This year saw both Jim and Linda pass through milestone birthdays, Jim's being the excuse for some of the high jinks Southwest Airlines is famous for. These birthdays divisible by three primes are scarce, though they'll be a bit more frequent for the next decade or so. We spent the year doing what we like best: traveling around, observing birds, visiting family and friends.
In a good omen for the year, we saw our first bird of the year on January 1, 2004, while driving to Galveston for a weekend visit with Ann and Bob Arnett. Just south of Austin on highway 71, we both saw a large bird feeding on carrion in the middle of the road. Our first thought was,"Vulture," but as we drew closer we could see a white head. We then assumed it would be a Crested Caracara, a fairly common bird in the area, but it turned out to be an adult Bald Eagle.
In early April, we flew to a Red State, Idaho, to visit Suzanne Woodcock. We drove around the Boise area on the first day, venturing as far as Birds of Prey Natural Area, a site with overpowering vistas, where we watched a group of Common Ravens cavorting over the canyon. Boise is at its flowery best in April, with fruit trees and flowers blooming all over town. We also enjoyed delicious food and congenial friends of Suzanne, and picked up a recipe for the best ginger snaps in the world.
On the second day, we went with most of the Democrats in the state on an Audubon Society field trip to see the Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a bird Linda somehow missed seeing in Wyoming. We were lucky enough to find quite a lot of the males booming on a lek about two hours from Boise; a spectacular display, both visibly and audibly. Another peak experience was having an excellent look at a Ring-necked Pheasant in bright sunlight, its breast feathers reflecting a coppery shine. The locals were quite pleased by the return of Turkey Vultures. Since we see about 200 of them on an average day, we took their excitement in stride. Here are some photos from Boise.
A couple of weeks later, we went to Saratoga, FL for the Baker Weekend 2004, a chance to meet with some old Rice buddies and do a bit of birding. In a sense, this started last December with an unexpected meeting with Bobby Hughes while birding the Austin Christmas Count, continued during a quick visit Linda took to New York City in March, and culminated with a trip to Florida. Read the full report for more details.
June saw us heavily into the forlorn cause of Democratic politics in Texas. Jim wrangled a position as a delegate to the state convention. Chuck Drinnan was also a delegate. He had an easier time winning the post as there are apparently even fewer sane people in his district than ours. The convention was in Houston, which meshed neatly with our plans to go to the Galapagos Islands. We recommend the Galapagos to anyone who wants to see birds, animals and unusual scenery up close and personal. The wildlife was so tame that even we were able to get good pictures. Snorkeling with California Sea Lions was one of the highlights.
In August, we went to Colorado, spending a day visiting Jenny and Terry Cloudman in Vail, before driving to Estes Park to hook up with Rosalind (our former foster daughter) and her family. When we suggested to Rosalind and her husband Greg that we take the kids into Rocky Mountain National Park for the afternoon, they all agreed with alacrity. Since we think RMNP is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
Labor Day found us in Annapolis and DC, where we took both Grandmothers to see the World War II Memorial, and some other sights around the Mall. By this time, we knew that Charles and Amy were unlikely to be in the area much longer, so it seemed to be the best chance to go.
Over Thanksgiving, we flew to Los Angeles with Dama Lil (Linda's Mom) to check out Claire's new digs. She is doing a one-year fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesiology at Children's Hospital of LA. Her apartment is even smaller than the one in New York City, but cleverly laid out and spiffy thanks to recent remodeling. It has a small back yard that Princess Moonbeam (her cat) really appreciates. We invited ourselves over to Uncle Jack Findlay's house for the big, delicious Thanksgiving meal. We didn't even have to cook! It's almost enough to convince us to do it on a regular basis. We went to the Getty center and had dinner with some cousins at a small Italian restaurant not far from Claire's apartment. The Living Body exhibit at the California Science Center was well worth seeing. Our tradition of seeing an animated movie continued with The Incredibles, a hit with Claire and Jim, but not Linda and Lil.
Finally, in December we joined Charles and Amy for some diving and snorkeling on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, before heading to Houston for a quick Christmas visit. There we were treated to a most unusual snowfall, a dusting only, on Christmas Eve.
Retirement has left Jim with plenty of time to ponder important philosophical questions. (See 2002, 1993 and 1992 Reports for previous nonsense.) Recall that his last effort was to produce a world view based on the principle Reality Exists. This has proven to be fraught with peril, since we lack a good definition of both reality and exists. This forced some examination of the question, "How can I know anything?" Jim promises to produce something on this subject as soon as he comes up with an answer to "What is this thing called I?" Suggestions will be appreciated. Use this form, and please include supporting material. (Linda thinks this is all nonsense.)
Buoyed by the success of his first novel — read by several friends and almost no one else — Jim is threatening to write another. This one will be set in the future after the collapse of civilization following the religious wars of the 21st century. Let him know if you want to review a draft.
Linda is still working hard to compensate for Jim's hardly working. She sees patients four days a week, including one day of house calls. Her biggest challenge this year is trying to deal with Jim's uncanny ability to beat her at Jawbreaker, a game that came with his new PDA. Jim took it to St. Croix, where he used it to read email via the local WiFi network. (Then he switched to using the real computer in the hotel lobby.) Linda ran the battery down to nothing on the plane ride home trying to match Jim's incredible high score of 2828, which he managed while standing in line for the plane.
We have been upset all year over the mistaken and terribly destructive war in Iraq, and are only slowly getting over our disbelief at how the national elections came out. Austin was described as a blueberry floating in the tomato soup of Texas.
Despite much angst, we continue with our day-to-day lives, including replacing our back deck, and other routine maintenance. I continue to enjoy monthly meetings of the Lost Creek Book Club, and an occasional discussion of the Rice Alumni Book Club. The Texas Book Festival in early November at the Texas Capitol remains one of our favorite occasions. Our good friend, Tish Clark, has joined us several times for this activity. We would love for other friends to join us in Austin for this or other weekend visits. We especially hope that some of our friends with adult children here will come.
I've been driving back and forth between Austin and Houston a lot lately, and I've taken to listening to college-level lectures on tape and CD. I started with the History of Western Music, moved on to several philosophy courses, then to history of Asia Minor, etc., a real grab bag.
Driving from the Denver airport to the Cloudman's house in Vail takes a couple of hours. During the drive, Linda was resting her eyes and I regretted not having a tape to listen to. During this rumination, I had one of those annoying senior moments that seem to come more frequently these days. I was able to remember what seemed like everything about a composer except his name. I finally roused Linda and put it to her, "I can't remember the name of a composer I've been thinking about. He was 19th and early 20th century.His name starts with a B."
She tried a few guesses, "Brahms? Bartok?"
"No, neither of those. He was Jewish, lived in Vienna. One of his symphonies was supposed to represent him having a heart attack."
"Do you mean Mahler?"
"Yes, that's it!"
"Oh, I see... The B is silent."
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