Political Intrigue in Dinetah

"Dinetah" is the name the locals call the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the US:

The dine is what they call themselves (Navajo for "people"). While we drove through the Nation during our Decemberween trip, we stayed in Kayenta (check the map for more detail, like the location of Kayenta, Tuba City, and the tiny hamlet we shopped in while staying in Colorado, Cortez):

I bought a reservation newspaper while we stayed in Kayenta, and read through it with the vicarious view of a mostly informed tourist---informed in terms of knowing structurally what their sovereign government would resemble.

Right on the front page there are three main articles, one with the picture above the fold and story below, on the left; and two on the right, one above the fold and one title above the fold, and all three are connected in various ways.

The story on the left tells the tale of the President and the Vice President's beef, their non-working relationship, about how the VP has accused the President of sexual harassment or misconduct; about howe the President scoffs at those accusations, about how those accusations have arisen from his demands that his VP get work done for the people of the Nation. It tells how the Prez had taken the VP's security detail away, as well as her vehicle. It's pretty crazy.

The top story on the right hand side tells the story of how the Navajo Nation's Attorney General, after completing the investigation into the VP's sexual harassment claims---there were no actions that rose to the level of sexual harassment by the party of the President is the main conclusion---the AG was removed from office by a tight vote of the tribal council.

The article directly below it tells the story of the Nation's first-lady---the President's wife---being appointed the Attorney for Apache County in Arizona. She has acknowledged the peculiarities about the position, especially since the 70% of the county is on the reservation and thus, Navajo Nation land, too. I'm not sure if this matters, but she's not yet 30 years old.

Good for her.

I think this may make for an interesting dramatic movie...Navajo Nation fraying behind the shadow of larger political turmoil; the perseverance of a long forgotten and generally oppressed people amid worse machinations at the federal level...

Maybe just a clearly told story would be captivating enough. I think it makes sense that I may not be the best voice to tell the story...people looking like me have been telling these people's story for far too long.

Movie Traditions

Before we had kids, Corrie would, on New Year's Eve, marathon watch the second of the Lord of the Rings movies---The Two Towers and The Return of the King. We didn't have The Fellowship, so it was never involved.

Anywho, Cass has been interested in knights and armor and battles---because what kid isn't?---and Corrie said, Well, there are these crazy vivid, involved, movies that have monsters, wizards, magic, sword-play, HUGE battle scenes, ghost armies, tiny half-sized people...it's pretty cool! And Cass's eyes went wide and he said: What the sigma are we waiting for (this is new slang for us oldies)?

So, before we left for Colorado, Corrie put on the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings films. The 12 hours of epic movie split nicely over two weeks---somedays we'd watch an hour, others an-hour-and-a-half---always ending for bed or shower at a reasonable place.

I didn't catch all of the extended versions, but from what I did see, some things were filled in, or nuance I was unaware of got explained. Like Aragorn being 87 years old, and being one of the "dudes who live for a few hundred years" typed of humans. I had no idea...

Anywho number two, that left Corrie and I with the desire to watch something new on New Year's Eve, and we had settled on wanting to put eyes on Ivan Reitman's "Evolution" from summer of 2001. We had just driven through the beautiful Glen Canyon area of Utah and Arizona---the site for where the movie takes place---and we quote it regularly...so the decision made sense.

One evening back in the pre-9/11 summer of 2001, Corrie, Tony, and I went to see this movie in the theater, but not in San Luis. We drove down to Arroyo Grande to a tiny single-screen theater (most likely the Fair Oaks Theatre), most likely having been drinking and partaking the whole drive down, only to crack up laughing over and over. I have a soft spot for this movie.

We put it on for the kids, but they weren't as interested as us, so we put it on after they went to bed. I spent some time online after watching it, to see if the online community loves it as much as I do (they decidedly do NOT), and to check specific filming locations and the like.

