn't fall  - at least at first.  Being the daring young man he is, Tuan pushed the limits a little more with predictable consequences.  I thought he was quite graceful when he fell.

But the reward for those goofy first two hours was being able to get on a ski lift and ski   down a nice trail on their own.

What fun - and it was mine to watch and enjoy.

Christmas in the Rockies

My brother and his very patient wife hosted us for Christmas - all four of us.  Tuan and Trang endured the long two-day drive from south Texas to Denver - but it was worth it.

It was worth visiting  Red Rocks, the huge outdoor amphitheater in the foothills.  It was a bit chilly that day, but the place offers spectacular vistas and a different geology than either of the Vietnamese had seen before.  Built during the depression, it hosts many concerts throughout the year.  I love how the place was kept "interesting" rather than just bulldozing everything down and build something from man-made materials.  It really is a very kewl place.  It kept Tuan busy with his camera and Trang busy posing.

It was worth it to experience snow - there were two snow storms in Denver while we were there.  I've already documented the first snow.  The next one introduced them to the more mundane aspects of snow - like getting rid of it.  I thought of having them shovel snow, but my brother has a snow blower.

It was worth it to harass the local population of Canadian geese.  Knowing its a lot more fun to hear them squawk and see them fly, she ran towards the feeding flock, waving her arms and making lots of noise so as to take pictures of them taking off.  Doing that is fresh-fallen snow made it even more fun.  The geese probably thought otherwise.

But, it was Christmas.  Trang had spent last Christmas with us in Orlando with our son and his family, so she had seen an American Christmas before, but Tuan had not.  With no kids around, we didn't get up particularly early and we all had to have a little coffee first, but then everyone dived in - and Trang played Santa Claus by handing out the presents.  We all got a bit goofy.

The Mystery Guest Blogger (otherwise known as my wife) loves to stuff the stocking with inexpensive but fun items - that is her yearly challenge to herself.  The old standby paddle-with-a-rubber band-and-ball made for a lot of laughs.

Even Rufus had fun and made a new friend.

Hope y'all had a Merry Christmas.

Monthly