The third act climax is silly, and the end bad-guy in this essentially Ghostbusters-retooling is, eh, let's say pushing the boundaries of believability, but the physical nature of David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, and Julianne Moor's comedy cracks me up just by thinking about it. The chemistry between Duchovny and Jones in the small moments ("Ready for lunch Harry? Or...have you already eaten?"), or just Orlando Jones line reads ("God gave you two goddamned hands for a reason!"; "We're just trying to look after these little guys, your majesty!") or to him ("This is not a nightclub!") or Arizona's governor, played by Dan Ackroyd, ("Somebody take this bag of snakes and lay them out straight for me.") provide endless quotes for Corrie and me. And I haven't even mentioned Sean William Scott ("I do this!"; not a quote, but his face upon hearing his terrible boss was killed by a monster is priceless.)

After purchasing a new DVD player, I hope to return this movie to our rotation. It could make for a nice New Year's Eve movie, but I wouldn't want it to only get seen once a year. If you haven't seen it, I would say it's worth your time, but I also understand the main complaints about it.

The times, though, when it came out were the height of frivolity in America---the pre-9/11 summer of 2001. It's from a different era, and it takes me back there, which may be why I still adore it so much.

Part 7: Vegas, Baby!

(Sigh)

Limping into Vegas wasn't part of the plan. But it was a necessity. The drive would have been too far, and we wanted to show the kids the lights. But then sickness was all around, and gambling was all around, and smoking was all around, and it was a bit surreal.

We did make sure the kids were feeling okay enough to go have an hour's worth of date night, just me and Corrie, walking around, drinking, playing some blackjack. We showed Cass how to call me on Corrie's phone---we set up my number as an emergency contact---and left the kids to watch TV. They did fine and there was no issue, and we had our own little fun time.

Before that, I took Cass to walk around and see some lights, and they didn't diasappoint:

"You can't park your car here!"

I had a sound byte playing in my head often as we walked around, the scene where Johnny Depp is trying to leave his car under lights like the ones above at an early point in 1998's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the attendant is yelling at him. I must have said it dozens of times, much to Cass's bewilderment.

We did try to catch some of the circus acts, but they were sporadic, not at the time's posted, and not the things that were supposed to be happening. Oh well, but check out the thick balance/contortionist with the ball, cool stuff!

We grabbed some cash to gamble with, but seeing all the tables were full, we dropped a twenty into a fancy looking slot machine, and before we could figure out just the hell was happening, we were down to six bucks, and couldn't wager anymore. We hit teh CASH OUT key and it spit out a voucher like the one below.

Corrie went to use the bathroom, and I put the six dollar voucher into a machine like cash, and played until I couldn't bet anymore. I won, and lost, and won, and lost, but the winning never amounted to much, and in the end, the CASH OUT button was pressed, and the following six cent voucher was spit out.

We joked that it would have been funny to go turn it in at the window and collect that nickel and penny, but decided to give it to Cass as a keepsake, a reminder of the realities of gambling. Twenty bucks to six cents in a matter of minutes.

We lost the rest of our money faster, once the blackjack table opened, and then we left, laughing all the way back to the room. We had a set amount of money we were comfortable essentially setting on fire, enjoyed the experience, and went back to the room. I could see a scenario where I did some sports betting, but...

The next day, after agreeing not to go visit our old friends, we bombed it back to Long Beach. Cass barfed in the car, and Corrie was sick that night at home. We're still not completely clear even now. Sheesh...

The trip was awesome and magical, but the last fifty hours were a bit rough, and we're still shaking it off, even now, nearly a week later.

In for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose!

Happy Decemberween Holidays!

Part 6: Natural Bridges and off to Utah

We left the house in a caravan, almost like we arrived. When we got to the main road, we each drove off in our own direction. We headed off towards Utah and to see some things before trying to meet old friends in Vegas, before heading home.

What turned out to be the only thing we saw in Utah was Natural Bridges. It was a quick loop with three arches to see, either by easy access lookout or by hike. We did the last, easygoing hike, and it was strikingly beautiful, like so much of the nature we witnessed on the trip.

We found a place to eat a ways from this beauty, and still tried to dog it another couple hours to our hotel.

It was about here that things went sideways. The hotel we booked essentially didn't exist, and was "avaliable" to take our money by a computer issue. Now, here we were, after 10 pm, near Bryce Canyon park, in the offseason, in 20 degree weather, with no place to go and nothing looking open. I was on my phone, Corrie was on her phone, and we tried to find a room with two beds close by.

We did get a room, got the kids situated, and after about an hour asleep, Camille woke up wailing, and then barfed her entire dinner all over the bed she was sharing with Corrie. It wasn't the last time she threw up, and the night was a rough one.

We decided to skip whatever sightseeing we were going to do and head on to Vegas, mulling over weather it was an okay idea to even visit old friends. We booked a place that would be open, a super cheap room at Circus Circus, and hoped a day of rest would be enough for Camille.

We found a rad restaurant, the Flying Goat, in a town named Panguitch (no joke). They didn't even blink when Camille barfed the second we make it to a table. They just awwed and got her some toast while someone got a mop. "We got kids," they said.

If you find yourself in Panguitch, UT, check out the Flying Goat, in the bottom of the white building in the middle. Rad people, good food, and tons of goat decorations.

Part 5: Snow Day at Elevation

On Boxing Day we took our kids, Mary and Eddy took the twins, and we caravanned with Anne up the way from Dolores past the small mountain town of Rico, pulled over at a spot, and got our sleds out. It was high up in the sky, it was windy and snowing sideways, and while Pete and Colton and Anne and Bohdi (her son) took off for higher ground for sledding, we tried to get the kids set up close by, and eventually we went back to Rico for brunch.

The elevation at Lizard Pass was 13,113, and while we were told later that elevation was for the summit, we sure felt it then.

Cass bundled up well

Camille, with Corrie and one of our sleds 

Cass and the big sled

Badass grub shop in Rico, CO

I didn't have proper snow boots, and once my leg disappeared into snow and my shoe filled up, I knew I wouldn't be lasting too much longer. We stopped at the local artsy coffee shop slash food spot and took over the joint for an hour, buying gear and food and drinks before braving the icy roads home.

It was a treacherous drive at the end of an awesome morning.

Decemberween 2024: Part 4 - White Christmas and Ping Pong Realizations

It worked out! It wasn't a blizzard, but it was snowing when we got up at 7 am on Christmas Day. It snowed off and on over the course of the day, and it was magical.

I didn't get any footage of walking around and catching the big flakes on my tongue,  because I spent my phone time, eh, facetiming my folks.

The place had a ping-pong table, and while it had been a decade-plus since I played, and the paddles were of substandard quality (they had no rubber at all, just hard plastic uniformity on both sides), I got back into playing easily, and even discovered something:

That's Cass playing Corrie. But I learned that Cass has an incredible innate skill for the game of table-tennis. His grandpa is a good pon player, and so is his dad, and his mom has a fundamental ability with nearly any form of sporty or physical activity.

On the first day he played, his ability to get to the ball was natural, but his paddle play was erratic and his spray percentage was high. On day two, his returns were surprisingly good half the time, his strike form had vastly improved, and his spray percentage had been halved. On day three, his serves were getting seriously good, and not just for an 8 year old---for most anybody, his backhand (which I was trying to coach him on) was improving, his spray percentage was nearly zero, and basically unforced errors were his only problem. His ability to read my spins and English-on-the-ball were hampered by my ability to actually accomplish them---the low quality paddles were to blame for that issue---but overall, after three days, he was a very competent ping-pong player.

I was both very proud and mildly surprised, but I'm not sure I should have been surprised. Cass and his mom share some taking-to-a-sport gifts.

Merry Christmas to me.

Decemberween 2024: Part 3 - The Place, and a Visit to Dolores

We all kinda arrived to the house at the same time, which is some cool stuff, as the caravans were coming from different directions. The house was located on some property nestled between Cortez and Dolores, themselves less than twenty minutes apart.

Cortez is like a large-ish small town, popping over 9000 in population just recently. It had little neighborhoods and a Safeway and even a Wal-Mart. Since the Safeway bosses bought up Vons in the recent past, shopping there was surreal, as the generic brand is the same, so seeing name brands next to the same generic as we see at home was a moment.

Camille and the twins got right to it:

The next day, Christmas Eve, we ventured into Dolores to visit with Corrie's cousin Anne, another guest at our Mexican Wedding all those years back. Now, having lived in San Luis Obispo for a time, I had the experience of living in a fictional place, as the case was made years back about the similarities between SLO and Springfield, where the Simpsons live. A few points:

• Rolling green hills;
• Beach vicinity but not on the beach;
• Sun sets on the ocean;
• Nuclear plant in vicinity;
• Similar looks for downtown skylines;
• Similar under-50k population sizes;
• Both an engineering university and an ag university in town...

Even back in 1998, the local news anchor was a white dude with white hair, resembling Kent Brockman. Living in it, you kinda shrugged and said, eh, sure, sounds good.

Well, having visited Dolores, I can say I got the same feeling, only this time it was for the fictional town of South Park. Nestled between two conifer studded mountains, it had the same street layout and landmarks I remember from watching the show.

Corrie's cousin Anne has a place up steep sloping road to the top of one of the mountains, and her son took some of us on a hike to the cliff overlook, and again it reminded me of South Park:

The picture doesn't do justice to how close it all felt.

It was a great time, and eventually we made it home for Christmas Eve, hoping that the precipitation estimates and temperature guesses would work out, and we'd get a White Christmas...

Decemberween 2024: Part 2 - Navajo Monument and Four Corners

I felt like breaking these parts up into easy to find photo bombs. After visiting the Grand Canyon, we drove on to Kayenta on the Navajo Nation reservation, stayed the night, and the next morning backtracked a few miles to the Navajo National Monument.

That monument is a large cliff dwelling settlement. A few notes about it, bullet-point fashioned:

• It was far larger than the Tonto National Monument I visited back on '09, and unlike Tonto, you're not allowed to walk around the settlement;
• By "far larger," I mean it likely housed over a hundred people at the height of it's existence;
• The people who lived there farmed in the valley below, and by that we mean, they had some kind of agricultural means that sustained them;
• It was abandoned by 1300, and the people who loved their mostly joined other tribes that helped build the basis of the Hopi, Anasazi, and Navajo.

It was a rather spectacular view, but it was only a view:

It was like a tiny town down there. Ruins are always fascinating.

Heading around you could get a view that helped explain why folks would make a home there---it was exceptionally beautiful:

From there, we drove to the four corners monument. Below I got my chance to snap a picture of the spot where the four states come together in one place:

And then I stepped in all four states at once:

After hitting up Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado all at once, we did a perimeter walk and perused the stalls that were there a few days before Christmas. I found a very nice pendant for a necklace, but it was too rich for my blood right now.

After all that, we took off for points north-east, for Cortez, Colorado and our big AirBnB.

Decemberween 2024: Part 1 - Williams and the Grand Canyon

We started the trip like we would have headed to the Fram, only we'd decided to make it easy and stop in Williams, AZ, the "Gateway to the Grand Canyon". Williams, still six hours away, is usually a dinner stop on the way to Flagstaff or one of the other I-40 hotel-town stops on the way to Texas every summer.

But Williams was 29 degrees and all dressed up for the season:

We stayed in a tiny, darkened motel that may have been creepy if you were into that kind of thing, and the next day, after breakfast, we left for the Grand Canyon, an hour due north from Williams.

So...the Grand Canyon...

Like Venice in Italy, nearly every direction you look is postcard worthy beauty. It's breathtaking, stupefying, and outrageous all at once. Later you look at your pictures on whatever device you use to capture them, and there are hundreds...all beautiful and crazy and in that moment completely devoid of the context you were thinking when you took it. Here are some:

Ot's not that they don't all blend together...but they kinda do. Each is spectacular on their own, and I've got dozens more. Many with my peeps in them.

We checked out one of the museums, and got to play with the model:

We gave Cass my old point and shoot cannon, and he took a bunch of his own pics. He had a hefty amount of anxiety about the "edge," and below is about as close as he was willing to get on his own:

It was great and amazing and wonderful and I love that we brought the kids. Camille won't remember more than impressions, but that's life when you're almost 5.

We drove on to Kayenta, a town in the middle of Navajo Nation. We wanted to spread our money around, and this seemed like a decent way to do it.

Decemberween Adventure Intro

Okay. This year for the gift-giving Decemberween holiday we went walkabout. More like ROAD TRIP!

We had an AirBnB outside of Cortez, Colorado, between Cortez and Dolores, where Corrie's cousin lives. We were hoping to find snow, even if it meant driving some ways to get there, and we wanted to see some stuff along the way.

Did we ever! We took the kids to the Grand Canyon, stayed on the Rez in Kayenta, went to Four Corners and the Navajo National Monument, got snow on Christmas Day (white Christmas!), went up to elevation and played on a sled, stopped at Natural Bridges before everyone getting sick, staying in Vegas, and bombing home. It was amazing.

More to come...

AGA Holiday Show 2024

Camille had her gymnastics show before we went on our Decemberween trip.

The official introduction to this event was startling. Last year Camille had said that she didn't want to participate. This year her tune changed. The folks at the organization said, Great. You'll be allotted six tickets max. The tickets will be bracelets, and if you don't have one on, you will not be let in. Make sure to arrive at least thirty minutes early. Parking in our normal lot will be by valet only, so either come with money or park in the neighborhood somewhere.

Ummm...what? 

Apparently, this holiday show, the American Gymnastics Academy (AGA) Holiday Show 2024, has grown into quite a gymnastics event. And this year's edition was the 35th anniversary. The pamphlet mentioned that all of the music was from 1989, or inspired by 1989, which made the choice of Camille's recital song being an extended clip from Under the Sea.

This was, to my surprise, an enormous event. Check an establishing shot of the early crowds:

The grandstands were brought in, as I've been here before and there are no bleachers normally, and we're almost never allowed those mats.

Cass and I stationed our extended party up at the top of one of the bleacher blocks. We were waiting for Corrie to return with one of our guests, tante Delphine, but out hair was flowing:

The show event itself was a series of demonstrations and performances. 8 of the youngest gilrls like Camille would come out and perform the "Under the Sea" routine. Then the next step up in age gorls would do their performance. Then the next age group. Then a young lady gymnast would do their routine---vault, balance beam, floor routine, or uneven bars---and then the whole things would repeat. Camille was in performance number 18, and there were four more after her, and still it was all over in 55 minutes.

Here's Camille waving at us as they get set, and you can see the sea of kids waiting in the wings:

Corrie told me that they added 750 extra tickets for sale, which likely added to the madness.

Watching a 13 year old perform a balance beam routine in the same room as you causes all sorts of anxiety, and I can't imagine how her parents manage it. (Shudder)

All in all it was a wonderful afternoon. We went to lunch afterwards and then went to the library for fun and frivolity. Camille really enjoys the whole thing---gymnastics, and maybe we'll stick with it, but, you know, not long enough to jack up her body's development.

I guess that's just a me concern?

Happy New Year 2025!

Whoa, the numbers got cool!

I'm going to be finishing up stuff from the 2024 calendar year before ignoring getting back to this sporadically in the coming weeks and months.

Auld Lnag Syne!